Japan Times article on the Valentine Case, which came out August 14, 2007: Japan Times column 37: “ABUSE, RACISM, LOST EVIDENCE DENY JUSTICE IN VALENTINE CASE: Nigerian’s ordeal shows that different standards apply for foreigners in court”. Plus news on new JT column 38, coming out next week Tuesday.
これは物的証拠がなくても拘留して迅速な裁判にしてもらう権利を問う事件です。
Excellent essay on the entertainment industry: “In the movie business, there are several ways to spot a lie. Some involve math: For instance, the sentence ”The movie was great — it was just marketed badly,” which is said every hour in Hollywood, is true exactly 3 percent of the time, whereas ”The movie was bad — it was just marketed really well,” which is almost never said, is true 97 percent of the time. Some lies are formulaic: Anybody in movies who starts a sentence ”At the end of the day…” is clearly revving up the manure spreader. But there’s an even more common lie. The sentence ”We’re just giving the people what they want,” when uttered by a studio executive, is always, always untrue. How can you tell? Easy: There’s no such thing as ”the people.” Not anymore…”
Solidarity with Migrants Japan (SMJ, Ijuuren) has just published a book, “Living Together with Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Japan: NGO Policy Proposals”. Table of contents, ISBN, and links enclosed.
NGO移住労働者と連帯する全国ネットワークは０６年に出版した『外国籍住民との共生にむけて−−ＮＧＯからの政策提言』の英訳版を出版しました。目次と注文する明細を。
I listened last night to yet another excellent essay from Garrett DeOrio on HR 121 (the “Comfort Women” Resolution), and why its passage by the US House of Representatives is not a bad thing. What I didn’t know was all the “nicely, nicely” that went into it, and even then the Japan Lobby in Washington came down on it hard. But in his view this “meddling” just made matters worse…
1) HIROSHIMA PEACE FOUNDATION STEVEN LEEPER’S ODD VIEWS ON NJ IN JAPAN
2) JAPAN TIMES SERIES ON DIVORCE AND CHILD ABDUCTION IN JAPAN
3) ECONOMIST’S SOPHOMORIC ARTICLE ON J FUTURE DEMOGRAPHICS
4) KYODO AND YOMIURI ON JAPAN’S NEGLIGENCE EDUCATING NJ CHILDREN
5) UCLA BASKEBALL PLAYER NATURALIZES… SO DOES BOBBY OLOGUN
6) WHILE DPRK REFUGEES REMAIN STATELESS DESPITE FUJIMORI PRECEDENT
7) SPEECH ON UNIVERSITY BLACKLIST AT TOUDAI, PLUS NEW ADDITIONS
and finally…
8) TPR INTERVIEW RE NJ LABOR MARKET… AND MY LOVE OF DURAN DURAN
Normally I would proclaim “congratulations” at the momentous appointment of a non-Japanese to be director of an important Japanese institution–particularly when said institution is tasked with an issue the GOJ brings up constantly in its untiring quest for uniqueness in the world stage (“the only country in history ever to be bombed by nuclear weapons”). But Steven Leeper, the newly-appointed director of the Hiroshima Peace and Culture Foundation, is proving to be a historical curator with an odd attitude not only towards history, but also towards non-Japanese in Japan (a category he still falls into, of course)…
Michael Hassett writes about divorce in Japan for The Japan Times, and tells me in advance that Debito.org in part inspired the article. Two more articles come out from Mark Smith and Colin Jones on the same subject the same day. Capital!
In this Trans Pacific Radio interview Debito and Ken Worsley discuss the foreign labor market in Japan – where it’s united, where it’s fractious, and where it still needs help – as well as what is being done to improve conditions and opportunities for foreign workers, and what needs to be done in the future. This is an important issue that relates to Japan’s economic future, and immigration policy (or reform) still seems untouchable within the nation’s political discourse. Why is this so? But the interview opens with Debito trying to convince you why rock band Duran Duran is worth being taken seriously…
The Blacklist of Japanese Universities gets Kyushu University, Shokei Gakuin U, and Kansai Gaidai, now totalling 105 universities which offers full-time contracted work with no hope of tenure to Non-Japanese academics. Greenlisted 34 get Nagoya University and Aichi University of Education (although they still refrain from a tenure review system, so they also remain on the Blacklist).
I briefly blogged last week that I was visiting San’ya, Tokyo’s day-laborer and homeless district, and was asked to write up a brief describing the dynamic, the conditions, and the odd infighting that comes with this odd slum. I make no case that my narrative is properly informed, empathetic, or representative. It’s just an eyewitness account from someone who stayed one night in the comfort of a dive hotel, with proper access to food and basic amenities. Those who wish to know more, links enclosed.
