EDITORIAL - Japan says no

Few people expected Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo to succeed in changing the mind of Tokyo regarding new restrictions on foreigners working as entertainers in Japan. Tokyo imposed the restrictions in a bid to clamp down on human trafficking, noting that women entering Japan as entertainers ended up as sex workers.

Over dinner Thursday with his Japanese counterpart, Romulo was told that Filipina entertainers whose papers are all in order, with recognized skills and whose prospective employers are in good standing with Tokyo will have no problems working in that country. It was the polite, roundabout Japanese way of telling Romulo to bug off because Tokyo did not intend to change its mind. Romulo can still come home to report to thousands of prospective Japayukis that he did his best but it still wasn’t good enough, so sorry.

Sex traffickers are in fact active in Japan, preying not just on Filipinas but also on other foreign workers. Their activities have become so notorious that the term Japayuki in the Philippines has come to connote a sex worker. Among the biggest human trafficking rings are Japan’s organized crime families.

After exhausting diplomatic channels in what has turned out to be a futile attempt to lift the new restrictions, Manila should instead focus its energies on cracking down on the crime rings’ contacts in the Philippines. Illegal recruiters and other human traffickers are to blame for Japan’s new restrictions on overseas performing artists.

At the same time, concerned government agencies should help prospective Japayukis learn skills other than those in the entertainment industry. There are many other skills in demand around the globe, and many destinations for foreign workers other than Japan.

The long-term answer to this problem is of course to bring our workers home. New restrictions on foreign workers are not unique to Japan. Since the terror attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, many governments have tightened immigration policies and regulations for foreign workers.

Bringing home eight million Filipinos working overseas, however, is easier said than done. The exodus of workers from this country is expected to continue for many more years. Until the exodus can be stopped, the government must do what it can to help workers cope with changing demands and restrictions in the global labor market.