mytest

Hello Blog. Collating a bunch of media to track a very interesting issue:

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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MARCH 13, 2007
SPECIAL EDITION
THE “COMFORT WOMEN” ISSUE, PM ABE, AND THE MEDIA:
SUPPORTING THE HOME TEAM AT ALL COSTS
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By Arudou Debito (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org)
March 13, 2007, freely forwardable
If this newsletter comes out garbled (darn “smart quotes”), full text blogged at
https://www.debito.org/index.php

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SUMMARY: Japan’s Prime Minister Abe has a long history of being a historical revisionist, coming out in full bloom recently with the “Comfort Women” sexual slaves issue of WWII. What’s interesting his how Abe’s Cabinet could not contain the gaffes, to the point where he comes off as a denier and a prevaricator–especially in the face of survivors testifying in the US Congress (after decades of lack of success in Japanese courts for redress). As articles included in this newsletter demonstrate, he gets deeper in trouble the more he says, then blames the media for “misunderstandings” and clams up. Then flunkeys from the LDP and the Foreign Ministry get to work on spin control, going abroad to contain the damage, getting the J media to make this into a domestic issue for public consumption, and redirecting the public eye back onto Japan’s perennial victimhood complex, by pouring tax monies into anti-North-Korean TV ads and the abduction issue. Meanwhile, his popularity keeps dropping, and people wonder if he’ll survive the next election in a few months. As people keep murmuring, Koizumi did it better.
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(All articles included in this report have been archived in full at
https://www.debito.org/?p=247)
Something I have found very interesting recently has been the development of the debate over the Comfort Women (ianfu), or rather, the women pressed into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

For those who have been living without media, our PM has been embarrassingly showing his true colors as a historical revisionist and atrocity denier. Although the Western media has hitherto mostly done puff pieces on him (Economist London Sept 28 06 Cover: “Assertive Abe”, Newsweek Japan Feb 5 07 Cover: “Akie Abe: Japan’s Jackie O”), very few got into the heart of the REAL Abe. The one I’ve been tracking for years now.

I’ve known for a long time that Abe had a nasty streak behind the doe eyes he loves to flash for the housewives. Witness the pressure he put on NHK to follow his revisionist agenda (which was only sporadically covered domestically, and hardly at all overseas):

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NHK stung by censorship suit appeal
Court links politics with deletion of Hirohito verdict in sex-slave program
(Japan Times Jan 30, 2006)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070130a1.html

The Tokyo High Court on Monday ordered NHK and two production companies to pay damages to a women’s rights group for altering the content of a documentary on a mock tribunal over Japan’s wartime sexual slavery The suit has been closely watched because the NGO claimed NHK censored or otherwise altered part of the 2001 program after being pressured by heavyweights in the Liberal Democratic Party, including Shinzo Abe, who is now prime minister, and Shoichi Nakagawa.
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(Japan Times Jan 7, 2006)
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070107rp.html
The political pressure put, in 2001, on NHK, the national broadcaster, by the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to excise portions of a program that would imply imperial responsibility for war crimes. Add to this the government ordering NHK in 2006 to broadcast information about the North Korean abductions in the service of the country.
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Fortunately, now the Western media has their peg to unzip the Abe Adminstration. Time Magazine was one of the first to break the story:

TIME MAGAZINE ARTICLE
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Japan PM Denies WWII Sex Slavery
By AP/HIROKO TABUCHI
Time Magazine Thursday, Mar. 01, 2007
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1595375,00.html

TOKYO: Yasuji Kaneko, 87, still remembers the screams of the countless women he raped in China as a soldier in the Japanese imperial army in World War II. Some were teenagers from Korea serving as sex slaves in military-run brothels. Others were women in villages he and his comrades pillaged in eastern China.

“They cried out, but it didn’t matter to us whether the women lived or died,” Kaneko said in an interview with The Associated Press at his Tokyo home. “We were the emperor’s soldiers. Whether in military brothels or in the villages, we raped without reluctance.”

Historians say some 200,000 women–mostly from Korea and China–served in the Japanese military brothels throughout Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. Many victims say they were kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops, and the top government spokesman acknowledged the wrongdoing in 1993.

[THE KOUNO STATEMENT ON THE COMFORT WOMEN ISSUE (August 4, 1993), FOR THE RECORD
Following is the text of the statement in English translation from the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Web site.
http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9308.html
Original Japanese at
http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/taisen/kono.html ]

Now some in Japan’s government are questioning whether the apology was needed.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday denied women were forced into military brothels across Asia, boosting renewed efforts by right-wing politicians to push for an official revision of the apology.

“The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion,” Abe said.

Abe’s remarks contradicted evidence in Japanese documents unearthed in 1992 that historians said showed military authorities had a direct role in working with contractors to forcibly procure women for the brothels…

Abe’s comments were a reversal from the government’s previous stance. In 1993, then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono apologized to the victims of sex slavery, though the statement did not meet demands by former “comfort women” that it be approved by parliament.

Two years later, the government set up a compensation fund for victims, but it was based on private donations–not government money–and has been criticized as a way for the government to avoid owning up to the abuse. The mandate is to expire March 31.

The sex slave question has been a cause celebre for nationalist politicians and scholars in Japan who claim the women were professional prostitutes and were not coerced into servitude by the military.

Before Abe spoke Thursday, a group of ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers discussed their plans for a proposal to urge the government to water down parts of the 1993 apology and deny direct military involvement.

Nariaki Nakayama, chairman of the group of about 120 lawmakers, sought to play down the government’s involvement in the brothels by saying it was similar to a school that hires a company to run its cafeteria.

“Some say it is useful to compare the brothels to college cafeterias run by private companies, who recruit their own staff, procure foodstuffs, and set prices,” he said.

“Where there’s demand, businesses crop up but to say women were forced by the Japanese military into service is off the mark,” he said. “This issue must be reconsidered, based on truth for the sake of Japanese honor.”…
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Then the New York Times chimed in:

NYT ARTICLE
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Abe Rejects Japan’s Files on War Sex
By NORIMITSU ONISHI, NEW YORK TIMES: March 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/world/asia/02japan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

…Mr. Abe’s statement was the clearest so far that the government was preparing to reject a 1993 government statement that acknowledged the military’s role in setting up brothels and forcing, either directly or indirectly, women into sexual slavery…

“There is no evidence to prove there was coercion, nothing to support it,” Mr. Abe told reporters. “So, in respect to this declaration, you have to keep in mind that things have changed greatly.”

The United States House of Representatives has begun debating a resolution that would call on Tokyo to “apologize for and acknowledge” the military’s role in wartime sex slavery.

But at the same time, in keeping with a recent trend to revise Japan’s wartime history, a group of conservatives in the governing Liberal Democratic Party is stepping up calls to rescind the 1993 declaration.

Mr. Abe, whose approval ratings have been plummeting over a series of scandals and perceived weak leadership, seemed to side with this group. A nationalist who has led efforts to revise wartime history, Mr. Abe softened his tone after becoming prime minister last fall. In fact, he first said he recognized the validity of the declaration, angering his conservative base…

…Nariaki Nakayama, the leader of 120 lawmakers who want to revise the declaration, said Thursday. “Where there’s demand, business crops up… But to say women were forced by the Japanese military into service is off the mark.”…

But in 1992, a Japanese historian, Yoshiaki Yoshimi, outraged by government denials, went to the Self-Defense Agency’s library and unearthed, after two days of searching, documents revealing military involvement in establishing brothels. One was titled “Regarding the Recruitment of Women for Military Brothels.” Faced with this evidence, the government acknowledged its role and issued the declaration.

But the response angered people across the political spectrum. The women and their supporters said that the government was not fully acknowledging its responsibility because the declaration was issued by Yohei Kono, then chief cabinet secretary, and not adopted by Parliament. It is known inside Japan simply as the “Kono Statement.”

What is more, supporters accused the government of evading direct responsibility by establishing a private, nongovernment fund to compensate the women. Many former sex slaves have refused to accept compensation from this fund.

But conservatives said the declaration went too far in acknowledging the military’s role in recruiting the women. While the documents showed that the military established the facilities, Mr. Yoshimi did not find documentation that the military had forcibly recruited the women. Conservatives have seized on this distinction to attack the declaration….
ENDS
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Then Abe began backpedalling as more came out in testimony by survivors before the US Congress (since the Japanese judiciary has essentially washed their hands of the issue):

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Japan PM will stand by apology over forcing Asian women to have sex with troops
CBS NEWS March 5, 2007 12:12am
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/04/ap/world/mainD8NL5RN80.shtml

…”Though there are many definitions of coercion, Prime Minister Abe has said that he will stand by the Kono statement,” said Hiroshige Seko, special adviser in charge of Abe’s public relations, referring to a 1993 statement issued by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono apologizing to the victims of sex slavery…

“He has not denied the statement,” Seko told a TV Asahi talk show. He did not attempt to explain the apparent discrepancies between the statement and Abe’s denial that coercion was involved.