Hi Blog. Some articles substantiating the emerging issue of what happens when you don’t make compulsory education a requirement for non-Japanese children. How nice of Japan to bring NJ laborers all the way over here but not take care of their children’s educational needs. Thanks for forgetting to include that in your educational reforms last …
「日本語知らぬ」２２０００人 公立小中高校の外国人 過去最多 九州・山口は４２３人 8月1日10時7分配信 西日本新聞 http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20070801-00000009-nnp-soci Courtesy of Matt Dioguardi 九州・山口の公立小中高校に在籍し、日本語の指 導が必要な外国人児童生徒が昨年９月現在で計４２ ３人に上り、４分の１の１０５人は指導自体を受け ていないことが３１日、文部科学省の調査で分かっ た。全国では同児童生徒が２万２４１３人と過去最 高に達し、１４％が指導を受けていないことも判明 した。同省は対策を検討する有識者会議を設置、９ 月に初会合を開く予定。 日系人労働者の増加などが要因。日本語の理解が 乏しい児童生徒は愛知が最多で４０８９人。次いで 神奈川２４０４人、静岡２３４３人、東京１７６２ 人の順だった。全体で前年同期より８％増え、４年 連続の増加となった。 九州・山口では、福岡が２１１人と最多。次いで 熊本５５人▽山口４１人▽大分３６人▽鹿児島２６ 人▽宮崎２２人▽長崎２１人▽佐賀１１人‐だった。 母国語別では、全体でポルトガルが３８、５％と トップ。中国、スペインを含む３つの言語で全体の ７割以上を占めた。九州・山口では、同児童生徒の 数が横ばい傾向にあるものの、中国が全体の４割を 占め、日中関係の緊密化がうかがえた。 各自治体は、日本語指導員の派遣や特別講義など に取り組んでいるが、「財政難で教員増は難しい。 児童生徒の在籍期間が短い場合もあり、中長期的対 応は取りにくい」（熊本県教委）との声も上がって いる。 ＝2007/08/01付 西日本新聞朝刊＝ ENDS
日本の自治体に外国人登録をしている学齢期の子供のうち、約１％が小中学校への就学手続きを取らないまま生活していることが３１日、文部科学省の調査で明らかになった。
Here’s a really sophomoric article from The Economist, which discusses Japan’s future demographics, yet mentions NOT A WORD about the influx of foreign labor. Why is a magazine as thoughtful The Economist sticking its head in the sand on this issue, and even resorting to the “grown-up children who call themselves adult Japanese men” stereotypes by the conclusion of this article? The Economist should not ignore global labor mobility, which (with closing on a million NJ workers in Japan) is definitely a factor in Japan’s future demography. Just like in any other developed country. Wish people would stop assuming that Japan is uniquely able to resolve all of this by itself.
UPPER HOUSE ELECTION JAPAN JULY 29, 2007
THE OPPOSITION PARTIES GAIN MOMENTUM
THE OPPOSITION PARTY ROUTS THE RULING COALITION
WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE LDP
RESULTS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO DEBITO.ORG
WHAT NOW? I WAS WRONG ABOUT PM ABE RESIGNING…
Quick update on what’s going on: Still in Tokyo, extending one more day. Links to last night’s speech Powerpoint (E and J) on the BLACKLIST OF JAPANESE UNIVERSITIES, given before even the Ministry of Education, plus a bit on a visit to Sanya and my next JT article. Yes, I’ll eat some crow over the UH election after I return to Sapporo tomorrow.
Trans Pacific Radio put up last night an interview with me about how I think today’s election will turn out. In sum: I think Abe will have to resign over the poor performance of the LDP in this election. He’s had one of the worst cabinets in Japan’s postwar history, and he’s definitely become a political liability (to the point where at least one poll indicates a majority believe we should have a snap election in the Lower House now too). Have a listen…
Hi Blog. Got inspired on my way down to Tokyo yesterday, and wrote an essay on “why I love Japanese Elections” on the fly for Trans Pacific Radio. I also read it for TPR as part of its news segment (trying my hand at podcasting there for the first time) for July 27, 2007. Text and links provided.
“At least 24 defectors from North Korea living in Japan remain stateless, largely due to the lack of clear government guidelines on how to determine their nationalities. The statelessness of the 24 people, children or grandchildren of one Japanese citizen and a North Korean, is a result local governments being left to their own devices on how to deal with the registration of the defectors. Nationality law would otherwise grant them citizenship, since Japan confers nationality by blood, but politics inevitably gets in the way.” Contrast with wanted criminal candidate Alberto Fujimori and you really get a confusing application of Japanese citizenship laws…
he UN News has been issuing press releases to make sure the Human Rights Council doesn’t become as emasculated as the former Human Rights Commission–by holding all countries accountable with periodic reviews of their human rights records.
