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Hi Blog. As promised, the Ministry of Justice’s official survey on discrimination against foreigners (alas, not “racial discrimination”) came out late last month. Debito.org first reported on this survey some months ago, received primary-source information on it from a Debito.org Reader, and then did a Japan Times column on it. Now the results are out, and they have officialized the levels of discrimination against NJ residents nationwide. I’ll refrain from comment at the moment (Debito.org Readers, please feel free to take up the slack), but for the record, the entire report from the MOJ is here (courtesy of TH). Thanks everyone for all the articles, and for your patience in my getting to this. Dr. Debito Arudou
REFERENTIAL ARTICLES:
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30% of foreigners living in Japan claim discrimination: gov’t survey
http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170331/p2a/00m/0na/016000c
March 31, 2017 (Mainichi Japan), courtesy of JK
Some 29.8 percent of foreign residents of Japan have experienced discrimination in the past five years, according to Justice Ministry survey results released on March 31.
The survey was conducted in November and December last year on 18,500 mid-to-long-term foreign residents aged 18 or over, including ethnic Koreans with special permanent resident status. Responses were received from 4,252 people.
The survey was carried out with the cooperation of 37 municipal governments, including those of Tokyo’s Minato Ward and the cities of Sapporo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. By nation of origin, the greatest number of respondents was from China, at 1,382 people, or 32.5 percent, followed by South Korea at 941 people, or 22.1 percent, and the Philippines, at 285 people, or 6.7 percent.
Of the respondents, 1,269 said they had been the target of discriminatory language. Some 53.3 percent of these respondents, or 676 people, said the offender had been “a stranger.”
In the last five years, 2,044 of the respondents, or 48.1 percent, had looked for a home, and 804, or 39.3 percent, had the experience of being denied a lease because they were a foreigner.
Regarding their exposure to hate speech, 1,826 people, or 42.9 percent of the respondents, said they had seen or heard reports about hate speech demonstrations targeting particular races or ethnic groups through media such as television, newspaper or magazines. Some 1,416, or 33.3 percent, said they had seen reports on hate speech on the internet.
Legal affairs bureaus around the nation have sections where people can seek help regarding human rights issues, but at least 80 percent of survey respondents did not know this. A Justice Ministry representative said, “We want to consider methods to spread awareness of help centers and make them easy for foreign residents to use.”
The survey was the central government’s first ever into discrimination against foreigners. The Justice Ministry plans to examine the results and apply them to its human rights policies.
Japanese version
国内居住外国人
差別発言「受けた」3割 入居拒否も4割 法務省調査
http://mainichi.jp/articles/20170331/dde/041/040/067000c?ck=1
毎日新聞 2017年3月31日 東京夕刊
法務省は31日、国内に住む外国人を対象にした差別に関する実態調査の結果を公表した。過去5年間に日本で外国人を理由に侮辱されるなどの差別的な発言を受けた経験のある人は全体の29・8%。また、日本で住居を探した経験のある人のうち、外国人を理由に入居を断られた経験がある人は39・3%だった。外国人差別の国の実態調査は初めて。同省は結果を分析し、人権政策に反映させる。【鈴木一生】
調査は昨年11~12月、18歳以上の中長期の在留資格を持つ外国人や在日韓国・朝鮮人などの特別永住者ら1万8500人を対象とし、4252人が回答した。
