www.debito.org
GRASSROOTS LOBBYING IN HOKKAIDO, APRIL 2001
Canvassing political parties in Japan
By Arudou Debito
(Originally sent to Friends, The Community, HIBA, UMJ lists, Issho, and Shakai
April 15, 2001)
This report is a personal view of what it's like to raise political awareness
of a social problem in Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. As a preliminary series
of findings and impressions, it focusses upon one particular lobbying drive (April
16, 2001) by one person visiting the offices of Japan's four major political parties.
It is not meant as a definitive guide to the atmosphere and attitudes of Japan's
elected political networks, but rather as one person's attempt to make sense of what
he saw, moreover possibly provide guideposts for others who anticipate raising social
problems with their local representatives. Organized thus (click if you want
to skip down):
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QUICK BACKGROUND: Why I'm bothering to do this
1) VISITING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY (Minshutou)
2) VISITING THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY (Jimintou)
3) VISITING THE COMMUNIST PARTY (Nippon Kyousantou)
4) VISITING THE "CLEAN GOVERNMENT" Party (Koumeitou)
PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS AND ADVICE TO FELLOW ACTIVISTS
/////////////////////////////////////////////
QUICK BACKGROUND
Why I'm bothering
Japan is, ostensibly and constitutionally, a democracy, with elected representatives
going to a bicameral legislature (the Diet) modelled much on the British Parliament.
As a long-term resident of Japan with voting rights (thanks to naturalization),
I decided that one particular social problem warrants consideration for a law: racial
discrimination in Japan. After experiencing racial discrimination firsthand at a
series of Hokkaido bathhouses and other enterprises (full background at http://www.debito.org/otarulawsuit.html),
who for years have refused service to customers they view as foreigners, many people,
human rights groups (such as Issho Kikaku, http://www.issho.org)
and I decided from 1999 to increase local awareness of the problem and bring administrative
pressure to bear. Unfortunately, the bureaucrats' mantra has been, "discrimination
of this type is unconstitutional but not illegal", meaning that there is no
national (or local) law in Japan forbidding exclusion by race. "Take it to
court," they said, and we have, but court decisions are case-by-case judicial
rulings, not laws, and thus do next to nothing to prevent further discrimination
against other individuals by different establishments. So the push for a law continues.
After our lobbying of local legislatures resulted in their refusal to pass (or even
draft) our proposed anti-discrimination ordinances, I decided the next step would
be lobbying the political parties in general, to see where their sympathies lie.
I hoped that by pointing out the spreading problem in Hokkaido, the fact that Japan
is the only OECD country without any anti-racial discrimination law, and that our
country has been under UN treaty obligation to establish one since 1996, impetus
might overpower inertia. Nothing ventured...
Now, why choose local (as opposed to national) offices of political parties as the
target audience? I confined lobbying efforts to Sapporo, Hokkaido's largest city,
because: 1) Exclusion by race is a national problem, but its local egregiousness
warrants local attention. 2) It has been receiving that attention: local press
coverage of our court case and its ripples has been widespread, thorough, and increasing.
My contacts at the TV networks indicate their ratings jump (once by a factor of
seven for that time slot) any time they feature the onsens problem, and subsequent
feedback in both their electronic and paper fora is heavy. Consequently, people
know who we are, and that opens more doors and grants audiences. 3) We are local
residents, which gives us some degree of added legitimacy; some critics, looking
for any axe to grind, have said they dislike activists from outside Hokkaido parachuting
in and pontificating for their own interest group's publicity. The fact that we
live here and our families are affected strengthens our voice. Moreover, 4) we simply
don't have the wherewithal to fly down to Tokyo and lobby the Diet. Other Tokyo-based
groups, like Issho Kikaku, IMADR (http://www.imadr.org),
and Tokyo Alien Eyes (http://www.annie.ne.jp/~ishn),
have already visited national Diet members and given lectures on the subject. Bravo.
