Hi Blog. Friend Michael Fox sent me this article from Heeb Magazine, Issue 13. An interview with Writer/Activist Rebecca Walker. Now, while the focus may be on how one person grew up straddling two cultures within the same country (Black and Jewish), the points she makes about having a healthy attitude towards people who would …
The new Justice Minister Hatoyama tells the Japan Times he intends to reverse former Minister Nagase’s proposal for a revolving-door guest worker program. Instead, he proposes more skilled NJ labor (okay) and expresses fears about more NJ crime (not okay). Again, people in charge of this field are ignoring the need for immigration.
In August 2007, the PM Cabinet released the results of its survey on the awareness of human rights in Japan. Done every 4 years, it demonstrated that more people believe that NJ deserve the same human rights as other humans in Japan (thanks, I guess)–up after a declilne in 1999 and 2003. However, given the vague, leading, and misleading questions, the survey is most enlightening when viewed in regards to just how clueless even our government professionals are about the portrayal and promotion of human rights in Japan.
1) DISCRIMINATION AT “HOLIDAY SPORTS CLUB” CHAIN, BY JIM DUNLOP
2) TPR ON US HR 151 ON COMFORT WOMEN, AND WHY IT’S NOT A BAD THING
3) THE IDUBOR CASE: INCARCERATION WITHOUT EVIDENCE, WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
4) MOFA ALLOWS CONVICTED DISRUPTER INTO HUMAN RIGHTS MEETING (UPDATED)
5) THREE JAPAN TIMES COLUMNS ONLINE
… along with RESPONSE TO DOREEN SIMMONS ON ASASHORYU SCANDAL
6) IJUUREN PUBLISHES NGO POLICY PROPOSALS ON MINORITIES IN JAPAN
and finally…
7) GREGORY CLARK DEFENDS PM MIYAZAWA’S CORRUPTION, AND MY RESPONSE
Last July, Gregory Clark wrote an epitaph-style Japan Times column about his old friend, former Prime Minister Miyazawa Kiichi, who was facing mixed reviews in the J press at the time of his death for not dealing with the Bubble Economy properly. Greg defends his old friend with aplomb. So much so that he excuseth too much, in my opinion–even Kiichi’s corruption. First Greg’s column, then my unpublished letter to the editor in response.
Shuukan Shinchou: “During June, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and Immigration Bureau staged a series of joint crackdowns on these so-called “gaijin clubs” in Kinshicho and Ikebukuro, in search of visa violators. ”From June 15 to 18, the authorities mobilized 370 staff to conduct raids, including house searches,” an unnamed reporter at a city desk tells the magazine. “This was the largest raid they’ve conducted in quite some time. They went after Russian clubs and made 14 arrests, and remanded 35 more women to immigration on visa violation charges.”
As further evidence that the GOJ has little interest in enforcing its own guidelines (or at least those secured when it signed the UN Convention on Racial Discrimination), information has surfaced that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allowed in a convicted agent provocateur into the August 31, 2007 meeting on Japan’s response to the UN treaty. Moreover (as a link to a transcript of the meeting will demonstrate), MOFA officials did not stop him and his ilk from shutting down the meeting. Appeals to other government ministries with appropriate powers look futile.
On August 31, 2007, a public meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Tokyo was disrupted and sabotaged by right-wing troublemakers. Shouting epithets and arguments designed to wind up the human-rights NGOs, the unidentified right-wingers managed to bring the meeting to a standstill, while the six ministries attending the meeting showed a complete inability to keep the meeting under control. Proceedings ended a half hour early without hearing the opinions of all the attendees, and my opinion is mixed on whether or not the impasse could have been avoided by not taking the bait. In any case, it is a sign to this author that the ultraconservative elements within Japan are not only taking notice of the gain in traction for human rights in Japan, they are doing their best to throw sand in the deliberation process. We will have to develop a thicker skin towards these elements in future, as this is probably only the beginning.