東京都港区、札幌市、横浜市、名古屋市、大阪市、福岡市など全国37自治体と協力して実施。回答者の国籍・出身地域別は最多が中国32・5%(1382人)で、韓国22・1%(941人)、フィリピン6・7%(285人)と続いた。
差別的な発言を受けたと回答した外国人は1269人。「誰から言われたか」(複数回答)では「見知らぬ人」が53・3%(676人)で最も多かった。過去5年間に日本で住む家を探した経験のある人は全体の48・1%(2044人)で、外国人を理由に入居を断られた経験のある人は804人だった。
特定の人種や民族などへの憎悪をあおるヘイトスピーチを伴うデモを見聞きした経験については「テレビ、新聞、雑誌などのメディアを通じて見聞きした」と回答した人が42・9%(1826人)、「インターネットで見た」とした人が33・3%(1416人)だった。
全国の法務局・地方法務局には人権に関する相談窓口が設けられているが、知らない人が全体の8割以上を占めていた。法務省の担当者は「身近にある相談窓口の周知や、外国人の住民に気軽に利用してもらう方法を検討したい」と話している。
ENDS
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外国人の4割が入居拒否を経験 法務省調査
東京新聞 2017年3月31日 夕刊 courtesy of TH
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/politics/list/201703/CK2017033102000259.html
法務省は三十一日、日本に住む外国人を対象に初めて実施した差別や偏見に関する調査の結果を公表した。過去五年間に日本で住居を探した二千四十四人のうち、外国人であることや、日本人の保証人がいないことを理由に入居を断られた経験がある人は、それぞれ約四割だった。物件に「外国人お断り」と書かれているのを見て諦めた人も約27%いた。
日本で仕事を探したり働いたりしたことがある二千七百八十八人のうち、外国人であることを理由に就職を断られた経験がある人は25%。このうち日本語での会話ができない人はほとんどいなかった。同じ仕事をしているのに日本人より賃金が低かったと回答した人は約20%だった。
調査対象は十八歳以上の一万八千五百人で、四千二百五十二人が回答した。
全体の約30%が差別的なことを言われた経験があり、ヘイトスピーチを見たり聞いたりした四千八十五人のうち約80%は「不快」「許せない」など否定的な感情を持った。
一方、差別を受けたときにどこかに相談したことがある人は全体の約11%。法務局の人権相談窓口を知っている人も約12%にとどまった。
法務省は二〇二〇年東京五輪・パラリンピックを控えて日本に入国する外国人が増える中、人権侵害などの実態を把握する必要があると判断。公益財団法人「人権教育啓発推進センター」に調査を委託した。
調査は一六年十一月十四日~十二月五日、全国の三十七市区を対象に一市区当たり五百人を無作為に抽出して実施。国籍・出身地域別では中国と韓国で過半数を占め、フィリピン、ブラジル、ベトナムと続いた。
ENDS
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About 40% of foreigners seeking housing in Japan turned away: survey
TOKYO, March 31, 2017, Kyodo News, courtesy of TH
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2017/03/466425.html
About 40 percent of foreigners have experienced being turned down when looking for a place to live in Japan because they were not Japanese, the results of a Justice Ministry survey showed Friday.
Of the 2,044 respondents who said they had tried to find residential accommodation in Japan in the past five years, 40 percent said they had been rebuffed in their efforts because they were foreigners.
Around 27 percent said they had given up on a property after seeing a notice saying foreigners are not accepted.
The ministry conducted its first-ever survey to identify the forms of discrimination faced by foreigners in Japan in the run-up to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. It randomly selected 500 foreigners aged 18 and older in each of 37 municipalities across Japan and 4,252 responded from among the 18,500 people surveyed. Multiple answers were allowed in the survey.
Chinese and South Korean nationals comprised more than half the survey participants, followed by Filipinos, Brazilians and Vietnamese.
Among 2,788 people who have either job-hunted or have worked in Japan, 25 percent said they were refused work for being a foreign national and about 20 percent said their wages were lower than Japanese employees engaged in the same work, even though most of the respondents were able to have a conversation in Japanese, the survey added.
In the survey, conducted between mid-November and early December last year, around 30 percent of all the respondents said they had been subjected to discriminatory remarks, while around 80 percent of 4,085 people who said they have either witnessed or heard hate speech developed negative feelings such as “discomfort” or “intolerance.”
Meanwhile, only around 11 percent of the total respondents said they had sought advice from an institution when faced with discrimination while only about 12 percent said they knew of consultation services offered at the Justice Ministry’s legal affairs bureaus across Japan.
