My SNA Visible Minorities 54: “Non-Japanese Residents claim political power” (Mar 31, 2024), where I argue the power of the vote matters whether you are a candidate or part of the electorate; the J Govt tries hard to make sure neither happens for Japan’s Immigrants.

Posted on March 31, 2024May 16, 2024 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Intro: I teach Political Science at the university level. In my first lecture every semester, I try to convince skeptical students why they should bother studying Political Science at all. I argue that understanding how power flows through political structures will help students enfranchise themselves in a democratic system. Because if they don’t, other people who understand the system better will use it to their advantage instead. But this assumes one major fundamental: that they can participate in the democratic system at all. Fortunately, most of my students are citizens, so they can vote. Given how abysmal youth voter turnout generally is, I consider it a major educational outcome if they bother to. Persuading people that their vote matters is the bare minimum a civics class can accomplish.

If I have the opportunity in higher-level classes to proselytize further, I encourage them to engage in community building, such as organizing into interest groups and consolidating power into voting blocs. My real converts consider running for local office, thereby embedding themselves within the very power structure itself. Because political power, especially for minorities in any society, is rarely surrendered without a struggle. We need more diverse views in office as demographics change the makeup of future majorities.

That’s how democracy is supposed to work. Unfortunately, this is a lesson that Japan’s Non-Japanese (NJ) Residents and Visible Minorities still have trouble grasping. As a result, they are letting the Japanese government deprive them of their potential as a political force in Japan…

Japan Today expose: How the media failed Japan’s most vulnerable immigrants (Feb 22, 2022)

Posted on June 2, 2022June 3, 2022 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

JT: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a strange institution. It’s responsible for the way Japan is perceived abroad, and it decides who receives the opportunity to immigrate. But its jurisdiction over the lives of immigrants largely vanishes when they reach Japan. It’s also the most influential agency that does not play a meaningful role in developing the government’s legislative agenda. Senior MoFA officials can only watch in dismay as less prestigious agencies, including some of Japan’s most corrupt, devise legislation that erodes the rights of immigrants and damages Japan’s international reputation.

A proposed overhaul of Japan’s detention system, scuttled in 2021 after the death of detainee Wishma Rathnayake and a resulting wave of protests, was especially unpopular with Japanese diplomats. The Kishida administration has revived it anyway, with parliamentary debate anticipated this summer. Until recently, MoFA relied on the press to guard against legislative aggression toward immigrants, quietly passing sensitive information to reporters who covered the Ministry of Justice, which enforces immigration law.

According to MoFA officials who acted as my sources during the 10 years I covered immigration, their current reluctance to cooperate with journalists is related to the sense, among the agency’s staff, that the media has become “much louder, but much less effective” on issues of immigration.

The officials I spoke with traced this problem to 2019, when a detainee starved to death at a detention center in Nagasaki, following a four-week hunger strike, named Gerald “Sunny” Okafor… Meanwhile, the press has helped to turn Okafor’s death into a non-story, by disseminating state propaganda that diminishes the death’s significance, then responding to that propaganda with opinion essays instead of investigations.

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

Posted on July 19, 2019 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

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

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

COMMENT FROM DEBITO.ORG READER AIS: “Team Japan celebrates its emigrants for their contributions (i.e. being Japanese) – essentially praising them for doing what it complains its immigrants do.”
COMMENT FROM DEBITO.ORG READER JDG: “Notice they don’t talk about LDP members funding Peruvian government forced sterilization of ethnic minorities. That’s some Japanese contribution to Peruvian society!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nikkei Asian Review: “In rural Japan, immigrants spark a rebirth”. An optimistic antidote to the regular media Gaijin Bashing

Posted on October 20, 2018 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Nikkei: In roughly three decades, the number of foreign residents in Japan has grown to 2.47 million, from just 980,000 in 1989. So while this period will go down in history as the time the country’s population went into decline, it has also brought an unprecedented influx of newcomers from abroad. Tagalog, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Indonesian: The students at Keiwa Elementary School in the southwestern prefecture of Mie speak nine different languages at home. But at school they use Japanese…

Foreign nationals tend to gravitate to places where their children are likely to receive better education. Mie — home to Keiwa Elementary — is a testament to this. The prefecture is gaining a reputation for supporting students born to non-Japanese parents. “Mieko san no Nihongo,” a textbook for teaching classroom Japanese developed by the Mie International Exchange Foundation, has proved useful in this regard and is now used in elementary and junior high schools nationwide.

According to the Ministry of Education, the number of students requiring additional instruction in the Japanese language at public elementary and junior high schools topped 30,000 for the first time in the year ended March 2017. The central government, too, is looking to bring more foreign workers into the country. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month said his government will design a reform plan for this purpose by the summer. Yet Abe is not exactly jumping in with both feet — the policy will not encourage permanent settlement, with a cap to be placed on the maximum stay and restrictions on bringing family members along. Even so, Japan is far more diverse than it was in 1950, when there were only 600,000 residents from overseas. From large cities to tiny villages, Japanese grow ever more accustomed to mingling with their fellow global citizens. And the newcomers are breathing life into communities that looked destined to fade.