But technically speaking, a representative system is structured to allow people
to lobby their national representatives locally ("all politics is local",
remember--even in porkbarrelling Japan)--which is why they have offices up here.
Most of these offices are supported by the four major political parties. Thus,
even with a naive and Frank Capra-esque hope that influencing party policy may influence
all levels of government--local, regional, and national--I set out to talk to each
party headquarters in Sapporo. You have to start somewhere.
A week before going, I let my networks of activist friends, supporters, and reporters
both overseas and domestic what I was planning, inviting them if they had time and
inclination. It would be completely voluntary, the only expense being shoe leather.
I got a number of "ganbattes" but predictably few takers (April 16 was
a Monday, a work day, but the party offices would be open). I did however receive
plenty of press inquiries, and kept them appraised of a schedule as it firmed up.
I also received permission from Issho Kikaku to present a model anti-racial discrimination
bill (houan, at http://www.issho.org/kinshiho-modelbill.html
(English) and http://www.issho.org/kinshiho-modelhoan.html
(Japanese)), and would state as per their request that I was presenting as concerned
individual, not an Issho representative.
I also called each political party one week before dropping by, told them my business,
and made an appointment. Things quickly fell into place. As I said, they knew who
I was, and of course the reception I received was quite different (or indifferent)
based upon what I perceived as party sympathies.
1) VISITING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY (Minshutou)
KITA 4, NISHI 6, HOKKAIDO GOVERNMENT HQ
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2001, 11:30 AM
This party gave me the most runaround. Throughout the month of March (March 3
to 23, to be exact), I negotiated to meet Minshutou's party leader, Mr Hatoyama Yukio,
who just happens to represent Hokkaido. Contacting his office is not difficult--it's
in the phone book--but talking to one of his aides (a Mr Okuno) was a pill. I requested
to see Mr Hatoyama next time he came up to Sapporo (sometime in March), but twice
the aide did not keep his promise to respond to my requests within a week. Turns
out he wouldn't even pass the proposal on to Tokyo. It wasn't until a couple of
journalists with inquiring minds started phoning that he started to take me seriously,
and give me a serious rejection. Not a good start.
When I gave up on Hatoyama and called to meet Minshutou in general, things understandibly
got a bit easier. Still, the party was uncertain with the unusualness of my request
(how many citizens show up on their doorstep with a law for them to consider?) to
whom to hook me up with: the Sapporo City Council people, the Hokkaido Government
people, or to our Diet rep and former Hokkaido Governor Mr Yokomichi (they chose
Mr Y). This melee of disorganization ultimately turned out to be a providence, because
after a few days of them playing catch-ball, they asked me to show up right after
a general meeting that just happened to be on that Monday, and in attendence would
be Diet Shuugiin (House of Reps) Nakazawa Kenji.
It is amazing how fast these things happen. On April 16, I showed up early with
two local TV networks, HBC and TVH, and gave a couple of preliminary interviews in
front of their building. Reporters from Jiji Journal, Doshin, and Mainichi Shinbun
also showed. At 11:20 (which was a pity, for about five minutes later a couple of
supporters came and couldn't get in), one of the party's junior secretaries came
down to escort me up to the spanking-clean offices of Sapporo Minshutou. The cameras
slurped up as much atmosphere as possible before a number of political aides surged
forth, ran me through a meishi gauntlet, and escorted me into a meeting room which
just minutes before was filled with smoke-filled negotiations. It was a squeeze:
well over half of the floor space was taken up by a square of connected desks, and
people had to walk the perimeter single file just to get about. I was plunked at
a table facing Dietman Nakazawa, who was flanked by two Hokkaido Assemblymen and
a party general (what a coup!). Everyone was within tackling distance, but even
the basic formality of a handshake had to wait as we couldn't get to each other--the
flanking cameras blocked all access (glad we didn't have a fire drill). We struggled
to pass meishi across the central no-man's land between the desks, and with that,
the cameras whirred as I spoke for about fifteen minutes.
