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Migration - A journey of Encounters
Major
Problems
Overcoming
Differences
The
Task for the Japanese Church
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Seeking the Kingdom of God
which Transcends Differences in Nationality
Brothers and Sisters:
The Church warmly welcomes
people who move into its midst from other places, recognizing that it is the Church’s
mission to be of service to them. We, the bishops, would like to reaffirm this
responsibility through the following message:
Migration – A Journey of Encounter
1. Migration is a social
phenomenon deeply related to the unfolding of the history of salvation and the development
of the Kingdom of God. Under God’s direction the patriarch Abraham left his ancestral
land to head for the land of Canaan. This was to enable the Israelites to settle in that
land, which was to be the place where they would prepare for the coming of the Messiah.
That journey of the People of God is continuing today and will continue on until salvation
is completed in the coming of the Kingdom of God.
At one time, when Japan
was still economically poor, some one million Japanese nationals emigrated to North
America, South America and various countries in Asia. At present, the number of their
descendants, known as nikkeijin, has reached more than 1.3 million, not a few of whom have
embraced the Catholic faith. Now, however, Japan has become affluent and in recent years
there has been a sudden increase in the number of people from many other countries coming
to Japan. Including persons whose legal period of stay has expired, the number of
foreigners now living in Japan is estimated to be about 500,000. Many of these people come
to Catholic churches and the total number of Catholics among them is estimated to be at
least 100 to 200 thousand. At present the Japanese church has ongoing contact with the
following groups of people and has become particularly involved with those among them who,
for a variety of reasons, need support, protection, or some other form of assistance.
Foreign migrant workers
Refugees
Students from abroad,
trainees
Japanese war orphans
from China and their families
Foreign spouses of
international marriages and their families
Seamen from various
countries
South and North Koreans,
Taiwanese and Chinese who either came to work before or during WWII, or were forcibly
brought to Japan to work, as well as their descendants
Foreign women who have
become victims of sexual violence and various forms of exploitation
Foreigners serving
prison terms or being detained for questioning
We believe that, in
seeking to be a church and a society that can learn to live and work and pray with these
people through our encounters with them, we are bringing the transforming power of the
Gospel to bear on the Church and society alike.
Major Problems in these Encounters
2. In contemporary
Japanese society differences in race, gender, language, culture, customs, laws and
religion tend to be threatening to the Japanese and deepen tendencies toward
discrimination and exclusivism. Unfortunately these tendencies can also be found even
within the Church. Meanwhile, both these who have come from abroad to work in Japan and
their families tend to feel alienated in their workplaces and places of residence, because
of their lack of a base in society and the instability of their living conditions.
Furthermore, because many of them are not protected by the Japanese legal system, they are
often placed in a vulnerable position and experience inhumane treatment. Women in
particular suffer continually from exploitation and sexual violence.
At present, Japan’s
Immigration-Control and Refugee-Recognition Act (Immigration Law) recognizes 28 types of
residential status through which a foreigner may legally reside in Japan, but does not
make provision for those who have come to do unskilled labor. Furthermore, the types of
activity permitted by each category are very strictly controlled. For this reason, many
persons enter the country under the pretext of entertainment, study, training, research or
sightseeing. This situation results in many problems. Among these the main ones are
overstaying one's original visa and working without a valid visa, the non-payment of
wages, work-related injuries, the lack of health and social insurance, the victimizing of
women in the flesh-trade, deficiencies in training-programs, problems related to
international marriages and education of children, etc.
Overcoming Differences as a Way of Witnessing to the Catholicity of
the Church
3. We Christians are all
called to become one in Christ with other people regardless of who they may be. The
Japanese Church must not lose sight of the fact that now is the time for us to respond to
that call. The Church is to be a community in which people of all generations from many
different places, different ways of life and different cultures enter into relationships
with one another, mutually accepting the differences that exist among themselves. The
friction and pain that go along with the experience of such differences should be looked
upon as an occasion to make the radical change of heart called for in the Gospel.
