Distressed Filipinos living in Japan gained nothing from the state visit of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last week.
Due to the economic slump in Japan, the country now has a five per cent unemployment rate, the highest since 1953. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is implementing structural reforms that will result in about one million Japanese losing their jobs by the end of the year. They are being replaced by agency workers and trainees, who get lower salaries and no benefits. Migrant workers are also employed, because they are cheaper than regular workers.
Like agency labourers, Filipino migrant workers in Japan do not receive the same wages as their Japanese counterparts doing the same jobs, nor do they enjoy any benefits.
There are about 400,000 Filipinos in the country, including nearly 100,000 undocumented workers. Most are in what is euphemistically called the entertainment industry. Nearly half of them are married to Japanese husbands. There are many who are single mothers.
In 1991, it was found that 57,038 Filipino women employed as 'entertainers' had been forced to become sex workers. This figure has now increased to more than 150,000.
These women work in the brothels and nightclubs of Shinjuku, Tokyo's red-light district, and yet Mrs Arroyo never visited this part of the city.