It was a well-oiled speech you've probably already heard in various spins. And while
I don't mean to sound like I'm "talking up" the receptiveness of the audience,
I must say that I got a lot more nods and questions than I anticipated. When I broached
the subject of our not receiving so much of as a response to our anti-discrimination
"chinjou" (petition for the establishment of an ordinance, see http://www.issho.org/BENCI/hokkaidochinjou.html),
submitted to the Hokkaido Assembly exactly a year ago, they said Minshutou had never
received it and would investigate. When I showed a photograph of sandwich man, advertising
the Gold Coast Casino in Shinbashi, Tokyo as "Japanese Only", I think Mr
Nakazawa got an idea of just how widespread the problem is (he made sure to photocopy
the pic). And when I mentioned our kids, I think that was where he understood our
motivations (which matters if you ever want these people to emote). For what parent
would want his kids to suffer inequities like these? To me individually afterwards,
and to the cameras in a postmortem interview, Mr Nakazawa stressed that this problem
is serious and must be dealt with--probably with legislation.
It was, in the end, a very lucky and reassuring meeting. I had seen just how disparate
the views within Minshutou were when we lobbied their Otaru Assemblypeople in April
2000 (they would do nothing to help us, and were irritated that we even bothered
to ask). As Minshutou is these days a polyglot of Liberal Democrat and Socialist
Party defectors, we can only wait and see where this highly-fragmented party will
take the issue.
2) VISITING THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY (Jimintou)
HOKKAIDO PREFECTURAL ASSEMBLY BUILDING, 1:00 PM
The Liberal Democrats (LDP) seem far more organized. No wonder. Having been
the ruling party for almost all of the postwar years (save some confusing times during
The Occupation when SCAP was rigging things, and a brief interlude in the 1990's),
they have enjoyed the longest essentially unbroken party leadership in the industrialized
world. With that has come insider relations, pork, staying power in a society which
places high value on precedent, and access to the Americans' M-Fund to slush and
shush up their accounts (See Norbert Schlei, in ASIAN PERSPECTIVE Vol 24, No 4, 2000).
The point is that despite their "liberal" moniker, I would classify them
as "conservative" (in the sense of "desiring to preserve the status
quo"), because it's in their interests to keep things just as they are.
Now I was going to chat with them. After a lunch of kaiten sushi (Note to activists:
never eat sushi when canvassing--the soy sauce makes you too thirsty to talk, and
any attempts to quench your thirst just distract you later on when you really gotta
go), I met a young Mr Imai in the genkan of Doucho. Its PR machine was efficient,
for when I called LDP HQ the previous week for an appointment, it was granted after
only five minutes of explanation--the first fixed star in my schedule. The party
seemed on top of things. They also seemed on top of the issue.
The cameras (again HBC, TVH, and this time STV) showed and I was brought upstairs
to the office of LDP Hokkaido Prefectural Assembly Rep Satou Tokio. It turned into
a very unexpected encounter.
With the cameras spinning I spun into my speech again, but five minutes awhirl later
I could see he was not interested. He interrupted with his own take on the problem
(all paraphrased from a hazy memory). "What do you want to do today?"
Me: "I want to give you a model anti-racial-discrimination law for your party's
consideration."
"Quite frankly, I'm not interested in establishing a law against this. It's
not racial discrimination anyway. It's a matter of communication breakdown."
"Sorry?"
"You foreigners, those Russians, those people who don't know Japanese customs
and bathing rules. They made all this trouble and it's no wonder why Japanese customers
stay away and why bathhouses forbid them. No law is going to change those attitudes
until you foreigners learn how to follow our rules."
"I'm sorry, Mr Satou, but I am not a foreigner. I am a Japanese. I am also
not a Russian sailor. Nor are our children. But we are being barred based upon
our looks and not our behavior, and..."
He was not in a listening mode. "And look at the behavior of those Russians.
They're smuggling in drugs and guns, getting drunk and running wild around our towns.