COMMENT: As an antidote to the program talked about last blog entry, where hunting NJ for public sport and amusement became yet another TV show, here’s a relatively rare article showing the good that NJ do for Japanese society: revitalizing communities that are dying, as they age and endure an exodus of their young to more prosperous cities. The article is a bit too optimistic to be realistic (given that all this progress could be undone with a simple mass cancellation of visas and government repatriation bribes; the former has happened multiple times in Japan’s history), but I’d rather have the article than not. Have a look and tell us what you think.

Mainichi on emerging GOJ policies towards refugees & immigration, still not allowing them to stay in Japan: “tourists yes, refugees & immigrants no”

Posted on October 1, 2015April 21, 2021 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Debito.org hasn’t talked as much as other topics about the Government of Japan (GOJ)’s attitude towards refugees (in that, the acceptance of refugees is one measure of international contributions by the club of rich, developed countries and UN treaty signatories). But it is safe to say that the GOJ has not been cooperative, accepting fewer people in total over the past sixty years than some countries do in a single year — as the United Nations is aware. So now the Abe Administration is trying a different tack: Accepting refugees as temporary students, and then sending them “home” someday. Debito.org Reader JK parses that to bits by citing articles below.

Mainichi: “The idea is that by accepting refugees as students, Japan could aid in training personnel for the later reconstruction of Syria.” …and… “The plan represents the government’s efforts to think of a way to contribute to solving the Syria issue, without influencing the current refugee authorization system.”

JK: Translation: GOJ doesn’t want to look bad at the UN in front of the other nations who are actually doing something to help refugees, so what to do?…Ah! Accept refugees as students to make it look like Japan is making a difference — Japan trains the Syrians so that one day they can go ‘home’ and fix everything up, and as students, they’re not in a position to stay for good as would be the case if they were accepted as refugees. It’s a win-win!

Mainichi: “As an issue of demography, I would say that before accepting immigrants or refugees we need to have more activities by women, by elderly people and we must raise (the) birth rate. There are many things that we should do before accepting immigrants,” Abe told a news conference, according to the official translation of his comments.

JK: Translation: Accepting immigrants is the last thing we should do.

2nd Edition of HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS, MIGRANTS, & IMMIGRANTS to Japan on sale Dec 2012, updated

Posted on December 3, 2012December 5, 2012 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

I’m very happy to announce that at long last (it takes a number of months to get things through the publishing pipeline), the Second Edition of HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS, MIGRANTS AND IMMIGRANTS TO JAPAN goes on sale in December 2012.

This long-selling bilingual guide to life in Japan, co-authored with legal scrivener Akira Higuchi, has assisted thousands of readers and engendered rave reviews. Its goal has been to assist people to live more stable, secure lives in Japan, and walks the reader through the process of securing a better visa, getting a better job (even start one’s own business), troubleshooting through difficult situations both bureaucratically and interpersonally, establishing one’s finances and arrangements for the next of kin, even giving something back to Japanese society. It is a one-stop guide from arrival in Japan through departure from this mortal coil, and now it has been updated to reflect the changes in the Immigration and registry laws that took place in July 2012. Get ready to get yourself a new copy!

(Oh, and my Japan Times JBC column has been postponed a week due to a major scoop this week that will fill the Community Page…)

Sakanaka in Japan Times: Japan as we know it is doomed, only immigrants can save it

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Japan Times: Japan as we know it is doomed. Only a revolution can save it. What kind of revolution? Japan must become “a nation of immigrants.”

That’s a hard sell in this notoriously closed country. Salesman-in-chief — surprisingly enough — is a retired Justice Ministry bureaucrat named Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the ministry’s Tokyo Immigration Bureau and current executive director of the Japan Immigration Policy Institute, a private think tank he founded in 2007.

“Japan,” he said in a recent telephone interview, “is on the brink of collapse.” […] No nation, barring war or plague, has ever shrunk at such a pace, and as for aging, there are no historical precedents of any kind. The nation needs a fountain of youth. Sakanaka claims to have found one. Japan, he said, “must welcome 10 million immigrants between now and 2050.” […] It sounds fantastic, and in fact, Sakanaka acknowledges, would require legislation now lacking — anti-discrimination laws above all.

Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column 54 Aug 7, 2012: “For nikkei immigrants in Japan, it doesn’t have to be a bug’s life”

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

With apologies to Franz Kafka: As Beto awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his futon into a gigantic cockroach.

“What’s happened to me?” he thought. In his native land down south, he had been a person — if at times underprivileged due to his nikkei status. So, years ago, he “repatriated” to Japan, attracted by promises of better milk and honey. Yet now he felt even more marginalized by the locals here, who called themselves “people” yet treated him at times like he was an insect.

Beto scurried off to work, where people shied away and refused to sit by him in the train cars. But as the end of the line approached, the coach filled up with fellow cockroaches, and people stopped paying attention.