From the archives, this somehow escaped being blogged. Including for the record:
1) DIETMEMBER KOUNO TARO PRESS CONFERENCE JULY 31, 2006
2) FOREIGN MINISTRY FORUM ON UN CERD AND DIENE REPORT JULY 28, 2006
The persecution of Yokozuna sumo wrestler Asashoryu is all a diversion from the real story: That Sumo’s house of cards is being shaken. We have a death deterring people from joining a system with institutionalized bullying, renewed allegations of bout fixing, the very real possibility of bodybuilding chemicals banned in most world sports, and the entirely possible death of the Sumo’s credibility that the Ohnaruto Scandal of 1996 would have done a lot sooner…
Excellent essay on the entertainment industry: “In the movie business, there are several ways to spot a lie. Some involve math: For instance, the sentence ”The movie was great — it was just marketed badly,” which is said every hour in Hollywood, is true exactly 3 percent of the time, whereas ”The movie was bad — it was just marketed really well,” which is almost never said, is true 97 percent of the time. Some lies are formulaic: Anybody in movies who starts a sentence ”At the end of the day…” is clearly revving up the manure spreader. But there’s an even more common lie. The sentence ”We’re just giving the people what they want,” when uttered by a studio executive, is always, always untrue. How can you tell? Easy: There’s no such thing as ”the people.” Not anymore…”
NGO移住労働者と連帯する全国ネットワークは０６年に出版した『外国籍住民との共生にむけて−−ＮＧＯからの政策提言』の英訳版を出版しました。目次と注文する明細を。
I listened last night to yet another excellent essay from Garrett DeOrio on HR 121 (the “Comfort Women” Resolution), and why its passage by the US House of Representatives is not a bad thing. What I didn’t know was all the “nicely, nicely” that went into it, and even then the Japan Lobby in Washington came down on it hard. But in his view this “meddling” just made matters worse…
1) HIROSHIMA PEACE FOUNDATION STEVEN LEEPER’S ODD VIEWS ON NJ IN JAPAN
2) JAPAN TIMES SERIES ON DIVORCE AND CHILD ABDUCTION IN JAPAN
3) ECONOMIST’S SOPHOMORIC ARTICLE ON J FUTURE DEMOGRAPHICS
4) KYODO AND YOMIURI ON JAPAN’S NEGLIGENCE EDUCATING NJ CHILDREN
5) UCLA BASKEBALL PLAYER NATURALIZES… SO DOES BOBBY OLOGUN
6) WHILE DPRK REFUGEES REMAIN STATELESS DESPITE FUJIMORI PRECEDENT
7) SPEECH ON UNIVERSITY BLACKLIST AT TOUDAI, PLUS NEW ADDITIONS
and finally…
8) TPR INTERVIEW RE NJ LABOR MARKET… AND MY LOVE OF DURAN DURAN
In this Trans Pacific Radio interview Debito and Ken Worsley discuss the foreign labor market in Japan – where it’s united, where it’s fractious, and where it still needs help – as well as what is being done to improve conditions and opportunities for foreign workers, and what needs to be done in the future. This is an important issue that relates to Japan’s economic future, and immigration policy (or reform) still seems untouchable within the nation’s political discourse. Why is this so? But the interview opens with Debito trying to convince you why rock band Duran Duran is worth being taken seriously…
The Blacklist of Japanese Universities gets Kyushu University, Shokei Gakuin U, and Kansai Gaidai, now totalling 105 universities which offers full-time contracted work with no hope of tenure to Non-Japanese academics. Greenlisted 34 get Nagoya University and Aichi University of Education (although they still refrain from a tenure review system, so they also remain on the Blacklist).
I briefly blogged last week that I was visiting San’ya, Tokyo’s day-laborer and homeless district, and was asked to write up a brief describing the dynamic, the conditions, and the odd infighting that comes with this odd slum. I make no case that my narrative is properly informed, empathetic, or representative. It’s just an eyewitness account from someone who stayed one night in the comfort of a dive hotel, with proper access to food and basic amenities. Those who wish to know more, links enclosed.
Hi Blog. Some articles substantiating the emerging issue of what happens when you don’t make compulsory education a requirement for non-Japanese children. How nice of Japan to bring NJ laborers all the way over here but not take care of their children’s educational needs. Thanks for forgetting to include that in your educational reforms last …
UPPER HOUSE ELECTION JAPAN JULY 29, 2007
THE OPPOSITION PARTIES GAIN MOMENTUM
THE OPPOSITION PARTY ROUTS THE RULING COALITION
WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE LDP
RESULTS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO DEBITO.ORG
WHAT NOW? I WAS WRONG ABOUT PM ABE RESIGNING…
Quick update on what’s going on: Still in Tokyo, extending one more day. Links to last night’s speech Powerpoint (E and J) on the BLACKLIST OF JAPANESE UNIVERSITIES, given before even the Ministry of Education, plus a bit on a visit to Sanya and my next JT article. Yes, I’ll eat some crow over the UH election after I return to Sapporo tomorrow.