“The fact is, there is no evidence to prove there was coercion,” Abe said on Thursday.

South Korea later lodged an official protest, accusing the leader of “glossing over the historical truth.” Rights activists in the Philippines also slammed Abe for labeling the slaves as common prostitutes….

But prominent Japanese scholars and politicians routinely deny direct military involvement or the use of force in rounding up the women, blaming private contractors for the abuses.
CBS NEWS ARTICLE ENDS

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Statement of The Honorable Michael M. Honda, Member of Congress
Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment
Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives
Hearing on Protecting the Human Rights of “Comfort Women”
Thursday, February 15, 2007
EXCERPT
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Now, nearly nine years after the passage of AJR27, I stand united with several of my colleagues in the House, from both parties, in support of H.Res.121 and the surviving Comfort Women who are here with us today. The urgency is upon this Committee and the Congress to take quick action on this resolution. These women are aging and their numbers dwindling with each passing day. If we do not act now, we will lose a historic opportunity to encourage the Government of Japan to properly acknowledge responsibility for the plight of the Comfort Women.

Elected officials of Japan have taken steps to address this issue, and for that they are to be commended. In 1993, Japan’s then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued an encouraging statement regarding Comfort Women, which expressed the Government’s sincere apologies and remorse for their ordeal. Additionally, Japan attempted to provide monetary compensation to surviving comfort women through the Asia Women’s Fund, a government initiated and largely government-funded private foundation whose purpose was the carrying out of programs and projects with the aim of atonement for the Comfort Women. The Asia Women’s Fund is to be disbanded on March 31, 2007.

Recent attempts, however, by some senior members of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party to review and even possibly retract Secretary Kono’s statement are disheartening and mark Japan’s equivocation on this issue. Additionally, while I appreciate Japan’s creation of the Asia Women’s Fund and the past prime minister’s apologies to some comfort women, which accompanied this Fund’s disbursal of monetary compensation from this fund, the reality is that without a sincere and unequivocal apology from the government of Japan, the majority of surviving Comfort Women refused to accept these funds. In fact, as you will hear today, many Comfort Women returned the Prime Minister’s letter of apology accompanying the monetary compensation saying they felt the apology was artificial and disingenuous.
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REST AT http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/110/hon021507.htm
More Congressional Record on this, courtesy of Matt Dioguardi’s Blog:
http://japan.shadowofiris.com/wwii/abe-says-comfort-woman-not-coerced/
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Once the government started saying one thing in the morning and contradicting it in the afternoon, Abe stopped backpedalling, clammed up, and blamed the media for the problem:

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Japan tries to calm outrage on sex slave issue, says no new apology
TOKYO, March 7 KYODO Courtesy of Club of 99

Japan’s top government spokesman on Wednesday reiterated that there will be no new apology regarding wartime sex slaves in response to a resolution pending in the U.S. Congress and that discussions on the “comfort women” issue should not continue any further in an “unconstructive” manner…

Shiozaki: “What we say in parliament on this issue is not always conveyed (by the media) accurately. It magnifies and spreads, and foreign countries react to that. The longer we continue this discussion, the more misunderstanding there is going to be… I think it better not to go on with this kind of discussion in a rather unconstructive manner.”

Shiozaki again stressed that the government continues to uphold a 1993 statement that acknowledged and apologized for the forced recruitment of so-called “comfort women.”

In an interview with Japanese media, Abe reiterated that he stands by the statement and added, “The U.S. resolution is based on a mistake of fact. It contains the misunderstanding that there was coercion, as in abductions carried out by the (Japanese) authorities. There was no such thing and I was just stating the fact that there have been no documents or witnesses of proof.”

“The U.S. Congress bill is not based on objective facts and does not take into consideration the (Japanese) government’s handling of the issue so far,” spokesman Shiozaki said. “Therefore, no new apology will be made in response to such a resolution should it be passed.”

Shiozaki insisted that Abe’s recent remarks did not contradict the so-called Kono statement…

This week, Abe further explained that there was coercion “in the broad sense” of the word, referring to private traders who recruited the women, but insisted that there was no coercion “in the strict sense,” as in military personnel taking women from their homes and putting them in brothels.

The more Abe and his spokesman Shiozaki try to explain the premier’s hair-splitting over the broad and strict definitions of “coercion,” the deeper it seems they find themselves bogged in a quagmire.

Cornered by reporters’ questions at an afternoon news conference, Shiozaki effectively retracted his remarks in the morning that the Kono statement stipulates “both the strict and broad sense” of coercion.

“As the prime minister has said many times in parliament, it was possible (the victims) felt pressure in the broad sense,” he said. “Issues in the narrow sense were by no means written in the Kono statement.”

The hawkish premier, who declared immediately after taking office last September that his administration will stand by the Kono statement, was once part of a group of lawmakers opposed to the 1993 document…

The premier also told reporters the government does not plan to get involved in setting up any organizations to carry on the activities of the Asian Women’s Fund after it is disbanded at the end of this month… ==Kyodo
ENDS
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Then the stories from the survivors began coming out…

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Denial Reopens Wounds of Japan’s Ex-Sex Slaves (Excerpt)
NYT March 8, 2007 By NORIMITSU ONISHI
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/world/asia/08japan.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

SYDNEY, Australia, March 7 Wu Hsiu-mei said she was 23 and working as a maid in a hotel in 1940 when her Taiwanese boss handed her over to Japanese officers. She and some 15 other women were sent to Guangdong Province in southern China to become sex slaves.

Inside a hotel there was a so-called comfort station, managed by a Taiwanese but serving only the Japanese military, Ms. Wu said. Forced to have sex with more than 20 Japanese a day for almost a year, she said, she had multiple abortions and became sterile…

Ms. Wu told her story on Wednesday outside the Japanese Consulate here, where she and two others who had been sex slaves, known euphemistically as comfort women, were protesting Tokyo’s refusal to admit responsibility for the abuse that historians say they and as many as 200,000 other women suffered.

All three Ms. Wu, who is now 90; a 78-year-old South Korean from Seoul; and an 84-year-old Dutch-Australian from Adelaide were participating in an international conference for Japan’s former sex slaves here. Now, just days after Mr. Abe’s remarks, the three were united in their fury.

“I was taken away by force by Japanese officers, and a Japanese military doctor forced me to undress to examine me before I was taken away,” said Ms. Wu, who landed here in Sydney on Tuesday night after a daylong flight from Taipei. “How can Abe lie to the world like that?”…

“Prime Minister Abe is in effect saying that the women are lying,” Representative Mike Honda, the California Democrat who is spearheading the legislation, said in a telephone interview. “I find it hard to believe that he is correct given the evidence uncovered by Japanese historians and the testimony of the comfort women.”

Japanese historians, using the diaries and testimony of military officials as well as official documents from the United States and other countries, have been able to show that the military was directly or indirectly involved in coercing, deceiving, luring and sometimes kidnapping young women throughout Japan’s Asian colonies and occupied territories…

Yet although Mr. Abe admitted coercion by private dealers, some of his closest allies in the governing Liberal Democratic Party have dismissed the women as prostitutes who volunteered to work in the comfort stations. They say no official Japanese government documents show the military’s role in recruiting the women.

According to historians, the military established the stations to boost morale among its troops, but also to prevent rapes of local women and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among soldiers.

Japan’s deep fear of rampaging soldiers also led it to establish brothels with Japanese prostitutes across Japan for American soldiers during the first months of the postwar occupation, a fact that complicates American involvement in the current debate…

The most direct testimony of the military’s role has come from the women themselves.

“An apology is the most important thing we want an apology that comes from the government, not only a personal one because this would give us back our dignity,” said Jan Ruff O’Herne, 84, who testified to a Congressional panel last month.

Ms. Ruff was living with her family in Java, in what was then the Dutch East Indies, when Japan invaded in 1942. She spent the first two years in a prison camp, she said, but Japanese officers arrived one day in 1944. They forced single girls and women to line up and eventually picked 10 of them, including Ms. Ruff, who was 21.

“On the first night, it was a high-ranking officer,” Ms. Ruff said. “It was so well organized. A military doctor came to our house regularly to examine us against venereal diseases, and I tell you, before I was examined the doctor raped me first. That’s how well organized it was.”

In Japan’s colonies, historians say, the military worked closely with, or sometimes completely relied on, local people to obtain women.

