COUNTERPOINT: Sumo’s Scapegoating of Asashoryu

Posted on August 30, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

COUNTERPOINT
An occasional series from Debito.org for contrarian views. Ghostwriting for busy people who would otherwise be their own authors.
==================================
THE SCAPEGOATING OF ASASHORYU
All the media attention is a diversion from what’s really wrong with Sumo
==================================

By James Eriksson (jerik AT indigo.plala.or.jp), and Arudou Debito (debito@debito.org)
Released August 30, 2007

The Sumo Association has recently tag-teamed with the Japanese media to lay into Asashoryu—the Mongolian wrestler turned Sumo champ who has enjoyed a thorough winning streak. That is, until now.

Asashoryu, even at age 26, has dominated the sport. As Sumo’s sole Yokozuna (Grand Champion) for years now, his winning streaks and stellar win records (21 tournament wins so far) have been the stuff of legends, bringing attention back to a lackluster sport, and an inspiration to the Mongolian people who view him as a national hero.

But also earning him a place in the notoriety books has been his behavior. He has been known for fits of temper, flights of fancy, and throwing his weight around both figuratively and literally, in ways many felt were unbecoming the dignity of the sport.
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9717691

I believe these outbursts are symptoms of the unmentionable: the possible use of steroids. One of the downsides of the benefits of steroids (bulk and quick reaction time, all fundamental to Sumo) is the flash temper tantrums. And as far as I know, there are no enforced bans or even tests for the presence of steroids in Sumo rikishi.

Never mind. He kept winning, and winning is everything in Sumo. (To the degree where in 1993, two successful Sumo stables merged so their wrestlers would face each other less, thus lose less in tournaments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takanohana_stable) And once Asa won enough to reach the top rank, people would support him because he’s the only Yokozuna out there. Within reason, of course.

The reasons came. First, a new Yokozuna, Hakuho (also of Mongolia) was anointed in May 2007. Meaning Asashoryu was now expendable.

Then, his little excursion to Mongolia this summer further chummed the waters.

Asa went home ostensibly to recover from a sports injury. But then he was videoed playing a game of soccer. Not only with a lot of vim apparently inappropriate for an injured athlete, but also having a good time and performing for the cameras. Never mind that he has been trained to do precisely that by Sumo.

People might say that this adultery with another sport and apparent cross purposes might be a breach of Sumo “etiquette”. But I believe Sumo etiquette works both ways here. Sumo is a sport for people who do what they’re told. Asa has been doing what his masters have been telling him to do for years now. Then when an authority as high as the Mongolian government (not to mention Japanese soccer start Nakata, who also happened to be there) invites him more than once to join in a friendly game for charity, he was probably not in a position to say no. I believe the press would have likewise criticized him if he had.

But I believe the whole soccer-Sumo scandal is a smokescreen. The real reason Asa was finally called to the carpet for a change was because Sumo as a sport is in a panic, and needs a scapegoat.

Not only has Sumo faced earlier this year yet another slew of allegations about bout fixing (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070312f1.html), but also no Japanese signed up these days at the entry level last July to become junior wrestlers–for the first time in history (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ss20070702a2.html). Even though there is now another Yokozuna in existence, Asa was apparently needed this summer for recruitment purposes.

Not that difficult to understand why youths are shying away from Sumo, actually. Hazing in the junior ranks of the sport is rife and well-known. And it has gotten progressively worse–to the point where people are being killed by it.

Witness the death of wrestler Tokitaizan last June 26, after a “lynching”, where the body was found with a torn ear, broken teeth, broken bones, and cigarette burns.
https://www.debito.org/?p=464#comment-53538
Where was the media then? A blurb here and there, but coverage was definitely incommensurate to the degree of controversy a death should entail.

Instead, the media circus has sensed the blood in the water around Asa, and the Sumo Association has fanned the frenzy by slashing his pay, banning him from two tournaments, and confining him to house arrest (a degree of policing power which cannot be legal!).

Asa, meanwhile, is watching his world collapse around him. He is said to have suffered a mental breakdown, and needs treatment either here or in Mongolia. His wife has left him too—even left the country. Then there is the new charge of tax evasion. Speculation is growing that he’ll either leave Sumo for K1 pseudo-boxing (the Elephant’s Graveyard—witness former Yokozuna Akebono—for many an athlete in Japan), or abscond with all his riches back to Mongolia never to return—which would be a major black eye for the sport. He just yesterday actually did leave Japan for Mongolia, so breaths are being held to see if he ever returns. (After all, probably Sumo needs Asa more than vice versa at this stage.)

But again, this is all a diversion from the real story: That Sumo’s house of cards is being shaken.

We have a death deterring people from joining a system with institutionalized bullying, renewed allegations of bout fixing, the very real possibility of bodybuilding chemicals banned in most world sports, and the entirely possible death of the Sumo’s credibility that the Ohnaruto Scandal of 1996 (where a veteran wrestler and trainer, Ohnaruto, and commentator Hashimoto Seiichiro both became sick and died on the same day in the same hospital of unknown causes—shortly before they were to go before the press and spill the beans on charges of bout fixing etc.; see http://www.banzuke.com/96-3/msg00198.html) would have done a lot sooner.

Time for people to wake up, and realize that something smells fishy in Asashoryu’s persecution. This time it’s not the chanko nabe.

ENDS

NB: Views expressed in this essay are generally those expressed by James Eriksson, with some embellishments from Arudou Debito.

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

Posted on August 24, 2007August 24, 2007 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. About to jump on my bicycle again for a few days and catch the tail-end of the Hokkaido summer, but here’s a link to a Japan Times article on the Valentine Case, which came out shortly before my last cycle trip.

Japan Times column: “ABUSE, RACISM, LOST EVIDENCE DENY JUSTICE IN VALENTINE CASE: Nigerian’s ordeal shows that different standards apply for foreigners in court” (August 14, 2007).

Column 37 for the Japan Times Community Page
Courtesy http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070814zg.html
More information and documentation on this case at https://www.debito.org/valentinelawsuit.html

Excerpt:
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In 1999, a Brazilian resident of Japan named Milton Higaki was involved in an accident that killed a schoolgirl. Rather than face justice in Japan, he fled to Brazil fearing “discrimination as a foreigner in Japanese courts.”

Although the domestic media quickly saw this as a case of crooked-foreigner-as-flight-risk, human rights attorney Yasuko Morioka took a more nuanced view, criticizing Japan’s “lack of legal hearings that consider the rights of foreign(ers).”

While fleeing from justice is not to be condoned, cases like Higaki’s are more understandable considering the increasing awareness of the scarier aspects of Japan’s judicial system.

Not only is the United Nations aware of the potential for torture in Japan’s prisons (more below), but courts here also tend to use different judicial standards when coming to decisions in cases involving non-Japanese.

Consider the Valentine case…
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Webbed with links to original sources on Debito.org at https://www.debito.org/japantimes081407.html Original blog report on this case at https://www.debito.org/?p=497

Meanwhile, next Tuesday, August 28 (Wednesday in the provinces) will see my next column coming out in the Japan Times Community Page, on how NJ are being blamed for just about anything these days, and how that adversely affects any possible assimilation.

Enjoy. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

レポート：イドゥボ逮捕と物的証拠なき半年拘留事件

Posted on August 22, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

　皆様こんにちは。Debito.orgの有道　出人です。たいへんご無沙汰しております。

　猛暑日のなか、この事件を申し上げることは恐縮ですが、報告を送信します。これは物的証拠がなくても拘留して迅速な裁判にしてもらう権利を問う事件です。

イドゥボ・オサユワメン，準強姦被告事件

　２００７年１月２２日、本日からちょうど７ヶ月前、横浜市で飲食店を経営しているナイジリア国籍のイドゥボ氏は加賀町警察に逮捕されました。容疑は、２００６年１１月1日に当飲食店にて酩酊している日本人女性が彼にレイプされたという訴えでした。イドゥボの弁護士津留崎基行（つるさきもとゆき）によると、「平成19年1月22日に準強姦罪で逮捕され，平成19年2月9日に準強姦罪で起訴されました。上記逮捕とそれに引き続く拘留により平成19年5月11日まで加賀町警察署に留置されていましたが，同日，横浜拘置支所に移監になり，現在も同所において留置されています。当職は，平成19年5月21日付けで保釈の請求をいたしましたが，却下されました。」物的証拠がないというものの、イドゥボ氏は未だに拘留されている。筋によると、一つの理由は外国人容疑者の場合、「海外に逃亡する可能性がある」と刑事裁判官が思われているかもしれません。

　アムネスティ・インタナショナルからの紹介で、私はイドゥボ氏の妻（ポランド国籍）から連絡をいただき、彼女は彼の健康状態について大変心配しております。半年以上拘留された結果、彼の頭皮に蕁麻疹が発生し脱毛となり、耳からも血が出ています。にもかかわらず、適切な看病や病院へのアクセスが拒否されているようです。

　（実は、これはバレンタイン裁判と同様です。０３年、ナイジリア出身のバレンタイン氏は警察に足が折られたと主張したものの、警察署は１０日間の留置で適切な医療行為を拒否して、保釈した本人は現在に至り有害者となりました。損害賠償を要請したバレンタイン氏は東京地裁に今年３月に却下され、現在控訴中。高裁判決全文、警察署の陳述と私が書いたジャパンタイムズの記事はhttps://www.debito.org/valentinelawsuit.html。ちなみに、国連の反拷問委員会が本年５月に発行した日本に対する留置中の「拷問に等しい待遇」についての批判はhttps://www.debito.org/?p=415)

　イドゥボ氏の弁護士からのメモを全文転送させていただきます。問い合わせ、ご取材などをどうぞ津留崎弁護士に直接ご連絡下さい。次回の裁判期日は9月3日（月）14:30〜午後5時です。宜しくお願い致します。有道　出人

／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／

〒231-0011
神奈川県横浜市中区太田町1-20三和ビル4A
つるさき法律事務所　　　弁護士　津留_　基行
TEL:045-663-6874 / FAX:045-663-6895
email: tsurusaki AT tsuruhou DOT com

被告人イドゥボ・オサユワメン，準強姦被告事件の不合理な点

1　裁判で争われている公訴事実
　平成18年11月1日午前6時30分ころから同日午前9時30分ころまでの間に，飲食店店長であった被告人が，酩酊して抵抗不能な状態になっている客の女性を姦淫したというもの（準強姦）。

2　証拠の概況
　かかる強姦の事実があったことを示す物的な証拠は全くないと言っても過言ではなく，被害者の女性の供述がほぼ唯一の証拠となっている。

　もちろん，被告人は強姦の事実は否定しており，姦淫の事実すらないと述べている。

　ところが，被害者の女性の供述は以下の通り極めて不合理な点が多い。

3　被害者女性による供述の不合理な点
　被害者女性は複数の供述調書を残し，かつ公判廷でも証人として証言したが，供述する度に供述内容が変遷しており一貫していない。

　例えば，被害者女性は店の中でテキーラの一気飲みを3回したと供述しているが，最初の1杯を飲んだときに酔いが回って店の中で寝てしまったと供述したこともあれば，3回目に飲むまでは酔っていなかったと供述していることもある。また，レイプされている最中，自分の顔の上に被告人の顔があったと供述したこともあれば，被告人の顔は見えなかったと供述していることもある。

　また，被害者女性の供述は，客観的証拠とも合致していない点がある。

　例えば，被害者女性は被害に遭った後，パンティーに血がにじんでいたと供述しているが，証拠として提出されているパンティーの写真には血は付着していない。また，被害者女性は被告人に店舗の床の上で引きずられたと供述しているが，証拠として提出されている着衣の写真は全く汚れていない。

　その他，被害者の供述は，その供述内容自体が不自然である点が多い。

　例えば，被害者は，強姦の際に抵抗できないほど酔っていたと供述しながら，その直後に床上を這って店舗の入り口付近まで進んだと述べ，また，這って動くくらいかできないはずであるのに，その場所で足も届かないような高い椅子に自ら腰掛けたと述べ，そのようにする力があるにもかかわらず施錠もされていない店舗の外に逃げようともしていない。