Trans Pacific Radio put up last night an interview with me about how I think today’s election will turn out. In sum: I think Abe will have to resign over the poor performance of the LDP in this election. He’s had one of the worst cabinets in Japan’s postwar history, and he’s definitely become a political liability (to the point where at least one poll indicates a majority believe we should have a snap election in the Lower House now too). Have a listen…
“At least 24 defectors from North Korea living in Japan remain stateless, largely due to the lack of clear government guidelines on how to determine their nationalities. The statelessness of the 24 people, children or grandchildren of one Japanese citizen and a North Korean, is a result local governments being left to their own devices on how to deal with the registration of the defectors. Nationality law would otherwise grant them citizenship, since Japan confers nationality by blood, but politics inevitably gets in the way.” Contrast with wanted criminal candidate Alberto Fujimori and you really get a confusing application of Japanese citizenship laws…
he UN News has been issuing press releases to make sure the Human Rights Council doesn’t become as emasculated as the former Human Rights Commission–by holding all countries accountable with periodic reviews of their human rights records.
Good. Japan in particular is particularly remiss, given its quest for a seat on the UNSC without upholding its treaty obligations, particularly regarding Japan’s refusal to pass a law against racial discrimination, and file reports in a timely manner (last report was due the HRC all the way in 2002!). The UN is quite well aware of this, and has been highly critical of Japan’s unfettered racism in recent years. UN Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene has been well recorded on the Debito.org Blog as well.
Sadako Ogata was the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees from 1991-2001, and has been President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) since 2003. Here, she talks frankly to The Japan Times about Japan’s attitudes to those who flee their homelands and seek sanctuary on these shores.
One of my Newsletter readers asked yesterday if I ever have any good news to report. Sure. Here’s some even from a tragic situation–the recent Touhoku Earthquake..
The “DEBITO’S PUBLICATIONS” site is a list of things I’ve ever had published in independent/vetted journals, newspapers, etc., plus speeches, interviews, and the like. Please click on this link: www.debito.org/publications.html Updated as close to publication dates as possible, the site contains the following categories: PUBLISHED BOOKS JOURNALISTIC PUBLICATIONS ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS INTERVIEWS CITATIONS IN ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS …
Here’s one way to avoid the accusation that foreigners in Japanese sports make events too boring: J.R. Sakuragi, a former NBA player known as J.R. Henderson, has become a Japanese citizen and will play for the Japan National Team in the FIBA Asian Championship, which begins on July 28 in Tokushima…
1) BLACKLIST UPDATES: HOKKAI GAKUEN & CHUUGOKU U. ICU GREENLISTED
2) JAPAN TIMES: LABOR ABUSES AT AKITA INT’L UNIVERSITY
3) YOMIURI: MOJ BARS NIKKEI BRAZILIAN FROM VOLUNTEER POLICE WORK
4) J WEDDING FUNDS OFF-LIMITS TO FOREIGNERS, er, NON-FAMILY MEMBERS
5) JAPAN’S ODD TOURISM POLICY: YOKOSO JAPAN AND MONEY LAUNDERING
6) TPR ON KYUUMA, CUMINGS ON DPRK, TAWARA ON EDUCATION LAW
7) JAPAN FOCUS ON AMENDMENTS TO BASIC LAW OF EDUCATION
8) FOREIGN POLICY MAG ON GOJ AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
and finally…
9) UPCOMING SPEECH AT TOKYO UNIVERSITY ON UNIV. BLACKLIST, MONDAY, JULY 30
Asahi on wanted criminal suspect Alberto Fujimori Diet candicacy: “[W]e are surprised at the news that a former president of a foreign country will run for the Upper House election. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, 68, decided to run as a proportional representation candidate of Kokumin Shinto (People’s New Party) for the July 29 election… But we definitely do not think [they have given] a good enough reason for anointing him as the party’s Upper House candidate….” Cyberspace commentary on what his case means for dual nationality in Japan also blogged.
Japan Times Community Page column 36: “The bellwether of any country’s internationalization is the altered composition of the school population. Many of Japan’s immigrant children are becoming an underclass, deprived of an education for being born different than the putative ‘Japanese standard’.”
Japan Focus academic website: “Much criticism of the amended education law has focused on statements clearly privileging the state over the individual; that is, statements affirming civil liberties still appear, often unchanged, from the original version, but are often undercut and diluted by new language. Perhaps more importantly, however, what makes the amended version of the law appear less a legal document than an expression of authoritarian will is not so much what is said, but how it is said. That is, the language of mystique and belief makes the very notion of individual rights seem anachronistic at best. For this reason the amended version is not a reflection of a democratic and constitutionally law-driven society but resembles in content and in intent the Edict, a product of a wartime regime.”
