May 2002 Volume 9 Number 4

Print-Friendly Version    

Japan. In 2001, Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department issued a brochure that said: "Call 110 when you think you have seen a Chinese." It described a typical thief as a thin man in his 20s or 30s, wearing a worn-out suit and dirty shoes.

The Chinese Review Weekly, a Chinese language newspaper published in Japan, accuses Japanese police of assuming that foreigners are criminal, and harassing them. The report said: "there's been an increase in the number of Chinese who commit crimes here in Japan, but not all Chinese are criminals. Police should shed that prejudice."

Japanese tend to oppose foreign residents. According to an opinion poll conducted by the Cabinet Office in 2000, 49 percent disapproved of illegal workers, and 21 percent disapproved of unskilled foreign laborers, citing public order and safety.

According to the National Police Agency, the number of visiting foreign nationals arrested or held for questioning on criminal cases, including visa violations, rose from 7,270 in 1991 to 14,660 in 2001. By contrast, 298,956 Japanese were arrested or held for questioning.

Tokyo Immigration Bureau chief Hidenori Sakanaka said: "Japan's immigration control is very lax by global standards. Although we have made some improvements, I have to admit immigration control is weak with only 2,600 immigration officials. We need to further tighten control so that troublemakers don't come in. This is essential if we want to debate whether Japan should accept more foreigners at a time when it faces a declining population."

Korea. The Chinese Government repatriates North Koreans who enter China seeking asylum, and does not allow the UNHCR access to its regions bordering North Korea. The Chinese government maintains that North Koreans who cross the border into its far north-eastern province of Liaoning, home to millions of ethnic Korean Chinese, are illegal economic migrants who come to China to earn money. However, some 300,000 North Koreans are estimated to have fled into China in recent years.

On March 14, 2002, 25 North Koreans in China sneaked into the Spanish embassy in Beijing, the largest known mass defection since the Korean War. The six families and three individuals who participated carried poison, and threatened to commit suicide if they were not allowed to leave for South Korea. The Koreans said they were replicating the September 1989 incident in Prague when 1,000 East Germans scaled the fence of the West German Embassy to seek asylum and safe passage to the West.

About 2,000 North Korean defectors have been resettled in South Korea, including 583 in 2001, most after traveling through China. Once in South Korea, many stage demonstrations in favor of accepting more North Korean migrants.

In addition to North Koreans, there are an estimated 73,000 illegal Korean Chinese in South Korea, seeking to earn higher wages. Most pay smugglers to get into Korea. In March 2002, the Korean Justice Ministry announced that illegal aliens who report to the ministry by May 25, 2002 would be allowed to stay for one year, but must then leave Korea. This is posing a dilemma for migrants- should they make themselves known to authorities, and get one year of legal residence and work, or remain underground? After one month, about 20,000 of the estimated 260,000 illegal foreigners were registered; half were Korean-Chinese.

Advocates for the Korean Chinese say the government must allow them to stay at least five years so that they can repay their smuggling debts, which are often 10 million won, equivalent to about 10 years of Chinese wages.


Yumiko Miyai and Yosuke Sakurai, "Gaikokujin; Criminal stereotype questioned," Daily Yomiuri, April 19, 2002. Byun Tae-kyung, "Illegal aliens face troubles in reporting to authorities," Korea Herald, April 23, 2002. "Korean-Chinese workers end hunger strike," Korea Times, April 16, 2002. Soh Ji-Young, "Korean-Chinese: shunned by their own Motherland," Korea Times, April 14, 2002.