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Japan Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
The mothers holding up Japan's Vietnamese community
The sights, sounds and flavors of Vietnam are gradually becoming a part of everyday life in Japan, from the familiar aroma of pho to the cheery bustle of cultural festivals drawing thousands in major cities. With a total population of over 630,000, Vietnamese people now make up the largest share of foreign workers in Japan. However, there is one group within this community whose everyday experiences are often overlooked: the mothers who are building their lives far from home. On Facebook, the most popular social media platform in Vietnam, at least four grassroots groups share the name 'Vietnamese mothers in Japan,' with memberships ranging from 94,000 to 562,000 users. Members share everything from pregnancy stories and postpartum experiences to advice on baby formula, breastfeeding and the documentation needed to obtain a child's passport. Among these Facebook groups is a smaller but influential one called the Vietnam Women's Union in Japan. The nonprofit, based in Tokyo's Kita Ward, is the first and only organization of its kind to be recognized and licensed by the Vietnamese Embassy. Pham Thi Bich Hau, who also goes by the Japanese name Akemi Mai, founded the union in 2021 and, now 39, serves as its chairperson. Its mission is to 'protect the rights of the Vietnamese women who are living, working and studying in Japan.' Women from all walks of life Pham arrived in Japan in 2009 to pursue a graduate degree in linguistics, but her career took a surprising turn. 'When I was about to write my master's thesis, I realized that I had a gift for interacting and connecting with people,' she says. 'I decided to quit graduate school and enroll in an international business vocational college.' After graduating from vocational school in Tokyo in March 2013, she began working as an interpreter and instructor for Vietnamese migrants in a trainee management organization. 'Some female trainees experienced unplanned pregnancies, so I started to help them with hospital and other medical matters,' she says. In 2013, around 10,200 Vietnamese people migrated to Japan under the Technical Intern Training Program. Just over a decade later, that number ballooned more than twentyfold to 212,141 in 2024, with Vietnamese nationals accounting for roughly half of all foreign trainees. Business-savvy Pham launched her own company, AK Co., Ltd., in 2016. Since 2021, she has simultaneously run the Vietnam Women's Union while overseeing a health spa, nail salon and beauty vocational school in Saitama Prefecture. 'I gave birth to my second child at the beginning of the pandemic,' she says. 'It was a smooth and healthy delivery, and I was fluent in Japanese, so I was blessed in every way. But ... I know many women who struggle during pregnancy ... whether it's prenatal checkups or navigating childbirth.' After having two children in Japan, Pham Thi Bich Hau was inspired to found the Vietnam Women's Union in 2021 to support her compatriots. | Courtesy of Pham Thi Bich Hau Her experience inspired her to found the Vietnam Women's Union and forge a connection with Daion Temple in Honjo, Saitama Prefecture. The temple is headed by Vietnamese nun Thich Tam Tri, who now serves as an adviser to the union. As with her experience a decade prior, Pham translated and interpreted for trainees who abruptly left their programs and for students who became pregnant. She and Thich also helped others deal with issues ranging from expired visas to hospital stays and financial hardships. One of the union's first activities was hosting a Tet festival, a traditional Lunar New Year celebration, for over 200 families during the pandemic. At Daion Temple, they had an opportunity to partake in familiar activities such as playing traditional games and wrapping banh chung — steamed glutinous rice cake with a mung bean and pork filling. Through the Vietnam Women's Union, Pham has touched the lives of her compatriots across Japan, many of whom are married with children and reside in areas with fewer immigrants. In the Kanto region, Pham can organize in-person events, but in other parts of Japan she provides consultations by phone or via Zalo — Vietnam's most popular messaging app. Pham recalls helping Tran Xuan Mai (a pseudonym to protect her privacy), a young mother with two daughters, finalize her divorce from a Japanese man. She not only interpreted at court and negotiated custody arrangements on behalf of Tran, but also found herself serving as a counselor of sorts. 'She was very anxious and stressed about the future,' Pham recalls. 'She was afraid they would take away her children.' Fortunately, with the help of Pham, Thich and the union's co-chair at the time, the court granted custody to Tran. After her divorce, Tran moved with her children to Toyokawa, Aichi Prefecture in 2024. Now 38, she works part-time at a local supermarket while devoting herself to an online business selling homemade birthday cakes to fellow Vietnamese expats. After the Vietnam Women's Union helped her with a contentious divorce and custody battle, Tran Xuan Mai relocated to Aichi Prefecture with her daughters and started an online business specializing in Vietnamese desserts and snacks. | Courtesy of Tran Xuan Mai She has ambitions to expand her small business into a bigger operation when her daughters grow older. 