mytest

Hi Blog. Arudou Debito here back from an autumn speaking tour, alighting at Tokyo, Utsunomiya, and Kyoto. Thanks to everyone (Chris, DIJ, and Steve) for giving me shelter. Getting this information out while it’s still timely:

SPECIAL ISSUE ON J GOVT’S REINSTITUTION OF FINGERPRINTING (FP)
FOR ALMOST ALL NON-JAPANESE ONLY, FROM NOV 20, 2007
DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 29, 2007

Contents:
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1) BRIEFING ON THE ISSUE: METROPOLIS OCT 26 “LAST WORD” COLUMN
2) ISSUE MADE EVEN SIMPLER: DOWNLOADABLE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
3) THE CASE FOR HOW THE FINGERPRINT POLICY VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL TREATY
4) THE SUBTERFUGE: ACCENTURE’S PROFITEERING IN J IMMIGRATION FP MACHINES
5) POLICY CREEP: REUTERS ON HOW GOJ VERSION GOES FARTHER THAN US-VISIT PROGRAM
(by fingerprinting even Permanent Residents, i.e. “Green Card” holders)

…and finally…
6) WHAT YOU CAN DO: LINKS TO PROTEST ARTICLES, CARTOONS, LETTERS
AND ONLINE PETITION YOU CAN SIGN
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

By Arudou Debito, Sapporo, Japan (debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org)
Freely forwardable
Available as a podcast from Trans Pacific Radio
http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/10/31/debito-102907-fingerprints-japan-accenture/

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1) BRIEFING: METROPOLIS OCT 26 “LAST WORD” COLUMN

Some bits of information you will by now have heard already. Good. But there seems to be a lot of confusion out there as to some of the finer details. Here’s a one-page summary of the whole shenanigans, followed by information in one post so you can forward it anywhere…

==============================================

Last Word Column
BAD IMPRESSIONS
Japan’s new policy of fingerprinting foreigners is cack-handed and callous
By Arudou Debito
Metropolis Magazine, October 26, 2007, Issue #709
http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/709/lastword.asp

If you haven’t heard about the new immigration procedure coming into effect next month, it’s time you did. It will affect not only tourists and frequently traveling businesspeople, but also long-term residents. You will be targeted by a useless and xenophobic system, treated as fresh off the boat no matter how long you’ve lived here.

From November 20, 2007, all foreigners crossing the border into Japan will have their fingerprints and mug shots taken. Their biometric data will be stored for 70 years, and shared with other governments just in case of… well, just in case.

Unfortunately, entry won’t be smooth. The law requires an automated gate system at all ports of entry, to allow those who already filed their fingerprints to pass through quickly. However, Kobe Immigration recently acknowledged that only Narita will have an express gate. Everyone else coming in anyplace else must stand in the Gaijin Line like any other tourist, separated from their Japanese families and giving fingerprints the old-fashioned way. Every time they enter Japan. For however long it takes. Welcome home.
https://www.debito.org/?p=656

This new law doesn’t apply to all foreigners. The exceptions are people under age 16, those with “diplomat” or “official government business” visas, and “Special Status Permanent Residents” (i.e., the “Zainichi” Japan-born ethnic Koreans, Chinese, etc.). But it does apply to “Regular Permanent Residents”*those who moved here and got a permanent visa.
http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/prg/prg1431.html

The policy is retrogressive. From 1952 through the 1990’s, Zainichi (and many other non-Japanese) led sustained protests against fingerprinted Gaijin Cards because, culturally speaking, the feeling is that only criminals get systematically fingerprinted. In 1998, the practice was abolished. Immigration officials admitted it was “ineffective,” and the contemporary Justice Minister mentioned “violations of human rights.”
https://www.debito.org/fingerprinting.html

Despite all that, fingerprinting is back–and how. Why now? The Foreign and Health Ministries say that gathering biometric data from foreigners is necessary for “the effective prevention of contagious diseases and terrorism.” It’s unclear why that justifies fingerprinting foreigners only. All terrorism in Japan thus far, from Aum Shinrikyo to political extremism, has been homegrown. And contagion knows no nationality.
http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/033005b.htm

If you really want to smoke out terrorists, you fingerprint everybody. But you can’t. The Japanese public would be in uproar. Witness what happened a few years ago when the government introduced a universal ID system. It was made moribund due to privacy concerns, and even ruled unconstitutional in 2006.

So you target the gaijin because you can. Unlike the Zainichi, “Newcomer” foreigners aren’t well organized, and have become a criminal bogeyman for policymakers. Witness the roots of this law: issued December 2004, the seminal “Action Plan for Pre-Empting Terrorism” treated threats to Japan as imported–foreign terrorists and international organized crime. Its very rubric was “defending our country and our people against the international threat.” “International” included foreign residents of Japan, naturally.

Theory met practice: after advocating that the general public (including hotels, banks, realtors, accountants, notary publics, even lawyers) be legally bound to report “suspicious” elements, the plan spawned its first law in 2005. Hotels must now report all their “foreign tourists” to the police. The police, however, told them to report all “foreign guests,” and refused to correct this “accidental” misinterpretation.

Add the “let’s make Japan the World’s Safest Country again” mantra (even though the increase in Japanese crime is more dramatic), and it’s clear that fingerprinting is merely part of a multi-pronged policy putsch.

The irony is this new law will not work. Google “how to fake fingerprints” and see how easy it is. Couple that with Japan’s porous seaports, and it’s clear that the only effect will be to show how xenophobic and reactionary Japan can get. For example, of all the 17 countries accepting the APEC Business Travel Card for international traders, only Japan has thus rendered it useless.

What can you do? Not a lot, since this law has been pipelined for years. Moreover, if you refuse your prints, you can’t resort to Zainichi-style civil disobedience. You just get turned away at the border.

But don’t do nothing. Voice your opinion wherever you can. Target people administering the program, as well as those being economically affected by it. Hand over a short letter of protest as you clear Customs. Send feedback online to groups like JETRO, the Japan National Tourist Organization and the Japan Hotel Association. Contact merchant groups in Tokyo or Akihabara that want foreign currency. Cite how copycatting the US-Visit Program will likewise hurt tourism and foreign direct investment. Nuts to “Yokoso Japan.”

If you’re the silent type: when you’re at the border, wait patiently together with your whole family, citizens and all, in the Gaijin Line. Let huge crowds demonstrate just how half-baked and callous this policy is.

Given the exceptional treatment given the Zainichi, policymakers assumed the “gaijin” would not fight back. Show them that’s not true.

After all, if you live here, you are not a “guest.” You are a taxpaying resident, helping Japan face its future demographic demons. Demand the commensurate respect.

————————————————————–
Amnesty International and Solidarity for Migrants Japan held a public meeting on the biometric data laws on Oct 27 in Chiyoda-ku. See https://www.debito.org/?p=585 for details.

Their joint appeal Oct 27, 2007 in English at
https://www.debito.org/?p=665
Oct 29 Press Conference at the FCCJ at
https://www.debito.org/?p=662

Arudou Debito (www.debito.org) is author of Japanese Only (Akashi Shoten)
===================================

NB: You can also listen to me talking about the issue in Part Two of Oct 26’s Metropolis Podcast (the longer version, listen between minutes five and fifteen).
http://podcast.metropolis.co.jp/podcast

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2) FP ISSUE MADE EVEN SIMPLER: DOWNLOADABLE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

Want a quick-and-dirty presentation on what’s wrong with the upcoming NJ Fingerprinting Program, for people with the attention span of the MTV generation?

