OTARU ONSENS UPDATE JANUARY 16, 2001
TAKING OTARU'S YUNOHANA ONSEN TO COURT

HOKKAIDO SHINBUN MAKES LAWSUIT INTENTION PUBLIC ON JAN 16
(sent to various mailing lists on Jan 16, 2001)

Hello All. A group of international plaintiffs (including one Japanese--guess who) have formally decided to sue one bathhouse continuing its "Japanese Only/No Foreigners" exclusionary policy for racial discrimination.

This is what was reported on the front page of the Hokkaido Shinbun this morning, then fortified with a second article within on page 28. Translations follow.

What is not mentioned in the articles is that the legal papers will officially be served at the Sapporo District Court on February 1, 2001, with a press conference immediately following at 11AM.

Further details upon request. Now for the articles:

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TOWARDS A LAWSUIT AGAINST AN OTARU BATHHOUSE
BROUGHT ABOUT BY FOREIGNERS REFUSED ENTRY
(otaru no yokujou teiso e, nyuuyoku kyohi sareta gaikokujinra)

Hokkaido Shinbun Jan 16, 2001, front page
(translation by Arudou Debito)
Original article jpegged at
http://www.debito.org/doshin011601-1.jpg

Refused entry into an Otaru bathhouse for not being of the Japanese race (Nippon minzoku), an American-born university lecturer, who received Japanese citizenship last October, made clear his intention to sue on January 15. Based upon violations of both the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Japanese Constitution, he intends to raise a civil suit demanding damages (songai baishou) in the Sapporo District Court.

According to the plaintiff's lawyer Itou Hideko, this the second case in Japan, the first being a 1998 case of a Brazilian woman in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, who [successfully] sued under the Convention for being refused at a jewelry store. It is the first case in Hokkaido.

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The plaintiffs are Arudou Debito (American name, Dave Aldwinckle), 36, a resident of Nanporo, Hokkaido, and a number of other non-Japanese who were also refused entry. Citing emotional duress from unfair racial discrimination (futou na jinshu sabetsu), they are demanding an appropriate amount of compensation and a public apology in the newspapers.

When Arudou and co. went with several friends and family to enter the bathhouse, they were refused entry on the grounds of being foreign. They visited [NB: for a tete-a-tete, that is] the same bathhouse on several occasions, but even after Arudou obtained Japanese nationality, the onsen refused him entry, saying, inter alia, "In the eyes of a Japanese, you are a foreigner."

As to why he decided to sue, Arudou said, "Even if people are of different races and appearances, we have build a society where everyone can live together."

Also, in addition to Arudou is an American man living in Sapporo who is considering raising his own civil suit against the same onsen.

The head manager of the onsen commented, "We haven't looked closely at the details of the suit, so we cannot make a statement at this juncture."

Several years ago there were cases of Russian sailors getting drunk, entering the onsens and raising a fuss, causing Japanese customers to stop patronizing them. This is why some bathing facilities refused entry to foreigners.

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Background on the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination:

This international convention forbids all discrimination based on race, skin color, or ethnic origin etc. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1965, but due to Japan's discrimination against Burakumin and Ainu peoples, Japan had a difficult time coordinating efforts to adopt it. After thirty years, Japan approved it in 1996 with partial reservations (ichibu ryuuho). In 1998, for the first time under the convention, a Brazilian woman thrown out of a Hamamatsu jewelry store for being foreign took the store to court claiming damages in a civil suit. The Shizuoka District Court issued a decision entirely in her favor.

FRONT PAGE DOSHIN ARTICLE ENDS
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SECOND DOSHIN ARTICLE

OTARU CITIZENS' QUESTIONABLE SENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
THE CITY REMAINS A BYSTANDER, NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT
(towareru shimin no jinken kankaku gyousei wa boukan, susumanu kaiketsu)

Hokkaido Shinbun Jan 16, 2001, page 28
(translation by Arudou Debito)
Original article (with photo) jpegged at
http://www.debito.org/doshin011601-2.jpg

It has been about a year and a half since the Otaru Exclusionary Bathhouse Problem surfaced. While the city sits on its hands (te o komanuku), on Jan 15 an American-born university lecturer took steps to bring this case to court, leaving the solution in the hands of the judiciary. Up for judgment are the claims that "If foreigners come, Japanese will not like them and won't patronize our establishment.", the fact that it's not only the bathhouse industry which continues to exclude, and what the Japanese, confronting the wave of internationalization, sense of human rights will be.

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The move to exclude foreigners from a number of Otaru bathhouses started several years ago. The occasion was the drop in their Japanese customers due to the bad manners of Russian sailors visiting Otaru. But if they had refused only Russians, this would have been "blatant discrimination" (rokotsu na sabetsu), so they refused all foreigners.

Non-Japanese residents of Japan fought against this. After Otaru's problem was exposed, other situations surfaced, such as stores with "Japanese Only" restaurants/drinking establishments (inshokuten) in Monbetsu City, and bathing facilities refusing service to foreigners in Wakkanai City.

Otaru, which aims to be an international city, in December 1999 distributed leaflets in Russian explaining bathing manners to sailors, and set up a 24-hour hotline for assistance from city employees in case of trouble. However, the exclusionary onsens continued their policies.

However, in the face of this backlash from non-Japanese residents, some bathing facilities started softening their policies to let in foreigners if they were not drunk. Even then, some onsens continued to exclude. Complaints from those who changed their policies: "Why are we the only ones who had to open our doors to foreigners and brave the hardships?" (ukime ni au)

This time, the university lecturer who decided to sue, Arudou Debito, gave his reasoning behind his decision: "There will be a lot more people with Japanese citizenship in future who look foreign, so I couldn't just let this pass." (nobanashi ni suru)

Last January, 2000, Otaru Shouka Daigaku sponsored a forum to think about this problem. Coordinator Professor Funatsu Hideki, 34, a specialist in International Economics, commented about the case:

"This is a problem that should have been resolved between the people concerned, Otaru citizens, and the city government. It's a pity it had to come to a lawsuit. Since the root of the problem is in the feelings of the citizens, the city administration should have sent out a clearer message that it will bring an end (kaishou) to discrimination."

SECOND DOSHIN ARTICLE ENDS
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Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle
Sapporo, Japan

OTARU ONSENS UPDATE JANUARY 16, 2001 ENDS