NPA denies medical treatment to Nigerian in custody with broken leg, latter becomes crippled. Nigerian plaintiff sues, but Tokyo District Court rules against him. Also overrules Plaintiff’s friend’s witness testimony invalid because he is African, an Plaintiff’s doctor’s medical opinion on the egregiousness of Plaintiff’s injuries as “not rational”. Fact is, coupling this lawsuit outcome with the McGowan “I don’t like black people” Osaka Eyeglass Store Case, not only do NJ increasingly have different standards of evidence in J courts, but now The NPA clearly can do pretty much whatever they want to NJ in custody, even if it causes permanent damage. Case is under appeal.
So much for YOKOSO JAPAN: “During this summer’s trip, I was unable to cash $1000 or two $500 travelers checks at a bank in a single day, as the banks have set a Y100,000 limit on cashing travelers checks in Japan. I was shown the new requirement that all banks were to observe this limitation beginning 1 January 2007. This is very strange as these same banks ‘sell’ $1000 denomination travelers checks to Japanese to use outside Japan. The only way to cash these checks was to show proof that you had a permanent address in Japan. What Japanese person or foreigner needs to use travelers checks in Japan?” Immediate answer from the authorities also included.
Hi Blog. More labor abuses coming out at Gregory Clark‘s Akita International University (he’s vice president, after all; see his nice welcoming message to the world here). As catalogued yesterday in the Japan Times Community Page. Article also includes some lessons about what you can do about employers of this ilk. Suggest you stay away …
Yomiuri: The Shizuoka Probation Office has given up its bid to appoint a second-generation Brazilian of Japanese descent as a probation officer, after it received a Justice Ministry opinion indicating that foreigners may not be commissioned to exercise public authority. Probation officers are part-time, unpaid central government officials entrusted by the justice minister. The ministry said it is “problematic” to commission foreign residents as probation officers because some of their responsibilities involve exercising public authority. Even though the Shizuoka Probation Office invited karate school operator Tetsuyoshi Kodama, a second-generation Brazilian of Japanese descent, who is experienced in dealing with non-Japanese youths, to become a probation officer and stem youth crime. Nationality Clause and Chong-san Lawsuit defeat strike again.
Chugoku Gakuen University and Junior College in Okayama, for refusing to promote NJ faculty solely on the basis of nationality, and Hokkai Gakuen University in Sapporo, for demanding PhDs for terminal term-limited contracts with heavy workloads and low pay (yet require no similar qualification from Japanese applicants to the same department, who even get automatic non-contracted academic “tenure”), get added to the 100 Blacklisted Japanese universities who have discriminatory hiring practices. Meanwhile, International Christian University near Tokyo shows proof positive that they not only tenure people regardless of nationality, but even have a functional tenure review process, and get moved from the Blacklist to the Greenlist for the first time in the Blacklist’s ten-year history.
A friend sent me details about his wedding gone wrong: Halfway through the prep, the financing company (“Life Angel”) affiliated with the chapel tells him that they only loan substantial amounts to those listing families as Guarantors. Neither he (a NJ) nor his fiance (a naturalized Japanese) have family in Japan, so now they’re stuck. Worse yet–what about others in Japanese society–such as orphans, elderly, or even people on the outs with their family? Just another one of those arbitrary rules (especially when other Guarantor situations, such as mortgages, auto loans, or even marriages themselves, do not require family-member Guarantors) which has the effect once again of interfering with assimilation of NJ into J society.
Three marvellous podcasts I got a lot out of: Garrett DeOrio at Trans Pacific Radio, regarding former Defense Minister Kyuuma’s recent remarks about the WWII atomic bombings; Bruce Cumings, an expert on Korea, speaking in February 2004 at the University of Chicago, on “Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth about North Korea, Iran, and Syria”; and another UChicago talk delivered May 17, 2007 by Tawara Yoshifumi, Secretary General of the Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21, on “Japan’s Education and Society in Crisis”.
Since the Japanese population is declining, the government needs to come out and make clear that we do need and value foreign workers. Once that is recognized, the government should examine which areas are lacking and estimate how many workers we need. It also should pass legislation to enable immigrants who complete Japanese-language training programs and vocational training courses to enter the workforce as full-fledged workers. Some people worry that too many foreign workers would lead to lower wages for Japanese workers or steal jobs away. If a foreign worker is more competent or better trained than a Japanese, then naturally they will get hired first. But to assume that a foreigner should work for less than a Japanese is outright discrimination. And as long as the principle of “equal pay for equal work” is observed, the situation will not adversely affect the labor market.
