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Table of Contents:
REVISIONISM AND RECIDIVISM
1) Asahi: Okayama public prosecutors drop co-worker violence claim by Vietnamese “Trainee” despite video evidence. No wonder Japan’s violent bully culture thrives! (UPDATE: Out-of-court settlement was reached)
2) Japan Times on neighborhood sento bathhouse restoration activists: Omits history of how Japan’s already-declining public bath industry hurt itself with “Japanese Only” signs
3) Migrant Integration Policy Index rates Japan as “Integration Denied”, and “Critically Unfavorable” in terms of Anti-Discrimination measures. And this is for 2019, before Covid shut Japan’s borders.
4) Ministry of Foreign Affairs sets up “foreign media policing website” where anyone can report to J govt any foreign info “incompatible with our country’s standpoint”. Actually, quite within character.
… and finally …
5) My SNA Visible Minorities 36: “Abe’s Assassination and the Revenge of History” (July 18, 2022), on how his historical revisionism created a blind spot that ultimately killed him
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By Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter @arudoudebito)
Debito.org Newsletters as always are freely forwardable.
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REVISIONISM AND RECIDIVISM
1) Asahi: Okayama public prosecutors drop co-worker violence claim by Vietnamese “Trainee” despite video evidence. No wonder Japan’s violent bully culture thrives! (UPDATE: Out-of-court settlement was reached)
GoEMON (from Asahi): Two years ago, a 41-year-old male Vietnamese technical trainee was abused by his four Japanese coworkers while working. The act was then discreetly recorded by another Vietnamese trainee, causing a buzz within the public at that time. The result of the case was recently disclosed by the Okayama Prefectural Public Prosecutors Office.
The technical trainee filed a case to the Okayama Prefectural Public Prosecutors Office, claiming that he had been assaulted during the past two years working at the company, in which the four coworkers, all in their 30s, were referred to prosecution on suspicion of causing injuries and other charges. The Prosecutor’s Office, however, announced that the four cannot be prosecuted, due to a lack of information. The indictments were dropped against two for injury, one for injury and violation of the Violent Acts Punishment Law, and one for violation of the Violent Acts Punishment Law.
COMMENT: “A lack of information”!? [Well, in the original Japanese, it just says, “For reasons left unclear.”] Anyway, watch the video above. Yet another example (see the McGowan Case for another) of how even when you have photographic or audio evidence of abusive behavior, the laws are only as good as the people enforcing them. If public prosecutors will not do their job and prosecute, the laws specifically against violent acts mean nothing. Even despite all the promises of reform of Japan’s already abusive, exploitative, and deadly “Trainee” system. In a sense, this poor guy is lucky he didn’t end up laid up in the hospital or worse!
UPDATE: Yahoo News: According to the labor union protecting the Trainee, there was an apology from the construction company and the administering agency, with restitution paid through private settlement.
FURTHER COMMENT: Fine. But this case shows just how much, despite calls for reform for decades, things have NOT progressed. By now, things like this shouldn’t still be happening, in this case violence towards a foreign co-worker for about two years! But official negligence is the norm here. Again, good thing the “Trainee” had the video of the savage treatment that resulted in broken ribs and untold mental damage. But he shouldn’t have had to.
https://www.debito.org/?p=17138
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2) Japan Times on neighborhood sento bathhouse restoration activists: Omits history of how Japan’s already-declining public bath industry hurt itself with “Japanese Only” signs
JT: “Bathhouses are a space where I can ground myself,” says Sam Holden, who first found solace in sentō when he was a graduate student in Tokyo. Holden, who labels himself an urban activist, is a writer, translator and renovation specialist. He founded Sento & Neighborhood together with four associates in 2020 with the idea of “changing historic bathhouses as little as possible but finding a way for them to become sustainable,” Holden explains, hinting at the financial difficulties that many sentō face…
To Holden, visiting bathhouses means exploring the back alleys that embody a deeper layer of Japan’s urban fabric tucked away from busy and anonymous main streets — and one that has been part of Japanese cities for centuries. “Across the street from the bathhouse you have the liquor shop where the grandpas gather, the vegetable grocer and tofu shop and all sorts of local eateries,” Holden says. “Preserving a bathhouse means not only preserving that building, but this neighborhood network.”
