DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Hello Debito.org Newsletter Readers. First up, this month’s JBC column 91 talks about Japan’s Left, and why it keeps losing to Japan’s Right time and time again. Let me put it below the Table of Contents from now on so Readers don’t have to page down to see the TOC anymore:

Table of Contents:

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WWII ANNIVERSARIES AND FORGETFULNESS

2) Morris-Suzuki in East Asia Forum: “Abe’s WWII statement fails history 101”. Required reading on GOJ’s subtle attempts at rewriting East Asian history incorrectly
3) Tangent: Japan Imperial Rescripts declaring war and surrendering: Interesting (and scary) documents in terms of narrative
4) Mainichi: Unequal treatment for foreign and/or foreign-residing A-bomb victims? Supreme Court decision due Sept. 8

UNHELPFUL PUBLIC POLICIES FOR NJ
5) More public-policy bullying of NJ: LDP Bill to fine, imprison, and deport NJ for “fraud visas” (gizou taizai), e.g., visa “irregularities” from job changes or divorces
6) Asahi: Supreme Court backs stripping children of Japanese nationality if parents lapse in registering their births abroad
7) Japan Times: Debate on anti-discrimination bill begins in Diet; sadly, doomed to failure
8 ) Thoughts: How does a society eliminate bigotry? Through courts and media, for example. Not waiting for it to “happen naturally”. Two case studies.
9) Reader TH: Refused treatment at neurological hospital by setting overly-high hurdles for J-translation services

… and finally…
10) Japan Times JBC 90: “Claiming the right to be Japanese AND more”, Aug 3, 2015

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By Dr. ARUDOU, Debito (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter @arudoudebito)
Freely Forwardable

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WWII ANNIVERSARIES AND FORGETFULNESS

2) Morris-Suzuki in East Asia Forum: “Abe’s WWII statement fails history 101”. Required reading on GOJ’s subtle attempts at rewriting East Asian history incorrectly

Morris-Suzuki: [S]ome observers failed to notice that Abe had embedded these words in a narrative of Japanese history that was entirely different from the one that underpinned previous prime ministerial statements. That is why his statement is so much longer than theirs…

The story presented in Abe’s statement goes like this. Western colonial expansionism forced Japan to modernise, which it did with remarkable success. Japan’s victory in the Russo–Japanese War gave hope to the colonised peoples of the world. After World War I, there was a move to create a peaceful world order. Japan actively participated, but following the Great Depression, the Western powers created economic blocs based on their colonial empires. This dealt a ‘major blow’ to Japan. Forced into a corner, Japan ‘attempted to overcome its diplomatic and economic deadlock through the use of force’. The result was the 1931 Manchurian Incident, Japan’s withdrawal from the League of Nations, and everything that followed. ‘Japan took the wrong course and advanced along the road to war’.

The narrative of war that Abe presents leads naturally to the lessons that he derives from history. Nations should avoid the use of force to break ‘deadlock’. They should promote free trade so that economic blocs will never again become a cause of war. And they should avoid challenging the international order. The problem with Abe’s new narrative is that it is historically wrong. This is perhaps not surprising, since the committee of experts on whom he relied included only four historians in its 16 members. And its report, running to some 31 pages, contains less than a page about the causes and events of the Asia Pacific War…

Economic historians note that the Japanese empire was the first to take serious steps towards imperial protectionism. The slide into global protectionism had barely started at the time of the Manchurian Incident. Britain did not create its imperial preference system until 1932. The economic blockade that strangled the Japanese economy in 1940–41 was the response to Japan’s invasion of China, not its cause. This is not academic quibbling. These things really matter, and vividly illustrate why historical knowledge is vital to any understanding of contemporary international affairs…

https://www.debito.org/?p=13488

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3) Tangent: Japan Imperial Rescripts declaring war and surrendering: Interesting (and scary) documents in terms of narrative

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII-Pacific, I do a textual analysis of two interesting documents: The Imperial Rescript declaring War and the Imperial Rescript declaring surrender (well, not exactly). They are interesting not only because of the language justifying war and peace, but also how the narratives they promote (that of Japan as Asian liberator and later victim of of “world trends” and “a most cruel bomb”) can still be easily found today in Japan’s domestic WWII narratives.

