DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPT 20, 2021

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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPT 20, 2021
Table of Contents:

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1) 2018 United Nations CERD Report (CERD/C/JPN/10-11) still mentions Debito.org’s works: “Foreign nationals and individuals with a foreign appearance have reportedly been denied entry to and services of certain privately owned facilities like hotels and restaurants that otherwise serve the public, including through the posting of signage reading ‘Japanese only’.”

2) Karst Campsite in Okinawa has “Only Japanese” rules due to Covid. Another one for the pile. UPDATE: Rules have been amended to exclude people who can’t “understand Japanese properly”.

3) Igarashi Kanoa, California-born athlete who won Silver for Japan in 2020 Olympics, rates himself worthy of representing Japan because “My blood is 100% Japanese. That’s something that you don’t change.” Dangerous old-school Olympian thoroughbred-ism.

… and finally …
4) My SNA Visible Minorities 25: Tokyo 2020 Olympics Postmortem, where I argue the Games failed its goals of “Diversity and Inclusion” predictably and by design
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By Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter @arudoudebito)
Debito.org Newsletters are as always freely forwardable

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1) 2018 United Nations CERD Report (CERD/C/JPN/10-11) still mentions Debito.org’s works: “Foreign nationals and individuals with a foreign appearance have reportedly been denied entry to and services of certain privately owned facilities like hotels and restaurants that otherwise serve the public, including through the posting of signage reading ‘Japanese only’.”

Here’s something that makes me smile. The 2018 United Nations CERD Report (CERD/C/JPN/10-11) includes something that might not otherwise be there — had Debito.org not taken up the task of describing and cataloging discrimination for the past 25 years (back when people were even denying that racial discrimination actually happened in Japan!). Everything mentioned in the UN excerpt below is covered in my book “Embedded Racism in Japan” (Lexington Books, 2015). But especially close to my heart is in enlarged text below. One of my lifetime goals is leaving the planet a better place than when I arrived. This feels like proof that we at Debito.org have done something positive.

UNITED NATIONS: 33.The Committee is concerned that:
(a)Non-citizens have reportedly been denied housing and employment because they are foreign nationals;
(b)Foreign nationals and individuals with a foreign appearance have reportedly been denied entry to and services of certain privately owned facilities like hotels and restaurants that otherwise serve the public, including through the posting of signage reading “Japanese only”;
[…]

34. Bearing in mind the Committee’s general recommendation No. 30, the Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Ensure access to housing and employment to non-citizens and foreign nationals without discrimination;
(b) Create and enforce legislation against the posting of discriminatory signs and the practice of excluding public services by privately owned facilities, such as hotels and restaurants, to persons on the basis of being a foreigner or of foreign appearance; […]

https://www.debito.org/?p=16831

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2) Karst Campsite in Okinawa has “Only Japanese” rules due to Covid. Another one for the pile. UPDATE: Rules have been amended to exclude people who can’t “understand Japanese properly”.

Covid strikes again. Here’s a campground in Okinawa that says that foreigners can’t make reservations there due to Covid. Screen capture:

“Only Japanese can take a reservation because of COVID”
KARST CAMP SITE
〒905-0219 沖縄県国頭郡本部町字山里東屋比久原1381番地
050-6864-3379, email karstcampsite115@gmail.com
https://karstcampsite.com/facility/

COMMENT: I’ve said this many times before, but associating contagion with nationality is unscientific. Again, because a) there are Non-Japanese residents who live in Japan the same as Japanese, exposed to the same risks of contagion as Japanese, b) there are few foreigners in Japan from overseas at the moment due to the mostly-closed border controls, and c) chances are that foreigners who do come in from overseas are better vetted (not to mention more likely vaccinated due to better jab regimes overseas) than Japanese.

So there is no scientific reason to put up a rule like this. There is, however, plenty of reason if you’re a xenophobe, like so many people who reflexively put up “Japanese Only” signs are, and will use any excuse (including foreign “health scares” from SARS and AIDS) to justify, even if they are a health care provider. These are the people we will continue to expose for the record on Debito.org. Adding to the pile.