COMMENT: I applaud the efforts of these movements to keep neighborhood sento open. However, the writer of this article (and perhaps the activists themselves) neglected to mention an important part of history, where public/private baths have refused entry to foreign and foreign-looking residents and customers. If offering this communal experience is “an important channel of communication between neighbors”, then it’s also important to recognize the fact that sometimes sento and onsen have undermined themselves by putting up “Japanese Only” signs, and not recognized “foreigners” as fellow neighbors. Openness to all members of the community should also be part of their slogans.
Also problematic is that the Japan Times seems to be forgetful of this discriminatory history as an editorial policy, as their archive on recent articles regarding Sento demonstrates. The JT laments the decline of the industry (for example, here) without getting into how some of their decline is their own fault. That’s particularly galling, considering I wrote for The Japan Times for two decades a regular column, in addition to other stringer articles, on this very subject.
Seems the Japan Times doesn’t prioritize this type of issue anymore. So much for reporting “in the public interest”. This is how history gets unlearned and eventually repeats itself. Just wait for the next moral panic blamed on “foreigners”, and communal doors to a public service will shut all over again. Even if it drives the excluder out of business. Talking about preservation without including this issue is in fact counterproductive for the industry.
https://www.debito.org/?p=17132
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3) Migrant Integration Policy Index rates Japan as “Integration Denied”, and “Critically Unfavorable” in terms of Anti-Discrimination measures. And this is for 2019, before Covid shut Japan’s borders.
Migrant Integration Policy Index: “Japan scores 47/100 [Rank: “Integration Denied”], slightly below the average MIPEX country (49/100) because Japanese policies still refuse to recognise that Japan is a country of immigration. This denial leads to contradictory policies that create as many obstacles as opportunities for foreign nationals. Japan’s approach to integration is categorised as “Immigration without Integration”. While Japan is a leader far ahead of the other countries in this category, its policies still deny basic rights and equal opportunities to newcomers. Foreign nationals can find some ways to settle long-term in Japan. However, Japanese policies only go halfway to guarantee them equal opportunities, (e.g., on health and education), while also denying them several basic rights, most notably protections from discrimination.
“Japan needs to invest more on all the three dimensions, especially to guarantee immigrants with the same basic rights as Japanese citizens. The way that governments treat immigrants strongly influences how well immigrants and the public interact and think of each other. Japan’s current policies encourage the public to see immigrants as subordinates and not their neighbours.” […] Japan is one of the only MIPEX countries still without a dedicated anti-discrimination law and body. Japan is the among bottom three countries for anti-discrimination policies, together with other ‘immigration without integration’ countries. Japan’s approach is slightly ahead of poorer Central European countries with equally small and new immigrant populations, but far behind other developed countries…”
COMMENT: It’s as we’ve been saying here on Debito.org for decades: This is what happens when you are the only developed country without a national law against racial discrimination. And this is the MIPEX report as of 2019. I look forward to seeing the next report, where it takes into account Japan’s racist policy of closed borders (even to lawful and Permanent Residents, for a time) due to Covid. I strongly doubt Japan’s numbers will improve.
https://www.debito.org/?p=17123
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4) Ministry of Foreign Affairs sets up “foreign media policing website” where anyone can report to J govt any foreign info “incompatible with our country’s standpoint”. Actually, quite within character.
Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has put up a website that enables anyone to submit to the government “information about any accounts in overseas [media] relating to our country that is based on misunderstandings of the truth/facts (jijitsu), or is incompatible with our country’s standpoint.”
Actually, what MOFA is doing is very much within the Japanese Government (GOJ)’s character. The GOJ is very sensitive to how they are perceived abroad, historically stepping in many times to “correct misperceptions” in foreign media. See here, here, here, here, here, and here, for example. (And it’s a stark contrast to, for example, the Americans, who ignore outright disinformation even when it affects their own citizens abroad.)
Granted, compared to the US’s negligence (even making outright threats against their US citizens for not ignoring racial discrimination in Japan), I’d rather that a government step in to correct public misperceptions when their citizens abroad stand to get hurt. But I’m also suspicious of the GOJ’s motives, as evidenced by the links above, as their “standpoint” towards historical and factual interpretation is riddled with ahistorical revisionism.
Moreover, asking for the public’s participation like this is redolent of the “Snitch Sites” the Immigration Bureau deployed in 2004, so that anyone could anonymously sicc the GOJ on any foreigner they thought could be an “illegal” — much to the delight of all the Zainichi Korean haters out there.