　また，強姦の被害に遭った後，強姦した犯人であるはずの被告人の運転する車で友人宅まで送ってもらったと被害者は供述しているが，この点も通常は信じがたいところである。

　また，強姦の様子についても，その所要時間は1,2分程度で，犯人は射精もせずに自発的に姦淫行為を中断したと被害者が供述している点についても，通常は信じがたいところである。

　強姦被害に遭った当日の行動についても，被害者は当日の朝に抵抗できないほど酔った状態で強姦の被害に遭ったと供述しているにもかかわらず，同日の昼には友人の彼氏と2人でレストランに行って食事をとったと供述しており，強姦被害者の行動としては不自然といわざるを得ない。

　以上指摘した他にも，被害者の供述の中には，多数の不合理な点が含まれている。

4　弁護人の考え
　本件に関する証拠を吟味し，被告人との面会を重ねてきた弁護人は，被告人が本件について完全に無罪であることを確信している。

　そこで，是非とも無罪判決を勝ち取りたいと切望している。

5　要請事項
　時折，ニュースにおいて，真実は無実であるにもかかわらず有罪判決を受け，それが後に無罪であることが判明したという事件が報じられることがあるが，このようなケースは氷山の一角である。

　日本の刑事裁判の実態としては，起訴されれば99.9%有罪判決が出されるのが現状であり，どんなに弁護人が無罪を確信し，弁護活動をしたとしてもなかなか無罪判決が出されることはない。

　刑事裁判官の側に立てば，別の見方もありうるが，上のような現状認識が刑事弁護に携わっている多くの弁護士の共通認識であろうと思われる。

　とはいえ，このような現状を打破し，刑事裁判の結果を左右させるために，直接的に担当裁判所に対して政治的な圧力をかけるような行為は，裁判の公正を害する行為であるから慎まなければならない。

　有効なことは，公正な裁判が実現されるのかどうかを多くの人々が見守っているという事実を裁判所に何らかの形で知ってもらうことである。そのような監視の目があることを裁判所が認識すれば，公正な裁判を実現するために裁判所としては拙速を避けて慎重な審理を心がける可能性がある。

　例えば，裁判の傍聴は広く認められた権利であることから，多くの人達が裁判を傍聴することになれば，それによって裁判所も監視の目があることを意識するものと考えられる。

　もしも，次回の裁判期日（平成19年9月3日（月）14:30〜午後5時）に多くの傍聴希望者がいるとすれば，できる限り多くの傍聴人が裁判を傍聴できるように，広い法廷に変更してもらったり，傍聴人用の補助椅子を用意してもらうなどの要求を当職から裁判所に伝えたいと考えている。

平成19年7月6日
以上

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

Posted on August 12, 2007August 12, 2007 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. It’s summertime. Time to unwind a bit, take a break, and switch it off. To do that, here’s an excellent essay from magazine ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY (to which I have had a subscription to for about a decade; it’s my way of switching off in the evening at bedtime; it’s also a source of much consternation and teasing from some of my activist friends, who confuse it with PEOPLE magazine…).

Article is on the movie vs. television industry and their different approach to niche markets. The latter acknowledges and appeals to them, the former ignores them and blames the public for not liking their product.

But the essay is so well-written and eye-opening that it’s worth your time, even if it’s not Japan-related. And it is inarguably a departure from the usual fare on Debito.org, non?

Enjoy the summer, like you should. I’ll be on my bike cycling Hokkaido for at least a week, so signing off for a little while. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

PS: I’ll have another article out in the Japan Times Community page next Tuesday, August 14 (Wednesday in the provinces), on the Valentine Case and racial discrimination in Japan’s court decisions. Have a look!

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

The Final Cut
Power to the People
It’s the big Hollywood lie: Movie studios say they’re only ”giving the people what they want” — but who are these ”people”?
By Mark Harris
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY Published in issue #936 Jun 01, 2007
Courtesy http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20040408,00.html?print

In the movie business, there are several ways to spot a lie. Some involve math: For instance, the sentence ”The movie was great — it was just marketed badly,” which is said every hour in Hollywood, is true exactly 3 percent of the time, whereas ”The movie was bad — it was just marketed really well,” which is almost never said, is true 97 percent of the time. Some lies are formulaic: Anybody in movies who starts a sentence ”At the end of the day…” is clearly revving up the manure spreader. But there’s an even more common lie. The sentence ”We’re just giving the people what they want,” when uttered by a studio executive, is always, always untrue.

How can you tell? Easy: There’s no such thing as ”the people.” Not anymore.

Late May is a roller-coastery time in pop culture. In TV, the season has just wrapped; we are near the end of The Sopranos and The Shield and in the middle of Lost and at the beginning of Heroes and Friday Night Lights and The Tudors and, depending upon our tastes, following any number of dark, complicated, challenging, years-long story arcs, assessing and arguing about them every week. It’s a good moment.

Meanwhile, here’s the movie slate in which the studios invested something like $750 million this month: part 3 of a movie based on a comic book. Part 3 of a movie based on a children’s book. And part 3 of a movie based on a Disneyland ride.

Not much of a contest, is it?

This is where ”We’re just giving the people what they want” comes in. It’s the defiant lie told by those who want to pretend that their failures of ambition are your fault — that because ”the people” eat what they’re fed, they must like it. The moneymen behind Spiders of the Shrekibbean brag about meaningless numbers (Spider-Man 3 had the biggest opening weekend of all time!) and shrink from meaningful ones, like the fact that Spider-Man 3 cost more and will likely gross less than the first two. And they start planning Spider-Man 4 because ”the people” want it, and try not to listen to the moviegoers saying ”Ehh, 3 was okay, the second one was better.” Because nothing that anyone says after the movie counts.

Don’t you hate being referred to as ”the people” — as if you were a big mass of grazing cows being herded from one multiplex pasture to the next every week? You don’t hear it in TV anymore, because networks know that we’ve become a niche nation, and we’re going to stay that way. We don’t all like the same shows; we don’t all want to like the same shows. When the most popular (and most people-powered) TV series is American Idol, and three-quarters of households are happily watching something else every time it’s on, talk of ”the people” as a unified entity becomes pointless. (It’s even pointless on Idol itself: Remember when ”the people” decided that they liked Taylor Hicks better than Chris Daughtry, and then months later, when their CDs came out, decided they were only kidding?)

It turns out that not caring about ”the people” is liberating. It frees you to care about your people — the 2 or 5 or 10 million who are passionate about Friday Night Lights or Rescue Me or The Wire or Battlestar Galactica or The Office, who will stay with your show for as long as it’s good, whose enthusiasms and high standards and judgments may even help, indirectly, to make it better.

The problem isn’t with American filmmakers, many of whom are doing exciting work right now (wait until fall), but with mainstream-studio-chief thinking. The people who finance big movies are still pretending they’re doing it for everyone, but the only segment of ”everyone” they’re willing to spend enormous sums of money wooing are 15-to-24-year-old males and little kids (and whomever they drag along). The true translation of ”We’re giving the people what they want” is ”We’re making the only kind of movies we know how to sell, and we’re selling them to the only demographics we know how to sell to.” Everyone else is treated as a minority or special-interest group — including women, who get one or two mid-budget films tossed at them per summer (usually the extent of studio thinking about that half of the population is ”Um…is Angelina Jolie available?”), and ”old people” (in Hollywood, that means all Americans 35 and over), who are brushed off until well after Labor Day.

Will Hollywood notice how many of ”the people” are staying home? Not yet — not as long as there are self-serving ways of tabulating actual ticket sales and another biggest weekend of all time! around every corner. But if the studios don’t figure out that ”the people” are a lot more diverse than their movies, they’re in for some bad news. Thirty-seven percent (according to a 2006 MPAA study) of Americans now feel that ”the ultimate movie-watching experience” resides not in a theater but in their own living rooms. That number is going to grow. As it does, maybe the studios will finally have to think about who ”the people” actually are — and what we really want.

Posted May 25, 2007 | Published in issue #936 Jun 01, 2007
ENDS

Ijuuren publishes “Living Together with Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Japan, NGO Policy Proposals”

Posted on August 11, 2007 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hello Blog. Solidarity with Migrants Japan (SMJ, Ijuuren) has just published a book you might be interested in ordering. Debito in Sapporo

————————————————————–
Living Together with Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Japan
NGO Policy Proposals
————————————————————–

Table of Contents
Preface
Terms

Part I: At the Crossroads of Migrants Policies
Chapter 1: Toward the Future of Harmonious Multiethnic and
Multicultural Coexistence
Chapter 2: Enactment of Legislation for Human Rights and Harmonious
Coexistence

Part II: Over Individual Issues
Chapter 3: Right to Work and Rights of Working People
Chapter 4: Rights of Migrant Women
Chapter 5: Human Rights for Families and Children
Chapter 6: Education of Children
Chapter 7: Healthcare and Social Security Services
Chapter 8: Local Autonomy and Foreign Residents
Chapter 9: Opening the Gates to Refugees
Chapter 10: Detention and Deportation
Chapter 11: The Right to Trial
Chapter 12: Eliminating Racism and Discrimination against Foreigners

Publisher: Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (Ijuuren, SMJ)
Date of publication: July 31, 2007, 1st English edition
Price: JPY 1500 (excluding mailing cost)
ISBN 4-87798-346-8 C0036

This book is translated from the Japanese version published in 2006.

More information on both books at http://www.jca.apc.org/migrant-net/Japanese/Japanese.html
ENDS

移住連０６年版『外国籍住民との共生にむけて−−ＮＧＯからの政策提言』は英訳版出版

Posted on August 11, 2007 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

頂いたメールを転送します。有道　出人

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
From: fmwj@jca.apc.org
Subject: [s-watch] 政策提言の英訳版を出版しました！
Date: August 9, 2007 6:41:41 PM JST
To: fmwj@jca.apc.org

　移住連の高谷です。
　０６年に出版した『外国籍住民との共生にむけて−−ＮＧＯからの政策提言』の英訳版を出版しました！
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TPR on why the passage of HR 121, “Comfort Women” Resolution, is not a bad thing

Posted on August 10, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. I listened last night to yet another excellent Trans Pacific Radio essay from Garrett DeOrio on HR 121 (the “Comfort Women” Resolution), and why its passage by the US House of Representatives on July 30, 2007, is not a bad thing.

What I didn’t know was all the “nicely, nicely” that went into it, and even then the Japan Lobby in Washington came down on it hard. But in his view this “meddling” just made matters worse for them in terms of PR. Excerpt follows:

======================
The negative view, that the US is meddling in the affairs of a sovereign Japan, is even more porous than the positive view.

For starters, as I mentioned above, the US House, through this Resolution, is not advocating, much less taking any action against Japan. There is nothing in H.R. 121 that suggests that even the House thinks Japan should take it seriously. Constituents of a member of the US House of Representatives, Mike Honda of California, made a complaint and Representative Honda took that complaint to the appropriate Congressional committee, in this case the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, chaired by Representative Tom Lantos, also of California.

The propriety of the Committee’s actions in this case should not be in doubt. Since when have governments or governmental agencies been concerned only with their own actions or incidents that occur on their own soil? Should the House Committee on Foreign Affairs be taken to task for condemning what is now going on in Darfur? Few outside of the Sudanese government would say so.

But when it comes to now peaceful Japan, such actions, even in the form of flaccid nudges, become “meddling.”

There is no meddling. No agent of any part of the US government is trying to change any internal policy in Japan. The closest thing to this would be the resolution that states that Japan “should educate current and future generations about this horrible crime while following the recommendations of the international community with respect to the ‘comfort women’.” This, though, is not telling Japan how to educate its children or plan its school curricula.

Meddling requires at least some hint of action.

The first two times H.R. 121 was set to face a vote in the Foreign Affairs Committee, it was taken off the agenda due to pressure from the six-figure-a-month Japan lobby in Washington. Pressure was put on members of Congress and diplomatic strings were pulled to silence the issue.

Members of the Government of Japan took out a full-page ad in the Washington Post demanding that the Resolution not be passed and Ryozo Kato, Japan’s Ambassador to the United States, threatened strained or damaged relations should the Resolution pass.