In Pyongyang, now the capital of North Korea, Gil Won-ok said, she lined up outside a Japanese military base to look for work in her early teens. A Korean man, she said, approached her with the promise of factory work, but she eventually found herself in a comfort station in northeast China. After she caught syphilis and developed tumors, Ms. Gil said, a Japanese military doctor removed her uterus…

SORRY TO END THE EXCERPT HERE. PLEASE SEE WHOLE STORY AT
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/world/asia/08japan.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
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So now it became deflection time. See next article. Launch a probe…? Even though groups within the LDP (which Abe once led) still refuse to acknowledge the important issue of who is responsible, and split hairs over what constituted “coercion”. No wonder that apologies from Japan, no matter how well-intentioned, soon become mooted…

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Abe endorses LDP probe into wartime sex slaves
JAPAN TIMES Friday, March 9, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070309a1.html

…Earlier in the day, an LDP lawmaker quoted Abe as saying the government would open a new investigation into the issue. The remark was made at a meeting of LDP lawmakers who adopted a resolution claiming that neither the wartime government nor the Imperial Japanese Army was responsible for “forcibly bringing” women to frontline brothels in the 1930s and ’40s. Abe was previously a director general of the LDP group.

But when asked if the government plans to take another look at the issue, Abe said: “I heard the party is going to study and investigate the issue. As for the government, we will cooperate in providing documents as requested by the party.”

Abe repeated that his government will continue to stand by the 1993 statement made by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono that admitted and apologized for the military’s involvement in forcing women into frontline brothels.

Abe declined comment on what kind of documentation or evidence the government would submit. “I don’t know about details yet,” he said.

In the resolution adopted Thursday, the LDP lawmakers’ association claimed its investigation showed that, despite the 1993 government statement, only private agencies forced women to work at the “comfort stations.”

The group admitted in a written statement that private-sector agencies did kidnap some women and forced them to work at their brothels, but it denied the government and army’s involvement in the process of “forcibly bringing” women to the military brothels…

The association, headed by former education minister Nariaki Nakayama, consists of 130 lawmakers, or nearly one-third of the 417 LDP lawmakers in both chambers of the Diet. The group handed the resolution to Abe Thursday afternoon.

Abe was once the director general of the association, which has long campaigned to push the education ministry to remove descriptions of “comfort women” from public high school history text books…
ENDS
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Next day, more blame game:

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Abe won’t explain sex slave remarks, accuses media of being inaccurate
Japan Today/Kyodo News Friday, March 9, 2007 at 19:41 EST
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/400829

TOKYO Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday declined to give further explanation of his recent remarks on wartime sex slavery, saying such discussion would be ‘unproductive” and accusing the media of being “inaccurate.”

“At this very sensitive time when it is difficult to have my remarks conveyed correctly, I believe discussion here will only become extremely unproductive,” said Abe…

“Last time I answered questions on this issue, my remarks were not conveyed or reported accurately, so I believe it to be the right political judgment not to spread this any further,” Abe told reporters at his office when asked if he intends to provide an easier-to-understand explanation…

The New York Times issued an editorial on Tuesday harshly criticizing Japan’s “efforts to contort the truth” and published a front-page article on the experiences of survivors in its Thursday edition… (Kyodo News)
ENDS
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That NYT editorial:

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No Comfort
THE NEW YORK TIMES Editorial March 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/opinion/06tues3.html
What part of “Japanese Army sex slaves” does Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, have so much trouble understanding and apologizing for?

The underlying facts have long been beyond serious dispute. During World War II, Japan’s Army set up sites where women rounded up from Japanese colonies like Korea were expected to deliver sexual services to Japan’s soldiers.

These were not commercial brothels. Force, explicit and implicit, was used in recruiting these women. What went on in them was serial rape, not prostitution. The Japanese Army’s involvement is documented in the government’s own defense files. A senior Tokyo official more or less apologized for this horrific crime in 1993. The unofficial fund set up to compensate victims is set to close down this month.

And Mr. Abe wants the issue to end there. Last week, he claimed that there was no evidence that the victims had been coerced. Yesterday, he grudgingly acknowledged the 1993 quasi apology, but only as part of a pre-emptive declaration that his government would reject the call, now pending in the United States Congress, for an official apology. America isn’t the only country interested in seeing Japan belatedly accept full responsibility. Korea and China are also infuriated by years of Japanese equivocations over the issue.

Mr. Abe seems less concerned with repairing Japan’s sullied international reputation than with appealing to a large right-wing faction within his Liberal Democratic Party that insists that the whole shameful episode was a case of healthy private enterprise. One ruling party lawmaker, in his misplaced zeal to exculpate the Army, even suggested the offensive analogy of a college that outsourced its cafeteria to a private firm.

Japan is only dishonored by such efforts to contort the truth.

The 1993 statement needs to be expanded upon, not whittled down. Parliament should issue a frank apology and provide generous official compensation to the surviving victims. It is time for Japan’s politicians starting with Mr. Abe to recognize that the first step toward overcoming a shameful past is acknowledging it.
ENDS
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This was echoed in a leader by The Economist London and an Op-Ed in the LA Times:

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NO COMFORT FOR ABE
The Economist London, March 8, 2007
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_RRTVDVS

“…Is he deaf?… The past is your country too… [S]ix decades on, deliberate amnesia is unworthy of modern, democratic Japan. Shame on you, Mr Abe.”
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LOS ANGELES TIMES OP-ED, March 6, 2007
Japan can’t dodge this shame
By Dinah L. Shelton, professor of law at George Washington University.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-shelton6mar06,1,5075385.story
…In 2000, the Tokyo District Court dismissed a case brought by 46 former sex slaves from the Philippines who accused Japan of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The court wrongly decided that “crimes against humanity” were not part of international law at the time. In 2001, a reparations claim by South Korean women who had been held as sex slaves failed in the Hiroshima High Court on the similarly erroneous grounds that coerced sex wasn’t illegal at the time.

However, there is a strong case to be made that the Japanese government does owe the women damages. Rape and kidnapping were crimes in Japanese law at the time and should have led to prosecutions of soldiers committing them. Moreover, despite the ruling in Tokyo District Court, the notion of crimes against humanity goes back to 1904, and such crimes were indicted after World War I and successfully prosecuted after World War II. On top of that, Japan had joined in four international treaties that barred sexual trafficking in women and forced labor: the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (1921), the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic (1904), the International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic of 1910 and the Agreement on the Abolition of Forced Labor (1930). In 1999, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions invoked these treaties and requested the International Labor Organization to rule that the women held by Japan in official brothels constituted forced laborers. The ILO Committee of Experts upheld the claim, despite Japanese contentions that the agreements did not apply to “colonial territories” such as occupied Korea. But the ILO had no power to order relief.

The Japanese government cannot be sued outside Japan because it has immunity from prosecution as a foreign state. Attempts by surviving women to sue in U.S. courts were dismissed on these grounds. Even if the victims were to surmount this “sovereign immunity” defense, they might run into problems with the peace treaties that ended World War II. For example, the 1951 U.S.-Japan peace treaty “recognized that the resources of Japan are not presently sufficient, if it is to maintain a viable economy, to make complete reparation” for damage and suffering. Japan has argued that this provision and others in peace treaties with some of its Asian neighbors and European powers closed the door on reparations claims by former prisoners of war, “comfort women” and other victims of Japanese atrocities and that nothing is owed anyone today. However, several provisions in the peace treaties suggest that reopening the issue of reparations might be possible, and advocates should look carefully at the texts. Still, it seems no court is likely to cure the injustice; Japan has a moral and legal obligation to do so.
ENDS
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Finally, the wagons circled and “Team Japan” took effect…

Interesting articles on how the LDP, the MInistry of Foreign Affairs, and the Japanese media has been trying to manage the spin, in effect turning this international issue of historical justice into a domestic political one.

I wouldn’t be surprised if before long the sex slaves and their supporters are accused of “Japan bashing”…

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RESPONSE TO THE LA TIMES OP-ED FROM THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT
Japan has atoned for transgressions
LA Times Letter to the Editor March 11, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-sunday11.4mar11,1,5857043.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Re “The shame Japan can’t dodge,” Opinion, March 6

Let me set the record straight.

In 1993, the government of Japan acknowledged the involvement of former Japanese military authorities in the “comfort women” issue and expressed apologies and remorse to those who endured immeasurable pain and incurable wounds.

In 1995, the Asian Women’s Fund, which extended payments to women as a form of atonement and implemented medical and welfare projects, was established with the cooperation of the government and the Japanese people.