It's the Russians that are the problem, and the laws you want aren't going to fix
that."
"I repeat, I am not a Russian sailor. I have no connection to those people
whatsoever. The onsens are having problems, yes, but by shutting us out they are
punishing innocents."
The conversation went on like this for about 30 minutes, with both of us talking
past one another: him firmly seeing it as a problem that better communication, not
laws, would and should fix, and me saying that the future of our country is multicultural
and multiracial and laws must exist to protect us. It was fascinating for the cameras,
which I could see out of the corner of my eye recording all of this like spectators
at a tennis match, bobbing back and forth. The best smash from Mr Satou, which I
let pass without comment, was:
"Japan doesn't need laws. Once our country didn't have laws. Everything was
done on mutual understanding. That's the way this problem should be fixed. We don't
need laws."
That caused bent necks all around, even from Mr Imai sitting next to Mr Satou, and
the cameras got it. At the end, I managed to get his acknowledgement that this activity
was "discrimination" (although later he tried to backpedal on that too),
but that he didn't feel that race had anything to do with it. He also was uncertain
why his party should be concerned.
Me: "Because you are the legislative branch. If it's discrimination as you
just admitted, it's a social problem. Dealing with social problems by making laws
is your job. Please take this law and consider it."
***********************
Believe it or not, Mr Satou and I parted on amiable terms. As we shook hands,
I likened this exchange to "Asa Made Nama Terebi" (the occasional debates
in the wee hours of the morning on controversial topics), which he laughed at. I
(quite honestly) told him that I enjoyed our frank exchange of views, and hoped that
we could debate this again sometime. Because it is only when people drop the tatemae
and really have their innermost views debated and answered are things going to get
moving, I believe. And he did formally receive the model law, for whatever reasons.
Walking out, I decided to check up on unfinished business, stopping by the Sougou
Iinkai Jimushou where we had been told to submit our Hokkaido Assembly chinjou last
year. Buttonholing to the only remaining secretary there who remembered me (a bureaucrat
in his late forties), I heard him say:
"Your chinjou is still being deliberated upon. Sorry we didn't notify you.
We don't usually."
"But the political parties say they haven't received it."
"No, they wouldn't have. Individual members on the Sougou Iinkai have, though.
They will be deliberating on it." For how long? "An indefinite amount
of time."
"And how long does this session have before this bill gets thrown out?"
Two years, he said, until the next election.
"So this chinjou has, in effect, been buried in committee. Right?"
Both the secretary and the laughed at the directness. "I wouldn't say that.
But it's not up to me. Just doing my job." And we said our goodbyes there.
Me, to Mr Imai: "Tough job, this politics. Winners and losers everywhere."
He smiled. "It's a pity this onsen problem has gotten to the point where laws
are necessary."
3) VISITING THE COMMUNIST PARTY (Nippon Kyousantou)
NIPPON KYOUSANTOU, HOKKAIDO HQ
KITA 6, NISHI 7, 2:00 PM
The Japanese Communist Party (JCP), believe it or not, is the oldest continuously-running
political party in Japan. It was founded on July 15, 1922--not long after the Russian
Revolution! For thorough details on the JCP's origins, history, party machinery,
and sympathies, see the Japan Policy Research Institute's Working Paper No 67 (http://www.jpri.org/jpri/protected/wp67.html--
passworded, sorry) by Peter Berton. So if anything, I was visiting a political party
more "traditional" (as opposed to "conservative") than the LDP.
And it was visible from the first moment I laid eyes on the Sapporo JCP HQ.
