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Debito.org Update: Addition to “What to do if…” site: Evictions

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Addition to the What to do if… artery site up at Debito.org, now containing advice from people in the know on what to do if you’re threatened with eviction from your abode (answer: stand your ground–they can’t evict you without a court order in Japan). Plus additional advice courtesy of the Japan Times, September 25, 2007, regarding union support, unpaid wages, Immigration/Visas and employment, redundancies, and unemployment insurance.

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCT 13, 2007

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

1) FINGERPRINT LAW REVISIONS: CONFUSION, OUTRAGE, AND AMNESTY INT’L
2) JAPAN’S ANTI-TERROR: GOVT PROFITEERING & USER-FRIENDLY SNITCH SITES
3) LAWSUITS: ZAINICHI KOREAN VICTORY, VIETNAM WORKERS VS TOYOTA
4) UPCOMING SPEECHES OCT 22-27 IN WASEDA, TOCHIGI & KYOTO
5) IDUBOR CASE: HEARING OCT 18, BEERS AT THEIR YOKOHAMA BAR OCT 2O …and finally…6) METROPOLIS’S MARK DEVLIN: “JUST LET THE DAMN JAPAN TIMES DIE”

The GOJ Anti-Foreign, er, Anti-Terrorist Movement keeps on rolling

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

We live in interesting times, where the GOJ is attending “Anti-Terrorist” profiteering exhibitions, making their internet “snitch sites” more user-friendly, and then reinstituting fingerprinting policy in ways designed to make life more difficult for NJ residents trying to return here. Surreal excerpts from online sources.

Chosun Ilbo: Korean sues for apartment refusal, wins in Kyoto Court

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Chosun Ilbo: A Kyoto court ruled partially in favor of a Korean woman who sued a Japanese landlord for refusing to rent a room to her. A Kyoto district court ruled that refusing to rent a room to a person due to her nationality is illegal and ordered the landlord to pay the woman W8.65 million (US$1=W916) [about 110 man en, pretty much the average award in these lawsuits] in compensation.

Shuukan Kinyobi/J Times: Vietnamese worker lawsuit against JITCO & Toyota-related company

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Hi Blog. Another lawsuit against an employer for bad work practices. This time around, however, the plaintiffs are NJ. Let’s hope their efforts both make the labor laws more clearly enforceable, and highlight more of the problems created by treating NJ laborers as inferior. Thanks to Shuukan Kin’youbi and people at the Japan Times for …

What to do about fingerprint law: letter of protest, Amnesty Int’l meeting Oct 27

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Lots of frustration out there about the upcoming reinstitution of fingerprint laws. This blog entry offers an assessment of what can be done about it. Not much, but not nothing. Organize through Amnesty Int’l/SMJ this October 27, even crib from two protest letters included. Civil disobedience is not out of the question, either. Details here.

Ignore recent news articles: Non-Zainichi Perm Residents WILL be fingerprinted

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Some recent news articles and foreign government translations of Japanese announcements indicate that “long-term” or Permanent Residents will NOT be fingerprinted at the border from November 20, as per newly-promulgated anti-terrorism laws. This is incorrect. Yes they will, according to the MOJ even as of this morning.

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCT 4, 2007

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

1) JAPAN TODAY ON NOVA EIKAIWA MELTDOWN
AND LABOR UNIONS ON WHAT TO DO UNDER LABOR LAW
2) FOLLOWUP ON JAPAN TIMES’ FINANCIAL PROBLEMS: STATS
3) JAPAN TIMES: REINSTATEMENT OF FINGERPRINTS DEBATE
4) ECONOMIST: EDITORIAL ON ANTI-TERROR VS CIVIL LIBERTIES
5) BLOOMBERG OFFERS OVER-ROSY ASSESSMENT OF J IMMIGRATION
6) FOLLOW-UPS: J CHILD ABDUCTION ISSUE AND IDUBOR CASE
7) SPEECH OCT 8 AT OSAKA UNIVERSITY SUITA CAMPUS

…and finally…
8 ) HOKKAIDO NIPPON HAM FIGHTERS WIN PENNANT! AGAIN!

