DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 23, 2019

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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 23, 2019

Hello Debito.org Newsletter Readers. We are back after a few weeks off for Summer Vacation with news of a brand new column at the Shingetsu News Agency:

“Visible Minorities”: Debito’s first monthly column for the Shingetsu News Agency, Aug 19, 2019

Excerpt:
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My name is Debito Arudou, that guy from Sapporo who started writing about Japan from the early 1990s on a long-dead mailing list called the Dead Fukuzawa Society. I wrote so much there that I decided to archive my writings on a webpage. Debito.org soon blossomed into an award-winning reference site on life and human rights in Japan, and later a platform for newspaper articles and fieldwork research on racial discrimination.

After moonlighting at places like the now-defunct Asahi Evening News and Japan Today, I began writing in 2002 a column for Japan Times, first under Zeit Gist and then Just Be Cause. Decades later, here we are with a new monthly column at the Shingetsu News Agency, under the title Visible Minorities. I chose this title for two reasons…
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Read the rest at
http://shingetsunewsagency.com/2019/08/19/visible-minorities-debitos-new-column-for-the-shingetsu-news-agency/

Alright, on with the Newsletter:

Table of Contents:
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1) Kyodo: Japan celebrates its South American Japanese diaspora. Praising them for doing what it complains NJ immigrants to Japan do. (Like take Nippon Foundation money to sterilize Peruvian indigenous peoples?)

2) Reuters: Yet another NJ detainee dies after hunger strike after 3 years in Japan “detention center”; time for a change in labeling

3) US State Dept. 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Japan: Highlights for Debito.org Readers

… and finally…
4) Japan Times JBC 116: “‘Love it or leave it’ is not a real choice” (on how Trump’s alienation of critics of color is standard procedure in Japan), July 24, 2019
//////////////////////////

By Debito Arudou Ph.D.
debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter @arudoudebito
Debito.org Newsletters are Freely Forwardable

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1) Kyodo: Japan celebrates its South American Japanese diaspora. Praising them for doing what it complains NJ immigrants to Japan do. (Like take Nippon Foundation money to sterilize Peruvian indigenous peoples?)

Kyodo: Princess Mako paid a visit to Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra on Thursday in Lima during her trip to mark the 120th anniversary of the start of Japanese immigration to the South American country. “I feel Japanese Peruvians are treated very well in Peru. I’m grateful that Peru accepted Japanese immigrants,” the 27-year-old princess, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino, said during the meeting at the president’s office.

Vizcarra said he is glad that Japanese Peruvians are actively involved in various fields. The president also showed his gratitude to Japan’s contribution to Peru in the areas of technological and economic cooperation and archaeology. [Princess Mako] later met at a hotel in Lima with representatives of Japanese people living in Peru and Japanese volunteers dispatched by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, thanking them for their efforts in the country. On Wednesday, she attended a ceremony marking the immigration anniversary and met with Peruvians of Japanese descent. She is scheduled to travel to Bolivia on Monday to mark the 120th anniversary of the start of Japanese immigration to that country.

COMMENT FROM DEBITO.ORG READER AIS: “Team Japan celebrates its emigrants for their contributions (i.e. being Japanese) – essentially praising them for doing what it complains its immigrants do.”

COMMENT FROM DEBITO.ORG READER JDG: “Notice they don’t talk about LDP members funding Peruvian government forced sterilization of ethnic minorities. That’s some Japanese contribution to Peruvian society!”

BBC in 2002: More than 200,000 people in rural Peru were pressured into being sterilised by the government of former President Alberto Fujimori, an official report has revealed. The Health Minister, Fernando Carbone, said the government gave misleading information, offered food incentives and threatened to fine men and women if they had more children.

Poor indigenous people in rural areas were the main targets of the compulsive family planning programme until 2000, when Mr Fujimori left for Japan amid mounting corruption allegations against him. Mr Carbone said there was evidence that Mr Fujimori and a number of high-ranking ministers could be held responsible for “incorrect procedures” and “human rights violations”.

COMMENT FROM DEBITO: Now, before anyone writes in and says, “Don’t be racist. Alberto Fujimori didn’t do this BECAUSE he is Japanese. He just happened to be of Japanese descent. (And self-claimed citizenship.) While doing monstrous things.