Since then, payments have been accompanied by letters from prime ministers saying: “We must not evade the weight of the past, nor should we evade our responsibilities for the future. I believe that our country, painfully aware of its moral responsibilities, with feelings of apology and remorse, should face up squarely to its past history and accurately convey it to future generations.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that there has been no change in the position of the government of Japan.

KAZUO KODAMA
Consul General of Japan in Los Angeles
(thanks to NHK 7PM news March 12, 2007, for notifying me)
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MEDIA MIX
Female foreigners are OK in Japan, so long as they’re not Asian
The Japan Times: Sunday, March 11, 2007 By PHILIP BRASOR
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20070311pb.html

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s refusal to apologize anew for Japan’s sex-slave policy during World War II has a different meaning in Japan than it does abroad…

Overseas, Abe’s remarks made headlines and has provoked anger from those who say that the Japanese government has yet to own up to the sex-slave policy and is backtracking into denial. In Japan, Abe’s remarks have been buried in articles about Diet business or stuck at the end of TV news reports. The media see them as part of a strategy for Abe to appear more assertive in response to weakening public support for his administration.

These reports rarely address the sex-slave issue itself. The Japanese media continue to use the euphemism “comfort women” to describe the sex slaves and have generally stopped discussing it as anything except a point of historical contention between Japan and certain groups outside of Japan. To the Japanese public it’s a nonissue.

Abe can split hairs over the definition of “coercion” and claim that there is no evidence of government involvement in the forced recruitment of sex slaves because he knows the local press won’t challenge him. During that famous mock tribunal held in Tokyo in 2000, where international legal experts put the wartime government on trial for its sex-slave policy, plenty of testimony and evidence was given to show that the government had indeed forced women from Korea, Taiwan and other Asian countries into frontline brothels. But that episode has since been turned into an entirely different matter of coercion–one having to do with whether or not the ruling party put pressure on NHK to water down its coverage of the tribunal. In other words, it was turned into a local issue.

Knowing what it knows about the behavior of soldiers and the suffering of innocents during wartime, the world looks upon Abe’s remarks as being cold and cynical–since they intensify the pain and humiliation of the surviving sex slaves, who couldn’t care less about the semantics of “coercion.” The Foreign Ministry has said that Abe’s remarks were “incorrectly conveyed” to the world and will attempt to educate the overseas media on “the real meaning of Japan’s position.” This transparent stab at spin control will fail because, in the end, Abe cares less about what the world thinks than about what his supporters think. And the media is willing to go along with it….
===========================

Japanese Prime Minister angers victims of wartime sex slavery
THE INDEPENDENT (London) Published: 09 March 2007
By David McNeill in Tokyo
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2341358.ece

…[T]he issue has galvanised the Japanese right, who deny government involvement. “The women were legal prostitutes in brothels,” Nobukatsu Fujioka, a revisionist academic, said. He is one of the leading figures in a movement that aims to overturn much of the accepted wisdom about what took place during Japan’s rampage across Asia in the 1930s and 40s.

Twelve out of 18 members of Japan’s cabinet belong to a political forum that wants to “rethink” history education and backs many of Professor Fujioka’s views. His Society for History Textbook Reform has sold 800,000 copies of a revisionist history book that denies war crimes such as the comfort women and the Rape of Nanjing. Before coming to power, Mr Abe was one of the society’s supporters.

The revisionist denials are refuted by many Japanese historians. “The military decided when, where, and how ‘comfort stations’ were to be established,” Yoshiaki Yoshimi, a professor of history at Tokyo’s Chuo University, said.

Former Japanese soldiers have also testified to their involvement in the wartime rape of Asian women. Hajime Kondo, who was stationed in China from 1940-44, recalled kidnapping a woman in Shanxi Province and taking turns with his comrades in raping her. He said the thought that gang rape was wrong “never occurred” to him until he had his own family.

The deniers, however, have grown stronger since a 1993 statement by chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono that the military was directly involved. That statement has never been accepted by the right. Now, with the prospect of a US Congressional resolution calling on Tokyo to “formally apologise and accept historical responsibility” for the comfort women, a delegation of LDP politicians is to travel to the US to lobby for the resolution to be quashed.

Mr Abe’s supporters say his plummeting approval ratings have forced him to go for broke. “If he is true to his beliefs and says what he feels, his popularity will rise,” Professor Fujioka said.
ENDS
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

In other words, just ride this thing out. Meanwhile, bang the nationalist drum and rally domestic support behind an issue which Japan can unequivocally claim “victim status”–The North Korean Rachi Mondai Abduction Issue:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Japan launches ad campaign to promote efforts to get back abductees from North Korea
Courtesy Club of 99, Associated Press, March 12, 2007

TOKYO (AP) Japan is launching a TV ad campaign to boost public support for its effort to resolve North Korea’s abductions of Japanese citizens, officials said Monday.

The first commercial will be broadcast on 114 commercial TV stations across the nation March 15-31, the Cabinet Office said. In a video clip, a girl walking on a beach with her parents and a little sister is abruptly washed away by swollen black waves.

Photographs of 17 abductees still believed to be in the North and their families then cover the screen, followed by the message: “The abductions by North Korea took away loved ones and their lives. Japan will get back all abduction victims at any cost.”

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and ’80s. Pyongyang sent five of them home later that year, but insisted the rest were dead. Japan has demanded proof and says more of its citizens may have been taken.

Japan’s 105 million yen ([US$890,000; euro 676,500]) commercial campaign is aimed at rallying public opinion behind Tokyo’s stance when multilateral nuclear disarmament talks reconvene next week, said Cabinet Office official Koshi Niitani.

North Korea pledged to shut down its nuclear reactor in return for energy aid in talks on improved relations with regional powers during the previous round in Beijing in February. The talks, which also involve China, the United States, South Korea and Russia, are scheduled to begin March 19.

Last week, Japan and North Korea held talks in Hanoi aimed at normalizing ties under the Beijing agreement, but failed to make a breakthrough. Tokyo has refused to provide energy aid to or establish diplomatic relations with North Korea unless Pyongyang accounts for its abductions, while North Korea has demanded reparations from Japan for its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean peninsula. Japan has yet to formally apologize to the North for its wartime actions.
ENDS
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Our taxes at work. Look, I am no apologist for NK’s actions (I think the leadership is nuts), so let’s not get hung up on that. My point is that what’s lying latent in the debate is the acknowledgment of history, without historical creep to match political capitalizing.

This is one of the reasons why UN Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene has stated repeatedly that we need a written history of the region (brokered by the UN) which every country can agree upon. (https://www.debito.org/?p=238)

Otherwise, we’re going to keep on falling into the vicious circles of historical revisionism, unaddressed victims, mooted apologies, and intercontinental tensions that span generations and last for centuries–which hinder people looking for commonalities and common ground in negotiations.

Get on with it, everyone. Grow up and face the fact that any honest study of history for ANY country or society has its dark moments and historical atrocities. Stop denying. Acknowledge, and move on. It makes a country no less “beautiful’, Mr Abe. It actually makes a country worthy of respect for its honesty.

Arudou Debito in Sapporo
debito@debito.org, www.debito.org
DEBITO.ORG SPECIAL NEWSLETTER ON THE COMFORT WOMEN ISSUE, MARCH 13, 2007, ENDS

mytest

Hi Blog. Arudou Debito here writing you from CW Nicol’s place in Kurohime, Nagano (a fellow naturalized Japanese, he’s the author of the Old Nic’s Notebook column in the Japan Times). A lot has happened this past week, so I’m here taking a little breather–to spend the day writing up what went on. Structure of this post as follows:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1) LINKS TO RECENT SPEECHES AND HANDOUTS
along with FCCJ SPEECH WITH UN RAPPORTEUR DOUDOU DIENE TRANSCRIPT
2) BUTTER AND METABOLIC SYNDROME: IBUKI AND PM ABE DISS HUMAN RIGHTS
along with DIENE’S COUNTERCOMMENT: SCOOP FOR JAPAN TIMES
3) WHAT OTHER SOCIETIES DO ABOUT DISCRIMINATION: JAPAN, TAKE NOTE
4) JAPAN TIMES ON MYTH OF JAPAN’S CRIME WAVE. HOW THE POLICE AND MEDIA ABET
5) ASAHI: TOKYO JH SCHOOL REFUSES CHILD ADMISSION FOR BEING FOREIGN
and finally…
6) ASAHI: NEED TO BROADEN DEFINITION OF “JAPANESE”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

By Arudou Debito (debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org)
Updates in real time and archives of previous newsletters at
https://www.debito.org/index.php
March 3, 2007, Freely Forwardable