In sum, this “MOFA foreign media policing site” is yet another politically-motivated government-sponsored website that is encouraging online abuse and feeding the trolls.
https://www.debito.org/?p=17115
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… and finally …
5) My SNA Visible Minorities 36: “Abe’s Assassination and the Revenge of History” (July 18, 2022), on how his historical revisionism created a blind spot that ultimately killed him
SNA: The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has occasioned a lot of valuable, eye-opening discussions in the media, but few if any have focused upon how Abe’s death could be seen as a form of karmic payback–what happens when you ignore the lessons of history in the pursuit of raw political power.
The discussions have instead focused on the veneer of Japan’s “safe” society being blown away by a homemade gun; or about how the world’s democracies have been deprived of a Japanese leader comfortable on the international stage (while egregiously overlooking all the damage he did to Japan’s democracy).
A few intrepid journalists (starting with the SNA) have explored the swamp of Abe’s political connections with the “Moonies” religious cult, and how that probably gave motive to the killer.
To me the most absurd debate has been whether Abe’s death was an “assassination” at all –- the Japanese media have uniformly refused to use the corresponding word ansatsu, portraying it as merely a “shooting event” (jugeki jiken).
These important topics have been covered elsewhere by people with more expertise, so this column will take a different tack. It will discuss the role of national narratives in a society, how dishonest national narratives stunt the maturity of societies, and how a willful ignorance of history due to these national narratives circled back to kill Abe…
Read the rest at https://shingetsunewsagency.com/2022/07/18/visible-minorities-abes-assassination-and-the-revenge-of-history/
Anchor site for commentary at https://www.debito.org/?p=17107
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That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading!
DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 22, 2022 ENDS
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91 comments on “DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 22, 2022”
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Hi, probably the article of professor colin jones on japan times titled “Go with the flow: What to do when the Japanese police stop you for questioning” will be discussed here, but it was devastating to read it.
I may agree that there are many aspect of japan judiciary system that compared with western courts can be improved, but the article casually describes a quasi fascist police system.
As the article mentions, this is not really a foreign problem but a whole japan society problem, but i really recommend to read the article to usual readers of professor Debito because it settles the question of what to do when stopped by police.Botton line, there is not really much you can do, civil rights straight to the trash bin.
Following up on my previous comment regarding Kyodo’s word games / misleading gloss, here’s the August installment of their ‘Over 100,000 foreign visitors to Japan’ articles:
Over 100,000 foreign visitors to Japan in July for 4th month in row
Setting aside the fact that this style of headline is quickly becoming meme-worthy (I am thinking of It’s Over 9000! from Dragon Ball Z), the article suffers from bouts of numerical precision and hearsay (e.g. “While Japan reopened its doors to small-scale tours in June, the number of foreign tourists to the country remained low at 7,903 the following month. It is believed the complicated procedures required to visit the nation, such as acquiring a negative coronavirus test result and a visa, are part of the reasons for the low number of tourists.”)
In any case, what the article is trying to say (in a ham-fisted way) is that Japan’s ‘easing’ of travel restrictions hasn’t made a difference: Asahi reports that new data shows the move barely even moved the needle and that travelers are put off by Japan’s remaining entry rules concerning PCR tests and chaperoned travel packages.
So, foreign tourists are just queueing up waiting for these entry rules to go away, right?
Nope! Asahi is reporting that “instead of Japan, travelers who prefer to set their own itineraries are opting for South Korea, Thailand and European countries”.
What’s worse is that “some restaurants and tourist facilities in Japan are refusing to accept foreign guests as an anti-virus measure”.
In summary, “Japan’s approach is a far cry from that of the other G-7 nations”.
That said, it seems that Kyoto’s fears of overtourism / 観光公害 are a bit optimistic:
Kyoto gets ready to welcome back foreign visitors while addressing ‘overtourism’ / 防げ「観光公害」、京都の挑戦 混雑緩和・マナー啓発・コロナ対策… 訪日外国人、地域経済に不可欠
Lucky for them the GoJ is feeling generous: Japan gov’t to extend monetary aid for Ukraine evacuees by 6 months
Just passing says:
Thanks for posting that article, I missed it and yes this topic often comes up on Debito. The last time was about a year and half ago, when we had a poster with very dubious kanji reading skills, stating you should refuse to cooperate with police, when you are stopped for no clear reason. I think we can all agree that Jones has established himself as one of the most credible sources on post 1980s Japan and I hope, when this topic next comes up, Debito will repost a reference to this article.
