Filipino entertainers in Japan need government help

By Gerry N. Zaragoza
Janaury 19, 2005

This is time for the government to really help a group of overseas Filipino workers, 90 percent of whom are about to lose their jobs starting this year because of new immigration policies in the country where they work. I’m referring to the 80,000 Filipino singers, musicians and dancers who go to Japan annually to make their living there. Their working in Japan is a boon to their 500,000 dependents who get support from the money they send home.

Filipino entertainers, or overseas performing artists (OPAs), in Japan send home at least $450 million a year in direct remittances. If you add money sent home through informal channels, the figure could rise to about $1 billion. It’s really a lot of money to keep families back home well provided for. For the government, that’s also a lot of money to keep afloat the economy, which is dependent on some $8-billion annual remittances from overseas Filipino workers from all over the globe. The Filipino OPAs in Japan may constitute only 1 percent of Filipinos working abroad, but their remittances make up anywhere from 6 percent to 12 percent of the total money sent home every year by Filipinos working abroad.

The Filipino OPAs’ change of fortunes was caused by a US State Department’s “Fourth Trafficking in Persons Report” released in June last year saying that Japan, as well as the Philippines, is not doing enough to help the international campaign to check human trafficking that victimizes women and children for forced labor, sexual exploitation and prostitution. That shouldn’t really be a problem for Filipino OPAs, who comprise 60 percent of the 130,000 foreign entertainers in Japan, because they are well documented before they leave for Japan and they are armed with artist record books (ARBs) — recently replaced by the artist accreditation cards (AACs) issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) — which means they have undergone three- to six-month training for their jobs. There is really no evidence that Filipino entertainers who go to Japan end up as prostitutes. But if they do, people in the overseas entertainment industry say it’s the exception, rather than the rule. They say that Filipinos who work as prostitutes are only a small percentage of the total number of performing artists in Japan.

This observation is borne out by a recent report issued by the International Labour Office (ILO) in Japan regarding human trafficking for sexual exploitation in that country. The report said that Filipinos are among the least violators of human trafficking. The most “trafficked” women in Japan are Thais. From 2000 to 2003, at least 173 Thai women were reported to have been smuggled to Japan for sexual employment. On the other hand, Filipino women trafficked in Japan are small and have been going down: 4 in 2000, 12 in 2001, 2 in 2002 and none in 2003.

However, Japan’s sensitivity to criticism apparently prompted it to tighten up on immigration rules. Starting January this year, the Japanese government has imposed stricter working visa requirements on foreign entertainers, including 80,000 Filipinos who work there. That’s where Filipino OPAs are caught in geopolitics. Japan starting this month struck down one criterion under its Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. The criterion states that the applicant for an entertainment visa must meet the standards set by a foreign national or local government agency or an equivalent public or private organization.

As far as this provision applied to the Philippines, this was equivalent to the artist record book (ARB), which had been in use for some 10 years, and the new artist accreditation card (AAC) issued by the POEA. But the new Japan’s policy struck down this provision, which is now the main problem for Filipino entertainers.

There are two other criteria, but our Filipino entertainers have slim chances with those. One is a minimum of two years’ training in educational institution outside Japan in subjects relevant to the type of performance in which the entertainer will engage. The other is that the applicant for an entertainment visa must have a minimum of two years’ experience outside Japan in the type of performance in which the entertainer will be engaged.

Filipino OPAs have difficulty meeting those remaining two criteria because the Philippines has really very few institutions offering two-year formal courses in music, dancing or the arts. On the requirement of relevant experience outside Japan, our OPAs in Japan really have no experience working outside Japan, so they will have to get that experience elsewhere before they can go back to Japan.

While Japan sees the matter as a moral issue, the Philippines sees it as an economic issue. It is projected that out of 80,000 Filipino OPAs in Japan, only 8,000 would be qualified under the new immigration policy of Japan. It’s loss of jobs for 72,000 Filipinos and the incomes they earn. This is why the Philippine government is pushing for a deferment of the implementation of new rules and asking for a five-year transition period so the Philippine overseas entertainment industry could adapt to the changes. But it has so far failed to get the nod of the Japanese government. Perhaps, five years is too much, so the overseas entertainment industry is pushing for a two- to three-year transition period instead.

However unfortunately, our own Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Labor and Employment seem to be going in different direction over the issue. While DFA is assiduously working for a transition period, DOLE, which should have been taking the lead role in negotiating with the Japanese government, seemed to have given up the fight. DOLE appears to have accepted Japan’s new immigration policy rather than fight for the welfare of OPAs. It is even pushing for the deployment of nurses and caregivers in Japan as a “better” substitute, showing bias against deployment of “japayukis.” Sadly, it’s a poor substitute because only 200 Filipino nurses and caregivers could be accommodated in Japan. Compare that with the 72,000 OPAs who would be losing their jobs under Japan’s new immigration policy. DOLE should wake up and get its act together over the fact that more than 70,000 Filipino OPAs are about to lose their jobs. That will be too bad for their families—and the economy, too.

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