Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from November, 2005

The Golden Cage of Japan

The recent crackdown on illegal workers has forced undocumented workers to dress conservatively in expensive suits. Many of them have moved further into the suburbs, where work is easier to find and documents not required. BY SUSHMA JOSHI This News was Posted on kantipuronline.com: 2005-11-15 22:40:14 “I haven’t seen my wife for ten years,” says R. P. Ghale (a pseudonym). “She used to be so vibrant and beautiful.” The 53-year-old migrant worker is currently living in Toyota city. Having traveled extensively in Asia and Europe earlier, he entered Japan in the pretext of putting in a tender for a cell-phone company. It has been the “longest meeting” he’s ever attended; he simply stayed on as an undocumented worker, working in Japan’s technological companies. His first job at the Sanyo Company fetched him 25,000 rupees. “I would have gone back to Nepal, but I would have to lie seven times for the same amount,” he says. “Over here, you get up in the morning, go to work and get paid.” The J