That, dear readers, is meddling.
======================

This is what the blogosphere can do best–present an alternative viewpoint from a dedicated researcher, and amplify it with good writing (unscathed from the again “nicely, nicely” tendencies of corporate journalism beholden to advertisers).

Have a read (or better yet, a listen; Garrett is a good reader) at http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/08/02/the-comfort-women-resolution-hr-121-passed-why-thats-not-bad/

Well done again, Garrett. Debito in Sapporo

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 9, 2007

Posted on August 9, 2007 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hello Blog. Arudou Debito in Sapporo here trying to take a vacation in August, but a week of tropical rain in Hokkaido is keeping me from my annual summer cycletrek. Contents of this newsletter as follows:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
1) HIROSHIMA PEACE FOUNDATION STEVEN LEEPER’S ODD VIEWS ON NJ IN JAPAN
2) JAPAN TIMES SERIES ON DIVORCE AND CHILD ABDUCTION IN JAPAN
3) ECONOMIST’S SOPHOMORIC ARTICLE ON J FUTURE DEMOGRAPHICS
4) KYODO AND YOMIURI ON JAPAN’S NEGLIGENCE EDUCATING NJ CHILDREN
5) UCLA BASKETBALL PLAYER NATURALIZES… SO DOES BOBBY OLOGUN
6) WHILE DPRK REFUGEES REMAIN STATELESS DESPITE FUJIMORI PRECEDENT
7) SPEECH ON UNIVERSITY BLACKLIST AT TOUDAI, PLUS NEW ADDITIONS

and finally…
8) TPR INTERVIEW RE NJ LABOR MARKET… AND MY LOVE OF DURAN DURAN
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

By Arudou Debito (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org)
August 9, 2007, freely forwardable

1) HIROSHIMA PEACE FOUNDATION STEVEN LEEPER’S ODD VIEWS ON NJ IN JAPAN

Normally I would shout “congratulations” from the rooftops at the news: The momentous appointment of a non-Japanese to be director of an important Japanese institution.

Particularly when said institution is tasked with keeping the faith on with an important international issue–one the GOJ brings up constantly in its untiring quest for uniqueness in the world stage (“the only country in history ever bombed by nuclear weapons”). As well as for world peace.

But Steven Leeper, the newly-appointed director of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation (http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/hpcf/english/index.cgi) is proving to be a historical curator with an odd attitude not only towards history, but also towards non-Japanese in Japan (a category he still falls into, of course).

Cited recently in several media, including the International Herald Tribune, the Asahi Shinbun, the Japan Times, and the Kansai Time Out, Leeper rings hollowly at the end of the KTO article:

===============================
“I’m afraid I don’t see much of a role for foreigners in the Japanese government. It would never have occurred to me to pursue the position that I am in. I did absolutely nothing to pursue it, and I would not recommend that anyone pursue such a path. From what I have seen and experienced, foreigners who make a commitment to Japan and are willing to give what they can over a very long term get utilized in ways their communities need, and they get rewarded more than fairly for what they give.

“In general, though, I see Japan as being a place where Japanese people can go about the business of being Japanese. Those of us who are not Japanese but enjoy living in Japan can learn from them and help them to relate to the outside world. But our influence is and should be rather limited. I personally hope the Japanese will remain quite Japanese. In fact, I wish they would get back to being more Japanese than they are today. For those who like diversity, which I also enjoy, we have the U.S. I truly enjoy both cultures, but I want them to stay different.”
===============================

I see. So whatever “going about the business of being Japanese” means (it’s obviously automatically “different” from what foreigners do, even from what “today’s Japanese” do), it’s clear to Leeper that foreigners (and their Japanese children, one assumes) being in our country somehow sully that and should be constrained. Never mind that some “foreigners” have been here for a “very long term” indeed (generations), and many have not reaped the ultimately forthcoming “fair rewards” he assures us of. And then there’s the hundreds of thousands of others (like guess who) have even naturalized.

But if these intruders aren’t somehow “Japanese enough” to qualify for GOJ jobs (or aren’t fortunate enough to have one fall into their laps through no fault of their own), they should go someplace more diverse, like America? (which will surely grant them all visas)

How odd. I’m trying really hard to see this as a “you stand where you sit” sort of attitude made by a person bound by his job. But it’s square-pegging a round hole. I understand why Leeper might take a 100% Pacifist line–for example, that nuclear weapons should never be used, moreover eliminated from the face of the earth given the damage they do.

But Leeper is clearly out of bounds when he says that NJ should have no role in the decisionmaking processes of Japan. NJ should merely settle for whatever scraps Japanese society might deign to throw them (as opposed to pushing for more equal treatment)? Why this ironic disposition to pull up the ladder behind him?

If Leeper feels this strongly, why accept this job? Oh, because it was a scrap thrown him due to circumstances beyond his control. Congrats, you won the lottery. But now that you’ve been included, why go out of your way to make exclusivist arguments?

Here’s hoping Leeper wises up a bit, and remembers his own position in society both before and after his appointment. Otherwise he’s going to come off as an Uncle Tom, echoing the more xenophobic and conservative elements of Japan (some of whom led Japan down the road culminating in the extreme acts of war he curates), damaging his own reputation and credibility in the process.

Links to all articles and more commentary at
https://www.debito.org/?p=530

Contact him at hpcf@pcf.city.hiroshima.jp

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

2) JAPAN TIMES SERIES ON DIVORCE AND CHILD ABDUCTION IN JAPAN

On Tuesday, August 7, 2007, the Japan Times ran three articles from Michael Hassett, Colin Jones, and Mark Smith on divorce and child abduction in Japan. Wonderful! All articles archived at https://www.debito.org/?p=527 Excerpts:

===============================
THE ZEIT GIST
LOSING CUSTODY: THE ODDS
By MICHAEL HASSETT
Special to The Japan Times, August 7, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070807z3.html

The turmoil of an acquaintance’s divorce recently caused me to contemplate the predictability of falling into such a mess. This particular individual [guess who] has not seen one of his children since July 2004, two years before his divorce was even finalized…

Specifically, can we determine the probability that a man who marries in Japan will have at least one child with his spouse, then divorce, and subsequently lose custody of any children? This likelihood is not that difficult to calculate, and sadly, it is rather high–over 21 percent…
===============================
===============================
THE ZEIT GIST
COMMUNITY: PARENTAL ABDUCTION
HOW WILL JAPAN RESPOND?
By COLIN P.A. JONES
Special to The Japan Times, August 7, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070807z2.html

The term “Japanese family law” may seem like an oxymoron to anyone who has experienced the well-intentioned but often ineffectual efforts of Japan’s family courts in child-custody cases, particularly when a foreign parent is involved. Some foreign consular officers are privately scathing when discussing such cases. Diplomats from one G-8 country who discussed the problem with family-court representatives were even told that in such disputes, custody would always be awarded to the Japanese parent–because only they, not the foreign parent, have a family register…
===============================
===============================
THE ZEIT GIST
U.S. TAKES TOUGHER LINE ON ABDUCTIONS TO JAPAN
By MARK SMITH
Special to The Japan Times, August 7, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070807z1.html

Despite Ronald MacKinnon’s fears that his child would be abducted, the New Jersey Supreme Court in the U.S. recently gave permission for his divorced Japanese wife, Erika, to relocate with their daughter to Okinawa. On July 30, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay, so Erika is free to leave.

One might think that these precedents would have custodial parents racing to resubmit requests for international relocation. But instead, we may be about to witness a tsunami of cases similar to MacKinnon’s, albeit with a different outcome…
===============================

Awareness is increasing as the experiences increase. Goody. But some major media refuse to consider information no matter how many times they’ve been told it:

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

3) ECONOMIST’S SOPHOMORIC ARTICLE ON J FUTURE DEMOGRAPHICS

The Economist had a three-page special in their July 26, 2007 issue discussing the effects of Japan’s aging society. Yet the article mentions NOT A SINGLE WORD about the influx of foreign labor (even if only to dismiss it as a possibility).

Any serious debate about future labor markets in developed countries cannot ignore global labor mobility. The media should stop assuming that Japan is uniquely able to resolve this situation all by itself. Even Japan’s economic media (Shuukan Diamondo June 5, 2004) admits that without the NJ workforce, internationally-competitive domestic factories would not work and we’d have a severe shortfall of payers into Japan’s future.

The article concludes (Yes, these are the last two paragraphs. Kerplunk):
===============================
JAPAN’S CHANGING DEMOGRAPHY
CLOUD, OR SILVER LININGS?
The Economist print edition July 26th 2007

…”It’s embarrassing to say this,” admits Mr Yamada, “but after a first child is born, the husband often doesn’t do his bit helping out at home, and that engenders anxiety in the wife about having a second child.” That is partly cultural habit. Boys are pampered at home by their mothers and expect the same treatment–no nappy-changing, no washing up–later from their wives. But it is also because of the long working hours companies expect. So, says Kuniko Inoguchi, minister for gender issues and social affairs under Mr Koizumi, policy needs not only to be directed towards encouraging more women to work, with more nursing care for elderly relatives, better child care, more flexible working arrangements and so on. It also needs to make life better for working men.

A better work-life balance is good for companies, which can thereby attract better talent. It is also good for working men, says Mrs Inoguchi. They can enjoy a proper private life, spending more time at home–always assuming, and it is no foregone conclusion, that Japanese wives are prepared to tolerate them there.
===============================
http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9539825
https://www.debito.org/?p=522

Why is a magazine as thoughtful The Economist sticking its head in the sand on this issue, even resorting to the “grown-up children who call themselves adult Japanese men” stereotypes? Guess this is what happens when you close your Tokyo office and have to report remotely all the time.

Meanwhile the domestic media (and the Ministry of Education) is doing their job:

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

4) KYODO AND YOMIURI ON JAPAN’S NEGLIGENCE EDUCATING NJ CHILDREN

Excerpts of articles substantiating the emerging issue of what happens when you don’t make compulsory education a requirement for non-Japanese children. (All articles archived with original Japanese at https://www.debito.org/?p=523)

===============================
EDUCATION
OVER 22,000 FOREIGN KIDS NEED JAPANESE-LANGUAGE GUIDANCE AT SCHOOL
Japan Today/Kyodo August 1, 2007
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/413853
Courtesy of Matt Dioguardi

The number of foreign children attending public elementary and secondary schools in Japan who are in need of Japanese-language guidance as of last September increased 8% from a year earlier to a record high of 22,413, the education ministry said Tuesday.

The figure, which has risen for four consecutive years, covers foreign children who go to public elementary, junior high and senior high schools, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education…
===============================
===============================
1% OF FOREIGN CHILDREN NOT IN SCHOOL
Yomiuri Shinbun August 3, 2007
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070803TDY02001.htm

At least one percent of registered foreign school-age children living in the country do not attend either primary or middle school, according to an Education, Science and Technology Ministry survey. In addition, the whereabouts of 17.5 percent of children registered as foreign nationals is unknown, making it impossible to confirm whether they are going to school. The number of foreign children who do not attend school is believed to be much higher than 1 percent, according to ministry officials.

The ministry suspects that such a situation probably encourages juvenile delinquency and the illegal employment of such children…
===============================

MOE’s original report cited in the article (Japanese):
http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/19/08

How nice of Japan to bring NJ laborers all the way over here but not take care of their children’s educational needs. Thanks for forgetting to include that in your educational reforms passed last December, PM Abe.