The people at his factory also took no notice of his metamorphosis. His supervisors were used to dealing with cockroaches. Bugs seemed an inevitable part of lower-rent circumstances. As in the train, it seemed some people had learned to “co-exist” with them in close quarters.

In public, however, reactions were different. Alone, Beto was often seen as something exotic, maybe even collectable if there was a curious person flitting about who was interested in “speaking bug.” But if seen as part of a swarm, people’s knee-jerk reactions were to take steps against them. Bugs might overrun the place, making it feel less the realm of the masters, more of the roaches…

Asia Pacific Bulletin: “Accepting Immigrants: Japan’s Last Opportunity for Economic Revival”

Posted on July 1, 2012July 1, 2012 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Here’s some evidence of how the debate regarding Japan’s need for immigration is starting to percolate through USG policy circles — this time the Asia Pacific Bulletin. It’s another well-intentioned brief article for busy policymakers, but with a couple of mistakes: 1) “since the 2011 earthquake the number of foreign residents in Japan has also been on a downward trend” is not quite right since it was on a downward trend before 3/11 too (in fact, when I was debunking the “Flyjin” Myth in my Japan Times column I demonstrated how the decreasing trend in NJ numbers was largely unaffected by the multiple disasters); 2) the “stagnant policy discussion at the national level” has in fact been restarted and quite actively discussed starting from May onwards (perhaps after Mr. Menju sent the article to press, but the APB website notes their turnaround on articles is mere weeks), as has been discussed here in detail on Debito.org. But Mr. Menju does get some important things very, very right — as in the other J media-manufactured myth of NJ crime and social disruption (especially the NPA’s involvement in cooking the numbers), how this dynamic forestalls a healthy discussion on immigration policy, and Japan’s overall need for immigration despite all the years of active ignoring of local governments’ advice on tolerance and acceptance. Decent stuff, and worth a read.

AP: Japan population shrinks by record numbers in 2010. NYT: Its workers aging, Japan turns away immigrants.

Posted on January 3, 2011January 21, 2011 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

AP: Japan’s population fell by a record amount last year as the number of deaths climbed to an all-time high in the quickly aging country, the government said Saturday.

Japan faces a looming demographic squeeze. Baby boomers are moving toward retirement, with fewer workers and taxpayers to replace them. The Japanese boast among the highest life expectancies in the world but have extremely low birth rates.

Japan logged 1.19 million deaths in 2010 — the biggest number since 1947 when the health ministry’s annual records began. The number of births was nearly flat at 1.07 million.

As a result, Japan contracted by 123,000 people, which was the most ever and represents the fourth consecutive year of population decline. The top causes of death were cancer, heart disease and stroke, the ministry said…

Saturday’s report showed 706,000 marriages registered last year — the fewest since 1954 and a sign that birth rates are unlikely to jump dramatically anytime soon.

NYT: Despite facing an imminent labor shortage as its population ages, Japan has done little to open itself up to immigration. In fact, as Ms. Fransiska and many others have discovered, the government is doing the opposite, actively encouraging both foreign workers and foreign graduates of its universities and professional schools to return home while protecting tiny interest groups — in the case of Ms. Fransiska, a local nursing association afraid that an influx of foreign nurses would lower industry salaries.

In 2009, the number of registered foreigners here fell for the first time since the government started to track annual records almost a half-century ago, shrinking 1.4 percent from a year earlier to 2.19 million people — or just 1.71 percent of Japan’s overall population of 127.5 million.

Experts say increased immigration provides one obvious remedy to Japan’s two decades of lethargic economic growth. Instead of accepting young workers, however — and along with them, fresh ideas — Tokyo seems to have resigned itself to a demographic crisis that threatens to stunt the country’s economic growth, hamper efforts to deal with its chronic budget deficits and bankrupt its social security system…

Sunday Tangent: Newsweek: Immigrants do not increase crime

Posted on June 27, 2010June 27, 2010 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

As a Sunday tangent, here’s a Newsweek article making an argument that immigrants do not increase crime rates. It’s talking about the US example, but FYI. But it’s more food for thought when the NPA keeps erroneously telling us that NJ crime is on the rise.

Excerpt: So, yes, there are pretty compelling data to support the argument that immigrants as such—even presumably “illegal” immigrants—do not make cities more dangerous to live in. But what mechanism about such immigration makes cities safer? Robert J. Sampson, head of the sociology department at Harvard, has suggested that, among other things, immigrants move into neighborhoods abandoned by locals and help prevent them from turning into urban wastelands. They often have tighter family structures and mutual support networks, all of which actually serve to stabilize urban environments. As Sampson told me back in 2007, “If you want to be safe, move to an immigrant city.”

What other variables may be at work driving crime down? The ones most often cited are rising levels of incarceration, changes in drug markets, and the aging of the overall population. The authors ofFreakonomicsargue that the big drop in violent crime during the 1990s was a direct result of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973 and reduced by millions the pool of unwanted children who might have grown up to be criminals a generation later. Still, Wadsworth’s research and the recent FBI data reinforce the judgment that the vast majority of immigrants make our cities safer, especially when police know how to work with them, not against them. To blame all immigrants for the crimes committed by a few, and give the cops the job of chasing them for immigration offenses instead of focusing resources on catching the real bad guys, is simply nuts.