Download my powerpoint presentation on this subject (from a speech given at Waseda University on Monday, October 22, 2007) at
https://www.debito.org/wasedafingerprint102207.ppt
Spread it around. Show it to others. It’s all there.

Here’s the most newsworthy piece of information within, regarding the US-VISIT Program (upon which the GOJ’s new policy is modeled):

=============================
“Roger Dow, president of the Travel Industry Association, told me that the United States has lost millions of overseas visitors since 9/11–even though the dollar is weak and America is on sale. ‘Only the U.S. is losing traveler volume among major countries, which is unheard of in today’s world,’ Mr. Dow said. Total business arrivals to the United States fell by 10 percent over the 2004-5 period alone, while the number of business visitors to Europe grew by 8 percent in that time. The travel industry’s recent Discover America Partnership study concluded that ‘the U.S. entry process has created a climate of fear and frustration that is turning away foreign business and leisure travelers and hurting America’s image abroad.’ Those who don’t visit us, don’t know us.”

–Thomas Friedman, New York Times, Sept. 30, 2007
=============================
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/opinion/30friedman.html?em&ex=1191297600&en=9b57e4776ffd004f&ei=5087%0A

And Japan thinks this will be good for its foreign exchange and tourism balance sheets? Beg to differ. I am already hearing rumblings that tourist agencies are diverting tourists away from Japan in anticipation of the long lines at Immigration. They only way the GOJ will pay attention and consider altering its policy is if it affects the bottom line. And if you let enough people overseas know that if they come here they they will be treated as Typhoid Maries and Osama Juniors by the GOJ, it will even more.

But even from the perspective of universal human rights, this policy becomes highly problematic:

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3) THE CASE FOR HOW THIS POLICY VIOLATES INTERNATIONAL TREATY

Nick Wood of the University Teachers’ Union (http://www.utu-japan.org) writes:

=============================
The fingerprinting and photographing of (permanent and non-permanent) foreign residents on their re-entry to Japan (with the implementation of the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act) constitutes a discriminatory action in breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Relevant International Law

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) establishes the principle that “[e]veryone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”(1) The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) similarly establishes that “[e]veryone shall be free to leave any country, including his own,”(2) and that “[n]o one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.”(3)

The right to return extends to those who have obtained citizenship in a third state, since the definition of “own country” in these provisions of the ICCPR is not limited to “country of nationality.” According to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, it applies as well to “an individual who, because of his or her special ties to or claims in relation to a given country, cannot be considered to be a mere alien.”…
=============================
More at
https://www.debito.org/?p=675

Still, issues of human rights and international treaties generally get swept aside when they compete with business values. Especially when they’re inter-governmental. Consider the subterfuge:

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4) ACCENTURE’S PROFITEERING IN J IMMIGRATION FINGERPRINTING

I mentioned this last April in one of my newsletters, but now seems opportune for a repeat. In a new website entitled GYAKU, offering in-depth reportage about lesser-known stories, we have the eye-opening story about the future of electronic surveillance of foreigners entering Japan.

I have reported in the past about how Japan’s new Immigration powers will now reinstate fingerprinting for all foreigners who cross Japan’s borders:

Mainichi Daily News, Dec 5, 2004: “Japan seeks foreigners’ fingerprints, photos, lists to fight terror”
https://www.debito.org/mainichi120504.html

Japan Times May 24, 2005: “Here comes the fear: Antiterrorist law creates legal conundrums for foreign residents”
https://www.debito.org/japantimes052405.html

Japan Times November 22, 2005: “THE NEW “I C YOU” CARDS: LDP proposal to computer chip foreigners has great potential for abuse”
https://www.debito.org/japantimes112205.html

Even though Japan’s NJ residents have fought long and hard (and successfully, until the police took advantage of the fear of terrorism) to end fingerprinting as part of Immigration procedure back in 1999.
https://www.debito.org/fingerprinting.html

So here’s how it’s playing out. According to GYAKU, company without a country (which to some constitutes a security risk in itself) ACCENTURE (which created the digital mug-shot and fingerprint scans seen at US Immigration nowadays) has not only acted as consultant to Japan’s upcoming version, but also has been awarded the contract to develop Japan’s system for a song. This means that Japan becomes the second country to institute one of these systems in the world, in a bid to get a toehold in Asia and profit from the fear of terrorism.

The issues involved, the political backrooming, and links to all the necessary documents to make the case for concern are available at
http://gyaku.jp/en/index.php?cmd=contentview&pid=000188

Here’s an excerpt from the article.

======================================
Accenture, JAPAN-VISIT, and the mystery of the 100,000 yen bid
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
By gyaku (http://gyaku.jp/en/)

The story first came to light nearly one year ago, on April 21, 2006, during questioning at the House of Representatives Committee on Judicial Affairs in the Japanese National Diet. Hosaka Nobuto of the Japan Social Democratic Party, a former journalist active in educational issues and one of the leaders in the fight against wiretapping laws in Japan, launched a barrage of questions at government officials over revelations that a contract for a new biometric immigration system had been awarded to Accenture Japan Ltd., a corporation previously hired in the role of “advisor” for the same project. For many years a thorn in the side of the ruling party coalition, Hosaka in 2000 was ranked by the Japanese newspaper Asahi shimbun as the most active member of the House of Representatives, with a record 215 questions, a number that rose to over 400 by 2006 [1]. The questions Hosaka put to the government on April 21st were undoubtedly some of the most important of his career, and yet, now nearly a year later, the story that he fought hard to publicize has barely made a ripple in the Japanese media, and remains virtually unknown to the outside world.

The background to the story reads as follows: Accenture Japan Ltd., the Japanese branch of the consulting firm Accenture, active in the Japanese market as far back as 1962 but only incorporated in Japan in 1995, received in May 2004 a contract to draft a report investigating possibilities for reforming the legacy information system currently in use at the Japanese Immigration Bureau. The investigation was requested in the context of government plans, only later made public, to re-implement and modernize a certification system to fingerprint and photograph every foreigner over the age of 18 entering the country, replacing an earlier fingerprinting system abandoned in the year 2000 over privacy concerns after prolonged resistance from immigrant communities.

Earlier the same year, against the backdrop of a post-9/11 society anxious about the threat of vaguely-defined dark-skinned “terrorists”, the U.S. had begun taking fingerprints of foreigners with visas entering the U.S. at international airports and other major ports. A program entitled US-VISIT (Visitor and Immigrant Status Information Technology) was initiated in July of 2003 with the intention to secure nearly 7000 miles of borders along Mexico and Canada, including more than 300 land, air and sea ports [2]. Described as “the centerpiece of the United States government’s efforts to transform our nation’s border management and immigration systems”, planners envisioned “a continuum of biometrically-enhanced security measures that begins outside U.S. borders and continues through a visitor’s arrival in and departure from the United States” [3].
======================
Rest of the article at:
http://gyaku.jp/en/index.php?cmd=contentview&pid=000188

And once a government like ours follows a government like the US’s so slavishly, you see policy creep very quickly…

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5) REUTERS ON HOW GOJ VERSION GOES FARTHER THAN US-VISIT PROGRAM
(by fingerprinting even Permanent Residents, i.e. “Green Card” holders)

=============================
Japan to take fingerprints, photos of foreigners
By Isabel Reynolds, Reuters
Washington Post (as well as other worldwide media)
Friday, October 26, 2007 (excerpt)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102600100.html

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan is to fingerprint and photograph foreigners entering the country from next month in an anti-terrorism policy that is stirring anger among foreign residents and human rights activists.