It is very important for people who intend to reside in Japan, or do reside in Japan, to understand that Japan is not a Liberal Democracy in any sense of the word. It’s China with democratic decorations. Keep this in mind, when interacting, domestically, in any negative way, with Japanese authorities. Japanese, among themselves, know this to be the case. The sooner non-Japanese understand it to be the case, the safer they will be in Japan and the sooner the world outside of Japan wakes up to this fact, Japan will stop getting its ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ cards for basic human rights abuses.
Colin Jones read a book that says you should roll over for law breaking human rights abuses by the J-cops, but it was written in Japanese by a Japanese guy (!), so yeah, that sounds like legit advice/journalism…
Poor Asian Americans have to put up with sooooo much.
https://tinyurl.com/dmyr3n4h
“It’s not as bad as being slashed on the street, but when we are in our own workplace and we see our peers get promoted around us but we never get acknowledged or recognized for our work, it becomes a form of abuse and exploitation,” Lu said. “We shouldn’t have to tolerate it.”
I would trade places anytime, then see how they feel.
— I’m more, “Let them protest it, agitate for improvements. Should be done everywhere there is discrimination.” As long as they don’t deny discrimination elsewhere (or think discrimination against others is “karmic retribution“). It shouldn’t be a competition of comparative denialism and one-upmanship, “more-discriminated-than-thou”. That leads to divide-and-conquer and the status quo wins.
About “Karmic Retribution” there’s a school of thought incertain countries I will not name, that any racism against e.g. westerners, is pay back for the colonial period, and therefore should be given a free pass.
But I am quick to point out, Japan itself was a coloniser, and thus it does not apply….
Perhaps because of survey results like this showing that the ‘easing’ of travel restrictions hasn’t made a difference, starting September 7th, the GoJ will no longer require incoming travelers have been vaccinated three times to show a pre-departure negative COVID-19 test result.
Additionally, according to “sources”, the GoJ will soon let in conductor-less group tours, and raise the daily maximum number of people permitted to enter Japan from 20,000 to 50,000.
The GoJ has granted refugee status to a whopping 133 people who fled Afghanistan, a figure that far exceeds the all-time high of 74 people granted asylum in 2021.
In other news, four Indonesian interns receive letters of appreciation for capturing a monkey that was attacking residents of Yamaguchi city (Japanese reference here).
@ JK, wow 133 people. Indeed, in the human rights field, ” ‘Certainly, Japan is not in the middle age. We are one of the most advanced countries in the field.’
‘Don’t laugh! Why are you laughing? Shut up! Shut up.’
‘We are one of the most advanced country in this field. That is our proud.” (sic(k)).
A joke on the world stage. Way to go, LDP stooges!
It looks like the WHO finally did something about Dr. Takeshi Kasai:
WHO director in Asia accused of racism, abuse put on leave
To shed some light on the dear doctor, he has been accused of:
* Making racist remarks to his staff and blaming the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.”
* Improperly sharing sensitive coronavirus vaccine information to help Japan score political points with its donations.
* Manipulating the internal investigation against him by ordering senior managers to destroy any incriminating documents and instructed IT staff “to monitor emails of all the staff members.”
However, the most revealing part of the article is a remark by an anonymous GoJ official: instead of expressing regret that Kasai’s behavior had undermined the U.N. efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic in Asia, the official hoped that the WHO had conducted a fair investigation!
The perp who tried to burn down the Utoro district of Uji city in Kyoto Prefecture gets sentenced to 4 years in prison, but there’s a wrinkle: the case wasn’t prosecuted as a hate crime (which it was — the defendant even admits as much) due to flaws in Japan’s legal system (Japanese reference here).
The most glaring of these flaws (which will come as no surprise to regular Debito.org readers) is the lack of a law on the books against racial discrimination.
On the subject of Zainichi Koreans and discrimination, it’s hard to have a “multicultural and inclusive society” when a) discrimination is the the status quo and b) the GoJ defends the situation:
Foreign teachers in Japan face discriminatory treatment, glass ceiling at public schools
From the article: A book titled “Koritsu gakko no gaikokuseki kyoin” (Foreign teachers at public schools), published in 2021 by Akashi Shoten, points out that, while the government “relies on foreigners for internationalization and globalization of education as necessary, it makes no effort to squarely face up to the issues involving their professions or treatment.”
@ JK, same old same old Japan
1. Making racist remarks to his staff and blaming the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.”
– Greater East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere revisited, without the fig leaf of equality, imperialism plain and simple.
