"What is most repulsive for a migrant like me is the deeply rooted individualism in Japanese society." This startling perspective on Japanese society is that of an Iranian migrant in Ann Kaneko's film
Overstay. The film documents the lives of some of Japan's migrants, bringing a new and revealing angle on Japan society. Although instructors of introductory courses on Japan may shy away from covering minorities in order to introduce what they consider the basics of Japanese culture and society, Ann Kaneko shows that certain basics may come into focus by looking at the margins and boundaries of one's object. Kaneko's film, which looks at the experiences of migrant workers in Japan and their relationships with Japanese managers, advocates for foreign workers, people on the street, and Japanese girlfriends, is very much about Japanese society. The interviews of Japanese provide lively counterpoints and harmonies to the extended interviews of the migrants.
Overstay brings us into the lives of three Pakistanis, an Iranian, a Peruvian, and a Filipino, most of whom have overstayed the limits of their visas. Throughout the film, the narration is unintrusive, providing ample time for us to hear the voices of the people themselves. The camera takes us from interview settings inside apartments, to vivid scenes of neighborhood and downtown streets, and inside workplaces. Mujahid (one of the Pakistanis) has been working in the same small electronics parts factory the entire six and a half years he has been in Japan. His Japanese boss, Yamaguchi Toshi, notes the similarity between the earlier migration of Japanese from the countryside to the city and the current migration of Pakistanis and other foreigners to Japan. Mujahid's roommate, Ashraf, also has a sympathetic boss, Maekawa Kazutoshi, who mentions that he is originally from Okinawa, and that many of his relatives had emigrated to Brazil several decades previously and experienced there much of what the Pakistani migrants experience today in Japan.
These managers appear more than just sympathetic to their foreign workers. They respect them for their seriousness of purpose that they lament is missing among younger Japanese. Yamaguchi comments that younger Japanese have grown up in affluence and do not know what it means to suffer. However, one has to question the extent to which these managers' relationships with their Pakistani workers are conditioned by their undocumented status. Since the immigration law was revised in 1989, penalties for employers of foreigners without proper work visas have become much stiffer, and fewer employers are willing to risk hiring them. The willingness of these foreign workers to stay at a given job is in part the result of their lack of options.
We get a sense of the tension of being an undocumented alien in one memorable scene-an informal party in the cramped quarters of several Iranian migrants which is interrupted by the arrival of two police officers. (One Iranian asked the film maker to turn off the camera but she apparently just placed it on a chair and left it running.) The police wanted to follow up on a traffic accident involving one of the Iranians. The police do not ask for their passports or other documentation, the only question in that vein being why there were so many of them in one apartment. After getting the information they needed, they make their exit and the Iranians burst into dance to the accompaniment of Persian music.
While the Filipina and Japanese Peruvian women consider Japan a temporary destination where they can accumulate money to save and bring home with them, the Pakistanis and Iranian seem to be in the process of building new lives for themselves in Japan. This experience, however, is conditioned by thoughts of their symbolic homelands elsewhere. If they leave Japan, they will have trouble getting back in unless they are willing to pay exorbitant fees for a broker who can procure them false documents. By the end of the film, one of them marries his Japanese girlfriend and envisions eventually becoming Japanese himself. We can only speculate about the far reaching impact of distance and the inability to travel for the wife and two children, still in Pakistan, of another Pakistani when he eventually moves in with his Japanese girlfriend.
In addition to the poignant and insightful interviews, beautiful photography and a great soundtrack make Overstay a welcome contribution to both secondary and university curriculums on Japan and transnationalism.