But that message just isn’t getting through. Polls continue to show that the vast majority of Americans think immigrants cause crime…

Robert Dujarric in Japan Times: Immigrants can buoy Japan as its regional power gives way to China

Posted on May 26, 2010May 26, 2010 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Excerpt: It is not possible to spend more than a few minutes with a Japanese diplomat or scholar without hearing the “C,” namely China. Most of them are convinced that the People’s Republic is expanding its global influence while Japan’s is shrinking. The entire world, and most worryingly Asia, which used to look toward Japan when Harvard scholar Ezra Vogel crowned it “No. 1” now sees China not only as the country of the future but already as today’s only Asian giant…

There is one area, however, where Japan could engage in a strategy that would simultaneously help its economy and give it an edge over China. This is immigration. Japan is unique among economies that are highly developed and in demographic decline in having so few immigrants. In fact, even European states that are in much better demographic condition also have large numbers of foreigners and recently naturalized citizens in their labor force.

The domestic economic advantages of a more open immigration policy are well documented. What is less understood is how it can be used as a foreign policy instrument. If Japan were home to several million guest workers, the country would become the lifeline of tens of millions of individuals back in their homeland who would benefit from the remittances of their relatives in the archipelago. Its economic role in the lives of some of these countries would become second to none. Many individuals would start to study Japanese, in the hope of one day working in the country…

COMMENT: If Japan offers the promise of domestic work, and if “Many individuals would start to study Japanese, in the hope of one day working in the country.”, then it had better make good on the promise of offering equal opportunity for advancement and assimilation regardless of background, by enacting laws that protect against discrimination. We were made a similar promise under the purported “kokusaika” of the Bubble Era. That’s why many of our generation came to Japan in the first place, and decades later feel betrayed by the perpetual second-class status.

Singapore Straits Times: Lee Kwan Yew advises Japan not to accept immigrants who don’t look Japanese

Posted on May 23, 2010 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Nothing breeds arrogance like success. It must be nice to have created a rich city-state in your image, so you think you can claim enough legitimacy to bald-facedly tell other countries to do as you say, not as you do. We have elder statesman Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore offering his opinions earlier this week to the GOJ about how to deal with immigration — where he advocates a “homogeneous Japan” solution that chooses people based upon their thoroughbredness:

Lee: “You have the choice to keep Japan homogeneous and shrinking and stagnant economically, or you accept immigrants and grow,” he told the audience… He also advised the Japanese to chose immigrants who can be assimilated more easily.

“If I were Japanese, I would not want to go beyond people who look like Japanese. I will (also) choose people from the high end, so that the children will also be of a higher calibre.”

COMMENT: I wonder if Lee believes his fellow Chinese fall into the category of being “from the high end”? Many of his fellow “homogeneous Japan” proponents in Japan would not think so.

Anyway, on behalf of all of us non-thoroughbred Japanese citizens: nuts to you Lee Kwan Yew.

Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column April 6, 2010 prints my speech to UN Rep Bustamante on “blind spot” re Japan immigrants

Posted on April 7, 2010April 8, 2010 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

CONCLUSION

In light of all the above, the Japanese government’s stance towards the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is easily summarized: The Ainu, Ryukyuans and burakumin are citizens, therefore they don’t fall under the CERD because they are protected by the Japanese Constitution. However, the zainichis and newcomers are not citizens, therefore they don’t get protection from the CERD either. Thus, our government effectively argues, the CERD does not cover anyone in Japan.

Well, what about me? Or our children? Are there really no ethnic minorities with Japanese citizenship in Japan?

In conclusion, I would like to thank the U.N. for investigating our cases. On March 16, the CERD Committee issued some very welcome recommendations in its review. However, may I point out that the U.N. still made a glaring oversight.

During the committee’s questioning of Japan last Feb. 24 and 25, very little mention was made of the CERD’s “unenforcement” in Japan’s judiciary and criminal code. Furthermore, almost no mention was made of “Japanese only” signs, the most indefensible violations of the CERD.

Both Japan and the U.N. have a blind spot in how they perceive Japan’s minorities. Newcomers are never couched as residents of or immigrants to Japan, but rather as “foreign migrants.” The unconscious assumption seems to be that 1) foreign migrants have a temporary status in Japan, and 2) Japan has few ethnically diverse Japanese citizens.

Time for an update. Look at me. I am a Japanese. The government put me through a very rigorous and arbitrary test for naturalization, and I passed it. People like me are part of Japan’s future. When the U.N. makes their recommendations, please have them reflect how Japan must face up to its multicultural society. Please recognize us newcomers as a permanent part of the debate.

The Japanese government will not. It says little positive about us, and allows very nasty things to be said by our politicians, policymakers and police. It’s about time we all recognized the good that newcomers are doing for our home, Japan. Please help us.