2. * Improperly sharing sensitive coronavirus vaccine information to help Japan score political points with its donations.
Go Team Japan! And, pesky individual human rights like privacy be damned!
3. instructed IT staff “to monitor emails of all the staff members.”
– As above. Erai hito in his own mind can do what he wants.
4. instead of expressing regret that Kasai’s behavior had undermined the U.N. efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic in Asia, the official hoped that the WHO had conducted a fair investigation!
-Kawaisou Japan, Christ on the cross at the League of Nations. Boo hoo no fair!. Ijiwaru UN.
CHECK.
Drib, drib: the GoJ has raised the daily entry cap on arrivals from 20,000 to 50,000 and also made a few tweaks to the entry requirements (i.e. no longer need a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of departure; no longer have to be accompanied by North Korean-style minders).
However, tourists must still register with licensed Japanese travel agencies before applying for a visa at embassies and consulates, so despite a historically weak yen not seen in over 20 years, the Japan passing continues.
It was just “a prank without bad intentions”.
Japanese language school decertified over abuse of Vietnamese student
From the article: “The staff member at the Nishinihon International Education Institute in the southwestern city of Fukuoka was found to have restrained the student for several hours using a chain and padlock wrapped around his belt.” and “Even after returning to his dormitory, the Vietnamese man was barred from leaving his room. The school employee who restrained the man stood guard outside his room until the next morning to prevent his escape.”
The Supreme Court of Japan has upheld an Osaka High Court ruling from last November ordering the Fuji Corporation (a real estate company) and its chairman to pay damages (1.32 million yen / $9,200) to an ethnic Korean woman over the distribution of documents containing discriminatory expressions equivalent to hate speech:
Top court orders company to pay damages for ‘hate speech’
From the article: “Since 2013, the company has repeatedly distributed to its workers copies of online and magazine articles that insulted and slandered people from South Korea and China. After the woman filed the lawsuit, the company distributed handouts featuring employees’ opinions condemning her legal action.”
What makes this article news worthy is that Fuji Corp. is listed on the prime section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
@JK, the Zainichi Koreans were probably taken advantage of as it was assumed they had nowhere else to go and were treated as third class citizens as an “improvement” of their previous slave labor treatment.
Would be imported workers have no such ties to Japan, and have less of a reason to be here, unless hoodwinked by “training”.
Thus, Japan has a hard time importing enough labor as they still haven’t quite grown out of the “We are doing you a favor by letting you come here” mentality.
Same with English teachers too, to an extent. Only here do they list “sponsoring a visa” as a benefit. What benefit, it is a legal requirement!!
And I‘ve been permanently banned from r/Japan on reddit, for saying that I‘m disabled due to the covid vaccine (I have 6 independent doctors reports to prove it). I‘ve been waiting for this day since forever. I didn‘t even break a single rule and no reason was given as to why I was banned. But since this is reddit, there‘s no way to appeal to higher ups. Oh well, I currently have bigger problems like literally being disabled and not being able to sleep for 48 straights and needing a wheelchair just to go to to toilet while only being 25 years old, but hey. I know for a fact that the r/Japan mod team disliked me for several years due to my leftist, pro immigration and „anti-Japan“ comments. Now they‘ve found a reason to get rid of me for good. Oh and for the morons from reddit who lurk on Debito.org and now think that they know my real name, try again, Niklas isn‘t my real name.
@Baud, while we’re on the subject of Zainichi Koreans battling uphill against hate speech, here’s yet another article covering the topic:
Over 60% of online hate posts against Korean resident of Japan deemed illegal / 在日コリアンへのヘイト投稿300件、6割超に違法性 法務局
Basically, back in 2020, a Zainichi Korean lady asked Kawasaki city to remove 300+ hate speech posts, however the city only thought that 8 merited the attention of their ‘expert panel’. The lady then filed a damages report against human rights violations with the Yokohama District Legal Affairs Bureau. This got most (but not all!) of the posts taken down.
Why the need to involve Yokohama District Legal Affairs Bureau? Bureaucracy. From the article, “the section in charge of carrying out the [Kawasaki city anti-hate] ordinance first determines that requests to delete certain posts should be made and consults the expert panel about the discriminatory posts. Following the panel’s response, the municipal government then files a request to have the posts removed.” Also, the system is “extremely slow, leading to insufficient relief measures for victims.”