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

1) LINKS TO RECENT SPEECHES AND HANDOUTS

I’ve been on the road recently for more than a week now, and it’s been a real trip. Between Monday and Weds this week I was averaging two speeches per day, over half with their own customized powerpoint presentations (adding visuals to speeches is very effective, but it doubles the workload, since I always try to prepare a take-home handout as well). Exhausting, but very satisfying once all is done. Here are some links to what I said and when:

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ON 2-CHANNEL AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Led a discussion on Feb 27 regarding issues of freedom of speech in the face of 1) Internet libel on 2-Channel BBS (https://www.debito.org/2channelsojou.html), and 2) hate speech through the GAIJIN HANZAI Magazine. They are two separate issues, especially since the former targets a specific individual (me) with lies provably false in court, while the latter targets a whole social subgroup with facts presented sensationally, maliciously, and with the clear intent to defame and spread hatred and fear. See my handout at:
https://www.debito.org/amnesty2chhandout022707.doc

ROPPONGI BAR (as in lawyer) ASSOCIATION ON NJ RESIDENTS AND THE JAPANESE LEGAL SYSTEM
Gave on Feb 28 what I consider to be one of my top ten speeches ever (a blogger at the event was surprised I could hold the attention of a full house of gaiben lawyers, legal counselors, and various members of the legal community for a full hour and a half; so am I). I made the case that there is a serious problem with how Japan treats, ignores, and generally refuses to help non-Japanese residents enjoy the constitutional protections of this society. And that they as scholars of the law should do their best to help them get along–within the limitations of their profession, of course (foreign lawyers who have not passed the J Bar are not permitted to advise on Japanese law).

See my handout at
https://www.debito.org/rbahandout022807.doc
And see the powerpoint presentation at
https://www.debito.org/roppongibarassoc022807.ppt

Let’s hope it made an impression. But most importantly:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

1a) FCCJ SPEECH WITH UN RAPPORTEUR DOUDOU DIENE TRANSCRIPT

On Feb 26, I had the distinct honor of being placed side-by-side speaking with one of my personal heroes, the UN Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene, for a Luncheon-cum-Press Conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. On his third fact-finding trip to Japan (see Diene’s previous trips at https://www.debito.org/rapporteur.html), he made some assessments on the state of racism in Japan. One friend transcribed the entire press conference (another took a photo), available at
https://www.debito.org/?p=238

A select quote from Dr Diene:
=============== DIENE QUOTE BEGINS ===================
This point leads me to Japan. As you know, my report was submitted to the Human Rights Council and to the UN General Assembly last November. Three points on this report. One, I think there were many interesting developments after my report. The issue of racism is now a key issue here in Japan. It has been for a while. But my report has contributed in a way to help the issue be discussed. Second, my report had a very important consequence, which I’ve been advocating in all countries I visited. This is the mobilization of civil society and human rights organizations on the issue of racism. Japan has been advancing the issue, I must say. Japan’s civil society has organized around my report and created a network of minority communities and human rights organizations, and are acting by helping victims of discrimination, publishing reports, and drawing the attention of the media.

One key point the Japanese government made to the Human Rights Council in Geneva was to say that I had gone beyond my mandate in touching upon the role of history in racism. I put it as one sample point. Racism does not come from the cosmos. Racism is a historical construction. You can retrace how racism was born and developed, and how it manifests itself. This means that history is a sin for which communities have been demonized and discriminated.
=============== DIENE QUOTE ENDS ====================

You can download my FCCJ powerpoint presentation at
https://www.debito.org/fccj022607.ppt

as well as my handout to Dr Diene and the press corps:
https://www.debito.org/dienefccjhandout022607.doc

But not everyone in Japan seems to hold human rights in terribly high regard. In fact, one of our government’s cabinet members recently stated that it is unhealthy for a society (moreover insinuated it is something foreign in nature):

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

2) BUTTER AND METABOLIC SYNDROME: IBUKI AND PM ABE DISS HUMAN RIGHTS

I’m used to economists talking about the classic trade-off between “guns and butter”. But this is the first time I’ve ever heard a politician compare human rights with a Diet plan. Ingest this recipe for disaster from our Education Minister, Ibuki Bunmei:

=======================================
“If you eat only butter every day, you develop metabolic syndrome. If Japanese overindulge themselves on human rights, the nation will develop what I’d call “human rights metabolic syndrome.'”

“Japan has been historically governed by the Yamato (Japanese) race. Japan is an extremely homogenous country… In its long, multifaceted history, Japan has been governed by the Japanese all the way.”

[That is, except for the Postwar Occupation, but I guess that doesn’t count, or rather counts as an inconvenient truth to be ignored.]
==================================
Original and more of the same in Japanese at
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20070226-00000022-mai-pol

The Daily Telegraph got right on top of it with a good summary of the context:

=========== ARTICLE BEGINS =======================
Minister’s human rights rant shocks Japan
By Colin Joyce in Tokyo Daily Telegraph 27/02/2007

It is unclear whether Mr Ibuki’s choice of the word butter” was intentional or unfortunate, but it echoes an old disparaging Japanese expression for Western ideas: “stinking of butter”. [bataa kusai] The term came about because Westerners traditionally had a far higher dairy content in their diet than Japanese and hence were thought to smell of butter.
=========== ARTICLE ENDS =======================
Rest at https://www.debito.org/?p=240

When asked of this, Prime Minister Abe compounded things thusly (remember, Abe is the guy who several years ago forced NHK to reedit a documentary including the Comfort Women Issue):

=========== ARTICLE BEGINS =======================
Abe fine with “homogeneous” remark
The Japan Times Feb 27, 2007
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070227a9.html
https://www.debito.org/?p=240

“I think he was referring to the fact that we (the Japanese public) have gotten along with each other fairly well so far,” Abe said. “I don’t see any specific problem with that.”
=========== ARTICLE ENDS =======================

Several friends and media have levelled excellent criticisms:

======== COMMENT FROM KIRK MASDEN =================
I don’t know if Abe will be made to regret it but he should be. Abe’s defense strikes me as more problematic than the original gaffe. Abe is equating homogeneity with getting along well. By this logic, diversity (more foreigners in Japan, etc) leads to acrimony. It also implies that whatever peace and good human relations have characterized Japan thus far have been in spite of minorities such as Ainu, Okinawans, Koreans, etc. This is a very problematic way for Japan’s leader to defend a remark.
======== COMMENT FROM KIRK ENDS =================

======== JAPAN TIMES EDITORIAL EXCERPT MARCH 1 ================
Mr. Ibuki’s comment is ideological. It is known that Japan’s ancient culture, the foundation of Japan’s present culture, was an amalgamation of various roots. No one single race formed Japanese culture. Referring to Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone’s remark in 1986 that Japan is a nation with a “homogeneous race,” Mr. Ibuki said, “I did not say homogeneous race.”

[NB: Uh, how else is one to interpret the use of “yamato mizoku” in this context, then?]

Even so, his mentioning the homogeneous character of Japan shows he does not altogether accept Japanese society as a composite also of Korean, Chinese and other foreign residents as well as Japanese nationals who do not identify themselves as members of the Yamato race — Ainu people, for example.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20070301a1.html
https://www.debito.org/?p=240
======== JAPAN TIMES EDITORIAL ENDS =================

======== ASAHI SHINBUN EDITORIAL EXCERPT FEB 28 ================
The very fact that Ibuki coined the expression “human rights metabolic syndrome” revealed his insensitivity to human rights issues. Is there truly a glut of human rights in Japan today?

The situation in Japan is alarming not because of human rights excesses, but rather because there are too many human rights issues that are being ignored by our society.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200702280167.html
https://www.debito.org/?p=240
======== ASAHI EDITORIAL ENDS ===============================

======== COMMENT FROM MATT DIOGUARDI =================
The idea that there is some kind of trade off between rights and a “good” society is completely misconstrued. A good society is one where people have rights and those rights are protected, period. If we allow that rights can be curbed at the needs of *society* we introduce a random variable that can be interpreted however one wants to interpret it. We *all* have different views on what a *good* society would be. This is why we have democracy.

“From an international perspective Japan does not have enough of a human rights sense of consciousness. I’d say as far as human rights go, rather than having a human rights Metabolic Syndrome, we’re in fact undernourished.”
======== COMMENT FROM MATT ENDS ====================

I was in meetings and giving speeches at the time, but once I got to the IMADR offices (http://www.imadr.org) (more from them below), I was put to work immediately digging up these comments from the Internet to present to Dr Diene, who was waiting to give a speech. Then I put Diene on the phone to the Japan Times for a great scoop:

======== JAPAN TIMES ARTICLE EXCERPT BEGINS ==============
U.N. special rapporteur challenges Ibuki’s “homogenous” claim
By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070228a5.html
https://www.debito.org/?p=239

Diene said Ibuki’s remarks and Abe’s comments about them will likely be included in the new report he will submit to the U.N. later this year.
======== JAPAN TIMES ARTICLE ENDS ===================

Now, let’s deal with the alleged butterglut of human rights in Japan:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

3) WHAT OTHER SOCIETIES DO ABOUT DISCRIMINATION: JAPAN, TAKE NOTE

While I am not saying that Japan should carbon-copy what other societies do (although Japan certainly has done an admirable job in the past), universal human rights are something which Japan must learn to respect and enforce. Especially since it promised to do so when signing several international treaties.