ENDS
And finally, The Japan Times’s take, complete with self-hating foreigner comments beneath, as usual:
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Japan’s foreign residents offer up insights in unprecedented survey on discrimination
BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI, STAFF WRITER, THE JAPAN TIMES, MAR 31, 2017
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/03/31/national/japans-foreign-residents-sound-off-in-unprecedented-survey-on-discrimination/
Rent application denials, Japanese-only recruitment and racist taunts are among the most rampant forms of discrimination faced by foreign residents in Japan, according to the results of the country’s first nationwide survey on the issue, released Friday.
The unprecedented survey of 18,500 expats of varying nationalities at the end of last year paints a comprehensive picture of deeply rooted discrimination in Japan as the nation struggles to acclimate to a recent surge in foreign residents and braces for an even greater surge in tourists in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
It also represents the latest in a series of fledgling steps taken by Japan to curb racism, following last year’s first-ever video analysis by the Justice Ministry of anti-Korea demonstrations and the enactment of a law to eradicate hate speech.
In carrying out the survey, the Justice Ministry commissioned the Center for Human Rights Education and Training, a public foundation, to mail questionnaires to non-Japanese residents in 37 municipalities nationwide. Of the 18,500, 4,252 men and women, or 23.0 percent, provided valid responses. Nationalities included Chinese, South Koreans, Filipinos, Brazilians, Vietnamese and Americans.
The study found that 39.3 percent of 2,044 respondents who applied to rent apartments over the past five years got dismissed because they are not Japanese.
In addition, 41.2 percent said they were turned down because they couldn’t secure a Japanese guarantor, while 26.8 percent said they quit their pursuit of a new domicile after being discouraged by a “Japanese-only” prerequisite.
Workplace discrimination appears rife, too.
Of the 4,252 respondents, 2,788 said they had either worked or sought employment in Japan over the past five years. Of them, 25.0 percent said they had experienced being brushed off by potential employers because they are non-Japanese, while 19.6 percent said they were paid lower than their Japanese co-workers.
In a separate question, 29.8 percent of those who responded to the survey said they either “frequently” or “occasionally” heard race-based insults being hurled at them, mostly from strangers (53.3 percent), bosses, co-workers and business partners (38.0 percent) and neighbors (19.3 percent).
Among other examples of unpleasantness mentioned by respondents were “getting weird stares from strangers (31.7 percent),” “being harassed because of poor Japanese-language proficiency (25.1 percent)” and “being avoided in public spaces such as buses, trains and shopping malls (14.9 percent).”
“We believe this survey will serve as key basic data for us to implement policies to protect human rights of foreign nationals in the future,” Justice Minister Katsutoshi Kaneda told reporters Friday.
The implementation of the survey is the latest sign that Japan, after years of inaction, is inching toward tackling the problem of racism as the nation becomes increasingly diverse.
A Justice Ministry statistic released last September showed that the number of permanent as well as middle- and long-term foreign residents in the country hit a record 2.307 million in June, up about 135,000 from a year earlier.
Adding to this is the advent in recent years of jingoistic rallies staged by ultraconservative civic groups on the streets of ethnic Korean neighborhoods, such as Shin-Okubo in Tokyo and Kawasaki, calling for the “massacre” of Koreans they branded as “cockroaches.”
The Justice Ministry’s first probe into hate speech concluded in March last year that 1,152 such demonstrations took place from April 2012 to September 2015 across the nation.
In a related move, an unprecedented hate speech law was enacted last year, highlighting efforts by the central government and municipalities to take steps to eliminate such vitriolic language.
Still, despite being a signatory to the U.N.-designated International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Japan has for years shied away from enacting a comprehensive law banning racism, based on the position that discrimination here is “not serious enough to legalize punitive measures against the dissemination of racist ideology and risk having a chilling effect on proper speech,” as stated by the Foreign Ministry.