Anyone considered to be a terrorist — or refusing to cooperate — will be denied entry and deported.

“This will greatly contribute to preventing international terrorist activities on our soil,” Immigration Bureau official Naoto Nikai said in a briefing on the system, which starts on November 20.

The checks are similar to the “U.S. Visit” system introduced in the United States after the attacks on September 11, 2001.

BUT JAPAN, UNLIKE THE UNITED STATES, WILL REQUIRE RESIDENT FOREIGNERS AS WELL AS VISITORS TO BE FINGERPRINTED AND PHOTOGRAPHED EVERY TIME THEY RE-ENTER THE COUNTRY.
(emphasis added by Arudou Debito)

“It certainly doesn’t make people who’ve been here for 30 or 40 years feel like they’re even human beings basically,” said businessman Terrie Lloyd, who has dual Australian and New Zealand citizenship and has been based in Japan for 24 years.

“There has not been a single incident of foreign terrorism in Japan, and there have been plenty of Japanese terrorists,” he said.

There are more than two million foreigners registered as resident in Japan, of whom 40 percent are classed as permanent residents.

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS

The pictures and fingerprints obtained by immigration officials will be made available to police and may be shared with foreign immigration authorities and governments.

Diplomats and children under 16 are excluded from the new requirement, as are “special” permanent residents of Korean and Chinese origin, many of whom are descended from those brought to Japan as forced labor before and during World War Two…

Amnesty International is calling for the immigration plan to be abandoned.

“Making only foreigners provide this data is discriminatory,” said Sonoko Kawakami of Amnesty’s Japan office. “They are saying ‘terrorist equals foreigner’. It’s an exclusionary policy that could encourage xenophobia.”

The new system is being introduced as Japan campaigns to attract more tourists. More than 6.7 million foreign visitors came to Japan in 2006, government statistics show. Immigration officials say they are unsure how long tourists can expect to wait in line for the checks to be made…
===============================
ENDS

We are being listened to. Expect more news articles in future. Thanks Isabel.

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…and finally…
6) WHAT YOU CAN DO: LINKS TO PROTEST ARTICLES, CARTOONS, LETTERS
AND ONLINE PETITION YOU CAN SIGN

Online Petition (created by Thomas in Kyoto (http://lariviereauxcanards.typepad.com/)) is available at:

===============================
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fingerprints-japan/
===============================
The petition has only been up a couple of days, and already several hundred people have signed. Join them. I have.

Bilingual protest letters you can print up and hand in as you clear Customs.
https://www.debito.org/?p=652

Martin Issott on Kansai Int’l Airport’s funny implementation of Fingerprint Law (with links to primary sources from Kobe Immigration saying that there are no plans to pre-register FP or offer scanning machines anywhere else but Narita).
https://www.debito.org/?p=592
https://www.debito.org/?p=638
https://www.debito.org/?p=656

Some angry satirical cartoons you can use as you like:
https://www.debito.org/?p=667

And all articles thus far on the fingerprint issue as blogged on Debito.org
https://www.debito.org/?cat=33

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Final word: Again, don’t do nothing about this. Even if you are being treated as a goddamn gaijin by the government no matter how long you live here, you do have rights in Japan. Fight for them. At least show your displeasure in any way you can. Things are not going to get better all by themselves. Spread the word.

Arudou Debito
Sapporo, Japan
debito@debito.org
https://www.debito.org
DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 29, 2007
SPECIAL ON NJ FINGERPRINTING REINSTATEMENT ENDS

mytest

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 13, 2007

Hello All. This week’s contents:

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1) FINGERPRINT LAW REVISIONS: CONFUSION, OUTRAGE, AND AMNESTY INT’L
2) JAPAN’S ANTI-TERROR: GOVT PROFITEERING & USER-FRIENDLY SNITCH SITES
3) LAWSUITS: ZAINICHI KOREAN VICTORY, VIETNAM WORKERS VS TOYOTA
4) UPCOMING SPEECHES OCT 22-27 IN WASEDA, TOCHIGI & KYOTO
5) IDUBOR CASE: HEARING OCT 18, BEERS AT THEIR YOKOHAMA BAR OCT 2O

…and finally…

6) METROPOLIS’S MARK DEVLIN: “JUST LET THE DAMN JAPAN TIMES DIE”
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By Arudou Debito, Sapporo, Japan
debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org
Daily blog updates at http://www.debto.org/index.php
Freely Forwardable

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1) FINGERPRINT LAW REVISIONS: CONFUSION, OUTRAGE, AND AMNESTY INT’L

“WHO ARE YOU GOING TO BELIEVE? ME, OR YOUR LYING EYES?”
–Groucho Marx

If you haven’t heard about the new Immigration procedure coming into effect next month, it’s time you did. It will affect not only tourists and frequently-traveling businesspeople, but also long-term residents. You will be targeted by a useless and xenophobic system, treated as fresh off the boat no matter how long you’ve lived here.

From November 20, 2007, all foreigners crossing the border into Japan will have their fingerprints and mug shots taken. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been asked a number of questions about some recent news articles, which indicate that “long-term” or Permanent Residents will not be fingerprinted at the border.

==========================
“Permanent residents, including ethnic Koreans born in Japan, will be exempt from the law, along with state guests and diplomats.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071004/wl_afp/japanimmigrationterrorism_071004070723

“Permanent residents will be exempt from the law, along with state guests and diplomats.”
http://story.malaysiasun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/b8de8e630faf3631/id/287938/cs/1/

“Japanese permanent residency certificate holders, people under the age of 16, and guests of the country’s government chief administrators will not subject to the new measure, Sasaki [Seiko, head of Japan’s immigration agency’s intelligence management department], said.”
http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=89606&CtNode=39
==========================

Similar misportrayals of the law have appeared in the Japan Times, Iran TV, Kyodo, and other news agencies.

What a mess. Sloppy, lazy journalism and interpretation, if not some careless statements by government officials. As reported on Debito.org as far back as last June, the new Immigration procedures, according to the Japanese Government, apply to (quoting English original):
==========================
1. Persons under the age of 16
2. Special status permanent residents
3. Those performing actions which would be performed [sic] by those with a status of residence, “diplomat” or “official government business”
==========================
http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/prg/prg1203.html

(This hammy ad has since been supplanted by an avuncular British-voiced production with a sterner measure of punishments denoted–as well as NJ residents also being portrayed as “visitors”.)
http://nettv.gov-online.go.jp/prg/prg1431.html

Let’s define our terms. “Special status permanent residents” (tokubetsu eijuusha) mean the Zainichi generational “foreigners”. This means regular-status permanent-resident immigrants (ippan eijuusha) or “long-term foreign residents” (teijuusha) are NOT exempt. They will be fingerprinted.

This means you if you’re not a citizen, a Zainichi, or naturalized. Every time you enter the country. Don’t comply, you don’t get in. Be advised.

