As the global recession hits Japan’s export-driven economy, temporary workers at plants producing auto parts and electronics have been among the first to lose their jobs, with the 320,000 Brazilians living in Japan particularly vulnerable to the layoffs.
More than 800 Brazilians and their supporters took to the streets of the central Japanese city of Nagoya on Sunday, raising their green and yellow national flags and calling for secure employment, proper schooling for their children and an end to layoffs.
Paulo Kanashiro and Minoru Nishizawa, both Brazilians who have Japanese ancestry, brought their Brazilian coworkers from a Toyota subsidiary to the demonstration to demand from the Japanese government the same rights granted to Japanese workers.
“We are also paying taxes here,” 33-year-old Nishizawa of Sao Paulo said. “Why are we not eligible for the same rights?”
In December, nearly 500 Japanese temporary workers who lost their jobs because of production cuts flocked to a Tokyo park to receive free lodging and food. About 300 of them were able to receive government subsidies and temporary lodging before they began their search for a new job.
But the situation is different for Brazilians.
Often called dekasegi, or migrant workers, they are considered only temporary residents who will eventually return to their homelands.
Brazilians and other South American nationals began migrating to Japan in large numbers in search of higher paid work in 1990 when the immigration law was revised. Since then, they have dominated the manufacturing workforce.
Some still plan to return to Brazil, but for many other Brazilians, Japan has become home. Kanashiro and Nishizawa, who have lived and worked in Japan for 16 years, can’t imagine leaving Japan just because they are jobless.
Kanashiro moved to Hekinan in Aichi Prefecture from Campo Grande in Brazil with several members of his family.
“Even if we had a choice of returning to Brazil, we’d have to start from scratch there,” the 29-year-old Kanashiro said.
Workers at the Hekinan factory of a Toyota subsidiary suffered an almost 70 percent cut in their pay, Nishizawa said.
Brazilians there have worked overtime and on weekends and during holidays when their Japanese colleagues wanted off, he said.
The Brazilian migrant workers said they “contributed to the prosperity of the Japanese economy and society for more than 20 years” and to building a strong foundation for Japan’s manufacturing industry.
But the government does not see Brazilian migrant workers as deserving certain rights, Nishizawa said.
“We are treated like tissues in that we are destined to be thrown away when our job is done,” he said.
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