However, remember that Fujimori WAS being funded by the right-wing Nippon Foundation (founded by war criminal Sasakawa Ryouichi), especially when it was being headed by self-proclaimed South African Apartheid supporter (and apparently personal friend of Fujimori’s) Sono Ayako.

Meaning Fujimori, with the help of Japanese eugenicists, was cleansing Peru’s countryside of Peruvian indigenous peoples without proper medical procedure or oversight.

We’ve covered Sono Ayako’s ideological hijinks and Alberto Fujimori’s international criminal activity (which is why he is in prison now) on Debito.org before. What’s missing from this celebration of Japanese history in South America, as JDG notes, is Japan’s hand in overseas modern human rights atrocities.

https://www.debito.org/?p=15703

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2) Reuters: Yet another NJ detainee dies after hunger strike after 3 years in Japan “detention center”; time for a change in labeling

REUTERS: A Nigerian man died in a Japanese immigration detention center this week, an official said on Thursday, bringing to an end a hunger strike an activist group said was intended to protest his being held for more than three years. It was the 15th death since 2006 in a system widely criticized over medical standards, the monitoring of detainees and how guards respond to a medical emergency…

RINK, a group supporting detainees at the center, told Reuters the Nigerian had been on hunger strike to protest his lengthy detention. Another 27 foreigners are on hunger strike at a detention center in Ushiku, northeast of Tokyo, said a separate group supporting detainees at that facility. Some of them have gone without food for 47 days, said Kimiko Tanaka, a spokeswoman for the group… Two other men at Ushiku have been detained for five years, she said. “The reality of a lengthy detention is nothing but a human rights violation,” Tanaka said.

COMMENT: Dovetailing with last week’s blog entry about how Japan’s new “open door” visa programs violate basic human rights, here’s the old classic “closed door” policies aimed to punish bureaucratic transgressions by perpetually detaining people under conditions that don’t fall under standards for sufficient monitoring (because technically, they’re not “prisons”). Policywise, they’re meant to be a deterrent — part of a separate judicial track for foreigners in Japan with fewer human rights (full details on this in “Embedded Racism” Ch. 6). Separate and lethal.

Again, given how Japan’s ethnostate policies are an inspiration for xenophobes and racial supremacists worldwide, I would argue that these longstanding inhumane “Gaijin Tanks” are a working model for the “concentration camps” (the political term of debate in the US these days) for detainees along the American southern border. Except politicians in Japan don’t have the cojones to call them anything but benign-sounding “detention centers” — after all, who in any position of power cares about the plight of foreigners in Japan?

https://www.debito.org/?p=15691

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3) US State Dept. 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Japan: Highlights for Debito.org Readers

Every year, the US State Department issues its “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices”. As highlighted by the Shingetsu News Agency, the 2018 Report on Japan came out last March. Now while it’s quite rich for the US to be reporting on other countries (but not, notably, itself) while it has an ongoing human-rights debacle for detained foreign entrants and asylum seekers (and their children) around its southern border, this Report has been cited over the years as authoritative (and it has also included the work of Debito.org and others). So here are the highlights on issues pertaining to Debito.org. As you can see, a lot of information is glossed over. Here are some highlighted sections for Debito.org Readers:

2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Japan, March 13, 2019

Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person
Prison and Detention Center Conditions
D. ARBITRARY ARREST OR DETENTION
ROLE OF THE POLICE AND SECURITY APPARATUS
ARREST PROCEDURES AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES
Pretrial Detention

Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties
A. FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS
Freedom of Expression
D. FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS, PROTECTION OF REFUGEES, AND STATELESS PERSONS
Access to Asylum
Access to Basic Services
Elections and Political Participation
Participation of Minorities

Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
Government Human Rights Bodies

Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
International Child Abductions
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Section 7. Worker Rights
B. PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR
E. ACCEPTABLE CONDITIONS OF WORK

https://www.debito.org/?p=15599

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… and finally…
4) Japan Times JBC 116: “‘Love it or leave it’ is not a real choice” (on how Trump’s alienation of critics of color is standard procedure in Japan), July 24, 2019

My latest Japan Times column, talking about how Trump’s recent use of a racist trope, denying people of color the right to belong in a society simply because they disagree with the dominant majority’s ideology, is taking a page from Japanese society’s standard tactics of forcing NJ and Visible Minorities to “love Japan or go home”. Excerpt:

JBC116: Roiling American politics last week was a retort by President Donald Trump toward congresswomen of color critical of his policies. First he questioned their standing (as lawmakers) to tell Americans how to run the government. Then he said they should “go back” to the places they came from and fix them first. For good measure, he later tweeted, “If you are not happy here, you can leave!”