Find this annoying, even offensive? Don’t take it lying down.
Some suggestions on what you can do about it at
https://www.debito.org/?p=627
Also details on an Amnesty International public forum on this in Tokyo Oct 27.
https://www.debito.org/?p=585
Attend and get organized. Some letters of protest by Martin Issott in the Japan Times and Yomiuri at
https://www.debito.org/?p=638

Even more information in an article I wrote for Metropolis Magazine, out Friday, Oct 19. Eyes peeled.

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2) JAPAN’S ANTI-TERROR PROGRAMS AGAINST NON-JAPANESE
GOJ PROFITEERING THROUGH PUBLIC EXHIBITIONS & USER-FRIENDLY SNITCH SITES

Pretty fascinating stuff going on these days in the official putsch to treat all foreigners as terrorists, er, criminals, er, so what–we Japanese can treat non-Japanese any way we like in our own country…

For example, get a load of this upcoming sales exhibition of anti-terrorism goods, coming up next week in Tokyo (English original):

==============================
Now, Confronting Terrorism
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
EXHIBITION & CONFERENCE FOR ANTI-TERRORISM
2007.10.17-19 TOKYO BIG SIGHT, TOKYO, JAPAN
Organizer Tokyo Big sight [sic] Inc.
http://www.seecat.biz/
==============================

SELECT LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS:
(note how the Ministry of Education is also attending)
==============================
DU PONT K.K.
GENERAL ELECTRIC INTERNATIONAL INC.
HITACHI HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES CORP.
KAWASAKI KOGYO CO., LTD.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP.
MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES, LTD. NAGASAKI SHIPYARD & MACHINERY WORKS
NPO INSTITUTE FOR NUCLEAR AND BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL AND RADIATIONAL DEFENCE
OSAKA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL
RHEINMETALL WAFFE MUNITION GMBH
SAKURA RUBBER CO., LTD.
SECURITY SANGYO SHINBUN, INC.
SEIKO EG&G CO., LTD.
SHIGEMATSU WORKS CO., LTD.
SUMITOMO CORP.
========================

What’s the point of this meeting? (English Original)
========================
MERITS OF EXHIBITING

It is the first presentation in Japan of assembled counterterrorism equipment and information. It is an original, and very important opportunity to exchange information, with the latest counter-terror products and services brought together under one roof. As a specialized exhibition, it has two major features; “Effective presentation targeting specific group of people”, and “Attendees coming with a purpose”.

Attendance of important managers with purchasing authority is guaranteed by the connections with relevant authorities built through RISCON. This is the ideal chance to have direct contact with exhibited products and services and to discuss purchase and introduction.

Attendance at the site is limited to people connected to terrorism countermeasures such as crisis management administrators from major facilities, and public servants from government administration offices and local government. It is planned that during the exhibition entry to the site will be limited to only about 3000 people. Because of this it will be possible to exhibit high level equipment and products with special specifications which cannot generally be shown in public.
====================
http://www.seecat.biz/en/about/index.html

All the spooks under one roof, and our bureaucrats attending. Now that’s convenience. Full files at
https://www.debito.org/?p=638
Sugges the journalists get digging on this.

Speaking of that, look how user-friendly the GOJ, with their long history of UN-condemned “snitch sites” to rat on “illegal foreigners” for any reason whatsoever, is making things now. Weird on several levels…

====================
(NOTICE) HOW TO SUBMIT INFORMATION ON ILLEGAL FOREIGNERS
WHEN GOVERNMENT OFFICES ARE CLOSED
By The Tokyo Immigration Bureau
http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/keiziban/happyou/an%20informant_070921.html
(Courtesy of JJ. Japanese original, translated by Arudou Debito)

From October 6, 2007, we will be taking information on illegal foreigners on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays too. Phone 03-5796-7256

In order to restore “Japan as the World’s Safest Country”, Immigration has the goal of reducing the number of illegal foreigners by half in the five years between 2003 and 2008. To this end, we need everyone’s cooperation.

So from October 6, 2007, in addition to the regular business hours of government offices, we will be open to receiving information on illegal foreigners by phone on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays between 9 AM and 5PM (exceptions being holidays between December 29 and January 3).

–Note that we will not be open for informants to visit in person on these Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays.

–This avenue will only be open for those wishing to inform on illegal foreigners. Those with other needs should call us during regular business hours when our offices are open.
====================

Positively Orwellian. More on other snitch sites in Japan, their history, and their abusable parameters at

The Japan Times: March 30, 2004
DOWNLOADABLE DISCRIMINATION
THE IMMIGRATION BUREAU’S NEW SNITCHING WEB SITE IS BOTH SHORT-SIGHTED AND WIDE OPEN TO ALL MANNER OF ABUSES
By Debito Arudou
https://www.debito.org/japantimes033004.html

Anyone want to snitch on me to Immigration and see what happens?

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3) LAWSUITS: ZAINICHI KOREAN VICTORY, VIETNAM WORKERS VS TOYOTA

Another lawsuit against an employer for bad work practices. This time around, however, the plaintiffs are NJ. Let’s hope their efforts both make the labor laws more clearly enforceable, and highlight more of the problems created by treating NJ laborers as inferior.
https://www.debito.org/?p=105

====================
EXPLOITING VIETNAMESE
Apocalypse now
Japan Times Sunday, April 29, 2007
By MARK SCHREIBER Shukan Kinyobi (April 20)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20070429t2.html
Courtesy of Steve Silver
(excerpt)

…On March 27, Shukan Kinyobi reports, Lien and five of her Vietnamese compatriots filed charges in the Nagoya District Court against the Japan International Training Cooperation Organization (JITCO) and TMC, a Toyoda City-based, vehicle manufacturer that produced components on a subcontractor basis to Toyota Motor Corporation. The six demanded unpaid wages and financial compensation of some 70 million yen…

After having their personal seals, bank deposit books and passports taken away for “safekeeping,” the trainees were put to work at a monthly salary of 58,000 yen. They received a paltry 100 yen per hour for additional overtime work.

The six plaintiffs allege that their “training” frequently involved verbal harassment by supervisory staff. Any complaints were met with the threat of deportation, and mistakes on the job brought curses like, “You people aren’t humans, you’re animals.”

The greatest indignity, though, was that the employer posted a table outlining how many times and for how long its workers were permitted to utilize the toilets during work hours, and enforced the rule strictly. For each minute in the toilet in excess of the allotted times, they were docked 15 yen.

Besides being fined for responding to the call of nature, the six women also allege they underwent sexual harassment. One of the bosses, they claim, would “visit” their dormitory rooms at night and even slip into their futons, where he offered certain financial incentives in exchange for sexual favors…
====================

Rest of the article at
https://www.debito.org/?p=619

Thanks to Shuukan Kin’youbi and people at the Japan Times for bringing this to the fore. As opposed to all the rest of the J press, which according to Google News ignored this significant court victory:

====================
KOREAN WOMAN WINS DISCRIMINATION DAMAGES IN JAPAN
Chosun Ilbo, South Korea, October 5, 2007
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200710/200710050017.html
Courtesy of Neil Marks

A Kyoto court ruled partially in favor of a Korean woman who sued a Japanese landlord for refusing to rent a room to her. A Kyoto district court ruled that refusing to rent a room to a person due to her nationality is illegal and ordered the landlord to pay the woman W8.65 million (US$1=W916) [about 110 man yen, pretty much the average award in these lawsuits] in compensation.