Post #1500!: Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE column Dec 1 2009 on making Japan more attractive to immigrants (with links to sources)

Posted on December 1, 2009December 1, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Japan Times: We are about to start a new decade. This past one has been pretty rotten for NJ residents. Recall the campaigns: Kicked off by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara’s “Sankokujin Speech” in 2000, where he called upon the Self-Defense Forces to round up foreigners in the event of a natural disaster, we have had periodic public panics (al-Qaida, SARS, H1N1, the G8 Summits and the World Cup), politicians, police and media bashing foreigners as criminals and terrorists, the reinstitution of fingerprinting, and increased NJ tracking through hotels, workplaces and RFID (radio-frequency identification) “gaijin cards”. In other words, the 2000s saw the public image of NJ converted from “misunderstood outsider” to “social destabilizer”; government surveys even showed that an increasing majority of Japanese think NJ deserve fewer human rights!

Let’s change course. If Hatoyama is as serious as he says he is about putting legislation back in the hands of elected officials, it’s high time to countermand the elite bureaucratic xenophobes that pass for policymakers in Japan. Grant some concessions to non-citizens to make immigration to Japan more attractive.

Otherwise, potential immigrants will just go someplace else. Japan, which will soon drop to third place in the ranking of world economies, will be all the poorer for it.

“Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants” featured in Legal Scriveners magazine

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Just heard from Akira today. Our book (”our” meaning friend Akira Higuchi and myself) HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMER, MIGRANTS, AND IMMIGRANTS (Akashi Shoten Inc.) has just been featured (well, listed, anyway) in this month’s “Nihon Gyousei”, a national magazine for legal scriveners.

Great news. The book has really come into its own. If you don’t have a copy, you really oughta consider getting one. It deals with things you need to know to make a better life in Japan. Debito.org does its best, but the Handbook is one-stop shopping. And if you want to support Debito.org’s activities in some financial way, consider purchasing.

More on what’s in Handbook and how to get a copy here.

Japan Times: “Immigrants” magazine & advocates’ moves to establish J immigration policy

Posted on May 13, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Japan Times: “Japan’s immigration policy has always been a patchwork. We need to have proper laws and regulations in place when accepting people from abroad,” Susumu Ishihara, 57, president of the Japan Immigrant Information Agency, said during a recent interview with The Japan Times.

Motivated by a sense of urgency, Ishihara recently spent ¥5 million of his own money to launch a quarterly Japanese-language magazine, called Immigrants, focusing on immigration issues. The goal is to provide more information on foreigners living here to Japanese people to bridge the gap between the two sides.

The first issue of the quarterly, circulation 10,000, included messages from ambassadors of South American countries as well as interviews with immigration policyexperts, including Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Taro Kono, and Shigehiko Shiramizu, a professor of global media studies at Komazawa University…

TIME Mag, Asahi, NY Times: “Japan to Immigrants: Thanks, but go home”

Posted on April 23, 2009April 23, 2009 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

TIME: If Nikkei Brazilians, Peruvians and others who have lost their jobs go home, what will Japan do? Last week, Prime Minister Taro Aso unveiled a long-term growth strategy to create millions of jobs and add $1.2 trillion to GDP by 2020. But the discussion of immigration reform is notoriously absent in Japan, and reaching a sensible policy for foreign workers has hardly got under way. Encouraging those foreigners who would actually like to stay in Japan to leave seems a funny place to start.

Asahi: SAO PAULO–Many Brazilians of Japanese ancestry returning here from recession-struck Japan are struggling to find work, according to Grupo Nikkei, an NGO set up to support the job-seekers… Some returnees who performed unskilled labor in Japan have found it difficult to return to old jobs that require specific expertise, according to Leda Shimabukuro, 57, who heads the group. Some youths also lack Portuguese literacy skills, Shimabukuro said.

NY Times: So Japan has been keen to help foreign workers go home, thus easing pressure on domestic labor markets and getting thousands off unemployment rolls.

“Japan’s economy has hit a rainstorm. There won’t be good employment opportunities for a while, so that’s why we’re suggesting that the Nikkei Brazilians go home,” said Jiro Kawasaki, a former health minister and senior lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

“Naturally, we don’t want those same people back in Japan after a couple of months,” Mr. Kawasaki said, who led the ruling party task force that devised the repatriation plan, part of a wider emergency strategy to combat rising unemployment in Japan…

Mr. Kawasaki said the economic slump was a good opportunity to overhaul Japan’s immigration policy as a whole. “We should stop letting unskilled laborers into Japan. We should make sure that even the three-K jobs are paid well, and that they are filled by Japanese,” he said. “I do not think that Japan should ever become a multi-ethnic society.” He said the United States had been “a failure on the immigration front,” and cited extreme income inequalities between rich Americans and poor immigrants.

Reuters: Keidanren business lobby calls for more immigrants

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

TOKYO, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Japan’s most powerful business lobby will change its long-held policy and call on the nation to accept more immigrants, Mainichi newspaper reported on Monday, as the world’s fastest ageing nation faces serious labour shortages.