Relationships born of such a conversion will bring new riches to the Church. This effort
to overcome differences between peoples does not mean trying to assimilate the others by
imposing one’s own lifestyle on them, but should be seen as bringing to birth a new
society and culture within which we can all live together.
For the Church, these
immigrants are brothers and sisters in Christ. This means that we do not merely welcome
them, but strive to build up a community that respects differences, thereby witnessing to
society at large the universality of the Church.
The Japanese Church is by
no means a church just for the Japanese. The Church founded by Jesus Christ, in its
encounter with people of different nationalities, gives witness that the Kingdom of God is
bringing about a new humanity. The message that St. Paul addressed to the faithful in
Galatia is indeed a message for our times as well:
All of you are sons and
daughters of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
All baptized in Christ, you have all clothed yourselves in Christ, and
there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free,
male and female, but all of you are one in Christ.
Galatians 3:26-28
We hope that all who come
to the Church or in one way or another associate with the Church, will be able to discover
there the joy of encountering Christ.
The Task Facing the Japanese Church
4. The present phenomenon
of so many people leaving their families and homelands to settle in a country like Japan,
with its different people, religions, language and culture, is certainly a sign of the
times. For the Japanese Church, which is seeking the Kingdom of God that rises above
national differences, this sign of the times offers a new challenge and also points to
possibilities for the unfolding of a new evangelization. The efforts of the many lay
persons, religious and priests all over Japan who are presently dedicating themselves
wholeheartedly to this work must be praised. But the response to the sign of the times is
a task that must not be limited to the work of a few, but must now involve the whole of
the Japanese Church. The major tasks to be done are the following:
a. Tasks to be done in
Cooperation with Civic Groups and the Government
To plan orientation
meetings or seminars that will be of assistance to those trying to adjust to life in Japan
by providing information about laws related to them, the Japanese lifestyle, food,
language, etc.
To take the initiative
in working for the protection of human rights so as to counter the proliferation of human
rights violations; To cooperate in dealing with problems related to medical care,
work-related injuries, unfair dismissal from employment, withholding of wages, the seeking
of employment, the search for suitable residences, marriages involving persons who have
overstayed their visas or who need an extension of the period of stay, etc.
To cooperate in setting
up emergency shelters that can be used in common with civic groups.
To devise measures to
meet the needs of families involved in international marriages; in consultation with the
families to provide education for the spouses and children concerning the situation of the
countries involved and on life in Japan.
To work to
"legalize" the status of foreigners who have been branded as
"illegals" under current immigration law and whose human rights have been
ignored.
To work to make the
Immigration Law a law based on basic human rights.
To have Church members
study the provisions of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of
All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families passed by the United Nations on December
18, 1990 and to collaborate with civic groups to press Japan to ratify the treaty.
To work together to
deepen mutual understanding of the political-economic background and other relationships
affecting the immigrants’ home country, the receiving country and the countries
through which they pass in transit.
To inaugurate a program
of study to familiarize ourselves with the problems mentioned above and find ways to
respond appropriately.
b. Particular Tasks
for the Church
(Those to be begun on the
diocesan level and carried through on the parochial level)
To make renewed efforts
to ensure that the Japanese Church can give witness that it is truly a Church where
foreigners and Japanese can live together.
To have the diocesan
representatives of the Association for Solidarity with Foreign and Migrant Workers of the
Commission for International Cooperation (set up by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference)
cooperate with the priests and lay representatives in concrete steps to realize the
following:
To accept foreigners in
our parishes as registered members, regardless of nationality, and to find ways to open
channels of communication with them. Since one’s name expresses one’s dignity as
a person, as far as possible, names should be written in their original form and not in katakana.
Furigana may be added when necessary.
We ask all to begin
actively to implement whatever is possible at your local level.
May the Almighty Father of
all humanity shower bountiful blessings on our efforts to realize the Kingdom of God that
transcends and embraces all nations of the world.
November 5, 1992
Episcopal Committee for
Social Activities
Catholic Bishops’
Conference of Japan |