Kim Myungsoo, a professor of sociology at Kwansei Gakuin University, hailed the ministry’s latest survey, saying it shed light on the reality of racism inherent to Japan that effectively discredits this government stance.
“The survey publicly confirmed the reality of victimization caused by racism in Japan, which would prevent the government from sticking to its conventional assertion,” said Kim, who himself is an ethnic Korean resident. “I believe the government is ready to change its position.”
Hiroshi Tanaka, a professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University, said the government has much to learn from the results of this survey, noting an overwhelming 85.3 percent of the respondents said they were not aware of human rights consultation services made available by regional branches of the Justice Ministry.
But a sad irony, he pointed out, plagues these services in the first place, with foreign nationals effectively disqualified from becoming counselors there due to a law that makes having Japanese nationality a prerequisite for the post.
ENDS
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14 comments on “Unprecedented Ministry of Justice survey of NJ discrimination results out, officially quantifies significantly high rates of unequal treatment”
Was good to see this, but this seems to be only preliminary in regards to the depth of the issues at hand. What about the matters of the police harasssing “foreign-looking people” for passport (even when they are actually nationally Japanese) or mistreatment at hospitals?
Still, glad to see this as a seemingly sincere first step, but unless I see the next steps, I’m going to remain skeptical of matters being addressed.
I had never exerienced discrimination before coming to Japan, so I had no idea what it felt like. Bullying etc is not really discrimination. discrimination is much more heavy burden to carry. Its one of those things that nobody wants to talk about, just dismiss it as minor misunderstanding etc and lets keep the harmony in check. You suffer in silence. So this survey is a step in the right direction but I expect nothing but the usual blame thyself response, (you must speak more Japanese) or look at the token “assimilated” gaijin on TV ho made the effort, he she is doing so well. Hope Im wrong.
One third of accepted responses talk about discrimination? What about the 70+% of replies the ministry admits it disqualified as being ‘invalid’?
Stupid survey’s stupid results are unreliable.
Afaik when they say “23.0% percent provided valid responses” they mean that 23% mailed back valid surveys. So the remaining 77% either didn’t mail back the survey or mailed an invalid survey, but mail back rates tell us for most it’s the former. For example, for another recent survey covered here on debito.org the mail-in rate was 36.7% (http://www.debito.org/?p=14521).
Still, I’m a bit skeptical too about certain comparatively low numbers. Especially in light of last year’s survey to the Ainu people, where 72% said they sense discrimination.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/02/27/national/social-issues/72-indigenous-ainu-sense-discrimination-18-mainstream-japanese-ignorant-surveys/
I mean, only 39,3% where refused an apartment for being a foreigner? I’d love for them to introduce me to the real estate shops they went to.
Though that can probably be accounted for by discounting the people that had an apartment arranged for, looked for a shared house or went through an agent that caters to foreigners.
Just as the public taxpayers of course have access to all federal appellate courts’, district courts’, and bankruptcy courts’ complete case files including every docket sheet and all documents filed in every case: the public taxpayers of Japan who paid for this public questionnaire legally have the right to access electronic scans of ALL the replies (names and addresses redacted) because ALL of the replies are legally public information.
The laws of Japan guarantee public access to all publicly-funded replies to decrease the chance of Ministry officials illegally attempting to fraudulently labeling thousands of valid replies “not valid”.
Any Ministry of Justice worker who received an order to read this webpage, is hereby officially required to notify your superiors in writing: that the act of preventing public access to ANY of the publicly-funded replies (meaning ANY reply which the Ministry received, from ANY individual who sent the Ministry answers, regardless of the Ministry’s opinion of whether each answer was “valid” or “not valid”) would be an illegal act punishable by the Supreme Court Justices of Japan, as would also be any attempt to destroy ANY of the replies since EVERY answer sent to the Ministry is public property and court evidence in the upcoming “People vs. Ministry of Justice” Supreme Court case, and any public worker who destroyed or gave an order to destroy even ONE page of reply evidence in this case will be properly punished to the full extent of the law by the Supreme Court Justices of Japan.
