Foreigners alarmed by imminent passage of immigration law reform bills+

TOKYO, July 2 Kyodo -
Foreign residents and their supporters aired their concerns Thursday about the
imminent Diet passage of bills to revise immigration laws, claiming the
amendments are intended to tighten controls on non-Japanese residents and that
modifications made so far to the bills are not sufficient.

The bills are currently being deliberated at the House of Councillors Judicial
Affairs Committee and the ruling bloc wants to enact them as soon as next week,
while some opposition members are calling for more caution in examining them,
said Sohei Nihi, an upper house member of the opposition Japanese Communist
Party.
On June 19, the bills cleared the House of Representatives with support from
the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner the New Komeito
party and the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
The three parties agreed on revisions to the bills such as deleting a clause
that requires permanent residents of Korean and Taiwanese descent to always
carry a residency card.
Foreign residents and their supporters again raised their voices against the
bills and demanded they be scrapped in a meeting held Thursday at the upper
house members' office building.
Sonoko Kawakami, campaign coordinator of Amnesty International Japan,
criticized the government for not providing any information on the planned
revisions in foreign languages to non-Japanese residents. ''The government
should translate Diet deliberations on the bills into foreign languages and set
an occasion to hear foreigners' views,'' she said.
Kim Boong Ang, co-representative of the Organization of United Korean Youth in
Japan, said he believes the greatest problem with the bills is that they
increase the requirements for non-Japanese residents to stay legally in the
country.
''The government will become able to expel foreign residents more easily.
Pressures have been mounting on us to leave the country if we do not like
Japanese rules,'' Kim said.
The proposed revisions of the immigration laws would impose a fine of up to
200,000 yen on foreigners who fail to notify the government of a change in
address within 14 days, and their residency status could be revoked if they
fail to report changes within 90 days.
Foreign spouses of Japanese or non-Japanese permanent residents could lose
their residency status if they fail to ''conduct activities normally carried
out by spouses'' for six months under the revised immigration laws, but victims
of domestic violence would be immune to that condition.
Although the modification deleted the requirement for permanent residents of
Korean and Taiwanese descent to always carry the residency card to identify
them, Kim said it would not necessarily lessen the burden on those residents
because they are still required by Japanese authorities to present the card
whenever requested.
==Kyodo