However, I am slowly building a case that Japan has a dearth, not a glut, of human rights protections. Witness the following:

================================================

A TEMPLATE FOR DEALING WITH HATE SPEECH:

The first case study (thanks to Karen for notifying me) is about hate speech in the US, where somebody recently wrote an essay for a prominent media outlet on why he hates black people.

https://www.debito.org/?p=242

Look at how other media and the anti-defamation leagues (not to mention national politicians) in US civil society immediately pounced on it.

You don’t see that happening often enough in Japan. And when human rights groups and activists like us do react (often successfully), we get accused of “Western moralizing” or “Do-Gooderism” (hi Uncle Gregory, https://www.debito.org/gregoryclarkfabricates.html), cultural imperialism, or worst of all censorship or denial of freedom of speech.

Pundits in the US have long progressed beyond that. They don’t necessarily arrest the perpetrator, but in this case, the media and spokespeople came through to debate him down.

Contrast that with Japan. In a recent case — the GAIJIN HANZAI magazine (https://www.debito.org/?cat=27) — the Japanese press just about completely ignored it. And it was up to us domestic bloggers and activists to tell the distributors to disavow.

Which they did, eventually. But it wouldn’t have happened otherwise, because civil society is not sufficiently developed here (moreover is suppressed and stymied by “press club” media cartels, even more so than in the US) to set things right and make the debate arena a fair fight.

================================================

A TEMPLATE FOR DEALING WITH DISCRIMINATORY CUSTOMER TREATMENT:

Overseas, human rights protection organs at the local level investigate and make the issue public.

https://www.debito.org/?p=244

In this case, the New York City Human Rights Commission was notified that a Chinese restaurant was offering two separate menus, where the same items were cheaper for readers of Chinese only.

This made the front page of the NY Daily Post, with a photo of the restaurant and the facts of case in splash headlines.

Again, contrast with Japan, where the similar human rights organ, the Bureau of Human Rights (jinken yougo bu) is all but utterly ineffectual. Sources:

Japan Times July 8, 2003 Community Page column:
https://www.debito.org/japantimes070803.html
https://www.debito.org/policeapology.html

Moreover, the press in Japan, if they even reported on it, would probably not even bother to mention the name of the restaurant, in the name of “protecting the business’s privacy”. (For example, in a recent case, the press refused to name ER English School in Kofu, which was hiring people to teach English depending on the color of the applicant’s hair and eyes (https://www.debito.org/?p=220). Not quite the same example of discrimination, but a good example of half-assed press coverage nonetheless.)

Thanks to Dave Spector for passing me this information.

================================================

Point is, this is what Ibuki (in stark contrast with the condemnation from Nancy Pelosi in the Hate Speech case) would pooh-pooh as “human rights metabolic syndrome”? Phooey. I think it’s time for people to realize that Japan is suffering from too few human rights enforcement mechanisms, not too many. Shouting this stuff down and launching government inquiries is what people should be doing in any society.

Meanwhile, the Japanese police and media work against the butter by making things less amenable for human rights:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

4) JAPAN TIMES ON MYTH OF JAPAN’S CRIME WAVE. AND HOW THE POLICE AND MEDIA ABET

My most recent Japan Times Community Page column (Feb 20, 2007) is available (Director’s Cut, with links to sources) at
https://www.debito.org/japantimes022007.html

Excerpt follows:

================================================
MODERATION IN THE MEDIA

What are the incentives for this muzzled watchdogism?…
================================================
Full article at https://www.debito.org/japantimes022007.html

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

5) ASAHI: TOKYO JH SCHOOL REFUSES CHILD ADMISSION FOR BEING FOREIGN

Meanwhile, innocents get caught up in the grind of indifferent bureaucrats. I have mentioned previously that foreign children in Japan are dropping out of school early to work in factories (https://www.debito.org/?p=140). Now they are even being refused entry to those schools. This is not the first time I’ve heard of this happening. But it’s the first time I’ve seen it documented by our press.

================================================
POINT OF VIEW/ Daisuke Onuki: Fundamental flaw remains in education law
02/12/2007 SPECIAL TO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200702120089.html

Somewhere between 20 and 40 percent of Brazilian children are currently out of primary education. These figures do not include the 25 percent of children who go to expensive Brazilian schools that are not officially recognized as “schools” by the Japanese government….

================================================
Rest at http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200702120089.html
https://www.debito.org/?p=241

Don’t people realize that this is fast becoming a crisis, as children come of age without an education, of a foreign underclass in Japan’s (and the world’s) workforce? How can a developed country which brought foreigners over here to save their industries possibly wash their hands of the need to see they get an education?

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

and finally…

6) ASAHI: NEED TO BROADEN DEFINITION OF “JAPANESE”

Finally, some sense. Excerpting:

================================================
POINT OF VIEW/ Takashi Miyajima: Time to broaden the definition of ‘Japanese’
02/20/2007 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200702200138.html
https://www.debito.org/?p=226

Japan should now create a society where people with various cultural backgrounds are accepted as Japanese, called “Chinese-Japanese,” for instance, without any discriminatory connotations and be treated fairly as equal and important members of society.
================================================

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

All for today. Would like to take this opportunity to welcome a huge glurt of people to my mailing lists, thanks to the hundreds of meishi I received this trip. Thanks to them and to everyone as always for reading!

Arudou Debito
Kurohime, Nagano-ken
debito@debito.org
https://www.debito.org
NEWSLETTER MARCH 3, 2007 ENDS

mytest

Hello all. On the road again (cue music), but so much has happened recently that I’m pregnant with another

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER
FEBRUARY 14, 2007

This Valentine is a special on the media in Japan, and structured thusly:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////
1) THE RISE AND FALL OF THE “GAIJIN HANZAI MOOK”
2) KYODO ON THE ACTUAL FALL OF FOREIGN CRIME
(WHILE MAINICHI IN JAPANESE PORTRAYS IT AS A RISE)
3) THE RISE AND RISE OF THE “BLOND BLUE-EYED” EIKAIWA JOB AD
//////////////////////////////////////////////////

By Arudou Debito (debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org)
Updates in real time with RSS at https://www.debito.org/index.php

1) THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GAIJIN HANZAI MOOK

I’ve mentioned this before in a previous newsletter (archived at https://www.debito.org/?p=197), but it’s become such a case study of how to effectively campaign in Japan that it warrants a roundup of its own.

A PARAGRAPH OF BACKGROUND for those who need it: On January 31, a middle-tier publisher named Eichi Shuppan in Tokyo (which publishes pop-culture books, see its lineup at http://www.eichi.co.jp) released for sale a “magazine book” (or “mook” in Japanese) on foreign crime. Provocatively titled “GAIJIN HANZAI URA FILES”, or “Underground Files of Foreign Crime”, starting from its very cover it offered the image of rabid foreigners who were going to “devastate Japan”, where “everyone would be a target of foreign crime in 2007”. Inside was even worse (see a full synopsis and review at https://www.debito.org/?p=214), with profanities, lewdness, racial epithets, compromising photos, illustrated recreations of heinous crimes, and even reports of things that were *not* crimes (such as interracial public displays of affection) wrapped in very high quality paper and priced at a mere 657 yen plus tax.

There were several odd things about the mook. One was that it has no advertising whatsoever. According to a friend of mine formerly in the publishing trade, a book of this quality and distribution would cost somewhere in the vicinity of a quarter million dollars US. The second odd thing was how the mook escaped the underground press–it was available on major bookstore outlets (such as Kinokuniya and Amazon Japan) and in convenience stores (such as FamilyMart) nationwide. Third was how they managed to get so much information (even passport photo mug shots of suspects, typically the domain of the police, no?) without very accessible National Police Agency cooperation). Finally was how the creators really thought that foreign residents would not be able to read this (there is a segment of the population utterly convinced that Japanese is absolutely impenetrable to foreigners), or be willing to make a stink about it. Boy were they wrong.