Good. Japan in particular is particularly remiss, given its quest for a seat on the UNSC without upholding its treaty obligations, particularly regarding Japan’s refusal to pass a law against racial discrimination, and file reports in a timely manner (last report was due the HRC all the way in 2002!). The UN is quite well aware of this, and has been highly critical of Japan’s unfettered racism in recent years. UN Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene has been well recorded on the Debito.org Blog as well.
Popular J drama Hana Yori Dango 2 has heroine being mugged by black gang armed with basketball, and saved by kakkou-ii J guy armed with squirt pistol. Why isn’t this worthy of ignoring as merely bad Japanese TV? Because you just know that if an American TV show were to do this sort of thing–make all the [fill in the blank] Asians, Chinese, or Japanese (with accents or stereotypical features to boot)–there would be complaints from either the local anti-defamation leagues or even the Japanese embassy (cf. New York Senator Alphonse D’Amato making fun of Judge Lance Ito’s Japanese ethnicity in 1995). And definitely a brouhaha on 2-Channel about how the West is oh so racist towards Japanese. Details on how to complain if you want…
Sadako Ogata was the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees from 1991-2001, and has been President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) since 2003. Here, she talks frankly to The Japan Times about Japan’s attitudes to those who flee their homelands and seek sanctuary on these shores.
One of my Newsletter readers asked yesterday if I ever have any good news to report. Sure. Here’s some even from a tragic situation–the recent Touhoku Earthquake..
Here’s one way to avoid the accusation that foreigners in Japanese sports make events too boring: J.R. Sakuragi, a former NBA player known as J.R. Henderson, has become a Japanese citizen and will play for the Japan National Team in the FIBA Asian Championship, which begins on July 28 in Tokushima…
1) BLACKLIST UPDATES: HOKKAI GAKUEN & CHUUGOKU U. ICU GREENLISTED
2) JAPAN TIMES: LABOR ABUSES AT AKITA INT’L UNIVERSITY
3) YOMIURI: MOJ BARS NIKKEI BRAZILIAN FROM VOLUNTEER POLICE WORK
4) J WEDDING FUNDS OFF-LIMITS TO FOREIGNERS, er, NON-FAMILY MEMBERS
5) JAPAN’S ODD TOURISM POLICY: YOKOSO JAPAN AND MONEY LAUNDERING
6) TPR ON KYUUMA, CUMINGS ON DPRK, TAWARA ON EDUCATION LAW
7) JAPAN FOCUS ON AMENDMENTS TO BASIC LAW OF EDUCATION
8) FOREIGN POLICY MAG ON GOJ AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
and finally…
9) UPCOMING SPEECH AT TOKYO UNIVERSITY ON UNIV. BLACKLIST, MONDAY, JULY 30
Asahi on wanted criminal suspect Alberto Fujimori Diet candicacy: “[W]e are surprised at the news that a former president of a foreign country will run for the Upper House election. Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, 68, decided to run as a proportional representation candidate of Kokumin Shinto (People’s New Party) for the July 29 election… But we definitely do not think [they have given] a good enough reason for anointing him as the party’s Upper House candidate….” Cyberspace commentary on what his case means for dual nationality in Japan also blogged.
Japan Times Community Page column 36: “The bellwether of any country’s internationalization is the altered composition of the school population. Many of Japan’s immigrant children are becoming an underclass, deprived of an education for being born different than the putative ‘Japanese standard’.”
Japan Focus academic website: “Much criticism of the amended education law has focused on statements clearly privileging the state over the individual; that is, statements affirming civil liberties still appear, often unchanged, from the original version, but are often undercut and diluted by new language. Perhaps more importantly, however, what makes the amended version of the law appear less a legal document than an expression of authoritarian will is not so much what is said, but how it is said. That is, the language of mystique and belief makes the very notion of individual rights seem anachronistic at best. For this reason the amended version is not a reflection of a democratic and constitutionally law-driven society but resembles in content and in intent the Edict, a product of a wartime regime.”
NPA denies medical treatment to Nigerian in custody with broken leg, latter becomes crippled. Nigerian plaintiff sues, but Tokyo District Court rules against him. Also overrules Plaintiff’s friend’s witness testimony invalid because he is African, an Plaintiff’s doctor’s medical opinion on the egregiousness of Plaintiff’s injuries as “not rational”. Fact is, coupling this lawsuit outcome with the McGowan “I don’t like black people” Osaka Eyeglass Store Case, not only do NJ increasingly have different standards of evidence in J courts, but now The NPA clearly can do pretty much whatever they want to NJ in custody, even if it causes permanent damage. Case is under appeal.