Meanwhile, some people are taking assimilation into their own hands:

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

5) UCLA BASKETBALL PLAYER NATURALIZES… SO DOES BOBBY OLOGUN

Here’s one way to avoid the accusation that foreigners in Japanese sports make events too boring:

J.R. Sakuragi, a former NBA player known as J.R. Henderson, has become a Japanese citizen and will play for the Japan National Team in the FIBA Asian Championship, to qualify for the Olympics:

===============================
FORMER UCLA PLAYER GETS JAPANESE CITIZENSHIP, SPOT ON NATIONAL HOOPS TEAM
Japan Times July 17, 2007
By KAZ NAGATSUKA Staff writer
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sk20070717a1.html
Courtesy of TT

Most fans are probably not familiar with this name: J.R. Sakuragi. But if they hear the name J.R. Henderson, that may ring a bell. As the FIBA Asia Championship begins on July 28, the 12-man Japan National Team roster for the tournament was finalized and Sakuragi, who has recently acquired Japanese citizenship, found his name on it…

Sakuragi, a native of Bakersfield, California, played his college ball at powerhouse UCLA, where he was a member of the team that won the 1995 NCAA title…

Team Japan will try to capture the first berth in an Olympics since the 1976 Montreal Games in the July 28 to Aug. 5 tournament, in which only one nation will get an automatic berth in the Olympics…
===============================
https://www.debito.org/?p=511

Congrats, JR. Likewise for Bobby Ologun, the Nigerian tarento who likes to present himself as Mr Pidgin Japanese (in the best traditions, in my view, of pandering entertainers like Stepin Fetchit). Now it’s certifiable that he knows a lot more Japanese than he lets on. He just got Japanese citizenship too.

http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=2401
(Mezamashi TV July 26, 2007, YouTubed TV report, 2:30 minutes)

Now Konda Bobii, he still keeps up the act (while properly proclaiming himself as Japanese). His brother Andy (who also appears in the video speaking Japanese impeccably) fortunately feels no compulsion to do the same.

Meanwhile, let’s get further into ironies of Japan’s nationality laws:

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

6) WHILE DPRK REFUGEES REMAIN STATELESS DESPITE FUJIMORI PRECEDENT

Here’s another interesting angle to how people become Japanese.

First we get a person like Alberto Fujimori, who parachutes into Japan on the lam from international law, essentially claims asylum (leaping over the thousands of candidates waiting in line for years to naturalize or become refugees), does a runner to another country on another passport, and gets brought back to run in absentia in the last Japanese election as a candidate (which he fortunately lost). All because of his Japanese blood.

Yet here we have a situation where people also have the same legitimate claim (Japanese blood) and are being denied citizenship anywhere, let alone Japan. All due to the politics of the region.

===============================
24 DEFECTORS FROM DPRK STILL STATELESS
PREJUDICE RIFE IN CATCH-22 SITUATION
The Yomiuri Shimbun Jun. 13, 2007
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20070613TDY01003.htm
Courtesy Jeff Korpa

At least 24 defectors from North Korea living in Japan remain stateless, largely due to the lack of clear government guidelines on how to determine the nationalities of such defectors…

A support group for the defectors interviewed 82 defectors residing in Japan in February and confirmed 24 children and grandchildren of the Japanese wives [who returned from North Korea] remain stateless….

Under the current Nationality Law, Japanese wives of former pro-Pyongyang Korean residents can reobtain Japanese nationality easily, but their children and grandchildren face difficulties in naturalization unless they have sufficient income to support themselves…
https://www.debito.org/?p=471
===============================

Anyone find any consistency in Japan’s citizenship law application, please explain it to me.

Changing the subject:

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

7) SPEECH ON UNIVERSITY BLACKLIST AT TODAI, PLUS NEW ADDITIONS

Had an enjoyable three-hour speech at Tokyo University on July 31, 2007, regarding the Blacklist of Japanese Universities, where listed institutions have a history of offering unequal contracted work (not permanent “academic tenure”) to its full-time faculty (usually foreign faculty).

It was attended by several universities (Todai, Hitotsubashidai, Tohokudai, Nagoya, Aizu, some of whom wanted to know why they had been Blacklisted), some educational institutions, and originally even the Ministry of Justice (who bowed out at the last minute).

You can download the Powerpoint presentations here:
ENGLISH
https://www.debito.org/todaiblacklist073007.ppt
JAPANESE
https://www.debito.org/todaiblacklistj073007.ppt

Brief update. Thanks to several people scanning the job market listings recently (thanks!), I’ve been able to add Kansai Gaidai University, Shokei Gakuin University, Kyushu University to the 105 total Blacklisted universities. And there will be more in the near future, as I’ve received applications that I haven’t webbed yet.

Meanwhile, the corresponding Greenlist of Japanese Universities recently got Nagoya University and Aichi University of Education (although they still have no effective tenure review system for their full-time contracted NJ faculty, so they remain on the Blacklist as well).

A representative of Nagoya University in particular made a special effort just before my Todai speech to present evidence that Nagoya has tenured NJ. Excellent. Glad the Blacklist is being taken so seriously.

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

and finally…
8) TPR INTERVIEW RE NJ LABOR MARKET… AND MY LOVE OF DURAN DURAN

Trans-Pacific Radio has just released another interview, with a mix of the light and heavier:

===============================
TPR SPOTLIGHT
DEBITO ARUDOU ON THE FOREIGN LABOR MARKET (& DURAN DURAN), PART 1 OF 2
Posted by DeOrio on Tuesday, August 7, 2007

As well-known as he is, not many people know that human rights activist Debito Arudou is as passionate about Duran Duran as he is about anything.

This is an important issue that relates to Japan’s economic future, and immigration policy (or reform) still seems untouchable within the nation’s political discourse. Why is this so?
===============================

Have a listen at:
http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/08/07/tpr-spotlight-2-japans-foreign-labor-market/

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

Thanks for reading. Arudou Debito in Sapporo, Japan
debito@debito.org
https://www.debito.org
DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 9, 2007 ENDS

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

Posted on August 9, 2007March 14, 2011 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Normally I would shout “congratulations” from the rooftops at the news: The momentous appointment of a non-Japanese to be director of an important Japanese institution.

But Steven Leeper, the newly-appointed director of the Hiroshima Peace and Culture Foundation, is proving to be a historical curator with an odd attitude not only towards history (see KTO August 2007 and Steve Silver article below), but also towards non-Japanese in Japan (a category he still falls into, of course).

Cited recently in several media, including the International Herald Tribune, the Asahi Shinbun, the Japan Times, and the Kansai Time Out, Leeper rings hollowly at the end of the KTO article (full article scanned at the bottom of this blog entry):

In general, though, I see Japan as being a place where Japanese people can go about the business of being Japanese. Those of us who are not Japanese but enjoy living in Japan can learn from them and help them to relate to the outside world. But our influence is and should be rather limited. I personally hope the Japanese will remain quite Japanese. In fact, I wish they would get back to being more Japanese than they are today. For those who like diversity, which I also enjoy, we have the U.S. I truly enjoy both cultures, but I want them to stay different.
===============================

Arudou Debito in Sapporo

Steven Leeper’s email address:
hpcf@pcf.city.hiroshima.jp

REFERENCES

Excellent article from Steve Silver on other aspects of Leeper’s views:
http://steve-s.livejournal.com/46716.html

KTO ARTICLE FOLLOWS IN FULL:
(click on images to expand in your browser)

IHT, ASAHI, AND JAPAN TIMES ARTICLES FOLLOW SEPARATELY IN COMMENTS SECTION

Japan Times’ series on divorce and child abduction in Japan, in part inspired by Debito.org

Posted on August 9, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. On Tuesday, August 7, 2007, the Japan Times ran three articles from Michael Hassett, Colin Jones, and Mark Smith, on divorce and child abduction in Japan. Wonderful!

But first, a word from one of the authors, Michael Hassett. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

=================================
August 6, 2007
Dear Debito,

I just wanted to let you know that an e-mail exchange that we had about two months ago has surprisingly developed into an article that will be published in “The Japan Times” tomorrow. I have attached the full version. A few small changes might be made.

For the print version of the newspaper, the article had to be shortened to a thousand words–so we just included the part about Japan, along with the conclusion–but a reference will be made to the full version, which will be posted online.

It is my understanding that this is going to be one in a collection of three articles–all on the themes of divorce, child custody, and child abduction–that will be published across the community and lifestyle sections tomorrow.

A lot of the credit for this article belongs to you. Your e-mail containing the story about your trip back to upstate New York and the emotional visits that you had with your daughter stimulated me to contemplate the likelihood of such events occurring, as I expressed in the e-mail that I then sent to you, the details of which I researched afterward to confirm the estimates I initially made.

I know that I and possibly many others do not provide feedback that often, but rest assured that we often find your reports stimulating and appreciate the time you take to keep us all informed. Michael Hassett, Tokyo

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

THE ZEIT GIST
Losing custody: the odds
By MICHAEL HASSETT
Special to The Japan Times, August 6, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070807z3.html

The turmoil of an acquaintance’s divorce recently caused me to contemplate the predictability of falling into such a mess.

This particular individual has not seen one of his children since July 2004, two years before his divorce was even finalized. A separate friend informed me that that ¥2 million and a good lawyer were able to convince his ex-wife to allow him access to his daughter three times a year — yet for only 30 minutes each time and with the provision that he was not allowed to tell his daughter that he was her biological father.

Many of us have heard of high-profile cases of divorce in Japan — such as former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi going two decades without seeing his youngest son, and the two children of Murray Wood being taken from their home in Canada by their Japanese mother — and we sympathize with the parents and particularly the children involved in these complex, highly emotional clashes.

But, increasingly in Japan, parents are divorcing, and one parent — usually the father — is losing custody of any children created during the marriage.

For those contemplating marriage in Japan or those currently in seemingly happy marriages here — particularly men — thoughts must be, “Could this happen to me? What is the risk?”

Rest of the article at:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070807z3.html

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

THE ZEIT GIST
COMMUNITY: PARENTAL ABDUCTION
How will Japan respond?
By COLIN P.A. JONES
Special to The Japan Times, August 7, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070807z2.html

Japan has gotten a reputation as a haven for international parental child abduction. Cases making the news tend to be like that of Murray Wood, whose two children were spirited to Japan by their Japanese mother, even though Wood was granted custody by a Canadian court. A Saitama judge ignored the Canadian judgment by ratifying the children’s Japanese living arrangements. This story is hardly unique, as is evidenced by a list on the Children’s Rights Network of Japan Web site (www.crnjapan.com), which was set up by aggrieved non-Japanese parent.

The term “Japanese family law” may seem like an oxymoron to anyone who has experienced the well-intentioned but often ineffectual efforts of Japan’s family courts in child-custody cases, particularly when a foreign parent is involved. Some foreign consular officers are privately scathing when discussing such cases. Diplomats from one G-8 country who discussed the problem with family-court representatives were even told that in such disputes, custody would always be awarded to the Japanese parent — because only they, not the foreign parent, have a family register.

The U.S. State Department’s Web site describes compliance with Japanese family-court orders as “essentially voluntary, which renders any ruling unenforceable unless both parents agree.” Since the courts cannot enforce the return of an abducted child or visitation, they often seem to take the easy way out by finding the status quo to be in the best interests of the children involved. How else can they avoid appearing powerless and irrelevant?

Rest of the article at:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070807z2.html
================================

THE ZEIT GIST
U.S. takes tougher line on abductions to Japan
By MARK SMITH
Special to The Japan Times, August 7, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070807z1.html

The gist of the NJSC ruling was that special factors are not required to distinguish international from domestic relocations. They reaffirmed that neither “fear (of abduction) alone” nor a country not being a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction should unnecessarily penalize a law-abiding parent. But two important aspects may have been overlooked.

First, the NJSC repeatedly pointed out that Erika had returned with Justine from trips to Japan in the past. Why, they queried, would she now choose to abduct?

The answer is that without a court’s permission to relocate, removing a child to Japan is a clear criminal violation. In such cases, the court typically awards sole custody to the left-behind parent within weeks or even days of the abduction and both local and federal arrest warrants for the Japanese parent are forthcoming. An Interpol notice follows, which makes the abducting parent subject to detention in countries worldwide — a prisoner within Japan. But when a court has given permission to relocate, the hurdles to proving a crime grow tremendously, complicated by thousands of miles and a legal system not very responsive on matters of international comity.

Rest of the article at
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070807z1.html

ENDS

TPR podcast on NJ Labor Market and Duran Duran

Posted on August 8, 2007October 16, 2007 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Trans-Pacific Radio has just released another interview, with a mix of the light and heavier:

===============================
TPR Spotlight: Debito Arudou on the Foreign Labor Market (& Duran Duran), Part 1 of 2
Filed under: Trans-Pacific Radio, TPR Spotlight
Posted by DeOrio at 1:34 pm on Tuesday, August 7, 2007

As well-known as he is, not many people know that human rights activist Debito Arudou is as passionate about Duran Duran as he is about anything.