Adding salt to the wound, the lady requested Kawasaki city delete the posts before involving the Yokohama District Legal Affairs Bureau, but due to some unknown criteria, most of the posts were deemed OK based on the city’s human rights ordinance!
So, even with a human rights ordinance and an anti-hate ordinance on its books, this was the chain of events and outcome after 2 years.
Following up on my comment last week concerning the Japanese language school that was decertified over abuse of Vietnamese student, it turns out that now some of the roughly 630 international students enrolled are facing the possibility of being unable to renew their visas (Japanese language version here).
This news will come as no surprise to long-time readers of Debito.org, especially those who have been subjected to shokumu shitsumon / 職務質問 / police questioning:
60% of people with foreign roots questioned by Japanese police: survey
Survey: Africans, Latin Americans questioned by police most often
外国ルーツ6割「職質受けた」 見た目理由に 東京弁護士会調査
Japanese language paywall versions above the above articles:
中南米、アフリカ… 「見た目外国人」は職質されやすく 2千人調査
職質受ける割合「高い」 中南米・アフリカなどにルーツ 東京弁護士会
Tokyo Bar Association’s web page concerning the results of the survey:
【報告】2021年度 外国にルーツをもつ人に対する職務質問 (レイシャルプロファイリング) に関するアンケート調査結果について
PDF of the survey:
2021年度外国にルーツをもつ人に対する職務質問(レイシャルプロファイリング)に関するアンケート調査 最終報告書
In other news, Meitetsu (Nagoya Railway) and Aichi prefectural police are now conducting join patrols inside of Mu-Sky trains (i.e. the train that most NJ will take from Chubu International Airport to Nagoya city; start getting prepared for shokumu shitsumon inside the train):
名古屋鉄道と愛知県警が合同パトロール 特急ミュースカイ車内も巡回
Well, this is mighty generous of the GoJ: Japan to extend allowances for evacuees from Ukraine to 1 year.
However, if the experiences of 169 Afghans who fled to Japan last year is any indication, the 1800+ Ukrainian evacuees may be ‘encouraged’ to go elsewhere:
40% of evacuees from Afghanistan have left Japan over poor support.
From the article:
98 applied for and received refugee status.
7 left for the United States and Britain.
6 are still in Japan, but have not applied for refugee status.
But 58 returned to Afghanistan despite the risk of persecution by the Taliban!
‘Poor support’ indeed — thanks Kyodo for more misleading gloss!
Oh what a surprise (sarcasm)
60% of people with foreign roots questioned by Japanese police: survey
September 17, 2022 (Mainichi Japan)
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Around 60 percent of more than 2,000 people with foreign roots surveyed earlier this year by the Tokyo Bar Association have been questioned by Japanese police over the past five years, with encounters more frequent among those of African or Latin American backgrounds, a recently released report showed…
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220917/p2g/00m/0na/020000c
Uh-oh. Sounds like Unit 731 or Nanjing all over again, as in Dr Ishii wanting another “log” for deliberate syphilis infection experiments.
“Bodies”- some staff members “looked down on” foreign detainees by calling them by dehumanizing jargon referring to “bodies” taken under custody.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210518/p2a/00m/0na/030000c
On October 11th, the GoJ is eliminating the entry cap on daily arrivals as well as allowing tourists to travel unchaperoned and visa-free.
The government’s moves are an obvious attempt to shore up an economy devastated by neo-sakoku / ‘Zero-Gaijin’ foreign policy (compare with the PRC’s ‘Zero-COVID’ policy) coupled with record inflation. The GoJ does not care about NJ, but it does care about Keidanren (which sort-of cares about NJ).
So it looks like Japan is finally getting back to ‘normal’, right? Well, not so fast — there are plans afoot to revise the Hotel Business Act to allow lodging operators to refuse entry to guests not wearing masks (Fuji News Network source in Japanese here). Given the timing for the proposed change, it’s plain to see that the move is directed against NJ (i.e. if the GoJ really cared about curbing the spread of COVID, then this law would have been on the books 2 years ago!).
And if you need further convincing that this change is not about COVID but rather the GoJ’s way of exerting its authority over NJ, the government is making mask wearing obligatory for NJ dignitaries attending the state funeral for Abe, yet neither Emperor Naruhito nor Empress Masako saw the need to wear a mask when attending the state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II.
In other news, as if on cue, Kyodo News is again trumpeting the fact that over 9,000 NJ visited Japan in August.