'When I hug them, I feel like I can overcome anything,' Tran says. A balancing act While Tran endured tremendous hardship to rebuild her life, other Vietnamese women are quietly navigating everyday complexities — like Nguyen Ngoc Lan, 29, whose daughter turns 3 this summer. Working for a global printing company in Tokyo, Nguyen finds herself constantly juggling motherhood and her career. 'You feel stressed, obviously,' Nguyen says. 'Especially as I'm trying to become a permanent employee. ... Caring for a child in Japan is different than in Vietnam.' In Vietnam, a new mother usually has an abundance of support: her parents, her in-laws and sometimes even her neighbors. In Japan, especially in urban areas, these mothers are often on their own and receive little assistance from their husbands with full-time jobs. Day care centers can be extremely difficult to access because of a shortage of staff and facilities — a serious issue for the Japanese government in recent years. 'I'm still lucky because my husband works from home some days of the week, so he's able to help out a little,' says Nguyen. 'However, he is still a Japanese man, so work is always his top priority, and I'm the one who does most of the housework and takes care of our child.' Like many Vietnamese women, Nguyen turned to Facebook groups for help sorting out her daughter's dual citizenship paperwork. In May, she finally secured a permanent position at her company. As her daughter grows, life has only gotten busier. She and her husband eventually found a day care near their home in Shinagawa Ward, but Nguyen has also made sure to teach her daughter about Vietnamese language and culture. Nguyen Ngoc Lan has been juggling a full-time career and bicultural motherhood since her daughter was born in 2022. | Courtesy of Nguyen Ngoc Lan In Nguyen's bicultural household, bedtime stories often feature classic Vietnamese folktales, such as 'So Dua' (The Tale of the Coconut Shell Boy) or 'Thanh Giong' (The Legend of Thanh Giong). Nguyen is determined to ensure her daughter doesn't forget her roots, returning to Vietnam with her every year to explore the country and reconnect with family. 'She loves every minute of it,' Nguyen says. Even as chairperson of the Vietnam Women's Union, Pham has struggled at times to balance work and motherhood. As an entrepreneur, she decided to return to work only a month after giving birth instead of taking the standard six months of maternity leave in Japan. Thankfully, she and her husband were able to sponsor both their mothers to come to Japan to help out. Pham says it's critical to support fellow immigrants, especially as Japan's Vietnamese community continues to grow. 'At the moment, the Vietnam Women's Union's goal is to support younger generations who migrate to join family members here after their secondary education,' she says. 'We need to find a way to help them adjust to life in Japan and prepare them for the future.' Motherhood anywhere is complex, and to step into this role far from home requires even more resourcefulness and resilience. As Japan grapples with ongoing labor shortages and an aging population, the Vietnamese community's role becomes increasingly vital. The stories of these mothers and countless others like them offer a glimpse of how migrant groups are carving out space in Japanese society, contributing to both its economic growth and cultural diversity.
South China Morning Post
06-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Japan politician ups migration rhetoric, says foreigners ‘ignore rules, assault' locals
Naoki Hyakuta, leader of the minor right-wing opposition Conservative Party of Japan, made remarks on Saturday that could be construed as hate speech, criticising foreign workers during a national election campaign. Advertisement Foreign workers 'disrespect Japanese culture, ignore the rules, assault Japanese people, and steal their belongings,' Hyakuta, a former novelist, said in a stump speech ahead of the July 20 House of Councillors election. He emphasised his opposition to the burial customs practised by some foreigners, saying that cremation is the norm in Japan . 'If you come to Japan, it's only natural to follow Japanese rules and manners. When in Rome, do as the Romans do,' he said. Established in 2023, his party won three seats in last year's House of Representatives election. Led by Hyakuta, a former TV commentator, it advocates stricter immigration and refugee policies to protect the Japanese people. Amid ongoing labour shortages, the number of foreign workers in Japan has steadily grown in recent years, surpassing 2 million in 2024. Some political leaders have responded with inflammatory rhetoric that could fuel xenophobia or discrimination. Naoki Hyakuta makes a stump speech in Tokyo on July 3. Photo: Kyodo During the upper house election campaign, another minor opposition group, the Sanseito party, has gained traction among conservatives with nationalist and anti-establishment views under its 'Japanese First' banner.