Bloomberg on J economy: refers to J immigration from China

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Mr Feldman of Morgan Stanley Japan: “Immigrants are now really welcome… I see a very large number of Japanese people very much welcoming young, eager, aggressive people who want to come to Japan and make their lives there. We have now between 400,000 and 450,000 foreign-born workers in Japan. That’s not a huge number. But most of these are very young people, a huge number are from China… And quite interestingly, until a couple of years ago, there was a lot of talk in the media in Japan about crime coming in with these foreign workers. You see almost no discussion of that anymore. I think the immigrant groups have proven themselves to be very hardworking, very good citizens, and that’s helping the image of immigration.” Er, really?

J Times debate on reinstating fingerprinting for NJ

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Sorry to have missed this debate on reinstating fingerprinting for NJ only in the Japan Times Community Page last June. Since cyberspace is quite incandescent with outrage over the November revisions to the laws, are the pros and cons, by two friends of mine, Scott and Matt. Comment and links to historical articles charting this policy for years in the pipeline also included.

Japan Today/Kyodo: Japan remains haven for parental abductors

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

As a result of the increasing number of international marriages, more than 21,000 children are born each year in Japan to couples of mixed Japanese and non-Japanese descent. Add to that the number of children born to Japanese who live abroad and are married to a non-Japanese. What becomes of these bi-national children when the parents separate or divorce?… There are no exact figures on how many children have been abducted to Japan. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports 46 American children have been kidnapped to Japan since 1995. That number grows considerably when factoring in children of other countries and cases that were either dropped or never reported. Furthermore, the U.S. government has no record of even a single case in which Japan has agreed to return an abducted child by legal means to the United States.

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 28, 2007

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

1) PREGNANT NJ WOMAN REFUSED TREATMENT AT 5 HOSPITALS 7 TIMES. IN 2006!
2) BIOMETRIC DATA MACHINES AT NARITA ONLY COME NOV 2007
(NJ FACE FINGERPRINTING IN THE GAIJIN LINE IN ALL OTHER AIRPORTS)
3) AMNESTY INT’L/SMJ FORUM ON NEW GOJ FINGERPRINT LAWS OCT 27 TOKYO
4) IDUBOR CASE AND THE DANGERS OF OVEREMPOWERING THE PROSECUTION
5) FUJIMORI FINALLY GETS HIS–EXTRADITION BACK TO PERU
6) NOVA EIKAIWA FINALLY GETS THEIRS–ADVICE FOR TEACHERS IN LIMBO
7) YOMIURI: FIRST TENET OF PM ABE’S “MORAL EDUCATION” PLAN SHELVED … and finally
8) STARS AND STRIPES: KOREAN-STYLE ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION

Protest Sept 29 re Monkashou’s Okinawa History Revisionism, Okinawa Convention Center

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Coming up tomorrow, Saturday, Sept 29, from around 3:00 P.M. there is to be a general protest (kyoukasho kentei shuudanjiketsu) staged at the Okinawa Convention Center over MEXT’s attempt to rewrite history regarding the Japanese military’s policy of encouraged civilian “mass suicides” during the Battle of Okinawa. MEXT is pushing the view that it never happened. Scores of Okinawans who were there and witnessed it say it did.

Mainichi: Pregnant NJ woman rejected by 5 hospitals 7 times, in 2006!

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Mainichi: A foreign woman seeking medical help in Japan after giving birth at home was rejected by five hospitals where officials said her Japanese wasn’t good enough and they didn’t have proper facilities, authorities said Thursday. The incident happened in August 2006, but was reported in Japan only after a similar thing recently happened to a Japanese too.