The point is, the designers of these documents have managed to keep their legacy alive to the present day. The Rescripts don’t resonate as the “What the hell were they thinking back then?” sort of thing when horrible ideas are consigned to the ash-heap of history. In fact, they don’t seem all that out of place at all. “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there” doesn’t seem to apply here. Which is, quite frankly, scary.

https://www.debito.org/?p=13454

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4) Mainichi: Unequal treatment for foreign and/or foreign-residing A-bomb victims? Supreme Court decision due Sept. 8

JK: Hi Debito. Here’s something you may not have considered — unequal treatment for foreign and/or foreign-residing A-bomb victims.

From the article below: “But separate from the law, the government sets an upper limit on financial medical aid to foreign atomic bomb sufferers.” And this: “Similar lawsuits were filed with district courts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the two courts rejected the demands from A-bomb sufferers living outside Japan.” Finally: “I want them (Japanese authorities) to treat us the same way as they do to A-bomb sufferers in Japan no matter where we live.”

There’s obviously plenty of fodder here for a blog entry on debito.org, but putting that aside for the moment, there’s something subtle I noticed when reading the article: In its June 2014 ruling, the Osaka High Court said that the Atomic Bomb Survivors’ Support Law “has an attribute of state reparations in which the state is required to take responsibility to give aid to A-bomb survivors. It is not reasonable to exclude medical expenses incurred abroad from the list of medical costs to be covered by the state.”

Did you catch it? It’s this: reasonableness / unreasonableness as the basis for legal opinion (i.e. unreasonable exclusion of foreign medical expenses). Does this ring a bell for you? Recall the legal opinion of a one Mr. Keiichi Sakamoto with regard to unreasonable discrimination [when ruling against you in the Otaru Onsens Case].

Now, I am no lawyer, but the problem I see with using the notion of reasonableness / unreasonableness in this way is that it leaves the door open to abuse (e.g. there may be a scenario where excluding medical expenses incurred abroad by foreign A-bomb victims is, in the opinion of the court, reasonable, or discrimination by an onsen refusing to admit NJ *is* reasonable, etc.). [Let’s see what the Supreme Court hands down on September 8.]

https://www.debito.org/?p=13471

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UNHELPFUL PUBLIC POLICIES FOR NJ

5) More public-policy bullying of NJ: LDP Bill to fine, imprison, and deport NJ for “fraud visas” (gizou taizai), e.g., visa “irregularities” from job changes or divorces

According the Japan Times re a new Bill submitted by the LDP to penalize “fraud visa holders”, Immigration and the NPA go beyond merely “resetting your visa clock” and making your visa more temporary due to bureaucratic technicalities. This time they’re going to criminalize your mistakes, and even your lifestyle choices:

Consider how you could lose your current visa because you changed jobs from one arbitrary work classification to another? (Or worse yet, because your new employer messes up your paperwork?)

Consider how you could lose your Spouse Visa because, oh, you get a divorce or your spouse DIES! (Yes, people have lost their Spouse Visas because of that; however, until now, you had a grace period, meaning the remaining validity of the visa period to make life adjustments. Not any more, under this new system.)

Consider how vulnerable NJ become to any Japanese employer (or neighbor, ex-lover, or jilted person in a love triangle, for that matter), who can easily report you as a criminal (or at least put you through the horrible experience of criminal investigation in Japan) via anonymous Government “Snitch Sites” empowering the general public to bully NJ residents?

