In this edition of the Debito.org Podcast, Arudou Debito speaks at Waseda University’s Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration on January 22, 2008. He is joined by Kawakami Sonoko, of Amnesty International Japan, and Katsuma Yasushi, Associate Professor at Waseda specializing in international human rights.

This segment offers the first 25 minutes of the proceedings (the first couple of minutes were cut off), with Arudou’s presentation. He talks about how Japan has brought in foreign laborers for economic reasons and not taken care of them. He also alludes to the huge growth in Permanent Residents (the surest indicator of real immigration), and how with its lack of a clear policy towards migration, Japan’s economy is the only one of the rich countries to have shrunk overall on average in the past ten years. He makes the case that Japan in fact needs immigration as he stampedes through his alloted twenty minutes.

He will offer the subsequent Q&A session in his next podcast.

You can follow his powerpoint presentation by downloading it from debito.org and also read the paper substantiating his presentation.

And no, this time the podcast does not begin or end with any Duran Duran tracks…

Note: This was recorded live and direct to mp3. The sound is a little quiet in the beginning, but picks up after a couple of minutes.

Listen Now:

 Debito.org 01/22/08: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download