The backlash was forceful. CNN, NPR, The New York Times, Washington Post and other media called it “racist.” Others called it “un-American,” pointing out that telling people to go back to other countries might violate federal antidiscrimination laws. The Atlantic was even apocalyptic, arguing that “what Americans do now (in response) will define us forever” as the world’s last great bastion of multiracial democracy.

Why is this an issue for this column? Because it’s hard to imagine a similar backlash happening in Japan, even though this kind of alienation happens here often. [In fact, in Japan it’s old hat…]

Rest at https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2019/07/24/issues/love-leave-not-real-choice/
Anchor site on Debito.org with comments at https://www.debito.org/?p=15708

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That’s all for this Newsletter! Thanks for reading!

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 23, 2019 ENDS

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27 comments on “DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 23, 2019

  • Jim Di Griz says:

    LOLZ! Japanese owned for three years English language magazine awards Tokyo ‘safest city in the world’ title for 3rd consecutive year! Hmm…

    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/08/30/national/tokyo-ranked-worlds-safest-city-third-consecutive-year-economist-intelligence-unit/

    Tokyo wins title despite the fact that ‘corruption and organized crime are endemic at all levels of society’ because of the lack of malware risks (really? I guess all the cyber criminals are writing malware for current OS unaware that Japan is still chugging along on Windows 95), and because of the cities disaster planning and ‘resilience to natural shocks’. I guess no one at the Economist has noticed this;

    https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/world/thousands-stranded-as-rare-heavy-snow-hits-tokyo-and-news-channels-advise-people-to-walk-like-a3747121.html%3famp

    Reply
    • AnonymousOG says:

      And Jim, your good second point reminds me of a good comment the non-comedian fellow Japan-reality-writer Steve Martin recently posted:

      “Just watched a snippet of Seven Pay’s president responding to a question about why 2-Step Authentication was not part of the systems’s security.

      Both his reaction and the NHK reporter’s comment indicated he had no idea what 2-Step Authentication (Verification) was.

      Reminds me of news last November about good old boy, emphasis on ‘old’, Japanese Minister in charge of cyber security, Yoshitaka Sakurada. He admitted he has never used a computer.

      Cronyism AND Amakudari … both alive and well in Japan Inc.”

      Reply
  • Jim Di Griz says:

    Hilarious! But also so sad…
    Japan’s institutional racism is so all pervasive that most japanese assume perpetrators of road rage drive foreign cars (despite evidence to the contrary).
    ‘the magazine mentions a new website that tracks license plates in aori unten incidents, and the most common type of car driven by aggressors are minicars, followed by minivans. This makes sense statistically, since there are vastly more minicars on the road than expensive foreign cars, but foreign cars are more noticeable and tend to be associated with aggressive driving.’

    Just like foreigners are more noticeable and tend to be associated with crime.

    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/08/31/national/media-national/road-rage-coverage-reveals-gulf-awareness-traffic-rules-japan/

    Reply
  • On the face of it, the German author of this article seems to be well adjusted.

    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2019/09/18/voices/first-hitler-moment/

    But on reading with just a little care I was disturbed by his denial and victim blaming himself.
    Allow to explain; article is about his thoughts on receiving a ‘heil Hitler’ and a Nazi salute from a stranger when explaining that he is German.
    With no proof, he assumes that this is not a deliberate attempt to humiliate him in public, nor is it a visible testament to Japanese people’s awareness of the Japan-Germany Axis pact and unrepentant support of the past.
    No. Instead the author gives a rambling apologistic ‘I can’t blame him, he doesn’t know anything about the war’ excuse.
    Clearly, the Nazi saluting Japanese knows something about the war.

    The author then goes on to describe how advertising his German nationality can get him better treatment from the Japanese, eliminate the syndrome of having an empty seat next to you on a crowded train and get better restaurant tables in Japan than if he were an American. However, he fails to link this to Germany’s wartime alliance with Japan that was defeated by…you guessed it! America (amongst others). He just leaves this dangling and doesn’t even bother to try and make an apology for it (presumably because it is indefensible racism).