Good on Hokkaido for getting with the times and allowing tenants of various backgrounds such as same-sex couples and single foreign residents to move into prefecture-run public housing in 2023.
Hey! Let’s offend foreigners AND people who suffer from autism AT THE SAME TIME!
https://twitter.com/_shiopan/status/1574308422039789569?s=46&t=tvj-uwaXy4L5Zh-5RQRk-A
@ Jim Di Griz Lol at all the gaijin handlers and other NJ who want to feel superior, accusing the OP of the tweet of “mistranslation” and “not understanding”.
@JDG,
So, the most appropriate ways to deal with an autistic person are:
* to snigger at everything they say
* to speak to them in a fake accent
* to shout random words at them
* to ignore the content of what they say and focus on the fact that they are different
Did I miss anything?
The writers of that book need to take a good hard look at themselves.
The Afghan refugees would rather take their chances with the Taliban;
https://japantoday.com/category/national/update1-40-of-evacuees-from-afghanistan-have-left-japan-over-poor-support
The Ukrainian women would rather go back to a war zone (‘I can’t stand the attitude of Japanese toward foreigners.’);
https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/resettlement-woes-affecting-female-ukrainian-refugees
Mr. Uchida is right:
Translation: Japan is clueless about attracting superior talent from overseas. Looking at the Technical Intern Training Program and problems with the Immigration Bureau, the welcome message to foreigners is completely nonexistent, which is dangerous.
「外国人を歓迎するメッセージなく、危機的」内田樹さん、香川で講演
@Jim Di Griz
Wow, I gave it a couple of days expecting that twitter post to be removed, but I guess not. One would think someone would point out her misuse of the word barbaric, I have to assume the word was misused? It’s a well-meaning post, otherwise.
The producer of the street performance world cup that is about to be held in early November in Shizuoka has provided material at a briefing for local volunteers where he gave a cringe worthy definition of what a Japanese is supposed to be, putting strong emphasis on bloodline and genetics.
Survey of Police Harassment Of Foreign Looking People For the crime of looking like a N.J.
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h01450/
Most asked questions: 1. Where are you going?
2: What are you doing?
3. Where do you live?
Most often stopped location:
1. On the street.
2. Walking
Following up on my follow-up regarding the Japanese language school that was decertified over abuse of Vietnamese student, the school is fighting back against against the Immigration Services Agency’s decision: Japan court halts decertification of language school over student abuse
@Jaocnanoni, thankfully, the producer (Akihito Okuno / 奥野晃士) has been fired for this:
Japanese street event producer sacked over xenophobic remarks / 外国人差別発言でプロデューサーを解任 大道芸W杯、会見で謝罪
外国人差別発言で大道芸W杯プロデューサーを解任 実行委員長も辞任
Additional background here:
Japanese stage actor slammed for circulating xenophobic document for int’l event / 大道芸W杯プロデューサー、講習会で外国人差別と取れる資料配布
It’s more of the same for both the Technical Intern Training Program and the Organization for Technical Intern Training (i.e. the entity in charge of watching over the intern program):
‘Get out of the dorm’: Cold treatment of Vietnamese intern in Japan reveals support woes / 窓口を頼っても「交番に行け」 技能実習生に寄り添わぬ支援制度
From the article: “Amid fears of more interns leaving the country, alongside a labor shortage and weak yen, it seems it is Japanese society, not the trainees, that should be putting in effort to avoid being abandoned.”
In other news, ‘Kill Koreans Group’ racist graffiti was found in Tokyo’s Akabane Station (Japanese language version here).
Following up on my comment regarding the GoJ empowering lodging operators to legally refuse entry to NJ guests who don’t fall in line with mask wearing and temperature taking, the revision to the Hotel Business Act is moving right along:
Japan to allow hotels to refuse guests shunning infection prevention measures / 旅館業法改正案を閣議決定 感染対策応じない客の宿泊拒否可能に
When the Prime Minister of Japan goes to watch an F1 race without wearing a mask, that’s OK — he’s not shunning infection prevention measures. Rather, he’s appealing for the easing of these measures!:
首相、マスク外しF1視察 水際対策緩和をアピール
I can hardly wait to try out that logic when refused check-in by hotel staff:
Japan to allow hotels to refuse guests shunning infection prevention measures
Oh, wait, nevermind…I just realized I’m not an erai hito / VIP.