Don’t worry, though – in this interview Debito and Ken Worsley discuss the foreign labor market in Japan – where it’s united, where it’s fractious, and where it still needs help – as well as what is being done to improve conditions and opportunities for foreign workers, and what needs to be done in the future. This is an important issue that relates to Japan’s economic future, and immigration policy (or reform) still seems untouchable within the nation’s political discourse. Why is this so?
===============================

Have a listen at:
http://www.transpacificradio.com/2007/08/07/tpr-spotlight-2-japans-foreign-labor-market/

Debito in Sapporo

Blacklist: Kansai Gaidai, Shokei Gakuin, Kyushu U; Greenlist: Nagoya, Aichi U of E

Posted on August 7, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

The Blacklist of Japanese Universities (https://www.debito.org/blacklist.html), where listed institutions have a history of offering unequal contracted work (not permanent “academic tenure”) to its full-time faculty (usually foreign faculty), has just been updated.

Joining the 102 universities blacklisted are three new entrants, as follows:

BLACKLIST OF JAPANESE UNIVERSITIES

==============================================
NAME OF UNIVERSITY: Kansai Gaidai University (Gaikokugo Daigaku) (Private)
LOCATION: 16-1 Nakamiyahigashino-cho, Hirakata City, Osaka 573-1001

EMPLOYMENT ABUSE: Has a remarkable job advertisement where not only are the “ESL Instructor Positions” non-tenure track, with one-year contracts capped at five years, but also entail a heavy weekly workload of “ten 90-minute classes, fifteen 60-minute classes, or a combination thereof” (while tenured J professors rarely have more than 5-7 class periods a week). Duties also include “student counseling, training for speech contests, and other duties as directed by the school” (whatever that means). And what professional with an MA in “TEFL, applied linguistics, or education with a TESOL focus”, with international teaching/living experience elsewhere, and fluency in two languages, would settle for a piffling salary starting at “approx. 4 million yen per year”? (which, believe me, is peanuts!!) Finally KGU states, “The university is interested in midcareer professional ESL faculty who will make a serious commitment to its programs,” without making a serious commitment to the job security of the professional bilingual educator. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

SOURCE OF INFORMATION: 2007 advertisement from KGU on TESOL, available at http://careers.tesol.org/jobdetail.cfm?job=2619083

Webarchive in case of a dead link: https://www.debito.org/blacklist.html#kansaigaidai
==============================================

NAME OF UNIVERSITY: Kyushu University (National)
LOCATION: 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture

EMPLOYMENT ABUSE: Institutes Gaikokujin Kyouin/Kyoushi system, meaning contracts for 2 years for full-time foreigners.

SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Job announcement (August 2007) for a native lecturer for German, published on the homepage of the Japanese Society for German Studies (Nihon Dokubun Gakkai). Contract to start in April 2008, limited to 2 years. http://www.jgg.jp/modules/news/article.php?storyid=320 (German text), full translation and webarchive in case of a dead link: https://www.debito.org/blacklist.html#kyuudai

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

NAME OF UNIVERSITY: Shokei Gakuin College (Private)
LOCATION: 4-10-1 Yurigaoka, Natori-shi, Miyagi-ken (near Sendai)

EMPLOYMENT ABUSE: “This was formerly Shokei Women’s Junior College, which added the 4-year college 4 years ago. We 3 fulltime teachers, each of whom has had over 10 years’ employment at the college, were unexpectedly given notice of our termination. This happened when we went to sign our yearly contract. Our termination was in the contract, so we had the choice either of agreeing to being fired within two years’ time or losing our jobs immediately if we did not sign. There was no opportunity to discuss this. We were not told about this beforehand and we were not given any reasons. A few days later one of us asked why this decision had been made. The reasons were given reluctantly: they did not like the way we taught (not one person came to observe any of our classes), we had not published (when in fact some of us had), we had not attended meetings or done committee work (even though that was part of our agreement when we were initially hired; we were given extra classes instead) and we were not fluent in Japanese – meaning full literacy skills – despite the fact that we were initially hired with the understanding that Japanese reading and writing skills were not necessary for the job.
“The situation at the college is such that a new administrator came from a state university to help this college survive financially. But this college is a private institution and is designed differently than he was accustomed to. However, he has made sweeping changes that are not in keeping with the tradition of this college. That is, he has put a stop to faculty involvement in decision making, which was an integral part of this institution. Instead, he and his friends from the state institution have meetings off campus and then announce to the faculty what will be done. In other words, no one has a voice here any longer except him and his friends.
“Even when the original teachers from this college tried to persuade him to keep the foreign teachers, he refused to even listen to them. To make matters worse, no one explained to us foreign teachers about the tax situation in this city. So, suddenly, we were told that we would be responsible for paying a full year of taxes. In other words, we have to pay to leave the school. We could live for about 3 months on the tax we have to pay. So, this is very serious for those of us who do not have another job and are too old to get full time work. All of this is a tremendous shock because, in addition to having to pay taxes, the school is refusing to give us severance pay.”

SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Chris Cuadra (schri AT mac DOT com), Shokei ex-employee Anne Thomas, Shokei teacher through March 2008
https://www.debito.org/blacklist.html#shokeigakuin
==============================================

There are also some updates to the Blacklist–new job ads showing that certain universities just won’t change their ways:

AKITA UNIVERSITY (National)
https://www.debito.org/blacklist.html#akitadai

MATSUYAMA UNIVERSITY (Private)
https://www.debito.org/blacklist.html#matsuyama

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

Meanwhile, some universities are seeing the light, and improving job stability for NJ academics:

GREENLIST OF JAPANESE UNIVERSITIES

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

NAME OF UNIVERSITY: Aichi University of Education (Kyouiku Daigaku) (National)
LOCATION: Igayacho Hirosawa 1, Kariya City, Aichi Prefecture

GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: Currently (2007) six out of seven non-Japanese staff are tenured (without tenure review) with exactly the same duties and salary as Japanese. Five out of the six tenured non-Japanese have had tenure from the first day of their contract.

SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Oliver Mayer, Associate Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages at Aichi University of Education
NOTE FROM LIST MONITOR: CAUTION: Aichi University of Education is also on the University Blacklist, as it still offers full-time contracted employment to NJ academics.

https://www.debito.org/greenlist.html#aichikyouikudai

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

UNIVERSITY: Nagoya University (National)
LOCATION: Nagoya

GOOD EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE: Has non-contracted permanently tenured employment for 36 non-Japanese faculty.

SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Professor Takamatsu Michio of Nagoya University, met July 31, 2007 at Tokyo University speech regarding the Blacklist, who presented me with evidence scanned here (Japanese):
https://www.debito.org/nagoyagreenlistdata2007.jpg
NOTE FROM LIST MONITOR: CAUTION. Nagoya University also contracts non-Japanese faculty with no clear tenure review system, so it also remains on the Blacklist.
https://www.debito.org/greenlist.html#nagoyadai
==============================================

All for now. I’m sure there’ll be more soon. The Blacklist and Greenlist have received a spike of attention in recent months. Glad they are being taken seriously at last. Arudou Debito in Sapporo
ENDS

Brief: Visit to San’ya, Tokyo’s Homeless District

Posted on August 6, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hello Blog. I briefly blogged last week that I was visiting San’ya, Tokyo’s day-laborer and homeless district, and was asked if I would write up a report. Okay, something brief:

SAN’YA, TOKYO’S ODD SLUM
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE DYNAMICS OF HOMELESSNESS IN JAPAN
By Arudou Debito (www.debito.org, debito@debito.org)
Released August 6, 2007, freely forwardable

San’ya (kanji: mountain valley) is a place of neither mountains nor valleys. In fact, its most famous landmark, the “Bridge of Tears” (Namidabashi) doesn’t even have a bridge. According to my guide, it was a place where in old Edo families saw off their relatives facing capital punishment, hence the name. It’s a place where people have never wanted to end up, bordering on the Yoshiwara Pleasure Quarters (a place with a long history and full of soaplands today) where people didn’t stay. Given that it’s not convenient to public transport, you won’t necessarily find it. Rather, it’s a place which finds you, depending on your economic situation. Even today, “San’ya” is not listed on a map. It’s long since been subsumed by more famous names on the map (Asakusa, Minami-Senjuu). And unless you have a reason to come here at all (cheap hotels during the World Cup 2002, day laboring), you could possibly spend your life in Tokyo and never know the place existed.

But scholars do. Cornell University Press published Edward Fowler’s “SAN’YA BLUES: Laboring Life in Contemporary Tokyo” in 1998 (reviews and overview at http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=3152). More history from them than I could ever glean in one short visit. Another researcher, Dr Tom Gill of Meiji Gakuin University (who is doing fascinating comparative research on the homeless in Japan, the US, and Britain), acted as my guide on July 31, 2007, and gave me a very brief but thorough introduction. Let me pass some of it on to you:

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

My introduction to the homeless and poverty-stricken in Japan started near Akihabara at Second Harvest Inc, talking to Charles McJilton (old Metropolis profile at http://metropolis.co.jp/lifeinjapan/346/lifeinjapaninc.htm website at http://www.secondharvestjapan.org/). He’s an energetic ex-US-miltary fortysomething who has lived in Japan with the homeless (sometimes as one) for nearly two decades. His irrepressible energy makes sure that all the tons of food (yes, tons) which go unsold weekly in Japanese malls and supermarkets–and would otherwise be disposed of (for sell-by or cosmetic reasons)–reach the thousands of people in Tokyo who in fact cannot feed themselves or their families.

I won’t go into any statistics here (I wasn’t taking notes; this was Dr Gill’s interview); contact Charles yourself at info AT secondharvestjapan DOT org for more. But what impressed me (or rather, depressed me) was the degree of polarization he told us about in a field as charitable as helping the dirt poor: Infighting within volunteer groups by ideology (often the radical left in Japan can’t get along with themselves, let alone dealing with areas that are Yakuza-controlled), turf wars over procedure and application, minute perfectionism getting in the way of leadership, responsibility, and decisive decisionmaking, and losing sight of the goal of just getting food out to people who would otherwise starve. Plus the fact that Charles was ignored or pushed aside because he’s a gaijin–after all, why should he be helping people in Japan when there are homeless in “his” country? Not to be sidelined, Charles has created his own company which is now, in the words of one of his rivals, doing better than them. Stop by and volunteer at Second Harvest (volunteer AT secondharvestjapan DOT org) if you really want to see how a country this rich can still have people who fall through the safety net.

For homelessness and abject poverty does indeed exist in Japan–and there is in my view (and Charles’s) a degree of social shame and misunderstanding about why people drop out of the job market. Myself, I would see these people as unfortunates–especially given theories of structural unemployment, closed mental institutions, and a long tradition of “permanent migrant work” I have heard about (“Grapes of Wrath”, anyone?) in the US. But in Japan, there is nary a tear shed. The attitude is more: If the person couldn’t hack it in the job market, it’s his (usually his) fault. Don’t you dare beg from me. You have all this time to be a bum and a hobo while I’m working 18-hour days? I wish I could have this carefree campfire life I see you have along the riverbanks with a fishing pole or a book… How poor can you be when you have enough money for shoes, a shirt on your back, and a cup of booze in the evening? Get a job, you loser. Sort of thing. Of course, elements of this view aren’t grounded in the reality of sleeping rough during all seasons with no fixed address, living hand-to-mouth on what you earned that day on the construction site. And that this lifestyle is for most of them (be it fallout from a lost job or a divorce) is probably not a choice.

Walking around San’ya later I heard about the scams run. About the churches/shelters entrusted with their homeless’s paycheck (they get about 13 man a month from the government–5 man for rent, 8 man living expenses–in Seikatsu Hoshou–although the GOJ intends to cut even that) taking too much off for rent (a regular room often partitioned into four sections of 4.5 tatami) and food. Or skimming 40% off a building site’s pay (around 8000 yen a day) as a broker’s fee. About the Yakuza which control one half of San’ya territory, who killed documentary makers filming life in San’ya because they were making the movie “too leftist” (it was finished, but is very difficult to find or show in Japan), etc. etc. All sorts of ways to further siphon money away from those who get the least of it.