Which means you’re likely stuck in whatever dead-end profession or relationship (and at their whim and mercy). For if you dare change something, under this new Bill you might wind up arrested, interrogated in a police cell for weeks, convicted, fined, thrown in jail, and then deported in the end (because you can’t renew your visa while in jail). Overnight, your life can change and all your investments lost in Japan — simply because of an oversight or subterfuge. Yet more human rights being taken away from NJ residents.

https://www.debito.org/?p=13491

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6) Asahi: Supreme Court backs stripping children of Japanese nationality if parents lapse in registering their births abroad

Asahi: The Supreme Court confirmed that authorities can revoke the Japanese nationality of children born outside Japan whose parents fail to submit the proper paperwork within three months of their babies’ births. The top court’s ruling on March 10, [2015], said Article 12 of the Nationality Law, which defines the procedures to maintain Japanese nationality, does not violate the Constitution.

As a result of the ruling, 15 female and male children born in the Philippines to Japanese fathers married to Filipino mothers have lost their Japanese nationality. They had argued that the article was irrational and discriminatory against Japanese born abroad. […] According to the plaintiffs, their Japanese nationality was revoked because their parents did not know about the provision and failed to submit the documents to Japanese authorities within the designated three-month period.

COMMENT: This is what can happen if you dare give birth outside of the motherland and legally acquire a suspicious second passport. Debito.org has mentioned before how creative judicial interpretations of Japan’s Nationality Law Article 12 are a) systematically stripping children born to mixed-nationality couples of their Japanese citizenship simply for bureaucratic expedience (for if both parents were Japanese nationals, Article 12 did not apply); and b) effectively absolving Japanese men from taking responsibility for sowing their wild oats abroad.

Now according to the ruling reported to below, it looks like Article 12 now does apply even if both parents are Japanese nationals — you have three whole months to get registered, otherwise you clearly aren’t a real Japanese. Except that in the case cited, the exclusionism is again being enforced on mudblood kids simply because their parents slipped up with proper procedure.

It remains unclear if a Japanese mother who gives birth overseas (and would hitherto automatically retain Japanese nationality for her child) and does not register her child would void the Japanese citizenship, but the intent of the interpretation below is basically to prevent dual nationality, not honor jus sanguinis ties under the law. So this looks to be an affirmation and expansion of the 2012 Tokyo District Court case, a reversal of the 2008 Supreme Court case, moreover expanded to both parents regardless of nationality.

https://www.debito.org/?p=13144

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7) Japan Times: Debate on anti-discrimination bill begins in Diet; sadly, doomed to failure

JT: The Diet started deliberations Tuesday on a bill that would ban racial discrimination, including harassment and hate speech, and oblige the government to draw up anti-discrimination programs that report every year to lawmakers.

The bill, submitted to the Upper House by opposition lawmakers, was crafted to cope with a recent rise in discrimination against non-Japanese, in particular ethnic Koreans. However, it does not have punitive provisions and whether it will ever be enacted remains unclear, as lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party reportedly remain reluctant to support the proposal….

COMMENT: Well, I’m heartened that somebody in Japanese politics these days still cares about the plight of Japan’s minorities, particularly its Visible Minorities in particular, who will be affected by, as the opposition Democratic Party of Japan put it, “racial discrimination” (jinshu sabetsu). Sadly, it’s already front-loaded for failure…

https://www.debito.org/?p=13447

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8 ) Thoughts: How does a society eliminate bigotry? Through courts and media, for example. Not waiting for it to “happen naturally”. Two case studies.

One of the age-old debates about how to eliminate racial discrimination in Japan is a matter of process. Do you wait for society to soften up to the idea of people who are (and/or look) “foreign” being “Japanese”, or do you legislate and force people to stop being discriminatory? Critics of anti-discrimination activists often recommend that the latter apply the brakes on their social movement and wait for society in general to catch up — as in, “You can’t force people by law to be tolerant.”

Well, yes you can. History has shown that without a law (be it a US Civil Rights Act, a UK Race Relations Act, etc.) and active media campaigns to force and foment tolerance, it doesn’t necessarily occur naturally. As we have seen in the Japanese example, which is approaching the 20th Anniversary of its signing the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination without keeping its promise to pass a law against racial discrimination.