UPDATE AUG 27: After phone calls to the campsite, the website has been amended to say “we can take a reservation for someone who can understand Japanese properly Because you need to understand our rules correctly.” Because of course, campsites are fraught with danger, and one language miscommunication and all goes to hell. After all, foreigners don’t know how to camp if they can’t “understand Japanese properly”. And that’s after they decided in good faith just to blame Covid.

https://www.debito.org/?p=16813

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3) Igarashi Kanoa, California-born athlete who won Silver for Japan in 2020 Olympics, rates himself worthy of representing Japan because “My blood is 100% Japanese. That’s something that you don’t change.” Dangerous old-school Olympian thoroughbred-ism.

Just a follow-up on my Shingetsu News Agency column of this week. When I was talking there about the roots of the Olympics, I made the case that the Games are less about athleticism than about national demonstrations of power, particularly in the vein of racial superiority. In my summary of their history, I wrote:

SNA: “When the Games were resuscitated by aristocrats in 1896, in spirit they were still grounded in contemporary attitudes equating national strength with physical strength. Thanks to the racialized social theories in currency at the time, including Social Darwinism and eugenics, the Games soon became a public demonstration of the social engineering of supermen, which depended on how racially ‘thoroughbred’ an athlete and a society was. It’s not difficult to draw a straight line from the geneticist attitudes promoted by the prewar Olympics to The Final Solution.”

Those attitudes can still be felt not only in the bad-habit national medal tallies, but also in the athletes themselves. Consider how Igarashi Kanoa, US-born resident of Huntington Beach, CA, who won Silver for Japan in Surfing, decided to depict himself. As I wrote for SNA above:

SNA: “Igarashi indicatively promotes himself on his Olympics website entry in classic Olympic ‘thoroughbred-ism:’ ‘I have so much support here in the USA and America will always be part of who I am. But I’ve grown up with a lifestyle and in a generation where things can seem a bit borderless. And so representing Japan felt like a solid, comfortable decision. My blood is 100% Japanese. That’s something that you don’t change.’

“Good for his bloodline, I guess. But for mongrel non-medalists like Osaka Naomi, as the New York Times noted, Japan’s social media pounced, contesting her Japanese language ability, her standing to represent Japan, and even her Japaneseness…”

Again, you can self-identify with and play for whatever country will have you. But a person like this who has benefited from both systems does not deserve respect for this throwback-Eugenicist attitude, and it should be challenged appropriately in public. Doing so at Debito.org.

https://www.debito.org/?p=16799

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… and finally …

4) My SNA Visible Minorities 25: Tokyo 2020 Olympics Postmortem, where I argue the Games failed its goals of “Diversity and Inclusion” predictably and by design

SNA (Tokyo) — The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are now past. This is a postmortem.

Last month’s column talked about the “evil” of the Japanese government and International Olympic Committee (IOC) in forcing an unpopular Olympics upon Japan’s residents, all the while as Tokyo’s cases spiked during a global pandemic. But I also argued how host Japan in particular is trained by national narratives to see “outsiders” (including residents who don’t “look Japanese”—our Visible Minorities) specifically as terrorists, hooligans, criminals, and vectors of disease.

These fault lines have predictably exacerbated the endemic social disease of racial discrimination. International events just give people more excuses to create “Japanese Only” signs and rules.

That’s not to say that I boycotted the Olympics. In fact, given my background, I should be a superfan. […] But thanks to my background in political science, I’m trained to view nationalism with a critical eye: How governments convince people to live, fight, and even sacrifice their lives for their country. The Olympics are rooted precisely in these attitudes, and forever filter athleticism through the lens of national representation and superiority.

So despite all their promises to showcase “Diversity and Inclusion,” the Tokyo 2020 Olympics shirked that opportunity — predictably and by design…

Rest at http://shingetsunewsagency.com/2021/08/16/visible-minorities-tokyo-2020-olympics-postmortem/

Anchor site for comments at https://www.debito.org/?p=16791

Support independent progressive journalism and subscribe to SNA for as little as a dollar a week!