First, excellent video by Eric Kalmus on the irony of Japan’s child abductions (in the face of all the international rules against this, not to mention the political capital gained by the GOJ over the DPRK abductions of Japanese) after the breakdown of international marriages. Courtesy of YouTube. Then more importantly, the US State Department has included on its site a warning re Japan’s negligence regarding divorce, child custody, and abduction. We’re getting through, on an international level. Referential links included.
IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE COURT: WHAT AMERICAN LAWYERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
CHILD CUSTODY AND VISITATION IN JAPAN
By Colin P.A. Jones, JD, Asian Pacific Law and Policy Journal University of Hawaii Volume 8, Issue 2, Spring 2007, linked from this blog entry. First sentence: “Japan is a haven for parental child abduction.”
1) UN COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE CASTIGATES J JUDICIAL SYSTEM
2) LAT: FIRST RECORDED POLICE CONFESSION OKAYED AS COURT EVIDENCE
3) DIETMEMBER CRITICAL OF J’S UPCOMING JURY SYSTEM
4) UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII’S ASIAN PACIFIC LAW JOURNAL ON CHILD ABDUCTION IN JAPAN
and finally…
5) I GET SMACKED BY A CAR WHILE ON MY BIKE IN JUNE…
AND HAVE A GOOD EXPERIENCE WITH TRAFFIC COPS!
While nobody was watching, an interim report drafted by a study group under the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has set down guidelines for regulation of the Internet in Japan which, according to one blogger, would extend as far as personal blogs and homepages. In the report, this “Study group on the legal system for communications and broadcasting”, headed by Professor Emeritus at Hitotsubashi University Horibe Masao, discusses the possibility of applying the exising Broadcast Law to the sphere of the Internet to regulate, under government enforcement, what gets on the web. The report also suggests that public comments be sought on the issue, in response to which the ministry has opened a space on their webpage for the public to submit comments, available in the period between June 20th and July 20th…
So much for YOKOSO JAPAN: “During this summer’s trip, I was unable to cash $1000 or two $500 travelers checks at a bank in a single day, as the banks have set a Y100,000 limit on cashing travelers checks in Japan. I was shown the new requirement that all banks were to observe this limitation beginning 1 January 2007. This is very strange as these same banks ‘sell’ $1000 denomination travelers checks to Japanese to use outside Japan. The only way to cash these checks was to show proof that you had a permanent address in Japan. What Japanese person or foreigner needs to use travelers checks in Japan?” Immediate answer from the authorities also included.
The bureaucrats had a field day telling the Japanese public how they had this great plan, but then the reality was that they allocated a trifling amount, we heard a budget of just JPY350m, for marketing and chose Dentsu over a number of better qualified foreign firms to conduct the campaign. As a result, most of the Yokoso campaign has been little more than local ads, in Japanese! Compare the piffling JPY350m with Hawaii’s tourism marketing budget of US$38m (JPY4.5bn) a year, and you start to realize that the Japanese government has no idea how to go about the task of increasing visitor numbers.Despite the government’s cheapskate efforts to focus marketing on countries they think tourists should come from: mainly the USA, UK, and other western nations, the number of visitors has in fact surprisingly been rising — but from countries receiving very little attention (with the possible exception of Korea) — Japan’s nearest neighbors.
Hi Blog. More labor abuses coming out at Gregory Clark‘s Akita International University (he’s vice president, after all; see his nice welcoming message to the world here). As catalogued yesterday in the Japan Times Community Page. Article also includes some lessons about what you can do about employers of this ilk. Suggest you stay away …
Yomiuri: The Shizuoka Probation Office has given up its bid to appoint a second-generation Brazilian of Japanese descent as a probation officer, after it received a Justice Ministry opinion indicating that foreigners may not be commissioned to exercise public authority. Probation officers are part-time, unpaid central government officials entrusted by the justice minister. The ministry said it is “problematic” to commission foreign residents as probation officers because some of their responsibilities involve exercising public authority. Even though the Shizuoka Probation Office invited karate school operator Tetsuyoshi Kodama, a second-generation Brazilian of Japanese descent, who is experienced in dealing with non-Japanese youths, to become a probation officer and stem youth crime. Nationality Clause and Chong-san Lawsuit defeat strike again.