I submit to Debito.org Readers two interesting case studies of how tolerance towards a) same-sex marriage, and b) transgender issues have been promoted in the American example. The speed at which LGBT tolerance and legal equality in many areas of American society has been breathtaking. Why have walls come tumbling down so fast? Because proponents of marriage equality managed to back its opponents into such a corner that any other position they might have taken would have been seen as bigotry. And because proponents of tolerance have managed to achieve positions of power within media to make sure an accurate message gets out. Neither of these things have been true in the Japanese example, because bigotry is still a tenable position in Japan, and NJ are so shut out of Japanese media that they have no voice to counteract it.

https://www.debito.org/?p=13478

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9) Reader TH: Refused treatment at neurological hospital by setting overly-high hurdles for J-translation services

TH:  Hi Dr Debito, I thought you might be interested in my experience of trying to get an appointment at the top hospital for neurology in Japan. Basically they refuse to see me unless I pay for a specialist medical interpreter – they won’t even see me with a third party volunteer hospital interpreter.

I have a problem with a nerve at the base of my spine. It may or may not be caused by an accident I had early last year in which a taxi hit me when I was riding my bicycle. I got a referral to the 国立精神・神経センター from my clinic because my research said they were the best in Japan for neurology.

I called them up to organize an appointment. My Japanese isn’t great so they told me in Japanese that I need a Japanese speaker to call on my behalf to make an appointment. [… As] the appointment time is this Monday at 9:45 am none of my friends could come with me. I searched out a group that organizes a free medical interpretation service telephone line staffed by trained professionals. They were a great help, […but] the hospital refused to allow telephone based interpretation during my appointment. I must have a person come with me. I said ok.

The lady from the volunteer service organized a volunteer to go with me […but then] the hospital said they would not accept a layperson as a volunteer to accompany me. The hospital said that I must engage a professional medical interpreter. I thought this strange – they initially said that I need to come with a friend. A friend would undoubtedly be a layperson as well, so their refusal of a lay volunteer seems contradictory and petulant. At this point it is too much hassle and will become prohibitively expensive to go to this hospital. Is it legal to treat me like this?

https://www.debito.org/?p=13507

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… and finally…

10) Japan Times JBC 90: “Claiming the right to be Japanese AND more”, Aug 3, 2015

JBC: “A Japanese passport? You don’t look Japanese.” I get this all the time. Understandably: Most people don’t expect a Caucasian to have Japanese citizenship.

It’s just a shame they so carelessly articulate their surprise. No matter where I go, a natural curiosity about my background soon turns into vocalized judgment.

“What an unusual name. Where are you from?”
Me: “Japan” (or, “Born in the U.S., lived in Japan,” if I’m feeling chatty).
Their most common response: “But you don’t look Japanese.”

Or Customs and Immigration at any border: “What’s with the Japanese passport?”
“I’m a naturalized Japanese citizen.”
Again, “You don’t look Japanese.” (That’s the milder reaction. In Jamaica, officials took my passport around the office for a laugh. In the U.S., they rendered me to secondary for a few hours of waiting and inquisition until I missed my next flight. Seriously.)

Trying to dodge these questions by saying “It’s a long story” often doesn’t cut it. (American official: “Oh? We’ve got time.”) Having to school everyone about my background on a daily basis gets tiring, and biting my lip through many an intrusive and sometimes humiliating experience leaves psychological “triggers” after a while.

I realized that last month on vacation in Canada, when a bank teller asked for my ID. Passport presented, out it popped: “It’s funny you have a Japanese passport. You don’t look Japanese.” I snapped back: “Let’s not go there. Lose the racism and complete the transaction.” […]

https://www.debito.org/?p=13436

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That’s all for September. See you next month, and thanks as always for reading!