The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), whose policy on immigration to date has been to limit foreign labourers to fixed contracts, will announce the change on Tuesday, the Mainichi newspaper said.

Further comment and historical record behind this decision in this blog entry…

Japan Today: Gov’t looks to immigrants as population shrinks

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

According to the AFP and Japan Today: “Japan’s ruling party is considering plans to encourage foreign workers to stay in the country long-term, a daily reported Monday after the birth rate fell for the 27th successive year. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has proposed setting up an “immigration agency” to help foreign workers—including providing language lessons, the Nikkei economic daily said without naming sources. The party also intends to reform current “training” programs for foreign workers, which have been criticized for giving employers an excuse for paying unfairly low wages, the paper said.”

Reuters: Study says immigrants and crime rate not linked

Posted on April 26, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Reuters: Contrary to common beliefs, rising immigration levels do not drive up crime rates, particularly in poor communities, and Mexican-Americans are the least likely to commit crimes, according to a new study.

“HANDBOOK for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants”: info site on how to buy (Paypal OK)

Posted on March 11, 2008May 31, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Hi Blog. Just put up a new website on Debito.org with information on how you can buy our new book, HANDBOOK for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants, within Japan or internationally. Paypal possible. Please see: https://www.debito.org/handbook.html More on the book and upcoming national book tour at https://www.debito.org/?page_id=582 Arudou Debito in Sapporo

PRESS RELEASE for Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants

Posted on March 5, 2008April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

For the record… released March 4, 2008: ////////////////// PRESS RELEASE ////////////////// NEW BOOK “HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS, MIGRANTS AND IMMIGRANTS TO JAPAN” ON SALE FROM MARCH 15, 2008 AUTHOR ARUDOU DEBITO’S NATIONWIDE BOOK TOUR MARCH 15 TO APRIL 1 ////////////// FREELY FORWARDABLE ////////////// Akashi Shoten Inc, Japan’s biggest human rights publisher, will sell “HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS, …

Reuters: Study says Immigrants commit less crime (in California)

Posted on March 1, 2008June 6, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Immigrants are far less likely than the average U.S.-born citizen to commit crime in California, the most populous state in the United States, according to a report issued late on Monday.

People born outside the United States make up about 35 percent of California’s adult population but account for about 17 percent of the adult prison population, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California showed.

Advance reviews for forthcoming HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS, MIGRANTS, AND IMMIGRANTS, by Akira Higuchi and Arudou Debito

Posted on February 15, 2008April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Advance word about the forthcoming HANDBOOK FOR NEWCOMERS, MIGRANTS, AND IMMIGRANTS TO JAPAN (Akashi Shoten, on sale March 15, 2008). Book cover, advance review, book tour schedule, and link to contents of the book on this blog entry.

Created Yahoogroup for forming NPO for Immigrants, Permanent Residents, and Naturalized Citizens

Posted on December 7, 2007January 25, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Just created a yahoogroup for the forming NPO “Foreign Residents And Naturalized Citizens Association (Japan)” (FRANCA). Join if you’re serious about pushing for the rights and interests of NJ in an official capacity.

Japan Focus.com: Japan’s Future as an International, Multicultural Society: From Migrants to Immigrants

Posted on October 31, 2007 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

My latest ronbun at Japan Focus.com, an academic website out of Cornell University, with a synopsis of Japan’s internationalization: From Migrants to Immigrants, immigration continues, despite the disincentives.

Wash Post on Brazilian Immigrants & Education in Japan

Posted on October 15, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Warm-fuzzy article from the Washington Post: “Hamamatsu was a natural magnet for the newcomers because its many factories offered entry-level employment and required virtually no language skills. Officials here like to brag that their community became the most “international” of Japan’s cities. About 30,000 of its residents, or 4 percent, are foreign-born. That’s almost twice the proportion of foreign-born residents in Japan as a whole. (About 13 percent of the U.S. population is foreign-born.) Most newcomers are from Brazil and Peru. They are offspring of Japanese who immigrated to South America in the early 1900s to work in coffee fields and take other jobs…”

JTs on rackets for immigrant workers, runaway Trainees

Posted on July 3, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

“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…

REPORT: Immigrant children and Japan’s Hair Police

Posted on May 24, 2007April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

During one of my recent speech tours, I was told by a Nikkei Brazilian student (I will call her Maria) that her sister (call her Nicola) had been victimized by a Japanese high school’s rules. According to Maria, Nicola had been forced by her school to dye her hair weekly because it was not as dark as her peers’. Maria said she herself escaped the Hair Police (she looks more phenotypically “Japanese” than her sister), but Nicola was told to darken and even straighten hers. Although graduated from the high school, Nicola still has not only mental trauma from the ordeal, but also damaged hair which to this day has not recovered. An example of how Japan’s cookie-cutter educational rules are doing a disservice to Japan’s imminent internationalization…

J Times Dec 7 06: UNHCR “Japan cannot stop immigration”, Kyodo same day: Lawsuit argues “unreasonable to prohibit dual-income immigrant families” (updated)

Posted on December 7, 2006April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Japan Times reports UNHCR’s Antonio Guterres visit to Japan, where he says that as more people migrate worldwide, Japan will not be able to stop immigration. He added his concern with how people are treated once they get here. Kyodo News article same day gives good example, with a man from Myanmar facing deportation after being caught working full time as a dependent on his wife’s visa filed a lawsuit Wednesday
seeking to stay. He argues it is unreasonable to prohibit immigrant families from having a dual income.