    And thirdly, he relates how a Japanese friend is researching a book about a Japanese who aided Jews in escaping from the Nazis in WWII. This Japanese friend attempted to conceal this research project from the German. Why? Because he thought the German would be insulted that someone was shining a light in his country’s wartime crimes against humanity.
    Let that sink in.
    His Japanese friend assumed that the German would be insulted by mention of the holocaust.
    That’s total projection on the part of the Japanese of how they feel when Japan’s crimes are discussed.
    Yet the author brushes it off and makes apologistic comments about how the Japanese don’t study about the war in depth and don’t know about German crimes never mind Japanese ones.

    Like the ‘best’ Japan blind apologists, the guy who wrote this is so in love with Japan that he’s desperately trying to demonstrate that Japan has no bad points even if he has to turn his logic inside out to do it and flat out contradict himself from one sentence to the next. Sad.
    It’s ok to say Japan isn’t perfect.
    It’s ok to say some Japanese are asshats.
    It’s ok to say that some Japanese racially discriminate against you.
    This is normal and rational!
    Don’t fall into the apologist/rightwing trap that says you have to like everything all the time or go home!

    I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but JT sure is running a lot a apologistic rubbish written by NJ recently. Lots of articles explaining why NJ should accept glass-ceilings in Japan, and why NJ will never speak Japanese well enough to not feel like an outsider in the office kind of thing.

    Reply
    • this “This Japanese friend attempted to conceal this research project from the German. Why? Because he thought the German would be insulted that someone was shining a light in his country’s wartime crimes against humanity.’
      That’s it, in Japanese warcrime denial mindset a nutshell.

      Reply
    • Andrew in Saitama says:

      It’s ok to say Japan isn’t perfect.
      It’s ok to say some Japanese are asshats.
      It’s ok to say that some Japanese racially discriminate against you.

      This.

      One of the toughest things about living here is that is in many ways like being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t really love you but desperately wants you to love them, expects you to praise them about everything they do, and who steers every conversation to being about them. They also have very selective memories about slights and arguments, telling you to “move on” from some issue while constantly harping on about that one incident where they feel hard done by.
      Oh, and they are better than you.

      Just my take.

      Reply
      • “One of the toughest things about living here is that is in many ways like being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t really love you but desperately wants you to love them
        Oh, and they are better than you.”

        Wow, great comparison.

        Reply
  • Right wing Sankei owned Japan Today put out this ‘what to do if you get stopped by the police in Japan’ article for the Rugby World Cup.

    https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/What-to-do-if-you-are-stopped-by-the-police-in-Japan

    Half the article about having fun and getting travel insurance, the other half about complying with all police requests because, y’know, cultural differences.
    Failure to blindly comply with police stop requests will be ‘escalating the situation’ and grounds for arrest because, y’know, cultural differences.
    What about police discrimination and your rights? ‘Don’t believe all the hoopla you read online’.

    Basically article’s advice is;
    If stopped by Japanese police, do as you are told.

    Reply
  • Just in time for the Olympics: strains of Ebola and four other deadly viruses have been imported to Japan for the development of diagnostic kits. Why? Well, because of NJ, of course!
    Japan imports Ebola virus for research ahead of 2020 Olympics
    That NJ should be thought of (among other things) as carriers of infectious diseases should come as no surprise to regular readers of Debito.org.
    However, here’s what’s interesting — if you read this article authored by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), you’ll discover that:

    Prototypes of Ebola rapid diagnostic kits were developed way back in 2015.
    in 2017, more than 3,000 of these rapid diagnostic kits were donated to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help control the Ebola outbreak there.

    I suppose one can argue in favor of importing the non-Ebola viruses (since there’s no rapid diagnostic kits for those), but why import Ebola when rapid diagnostic kits for that virus have already been developed and mass produced?

    Reply
    • Why? Pork-barrel politics!
      Someone worked out that they can get the government to subsidize the work at their lab if the correct amount of graft is paid back.
      All at the tax payers expense. The utility of the project has absolutely no relevance whatsoever.
      It’s standard for ‘snout in the public trough’ Japan.

