Japan says foreign workers top record 1 million

Japan says foreign workers top record 1 million

2017-01-28 17:24:20.0

TOKYO, Jan 28, 2017 (AFP) - The number of foreign workers in Japan topped 1 million for the first time last year, the government has said, as the country looks overseas to offset labour shortages. Tokyo has moved little on loosening strict rules for foreign workers despite years of calls to crack open Japan's borders to more immigrants. But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has unveiled a plan to review the rules, saying foreign labour will increasingly be needed, particularly in the booming construction industry ahead of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

     A record 1,083,769 foreigners were working in the country at the end of October, up 19.4 percent from a year earlier, the labour and welfare ministry said on Friday. The number of Chinese workers, topping the foreign labour list, gained 6.9 percent to some 345,000, accounting for nearly one third of the total, it said. Vietnamese ranked second, jumping 56.4 percent to some 172,000, followed by Filipinos at 128,000, up 19.7 percent. The ministry said the jump largely reflected an increase in the number of foreign students and highly skilled workers.

     Rapidly-ageing Japan is desperately short of workers to pay the taxes to fund pensions and healthcare for its growing grey population, but it is almost constitutionally allergic to immigration, allowing only a small number of unskilled workers into the country.

     The government has now decided to expand the country's industrial training programmes to allow foreign workers to stay five years instead of three. Japan has also revised immigration law to accept more nurses and caregivers to work in the healthcare sector.

Syrian forces reach main water spring feeding Damascus

Syrian forces reach main water spring feeding Damascus

2017-01-28 17:24:49.0

DAMASCUS, Jan. 28: (Xinhua) The Syrian army reached the Ain Fijeh spring northwest of the capital Damascus on Saturday, hoisting the Syrian flag over that area following a month of battles with rebels there to capture that area and restore drinking water to Damascus, a military source told Xinhua.

     The Syrian army entered Ain Fijeh, after reaching an "initial" agreement with the rebels there for their evacuation from that area, possibly toward the northwestern province of Idlib, the source said, on condition of anonymity.

     He added that maintenance workers are bracing to enter the village to fix the Ain Fijeh spring, the main water source feeding the capital's over five million inhabitants.

     The recent development comes as battles have raged since Dec. 22, when the water was cut off from the capital, with the government accusing the rebels of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front of severing the flow of water to Damascus.

     The battles were penetrated with a few pauses, in which efforts were being exerted to reach a deal with the rebels. However, all previous efforts had failed without achieving its intended goals, as the rebels of Nusra were reluctant to leave the area, insisting on rendering flat all efforts to defuse the tension in that area.

     It's worth mentioning that several rebel groups were stationing in Barada Valley, with most of them establishing reconciliation with the government, except Nusra, which is designated as a terror group by the UN and excluded from a currently-underway cease-fire that began on Dec. 30.

     Ain Fijeh is one of ten towns in the Barada Valley region northwest of Damascus. The army captured all of the towns, before finally reaching Ain Fijeh.

     Now, the army seems in control of the spring, and the workers will start fixing the damage, as a prelude to resuming the water flow to Damascus, whose residents have been struggling with the scarcity of water since Dec. 22.

     The water authorities have implemented emergency plans to meet around 30 percent of the daily needs of Damascus city residents on a rotational basis until water infrastructure is restored to its previous capacity.