Red tape tangle
Richard Mason has a secret, and it’s to do with a little plastic card. The new card, he says, makes leaving and re-entering Japan a breeze for foreign residents.
“Going through Narita is almost as easy as using a PASMO card,” confides Mason, a member of the EBC Human Resources Committee, referring to the mass-transit smart card. That means no more queuing up at airport immigration counters for foreigners with Japanese working visas. “You just stick the card in an electronic wicket and it comes out the other side.”
And the secret? The “residence card,” as it’s called, has been available for a while, even before an official announcement by the Justice Ministry – “but only for those people who have heard about it on the grapevine,” Mason adds with a wink.
Mason, HR director at TÜV Rheinland Japan, and his fellow HR Committee members are pleased about the card’s introduction, as well as a series of other recent improvements in immigration processes, changes that have come after years of advocacy efforts by the committee with Justice Ministry officials.
Immigration is one of two key areas of focus for the HR Committee. The residence card is part of a new visa system, passed in July 2009 and slated for implementation by mid-2012. Another of the changes is to extend the period of working visas, which many corporate expats hold, from three to five years.
“In addition, the residence card will be issued with the visa, so you don’t have to go to your local city office,” says Steve Burson, the committee’s new chairman.
The IC cards are already available from the Immigration Bureau in Tokyo. Mason says, “You can have your biometric data pre-registered on the card, and then you can go in and out of Japan quickly and easily.” What’s more, there’s no need to present your passport. The same wicket that swipes your card is equipped with a scanner that records your passport details.
“The wicket is at the far end of the counters. Hardly anyone uses it, so it’s locked sometimes. You just knock on the glass, and a guy in uniform will come out and open it for you,” Mason explains.
The second main area of concern for the HR Committee is the public pension system. Members have had numerous meetings with government officials in a bid to wrangle a fair deal for foreigners forced to pay into those programs.
Contributions to the system are mandatory, and workers qualify only after a minimum contribution of 25 years. A lump-sum payment is available for the many who return to their home countries short of a full quarter century, but the amount is capped at a measly three years’ worth of contributions. The committee is thus calling for a full reimbursement of contributions.
The mandatory national health insurance program poses another problem. The Justice Ministry has announced that it intends to make enrolment a condition for obtaining or renewing working visas. But Burson, president of H&R Consultants, sees a double standard in this. “A lot of Japanese are not on the system because it’s not being enforced for them. However, to enforce it for foreigners is a form of discrimination,” he says.
A common frustration is the many grey areas that crop up when the government rolls out new policies and procedures. Committee members are often left scratching their heads due to ambiguous language or inadequate details. “Sometimes when you call up the immigration office, they don’t really give you a clear answer. They say your visa could be ready in four weeks – or maybe eight weeks. You just don’t know.”
The new visa system is a case in point. When the Diet passed the legislation in 2009, it was supposed to be implemented at some point during the next three years. But it hasn’t happened yet, and when it will is anyone’s guess.
The re-entry permit, which must be applied for and obtained just to be able to exit and re-enter Japan without voiding one’s visa, remains a particular concern. The committee sees this little passport stamp as a fairly serious impediment for foreigners, especially ones whose jobs require frequent travel. “Japan is the only advanced industrial nation to regulate the movement of foreign residents through a dual visa and re-entry system,” the EBC White Paper points out.
“As soon as the re-entry visa really does disappear,” says Mason, “we’ll open up a bottle of champagne and celebrate at the EBC office.”