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Hey Blog. Had a very pleasant and quite probing interview with Trans-Pacific Radio last weekend. Here’s the writeup and a link. Debito in Sapporo
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Seijigiri #19 – March 8, 2007: A conversation with Debito Arudou
Filed under: Seijigiri Releases, Trans-Pacific Radio, Interviews
Posted by Seijigiri at 7:29 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2007
Last Saturday, March 2, Garrett, Ken and Albrecht Stahmer sat down for a talk with social activist and naturalized Japanese citizen Arudou Debito. The talk actually lasted for hours, and as it stretched on, veered away from the initial interview structure that had been set up.
With this release, we have kept one hour of material in which Debito touches upon how he came to be a social activist, the cultural politics of Japanese identity, acceptance of him as a Japanese and his work in the Japanese and foreign communities, Japan’s educational system, the ‘Japanese Only’ phenomenon, Education Minister Ibuki Bunmei, human rights and butter, the state of the Democratic Party of Japan, what sort of law against discrimination he would like to see in Japan…and his hopes for Japan’s future.
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Hear it at:
http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/03/08/seijigiri-19-march-8-2007-a-conversation-with-debito-arudou/
ENDS
1 comment on “Trans-Pacific Radio interviews Arudou Debito”
Very nice. You went much more in depth than I saw in your Yamato Damacy interview last year. I wish TPR hadn’t “scratched the needle” changing topics, as it were, because you were all getting a pretty good rapport going. Schedules, schedules…
The most compelling argument I keep hearing is: what happens to these children, who, despite their foreign appearance, are 100% Japanese? Honestly, despite the inevitability of an internationalized Japan, I just don’t see the government breaking this pattern of “nonacceptance of non-Japanese [institutionalism]” anytime in the near future. Call me a newbie in Japan, and maybe I’m missing something, but you’ve been fighting the fight for years, and despite legal victories, have you seen any real changes in the mindset of the media or government?
On paper, in courts of law, or even in the constitution, I have confidence there will be progress (eventually). But with Japanese Only signs (and businesses that still refuse to remove them), publishers spreading “bad foreigners are devouring Japan!!”, and officials at the highest levels of government blind to certain inevitabilities – and the past, so it seems – I just don’t know… What are your thoughts?
By the way, it’s Saturday, March 3rd
–THANKS FOR THE FEEDBACK. WE DIDN’T LEAVE ALL THAT MUCH ON THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR, IIRC. AND YAMATO DAMACY HAD THREE MORE INTERVIEWS, SO CHECK THEM ALL OUT ON YOUTUBE (DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THE YD BLOG).
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Arudou+Debito&search=Search
AS FOR PARAS 2 AND 3, ANY REAL CHANGES: YES. THE RACIST EPITHET “GAIJIN” IS MORE RECOGNIZED AS SUCH AND BANDIED ABOUT LESS CAVALIERLY. THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA WHO ARE NON-NATIVES OR WHO HAVE INTERNATIONAL ROOTS (AND LESS FUSS OVER PEOPLE WHO DON’T LOOK “NATIVE” SPEAKING NATIVELY). MORE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THE PROBLEMS THAT NJ RESIDENTS FACE (PARTICULARLY THE NGOs AND THEIR FOCUS ON NJ LABORERS). AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE FACT THAT PEOPLE ARE INCREASINGLY LIKELY TO SEE DISCRIMINATION PROPERLY–NOT BASED UPON CULTURAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS, BUT ON RACE. TEN YEARS AGO, THERE WAS THE LONGSTANDING MYTH THAT JAPAN HAD NO RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, AND RD WAS AN OVERSEAS PROBLEM. THE ANA BORTZ CASE AND THE OTARU ONSENS CASE PUT PAID TO THAT. THE POLITICAL ELITES IN GOJ ARE DOING WHAT THEY CAN TO STEM THE TIDE, AND THE NPA IS MERELY PROFIT SEEKING THROUGH SCAREMONGERING. THAT WILL NOT LAST FOREVER. HAVE FAITH. TIME AND HISTORICAL EXAMPLE ARE ON OUR SIDE.
GLAD YOU ENJOYED THE INTERVIEW–DEBITO IN SAPPORO