      Reply
  • Apologists always say human rights campaigners don’t have to worry about Japan because it’s changed so completely it could never ‘go back’ to the way it was during the war.
    Hmm….
    Japanese political party leader calls for ‘genocide’ of people in ‘poor countries’ who are ‘breeding like animals’ because killing them would be ‘natural’.
    Let that digest a moment.

    https://japantoday.com/category/politics/anti-nhk-party-head-suggests-genocide-to-solve-overpopulation#

    Reply
    • The pro-genocide party leader who made such statements also admitted to being a bit mentally unstable as he himself has admitted to having bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Tachibana_(politician)

      It seems also, I suspect, the formerly Tokyo Governor, Ishihara Shintaro may also have a few screws loose on his second floor.

      https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2093937/japans-shintaro-ishihara-claims-cia-plot-kill-him-traffic

      Its also interesting how in contrast, everyone world over questions the mental stability of the infamous Donald Trump, yet when it comes to the leaders of Japan, nobody cares or just shrug it off, continue the dreamy day and continue to vote them into power again and thus giving the utmost extreme elements of Japanese society disproportionate power and influence virtually no opposition of any kind to act as a check and balance.

      The people don’t want responsibility and prefer to follow even if they have to follow a total nutcase.

      Jim Di Griz says:
      “Apologists always say human rights campaigners don’t have to worry about Japan because it’s changed so completely it could never ‘go back’ to the way it was during the war.”

      This especially, what worries me is alot of apologists that I encounter saying things like this are normal people and are only modestly interested in Japan if any at all, not the gung-ho neckbeard types. I find that many people are,from my experience at the very least and to some degree a little bit apologist whenever it comes to Japan.

      I don’t know what causes this but it seems alot of people (especially those that don’t live or seldom visit Japan) see Japan as a “democractic” country and try to assure me that “checks and balances” will always fix itself in a democracy.

      Maybe it could be brand Japan that people are charmed by, the consumer products, food and robotic and seemingly over the top mannerisms that some people like. Lots of people seem to see and accept what Japan is on the surface, a place where everything is routine and orderly and nothing happens and many people simply conclude Japan as being a healthy country.

      Interestingly, with the very same people, I would expect them to cut some slack with China and North Korea or even the U.S., mistakenly thinking that they might be apathetic to politics, but nope it is exceptionalism for Japan and nobody else.

      Reply
      • Excellent comment, and I note “Dreamy Day” is entering the vernacular, to mean Japanese society!
        “Maybe it could be brand Japan that people are charmed by, the consumer products, food and robotic and seemingly over the top mannerisms that some people like. Lots of people seem to see and accept what Japan is”
        Again, you have hit the nail on the head. This is exactly how many outside Japan see Japan. And excuse it for its societal ills, or brush them under the carpet in light of “even worse” places like N Korea etc.

        Reply
  • Japan’s got a terrible record of ethnocentric navel gazing when its comes to sports. Rugby and sumo in particular tie themselves in knots over the ‘nationality/ethnicity’ of winners, when it suits ‘Japan’, but crushing the tiniest diversity in its wider society (students hair must be black!).

    So, in light of the victory of a team that rugby rules says is Japanese (whilst Japanese social ‘standards’ would classify them as ‘foreigners’), I predict that the following players will be seen very little in this week’s wideshows in order to preserve ‘we Japanese’ homogeneity myths;
    Asaeli Ai Valu
    Koo Ji-won
    Isileli Nakajima
    Uwe Helu
    James Moore
    Luke Thompson
    Wimpie van der Walt
    Lappies Labuschagné
    Amanaki Mafi
    Hendrik Tui
    Timothy Lafaele
    Will Tupou
    Lomano Lemeki
    Ataata Moeakiola

    I predict that these guys are going to get written out of the narrative in the popular Japanese consciousness to preserve homogeneity and racial superiority myths about Japan. Which is a shame. But it’s also blindingly obviously inevitable since to acknowledge these players invaluable contribution to ‘Japan’s’ victory would show that diversity strengthens Japan, and that can’t be permitted since it runs contrary to ‘we Japanese’ racial superiority cult dogma myths.

    Reply
    • “Kawai said, however, that he was not planning to abolish the Technical Intern Training Program for unskilled workers, which has long been criticized for allowing certain employers to exploit foreign workers as cheap labor, citing positive feedback from business owners using such trainees.”