Courts have taken a dim view of refusal to let rooms to foreigners since an Osaka court in 1993 ruled this went against the constitutional stipulation of equality before the law. But in reality, Japanese homeowners often reject foreign tenants citing differences in the lifestyle and customs. Counsel for the plaintiff said the ruling was a “head-on attack on discrimination based on nationality” and predicted it would help eradicate unfair discrimination against foreigners.

The woman signed a contract to rent a room through a real estate agency in January 2005. But after she paid the deposit to the landlord and commissions to the realtor, the landlord changed his mind since she was a foreigner.
====================

Moral: Get refused for being a foreigner, sue. It’ll only take you a year or two and you had better have signed a contract.

Next step necessary in the court precedent ladder: winning in court for getting refused a room for being a foreigner, before a contract was even signed. Any takers? No doubt there are plenty of readers out there who have experience…

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

4) UPCOMING SPEECHES OCT 22-27 IN WASEDA, TOCHIGI & KYOTO

Here are four speeches I’ve got coming up in about a week. Attend if you like, and contact me at debito@debito.org in advance if you want to buy a book or a T-shirt (so I can bring some down):
https://www.debito.org/donations.html

=====================================
MONDAY OCT 22 WASEDA UNIVERSITY
Speech in English on Japan’s new fingerprint laws for Non-Japanese
2:40-4:20 PM, Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, Waseda University
Building 19, Room 315 For map see: http://www.wiaps.waseda.ac.jp/
(essay on this topic coming up in Friday Oct 19’s Metropolis Magazine)

=====================================
WEDS OCT 24 WASEDA UNIVERSITY
“Migration and Integration–Japan in a Comparative Perspective” international forum
Speech in English and Panel Discussion:
“Migration and Integration–Voices from the Grassroots” 2PM-4PM
Chair: Andrew HORVAT (Tokyo Keizai University)

Speakers:
Debito ARUDOU (Hokkaido Information University)
Iris BEDNARZ-BRAUN (German Youth Institute)
Angelo ISHI (Musashi University)
Mitsuo MAKINO (City of Iida, Mayor)
Masami MATSUMOTO (Mundo de Alegria)
Mariko TAMANOI (University of California at Los Angeles)
Keiko YAMANAKA (University of California at Berkeley)
Manami YANO (Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan)

Sponsored by the German Institute for Japanese Studies
http://www.dijtokyo.org
and the Waseda University Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies (GSAPS)

=====================================
FRI OCT 26 TOCHIGI-KEN UTSUNOMIYA
Speech in Japanese on Racial Discrimination in Japan
Ninth Tochigi-Ken Human Rights Seminar, 1PM-4PM

Speakers: Morihara Hideki of IMADR
http://www.imadr.org/
Arudou Debito of Debito.org
Sponsored by the NPO Jinken Center Tochigi
http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~hstochig/
Tel 0285-23-2217

=====================================
SAT OCT 27 KYOTO SANGYOU DAI, KYOTO
PEACE AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE CONFERENCE
http://pgljapan.org/
15:30 to 16:20 Room 153
“Japan’s imminent internationalization: Can Japan assimilate its immigrants?”

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

5) IDUBOR CASE: HEARING OCT 18, BEERS AT THEIR YOKOHAMA BAR OCT 2O

Turning the keyboard over to Chris Pitts, of Amnesty International Group 78:

=====================================
Please support Mr Osayuwamen Idubor (personal appeal)

While this is not an official Amnesty International case, I feel that many of you, like me, will want to do something to help. Please read on…

Osayuwamen IDUBOR, a Nigerian national and the owner of a cafe/bar in Yokohama was arrested by police in January, following an accusation that he had raped a customer 11 weeks earlier. Although there is no material evidence to justify holding him, he is still in police custody. The courts are treating him as guilty until proven innocent. Although his health is deteriorating, police have denied him access to a hospital.

For the full story, see the account on Arudou’s Debito’s excellent website:
https://www.debito.org/?p=537
with an update on the case at:
https://www.debito.org/?p=547

The important issue in this case is the lack of a speedy trial. The man is languishing in prison on the basis of a groundless (there is not a shred of material evidence against him) accusation. It could happen to anyone.

If you have time, please come and show your support for Mr Idubor by:

1) attending his next hearing, Thursday Oct 18th at 13:30, or
2) attending the special evening in Yokohama Saturday Oct 20 from 7 pm.
See below for details.

———————————
1) Next hearing:
Yokohama District Court
Nihon-odori 9, Naka-ku, Yokohama City
This is one minute’s walk from JR Kannai station. Map in Japanese:
http://www.courts.go.jp/yokohama/about/syozai/yokohamatisai.html

———————————
2) Join us for a drink at Idubor’s cafe/bar

Next Saturday, October 20th, Arudou Debito and I will be going to Mr Idubor’s bar, which is being run in his absence by his wife, to offer practical support and solidarity in the form of our custom. In other words, we’ll have a few drinks. Why don’t you join us?

Big Ys Cafe
Yokohama-shi Naka-ku Yamashita-cho 106-3
Laport Motomachi 104 Tel. 045-662-2261

Its open from 18:00 till morning. Map downloadable in Excel and htm format:
https://www.debito.org/bigycafemap.xls
https://www.debito.org/bigycafemap.htm

If you can’t join us on Oct 20, go there some other time. You can also join Mrs Idubor when she visits her husband. See Arudou’s website for details. Thanks for reading. Hope to see you there. Regards, Chris Pitts, Amnesty International Japan Group 78
http://www.aig78.org/
=====================================

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

…and finally…

6) METROPOLIS’S MARK DEVLIN: “JUST LET THE DAMN JAPAN TIMES DIE”

Nearly two weeks ago, I put out a special message to everyone about the financial plight of the Japan Times, having raised its newsstand prices by 30 yen, on how you might lend it some assistance.
https://www.debito.org/?p=620

It became one of the most commented pages on my blog, with even the President of the Japan Times, Yukiko Ogasawara, expressing her thanks online nearly immediately. Others commented with facts and figures about the newspaper’s sales figures, and some pretty harsh advice of their own.
https://www.debito.org/?p=620#comments

But the biggest piece of non-advice came from Mark Devlin, founder of Crisscross Inc, and publisher of JapanToday.com and Metropolis Magazine. He just sold Crisscross to company Japan Inc. for an undisclosed sum, and commented on my blog with no small measure of triumphalism and contumely that the Japan Times should just be allowed to die.

I was once a former columnist at JapanToday.com, contributing 18 articles between 2000 and 2002. That is, until they bilked me out of some of my pay. Mark himself brought up I am “not due anything further”. From what I have heard from other contributors who also claim they were bilked, I am not alone in feeling that there is a business practice here.

You can see his letter and my answer at
https://www.debito.org/?p=620#comment-78636

How I concluded my reply to Mark:
=====================================
But for this reason alone, I hope the Japan Times survives. They commendably treat their contributors better. Crisscross should definitely not be the template for success in your industry.

Anyway, I’m glad Japan Inc. took your paper over. The new editor and owner of your publication have been in touch, and already paid me the balance your company owed me [for more than five years]. Plus 5% p.a. Interest. And I look forward to writing for them again, if they’ll have me back.

