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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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@JK
“under consideration” means “being joked about over lunch”.
“All hate speech, including that targeting Korean schools, should not be tolerated”
Should not but it is?
Should but not must?
Just an advisory?
What does it say in Japanese?
I fear this is the government mindset. Mooted changes never carried through for fear of offending that grumpy old racist guy in the corner, because he is the noisiest.
Well I didn’t expect that. NHK World actually does a news report on racial profiling and directly films and quotes visible minorities (usually when things like these come up on NHK, we get a panel of Wajin discussing this, without any input from visible minorities):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtLI6gte48Y
Small steps I guess.
Well, this is an interesting twist of fate for the Taylors:
“An American father and son convicted in Japan on charges of helping Nissan former Chairman Carlos Ghosn escape to Lebanon, hiding in a box, have been returned to the U.S., their lawyer said Tuesday.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons online site lists Michael Taylor as at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles and set for release Jan. 1, 2023.
Paul V. Kelly, the lawyer for the Taylors, said by email that he was in talks with parole officials about an earlier release. Peter Taylor has already been released, and is back with his family in Massachusetts, said Kelly, whose office is based in Boston.
The Japanese Justice Ministry declined comment. Nissan had no comment”.
References:
Americans convicted in Japan on Ghosn’s escape return home
ゴーン被告を国外に逃亡させ実刑判決の親子を米国に移送 「国際受刑者移送制度」で(2022年11月7日)
日産元会長ゴーン被告の逃亡を手助けしたとして収監中だった元グリーンベレーと息子を米国に移送
Well, it’s great that Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, had a 3-day meeting with Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi regarding the refugee situation in Japan.
But since Hanashi got fired shortly after this visit for his “low-profile” comment, I am not expecting much in the way of progress on this issue.
On a related note, I agree with Filippo’s statement that “much more must be done, in my opinion, for Japan to become a truly welcoming country for refugees”.
But more than “better laws, better practices, better systems” and “better coordination between government departments”, I would argue that the one thing Japan needs to do all above all else for refugees is to give them refugee status in the country instead of a “designated activities” visa.
There’s something else that Filippo said which irked me: commenting about Japan’s recognizing ‘record’ number of 74 refugees in 2021 and how Japan needs to do better as a G7 country, he said “I’m not talking huge numbers, but I am talking more than 60 refugees per year”.
Well, here’s my question: why not talk huge numbers?
Oh man, what a joke! NPA has found 6 cases of inappropriate questioning based on race in 2021. I think everyone here knows that this is a huge joke and that the real number is much higher.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20221117/p2a/00m/0na/004000c
Only 6 case?!:
Japan police racial profiling probe finds 6 cases of inappropriate questioning in 2021 / 「ハーフですか」 不適切な職務質問、21年に6件 警察庁
Some of the questions:
“It’s rare for a foreigner to be driving a car.”
「外国人が車を運転しているのは珍しい」
“I approached you because there was a case where a stylish person with dreadlocks had drugs.”
「ドレッドヘアでおしゃれな方が薬物を持っていたことがあるので声をかけた」
“Are you hafu?”
「ハーフですか」
“What is your nationality?”
「何人（なにじん）ですか」
“You’ve got sharp facial features, so I mistook you for someone from overseas or a biracial person.”
「目鼻立ちがはっきりしていて、海外からの方やハーフの方なのかと間違えた」
More fails for the foreign technical intern program:
Skilled foreign workers flocking to urban centers for higher pay
From the article: “The system for specified skilled workers gives too little consideration to small and midsized companies in outlying regions suffering from the most severe manpower shortages. It feels like local regions are being used as a stepping stone.”
Vietnamese trainees call out unpaid illegal overtime at Japan firm
From the article: “A group of Vietnamese technical interns whose former employer failed to pay them a total of 27 million yen ($194,000) for overtime held a press conference Wednesday to expose the illegally long hours they were made to work and call for the money to be handed over.”