Dr. ARUDOU, Debito (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter @arudoudebito)

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 6, 2015 ENDS

22 comments on “DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

  • One for ‘Shoe on the other foot’!

    60 (!) Japanese arrested for working in contravention of visa status in the Philippines;

    http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/60-japanese-arrested-in-raid-for-working-illegally-in-philippines

    Now, this story is so much more dodgy than the headline sounds, since the Japanese workers in question were working for a Japanese company’s call-center in the Philippines (normally this kind of ‘off-shoring’ is done to take advantage of lower labor costs, so why would they want to import Japanese staff to do the job?).

    In any event, let’s see how this ISN’T used as an example of ‘evil visa-status breaking gaijin!’ OOPS! Visa-status breaking Nihonjin!

    Reply
  • @ Mdo7 #1

    Thanks for posting that, it’s a classic example of Japanese institutional racism in practice;

    1. NJ defies instruction from Japanese robber (a Japanese man even!) and asks ‘Why?’
    2. Japanese robber so fazed by being confronted FULL STOP, that he leaves the scene of the crime.
    3. When story is reported, Japanese netizens as stunned as the robber that an NJ refused a demand made by a Japanese (even a robber), and assume that the NJ *could not possibly have understood the instruction he was given*.
    4. #3 overlooks the fact that the NJ has a good enough command of the Japanese language to be employed in a Japanese store.

    Reply
  • Edward J. Cunningham says:

    In his statement about WWII, Abe said that the Japanese victory over Russia in 1905 gave “hope to colonized people everywhere.”

    Really? Since when was Japan colonized by Western nations? Even after Commodore Perry sailed into Edo Bay, the Japanese were still in charge of Japan.

    Reply
  • Debito,

    I apologize if I go off topic once again. But Jim, and Edward. I think all of you need to have a look at this. Just saw this on KBS World from South Korea:

    http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_In_detail.htm?No=113361&id=In

    KBS World-Japanese Historians Denounce Abe’s Statement

    09/14/2015

    The Historical Science Society of Japan has denounced Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s statement released last month upon the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

    In a statement issued on Monday, the leading organization of Japanese historians noted that Abe’s statement said Japan realized modernization and maintained independence amid fears of becoming subject to Western colonialism in the 19th century.

    The organization said, however, that the statement ignored the fact that Japan violated Korea’s sovereignty and colonized Taiwan.

    On the Russo–Japanese War, the historians said Japan violated the human rights in countries that were not involved in the war, adding that Japan disregarded Korea’s declaration of neutrality and forced Seoul to sign the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1904.

    The historians said Abe’s statement did not mention such facts and gave the impression that the responsibility for colonialism lies originally in Western countries, thus seeking to dilute Japan’s responsibility.

    Reply
  • @ Mdo7 #5

    Thanks for the link!
    I’m glad the Koreans don’t forget reality the way Japan is allowed to by the rest of the ‘democratic’ world who don’t want to confront their own role in subverting democracy in post-war Japan, and complicity in allowing right-wing Japanese elites to continue their evil agenda for the last 70 years. ‘A broken clock is right twice a day’, as the saying goes, and in that respect, the ‘democratic’ powers should be ashamed of themselves that the role of being able to force Japan not to forget falls to China.

    It’s interesting that the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere only came into existence in with the Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo in November 1943 (attended by puppet leaders of Korea and occupied China, and leaders of movements against British rule in Burma and India). It was a small conference, with self-appointed leaders in exile, or leaders chosen by Japanese invaders.

    Most interestingly, is that November 1943 is the first time that the term ‘Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere’ is used! See now how right-wingers distorted understanding of history would have us believe that it was the explicit aim of Japanese expansion since 1905, when in reality it was desperate attempt by the Japanese to drum up legitimacy and support for the battles it was fighting in Thailand and Burma, with the goal of cutting the supply chain from the Allies in India, to Chiang Kai-Shek in China, thus forcing Chiang to capitulate, and allowing half a million Japanese troops to be redeployed against the US in the Pacific Island campaign.