San’ya, however, is an odd slum. It’s not a blue-tarp tent city or a phalanx of corrugated-metal shacks sucking on Smoky Mountain, like you’d see in other countries. It’s clean, cheap (a tourist draw, actually–it has excellent maps in English and Japanese telling you what’s there to see and eat and stay cheaply; the map even unabashedly calls the area “San’ya”–as do Internet maps http://www.maplandia.com/japan/kanto/tokyo/san-ya/). The inhabitants taking shelter under the covered main storefront area seemed to be quite friendly (especially later at night after they have a snootful) and often returned our konbanwas. We stayed in a day laborer hotel (which even had its own website!) offering a clean 4.5 tatami room with TV (free p*rn), common bath and toilet, Internet in the lobby for 2700 yen a night. And saw overseas backpackers checking in at hotels elsewhere. San’ya is certainly a lot better than Japan’s worst slum (that honor would probably belong to Osaka’s Kamagasaki–where people are reputedly very vocal against gawkers and ostentatious bearers of normal wealth). But my sample is biased; we were there on a good night–warm summer, no rain, and people able to sleep rough in the parks. It’s not a place you’d want to end up, to be sure–especially in winter. Tom and Charles have experienced life on the streets with these people, and a nice chat with one crowd (a very friendly guy in his sixties who had been living this life for close to 30 years) revealed that they would be clearing out of their sleeping area by 3AM to be first in line for the next day’s construction labor somewhere in Tokyo. Lose the romanticism about hoboes toasting marshmallows, people.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has taken some measures to alleviate this situation, such as offering apartment owners with spare rooms full payment of rent, with the homeless paying 3000 yen a month themselves to stay. Problem is that they have to be off the government rent deal within two years, and whatever feeling of community the San’ya long-term day laborers had created over the years gets dissipated when apartments are (naturally) scattered around Tokyo. And of course there are the scams I mentioned above, with people skimming off the homeless in their shelters. Very few people escaped this lifestyle with a steady job in any case, and back they would come to San’ya. The jury is still out on whether this policy has been effective.

In any case, that is my introduction to Japan’s laborers, done for Debito.org if only to turn readers onto the issues. I make no case that my narrative is properly informed, empathetic, or representative. It’s just an eyewitness account from someone who stayed one night in the comfort of a dive hotel, with proper access to food and basic amenities. Those who would like to know or do more, contact Second Harvest Japan and volunteer, or read up on Dr Gill’s research on the subject, links below.

Thanks for reading!

Arudou Debito
Sapporo, Japan
debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org

REFERENTIAL LINKS
More on the homeless movement in Japan by Dr Tom Gill:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/shelter-less/english/seravip.html
http://homepage3.nifty.com/shelter-less/research/papers.html

Charles McJilton at Second Harvest Japan:
http://www.secondharvestjapan.org/

BRIEF ON THE HOMELESS IN SAN’YA ENDS

Recent articles on lack of compulsory education for NJ children

Posted on August 5, 2007June 4, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Some articles substantiating the emerging issue of what happens when you don’t make compulsory education a requirement for non-Japanese children. How nice of Japan to bring NJ laborers all the way over here but not take care of their children’s educational needs. Thanks for forgetting to include that in your educational reforms last December, PM Abe. Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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

EDUCATION
Over 22,000 foreign kids need Japanese-language guidance at school
Japan Today/Kyodo Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 07:06 EDT
http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/413853
Courtesy of Matt Dioguardi

TOKYO — The number of foreign children attending public elementary and secondary schools in Japan who are in need of Japanese-language guidance as of last September increased 8% from a year earlier to a record high of 22,413, the education ministry said Tuesday.

The figure, which has risen for four consecutive years, covers foreign children who go to public elementary, junior high and senior high schools, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Among the students, 39% of them speak Portuguese as their first language, 20% Chinese, 15% Spanish and 11% Tagalog. (Kyodo News)

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

1% of foreign children not in school
Yomiuri Shinbun Aug 3, 2007
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070803TDY02001.htm>

Japanese original at
https://www.debito.org/?p=524
Courtesy of Matt Dioguardi

The ministry suspects that such a situation probably encourages juvenile delinquency and the illegal employment of such children. It will shortly establish a panel of experts to discuss measures to deal with the problem.

Between fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2006, the ministry asked the Shiga prefectural and 11 municipal governments, including Ota, Gunma Prefecture, and Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, where many foreign nationals live, to survey the ratio of out-of-school foreign children for the first time.

According to the survey released Tuesday, of the 9,889 registered foreign children aged between 6 and 15 subject to compulsory education, 112, or 1.1 percent, did not take steps to enter primary or middle school or transfer to such schools after moving from other locations.

Furthermore, 1,732, or 17.5 percent, did not live at their registered addresses, making it impossible to contact them.

The ministry believes some have already left the country without notifying municipal governments, while others might have moved to other municipalities in the country.

It suspects that some children do not go to school after their families moved to new areas.

Asked why they did not send their children to school, 15.6 percent of parents, the largest group, cited a “lack of money,” 12.6 percent cited the “language barrier,” and 10.4 percent said they had “immediate plans to return to their home countries.”

Some parents also said their children had to work or take care of their younger siblings.

The parents were allowed to give more than one answer.

===

‘22,413 need extra schooling’

On Tuesday, the ministry released data which said that as of Sept. 1 last year, of the foreign children and students attending public schools in the country, 22,413 at 5,475 schools needed extra teaching for Japanese language–an increase of 194 schools and 1,721 children from the previous year.

By mother-tongue, 8,633 spoke Portuguese, 4,471 spoke Chinese and 3,279 spoke Spanish.

ARTICLES END
///////////////////////////////////////

MOE’s original report cited in the article (Japanese):
文部科学省「日本語指導が必要な外国人児童生徒の受入れ状況等に関する調査（平成18年度）」の結果
http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/19/08/07062955/001.htm

ENDS

「日本語知らぬ」２２０００人　公立小中高校の外国人　過去最多　九州・山口は４２３人

Posted on August 5, 2007June 5, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

「日本語知らぬ」２２０００人　公立小中高校の外国人　
過去最多　九州・山口は４２３人
8月1日10時7分配信西日本新聞
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20070801-00000009-nnp-soci
Courtesy of Matt Dioguardi

　九州・山口の公立小中高校に在籍し、日本語の指
導が必要な外国人児童生徒が昨年９月現在で計４２
３人に上り、４分の１の１０５人は指導自体を受け
ていないことが３１日、文部科学省の調査で分かっ
た。全国では同児童生徒が２万２４１３人と過去最
高に達し、１４％が指導を受けていないことも判明
した。同省は対策を検討する有識者会議を設置、９
月に初会合を開く予定。

　日系人労働者の増加などが要因。日本語の理解が
乏しい児童生徒は愛知が最多で４０８９人。次いで
神奈川２４０４人、静岡２３４３人、東京１７６２
人の順だった。全体で前年同期より８％増え、４年
連続の増加となった。

　九州・山口では、福岡が２１１人と最多。次いで
熊本５５人▽山口４１人▽大分３６人▽鹿児島２６
人▽宮崎２２人▽長崎２１人▽佐賀１１人‐だった。

　母国語別では、全体でポルトガルが３８、５％と
トップ。中国、スペインを含む３つの言語で全体の
７割以上を占めた。九州・山口では、同児童生徒の
数が横ばい傾向にあるものの、中国が全体の４割を
占め、日中関係の緊密化がうかがえた。

　各自治体は、日本語指導員の派遣や特別講義など
に取り組んでいるが、「財政難で教員増は難しい。
児童生徒の在籍期間が短い場合もあり、中長期的対
応は取りにくい」（熊本県教委）との声も上がって
いる。
＝2007/08/01付西日本新聞朝刊＝
ENDS

読売：外国人登録の子供、１％が小中学校に就学せず…文科省調査

Posted on August 5, 2007August 5, 2007 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

ブロックの皆様、おばんでございます。この記事のシリーズは何を証すのかというとと、「義務教育は国民のみに保証する」との指令の結果です。

外国人の子供は教育しなくてもいいという前提で学校は外国人の子供を入校拒否して、昨年１２月におけた安倍首相は教育基本法の改訂は「国民義務教育」の状態に触れず、その盲点で教育を受けない日本在住外国人の子供はアンダークラス入るのは将来です。

ようやく文科省もこの現象を明かす統計も出してくれているので、早期に義務教育を全ての日本在住・納税者まで及ぼしましょう。有道　出人

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

外国人登録の子供、１％が小中学校に就学せず…文科省調査
2007年7月31日読売新聞
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20070731i412.htm
Courtesy of Matt Dioguardi

　日本の自治体に外国人登録をしている学齢期の子供のうち、約１％が小中学校への就学手続きを取らないまま生活していることが３１日、文部科学省の調査で明らかになった。

　所在不明で就学の有無を確認できなかった子供も１７・５％に上り、不就学の子供の割合は、実際には１％を上回るとみられる。同省は、こうした実態が非行や違法就業の温床になっている可能性もあるとして、対策を検討するための有識者会議を近く発足させる。

　文科省は２００５年度から０６年度にかけ、外国人が多く住む群馬県太田市、愛知県岡崎市など１１市と滋賀県の計１２自治体に依頼して、不就学の子供の割合などを初めて調べた。

　それによると、義務教育の対象となる６〜１５歳の外国人登録者計９８８９人のうち、小中学校に入学したり転入したりする手続きを取っていない不就学の子供は１１２人（１・１％）。また、１７３２人（１７・５％）は、登録された住所地に住んでおらず、連絡が取れなかった。自治体に届け出ないまま帰国したり、日本国内の別の場所に転居したりしたケースとみられ、同省は、転居先で不就学になっている子供もいるとみている。

　不就学の理由を複数回答可として保護者に尋ねたところ、「お金がない」（１５・６％）が最も多く、「日本語が分からない」（１２・６％）、「すぐ母国に帰る」（１０・４％）などが続いた。「仕事をするため」「きょうだいの世話をするため」といった理由を挙げた保護者もいた。

　　　　　　　　　　◇

　文部科学省は３１日、全国の公立学校に通う外国人のうち、日本語の指導が必要な児童・生徒は、昨年９月１日現在で５４７５校に計２万２４１３人いたと発表した。前年に比べ、学校数で１９４校、人数では１７２１人増えており、ともに過去最多となった。母国語別では、ポルトガル語８６３３人、中国語４４７１人、スペイン語３２７９人の順に多かった。

（2007年7月31日21時47分読売新聞）
ENDS

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

文部科学省「日本語指導が必要な外国人児童生徒の受入れ状況等に関する調査（平成18年度）」の結果
http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/19/08/07062955/001.htm
ENDS

Economist on Japan’s future demographics: No mention of NJ labor influx

Posted on August 4, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hi Blog. Here’s a really sophomoric article from The Economist, which discusses Japan’s future demographics, yet mentions not a word about the influx of foreign labor (even if only to dismiss it as a possibility).

Any serious debate cannot omit this factor; even Japan’s economic media (Shuukan Diamondo June 5, 2004) admits that without the NJ workforce, internationally-competitive domestic factories would not work and we’d have a severe shortfall of payers into Japan’s future.

Cannot ignore global labor mobility, which (with closing on a million NJ workers in Japan) is definitely a factor in Japan’s future demography. Just like in any other developed country. Wish the media would stop assuming that Japan is uniquely able to resolve all of this by itself.