They’re better businesspeople, because they’ve already demonstrated that goodwill also matters to the bottom line.
=====================================

Good news is Metropolis has already asked me back, thanks. My next article with them is next issue, due out next Friday. Have a read.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Thanks for reading this as well, everyone.
Arudou Debito
Sapporo, Japan
debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org
Daily blog updates at http://www.debto.org/index.php
DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 13, 2007 ENDS

mytest

Hello all, let me get this out before I head down to Osaka for the weekend:

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 4, 2007

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

1) JAPAN TODAY ON NOVA EIKAIWA MELTDOWN
AND LABOR UNIONS ON WHAT TO DO UNDER LABOR LAW
2) FOLLOWUP ON JAPAN TIMES’ FINANCIAL PROBLEMS: STATS
3) JAPAN TIMES: REINSTATEMENT OF FINGERPRINTS DEBATE
4) ECONOMIST: EDITORIAL ON ANTI-TERROR VS CIVIL LIBERTIES
5) BLOOMBERG OFFERS OVER-ROSY ASSESSMENT OF J IMMIGRATION
6) FOLLOW-UPS: J CHILD ABDUCTION ISSUE AND IDUBOR CASE
7) SPEECH OCT 8 AT OSAKA UNIVERSITY SUITA CAMPUS

…and finally…
8 ) HOKKAIDO NIPPON HAM FIGHTERS WIN PENNANT! AGAIN!

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

By Arudou Debito in Sapporo, Japan

debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org

Visit and comment on all articles below at https://www.debito.org/index.php

Freely Forwardable

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

1) JAPAN TODAY ON NOVA EIKAIWA MELTDOWN

AND LABOR UNIONS ON WHAT TO DO IN THE AFTERMATH

Interesting article on job security in Japan and what unions can do to help. In light of the recent NOVA eikaiwa labor market earthquakes (not to mention pretty lousy job security in Japan for NJ in general–90% of all NJ workers in Japan are on term-limited contracts, according to the National Union of General Workers (https://www.debito.org/acadapartupdateoct05.html)), it’s a good roundup.

============================================

Foreign workers get mixed results from joining unions in Japan

By Oscar Johnson

Japan Today Feature Friday, September 28, 2007

TOKYO For many foreign workers in Japan, joining a labor union is hardly a priority. But just as Nova language school–the country’s largest employer of foreigners–has taken heat recently for illegal dealings with customers and not paying wages, its ongoing row with unions has been gaining scrutiny. For some, the issue calls into question the very viability of unions; for others, it confirms the need.

“If workers don’t join a union, there’s only one certainty: things will not change,” says Bob Tench, vice president of the Kanto branch of the National Union of General Workers’ Nova Union. “If they do, I can’t say for certain things will change, but there’s a chance.”…

============================================

Rest at

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/feature/1293

https://www.debito.org/?p=610

(The title is a bit misleading–sounds as if unions are to blame for the mixed results. Not really the article’s tack.)

I encourage everyone in Japan who is NJ to join a union. I have. Lose the allergy and the visions of George Meany and Jimmy Hoffa, and realize it’s the only recourse you have in Japan to get your labor rights enforced. All other measures, as I have written in the past (https://www.debito.org/acadapartupdateoct05.html), be they the courts, the ministries, even the laws as written themselves, will not help you in a labor dispute.

Especially if you are a NJ. Labor rights have been severely weakened over the past two decades, and the sooner you understand that and take appropriate measures, the more secure life you’re going to have in Japan.

Speaking of stable work environments:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

2) FOLLOWUP ON JAPAN TIMES’ FINANCIAL PROBLEMS: STATS

Yesterday I sent out to you a separate post about the apparent financial problems of the Japan Times, with some suggestions on both how we and they can help save the institution.

https://www.debito.org/?p=620

I received a thank-you email almost immediately in the Comments section of the blog entry from Yukiko Ogasawara, President of the Japan Times. Thanks back.

https://www.debito.org/?p=620#comment-77830

Other comments have also been enlightening and helpful. One I will excerpt here:

============================================

Raising prices doesn’t necessarily mean that a company is in trouble but Debito-san is correct that the JT has financial problems. Here are the sales and operating loss numbers for the Japan Times for the past three years from Nifco’s financial filings. (Nifco owned 75.5% of the JT as of 3/07, which made it a consolidated subsidiary.)

(Yen millions)

Sales Operating Loss

3/07 2,989 (-5.3%) 327

3/06 3,142 (-8.6%) 248

3/05 3,436 (-5.9%) 211

3/04 3,651

That’s an 18% decline in sales over three years. Pretty serious. I’m not sure what was happening in 2003 and earlier.

The good news is that this order of loss is pretty insignificant to Nifco, which reported operating profit of Yen 13,696 million in its last FY (an increase of 16.5%). Nifco won’t go broke because of the JT.

I would personally hate to see the JT go under but the JT is not the only newspaper coping with shrinking markets. If management actually cares about becoming profitable, Debito-san’s suggestions would be a good place to start making changes.

============================================

Any more suggestions? Comment at the blog.

https://www.debito.org/?p=620

There’s a good chance JT management might see them.

It’d be a shame to lose the JT, given it’s a forum for debates like these:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

3) JAPAN TIMES REINSTATEMENT OF FINGERPRINTS DEBATE

In June 2006, I’m embarrassed to say I missed this debate on the Community Page on reinstating fingerprinting for NJ only. Since cyberspace is quite incandescent with outrage at the moment over the November revisions to the laws, here are excerpts of pros and cons by two friends of mine, Scott and Matt:

Japan Times Community Page Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Should Japan fingerprint foreigners?

===========================================

CON ARGUMENT

By MATT DIOGUARDI

Fingerprinting puts foreign residents at risk

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060606z2.html

Courtesy Matt Dioguardi’s blog at

http://japan.shadowofiris.com/politics/foreigners-are-suspected-criminals/

..Ultimately, this policy puts foreigners at unfair risk. I typed in the phrase “how to fake fingerprints” on Google recently and got back over half a million hits. I checked the first 60, which told you how to do just that.

You leave your fingerprints everywhere you go. You leave them on trains, on vending machines, any place you lay your hands. Foreigners will have to take this in stride as they become de facto suspects in almost every crime committed.

There are respected scholars, former police officers, and journalists now questioning the entire science of fingerprinting. And whose to say how long it takes before collected prints are leaked through Winnie?

Putting all this aside, guess what? This policy just won’t work. Does anyone really believe that all terrorists are foreigners? The Tokyo subway sarin attack comes to mind (6000 injured, 12 dead), so does the bombings of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Tokyo in 1974 (20 injured, 8 dead) and the Hokkaido Prefectural Government office in Sapporo in 1976 (80 injured, 2 dead). The obvious prejudice here is palpable…

============================================

PRO ARGUMENT By SCOTT T. HARDS

Immigration’s new system will make us safer

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060606z2.html

…Indeed, all criminals are fingerprinted, but that doesn’t mean all people fingerprinted are criminals. The “green cards” of permanent resident foreigners in the U.S. have shown their fingerprint for decades. People in high-security or sensitive jobs are fingerprinted, too.

Some countries require fingerprints for passports now, and many more are proposing such a measure. Fingerprints are being used for biometric ID on ATMs and even cell phones for online transactions.

Clearly their role has evolved far beyond just crime investigations. And as their use continues to diversify, public feelings are likely to evolve toward a neutral view, too.

