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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow

Shinano Mainichi

Foreigner laborers' fears intensified

Dismay at "prejudicial exclusion"

One 46 year-old man from Thailand came to Japan six years ago. But this October he intends to turn himself in at the Immigration Office and return home. The "rumors" are one reason for his decision. He says, "I've worked for long enough. I'd like to go home and set up a shop for a while." He continued to talk while sitting on the floor of his tiny apartment, sipping a cup of Japanese sake.

In Thailand he had been an elementary school teacher, but came to Japan after being invited by a friend. He at first worked for a meat packing company in Ibaraki Prefecture north of Tokyo. Before long he had heard that there was a lot of Olympic-related work in Nagano and that wages were high, and began moving around the Prefecture to different construction sights laying concrete. He "worked every day" at Olympic venues such as the Big Hat and M-Wave sites. He also says that many of his friends found work at construction sites for the newly completed Hokuriku Shinkansen.

But he says that "recently the number of Thais in Nagano has been decreasing. Olympic-related construction has fallen off. Those who wanted to continue working in Japan have moved to other Prefectures." At a company where one acquaintance of his works four of six Thai workers quit, leaving the company's president in a bind.

The man's common law wife has been carrying her passport with her wherever she goes. She supposes that it will make deportation procedures run more smoothly in case that happens. Putting her wrists in a handcuffed pose before her she says, "Before the Olympics everyone will be cuffed just like this, right?" All joking aside she says, "It's as if we're all thieves. We're nervous about it all day long, every day. Are the rumors really true?" A look of concern can be seen on her face-- she hears the rumors constantly.

Foreign workers spending time in their apartment. One man says, "The Olympics? I'm not interested. Well, if there was boxing matches and soccer games I'd want to watch."

The Nagano Olympics brought with it a rush of large construction projects such as competitive facilities, the expressway and the shinkansen (or bullet train). Foreign nationals, not a few of whom here illegally, were involved in venue and road construction. But it is being said that before the actual Olympics begin that these illegal aliens will be removed from Nagano.

The Prefectural Police say that there were 26 disclosed cases of immigration law violations involving 58 people through May of this year. Six joint investigations with the Tokyo Immigration Office found another 137 illegals, a pace above that of last year.

A leading official from the Tokyo Immigration Office says, "We are not stepping up our investigations just because of the Olympics." The person in charge of the Prefectural Police's Defense Section (which has jurisdiction over immigration matters) explains, "We are stepping up our control measures in all precincts and jurisdictions for a better level of crime prevention. In view of this it is possible that there has been a subsequent increase in these types of investigations."

The Prefectural Police has developed a program entitled "Operation White Snow." It is part of a goal aimed at "making a safe city" in preparation for the Nagano Olympics. The Prefectural Police insist that "it is not a countermeasure against illegal aliens," but citizen's support groups concerned with foreigners' civil liberties protection and health care rights insist that "there are many things involved that arouse concern."

Ensuring public safety to prevent incidents of terrorism and other crimes has become a heavily weighted topic in the Olympics. There are some illegal aliens involved in crime. However most people involved in these foreigner support groups fear that the Olympics have provided an opportunity to strengthen ideas of prejudicial exclusion. Some business owners, afraid they will be held responsible, have begun dismissing some of their illegal foreign employees.

A 38 year-old woman from the Philippines who runs a pub has recently been thrown phrases like these from some of her Japanese salaryman-type customers-- "We've got to clean up our streets before the Olympics. Before too long you people might not be able to be here any longer." Maybe it was just a joke spurred by drunkenness, but it made her upset. She felt something cold in the bottom of her heart. "What does it mean? Are we really not supposed to be in Nagano?"

Takashi Yokota (age 45), who heads the "Saku Region Citizen's International Solidarity Group," (a non-governmental organization in the Saku area of Nagano Prefecture) recently received a phone call from a Thai national who "fled Nagano to Ibaraki."

Yokota says, "A foreign worker who happens to be here illegally, while quietly supporting Japanese society in his efforts, cannot be around when the Olympics come. I think that in this one can see what Japan is really all about."

No part of the article, photographs, or illustrations presented here may be printed or used without permission.

Copyright 1999 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun