Japan pays foreign workers to go home, forever

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/business/global/23immigrant.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

HAMAMATSU, Japan — Rita Yamaoka, a recently jobless mother of three, faces a heart-wrenching decision. The Japanese government has offered to pay thousands of dollars to fly her family home to Brazil.

But if she takes the money, Mrs. Yamaoka and her husband, Sergio — a Brazilian national of Japanese descent — must agree not to seek work in Japan again.

The repatriation offer is part of a new drive to encourage Japan’s sizable pool of Latin American factory workers to leave the recession-wracked country.

“I tell my husband that we should take the money and go back,” said Mrs. Yamaoka, 36, her eyes teary after a town hall meeting where local officials laid out the terms of the program.

Then again Japan never claimed to be a haven for immigrants.

No shock all the same.