Now for some more positive news:
Kobe ramen chain head nabbed on suspicion of forcing foreign students to work illegal hrs / ラーメン店「もっこす」社長を逮捕 留学生らに不法就労の疑い 兵庫
Nepali convenience store worker’s fluent Japanese scares away scammer targeting customer / ネパール人店員がニセ電話詐欺撃退 流ちょうな日本語で“息子”に
Japan to accept int’l cruises after 2-yr ban due to pandemic / Foreign cruise ships to resume Japan port calls from spring 2023
Yet another GoJ fail:
“Who talks about Cool Japan now? Korean culture took it over. I heard that we are even struggling to sell Japanese anime overseas.”
Cool Japan Fund teeters on its last legs after losing 30 billion yen
In response to the recent spate of North Korean missile launches, the Twitterverse went into overdrive. But the haters weren’t limited to social media — in real life, students at Korean schools ended up on the receiving end of physical violence and verbal intimidation. Things apparently got so bad that students at these schools were afraid to wear traditional Korean uniforms outside of their schools.
As a result, the Japan Network toward Human Rights Legislation for Non-Japanese Nationals and Ethnic Minorities paid a visit to the Justice Ministry asking for the GoJ to take action.
How did the GoJ respond? With a Tweet!: “Posting and scribbling abusive and slanderous comments against other ethnic groups and foreign nationals or harassing them could constitute infringements of human rights.”
Oh, and Justice Ministry will also “make strenuous efforts to organize awareness-raising activities and continue human rights counseling services provided at the legal affairs bureaus nationwide.”
So I am sure things will be different for these students the next time Kim Jong Un decides to throw a fireworks party for his daughter.
Students at Korean schools harassed over missile launches
Progress, I suppose?:
Japan sets up panel to review foreign trainee program
I don’t expect the expert panel will bother to include any input from actual technical interns, but maybe they could at least read-up on the subject?:
Ex-labor boss in Japan pens book, aims to end rights violations against foreign trainees / 関心持って相談相手に 外国人実習生支援者が書籍 人権侵害根絶へ提言 ／愛知
The author even offers advice about how the GoJ can fix the program:
“Even when an injustice has happened, most of these trainees don’t have anyone to turn to and have no direct way to raise their voices. They should have an easy way to report wrongdoing. That would be a shortcut to end the violation of their rights.”
In related news, Wacoal (a Japan-based lingerie maker) is doing more to help the plight technical intern than the GoJ — after the sewing company they worked for filed for bankruptcy, Wacoal covered the unpaid overtime wages of 11 Vietnamese technical intern trainees to the tune of 27 million yen ($191,000):
Wacoal to pay foreign trainees’ unpaid OT from former employer
Despite the GoJ adding elderly care work to the list of available jobs in the foreign technical intern training program back in 2017, there hasn’t much interest (purportedly due to ‘language and cultural differences’).
So what to do? Simple, add a new backdoor!:
Japan care center internship for foreign students a win-win amid worker shortage / 介護施設にインドネシア人インターン生 短期雇用で双方にメリット
From the article: “The internship allows students to learn about elderly care in Japan, as well as Japanese. Since it’s short-term employment, the businesses that accept interns can have a better idea about the challenges of hiring foreign trainees, and it’s a very efficient system.”
Using students as labor (i.e. instead of technical interns) seems to be the latest way Japan is dealing with its chronic labor shortage. For example, according to this article, “foreign students with part-time jobs have become essential at workplaces nationwide. They account for 20 percent of all non-Japanese workers in the country.”
Switching gears to some positive news:
Japanese police thank Vietnamese man for rescuing senior stuck in swamp / 感謝状はベトナム語、人命救助の男性に 滋賀県警「故郷で飾って」
— Thanks for really holding up the fort this Fall Semester, JK. All of my energies have been devoted to a full-time roster of university classes, four of them brand-new. It’s been my busiest semester ever. So thank you!
@ JK, “Are you hafu?”「ハーフですか」“What is your nationality?”「何人（なにじん）ですか」 These are particularly grating and no one in their right mind would ask this unless they’re being abusive, the second one literally, “What are you?”