Fingerprints are just one form of biometric identification. Ironically, they are not even the most widely-used form, even in law enforcement. That throne belongs to photographs, which are in many ways much more “personal” data than fingerprints. Yet you don’t hear anyone complaining that being photographed is “degrading” or “makes them feel like a criminal.”

In the end, when public safety is at stake, worrying about hurting people’s feelings is just not good policy. Airline security, for example, with its body pat-downs and shoe removal almost seems designed to violate one’s dignity. It’s unpleasant, yes, but necessary…

============================================

Full text of both articles at https://www.debito.org/?p=613

COMMENT FROM ARUDOU DEBITO:

The biggest problem I see with this new biometric system (aside from the fact that it’s not even being instituted nationwide–only at Narita, which means elsewhere everyone foreign goes through the Gaijin Line regardless of whether or not they are actually a resident of Japan) was not really alluded to in Scott’s argument: that if you really want to take care of terrorists, you fingerprint everybody. After all, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to fear. Even if you’re Japanese, right?

https://www.debito.org/?p=592

I’ve said this before, but there is no reason to target NJ only like this, except for the fact that you can. Given the cultural disfavor with fingerprinting in Japan (essentially, only criminals or suspected criminals get systematically fingerprinted in Japan–this association is one of the reasons why the Zainichi generational foreigners successfully protested for decades to get it abolished in the 1990’s), if you included Japanese in the fingerprinting there would be outrage, and the policy would fail. Look what happened when they tried to institute the Juki Net universal ID card system earlier this decade (it was even ruled unconstitutional in 2006).

https://www.debito.org/fingerprinting.html

https://www.debito.org/?p=97

I been watching this come down the pipeline for years now, and have of course been writing about it. See the roots of this policy and what sorts of discriminatory logic it is founded upon (i.e. clear and systematic racial profiling, both in essence, and in an enforcement which bends existing laws) in a 2006 Mainichi article and a 2005 Japan Times column:

Here comes the fear: Antiterrorist law creates legal conundrums for foreign residents

By Arudou Debito, Japan Times, May 24, 2005

Japan to fingerprint foreigners under proposed immigration bill

Mainichi Shinbun, February 8, 2006

Both at

https://www.debito.org/japantimes052405.html

In any case, Kyodo has just reported that tomorrow will see the official announcement of the fingerprint law’s promulgation on November 20.

https://www.debito.org/?p=592#comment-78051

Almost makes you want to naturalize.

Now for The Economist’s take:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

4) ECONOMIST EDITORIAL ON ANTI-TERROR VS CIVIL LIBERTIES

How the pendulum has begun swinging back. As a twenty-year reader of The Economist, I’ve noticed a constant editorial slant favoring market-based solutions to just about everything, and the concomitant (but wan and blinding) hope that the more politically-conservative elements of governments in the developed economies would follow The Economist’s preferred course. Hence their often backwards-bending support of the current administration in the world’s most powerful economy, which has long demonstrated a pursuit of power for its own (and its cronies’ own) sake.

Now, after struggling for years to come to terms with (and offering conditional, but certainly evident, support for) the American curtailment of civil liberties (enabling other countries, such as Japan, to create copycat policy), this week’s Economist finally comes down against the erosion. Bravo.

==========================================

Civil liberties under threat: The real price of freedom

It is not only on the battlefield where preserving liberty may have to cost many lives

The Economist, Sep 20th 2007

http://economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9833041

(here is how it concludes) …When liberals put the case for civil liberties, they sometimes claim that obnoxious measures do not help the fight against terrorism anyway. The Economist is liberal but disagrees. We accept that letting secret policemen spy on citizens, detain them without trial and use torture to extract information makes it easier to foil terrorist plots. To eschew such tools is to fight terrorism with one hand tied behind your back. But that–with one hand tied behind their back–is precisely how democracies ought to fight terrorism.

Take torture, arguably the hardest case. A famous thought experiment asks what you would do with a terrorist who knew the location of a ticking nuclear bomb. Logic says you would torture one man to save hundreds of thousands of lives, and so you would. But this a fictional dilemma. In the real world, policemen are seldom sure whether the many (not one) suspects they want to torture know of any plot, or how many lives might be at stake. All that is certain is that the logic of the ticking bomb leads down a slippery slope where the state is licensed in the name of the greater good to trample on the hard-won rights of any one and therefore all of its citizens.

Human rights are part of what it means to be civilised. Locking up suspected terrorists–and why not potential murderers, rapists and paedophiles, too?–before they commit crimes would probably make society safer. Dozens of plots may have been foiled and thousands of lives saved as a result of some of the unsavoury practices now being employed in the name of fighting terrorism. Dropping such practices in order to preserve freedom may cost many lives. So be it.

==========================================

https://www.debito.org/?p=602

Now if only Japan’s opinion leaders were as intelligent and outspoken about the flaws in Japan’s new laws.

Then again, not everybody sees things quite so harshly:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

5) BLOOMBERG OFFERS OVER-ROSY ASSESSMENT OF J IMMIGRATION

Got this yesterday from Heidi Tan over at Bloomberg (thanks): A Sept 29 podcast from Bloomberg Radio, interviewing Robert Feldman, chief economist at Morgan Stanley Japan Securities, over economic issues and Fukuda’s “steady hand”.

One thing brought up was immigration. Here’s how Mr Feldman, who has been “a Japan watcher for 37 years”, assesses the situation: (Minute seven)

==========================================

Q: Is there a change in immigration within the Japanese people?

A: Yes there is. Immigrants are now really welcome by a large share of the population. Obviously, large-scale immigration is something new to Japan. They’re not sure about it. It’s also a huge issue in many other countries around the globe. And so Japan is watching what’s happening in the United States and in Europe with immigration policy. From my perspective, I see a very large number of Japanese people very much welcoming young, eager, aggressive people who want to come to Japan and make their lives there. We have now between 400,000 and 450,000 foreign-born workers in Japan. That’s not a huge number. But most of these are very young people. A huge number are from China. Young, hardworking kids who want to come and make something out of themselves. And quite interestingly, until a couple of years ago, there was a lot of talk in the media in Japan about crime coming in with these foreign workers. You see almost no discussion of that anymore. I think the immigrant groups have proven themselves to be very hardworking, very good citizens, and that’s helping the image of immigration. So yes, immigration will be part of the story, but inevitably it cannot be the main line.

Q: What is the response to the Chinese coming into Japan?

A: I think a lot of them come because they want to work. They have opportunities there, they read the kanji well enough so it’s easy enough to get around. So I think the young Chinese community in Japan is very very happy to be there. I witnessed a very interesting sort of event a couple of weeks ago. I was visiting the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo… As you enter the main shrine, there a place where according to Shinto religion you’re supposed to wash off your hands… And there was a group of young Chinese kids there, who were about to go into the shrine. And they were being very very serious and solicitous about washing their hands properly before they went into the shrine. As a sign of respect towards the Meiji Emperor. And I thought it was just lovely, that this group of immigrants was so serious about honoring the traditions of the country where they had come to at least work for a while.

http://www.bloomberg.com/tvradio/podcast/ontheeconomy.html

==========================================

COMMENT: Usually my mantra is that immigration is the future and I’m sunny about it. But I’m not sure I can be quite as rosy as Mr Feldman about the present situation. Granted, his appraisal of Japan’s future labor market actually included immigration (as opposed to the three-page survey in the July 26, 2007 Economist, which ignored it completely).

https://www.debito.org/?p=522

But I’m not so sure about Chinese being “really welcome” (given the short-term revolving-door visa policies that both the ruling party and the bureaucrats want, moreover the “Japanese Only” policies that are even starting to target Chinese in particular) or “very very happy” to be here.

https://www.debito.org/?p=402

https://www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html#Koshigaya

Given the harsh working conditions many of them face,

https://www.debito.org/?p=105

I wonder how many Chinese in Japan Mr Feldman talked to when creating his happiness index, or even his assimilation quotient (just seeing them being respectful of shrine customs does not to me necessarily signal their respect for a Japanese emperor, or the fact that the crowd of Chinese were even immigrants; they might have been tourists on their best behavior).