    In short, it never crossed the minds of the Japanese that they were ‘liberating Asia’ until it became clear to them that they were losing the war.

    Reply
  • Edward J. Cunningham says:

    You know, there’s a reason why Germany has much better relations with her immediate neighbors—both east and west—against whom she fought in World War II, than Japan has with South Korea, China, or the Philippines. Just food for thought.

    Reply
  • Peruvian man (with Japanese name), believed to have stabbed 6 people to death on Monday and Wednesday after escaping from police custody on Sunday while ‘going for a smoke’;

    http://www.japantoday.com/smartphone/view/crime/peruvian-man-suspected-in-several-killings-in-saitama

    The real story here isn’t that this guy is part of the ‘dangerous gaijin crime wave’, but that the police took him into custody, and despite all their draconian police state powers, allowed 6 murders to happen due to stupidity.

    Reply
  • The J-media had a field day with the myth that NJ deserted Japan in the face of the Tohoku disaster, but 4 and a half years on, Japan hasn’t learned to give disaster warnings, or disaster assistance, in languages other than Japanese;

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/09/17/national/social-issues/foreign-joso-flood-victims-hit-citys-monolingual-response/

    It’s no wonder that NJ would leave after a disaster if they were left to fend for themselves whilst the authorities denied them even warnings.

    Reply
  • @ Edward, do enlighten us why Japan has not had as good relations with its neighbors as Germany. I ll add that as part of my history degree I examined Japanese “reparations” and “aid” to postwar East Asia, and found it to be a COMPLETE SHAM. As with Okinawa, most Japanese investment flows back to Japan and little benefits the locals.

    @ Jim, Kiyoshi Miki the dissident had a hand in creating the concept of “Greater East Asia Co Prosperity sphere” Quote “An earlier, influential concept was the geographically smaller version called New Order in East Asia (東亜新秩序 Tōa Shin Chitsujo), which was announced by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on 22 December 1938 and was limited to Northeast Asia only.[4]Wikipedia.

    Miki became depressed when the military hijacked the concept, as you say, later. Another J-SHAM.

    Reply
  • J police got” a tip about a man mumbling at a fire station.” Wow, I mumble all the time. And I hum or whistle. I suppose thats ammunition for the snitchers that there is a “suspicious, fumajime gaijin” on the loose. Mumbling profiling, what next?
    This is going in my cultural case studies book about Japan. along with the Japanese woman arrested in Kawaguchi for “looking like a foreigner” and “not speaking because she was not used to talking to strangers”. (So Yamato Nadeshiko is an offence too? The term “Yamato nadeshiko” is often used referring to a girl or shy young woman[6] wiki )

    Reply
  • re; me at #8

    The J-police still refuse to make clear the ancestry and the visa status of Nakada Jonathon. Was he ‘Nissei’ who entered the country to work under a much more relaxed visa scheme due to his ‘Japanese blood’? I guess they don’t want to talk about that. I guess they don’t want to claim him as Japanese, despite his ancestry, whereas they were quite happy to take Peru’s Fujimori (I guess all the people he killed weren’t Japanese, so they didn’t call him ‘gaijin’ and disown him?).

    In any event, they interesting thing to day is that this Peruvian (?) criminal is this;

    ‘The police also found Nakada had spoken with several people, assumed to be non-Japanese, over a mobile phone before the series of murders took place.’

    ASSUMED (!) to be NJ! Well, you know what they say, ‘Assumption is the mother of all mistakes’. Shouldn’t the J-police be in the business of ‘investigating the facts’ (as it’s known in the west), rather than ‘filling in the blanks with prejudiced guesswork’?

    What are the police trying to do? They are deliberately misleading the media, with information that may or may not be relevant, consisting of unproved guesses, that imply that there is a wide NJ conspiracy to stab Japanese people.

    Irresponsible police work. Irresponsible reporting (why didn’t the journalist challenge the police on that?).

