Foreign residents call for Japan to abolish nationality requirement for public servants

TOKYO — Citizens’ groups and foreign residents in Kanagawa and Hyogo prefectures held direct negotiations with central government ministry officials in the Diet on Aug. 23, demanding the complete abolition of a Japanese nationality requirement for public servants.

Teachers of foreign nationality also participated in the meeting and complained about the discrimination to officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

While the nationality clause was abolished in 1991 for the hiring of foreign nationals as teachers at public schools, many remain only as “full-time lecturers,” who are not allowed to hold senior positions. Moreover, many local governments also do not permit foreign nationals to take employment exams, and even in municipalities where they can be hired as civil servants, they are only allowed to work in certain fields. The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a correction advisory to the Japanese government in 2018 in response to this situation.

One 54-year-old woman of foreign nationality works as a full-time lecturer and a homeroom teacher at a part-time high school in Yokohama run by the municipal government. She revealed to the Mainichi Shimbun that though managerial staff had asked her if she wanted to be involved in teaching students with special needs, she rejected the offer, saying, “I really want to do it, but the nationality clause issue makes it impossible for me to take a leadership role and stay motivated. It would also affect my students.”

She complained to government officials, saying, “I’m systematically discriminated against, and I’m constantly wondering what to do.” A representative from the education ministry responded, “Appointment and treatment are handled appropriately under the authority and responsibility of education boards.”

(Japanese original by Chika Yokomi, Yokohama Bureau)