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That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading!
Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPT 20, 2021 ENDS

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6 comments on “DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPT 20, 2021

  • This analysis is spot-on:

    “People who commit one kind of discrimination become involved in other kinds, too. Discrimination against foreigners ultimately leads to discrimination against Japanese people, too. If you think, ‘Oh, discriminating against foreigners is fine,’ we’ll probably see a further rise in Japanese people becoming non-permanent workers, a cut in welfare, and more people in distress.”

    Crowdfunded documentary to delve into postwar Japan’s anti-foreigner discrimination

    在日外国人差別の全体像を映画に 作家の高賛侑さんが制作費支援募る

    Reply
    • You can’t cue the following often enough:
      “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
      Because I was not a socialist.
      Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
      Because I was not a trade unionist.
      Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
      Because I was not a Jew.
      Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
      —Martin Niemöller

      Reply
  • TV Asahi reports about a wajin oyaji who shouted insults and threats at hotel staff for: a) not carrying his luggage for him, and b) being an NJ. He reportedly buggered off when the cops showed up. They should have let him experience the hospitality of the local kōban, imho.

    Reply
    • Weird video, very revealing. BS Stereotype#1 “We Japanese don’t make a noise, complain loudly, get angry” (patently false) vs. the cog diss of BS Stereotype #2 “NIhonjin wa urusai. Ganko Oyaji etc” which is the reality as we have seen on all fronts including at the UN (shut up).

      Did anyone else notice the music in the background of the hotel that punctuates Oyaji’s statements with a cymbal crash and then a sinister techno arpeggio starts playing?

      Was someone actually accompanying the drama and providing a soundtrack? Or by coincidence the hotel lounge band was doing a soundcheck?

      Very apt. As Tokyo in particular inow has daily performances of Street Theatre of the Absurd ,as the Wa and the Macdonaldization/Weberian Life that Holds No Surprises monotony breaks down, we instead get almost daily outbursts from disgruntles Bubble Jidai Oyaji who are used to getting their own way without a hitch and without having to look at a foreign staff face, as in the Glorious 80s.

      Thus, the Abe electrorate. Voting for a racist sexist past in exchange for heavier taxes and lower salaries and yet still not getting what they want in reality.

      Oh well, at least they can still lord it over any NJ unfortunate enough to work in the J service industry.
      Show this video to intern candidates in Indonesia and Vietnam. See if they still want to come over.

      Reply
      • Jim Di Griz says:

        I saw this last week when it was posted and just rolled my eyes and thought it was ‘typical Japan’ and moved on.
        But the point is that it IS typical Japan.
        It’s what happens when years of clinging to outdated monapolistic business models by policy makers living in an imagined ‘perfect past’ of failed ideology cover for themselves by telling the people that they don’t have to worry about the decline in social mobility, quality of life, increasing prices, lower standards, social and infrastructure decline and degradation, increasing debt burdens because of some cobbled together mumbo-jumbo about ration uniqueness and exceptionalism. It’s directly responsible for the cognitive dissonance people experience when they stop watching/reading the official feel-good boosterism narrative and try to experience real life- it’s making people mentally ill, and they are acting out.
        Their unrealistic expectations of being ‘special’ collide with the reality of a collapsing society.

        Reply
    • Having translated what he said, it follows the usual racist in Japan checklist
      1. “I am the president of Real estate co, youre just a hotel staff” = established rank to lord it over.
      2.”I’m angry that the receptionist was a foreigner.” Are you a Filipino? “And” Why ……… Filipinos even though I’m paying 30,000 yen? OK, so Filipinos are cheaper apparently according to this guy.
      3. Kneel Before me Filipino. “‘Kneel down and sit down on the ground.’ “I’m working with the president (of the hotel’s parent company),” he said. “That’s why I’m going to make you kneel.”

      Reincarnation of someone from Greater East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere? It really does seem like some think they “own’ the Philippines; a servant race.

      Reply

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