A Japanese person I knew said when stopped while out cycling late, she would just “act dumb and cute” to the police. 1. Where are you going?
“(name of current area)”
2: What are you doing?
“Cycling to that place mentioned above”
3. Where do you live?
“Here”
But Debito recalled how when stopped at Narita outside immigration he asked the police to ask Japanese passers by the same questions, but they were soon dismissed brusquely so lets take a leaf out of their book
“Where are you going?”–> “To my job at Famous Corp name”
“What are you doing?” —-> “Going to work. And I am late. Can I go?”
Not advocating saying this in an aggressive or angry way, rather deadpan or as advised, in a slightly dumb/harmless/cutesy way.
The “May I go?” phrase has been advised here before, once it has been established this is in fact not “Shokumu Shitsumon”
Gunma prefecture’s governor states the obvious: Japan needs NJ
Gunma governor defends decision to scrap ‘nationality’ criteria for prefecture staff / 県職員「国籍」撤廃に批判 知事が反論「共生を」 /群馬
From the article: “The prefectural economy itself would not function without foreign nationals in fields such as construction, tourism, services, and elderly care” and “We have no choice but to coexist (with foreign nationals) in a sound manner.”
In other news, Shiga Prefectural Police are in desperate need of NJ interpreters, so maybe the governor of Shiga will be the next one to get a clue:
Vietnamese speakers wanted: Japan police seeking interpreters amid growing demand / ベトナム語通訳官が足りない! 在留急増 滋賀県警、協力者求む
This story is reminiscent of the Vietnamese technical trainee (also in Kumamoto) who was convicted of dumping the bodies of her stillborn twins at her home:
Filipino trainee in Japan to seek damages for ‘maternity harassment’
From the article: “The woman claims that at the end of May 2021, she was forced to sign a document agreeing to return to the Philippines. She also claims she was forced to express her intention of quitting the job when leaving Japan at the end of August that year, even though she had hoped to return upon taking maternity leave and giving birth in her country.”
Here’s yet another area where the GoJ needs to improve w/r/t its treatment of NJ:
EDITORIAL: Same-sex couples of Japanese and foreigners need equality in Japan
With the demise of Japan’s North Korean-esque border control measures, the last remaining hurdle that international tourists are required to clear in order to enter the country is to provide proof of either three vaccine shots or a negative result from a PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure sources here and here).
However, what isn’t being mentioned is ‘MySOS‘. What is the government doing with the information collected via MySOS Web / the MySOS app?
For comparison, smartphone location data is being used by the Kyoto Municipal Government and the Kyoto City Tourism Association to provide crowding forecasts for popular tourist areas in order to prevent ‘overtourism’.
@JK, yeah, there’s definitely something bonkers about Kishida gallivanting around without a mask, and encouraging people to ‘adopt global standards’ by reducing mask usage whilst at the same time introducing a discriminatory policy AS LAW to address what is (relatively) a short-term issue of NJ tourists wearing them 2 and a half years into pandemic.
Following-up on my previous comment regarding same-sex J and NJ couples, the plaintiff (Andrew High) is appealing the verdict:
US man married to Japanese partner appeals to Tokyo court over denial of long-stay visa / 米国で日本人と同性婚の米国人男性 中長期の在留資格認められず控訴
On a related note, a same-sex couple from Tanzania which fled to Japan in order to seek protection as refugees has had their application rejected by Immigration Services Agency stating that it “cannot recognize the credibility” regarding their claims on threats to their physical safety due to persecution (this despite the fact that Tanzania criminalizes same-sex sexual activity):
Same-sex couple from Tanzania seek asylum in Japan to escape life imprisonment fears / 「愛する自由を」同性愛に終身刑も タンザニア人カップルが難民申請
Following-up on my previous comment regarding racist ‘Kill Koreans Group’ graffiti in JR Akabane Station, members of the Japan Network towards Human Rights Legislation for Non-Japanese Nationals & Ethnic Minorities and others have submitted a written request to the Justice Ministry Human Rights Bureau asking the government to take concrete measures to stop hate crimes against Zainichi Korean residents of Japan:
Lawyers, academics urge Japan gov’t to act on hate crimes against Koreans / 在日朝鮮人へのヘイトクライム撲滅へ 具体的対応を法務省に要請
In response, an official at the ministry’s Human Rights Bureau commented, “All hate speech, including that targeting Korean schools, should not be tolerated. Specific measures are under consideration.”
Well, specific measures like what?
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