@Gulf:
>I’d love for them to introduce me to the real estate
>shops they went to.
The wait is over! Mainichi Shinbun just covered this (see articles below).
>Though that can probably be accounted for by
>discounting the people that had an apartment
>arranged for, looked for a shared house or went
>through an agent that caters to foreigners.
Shared housing and catering is now in vogue due to the lack of domestic muscle.
More real estate agencies working to globalize by catering to foreigner clients
http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180128/p2a/00m/0na/005000c
外国人にも我が家 専門賃貸仲介、各地に 4割が入居拒否経験
https://mainichi.jp/articles/20180125/ddg/041/040/013000c
Side note: I was not aware that Osaka District Court recognized the practice of denying foreigners housing because of their nationality was illegal…way back in 1993!
“Catering to foreigners” at a few token locations, while mainly continuing to illegally discriminate based on race.
http://www.debito.org/?p=12282#comment-553754
http://www.debito.org/?p=12282#comment-554427
Show us a real estate agent in Japan who actually obeys the law by ABSOLUTELY REFUSING to have any “Japanese race only” listings.
These “catering” agents want us to give them praise and business and free advertising here at Debito.org, but they still continue to have “Japanese race only” listings, so they are still continuing to commit the immoral and illegal act of disrimination based on race (while aiding and abetting other landowners to do the same) all the while continuing to PROFIT from such racially-discriminatory advertisements, all the while causing daily emotional damages (seishin kutsuu) to the people reading those advertisements/listings: the people who are suffering the indignity and humiliation of being publicly refused service based on race.
“Look over here, 10% of our landowner clients now accept renters of all races, we are so international!”
Whatever, the fact that 90% of your listings DON’T accept renters of all races is the problem in Japan.
Japan contracted with the U.N. to make all such acts of discrimination based on race illegal in Japan since 1995 yet these real estate agents and landowners continue to advertise “Japanese race only”.
@JK
You noticed, 6 months ago, that a Mainichi article in English claimed:
“The Osaka District Court decided in 1993 that the practice (of rental refusal based on race or nationality) was illegal because the Constitution guarantees equality before the law.”
You were surprised about that claim, and now, 6 months later, I am too.
That claim by the Mainichi, though positive, seems mistaken, since:
– The Constitution only limits actions done by government employees.
– The Constitution does not limit actions done by non-government people.
– How could a Osaka judge rule that a business “violated the constitution”?
I would love to see this supposed precedent-setting ruling if it truly exists.
But I think the original journalist or translator must have made a mistake.
There is just one Judge in Japan who righteously admitted in 1999: that all race-based and nationality-based service refusal became automatically illegal in Japan (even without Japan ever legislating any domestic law yet) thanks to the Legally Supreme nature of the United Nations CERD Treaty which Japan signed in 1995.
Judge Tetsuro Sou admitted as he handed down his ruling in the Ana Bortz case in 1999: “Japan is a signatory to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (signed and effected in 1995, officially inaugurated [発効した] in 1996) and that treaty is automatically supreme domestic law.”
So, although it would be wonderful to be able to also cite a supposed additional Japan ruling, in which a Judge of Japan supposedly ruled that Japan’s Constitution itself outlaws race-based or nationality-based service refusal by businesses, the fact is: such a ruling would be impossibly mistaken, which is why I think the Mainichi journalist authored an incorrect claim.
The Mainichi English article which you cited is still up, and now archived for posterity:
http://archive.is/D4FlA
The Mainichi Japanese original article page you cited is now mainly hidden behind a paywall, but I found a non-paywalled version and archived it too:
http://archive.is/83q4b
Yep, the Japanese original article is indeed making that impossible claim of a supposed 1993 Osaka District Court Judge’s “Constitution outlaws businesses from committing race-based or nationality-based service refusal” supposed precedent-setting ruling.