Tucked in behind a huge building that looked about maybe 10-15 years old (i.e. old
for an office building in Japan) was an much older four-story rainbleached grime-mongering
edifice straight out of a Dostoyevsky book. The JCP HQ. It certainly hadn't been
painted in my lifetime, and the only reason it looked reasonably bright was due to
the backdrop of battleship-grey concrete JR rail flyovers. It was a banner's length
from a low-rent neighborhood, where even the rail overpass land is so far away from
any train station that it's unmarketable even for parking--so the homeless sleep
under there in tents. The JCP (and most labor union buildings in Japan, for that
matter) sticks to their traditional paradigm of dinginess and un-opulence for political
reasons. It Roskolnikovs the atmosphere very quickly. It was only after I found
the doorside JCP plaque (with rust beards dribbling down the corners and the walls),
behind trucks servicing the political printing company next door, that I knew I had
come to the right place.
Walking in, I found a person in half-mufti sitting behind a corner-glass security
booth, who took my details down and dialed upstairs (rotary phone, of course) to
my appointmenter, Mr Itakura. Meanwhile, I asked to use the loo and soon regretted
it (the toilet was visibly cleaner than the sink). And it wasn't until I was escorted
into the drab, featureless conference room (with a trickle of sun through a greasy-feeling
window that kept out light but let in cold and noise) that I would really take in
what kind of a party the JCP was.
No press had bothered to attend, so I gave my speech rather unceremoniously to Mr
Itakura, who was accompanied by some other gent who didn't bother to bring a meishi.
They agreed with me, in toto, and took the model bill. No bones in this ice cream.
That was it. Nothing more to say. Except for the fact that when I asked, Mr Itakura
would offer no sense of when the JCP would begin to draft or push.
"All we can do here from Sapporo is send this to the Central Committee (yes,
"chuo iinkai" in Japanese) and report that this was received. We need
a decision from them before we can do anything. But please understand that there
is no guarantee that this will be taken up as a topic."
Really, that was it. I walked out of the JCP wondering exactly what it was up to.
And the next few days would would truly confound and affirm some niggling doubts.
My impression of the JCP had been good and hopes high. For many years, I had respected
its ability to make arguments which made logical sense. To get votes, the lawyerly
and scholarly reps within would appeal to reason and principle, not nationalism or
just plain warm-fuzzy sound-truck "yoroshikus". I thought the Communists
were the Devil's Advocate the Japanese polity needed. Moreover, it seemed to be
on our side. The JCP was the only party which voted "yes" on our Otaru
City Assembly chinjou before it got buried in committee. And they never made any
bones about this problem being racial discrimination.
However, the more I began asking JCP types to participate in other pushes, the greater
things diverged. Let me digress a little to make my point clearer.
Last week, April 16-22, was a busy one. After this Monday lobbying session, I had
a Thursday speech at a local city Internationals Relations Committee, a Saturday
roundtable with our town councilors, and a Sunday speech in Otaru on the onsen mondai.
All went just fine, but it was Saturday's doings which required the most preparation.
For I was hosting our biannual symposium on town issues, as chair of the Nanporo
Chihou Bunken Forum. As such, I was trying to get all sixteen of Nanporo's councilors
to attend and give their impressions on two big problems currently facing our little
town of Nanporo (http://www.nanporo.com): 1)
the Nanporo golf resort (http://www.debito.org/d3s.html),
and 2) government-run housing developer Juutaku Kyoukyuu Kousha (whom our town is
actually subsidizing to the tune of 20 million US dollars a year, giving them a loan
without collateral and absurdly paying 0.25% of their interest cost. The organization
is technically bankrupt, and if it goes under so does our "loan". It's
a long story. Let me know if you want a separate report on this.)
Anyway, we got the mayor to attend and a sparse two councillors to show up (we still
had a great time--see newspaper article with photo at http://www.debito.org/doshin042201.jpg
if you don't believe me). But as chair it had my job to coax more to come. I wound
up calling each and every one of the councillors once, some even twice or three times,
just to find out if they were coming and to poll their views. I've been doing this
for three years now, and even now that they know who I am, after I finish talking
to some of these unctuous and slippery lips I just want to take a shower. They still
don't seem to grasp that as reps they are accountable to their electors, and that
at least answering "yes" or "no" to an invitation from an established
citizens' group is just good manners.
