The world is facing legal challenges as more and more people cross borders not only as international migrants and refugees but also as working people moving across local boundaries within a country. How can existing legal systems govern individual identities in these moving demographics? The question arises in particular as to where people “belong“: the...
Is Immigration a Chance to Rethink Social Citizenship?
One obvious response to the challenges of an ageing population and a lower birth-rate is immigration. Japan now seems to have chosen that path as it is preparing grounds to welcome a wider, economically active foreign population in the near future. In the last couple of years, the government has made some last adjustments to...
Refugee Acceptance and the Social State
On July 18, 2012, the German Federal Constitutional Court determined that cash benefits paid to asylum seekers for subsistence are unconstitutional according to the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act. According to the Court, the benefits are evidently insufficient and incompatible with the fundamental right to a minimum existence, which is protected as the right to human...
Rethinking Democracy in the Context of Globalization
Globalization, the process of increasing interdependence around the world, has massively transformed patterns of legal and political order from the mostly clear-cut divisions between international and national systems to the ever more overlapping coexistence of various governance arrangements at different levels. This ongoing transformation is creating problems for democracy. On the one hand, many international...
The Enfranchisement of Foreign Residents: Nationality versus Affectedness
One important aspect of globalization is characterized by the movement of people across national and international borders, which could undermine the legitimacy of social systems and institutions that have existed within, and relied upon, the nation state. The enfranchisement of foreign immigrants is undoubtedly one of the challenges faced by countries because of the pressure...
The Changing Case for Personal Tax Liability in Japan
Tax liability of Japan‘s income tax has been based both on a taxpayer‘s residence and on the source of income. A resident in Japan is liable to the tax on his worldwide income. In our local income tax, the tax liability is exclusively based on one‘s residence. However, residence-based taxation has been under attack lately....