As for Abe and Aso’s Cool Japan, this was always outdated, wishful thinking for a past Japan (the 80s, the glory decade) that these two Oyaji were perennially stuck in. While the reasons for its failure are multiple and complex, the lack of state support for true innovation is probably one, and the lack of foreign participation being the other old chestnut which hasn’t changed at all.
They envy K pop because that also appears to be a xenophobic ethno-state that has managed to nevertheless sell its stuff to the west. It is probably just a matter of fads, and with more of the same coming out of Japan, fickle global youth just moved on to the next “flavor”.
I was talking with Debito about possibly writing a piece about Rina Sawayama, a Japanese who has finally achieved that wet dream of Japanese pop fans; make it in the west. Without going into too much detail, her case is rich in ironies, such as her growing up in Britain yet refusing to take British nationality and then complaining that she isn’t honored in the Brit Awards while ignoring the irony that it is Japan to blame by not allowing dual nationality.
However she did speak out against intolerant Japanese government policy towards same sex marriage (she identifies as bisexual) at a Japanese festival in Japanese no less, and here lies the rub. This is exactly the kind of cultural overseas success of a “Japanese” that is never going to get any official Japanese support. It’s too “gaijin style”.
— Very interesting. Please write this up as a guest essay! Thanks.
The reason „cool Japan“ failed in my opinion is because the politicians and company executives who are responsible for the „cool Japan“ fund, are all old oyajis who haven‘t got a clue about what to do with creative content. Japan has undoubtedly some great creative minds when it comes to video games, anime and music, but they‘re all being controlled by those oyaji executives. These executives refused to sell anime to streaming services (because it would impact blue ray sales), even though streaming was the next big thing. They refused to make music available on spotify, because it would impact CD sales. Koreans on the other hand invested heavily into streaming and quickly saw the success. A lot of Kpop artists also sing in English and hire western producers for certain songs in order to make them more international. Not in Japan though, if a song or anime is popular in Japan, it‘s good enough for the executives. They don‘t want to risk things and make it popular in the west, even if there‘s a lot of opportunity for growth. Korean dramas are all over Netflix and Korean music is all over spotify, while Japanese dramas are non existing outside of Japan and Japanese music only became available the last 2-3 years through spotify. Anime is getting more popular in the west, but it‘s mostly still considered as a hobby for nerdy men, not something you would watch with the whole family. The only mainstream Japanese thing out there currently are video games, but the „cool Japan“ fund doesn‘t even apply to them, so no wonder „cool Japan“ failed. Korea noticed trends in the west on time and adapted to them, Japan meanwhile wants to be successful by doing everything the „Japanese way“ which has obviously failed for the past 30 years and continues to fail. We can nicely connect this sentiment to immigration too. Japan tries to do immigration the „Japanese way“ (through the „intern trainee“ program) and fails to notice that other countries provide much better human rights for their immigrants and actually offers their immigrants a real working visa, instead of a limited 5 year fake visa. You can‘t have major international success, without adapting to international standards and trends. Japan has a lot to learn from Korea, I doubt that they‘ll try to learn though.
@Baud, interesting points, but with regard to K-pop’s international success, it’s more than just the latest ‘fad’.
As Julian Cope wrote in his excellent book about post-war Japanese rock (titled; Japrocksampler), he describes how the Japanese music industry was co-opted by socially ‘safe’ business institutions with a vested interest in ‘breaking’ any rebellious spirit in Japanese youth, ultimately leading to a bland musical landscape of manufactured bands playing mind-numbing elevator muzak after the freedom of youth expression of the 690s and 70s
It’s a pattern we can see replicated in many facets of modern post-bubble era Japan; a society that’s somewhere between a kindergarten and Disneyland run by the KGB, with the overwhelming goal of infantilizing the populace and enforcing social conformity.
In a way, we can see the same thing happening in pop in China and Vietnam.