Aly Rustom on the unequal treatment of being Gaijin Carded for phone service at Rakuten Mobile. Anyone else?

Posted on July 18, 2026July 18, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Rustom: On July 5, 2026 my wife, and I went to change my carrier to Rakuten mobile. A week earlier in my wife had already changed to RM and the process was taking too long so I couldn’t get my carrier changed on the same day as well. Therefore, we elected to go on the 5 of July.

All went well and smooth until the staff member directly asked me for my Zairyu card. I remembered last week that he only asked my wife for ID and she produced her drivers license which he accepted without any issues. However, when I said that I would also be presenting my drivers license as that is what I always do when I am asked for my residence card. I noticed that he was a bit uncomfortable, but said OK.

After the paperwork was pretty much finalized, he said I’m sorry, but it’s Rakuten’s policy that we need to see your Zairyu card. I responded with that is illegal to request that. My driver’s license is a Japanese drivers license that is valid. I pay the same taxes as any Japanese so I should be treated the same. He wouldn’t relent so we canceled the contract and got up and left.

I wonder if any other people have had the exact same experiences I have. Has anyone else gone to Rakuten and been specifically asked to show their card when they have a drivers license? Because that is exactly what happened to me.

Debito’s SNA VM Column 76: “The Semiquincentennial vs. The Bicentennial” (July 4, 2026). After my hometown fifth-grade class opened a 50-year time capsule last month, a reflection how America has made a hash of its 250th Birthday, but foreigners brought a better party instead.

Posted on July 5, 2026July 6, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

This column is about living history, where I returned to my hometown of Geneva NY to unseal a time capsule we created in 1976 in fifth grade, and unlocked a lot of memories of the Bicentennial. I take this occasion to compare it to the current Semiquincentennial. Excerpt from the middle:

============================
“I’m fortunate to have experienced two commemorative years for America: the Bicentennial 200th Birthday in 1976 and the Semiquincentennial 250th Birthday this year. I’m also fortunate to be a columnist with a loose deadline, so I’ll consider it my job to compare them. I can say without reservation that 1976 did it better.

From the beginning the mood was festive. The build-up was there. I remember New Year’s Eve 1975 watching the Times Square ball dropping on TV. Just after midnight, the crowd spontaneously broke out singing “Happy Birthday” to America. Shortly after, we learned the novelty song in school, “Fifty Nifty United States,” which to this day helps us recall all fifty states in alphabetical order. We even sang it together in our classroom last month, fifty nifty years later.

Back then, Bicentennial gear was everywhere, making it easy for us kids to find stocking stuffers for the capsule: A pamphlet we plucked from some newspaper offered all the flags of American history. A beer-can piggy bank, produced by Geneva’s long-gone linchpin employer American Can, offered an image of the Founders signing the Declaration of Independence (mentioning only in passing the factory’s own 75th anniversary). All manner of media offered article and advertisement that was star-spangled and thirteen-striped. An enclosed Reader’s Digest dated June 1976 had an article from astronaut Neil Armstrong entitled, “What America means to me.”

It was a happy time. But the happiness was also tempered by history. Legendary journalist Walter Cronkite signed off a 16-hour show entitled “In Celebration of US: Our Happiest Birthday” on July 4, 1976 — mere weeks after we had sealed the time capsule — where he said, poignantly:

“Well, the party’s just about over. We’re 200 years old. It’s a milestone that makes us wonder what will become of us as a nation. We’re not sure of the future. No one can be. We don’t know what’s behind the doors that we must open. We only know that the keys we have — keys cut in Independence Hall which became our ideals: Liberty, justice, equality. Our people have suffered and died for those ideals. We have as a nation have written a remarkable history, certainly. But we should remember that we have not fulfilled our ideals, even after 200 years. Correcting wrongs will be part of our future. It will demand courage. But correcting wrongs has been a dramatic part of our history. Courage is a remarkable part of our heritage. It can open the doors to justice for everyone. We will be alright if we keep in our hearts the story of America.”

Now in our 250th the mood is very different. And I’m not so sure we will be alright…
============================

This event was covered both in print and video by the local Finger Lakes Times newspaper, and links are provided. Photos from the event and from 1976 are also in this blog entry. You can see my class and me fifty nifty years ago.

DEBITO.ORG READERS’ ISSUES OF CONCERN, JUNE 2026

Posted on June 30, 2026July 5, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

I write Debito.org SNA “Visible Minorities” columns once a month (SNA website here) and send Debito.org Newsletters to subscribers sporadically. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It’s been a good way to allow Readers to be heard and engaged.