読売：静岡保護観察所（静岡市葵区）が、浜松市内の日系ブラジル人男性を保護司として推薦することを法務省に打診したところ、「保護司の業務は公権力の行使にあたり、外国人に委嘱することは困難」との見解を示され、推薦を断念していたことが６日、わかった。
Chugoku Gakuen University and Junior College in Okayama, for refusing to promote NJ faculty solely on the basis of nationality, and Hokkai Gakuen University in Sapporo, for demanding PhDs for terminal term-limited contracts with heavy workloads and low pay (yet require no similar qualification from Japanese applicants to the same department, who even get automatic non-contracted academic “tenure”), get added to the 100 Blacklisted Japanese universities who have discriminatory hiring practices. Meanwhile, International Christian University near Tokyo shows proof positive that they not only tenure people regardless of nationality, but even have a functional tenure review process, and get moved from the Blacklist to the Greenlist for the first time in the Blacklist’s ten-year history.
A friend sent me details about his wedding gone wrong: Halfway through the prep, the financing company (“Life Angel”) affiliated with the chapel tells him that they only loan substantial amounts to those listing families as Guarantors. Neither he (a NJ) nor his fiance (a naturalized Japanese) have family in Japan, so now they’re stuck. Worse yet–what about others in Japanese society–such as orphans, elderly, or even people on the outs with their family? Just another one of those arbitrary rules (especially when other Guarantor situations, such as mortgages, auto loans, or even marriages themselves, do not require family-member Guarantors) which has the effect once again of interfering with assimilation of NJ into J society.
The Miyagi Prefectural Assembly voted on 13th July to approve the Ordinance to Promote Multiculturalism within the prefecture. This makes the first step by any level of government within Japan to institute any kind or level of law to promote multiculturalism within Japan, but the event has gone totally unnoticed by the domestic media, so far as the author, John Morris of Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University in Sendai, can tell.
Three marvellous podcasts I got a lot out of: Garrett DeOrio at Trans Pacific Radio, regarding former Defense Minister Kyuuma’s recent remarks about the WWII atomic bombings; Bruce Cumings, an expert on Korea, speaking in February 2004 at the University of Chicago, on “Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth about North Korea, Iran, and Syria”; and another UChicago talk delivered May 17, 2007 by Tawara Yoshifumi, Secretary General of the Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21, on “Japan’s Education and Society in Crisis”.
Since the Japanese population is declining, the government needs to come out and make clear that we do need and value foreign workers. Once that is recognized, the government should examine which areas are lacking and estimate how many workers we need. It also should pass legislation to enable immigrants who complete Japanese-language training programs and vocational training courses to enter the workforce as full-fledged workers. Some people worry that too many foreign workers would lead to lower wages for Japanese workers or steal jobs away. If a foreign worker is more competent or better trained than a Japanese, then naturally they will get hired first. But to assume that a foreigner should work for less than a Japanese is outright discrimination. And as long as the principle of “equal pay for equal work” is observed, the situation will not adversely affect the labor market.
Hi Blog. May seem only tangental to the bent of Debito.org, but Constitutional Reform (and the processes thereof) underpins everything, particularly the processes through which we work in Japan’s civil society, we try to get done here. Constitutional reform has since gotten bogged down in the whole pensions scandals, and Abe’s decreasing popularity affecting late-July …
1) FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN
2) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR LABOR AND CRIME PROBLEMS
3) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR SCHOOL PROBLEMS
4) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR MILITARY PROBLEMS
5) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR SPORTS PROBLEMS
6) BLAME FOREIGNERS FOR SHIPPING PROBLEMS
7) HOW THE GOJ INTENDS TO DEAL WITH IT:
RIOT POLICE, CHECKPOINT CHARLIE, AND SHORTENED VISAS
“A total of 9,607 foreigners, mostly Asians, ran away from job training sites in Japan between 2002 and 2006 in an apparent attempt to look for better working conditions elsewhere, according to the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau… The tatemae (given reason) of the Trainee Worker program run by JITCO is to bring workers from developing countries to Japan to learn Japanese techniques that they can later put to use back home. The honne (real reason) of the program is to legally let small and medium Japanese companies import cheap labor. According to a recent series of articles in the Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese public for the most part still buys the tatemae explanation, even though the media has been reporting for years that many foreign trainees come to Japan for the express purpose of making money.” More horror stories to add to the stew…
Eric Johnston of the Japan Times writes on NOVA and the Eikaiwa Industry scams finally being cracked down a bit by the government, and sends a thank you to the people on Debito.org mailing lists who helped him out a bit with some quotes.
Ikuno-ku Osaka police/related agencies have posted on cars leaflets warning people about the evils that foreigners get up to (including long-nosers fraudulently marrying our women…). Some ideas on what to do about it from The Community.