Hi Blog. May seem only tangental to the bent of Debito.org, but Constitutional Reform (and the processes thereof) underpins everything, particularly the processes through which we work in Japan’s civil society, we try to get done here. Constitutional reform has since gotten bogged down in the whole pensions scandals, and Abe’s decreasing popularity affecting late-July …
1) FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN
2) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR LABOR AND CRIME PROBLEMS
3) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR SCHOOL PROBLEMS
4) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR MILITARY PROBLEMS
5) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR SPORTS PROBLEMS
6) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR SHIPPING PROBLEMS
7) HOW THE GOJ INTENDS TO DEAL WITH IT:
RIOT POLICE, CHECKPOINT CHARLIE, AND SHORTENED VISAS
“A total of 9,607 foreigners, mostly Asians, ran away from job training sites in Japan between 2002 and 2006 in an apparent attempt to look for better working conditions elsewhere, according to the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau… The tatemae (given reason) of the Trainee Worker program run by JITCO is to bring workers from developing countries to Japan to learn Japanese techniques that they can later put to use back home. The honne (real reason) of the program is to legally let small and medium Japanese companies import cheap labor. According to a recent series of articles in the Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese public for the most part still buys the tatemae explanation, even though the media has been reporting for years that many foreign trainees come to Japan for the express purpose of making money.” More horror stories to add to the stew…
Eric Johnston of the Japan Times writes on NOVA and the Eikaiwa Industry scams finally being cracked down a bit by the government, and sends a thank you to the people on Debito.org mailing lists who helped him out a bit with some quotes.
Ikuno-ku Osaka police/related agencies have posted on cars leaflets warning people about the evils that foreigners get up to (including long-nosers fraudulently marrying our women…). Some ideas on what to do about it from The Community.
Asahi reports that in Nagamizo, Iwata City, Shizuoka Prefecture, residents, fearful that they would be inviting crime to their neighborhood, blocked an attempt by a third-generation Japanese-Brazilian man to buy land on which to build a house. In the end, the man was forced to purchase property elsewhere because the realtor failed to fulfill its obligation to act as an intermediary, while the GOJ organ entrusted to deal with this kind of problem just wrung their hands…
The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force plans to move officers with foreign spouses away from posts with access to military secrets after sensitive data was leaked through an officer with a Chinese wife, the Sankei Shimbun reported Wednesday, June 28, 2007. Cyberspace feedback from someone who has experienced the SDF institutional distrust of NJ spouses included.
High school sport associations in Japan have introduced tough restrictions on foreign students because they are apparently trouncing the Japanese athletes in sports such as the ekiden relay marathon, basketball and table tennis. This follows in the mould of a longstanding similar rule in the Kokutai National Sports Festival. And once you have one prominent exclusionary rule, it’s legitimized enough for others to copycat…
Most recent Sumo Banzuke shows that nearly a third of all the top-ranked Sumo wrestlers in Japan are now foreign born, not to mention both of the two at the top rank of Yokozuna. And there are more coming in the lower ranks. Glad to see that Sumo has opened up significantly since the bad old days, as one of the world’s most exclusive sports, once inextricably linked to nationality (“kokugi”), has opened itself up to this degree. Phenomenon bears brief mention on Debito.org, with comment from 3YEN.COM about Sumo’s recent recruiting difficulties.
CAROLINE POVER WRITES: “In support of Lindsay’s family and the Japanese police in their hunt for this man, I am launching a T-shirt campaign. I hope that enough people – men and women, Japanese and foreign – will wear this T-shirt so that this man’s face is seen by as many people as possible in Japan, on a daily basis.” Buy one through the contact details blogged here.
“There seems to be a lot of trouble surrounding couples where an older Japanese man has married a young Southeast Asian woman who’s come to Japan to make some money,” an education insider says. One teacher approached a Japanese father and spoke of how his wife, who worked as a nightclub hostess and saved whatever she could while living in squalor in Japan so she could build a palatial home in her native country. The teacher, pointing out that Japan is living through an age of internationalization, encouraged the father to help his child learn Tagalog, the native tongue of his mother’s homeland, the Philippines. The teacher was shocked by the father’s response. “There’s no need to do that,” the teacher tells Sunday Mainichi the 60-something Japanese father said. “If Japan had won that war, they’d all (Filipinos) be speaking Japanese by now.”