Guess this is what happens when you close your Tokyo office and have to report remotely all the time… Anyway, for shame, Economist. So much newsprint devoted to so much topical reporting! Arudou Debito in Sapporo

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Japan’s changing demography
Cloud, or silver linings?
Jul 26th 2007 | TOKYO
From The Economist print edition
Courtesy http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9539825

Japan’s population is ageing fast and shrinking. That has implications for every institution, and may even decide the fate of governments

FOR intriguing evidence of the way Japan’s 127m people are greying faster than any others on earth, look at the boom in pokkuri dera. Pokkuri is an onomatopoeic word for a sudden bursting, while a tera or dera is a Buddhist temple. Pokkuri dera, then, are shrines where many of Japan’s older people go to pray not only for the long life that they are increasingly coming to expect, but also for a quick and painless death at the end of it. Their visits have revived the fortunes of old-established temples, notably in the ancient capitals of Kyoto and Nara, while temples elsewhere have reinvented themselves as pokkuri dera with the financial blessings in mind.

More dramatic evidence of the ageing effect may come with nationwide elections on July 29th. Japan’s older voters have the ability, for probably the first time in democratic history, to humiliate and even bring down a government, that of Shinzo Abe, prime minister since September 2006. The elections are for half the seats in the upper house of the Diet (parliament), and are ordinarily something of a political sideshow: after all, it is the lower house that chooses the prime minister. A general election in 2005 gave the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) an easy majority. Yet these elections, in which the coalition may lose its upper-house majority, have become a vote of confidence in Mr Abe, whose poll ratings have slithered since almost the moment he came to office.

While the prime minister’s priorities are patriotic ones—instilling a sense of national pride in schoolchildren and pushing for a revision of Japan’s pacifist constitution—those of ordinary Japanese lie with bread-and-butter issues. The economy is now into its fifth year of recovery after a decade-long slump, but decent jobs are still short. As for pensions, everyone knows that a shrinking workforce supporting an ever higher number of retired people adds to an already strained budget.

In this context, a fiasco that was uncovered in May at the government agency that handles pensions could not have come at a worse time for Mr Abe. The agency, which appears never to have come to terms with the digital age, is unable to match 50m computerised pension records to people who have paid into public schemes. A further 14m records, it seems, never made it into the computer system at all.

If disgruntled voters punish the ruling coalition on July 29th with a heavy loss of seats, then the LDP may seek a new leader. If Mr Abe survives as prime minister, he will be under pressure to form a government of a different hue, one that brings livelihood issues to the fore. Either way, grey power will have established itself as a force to be reckoned with.

Certainly Japan is greying at an astonishing rate. Shortly after the second world war the proportion of Japanese over 65 was around 5% of the population, easily below that in Britain, France or America. Today the elderly account for one-fifth of the population, and average lifespans have grown remarkably. Life expectancy today is 82, up from a little over 50 in 1947.

By 2015 the proportion of elderly will have risen to one in four of the population, or more than 30m. This is thanks mainly to an unusually large baby-boom generation passing into the ranks of the old. Between 1947 and 1949, 2.7m children a year on average were born to surviving Japanese soldiers who returned from war, married and settled down—about a third more than in previous years. This year, the baby-boom generation began to retire (at present, 60 is the mandatory retirement age at most companies). The size of their pensions obligations has funding implications both for companies and for government. But there is another dimension to the baby-boomers’ retirement: these workers drove Japan’s economic transformation of the 1970s and 1980s. They are a reservoir of technical and managerial skills.

Who to pass these on to? Japan’s birth rate fell below the replacement rate of 2.1 in the early 1970s. It slid to a low of 1.26 in 2005, before inching up last year to 1.32—nobody calls it a recovery. In 2005 Japan’s population began to fall in absolute terms, despite increasing life expectancy. It is about to shrink at a pace unprecedented for any nation in peacetime. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research estimates a total population of 95m by 2050, with the elderly accounting by then for two-fifths of the total.

The disappearing young
A shrinking population already has implications for the workforce. Currently, some 16m Japanese are in their 20s. This number will shrink by 3m over just the next decade. This spring, during the annual job-recruitment round, new university graduates found themselves in record demand, and not just because of the recovering economy: over the coming years, companies will have fewer young graduates to choose from. That is nice for young job-seekers, except for one thing: as Japan ages and shrinks, workers must support an ever larger proportion of retirees. By 2030, demographers say, Japan will have just two working-age people for each retired one; by mid-century, short of a rapid and unlikely return to fecundity, the ratio will rise to three for every two retirees.

Can a working population support such a number of future retirees? Today’s younger workers appear not to think so. Two-fifths of them are not paying contributions towards the fixed portion of their state pension scheme (current contributions fund present, not future retirees), suggesting they don’t believe that the scheme will be viable when they retire. And they may be right.

It is in the countryside that demographic changes hit particularly hard. There the population has been falling for years, as younger villagers head for the city in search of work and play. Today, those over 65 account for two out of five people in rural communities, and three-fifths of all farmers. The future of farming in such places is in doubt. Growing rice, the staple crop, requires communal efforts in irrigation, flood control and the like. Mutual obligations in communities run even to organising funerals. So when young villagers leave for the city, everyone feels the loss. An earthquake on July 16th in Niigata prefecture brought the problem home; the 3,000 evacuees still living in shelters are predominantly elderly, unable to fend for themselves in their damaged houses.

The tiny hamlet of Ogama, in Ishikawa prefecture near the Sea of Japan, is responding most radically to population decline. (The community has three men and six women between the ages of 62 and over 90, down from a population of 50 a generation ago.) The survivors of this remote and stunning valley have canvassed an industrial-waste company from Tokyo and, if the prefecture approves, the valley—paddy fields, vegetable plots and cedarwood plantations—will disappear under 150 metres (500 feet) of industrial ash. The villagers plan to use the money from the sale to build new houses in the nearby township, to where the ancestral shrine has already been moved.

For years, the regions have brought their problems to the capital. On any working day in Tokyo, the corridors of the transport and infrastructure ministry are thronged with supplicants from the provinces clutching maps of the latest scheme for a road into the forest or an unnecessary dam. Yet the days of lavish spending on public works are nearly over, while the central government has slashed tax remittances to localities. With pinched resources and the prospect of steep falls in the population, local governments are being forced into the most radical reorganisation in half a century.

A couple of much-publicised municipal bankruptcies have helped sharpen minds. Yubari, a former mining town on the northern island of Hokkaido, has seen its population fall from 100,000 in the 1950s to 13,000 today. Costly promotions to raise the town’s profile—including a film festival and the marketing of Japan’s priciest melons—have saddled the town with a crippling ¥63 billion ($519m) in debts. Last year Yubari was declared insolvent.

No nearby municipalities particularly want to be Yubari’s friend, but elsewhere the central government is urging villages and towns to merge in order to pool resources and gain a more secure tax base. Yamanashi prefecture south-west of Tokyo, a place of peach orchards and factories making industrial robots, exemplifies the trend. In 1888 Yamanashi had 342 administrative units; today, it has shrunk to 28 municipalities and is still declining. The pace has quickened greatly since 2003.

But municipal mergers are unlikely to be the end of the matter. Prefectural leaders and central government are talking about a radical rehaul of local government in which prefectures merge to form larger blocks—states, in essence. Before this dance has begun, prefectures are already eyeing up the most attractive partners.

To shrink a city
Elsewhere, administrators are starting to think about the implications of population decline, among other things, on running bigger cities. Aomori, a city of 300,000 at the very top of Honshu, Japan’s main island, has a policy of actively stemming the urban sprawl that blights so much of Japan. Aomori has a proportion of elderly and single households somewhat above the national average. It also has huge quantities of winter snow, thanks to the moisture that Siberian winds pick up across the Sea of Japan: ten metres can fall in a season. In a bad year snow-clearing can cost ¥3 billion: a sum which Takeshi Nakamura of the city government says could build two new schools.

In response, the municipal government set about trying to shrink the city. A limiting arc was drawn around its south side (the north is bounded by a wide bay), and some of the city’s main institutions—the library, city market, hospitals and museums—were moved back to the middle of town. Public transport was improved, and snow was cleared from main arteries as well as pedestrian streets to allow people to move easily about the centre. The improvements, in turn, have encouraged new apartment blocks to be built near the centre, says Mr Nakamura, and plenty of older people tired of shovelling snow are moving into them.

Aomori’s ideas about a “compact city” have been driven by the problems of snow. All the same, says Takatoshi Ito of Tokyo University, who sits on Mr Abe’s Council for Economic and Fiscal Policy, the central government should be urging other cities to think along similar lines. Population decline does not mean there is no urban sprawl. Mariko Fujiwara of the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living points out that the number of one-person households will overtake all other types this year, while the total number of households is still rising in Japan, to almost 50m.

Kaisha care
Still, the greatest response to demographic change in Japan needs to come from companies. Despite wrenching change over the past 15 years or so, the Japanese company, or kaisha, still plays a more paternal part in employees’ lives than in any other well-off society, shaping not just their work but also their social life. Indeed, with long hours in the office as well as punishing sessions in bars with colleagues afterwards, the two are often indistinguishable. Atsushi Seike, a labour economist at Keio University, argues that Japan’s problem is less that demography is changing too fast, than that employment and retirement systems designed for an earlier age are not changing fast enough.

In particular, these systems have not kept pace with greatly longer lives. True, the government has begun to raise the age at which people are eligible for employee pensions, which are made up of fixed and earnings-related parts. Eligibility for the fixed part has been raised to 62, and will climb to 65 by 2014; eligibility for the bigger, earnings-related part rises to 65 by 2026. This is too little, too slow. Mr Seike argues that the state minimum pensionable age should be raised swiftly to 70.

Meanwhile, companies are also adjusting too slowly. Most firms have a mandatory retirement age of just 60. A recent law requires them either to raise their mandatory retirement age over time, or to provide retraining and re-employment programmes to keep on employees. Most have opted for the latter; since most companies have formal pay scales that reward seniority over merit, raising the mandatory retirement age would be expensive. However, one big company, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, has broken new ground: in 2009, it will raise mandatory retirement to 63 while slashing pay.

Getting rid of mandatory retirement altogether would hasten the end of seniority-based pay, allowing older workers (who in Japan are eager to work for longer) to fill jobs for which they are best suited. A system based more on merit would give able younger workers a leg-up too.

Raising the retirement age to 70 would roughly halve the rate of decline in the workforce. Raising the participation rate of women—at 63% of working-age women, below Britain or America (around 68%)—would do much to slow it further. A number of factors militate against working women. A higher proportion of women than men find jobs only on temporary contracts, which pay on average 60% less than regular work. Male chauvinism still dominates in the office: many jobs are advertised as available only to younger women, while fewer than 10% of professional managers are women, against 46% in America. Meanwhile, companies’ long hours (often a substitute for productivity) make things hard for working mothers. So too does a shortage of child care: just a third of children over three and under school age go to kindergarten, compared with an OECD average of three-quarters. Huge numbers of women drop out of the workforce entirely once they have children. In Japan, says Jeff Kingston of Temple University in Tokyo, women have to choose between work and family.

Meanwhile, the OECD notes a positive correlation between fertility and female employment: the easier it is made for women to do rewarding work, the more likely they are to consider having children. So policymakers in Japan are now starting to grapple with the effect of Japanese work habits on the low birth rate. Hideki Yamada, director for policy on ageing and fertility in the Cabinet Office, says surveys suggest that nine-tenths of Japanese aged 18-34 not only want to get married, but often want to have two children. With Japanese precision, policymakers have calculated that without impediments to marriage and child-raising, Japan’s birth rate would jump to 1.75.

Policy, says Mr Yamada, should be directed towards making that leap. Attempts began under Mr Abe’s predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, with the introduction of financial support for families with young children and expansion of child-care facilities. Now a novel concept is creeping into government documents, “the work-life balance”, for which, tellingly, there is no common Japanese expression. In late July, business and union leaders met Mr Abe and other ministers to discuss how to reach such a balance.

“It’s embarrassing to say this,” admits Mr Yamada, “but after a first child is born, the husband often doesn’t do his bit helping out at home, and that engenders anxiety in the wife about having a second child.” That is partly cultural habit. Boys are pampered at home by their mothers and expect the same treatment—no nappy-changing, no washing up—later from their wives. But it is also because of the long working hours companies expect. So, says Kuniko Inoguchi, minister for gender issues and social affairs under Mr Koizumi, policy needs not only to be directed towards encouraging more women to work, with more nursing care for elderly relatives, better child care, more flexible working arrangements and so on. It also needs to make life better for working men.

