JAPAN offers lots of memories — good and bad — to Filipinos, not just its rising sun that is an economic magnet for Filipinos to go there.
There’s former overseas performing artist Maricris Sioson who, exactly 20 years ago, was mysteriously killed by alleged Yakuza elements five months after arriving in Tokyo.
Sioson’s mysterious death never stopped a wave of migration by Filipinas doing the same kind of work.
That kind of migrant deployment required certain processes and documents. It became a large-scale recruitment business which the Philippine government regulated. But in 2005, Japanese immigration laws changed. They tightened the entry requirements of those wanting to work as OPAs. The amendment provided that anyone seeking such a visa must prove that he or she has education or experience as an entertainer. Certification from another government is no longer enough.
This resulted in a drop in the number of entertainers being sent by the Philippines from about 80,000 in 2004 to about 38,000 in 2005. In 2010, there were only 1,000 women deployed to Japan as entertainers. The number of young Filipinas getting married to elderly Japanese increased.
A new bilateral relationship between the two countries included the deployment of Filipino nurses. However, only two of over 200 nurses passed the Nihongo-laced nurses licensure examination in Japan. The deployment provision is currently being reviewed and evaluated.
Aid from Japan led to construction of bridges, light railway transit systems, and even emergency relief for people in Mindanao.
Images of the tsunami that destroyed eastern Japan touched the hearts of many Filipinos resulting in the donation of relief goods by our NGOs to their counterpart in Japan.
Filipinos based in Japanese communities, have been helping social development causes in the homeland.
Of the P2.5 billion of donations coursed through the Lingkod sa Kapwa Pilipino (LinKaPil) program of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), P33.65 million came from Filipino and donors based in Japan. In the last three years, in the face of global economic crisis, Filipinos in Japan sent record-high amounts.
For both countries, Japanese and Filipino vigilance to collaborate and help address the welfare of Filipinos in Japan and in the Philippines is a logical next step. This is where, for example, the Philippines-Japan NGO Partnership (PJP) is working with the Japan-Philippines NGO Network (JPN, a network of Japanese NGOs with projects in the Philippines) is doing something about it. Or Philippine rural communities welcoming Japanese citizens and enjoying their company and friendship in areas with visible concentrations of Japanese.
The migration story concerning Filipinos heading to Japan is evolving, with development outcomes affecting both countries and their citizens. Opportunities abound from this evolution, and these can excite the Filipinos in Japan and the compatriots at home who are concerned about their welfare and of a homeland’s hopes for a better future.
(Carmelita Nuqui and Jeremaiah Opiniano are executive directors of the Development Action for Women Network (DAWN) and the Institute for Migration and Development Issues (IMDI), respectively. Both migrant-oriented non-profit [organizations] are members of the Philippines-Japan NGO Partnership. Comments are welcome at: melnuqui@hotmail.com and
president@ofwphilanthropy.org)