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/09/18/national/crime-legal/letters-written-blood-found-slain-couples-home-believed-written-serial-killer-suspect/

    Reply
  • Loverilakkuma says:

    @Jim Di Griz, #12

    Based on the news report, he was working at a local deli factory for a short term. He probably came to Japan under the status that would allow him to stay minimum 90 days– eligibility to obtain New Residence Card. That includes work-visa scheme. I’m not gonna make any speculation on his work eligibility, though.

    No doubt the news shocked so many people, in addition to the fact that his brother was a notorious serial killer in Peru.

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/09/18/national/crime-legal/saitama-serial-slaying-suspects-brother-perus-prolific-mass-murderer-apostle-death/

    I’m still shaking my head over the consequence driven by individual’s bad choice and lacking support for psychological depression.

    Reply
  • Hi Dr. D., Long time no comment. I stumbled across this today, so an FYI for you.
    https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/social-sciences-and-humanities-faculties-close-japan-after-ministerial-decree
    “The call to close the liberal arts and social science faculties are believed to be part of wider efforts by prime minister Shinzo Abe to promote what he has called “more practical vocational education that better anticipates the needs of society”.”

    Reply
  • New, compulsory ‘My Number/Mai Namba-‘ system gives J-police instant, on-demand, access to your bank account activity with no over-sight (in fact, it will give them access to everything, medical records, taxation, shopping habits, etc).

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/09/20/national/ready-not-government-will-soon-number/

    Now, since Japan has become a paranoid, xenophobic police state (as a direct function of National Police Association propaganda intended to deflect from it’s inability and unwillingness to tackle organized J-crime, whilst needing also to justify endless resource increases), am I seriously to believe that the J-police won’t actually have offices of officers whose sole job will be to constantly monitor my ‘Mai Namba-‘ usage for any signs of something they could criminalize?

    Remember, a couple of weeks ago I posted on Debito.org that the public were being encouraged to ‘rat out’ NJ who even only seem to be in any type of visa contravention *even if the person ratting you out doesn’t actually know what your real visa status is* so that it can be investigated. Well now the J-police will be legally entitled to bust into your privacy, and nose around whatever they want, whenever they want, and if you don’t like living with the constant fear of being detained by the J-police, you can go home, I guess?

    And let’s not forget that the Abe government’s new Japanese spy agency announced after IS cut those guys heads off, will be under the purview of the NPA and staffed by the J-police. They will only be able to search for ‘terrorists’ in Japan, and they will have to find some to prove that they are *doing their job (more ¥ please)*.

    You trust these people?

    Reply
  • While Japan’s grandson of a let-off war-criminal PM uses weasel words to get round apologizing for war-crimes, and tells us that war-criminals are really heroes who made modern Japan, German war criminals are still getting convicted;

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34317875

    I want to see Japan hunt down and convict some Japanese war criminals. THEN I’ll believe that Japan is really ‘sorry’.

    Reply
  • With German Chancellor Merkel vowing to accept any Syrian ‘migrants’ who reach Germany (in the tens of thousands since August), in order to address Germany’s looming demographic shortfall, Abe is reportedly ready to announce that Japan will accept ‘dozens’ of Syrians!

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/09/26/national/politics-diplomacy/abe-weighs-opening-japan-to-dozens-of-syrian-refugee-students-report/

    That’s very big of Abe! ‘Dozens’ represents a massive improvement over the 11 refugees Japan accepted last year, but will ‘dozens’ be enough to counter Japan’s demographic time-bomb?

    Also, notice that Abe isn’t reportedly going to promise to take dozens of refugees, but rather ‘dozens of Syrian students’. That’s a massive difference! What happens after they graduate? Will he let them do KKK jobs, or will they be ‘intern’/slaves?

    Thanks (again) for NOTHING Abe.