Arab News
20-06-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Italy grapples with mass exodus and foreign influx amid economic fears
ROME: The number of Italians leaving their country and foreigners moving in has soared to the highest in a decade, official data showed on Friday, fueling national concerns about brain drain, economic decline, and immigration. Italy has a right-wing government elected in 2022 on a mandate to curb migrant arrivals, but also has a shrinking population and growing labor shortages, highlighting the need to attract foreign workers. Meanwhile, the country's stagnant economy and low wages — salaries are below 1990 levels in inflation-adjusted terms — have been blamed for pushing many Italians to seek better fortunes abroad. Ukrainians made up the biggest national group among those who arrived in 2023-2024, followed by Albanians, Bangladeshis, Moroccans, Romanians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Argentines, and Tunisians. Last year, 382,071 foreigners moved to Italy, up from 378,372 in 2023 and the highest since 2014, the statistics agency Istat said. In the same period, 155,732 Italians emigrated, up from 114,057 in 2023 and also the highest since 2014. The immigration figure beat the previous high for the last decade of 301,000 in 2017, and was well above that period's low of 191,766 from 2020 — the height of the COVID pandemic. The figure of almost 270,000 nationals emigrating in the two-year period from 2023 to 2024 was up around 40 percent compared to the previous two years. The two-year immigration figure for that period, around 760,000, was up 31 percent from 2021-2022. The figures are derived from town registry offices, so are unlikely to reflect undocumented migration. Ukrainians made up the biggest national group among those who arrived in 2023-2024, Istat said, followed by Albanians, Bangladeshis, Moroccans, Romanians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Argentines, and Tunisians. As for the high number of emigrants, 'it is more than plausible' that a significant number were 'former immigrants' who moved abroad after acquiring Italian citizenship, Istat said. The agency also said Italy's poorer south was continuing to depopulate, noting that almost 1 percent of residents in Calabria, the region with the lowest per capita income, moved to central or northern areas during 2023-2024.
Japan Times
11-06-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Eased language requirement proposed for non-Japanese bus and taxi drivers
The government, at an expert panel meeting on Wednesday, proposed easing the Japanese language proficiency requirement for non-Japanese drivers working in the country, aiming to address the serious labor shortages in the bus and taxi industry. The panel met at the Justice Ministry to discuss the country's foreign worker programs. Japan accepts foreign bus and taxi drivers under the Type 1 category of its residency status system for foreign nationals with certain skill levels. With Type 1 status, they are allowed to work in Japan for up to five years. Bus and taxi drivers are required to have higher Japanese language proficiency than in other occupations, as they need to offer customer services and handle emergency situations. The government decided to ease the language requirement for bus and taxi drivers after the number of successful applicants for a Type 1 residency evaluation test for those jobs stood at zero as of the end of April this year. Currently, foreign nationals wanting to work as bus or taxi drivers in Japan are required to have the N3 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which shows an ability to understand daily conversations to some extent and is the third highest of the five-level system. The government is looking at lowering the requirement by one notch to the N4 level. Drivers with the N4 Japanese language level will be required to be accompanied by a Japanese-language helper when on duty and will be encouraged to reach the N3 proficiency level as soon as possible. At the meeting, the government also proposed adding the field of logistics warehouses, the sector providing bed sheets and other items to hotels and hospitals, and the industry related to waste disposals to the list of industries eligible for the Type 1 program and a new skill development program for foreign workers. The new program will be introduced in April 2027, replacing the country's technical intern program. It aims to train foreign nationals to be eligible for Type 1 status in three years.
Bloomberg
05-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Job of Last Resort Puts Further Strain on Malaysia's Palm Sector
Malaysia's palm oil industry is grappling with a dwindling labor pool as workers increasingly shun physically demanding jobs at plantations, a trend that threatens to exacerbate production woes in the major grower. The sector has become the 'last choice' for foreign laborers — the backbone of the industry — and locals, who view the work as dirty, dangerous and difficult, said Roslin Azmy Hassan, the head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, an industry group. Many are choosing jobs in urban areas, he added.
