Japan is Vietnam's single largest aid donor and third-largest investor. Major Japanese companies have flocked to Vietnam in recent years for hard-working, low-paid labor, as an alternative to China, where average monthly wages are more than double those in Vietnam.
The perception that Vietnam's young and industrious workforce will not erupt into political or social unrest, and thus provides a stable investment climate, is key to attracting overseas investment. But perception is one thing, reality is another.
Workers throughout Vietnam are feeling the effects of the global financial crisis. Spiraling inflation and increased costs of living are making it increasingly difficult to survive on factory wages of US$2-3 a day. Increases in the minimum wage by the government to US$62 a month at foreign-owned factories still leave most workers with a subsistence wage.
Japanese factories have been among hundreds of plants hit by waves of labor unrest in Vietnam in recent years. In May, 2008 for example, 1,000 Vietnamese workers walked off the job at the Panasonic factory in Hanoi to demand an increase in their monthly wages.
Vietnam remains an authoritarian, one-party state run by the Communist Party. Dissent leads to prison. Freedom of speech is highly circumscribed. In this environment, the government declares most strikes illegal and bans workers from forming unions that are independent. Activists who promote workers' rights and independent trade unions are jailed on dubious national security charges such as "abusing democratic freedoms."
As a leading democratic power in Asia, Japan has significant leverage with Vietnam. In its bilateral talks and trade negotiations, Japan should forcefully press Vietnam to uphold international labor and human rights standards.
This month, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva will issue its outcome report on Vietnam's Universal Periodic Review, through which the rights records of all UN members states are examined every four years.
Vietnam already has indicated, though, that it intends to reject key recommendations from member states to strengthen freedom of expression and association, media freedom, and protection of human rights defenders.
Japan has resumed loans under its Official Development Assistance program after suspending them in December 2008 over a corruption scandal in one of its projects. But this should not be a blank check. Japan is uniquely placed to vigorously raise human rights concerns in its bilateral economic and trade relations with Vietnam.
For starters, Japan could link non-humanitarian aid to specific improvements in human rights. This is in line with Japan's Official Development Assistance contract, which calls for aid decisions, apart from humanitarian aid, to be made on the recipient country's protection of basic human rights. Japan could also link trade privileges to Vietnam's observance and protection of workers' rights.
Because Japan is one of Vietnam's main trade and investment partners, what it says carries weight in Hanoi. Japan should not squander its influential voice. Japan should insist that Vietnam take immediate, concrete steps to rectify its abysmal and unacceptable rights record.
Brad Adams is Asia Director for Human Rights Watch.