      This paragraph says it all, really.
      ‘We can’t stop exploitation, the exploiters are happy.’

      Reply
  • Jim Di Griz says:

    Wow! Japan Times is being really clever/displaying an astounding lack of self-awareness* with its racism apologist articles lately!
    *delete as applicable.

    Take a look at this;
    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2019/10/02/voices/interaction-streets-kobe-illustrates-like-dislike-living/

    Summary;
    NJ female told to ‘go home’ by drunk J-guy who invades her space. Reaction: shock.
    Drunk J-guy’s less racist associate apologizes and asks her to ‘enjoy her stay’. Reaction? No, not ‘hey idiot, I’m not a tourist, I live here!’.
    No.
    Reaction: NJ ponders that the unique Japanese kindness of the second guy has taught her to be a better person when she goes back to her own country.
    Shaking my freakin’ head.

    Reply
  • Jim Di Griz says:

    Debito.org should have a page just for posting about Japan Times inane/untrue/misrepresentative articles about NJ life in Japan! I see one almost every week. Take this for example;

    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2019/10/19/books/beginners-guide-japan-observations-provocations-pico-iyer-224-pages/

    NJ ‘writer’ who has lived in Nagoya for 30 years ON A TOURIST VISA (!, yeah, right, tell me another!) says that only Japanese people can understand Japan.

    Yawn.

    I’m sure we’ve all heard that before. It’s something the Japanese like to tell themselves when NJ call them out on their cultural/social problems but don’t want to admit (i.e. ‘Gambling is illegal in Japan’, ‘Ok, so what about this Pachinko then?’, ‘Ah, this is Japanese culture, not gambling’. Or Japanese racism isn’t racism, but you wouldn’t understand).

    Anyhow, I hate these kind of NJ with a vengeance. They are the dreamy-eyed who came to Japan believing the BS (like we pretty much all did). But, when they discovered the truth, they didn’t adjust their opinion, they went into denial, and instead of admitting the racism, bullying, sexual discrimination they see, just tell themselves it’s not those things but ‘something else’ that they ‘cannot understand’ because they are ‘not Japanese’.

    Pathetic and self-delusional. And in that respect should be ignored, except when they evangelize being pathetic delusional apologists because it impacts me, you, and our children’s quality of life.
    These losers all end up like Greg Clark and quietly shuffle out of public view instead of doing the right thing and denouncing the crap they wrote.

    Reply
  • This is kind of ‘funny’.
    https://japantoday.com/category/politics/g-20-vows-to-address-issues-involving-overtourism

    At meeting of G20 Tourism Ministers in Japan, ‘over tourism’ is on the agenda (hint; Japan hosts so sets the agenda).
    Issues discussed were environmental impacts of tourism and congestion.
    Japanese tourism minister; ‘We must study measures to address friction between tourists and locals,’.

    Friction? Is that what we call intolerance now? I guess. After all, intolerance and ‘omotenashi’ aren’t compatible, so let’s say ‘friction’? They all ought to STHU, ‘gaman’ and be thankful for tourist spending, shouldn’t they?
    Like the summer temps in Tokyo weren’t considered when Japan desperately wanted the Olympics, I guess the ‘friction’ wasn’t considered when the J-Government made doubling tourist numbers policy…

    Reply
  • Jim Di Griz says:

    I just want to leave this here for the record;

    https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/10/27/national/tokyos-shibuya-abuzz-costumes-weekend-halloween-amid-heavy-police-presence/

    ‘Abuzz’, ‘merry-makers’, ‘heavy police presence’.
    Sums it up. The paranoia of the state.
    That’s Halloween in Japan now (remember, its allegedly an international ‘destination’ event).
    Yes, even 15 years ago drunk NJ and Japanese holding Halloween ‘train parties’ were disruptive, but that’s the stuff of history. Train parties ended when the right wingers started crowding at stations shouting out hatred and holding racist signs. No one remembers that.
    And last year at Shibuya, a k-truck was turned over by drunken Japanese, but that detail gets omitted because the event is indelibly and constantly linked with foreigners.
    Like the above article. The vast majority of attendees at last weekends Shibuya Halloween party were Japanese, but the article is a list of ‘this NJ did that’ ‘that NJ wore this’, just in case the drip drip drip of NJ stereotyping wears off.

    Reply

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