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Hi Blog. Here’s a link to my latest Japan Times JBC column:
From new visas to a tourism backlash, the Top 10 issues that affected us in 2018 may forecast our future treatment
BY DEBITO ARUDOU, THE JAPAN TIMES, JANUARY 28, 2018
Every January, Just Be Cause takes a look at how things went for the non-Japanese residents of Japan (NJ) in the previous year.
While not everything made this year’s list — there were the false claims of “foreigner fraud” of the national health insurance system, and fake news of NJ crime in the wake of the Osaka quake in June — the issues that did, ranked in ascending order, may portend how our community is treated in 2019 and beyond.
10) Brazilians snub new visa
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10 comments on “My Japan Times JBC 114 column: Top Ten Issues that Affected NJ Residents in 2018”
Where to post this?
https://japantoday.com/category/crime/japan-to-survey-200-mln-gadgets-for-cyber-security
The J-gov will conduct a ‘survey’ of 200 million internet capable ‘devices’ in the name of national security. For ‘survey’, read ‘hacking’. As the article states, the Japanese government will attempt to access you devices by hacking passwords, with the already obtained ‘consent of internet providers’. They don’t need the device owners consent, they made a law to cover that last year, but no one cared enough to talk about it.
I’m in two minds about how this will turn out. The first is that it will be an unmitigated disaster, with semi-inept government hackers unwittingly spreading viruses whilst the situation becomes a breeding ground for confidence scams. All under the purview of the very Minister who proudly proclaimed he has never used a computer in his life! Oh, and smartphones are off the table; there’s just too many of them (so what’s the point, really?).
On the other hand, given that we know the NSA gave the Japanese the XKEYSCORE device hacking and hijacking tool, it seems like a mere gloss of legitimacy to Japan’s inept surveillance state wet dream bound to be badly implemented due to its inevitable focus on NJ, muslims, opposition parties, democracy advocates, anti-base activists, and (in a fascist state) of course- communists!
I have a gut feeling that the J-gov is laying the foundations to eventually build a Chinese style firewall for Japanese internet users.
Given how how aggressively Japan tries to control the media in and outside Japan and how it plans to monitor people, I don’t think it would be to much a stretch for Japan to eventually want to restrict the access of certain information on the internet.
Perhaps the J-Gov may want to forbid access and searches of online information regarding hot issues like Japan’s warcrimes, government corruption and territorial desputes.
Given the enormous amount of effort the J-Gov wants to eliminate all instances and mentioning of the “comfort women” issue, I don’t think its too much a stretch for Japan to at least prevent people in Japan at least from searching the term altogether.
The J-Gov’s excuse could be to prevent people from accessing “misleading”, “misunderstood” and “misrepresented” information about Japan. The same lame excuses that J-officials use to censor J-Times and other Japanese media outlets which the J-officials will use to extend their censorship efforts to Japanese ISPs.
Given what we know about the personalities that run Japan Inc and the J-Gov, they probably read all about the Chinese Great Firewall and silently think to themselves “Good idea! why not?”
Beijing and Kasumigaseki have much in common, despite their enmity.
So watching all of the Ghosn new and people defending Japan’s justice system on the basis that Japan has one of the lowest crimes rates is really annoying to me. It’s only low because most crime goes unreported or, even if reported, not acted on by police. Here’s a short list of crimes that are absolutely rife in Japan and if you do business and are involved in daily life in Japan you will see. In my 22 years here I have seen multiple cases of:
monetary fraud
other fraud
domestic violence
assault
sexual assault
sex crimes
human trafficking
You forgot child abuse and bullying.
Don’t forget to add “death threats” and “criminal harassment” also. Many J-Nationalists use it with impunity (and often casually so) to silence activists or people who speak against Japan’s social system.
It is so habitual of J-society to threaten and harass people (especially against activists, progressives, NJ and women) that it is easy to forget that it is a felony in developed western countries (which Japan loves to parade itself as) to bully people via threats and harassment.
It is always very disturbing when many Japanese talk about NJ and often times the stuff the Japanese say always comes off as very arrogant, cruel and rude. What is most disturbing is how casual the Japanese are with this kind of bullying.
Weak law enforcement on harassment, threats and hate crimes have allowed many J-nationalists to bully those they deem as inferior for decades and I feel it has gotten worse since abe got elected in 2012.
Yeah, I agree.
It’s this kind of turning a blind eye/ignoring/denial of that sort of behavior that is pulling society down. The Japan Times is a case in point; an extremely vocal and aggressive rightwing element complains nonstop that the newspaper is ‘left wing’ and ‘anti-Japan’, which emboldens the paper to become more rightwing to please them. These people are over represented and catering to them moves ‘the center’ way towards the right, which normalizes the casual and institutional racism and fascist tendencies in society.
In the effort to deal with this vocal minority, actually more widespread discrimination and racism gets put on the back burner despite its greater immediacy.
Yes, If you report every death as Death by Misadventure” then…ta-daa-… you have the lowest cancer rate in the world. There are similarities to North Korea in the way the country is led by the bureacrats and press in Japan.
Dont forget the ol’ “I (any Japanese person) can report NJ to immigration if you do not do what I like.” standard sentence that we have all heard as newbies. Kind of reinforced by random needless police checks at Narita, in the neighborhood, our place at the gaijin house etc.
Human Rights Now Report on Human Rights in Japan for UPR.
http://hrn.or.jp/eng/news/2017/04/12/upr-report/#_ftn70