Within days of distribution, friend Steve had scanned pages and offered bilingual bulletins to internet mailing lists (such as Big Daikon and Debito.org) outlining what exactly was going on. Then the blogosphere got to work. Japan Probe called for a boycott of distributors (particularly FamilyMart and its US subsidiary Familia!), while Debito.org created a bilingual letter to give to local shopkeeps spelling out what is wrong with the mag and why it should come off the shelves (with the statement that if it did not immediately, the petitioner would no longer shop there). Others made their feelings known by emailing outlets and distributors, even threatening to return all their previous purchases (in the case of Amazon Japan) and demanding a refund.

It worked–better than anticipated. Individuals (including your correspondent) were very successful in getting local store managers to take the mook off the shelves (just showing them the nasty page on interracial PDA was shocking enough). Familia! USA was the first to respond officially, saying that GH would be off the shelves in a week (which angered some even further, as a week is probably when most of the sales are going to happen anyway). The overseas press then got involved (Guardian, Times London, Reuters, South China Morning Post, Japan Today, Metropolis (Tokyo), IPC), and calls were made to the publisher asking for an explanation.

Fanning the flames further was Eichi Shuppan’s Sata Shigeki, who protested (https://www.debito.org/?p=215) that he wanted to “expand the debate in Japan”, and that this book was meant for a Japanese audience (which means the foreign-resident voice is not part of the debate?). He also argued that the word “n*gg*r” published within was “not offensive” to a Japanese audience (imagine how the local ethnic anti-defamation leagues and the Japanese Embassy would have pounced if this defense had been made by a publisher abroad regarding something similar about the crimes “Japs” commit). He also insinuated that foreigners were making a fuss about the photos (since gaijin apparently, again, cannot read the Japanese), as if this was all one big understanding. Ultimately, he claimed the book was not racist as it was “based on fact” (even if portrayed sensationalistically in epithet and innuendo, moreover not grounded in any comparison with Japanese crime). Few bought it.

And the books flew off the shelves–back to the publisher. Despite reports of a few copies left behind in some convenience stores, the major distributors (except for Amazon.co.jp, which defends the sales of the mook under pat statutes of freedom of speech, akin to selling Mein Kampf; even though the “customer review” sections under its wares are frequently censored). On February 10, Eichi Shinbun’s website said the book was “sold out”. As of February 12, it is no longer even listed as ever being on offer.

The conclusion to this case for me is that the creators of this rag simply thought gaijin don’t count. They were not intended, as Sata insisted, to be part of the debate. One of the inviolate rights (probably the only inviolate right) a non-Japanese resident has in Japan is where to spend his or her money. Banding together as consumers and threatening a boycott was a very effective strategy (especially given the competitiveness of the convenience store market in Japan), and in less than two weeks, they forced the investors of the GAIJIN HANZAI mook to take a real bath in returned books (i.e. the convenience stores lose nothing–they don’t pay for delivery or for the return of unsold books anyway). The success of this campaign should make bigots like these, whoever they are, think twice before doing something like this again. Well done, everyone.

Let’s hope the Japanese press start digging around and finding out who the patrons of this mook are. Their silence on this issue (I have of course informed my Japanese lists, including hundreds of reporters, about this issue) may be only temporary, given what happened in the third item in this newsletter…

But before we get to that, let’s question the role of the media in all this. The underlying presumption in all this is that foreign crime is rising. Is it? Not if you read media other than the Mainichi:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

2) KYODO ON THE ACTUAL FALL OF FOREIGN CRIME
(WHILE MAINICHI IN JAPANESE PORTRAYS IT AS A RISE)

Here’s a surprise. According to the major media (Kyodo via Japan Times), foreign crime is dropping. Witness the following article (courtesy of Japan Probe, http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1124)

=============== EXCERPT BEGINS =================
Number of crime cases involving foreign suspects down in ﾔ06: NPA
Kyodo News/Japan Times Feb 9, 2007

Police took action in 40,126 criminal cases in which the perpetrator
was believed to have been a foreigner, excluding permanent residents
and members of the U.S. military, down 16.2 percent from the record
high logged the previous year, the National Police Agency said Thursday…
=============== EXCERPT ENDS ==================
Rest at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20070209a5.html
Or https://www.debito.org/?p=218

This is similarly reflected in the English-language version of the Mainichi Daily News:

=============== EXCERPT BEGINS =================
Number of crimes committed by nonpermanent foreigners declines in Tokyo

The number of crimes committed by nonpermanent foreign nationals in 2006 declined in Tokyo, the National Police Agency (NPA) said on Thursday….
=============== EXCERPT ENDS ==================
Rest at http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070208p2a00m0na007000c.html
Or https://www.debito.org/?p=218
But not if you read the Japanese version of it. Same article, different headline, different focus. Translation mine:

=============== EXCERPT BEGINS =================
FOREIGN CRIME: INCREASES IN THE PROVINCES. IN CHUUBU REGION, INCREASES BY 35 TIMES COMPARED TO 15 YEARS AGO
(gaikokujin hanzai: Chihou de zouka chuubu wa 15 nen mae no 35 bai ni)
=============== EXCERPT ENDS ==================
Japanese original at
http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/shakai/jiken/news/20070208k0000e040032000c.html
Or https://www.debito.org/?p=218

Actually, this is not such a surprise. For this is not the only time the media has sweetened up the reports for gaijin eyes. Witness when Koizumi’s second cabinet came in in September 2003, and their first steps when offering up new proposals was to focus once again on foreign crime. (Full archive and grounding in context, with quotes from other foreign crime-exaggerating or -fabricating GOJ politicians and officials, and how crime stats are being cooked in general, at https://www.debito.org/foreigncrimeputsch.html)

On September 22, the Yomiuri offered up two quite different profiles of incoming cabinet members and policy statements. The Japanese version offered up this headline (translation mine):

=============== EXCERPT BEGINS =================
“OLYMPIC LAUREATE, NATIONAL PUBLIC SECURITY AGENCY COMMISSION CHAIRMAN KIYOKO ONO DESIRES POLICY AGAINST FOREIGN CRIME”
=============== EXCERPT ENDS ==================

while the English version, which eschewed a headline, offered up only this tidbit, buried in the text and made more palatable by blurring the targeting (English original):

=============== EXCERPT BEGINS =================
(Third paragraph): At a press conference Monday, Ono said that she would strive to make Japan the world’s safest nation again, by fighting various crimes–particularly those committed by juveniles and foreign residents.
=============== EXCERPT ENDS ==================

Even though the original Japanese doesn’t even mention “juvenile” or even “various” crimes (“gaikokujin hanzai no taisaku kouka ya shoku no anzen, shoushika taisaku nado ni zenryoku o agetai”). Nice bit of distracting garnish for the gaijin–a bit of “gaijin handling” by the respectable press to make government directives sound less controversial to those being targeted.

———————————

Then again, this shirking of media responsibility for accurate reportage does not seem terribly unusual. Especially when it seems to happen not infrequently in Japanese too. According to my friends on some of the Japanese human rights lists I subscribe to (erd-net, ijuuren-net, s-watch), there have been other instances of the Mainichi in particular serving up odd reportage particularly re foreign crime. Pity. I’m a big fan of the Mainichi, and think their human rights’ coverage is the best of the big five national newspapers.

Back to the recent exposure of the Mainichi on Japan Probe. The Chief Editor of the Mainichi Daily News, Ryann Connell, answered the charges thusly:

=============== EDITOR’S COMMENT BEGINS =================
February 12th, 2007 at 8:06 am
A few points:

1) Thanks to all for having so much interest in the Mainichi and for Japan Probe’s regular support of our stories. Please keep it up!

2) The headlines are different because the original Japanese headline has missed the point of the story. The English translation is not a good one, but read the text of the Japanese story and it’s main point is clearly more along the lines of the English headline. Though we work together closely, the Japanese and English versions of the Mainichi are different, with the Mainichi Daily News (English) an independent publication in its own right (even though highly dependant on translations). But discrepencies [sic] between the languages will exist with nearly every story, mainly because news articles are written differently in English and Japanese.

3) The Mainichi abhors any allegation of racism or bias and totally rejects any such claim.

4) I have seen every article of correspondence that has come through official channels to the Mainichi Daily News since April 2005 and we have not received “a lot of flak from human rights group about misleading headlines.” This claim is simply untrue, unfounded and irresponsible.

Ryann Connell
Chief Editor
Mainichi Daily News
=============== EDITOR’S COMMENT ENDS ==================
Originally posted at http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1124

I appreciate Mr Connell’s taking his time from his schedule to answer a bunch of bloggers (I know his translations from the Waiwai Page, and am a big fan), but I’m not surprised he hasn’t heard anything from the English-language lists. The discussion has been taking place in Japanese, and any letters of complaint to the Mainichi have probably taken that route. (Sorry. Will forward future discussions to him if he wants if he sends me his email address.) But would hope he knows I have credibility to maintain, and would trust me enough after a decade at debito.org to know I would take care before making unsubstantiated or irresponsible claims. In any case, there is still no getting around the fact that the headlines have polar opposite readings.