ROK, by contrast, rather than prioritizing the wants of the domestic music industry by stubbornly attempting cultural protectionism, decided that it’s iteration of ‘cool Korea’ would be more successful internationally if they accepted the fruits of diversity (however sincerely or not), with the result that in comparison to Japanese pop/rock, Korean music seems (to international audiences) more sophisticated and grown up, not childishly ‘cute’ but sexually empowered and grown-up, and far more ‘modern’ sounding than what’s coming out of Japan. 10 years ago Girls Generation was putting out pumping dance tracks that you could hear in a club (in English!) whilst Japan was making still making music that sounds like the soundtrack to a Saturday morning cartoon.
Japanese rock/pop (like other art forms; Noh, Kyogen, Kabuki), and indeed, like all forms of Japanese industry and the political class (!) has found a form that works, ossified and resisted all and any change, then found itself left behind and not fit for purpose.
Proof of this is that Sawamura is a successful music artist outside of Japan BECAUSE she didn’t grow up in Japan, and isn’t a product, nor part, of the Japanese music industry.
As for Sawamura, I’m surprised to can’t see it; support for same-sex marriage rights, blind to Japan’s nationality policy and assuming the role of victim vis a vis the ‘discriminatory’ UK- she’s only interested in human rights *for herself*. What’s yours is hers, what’s hers is hers too.
@Baud,
I notice that K-pop band Blackpink just played a concert at the 02 Arena in London to a crowd of 20,000. Additionally, they are set to headline an outdoor K-pop festival in London’s Hyde Park next summer.
I haven’t seen Sawayama do that. I haven’t seen any J-pop festivals in London.
I’ll tell you what I did see; Sawayama on CNN this week in their documentary about successful Japanese women, where Sawayama talks about her (ultimately successful) struggle to force a UK music awards organization to change its rules because her music is so British. And no one thought to ask her why she didn’t ask Japan to address the nationality issue, or just become British herself (obviously, a great ‘win’ for Japanese women if she did).
Telling that this guy’s one complaint about Japan is its racial profiling: Nepalese man shares joys, woes of life in Japan at speech contest
In other news, it looks like ‘MySOS’ has bit the dust: Traveling to Japan soon? New entry requirements you need to know about
From the article: “Prior to Nov 1, visitors were required to enter personal details such as vaccination status into an app called MySOS, but that requirement was abolished, and has now been replaced with Visit Japan Web, a website designed to smooth out the immigration process”.
Finally, I learned something new — apparently Japan only has extradition treaties with the United States and South Korea: 3 British men held over 2015 jewelry store robbery in Tokyo
The perp who tried to burn down an international school in Ibaraki city back in April (Korea International School) is sentenced to jail, but here’s the rub: he was sentenced, not for committing a hate crime, or even for attempted arson, but rather for trespassing and damaging a building!
Man gets suspended term for damaging Korean int’l school in Osaka
辻元清美氏「ヘイト許さず言論で戦う」 コリア国際学園・有罪判決
コリア国際学園に侵入し、床を焼損 被告に有罪判決 大阪地裁
From the first article: “Presiding Judge Masashi Kajikawa said the defendant had developed one-sided hatred for a particular religion, ethnicity, and political group based on social media posts…but Kajikawa did not say the defendant had committed a hate crime and made no reference to discrimination, saying instead that he “conducted a self-righteous crime based on a warped sense of justice.””
Oh, and for good measure, the perp also broke into the office of Kiyomi Tsujimoto (a Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker) in March, plus a Soka Gakkai facility in May.
A warped sense of justice indeed!
Following-up on my comment about the Vietnamese trainee sentenced for abandoning her stillborn twins, it looks like her case is going to the Supreme Court for review (Japanese language version of this article courtesy of Mainichi here).