    Reply
  • I saw this on Yonhap News and this is from the US branch of Nippon Foundation, Dennis Blair, he blasted/criticized Abe statement. You can read it below:

    http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2015/09/30/0301000000AEN20150930007900315.html

    Yonhap News-Ex-U.S. intelligence chief criticizes Abe statement

    WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 (Yonhap) — A former U.S. intelligence chief has denounced Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s war anniversary statement, saying it is a “disappointment.”

    Marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a speech on Aug.14 that the position “articulated by the previous Cabinets will remain unshakable into the future.”

    He, however, did not offer a fresh apology of his own, saying instead that Japan has repeatedly expressed deep remorse and heartfelt apologies for its actions during the war.

    “This statement is disappointing and misses a huge opportunity both to educate Prime Minister Abe’s own supporters and to reassure other countries,” said Dennis Blair, who heads the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, in a statement on the foundation’s Website posted on Aug. 14.

    Blair, the former Director of National Intelligence, also said that Abe’s statement fell far short of the Murayama statement in helping Japan face its own history squarely.

    “The rambling Abe statement is more of a legal brief, trying to cover too many subjects,” Blair said.

    Blair also said that Prime Minister Abe did not show any kind of apology, asking “where is the understanding that apologies for terrible deeds of history cannot be artificially circumscribed when memories remain?”

    Blair was also the head of the U.S. Pacific Command from the late 1990’s until his retirement in 2002. He now serves as the chairman of the foundation that was established by Ryoichi Sasakawa, a Japanese businessman and suspected war criminal, as the Nippon Foundation in 1951.

    (END)

    I can see his resignation or his position terminate and replace in a few days if this news somehow reached Japan.

    Reply
  • #19 JDG

    I also saw that on the BBC news yesterday, I too couldn’t stop laughing.

    So after hundreds of years they still have not come up with a policy and system to look after their own citizens as other “developed” counties have and used as a comparison (Just as Abe is attempting)…..and yet, clearly in no rush to fix something they consider is not broken anyway, and then use this as an excuse to not take in refugees…..did anyone at the UN keep a straight face I wonder?

    But oh.,…we’ll pledge to give money to help. Yeahh..heard that lame old excuse before too. Pledged to give $500m after the 2005 earthquake in Indonesia….how much did they actually give years later…unsure as donations only over $2m were registered..and Japan not listed anywhere in the top 20. Same old smoke and mirrors… (ref given in previous posts on this subject on Debito)

    Reply
  • Debito, as you requested:

    http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/08/26/canadian-anime-vocalist-himeka-vents-about-frustrations-working-in-the-japanese-music-industry/

    And I’ll quote some selected part of the article:

    “Unfortunately, fame is a fickle thing. Unable to secure commercial success or a new work visa, Himeka had to return to Canada in 2014, even as she wistfully stated she wanted to remain in Japan forever. A year later, though, she’s singing a very different tune, tweeting that she “probably shouldn’t have come to Japan” in the first place and regrets her time in the country.

    On August 24, she took to Twitter to vent about her time in Japan in a series of since-deleted Japanese-language tweets:

    “Before coming to Japan, I was treated like garbage. And then when I went to Japan and became a singer, I was treated the same: like garbage. Like garbage, no matter what I do. I even received a message that said ‘I want you to die,’ In time, I couldn’t understand what the purpose of all my hard work was.”

    “Maybe I shouldn’t have come to Japan. I regret everything about it…the bullying by the industry was emotionally painful. Even if my dream was used and terrible things were done to me behind the scenes, I still kept doing my best for the sake of my dream and my fans, but all that remains now are unhappy feelings. I should never have entered that contest.”

    “When I won that contest, they probably thought ‘Because she’s a foreigner, we can sell her music! It’ll be good publicity for our company and the contest!’ That’s all that they were thinking about. It had no relation to talent. They don’t care about moving people through music. What’s necessary is business matters. There is no ‘true’ in that industry.”

    So yes, if you are a non-Asian NJs and you want to seek a singing career in Japan, I would recommend not doing that.

    Reply

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