Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (移住者と連帯する全国ネットワーク ''Ijūsha to Rentai suru Zenkoku Nettowāku''), abbreviated as SMJ (移住連 ''Ijūren''), is a
non-partisan
Nonpartisanship, also known as nonpartisanism, is a lack of affiliation with a political party and a lack of political bias.
While an ''Oxford English Dictionary'' definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., ...
advocacy organization
Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group that aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to influence public policy, laws and budgets by using fac ...
and umbrella of
migrant interest and support
organization
An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences) is an legal entity, entity—such as ...
s founded 1997 in
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.
Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan was founded in 1997 by 66 migrant support groups and 72 individuals, who started to meet on a regular basis at the "nationwide forum for solidarity with migrant workers" (''ijū rōdōsha to rentai suru zenkoku fōramu'') in 1996.
Since June 2015 SMJ is legally incorporated as
Non-Profit Organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
(NPO) under the Japanese NPO-law.
Among the SMJ’s members are organizations as well as individuals.
The SMJ’s office is located in
Bunkyō ward,
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
. The largest part of its revenue comes from membership fees and subscriptions.
Activities
SMJ describes its activities as
advocacy
Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...
,
networking
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
, and
publicity
In marketing, publicity is the public visibility or awareness for any product, service, person or organization. It may also refer to the movement of information from its source to the general public, often (but not always) via the media. The sub ...
.
Authors observed the organizations’ potential for
deliberative democracy
Deliberative democracy or discursive democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. Deliberative democracy seeks quality over quantity by limiting decision-makers to a smaller but more representative sample ...
and
global citizenship
Global citizenship is a form of transnationality, specifically the idea that one's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader global class of "humanity". This do ...
education.
Publications
SMJ publishes the monthly Japanese language magazine Migrants Network. One issue costs 500 Yen and can be purchased via subscription. The SMJ has also edited several non-fiction books on different migration issues. Most of them have been published by Akashi Shoten, a publisher in Tokyo specializing in education, social and minority issues in Japan.
Policy demands
In 2002 the SMJ demanded wide-ranging reforms of foreigner
policies
Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an orga ...
in Japan. As the SMJ’s proposal touched all aspects of
migration and foreigners living in Japan, it has been one of the most encompassing in Japan so far. In ten chapters it recommended policy revisions that concerned the rights of foreigners as workers,
women’s rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries ...
, education and
citizenship
Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state.
Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationalit ...
of children, the role of the
local self-government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state.
Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...
, the treatment of
asylum seekers
An asylum seeker is a person who leaves their country of residence, enters another country, and makes in that other country a formal application for the right of asylum according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 14. A pers ...
, the rights of foreigners in court and proclaimed the aim of ending
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
and
xenophobia
Xenophobia (from (), 'strange, foreign, or alien', and (), 'fear') is the fear or dislike of anything that is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression that is based on the perception that a conflict exists between an in-gr ...
in Japan. A central demand of SMJ is abolishing the
Technical Intern Training Program and creating a visa category for foreign nationals finding
employment
Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...
in Japan without restriction on skills and educational attainment.
Further legal changes proposed by SMJ include the introduction of a basic law on the human rights of foreigners, a law that prohibits discrimination based on race and ethnicity, a constitutional reform that guarantees more basic rights to foreigners, a separation of the law on immigration and refugee recognition and abolishing of the Alien Registration Act. It also urged the
Japanese government
The Government of Japan is the central government of Japan. It consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and functions under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan. Japan is a unitary state, containing forty- ...
to completely ratify all international human rights conventions, as well as to withdraw its reservations concerning the
(ICERD).
Advocacy
The SMJ has no formal ties to
political parties in Japan
In Japan, any organization that supports a candidate needs to register itself as a political party. Each of these parties have some local or national influence. This article lists political parties in Japan with representation in the National Die ...
. In July 2008, the former
Democratic Party of Japan
The was a Centrism, centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist:
*
*
*
*
*
*
* to Centre-left politics, centre-left, Liberalism, liberal or Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Japan, ...
(DPJ), which was in power from August 2009 to December 2012, published a report on foreign workers policies. Besides other institutions and interest groups, the DPJ’s committee also invited SMJ representatives as external advisors during the drafting process.
Since its establishment in 1997, SMJ and its partner organizations regularly met with bureaucrats from several
ministries
Ministry may refer to:
Government
* Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister
* Ministry (government department), a department of a government
Religion
* Christian mi ...
at least twice a year in March and November, and SMJ members have appeared as external councilors in parliamentary commissions of the
National Diet
, transcription_name = ''Kokkai''
, legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet
, coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg
, house_type = Bicameral
, houses =
, foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...
in 2003, 2004 and twice in 2009.
In the media
SMJ regularly serves as information sources for
journalists
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
reporting on migration issues in Japan.
Ippei Torii, the secretary general of SMJ, appeared in the 2009 documentary movie "Sour Strawberries – Japan’s Hidden Guest Workers".
On 17 September 2019 the Japanese public broadcaster
NHK
, also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee.
NHK ope ...
aired a 40 minutes feature on Torii.
International recognition
When in 2010 the
UN Special Rapporteur on the
human rights of migrants, Jorge Bustamante, visited Japan he also met with SMJ. As a result, Bustamante’s report widely adopted SMJ’s view on the Technical Intern Training Program stating that "situations amount to
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
or
trafficking
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...
," and that since there was
"no effective system ..in place to monitor the situation of trainees and technical interns and offer them protection and referral mechanisms, they remained particularly vulnerable and became victims of serious abuses".
In July 2013,
Secretary of State John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...
awarded Ippei Torii with the title of "
TIP Report Hero," for being
"a forceful leader in anti-trafficking efforts as the secretary general for Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ), which has provided shelter and assistance to more than 4,000 foreign workers in Japan who have escaped from exploitative conditions or sought help recovering unpaid wages. ..Mr. Torii meets regularly with various ministries that are responsible for oversight of the program, and he has provided guidance to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants. His persistence has kept this issue squarely before the press and on the political agenda in Japan".
References
External links
{{Wikiquote
Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan official site
Immigrant rights organizations
Non-profit organizations based in Japan