Excellent Economist editorial on anti-terrorism measures and civil liberties

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Excellent article in The Economist this week regarding anti-terrorism measures and the erosion of civil liberties. How the pendulum has begun swinging back. As a twenty-year reader of The Economist, I’ve noticed a constant editorial slant favoring market-based solutions to just about everything, and the comcomitant (but wan and blinding) hope that the more politically-conservative elements of governments in the developed economies would follow their preferred course. Hence their often backwards-bending support of the current administration in the world’s most powerful economy, which has long demonstrated a pursuit of power for its own (and its cronies’ own) sake. Now, after struggling for years to come to terms with (and offering conditional, but certainly evident, support for) the American curtailment of civil liberties (enabling other countries, such as Japan, to take pages from their book and create policy rendering all foreigners suspicious as terrorists), this week’s Economist finally comes down against the erosion. Bravo. Now if only Japan’s opinion leaders were as intelligent and outspoken about the flaws in Japan’s new anti-terrorist and foreign-crime targeting regime…

Japan Times Community Page on NOVA Eikaiwa, and Advice for Teachers

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Japan Times Community Page reports: Nova is on the rocks, and the rosy forecast from the man at the helm of the Osaka-based “eikaiwa” behemoth may not be enough to reassure members of the 7,000-strong Nova crew — including some 5,000 foreigners — that the company isn’t sinking as Japan’s biggest conversation school chain plans to abandon at least 200 of its 900 branches, according to reports. Advice on what to do if you are a NOVA employee also blogged, courtesy of the Japan Times.

Nov 07 Immig Law: New Biometric machines only at Narita. Every other airport fingerprints NJ every time.

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Martin Issott reports: The new automated gate system for proocessing biometric data (read fingerprints etc., being enforced on foreigners only) will only be established at Narita and at no other International airport in Japan until processing via this system has been perfected and, very ominously, “when funds are available” to provide the system at other International airports. Resident foreigners entering Japan at other airports will be required to join the queue with all arriving visitors and to provide their fingerprints and photograph on every entry and re-entry into Japan.

Amnesty Intl Tokyo Symposium Oct 27 on

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Public lecture you might be interested in. Arudou Debito ********************************************************************** Symposium organized by Amnesty International Japan and Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ) Toward further control over foreign nationals? Japan’s anti-terrorism policy and a Japanese version of the “US-VISIT” program ********************************************************************** Date: Saturday, 27 October Time: 14:00 – 17:00 At: 9 Floor, KOREAN YMCA (YMCA …

Fujimori finally gets his–extradition to Peru

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Former President Alberto Fujimori returned to Peru on Saturday to face charges of corruption and sanctioning death-squad killings, a grim homecoming for the strongman who fled the country seven years ago as his government collapsed in scandal. He was flying to Peru under police custody Saturday, a day after the Chilean Supreme Court ordered his extradition on human rights and corruption charges.

京都「イスラーム世界フェスティバル」は外国人お断り

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

一昨日、友人からの連絡があり、「９月３０日京都にてのイズラーム教祭に行こうとしたが、予約を受けた代表に『貴方はムズリム（イズラム教の信者）ですか。』と聞かれました。『違います』と言うと、『それなら、外国人客はお断りです』と言いました。外国人は外国人を断ると大変皮肉を感じております。」

Kyoto Islamic Festival refuses foreigners, accepts Japanese Only

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

An Islamic festival taking place in Kyoto on Sept. 30 is open to Muslims and Japanese only, according to their director, a Mr. Selim. Muslim Aly Rustom comments on his feelings of how unIslamic this actually is. I comment on how even the holder of the venue, the Kyoto City International Foundation, is washing their hands of any responsibility–even though public places in Japan cannot refuse taxpayers even if they are foreign.