Following-up on my comment about Sanseito (i.e. the political party that, among other things, opposes immigration and suffrage for foreign residents), apparently they’re gotten so popular that they’re short-staffed. From the article:
“At an Oct. 26 news conference at the Diet building, Kamiya announced longer-term plans to field 494 candidates in local elections to be held by the end of September 2023. As of Oct. 31, 19 local assembly members around the country belonged to Sanseito. The party aims to increase support in the local polls and gain momentum for future national elections. But its rapidly growing popularity is actually posing a problem. Kamiya said the party has received documents from more than 100 potential candidates seeking Sanseito’s endorsement in the local elections. However, the party does not have enough personnel to process all the requests. “We are short-handed. Just gathering people won’t work,” Kamiya told staff members during a meeting before the news conference. “We only have four candidates,” he continued. “We will determine the remaining 490 candidates soon.””
Populist Sanseito party rising through rhetoric seen on YouTube
Now for some positive news: a Filipino national living in Fukuoka since 1995 was thanked by local police for protecting a 2-year-old boy who was found wandering the streets in the middle of the night.
2 thanked by Japanese police for protecting lost 2-yr-old on nighttime street / 真夜中にパジャマ姿の男の子…連係プレーで迷子保護 2人に感謝状
Kojimachi Junior High School (located in Chiyoda-ku) has a ‘no rules’ policy (e.g. no-homework, no-exams) that got started thanks to a student with blond hair.
From the article:
The article doesn’t delve into the student’s ancestry, however, in this case it’s safe to assume that the student is of NJ decent (i.e. is it reasonable to assume the opposite, namely that the student is a wajin with naturally black hair who is dying their hair blond??).
Making this assumption, what’s telling is the “we can pretend to be fooled” comment by school principal Kumo — in essence, he is calling the student and the parents liars, but decides to take a ‘no harm, no foul’ attitude toward the hair dying matter.
Even more telling is Kudo’s response to the teachers. From the article:
‘A problem in terms of human rights’ — this is certainly a nice-sounding alternative to ‘a problem in terms of racial discrimination‘!
So Kudo does the right thing, but for the wrong reasons — progress I guess?
References for my comment:
Japan school principal shares behind-the-scenes look at radical ‘no rules’ policy / 金髪の転校生が来た→校則撤廃！ 工藤勇一校長の学校改革秘話
I agree, but with a tweak — diplomatic issues are not reasons to racially discriminate against children.
‘Zainichi’ Koreans demanding Japan end discriminatory policy in Kyoto rallies / 「朝鮮学校の無償化を」 京都の抗議活動、5年で150回に
‘Human rights violations’ — this phrase is quickly becoming the new euphemism for ‘racism’.
No, it’s racial discrimination — ‘foreigner discrimination’ is another expression that grates on my nerves and here’s why: let’s assume Nga naturalizes, leaves the sewing company and goes to work somewhere else — she would technically no longer face ‘foreigner discrimination’, but she could potentially still encounter situations at the new company whereby she is treated differently from her Japanese co-workers (e.g. maybe her Japanese language skills aren’t so great, so she ends up getting stuck performing menial work — is she now a victim of ‘language proficiency discrimination’?).
When the disenfranchised do not call out racial discrimination as such, or call it by some other name, it is counterproductive toward their plight.
When the enfranchised so the same, it is disingenuous.
Reference: Gov’t panel reviewing Japan foreign trainee program holds 1st meeting
Spoiler alert: not very.
Afghans in Japan who fled Taliban rule need more assistance: supporters / 日本に退避したアフガン難民 かなわぬ帰郷 支援拡充求める声も
Following-up on my comment regarding only 6 cases of inappropriate police questioning in 2021, you’ll be shocked to learn that police-related racial profiling, discrimination in Japan is far more serious than was reported (Link to Japanese language article here).
Two things surprise me: a) that the GoJ actually conducted a survey, and b) that the figure isn’t higher:
Quarter of trainees in Japan told to return home if pregnant: survey
Nameless ‘African man’ who sued the GoJ for $34,000 for unconstitutional deportation wins his suit, but is only awarded a pittance of $230!
