Japan to require language proficiency proof for engineer, specialist visa(english.kyodonews.net)
20 pointsby totetsu6 hours ago2 comments
  • timoth3y16 minutes ago
    > for work requiring Japanese

    This only applies to jobs that require Japanese proficiency. The vast majority of engineering and specialist visa will not be affected.

    It's not unreasonable that a person applying for a job that requires language proficiency be able to demonstrate said proficiency.

  • usui3 hours ago
    Japan is a bureacracy-driven credentialist Confucian scholar-boner societal nightmare, so pushes for more credentialism are never a surprise. Recently this month laws and fines for bicyclists have gotten stricter. Yes, a human-powered vehicle that almost anyone can ride without a license is deemed necessary to enforce. This is what the government thinks is worthy of its time, and it thinks making immigration harder to do with more bureaucratic entry barriers is necessary when the foreigner population is barely 3%. The process to getting a driver's license is insane. If you want to avoid the Kafkaesque procedures at the license center, you have to go to a school that costs around $2000 and takes several weeks so you can have forced participation in the bureacracy. The United States fails to prioritize anything whereas Japan prioritizes all the wrong places and thinks such misprioritization is good because it considers any centralized action at all to be inherently good. Wheels spinning in place.
    • helge92102 hours ago
      > you have to go to a school that costs around $2000

      So cheap. Comparing to Germany.

      • usui2 hours ago
        Well, I mean Japan has almost half the GDP per capita than Germany and the mentioned fee is the minimum in a rural area (a place where driving becomes essential), not Tokyo where it's considered the ultimate privilege bestowed upon from the heavens and costs more.
      • lencastre2 hours ago
        yes but maybe it’s still cheaper in DE than the time cost of learning JP

        it’s cray cray that in non Schengen foreigners can drive 90 days im Germany with their foreign issued driving license, but natives are subject to insane whims of the driving Schule…

        • nicbouan hour ago
          They traded my Canadian license for a German one. No tests required. I didn’t even now about the priority signs. I learned most of it when I did my motorcycle license later.
        • hulituan hour ago
          > but natives are subject to insane whims of the driving Schule…

          Some natives have started to make "driving Schule" in foreign countries.

          • nicbouan hour ago
            That loophole has been closed years ago by requiring classes and tests in your country of residence. I believe that’s the case since almost a decade, but I could be wrong.
    • hulituan hour ago
      > Recently this month laws and fines for bicyclists have gotten stricter

      As far as i know, all laws of a country are to be followed, not only a selection of them.

    • atoav2 hours ago
      I have been in Tokyo a week ago and that they want to do "something" to affect the behavior of cyclists is absolutely unsurprising to me. Cyclists are definitely a problem in Tokyo. They ride like maniacs, always on sidewalks, even if there are bicycle paths on the road. The actually surprising thing was that the otherwise very ordered and rule-abiding tokyoites are so chaotic when it comes to bicycles.

      Now where I am from every school kid gets to take part during a days long bicycle safety introduction and after that most citizens will be relatively ok to ride practically for the rest of their lifes. In Tokyo it seemed to me that tokyoites seemed to have declared bicycling a rule-free space for themselves. I have been there two weeks and witnessed 3 near accidents on the sidewalk.

      I am not a fan of bureaucrats, but we can't assume people are able to create a good outcome just by themselves without education, guidance, rules and enforcement. The best way is to educate your population early on on how move in a public space using bicycles. But if you have a problem to solve right now the next best thing is the law.

    • The_Goonies19853 hours ago
      [dead]