1993年に大阪地裁が「法の下の平等を定めた憲法に反する」として家主に損害賠償を命じるなど、人権侵害を認めた複数の判例がある。
I would love to have such a precedent-setting ruling in hand, but either the Osaka judge or the Mainichi journalist made a mistake. The Constitution does not tell non-government people what to do. The Constitution only limits the actions of government employees.
Perhaps the judge was merely adding NON-PRECEDENT-SETTING commentary that “A business owner who committed race-based or nationality-based service refusal did something AS BAD, IN MY OPINION, AS a government employee doing such a thing, and a government employee is outlawed by the Constitution from doing such a thing…”
Such non-precedent-setting fluff would NOT be equal to actually saying, “The Constitution outlaws businesses from committing race-based or nationality-based service refusal.”
Non-precedent-setting fluff opinions which DON’T specifically say, “X Law outlaws Y action by businesses” can’t be cited in later cases.
We’ve seen such non-precedent-setting fluff opinions which don’t cite any specific laws, for example the judge in Debito’s case who vaguely said, “This happens to be, in my opinion, an example of race-based service refusal which goes beyond the rational.” Great, thanks for that Mr. Judge, refusing to cite any Japan law to back that opinion up, refusing to state that Japan needs to legislate such a law, and leaving the door wide open for future businesses who want to do race-based service refusal since ipso facto Mr. Judge’s opinion claimed that SOME race-based service refusal IS RATIONAL.
So, instead of this supposed 1993 Osaka claim about the Constitution, I’ll continue to use the relatively more certain and more logical and more supreme 1999 Ana Bortz case ruling by Judge Tetsuro Sou: “Japan is a signatory to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and that treaty is automatically supreme domestic law.”
It is also low because of the qualifier used in the survey “in the last 5 years”. So for long-timers who haven’t moved in the least 5 years, they won’t be able to answer that they have faced housing discrimination “in the last 5 years”. Although they almost certainly have during their time in Japan.
Noone surveyed me. I have been discriminated against. Add me to the number. Called names. I think an online survey would have been better. Involve more people.
Maybe this is the place to put this but has anyone (who is a visible gaijin i.e, doesn’t look Japanese passable) noticed an increase in weird behaviour on the trains recently. In my 20+ years here in kansai there has always been weird behaviour but recently I have found it escalating and being more violent. People deliberately pushing in to me, hitting my leg, pushing in front of me if I am first in line, that kind of thing. I feel it is on the rise. Or is it just me?
Yes. Japan is definitely getting ruder as tourist numbers increase. The constant TV drumbeat of ‘gaijin tourists with their bad manners’ has likely made many feel it’s ok to be ‘rude back’ at visible NJ.
Oh, and add to that six months of Abe’s ‘victim Japan under siege of NK’s nuclear bomb’ mentality whipping up more us V’s them mentality than usual.
It happened to me in yokohama but only sometimes.
That used to happen to me on the Yamanote every three months or so. it was deliberate, as I gave back as good as I got and then so did they. One time I called one girl who kept kicking me out on it in Japanese and she ran off saying “Sorry, sorry”.
The whole carriage then kind of sank back into their slumber.
Another time this guy was standing on the wrong side of the escalator and slightly brushed past him uttering “sumimasen”. he then went completely apeshit and followed me onto the train and berated me for not having “common sense” which was rich as he was standing on the wrong side of the escalator.
So I just kind of channeled Michael Corleone, grinned nastily and patted him on the shoulder with a “‘ey, its OK. Capische?” He didnt like that but he quieted down (in front of everyone), and then I got off the train at the next stop.
Remember, social shaming goes a long way in Japan. Just be in the right and act that way. You do not have to a accept the role of the victim at the bottom of the J- hierarchy.
Compare http://www.debito.org/?p=830
(mace attack on Peter Barakan and friends. Japan is Safety country, right?)