Bangladeshi man sues Japan gov’t over knee injury sustained at immigration facility / 「大村入管で重傷」一時歩行困難に 元収容者が国を損賠提訴
Correction: links to the post regarding ‘African man’ are are below:
Court rules Japan immigration attempt to abruptly deport man was unconstitutional / アフリカ系男性の強制送還、入管対応は「違憲」 2例目 東京地裁
The case of nameless ‘Bangladeshi man’ per the links in my previous comment are yet another GoJ fail.
“Your entry visa will be revoked if your husband was arrested.”
「夫が逮捕されたら入国ビザが取り消しになる」
“You should go back to your own country.”
「国に帰ればいい」
More of the same abusive comments from J-cops directed toward a long-term NJ resident, right?
Well, no, actually this time it was city hall! (Japanese language link here)
The government’s response?
“It concerns personal information, and we cannot provide any responses.”
「個人情報に関わることであり、何も答えられない」
Well, isn’t that a convenient excuse!
Following-up on my previous comment regarding Afghan refugees who decided to take their chances with the Taliban rather than deal with the GoJ, here’s an update on how these individuals were ‘encouraged’ to ‘go home’ instead of settling in Japan:
Local embassy staff who fled Taliban pressed to ‘return home’
From the article:
“Your life in Japan will be hellish.”
“You can’t get a job here unless you speak Japanese.”
“You’d better go back to your country.”
So the GoJ grants refugee status to the Afghans (and can claim that it’s doing its part as a member of the G7), but then turns around and bullies said refugees out the door!
“We kept working for Japan even when we almost died in an explosion near the embassy. The Japanese government could have helped us more.”
Yes, but if the GoJ did, you might have settled in Japan!
Following-up on my previous comment regarding verbal abuse at the hands of Anjo City Hall, the Mayor apologized, but framed the apology as a communications issue: “Our intention was not fully communicated, and it caused misunderstanding.”
Along these lines, the woman’s situation is being treated, not as a case of racial discrimination, but rather as a potential human rights issue — if the Aichi Bar Association deems an investigation is necessary, it will look into whether there was human rights violation.
Brazilian woman seeks human rights relief in Japan after welfare application snubbed / 生活保護巡り虚偽説明や差別的発言 日系人が人権救済申し立て
日系ブラジル人女性、人権救済申し立て 生活保護申請の一時拒否問題
Blaming the interpreter didn’t work, so Anjo City officials had to go back to the drawing board:
The result?
In other words, downplay the incident and let those responsible off the hook!
Central Japan city apologizes for mishandling long-term resident’s welfare application / 「ホームレスは生活保護で助けられない」 家賃滞納理由に申請拒否
「国に帰ればいい」不適切発言、安城市が一転謝罪 生活保護申請のブラジル人女性に (Japanese language paywall version)
「外国人ホームレス助けられない」と不適切発言 生活保護申請者に (Japanese language paywall version)
Looks like J-Inc. is starting to pivot from exploiting Vietnamese to exploiting Indonesians: FOCUS: More Indonesians in Japan’s foreign trainee program amid weak yen
Re; the point I was making about Sawayama only being able to make and market her music successfully BECAUSE she is in the UK and not Japan- here’s another;
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2023/01/14/music/superorganism-world-wide-pop/
But notice that Noguchi grew up and lives in London, and ‘hated’ Japan because people are so ‘stiff’.
Yet, despite having never lived in Japan, her passport situation due to age (which she keeps a closely guarded secret, surprise) means that Japan is her ‘home crowd’ and she is ‘claimed’ as ‘Japanese’.
She’s doing that tennis player thing about passports and tax liabilities and visa status? Very ‘patriotic’.
Looks like the the GoJ is dusting off its revision to the immigration law (i.e. the one that it put on hold back in 2021 due to the fallout from the death of Wishma Sandamali): Japan’s immigration law revision to retain controversial proposal
Follow-up to my comment regarding how one in four foreign are interns told to quit if pregnant, here’s an additional reference courtesy of Asahi Shimbun.
In other news, sluggers Alex Ramirez and Randy Bass will be inducted into Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame.
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