And as for the “almost no discussion” regarding foreign crime, the biannnual press releases from the NPA still score headlines (see link below to last February’s media blitz). Even the current Justice Minister Hatoyama has made it clear he intends to stay the course of toughness towards foreign crime. It’s even been transmuted into anti-terrorism bills.

https://www.debito.org/?p=218

https://www.debito.org/?p=557

https://www.debito.org/japantimes052405.html

Caveats on my part: I don’t live in Tokyo, and every time I go down south I’m surprised at just how many NJ, particularly Chinese, are working in restaurants, hotels, and convenience stores–and that’s not even touching upon NJ working in less public-view places such as factories and nightlife. I might be lacking Mr Feldman’s perspective by living in Sapporo, a city not terribly multicultural. Plus having my eyes on the problems all the time could be biasing my sample (or just making me old and cynical).

But the fact that the larger group (even larger than Chinese) of Newcomer NJ worker immigrants in Japan–the Brazilians–doesn’t even warrant a mention (they’re found farther west) indicates to me that Mr Feldman doesn’t get out of Tokyo much.

I do of course hope he’s right, of course. I just don’t think based upon what he says above that he has sufficient evidence to back up such rosy assertions, especially given how the GOJ treats NJ as inferior workers and agents of social problems. Feels funny to be the cynic this time.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

6) FOLLOW-UPS: CHILD ABDUCTION ISSUE AND IDUBOR CASE

Two new articles about things we have been talking about on Debito.org for months now, so let me update with excerpts:

==========================================

Japan remains haven for parental abductors

September 25, 2007, Japan Today/Kyodo News By Alison Brady

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/feature/1287

…As a result of the increasing number of international marriages, more than 21,000 children are born each year in Japan to couples of mixed Japanese and non-Japanese descent. Add to that the number of children born to Japanese who live abroad and are married to a non-Japanese. What becomes of these bi-national children when the parents separate or divorce?…

There are no exact figures on how many children have been abducted to Japan. T he National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports 46 American children have been kidnapped to Japan since 1995. That number grows considerably when factoring in children of other countries and cases that were either dropped or never reported. Furthermore, the U.S. government has no record of even a single case in which Japan has agreed to return an abducted child by legal means to the United States…

==========================================

Rest at https://www.debito.org/?p=607

A good article on the nastiness that occurs when Japan will neither allow joint custody of children after divorce (meaning one parent usually just disappears from a child’s life), nor sign the Hague Convention on Child Abductions (which in international marriages encourages Japanese to abscond with their kids back to Japan, never to return). More on this phenomenon at the Children’s Rights Network Japan site at

http://www.crnjapan.com

I’m personally interested in this issue, as I too have not seen one of my children since Summer 2004, and am involved in the production of a movie talking about the Murray Wood Case.

http://www.crnjapan.com/articles/2005/en/20050315-vancsun-tornparents.html

More on the movie later when the directors are good and ready for publicity.

———————-

Next article offers a bit of hope for the Idubor Case, where an African was accused similarly of a sexual crime and is still being held by police for eight months now despite no evidence.

https://www.debito.org/?p=547

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Man acquitted of indecent assault over lack of evidence

Mainichi Shinbun September 28, 2007

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070928p2a00m0na010000c.html

YOKOHAMA A man has been acquitted of the indecent assault of a woman at his home in January last year, due to lack of evidence.

The Yokohama District Court found the defendant, an antique goods dealer and an Iranian national, not guilty for a lack of evidence. Prosecutors had demanded that the accused spend four years behind bars for indecent assault, resulting in injury.

Presiding Judge Kenichi Kurita pointed out that the alleged victim’s testimony changed during the trial and could not be trusted, declaring, “It cannot be concluded that the man molested her despite her will.”

The man was charged with fondling the body of a 32-year-old acquaintance at his home in Midori-ku, Yokohama, on Jan. 28, 2006, causing her slight neck injuries.

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Good. The key here is that she was in his home when this happened, so motive and intent favor the male. Pity it took Japan’s judiciary over a year and a half to come to this conclusion.

What I also find rather amusing about this case is the act of “fondling”, causing “slight neck injuries”? What are we talking about here, hickies? Case dismissed.

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7) SPEECH OCT 8 AT OSAKA UNIVERSITY SUITA CAMPUS

I will be briefly speaking both for ten minutes and as part of a panel (English and Japanese) at Osaka University’s Suita Campus, Osaka University Convention Center (Osaka-fu Suita-shi Yamadaoka 1-2), from 9:30AM to 11AM.

Panel will be on “Non-Japanese Residents and their Health Treatment–What’s Necessary in this Era of Multicultural Co-Existence”, chaired by Professor Setsuko Lee of Nagasaki’s Seibold University, Director of the Japan Global Health Research Center, and will also offer opinions of three other speakers.

Sponsored by the 22nd Annual Meeting for the Japan Association for International Health

http://volunteer.hus.osaka-u.ac.jp/jaih2007/

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…and finally…

8 ) HOKKAIDO NIPPON HAM FIGHTERS WIN PENNANT! AGAIN!

Great news for all us Dosanko! The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, *OUR* local team, has just won its second pennant IN A ROW in the Pacific League. BANZAI!!

Why this matters to Debito.org: The game tonight was between two NJ coaches–Hillman and Valentine–who between them have won the last two Japan Series and now four league pennants. They’ve certainly earned their stripes in Japan. If nobody points out that it’s now the NJ coaches who are bringing winning strategies to Japan, I will, of course. (Whaddya expect?) Now let’s see if we can get restrictions removed on quotas for foreign players on Japanese baseball teams.

And why this matters to Hokkaido: We’ve become a baseball powerhouse, what with Tomakomai Komadai also winning the High School Baseball leagues twice in a row from four years ago, then coming in second last year; the fact they hardly qualified this year will be salved by this victory.

Sorry to say this is Hillman’s last season with the Fighters. He’s probably heading back to Texas to be with his Rangers. He will be sorely missed.

Next stop, Pacific League champs take on the Central League champs (the goddamn Tokyo Giants). If Hillman can beat the Giants (which once was the team Hokkaido supported–not that the Giants ever cared) in a home game, it will be poetic justice indeed.

More on Japanese baseball (including that thing about foreign-player quotas) at Trans Pacific Radio at

http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/09/18/japan-pro-baseball-pacific-league/

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All for today. Thanks for reading!

Arudou Debito

Sapporo, Japan

debito@debito.org, www.debito.org

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 4, 2007 ENDS