Yomiuri: “Moral education upgrade” proposal shelved

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Hi Blog. Yomiuri reports that one tenet of former PM Abe’s “Beautiful Country” master plan has been withdrawn since his resignation–that of upgrading moral education. Good. I opposed this because these sorts of things, such as teaching (and grading) “patriotism”, would leave Japan’s children of international roots in a bind–how can they “love” Japan “properly”, …

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPT 16 2007

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

1) GOJ’S HUMAN RIGHTS SURVEY WITH ODD QUESTIONS
2) NEW JUSTICE MINISTER TO GET TOUGH ON FOREIGNERS AGAIN
3) UN NEWS: UN PASSES RESOLUTION ON RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
4) UN NEWS: UNHCR URGES HUMAN RIGHTS REVIEW OF EVERY COUNTRY
5) TPR NEWS: SHASETSU COLUMN ON SNAFU AT MOFA
6) LETTER FROM GRASSROOTS UYOKU, DISRUPTERS OF AUG 31 MOFA MEETING
7) “ISSHO KIKAKU REP” TONY LASZLO IN COURRIER JAPON
8) FUN FACTS FROM SEIDENSTICKER’S “TOKYO RISING”

and finally…
9) ACTIVIST REBECCA WALKER ON THE “IDENTITY POLICE”

Letter from “Grassroots Uyoku” which disrupted MOFA meeting on UN CERD

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Here’s a translated letter from one of the “grassroots uyoku” groups which obstructed the Aug 31 meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hearing arguments and feedback for the GOJ’s next (long overdue) report to the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination. They of course put on halos and claim that the NGOs denied them their democratic rights…

Fun Facts #8: Stuff gleaned from Seidensticker’s “Tokyo Rising”

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Been stampeding through the late Edward Seidensticker’s book TOKYO RISING, and these are some fun facts that popped up for Debito.org: On the unaccountable Tokyo police, their targeting of the sangokujin, and Japan’s postwar prosperity kickstarted by the Korean War. Very quick review of the book at the very bottom too.

J Times on new Justice Minister Hatoyama Kunio

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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.

GOJ Cabinet’s odd survey on human rights 2007

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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.

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 8, 2007

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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

J Today/Shuukan Shinchou on Ikebukuro Police’s “Gaijin Hostess Hunt”

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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.”

Japan Times on Asashoryu and the National NJ Blame Game (UPDATED)

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Two recent Japan Times Community Page articles (one co-written by friend James Eriksson) discuss how Sumo wrestler Asashoryu might be being scapegoated by the Japan Sumo Association for its own excesses, and how Japan is trying too hard to blame the NJ community for social problems no longer limited to crime: Try military security, education, sports uncompetitiveness, even shipping! Updated to include Doreen Simmons KTO essay on Asa with comment.

Transcript of disrupted MOFA Aug 31 07 hearing blogged

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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.

REPORT: Right-wingers disrupt Aug 31, 2007 MOFA meeting on CERD

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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.

COUNTERPOINT: Sumo’s Scapegoating of Asashoryu

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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…

Japan Times Aug 14 on Valentine Case, plus new JT column Aug 28

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Japan Times article on the Valentine Case, which came out August 14, 2007: Japan Times column 37: “ABUSE, RACISM, LOST EVIDENCE DENY JUSTICE IN VALENTINE CASE: Nigerian’s ordeal shows that different standards apply for foreigners in court”. Plus news on new JT column 38, coming out next week Tuesday.

Summer Tangent: EW on the “Giving ‘The People’ what they want” fallacy

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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…”

TPR on why the passage of HR 121, “Comfort Women” Resolution, is not a bad thing

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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…

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 9, 2007

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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

Hiroshima Peace Foundation Director Steven Leeper’s odd views on NJ in Japan

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

Normally I would proclaim “congratulations” at the momentous appointment of a non-Japanese to be director of an important Japanese institution–particularly when said institution is tasked with an issue the GOJ brings up constantly in its untiring quest for uniqueness in the world stage (“the only country in history ever to be bombed by nuclear weapons”). But Steven Leeper, the newly-appointed director of the Hiroshima Peace and Culture Foundation, is proving to be a historical curator with an odd attitude not only towards history, but also towards non-Japanese in Japan (a category he still falls into, of course)…

TPR podcast on NJ Labor Market and Duran Duran

Posted on by Dr. Debito Arudou

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…