A better work-life balance is good for companies, which can thereby attract better talent. It is also good for working men, says Mrs Inoguchi. They can enjoy a proper private life, spending more time at home—always assuming, and it is no foregone conclusion, that Japanese wives are prepared to tolerate them there.

ENDS

ELECTION SPECIAL JULY 29, 2007

Posted on August 1, 2007July 12, 2010 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

mytest

Hello Blog. Here’s a briefish essay with my thoughts on the results of the recent Upper House Election in Japan:

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UPPER HOUSE ELECTION JAPAN JULY 29, 2007

THE OPPOSITION PARTIES GAIN MOMENTUM

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By Arudou Debito (www.debito.org, debito@debito.org) in Sapporo, Japan

Released August 1, 2007

CAVEAT

I am not a political insider by any means–just an opinionated writer with a degree in Government and an armchair interest in Japanese elections (both as a citizen and a hobbyist). All information contained in this writeup has been gleaned from Japanese sources (particularly the figures and some interpretations are from the Yomiuri July 30, and the Asahi July 30 and 31, 2007), and is geared to those who do not necessarily have access to similar sources. This isn’t really news to most, so I hope to hold your interest with some interpretations:

Table of Contents:

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THE OPPOSITION PARTY ROUTS THE RULING COALITION

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE LDP

RESULTS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO DEBITO.ORG

WHAT NOW? I WAS WRONG ABOUT PM ABE RESIGNING…

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THE OPPOSITION PARTY ROUTS THE RULING COALITION

Most of you know this, but of the half of the 242 seats in the House of Councilors (the “Upper House”) up for grabs this election, the majority went to the opposition parties (Minshutou/Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Kyousantou/Japan Communist Party, Shamintou/Social Democratic Party (SDP), Kokumin Shintou/New People’s Party, Nippon Shintou/New Japan Party (NJP), plus independents. A total gain of 31 seats.

Meanwhile, the ruling coalition–Jimintou/Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) (which has mostly run Japan since the WWII), and Koumeito (the Souka Gakkai’s pseudo-Buddhist party) lost a total of 30 seats, and control of the Upper House. Altogether, the ruling coalition have 103 seats, the DPJ 109, and the remainder (30 seats) are with parties or with independents that have questionable or no inclinations towards the LDP.

In terms of vote totals, the DPJ got more than 18 million compared to the LDP’s 10, and the seat shifts (thankfully we have no US-style Electoral College) properly reflect that. In fact, according to the Asahi (July 30, page 5), there has never been a time in Japan’s postwar history where ONE opposition party has ever gained, or held, so many seats at once in the Upper House. This is historic.

(Click on the image to see it full-screen. This is as much as I could fit into the scanner. Couldn’t fit the Yoshida Administrations in, sorry.)

Although the Upper House is clearly the weaker side of the legislature (the Lower House can override any Upper House veto later), it certainly will as a check to any further LDP ramming through of laws, and a clear sign to the LDP that the halcyon days of Koizumi-created LDP domination are over for the foreseeable future.

Moreover, looking at the political maps, there has been a tectonic shift in prefectural party affiliation. According to page 20 of July 30’s Yomiuri, ten one-seat rural prefectures that were straight LDP strongholds for the past two elections (Yamagata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Tottori, ALL four Shikoku prefectures, Saga, and Kumamoto), all went DPJ (one more, Shimane, went Kokumin Shintou, which is not friendly to the LDP either). The opposite, DPJ going LDP, happened nowhere. In 15 other prefectures (Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Hyogo, Aichi, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Tokyo, Chiba, Ibaraki, Saitama, Nagano, Tochigi, Fukushima, and Hokkaido), the previous top vote-getter switched from an LDP candidate to a DPJ one. And I haven’t even touched upon the places that were DPJ last election already. As I said, it was a rout.

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WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE LDP

This loss isn’t incomprehensible–in fact it’s almost precisely how the polls predicted it would come out. And no wonder.

Abe’s cabinet has been a disaster. Witness:

1) The embarrassment of a Health Minister calling women “birth machines”,

2) Ditto for a Minister of Defense insinuating the WWII bombings were “a matter or course”,

3) An Agriculture Minister committing suicide,

4) His replacement covering up his political expenses by making his home into his political support group’s office, even fudging his receipts; then showing up with his face all covered in bandages and not coming clean about what happened in either case (he finally got fired today–too little, too late),

5) His Foreign Minister making light of people with Alzheimer’s Disease,

6) A slight economic recovery being interpreted as a reason to let a tax regime lapse, lowering everyone’s paychecks noticeably by hundreds of USD a month right before the election campaign period,

7) Unannounced plans to raise taxes yet again, which Abe refused to come clean on for obvious reasons,

8) “Forgiving” several ousted LDP members booted out during the postal-savings election two years ago by bringing them back into the LDP (which begged the question why we went through that election in the first place),

9) Plus the much-touted (turned out to be the biggest issue in polls) unregistered pension issues (which the LDP tried to blame on DPJ’s Kan Naoto),

10) The relatively-unnoticed issues (but a bigger influence on the Left in Japan): the December 2006 revisions to the Fundamental Law of Education (now requiring patriotism be instilled in students), the denial of the WWII “Comfort Women” sexual slaves issue (resolution conveniently passing the US H of R just after the election), Abe’s Minister of Education saying we have too many human rights in Japan (comparing the situation to butter and Metabolic Syndrome), and even an (unfairly-criticized) first speech by Abe in which he used too many katakana loanwords…

11) And the final nail in the coffin: Former PM Koizumi, the IMHO third-most influential PM in postwar Japanese history (behind Yoshida and Tanaka), being a hard act to follow.

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RESULTS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO DEBITO.ORG

THE GOOD GUYS WON

1) Finnish-born naturalized Japanese citizen Tsurunen Marutei was re-elected by a comfortable margin (242,742 votes) on the Proportional Representation ticket. Last time he just bubbled under, and got in when a different DPJ candidate (Ohashi Kyosen) resigned his seat in disgust a short time after the election. This time he got in with a much clearer vote of confidence from the electorate (coming in 19th, out of 48 elected). Congratulations.

2) HIV-infected candidate Kawada Ryouhei was elected in Tokyo in his own right (683,629 votes), running on a ticket of anti-corruption (the Health Ministry in the 1990’s had covered up HIV-tainted blood products and infected a huge number of Japan’s hemophiliacs; this was exposed by DPJ’s Kan Naoto in his short stint as Health Minister, during the former Socialist Party’s short stint as the ruling party back then). Also congrats.

3) Perpetual political iconoclast (former Nagano Prefectural Governor, confirmed and eccentric bachelor, who enclosed his office in glass walls, and stopped local porkbarrel dam projects) Tanaka Yasuo, for whom I have a soft spot (he’s shown some friendly inclinations towards Japan’s internationalization), formed his own party (the Nippon Shintou) and got a PR seat for himself (coming in eighth with 458,211 votes).

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THE BAD GUYS LOST. AND HOW

4) Former Peruvian Prez and wanted criminal suspect Alberto Fujimori, running under the Nihon Hanzaisha Tou, excuse me, the Kokumin Shintou, did not even come close to getting a seat. He did, however, glean 51,612 votes. Not bad for a crook who couldn’t campaign ‘cos he’s under house arrest in another country. But that doesn’t make him as good a crook (i.e. good enough to convince enough people that he’s not a crook) as he (and party kingpin Kamei Shizuka) seems to think he is.

5) Ainu candidate Tahara Kaori, running under convicted crook (his case is on perpetual appeal; that’s why he’s still in office) Suzuki Muneo’s Shintou Daichi Party, advertised herself as the “Female Muneo” and still lost by nearly 136,000 votes.

6) Party turncoat and former Dietmember from Hokkaido (and our former lawyer in the Otaru Onsens Case) Itou Hideko, who will do anything to get back into office, lost yet again in Hokkaido’s PR race, gleaning a measly 19,289 votes, thank goodness. (She has been formally warned by Japan’s Bar Association for misinforming and overcharging her clients, yours truly included; it took me 17 months for me to get my lawsuit damages, and it happened only after the Hokkaido Bar Association intervened on my behalf and ruled in my favor in January 2006. Remind me to tell you that story some time…)

7) And revanchist candidate Tojo Yuuko, granddaughter of Tojo Hideki (yes, THAT Tojo, for you History Channel buffs), who wants the proper respect restored to WWII Class-A War Criminals, lost badly with 59,607 votes in Tokyo, coming in twelfth out of twenty Tokyo candidates. As did far-right party “Shinpuu” (New Wind), the only party bringing up issues of “recovery of the social order” (read: fear of foreigners–which was not at all an issue in this campaign) and “restoration of Japan”, never came out of the bottom three (of eleven political parties) in any electoral district. Suggests the perceptible lurch to the right in Japanese society may be confined to the political, policymaking, and law enforcement sectors…

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SPLIT DECISIONS

8) In Shimane Prefecture, on the tail end of Honshu above LDP stronghold Yamaguchi Prefecture (where PM Abe is from), the LDP fell to Kamei Shizuka’s Kokumin Shintou (which was formed by people kicked out by former PM Koizumi during the postal savings reform issue a couple of years ago, who refused to return when PM Abe offered the abovementioned amnesty back into the LDP). This further weakens the LDP’s standing to be sure, but the person elected, Kamei Akiko, just happens to be Kamei Shizuka’s daughter. I am not a fan of political families becoming dynasties in Diets (since it fosters a political class, with privileges gleaned over generations making representatives far removed from the average voter), especially when a huge number of people in Japan’s Diet are already of that status. And Kamei Akiko is yet another example.

9) Social commentator and Class Brain Masuzoe Youichi, after receiving the most votes of any candidate in the last cycle of UH elections, saw his vote tally (470,571) plummet by more than half this time, and his standing from first place in the PR rankings drop to seventh. I watched him carefully from friends Mark and Minas’ apartment as he tried to explain away the LDP’s crushing defeat–saying little of substance and hoping that would do. My, how being a politician muzzles you. He’s a cautionary example, and one reason why I doubt I’ll ever enter politics. I like to speak my mind too much…

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WHAT NOW? I WAS WRONG ABOUT PM ABE RESIGNING…

I think I’ll change my tune. It’s better for our side of the fence if Abe stays on as PM. He’s shown abysmal communication skills (watch his eyes go all shifty when he’s under pressure; very unprofessional in terms of nonverbals), and will have a hard time extricating himself from the political basement (he even seems to make DPJ leader Ozawa, whom even I don’t trust given his past with Kanemaru money politics, look better!). He’s caused many a discontented person within the LDP (some of whom, including prototypical LDP Gorilla Katayama Toranosuke of Okayama, blame him for losing their seats). And the longer he continues to ride his more obscure hobby horses (reforming the Constitution, enforcing patriotism, creating this “Beautiful Country Japan”–whatever that means) instead of looking at issues that the general public sees as important (pension reforms, high taxes and reduced disposable income, the fact that politicians can write off their expenses invisibly unlike any business in Japan, etc.), the more likely he’s going to run the LDP into the ground in time for the next election (in the more-powerful Lower House) in two years.

For however hapless the DPJ seems at capitalizing on issues and setting the agenda, Abe’s Administration often seems to look worse in comparison. Instead of appealing to the public, it seems the LDP can only achieve their goals by ramming bills through one after another, regardless of how it looks on the evening news. Now it’s not going to be so easy to keep ramming, with the Upper House in opposition control by a wide margin. If this trend continues, it’s entirely possible we could either see another loss for the LDP in the next Lower House election, or even a revolt within the LDP itself (with people joining in to vote “No Confidence”) causing a snap election.

Not implausible. But it becomes more and more possible the longer Abe refuses to change HIS tune and learn some public appeal skills. And it’s not at all clear to me at this stage that he will.

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That’s enough armchair politico. Thanks very much for reading!

Arudou Debito

Sapporo, Japan

debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org

DEBITO.ORG ELECTION SPECIAL JULY 29, 2007 ENDS