But here's where the JCP comes in. Only three of the town councillors are affiliated
with political parties (getting elected to a town doesn't usually require a party
machine--here you only need 200 votes, so most people would rather remain unaffiliated
and get elected by their friends). One is the Koumeitou "Clean Government Party"
rep (who was at least friendly in his refusal this time, since some of my friends
are Souka Gakkai and are making it clear they regret voting for him). The other
two are from the JCP.
When I called Mr Kumaki, the male JCP councillor, he said unequivocably that he would
come. But when I finally reached the female JCPer, Ms Nanbu, she said, "The
JCP has already made our stance clear in writing at the last town assembly. We have
nothing more to say. We should listen more to the voice of town citizens and get
their input before saying more."
That begged the question. So I said, "That is why you should come to this meeting.
This is where the voice of town citizens can be heard. We've had two other meetings
of this type before, and you have never attended. We'd like to hear what you as
assemblypeople have to say about what should be done."
She said, "I have nothing to say as an individual. I can only speak as a JCP
party member. We have made our voice clear in writing in the last assembly. I will
not speak in public otherwise."
"But I am asking everyone's views about these two topics. Others have answered.
What are yours?"
"I cannot give you my views over the telephone."
"If you prefer writing, won't you give me a FAX stating your views? We will
read it at the meeting."
She said she would but never did. The next day, Mr Kumaki called my wife (he wouldn't
talk to me directly) to say that neither he or the JCP would be attending the forum.
Reasons left unknown. When I called the Nanporo contact number for the JCP (provided
me by our town hall), I found it had been disconnected.
This was where I realized that these people really were following one of the worst
excesses of Leninist-Stalinist ideology: "democratic centralism" (essentially,
where ideas are channeled upwards, but when decisions are made from above, they are
expected to be followed by people below without further question). This reliance
on Central Committee decisionmaking is precisely what squashes individuals from taking
any individual actions, and it is arguably one of the more intolerant measures ever
fostered by Communism. Very disappointing indeed. With these and other public displays
of unity redolent of North Korean Kims, I think I finally understood why many Japanese
don't trust the JCP.
But I have been watching this pattern emerge for about a year now. Last May, we
asked each political party in a pre-general-election survey (http://www.issho.org/BENCI/seitouchousa.html)
how they viewed the onsen mondai and what measures they would take against racial
discrimination. I found it suspicious when the JCP responded by saying that anti-discrimination
legislation must be left to the localities. That is precisely how these things get
snagged in committee. The situation I see is that the JCP just doesn't want to alienate
voters with a blanket policy or national law. Same as all parties, but the JCP had
hitherto always seemed to be claiming otherwise. So much for principles. And if
these principles moreover muzzle members from giving their opinions without central
permission, it begins to feel, well, deeply undemocratic.
4) VISITING THE "CLEAN GOVERNMENT"
Party (Koumeitou)
KITA 1 NISHI 19. 3:30 PM
It was the last whistlestop on my tour, so I walked the three kilometers to the
Koumeitou HQ in the glorious sunshine which fellow plaintiff Olaf would claim God
provided me specially for my trouble. It was an opiate for my mass. Now that I
was out of the anti-media zone, HBC and STV TV cameras reappeared to lift me out
of my funk, filming me walking down the streets and expending shoe leather (they
seem to find Frank Capra inspiring too). It would be a pleasant way to round off
the day, for Koumeitou was simply not going to ruin it.
The Koumeitou is the political branch of one of Japan's "New Religions",
the Souka Gakkai ("Value-Creating Association"--to me, highly nutshelled,
the Japanese equivalent of the Mormons). Described by Reischauer in THE JAPANESE
(1981 version) as "by definition disadvantaged urban dwellers" and "a
nucleus for a protest vote" (pg 318), Koumeitou is also a party with "strong
centralized structures" and "slightly totalitarian overtones in the manipulation
of its faithful religious support by a closely organized leadership" (pg 321).