What’s the incentive behind sexing up headlines? During my recent travels and speeches, I met with a Mainichi reporter who offered up an interesting insider tidbit:

A crime occurred involving a gang of two Japanese and one Chinese. The Mainichi did a story on it. The Mainichi editor deciding the headline rendered it as “Chinese etc. commit crime” (chuugokujin ra ga…). When asked if this might be be a bit inaccurate, as the majority of miscreants were in fact Japanese, the editor apparently said:

“The impact is different.” (inpakuto ga chigau kara).

I agree, the impact IS different. But altering a story thusly to “make an impact” isn’t quite within the mandate of the respectable press. It blurs the line between them and the abovementioned GAIJIN HANZAI magazine.

And this “impact” drives the entire debate haywire. According to a recent article at JAPAN FOCUS (an academic website run out of Cornell University by Professor Mark Selden et al), Thomas Ellis and Hamai Koichi had this to say:

=============== EXCERPT BEGINS =================
Crime and Punishment in Japan: From Re-integrative Shaming to Popular Punitivism
By Thomas Ellis & Koichi HAMAI

…As with most comparable nations, the Japanese public’s fear of crime is not in proportion to the likelihood of being victimized. What is different is the scale of this mismatch. While Japan has one of the lowest victimization rates, the International Crime Victim Surveys (ICVS) indicate that it has among the highest levels of fear of crime. The Japanese moral panic about crime has been extremely durable in the new millennium. Some now claim that the panic perspective has become institutionalized in Japan and that there has been collapse of the pre-existing psychological boundary dividing experience of the ordinary personal world where crime is rare, and another hyper-real world where crime is common…

However, rather than the rise in relatively trivial crimes, the press focused on homicide and violent crime, which are the types of stories with HIGH “NEWS VALUE” in Japan and elsewhere. [emphasis mine]
=============== EXCERPT ENDS ==================
Rest at http://www.japanfocus.org/products/details/2340

So as this article demonstrates, the perception gap between real and imagined crime in Japan is one of the highest in the world, and the media has been helping it along. Meanwhile, the National Police Agency zeroes in on foreign crime, since it is a softer target. The public perception there (cf. GAIJIN HANZAI mag re Fukuoka Chinese murder) is that it is more diabolical (i.e. something Japanese would never do as heinously), more organized and terroristic (cf. Embassy of Japan in Washington DC’s website on this at http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/033005b.htm –also includes mention of infectious diseases, of course exclusive to foreigners…).

And just plain unnecessary from a sociological standpoint. For if Japanese commit crime and the rates go up, the NPA will come under fire for not doing their job. But if foreigners commit it (in their unpredictable ways, so lay off our poor boys in blue), they shouldn’t be coming to Japan in the first place now, should they? Zeroing in on foreign crime is a great way to open the budgetary purse strings while deflecting criticism.

Pity the Japanese media has to play along with it too for the sake of “impact”. (cf https://www.debito.org/?p=218) As you can see, it reassures nobody and far divorces the debate from reality.

REFERENTIAL LINKS:
POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM AND FOREIGN CRIME IN JAPAN
https://www.debito.org/opportunism.html
IHT/ASAHI DEC 14-15 2002 ON EXAGGERATIONS OF FOREIGN CRIME
https://www.debito.org/TheCommunity/ihtasahi121502.html
JAPAN TIMES JAN 13 2004 ON RACISM (genetic racial profiling) IN NPA POLICE FORENSIC SCIENCE
https://www.debito.org/japantimes011304.html
MEDIA GAIJIN HANDLING (i.e. significantly different headlines and reportage depending on which side of the linguistic fence you report to) DURING KOIZUMI’S 2003 FOREIGN CRIME PUTSCH
https://www.debito.org/foreigncrimeputsch.html
JAPAN TIMES MAY 24, 2005 ON THE “ANTI-TERRORIST” CRIME BILL (which did get passed)
https://www.debito.org/japantimes052405.html

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

Finally, what happens when stories finally taken up by the media really catch fire:

3) THE RISE AND RISE OF THE “BLOND BLUE-EYED” EIKAIWA JOB AD

I reported all the way back in mid-November about the Eikaiwa English-language school in Kofu, Yamanashi-ken, which posted a want ad for “blonde hair blue or green eyes and brightly [sic] character” at the government-sponsored Yamanashi International Center (issue archived at https://www.debito.org/?p=92). I contacted the school, the YIC, and the local Bureau of Human Rights. The BOHR typically ignored the letter I sent, the YIC in December sent a letter of apology (thanks, see https://www.debito.org/yamanashiintlctr121206.jpg), and the ER English school manager Mr Sata (no relation to the Eichi Shuppan person of the same name, no doubt) essentially justified the practice of choosing staff by racial characteristics as part of Japanese culture and customer demand. (Our conversation fully archived at the above link.)

I thought the case was closed, but in late January, a reporter at Kyodo News decided to have a look into it and uncovered a lot. The very day he called the local Bureau of Human Rights, they suddenly decided to investigate the matter for themselves. Suddenly the boss of ER English, a Mr Iwashita, was calling me more than two months after my initial phone call to wonder if I hadn’t misunderstood anything.

“I don’t think I’m misunderstanding anything, Mr Iwashita. You didn’t pay any attention to this issue. Until you got a call from a reporter and the BOHR,” was amongst my replies.

The news hit the Kyodo Wire services on Sunday night, February 11. On February 12, I found out during my speeches in Okayama (when I started getting calls from other news agencies, including Fuji Terebi and TBS) that they had or had plans to broadcast the issue and wanted a quote. And Mr Iwashita made a number of calls to me as well to try to get me to remove their name and phone number from the job advertisement that had stayed up in the YIC as public information between May and November 2006 without comment. “This will have an impact on our business,” he said.

I said it was time for his company finally to take responsibility for their actions, consider their role as educators in this society, and not create social damage by promoting stereotypes. Especially when they refuse to release the name of the company (a local kindergarten) that asked them to do the headhunting for a prototypical gaijin “in order to get their children used to gaijin” as English speakers, said Mr Sata during our November phone conversation. The enchou of that Kindergarten (called “Shirayuri”, a little bird told me), should have to answer for their actions as well.

Anyhow, here’s how the issue came out in the media:

=============== ARTICLE BEGINS =================
English school condemned for limiting teachers to blond hair, blue eyes
Monday, February 12, 2007 at 07:16 EST Courtesy Kyodo News
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/398818

KOFU An English-language school in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, had publicly posted a recruitment poster limiting instructors to those with “blond hair, blue or green eyes,” leading activists to file complaints, people involved said Sunday.

The poster for recruiting instructors the school sends to kindergartens was posted at the Yamanashi International Center for six months until November, when the center removed it after receiving the complaints and apologizing for its “lack of consideration.”

“Linking appearance and qualifications of English educators is questionable. It encourages discrimination on appearance and race,” according to the complaints filed with the center by the activists, including American-born Japanese citizen Debito Arudou.

Arudou, associate professor at Hokkaido Information University, who is working on human rights for foreign residents in Japan, also filed written requests with the school, kindergartens and the Kofu Regional Legal Affairs to promote human rights.

According to people related to the school, several kindergartens in Kofu have asked it to send English instructors so their children can get accustomed to “foreigners,” attaching such conditions as “blond hair” and “blue eyes.”

The school “was aware that it was an old discriminatory idea, but couldn’t resist customers’ needs,” one related person said, noting that the school now regrets it.
=============== ARTICLE ENDS ==================

It also appeared on several TV networks, including JNN, Fuji, and TBS. For example:
http://news.tbs.co.jp/headline/tbs_headline3491780.html
Video link to broadcast segment for windows media:
http://news.tbs.co.jp/asx/news3491780_12.asx
Kyodo article in Japanese here:

共同と毎日：甲府市「金髪碧眼」求人募集について報道

——————————————————

Finally, your moment of Zen: When I kept on giving my audience updates about this issue in real time during my speech for JALT Okayama, some of them shrugged their shoulders.

“This sort of thing goes on all the time. Glad that they took this up, but why hasn’t the media paid any attention before?” was the feeling. Touche.

Then again, maybe we ARE being listened to more nowadays than before by the Japanese media. Good. About time.

Arudou Debito
Miyazaki, Kyushu
debito@debito.org
https://www.debito.org
February 14, 2007
ENDS