Now, this may be the Cold War talking, since Reischauer was quite politically aware
when serving as Japan-handing interlocutor to the West. But I generally agree with
him when he says (when inter alia referring to the JCP) that "such tight organizational
skills are also frightening to the average Japanese, who see signs in the party of
Japan's authoritarian past" (ibid).
But Koumeitou in the 2000's was doing its best to dispel that image. In the nice
sitting room with nice chairs over a nice cup of tea, I met a Mr Aokiyama, a senior
aide in the Hokkaido HQ. His sweater and elderly manner made me feel like I was
talking to Fred Rogers of Mr Rogers' Neighborhood. His manner during my standard
speech was nice, his platitudes were nice, his response was nicely in complete agreement,
and his lack of any promises at all were nicely understandable. Things were so nice
the cameras didn't bother to stay to the end. I handed the law over and our meeting
was over in fifteen minutes.
It was clear that Mr Aokiyama's job was to make people feel like they were being
listened to--not alienate a potential voter or league of supporters. "And I
bet if you said you would change your religion and bring in lots of new members",
said my joking neighbors over beers a few nights later, "their ears would really
have perked up." Sure enough, the record demonstrates Koumeitou has been one
of the more ardent supporters of voting rights for Permanent Residents--since many
of them are Souka Gakkaied. But to me it is unclear whether this will extend to
a nicer law for a nicer society for everyone, regardless of religious convictions.
PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS AND ADVICE TO FELLOW ACTIVISTS
Y'know, I don't really know what to conclude from all this; I feel like Director
David Fincher trying to choose an ending for his movie SEVEN. I have had an interesting
glimpse (but again, only a glimpse) into the attitudes of four major parties, and
yes, to be honest, I don't know whom I can trust. If the next general election were
held tomorrow, I would feel the same confusion the average Japanesevoter, who hasn't
been told by his relatives or employers whom to vote for, must feel. In a political
domain where tatemae is seen as atarimae, where being too honest is a show of unintelligence
(cf. "baka shoujiki"), where the disenfranchised really are so and those
enfranchised enjoy long traditions of smoke, mirrors, and strings, it is disappointing
to think that our legislative futures are up to people who feel this unaccountable
to the electorate. To be sure, some of these elements are in every advanced industrial
country, and it is far worse for most of the world's population. But it's just hard
to believe in Capraism and "one person making a difference" at this particular
juncture.
However, the press has been very supportive. The defanging nature of the Japanese
Press Club system notwithstanding, it has been an extensive network of local journalists,
who believe that we are doing the right thing (and have found a way to market it),
that has truly opened the doors and brought some accountability into the equation.
It started in September, 1999, when five years of Otaru City complacency towards
discrimination in their precinct was shattered by a group of foreign friends, their
families, and one talented journalist who got things past his editors. Now it has
expanded to include all facets of the media and a large pool of trust and press hounds--a
social miracle I as a foreign-blooded citizen never envisoned happening.
This is the only real avenue for the activist I can see. Since very few people up
here see the need or justification for street demonstrations, citizens-group lobbying,
or even the politicization of issues where political avenues are supposed to exist,
the only way to get the public talking and to bring pressure on the veto gates is
to get it in the Japanese press. Make no mistake--when the Japanese press decides
to be a watchdog, it can topple giants as big as Tanaka or Takeshita. But convincing
it of its watchdog role (especially when the biggest newspaper in Japan is the Yomiuri--which
ignores problem after problem and seems to see criticism of Japan as counterproductive)
for one issue after another is an enormous task. Not one that Frank Capra could
easily direct into a two-hour movie.
I very rarely end an essay on a downbeat note, but let's be realistic. I can see
that this is going to be a long, long road that I will have to map, and the destination
is unclear indeed. I will keep you posted and compassed as far as I can. I still
believe that one person can make a difference. We shall see if I am right.
Arudou Debito
Sapporo
April 25, 2001
Copyright 2001-2007 Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle, Sapporo, Japan