I still put out Debito.org Newsletters, but since I’m only posting on Debito.org approximately once a month, there’s only one article to repost (my SNA column), and I have it here as Debito.org post anyway. So it’d only be a repeat if I dedicated another post to the Newsletter.

But I don’t want to deprive Readers of a forum, so let me continue this “Issues of Concern” section (still categorized under “Newsletters”) and let it be a free space for articles and comments germane to the mission of Debito.org. Thanks as always for reading and contributing to Debito.org.

Debito’s Shingetsu News Agency Visible Minorities column 75: “Japan’s Foreigners and the Four Worst Words”, on how Japan’s recent public policies making NJ Resident lives more miserable is what happens when NJ continuously self-disenfranchise (May 28, 2026)

Posted on May 28, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

I recently received this question from a reporter:

“Sanseito, which has promised to put ‘Japanese First,’ made a strong showing in the 2025 Upper House election. Some wonder why those who voted for the party were not aware that the slogan could promote discrimination and anti-foreigner sentiment. I would very much appreciate it if you give us your take on this.”

My answer was:

“After several decades of economic stagnation, and now a shrinking economy and falling wages, people are ever hungrier for change, any change. Sanseito profited from that like nationalist/populist movements and parties have done worldwide. It’s a cresting wave of anti-globalism and identity politics. I’m sure voters were perfectly well aware that ‘Japanese first’ would stoke discrimination. Now playing dumb about rising xenophobia is just, if I’m being gracious, a form of ‘buyer’s remorse.’

“But I actually doubt all that many voters in Japan are all that regretful beyond the ‘tatemae’ (pretense) of expressing a simple ‘kawaisou’ (what a pity). People have had decades to make anti-discrimination policies to prevent this sort of thing, but never really have. Because after all, the discrimination won’t affect most of them. Again, foreigners aren’t really seen as residents and neighbors in the ‘monoethnic’ Japan national narrative, so all this to me is within character. I’m more surprised a Sanseito-type party wasn’t as successful sooner.”

This brings us to me saying the four worst words in the English language…

Debito’s SNA column 74: “Life under a mad king”. Subtitle: Everyone is learning what happens when the world’s most powerful man goes crazy (April 7, 2026)

Posted on April 11, 2026April 18, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Intro: The world is living under a rogue regime — or rather, a rogue individual — who is wielding unprecedented power.

Think about it: Donald Trump is Commander-in-Chief over the world’s mightiest military in history, and deployed it worldwide far beyond the empires of yore (Roman, Persian, Ottoman, British, Russian, Chinese…). He also has his finger on the button of the second-largest (if not the world’s best-maintained) arsenal of nuclear weapons. He also presides over the world’s largest economy, the world’s reserve trading currency, and the world’s largest global market capitalization in its stock markets.

One would think that the United States, as the world’s steward of the world’s postwar order and the most powerful economic and security agreements, would have a chief executive’s steady hand on the tiller.

But as you know, it’s been more a hand in the till. Trump and his minions have made billions peddling their influence in international negotiations in ways never seen before. Everything that happens in that world is transactional and self-profiteering. And with Trump’s mastery of media manipulation and “flooding the zone with shit,” with at least four media networks piping out supportive propaganda, every action by this rogue regime is supported by at least a quarter of the polled American public, no matter the contradictions, lies or hardships.

After than a decade of unrelenting control over the American mind space, a new normal has settled. This column is a letter about daily life in America under a crazy king, speaking as a professional political scientist who for professional reasons cannot look away…

“Internationalisation in Name Only: What Japan’s ALT System Reveals About Structural Limits in Education Reform”. Book summary of “More Than an Assistant”, by Nathaniel Reed (Amazon KDP, Global Classroom Author, 2026)

Posted on April 10, 2026April 12, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Summary: For decades, Japan has presented itself as an increasingly international society, and its education system has been one of the most visible sites of that effort. Tens of thousands of non-Japanese educators have been recruited into public schools to support English language learning, often framed as part of a broader commitment to global engagement. On paper, this appears progressive. In practice, it reveals a more constrained and carefully bounded model of internationalisation.

The Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) system is frequently described as a success story of exchange and cooperation. After nearly two decades working in and around Japanese public schools, I have come to see it less as a model of integration and more as a case study in how internationalisation can be implemented without altering underlying institutional structures. The issue is not simply how ALTs are treated, but how their role is defined and limited from the outset.

At the centre of this is the designation “assistant.” ALTs are not recognised as teachers, regardless of qualifications or experience, and are positioned outside the formal professional hierarchy. This is not merely a matter of terminology. In Japan, full teaching status is tied to licensure systems that are, in practice, closely linked to nationality and long-term institutional integration. While there are technical pathways for non-Japanese individuals to obtain teaching credentials, these are limited in scope and rarely align with the roles created for international hires. The system therefore recruits international staff into positions that are structurally excluded from advancement.

This is where the discussion moves beyond workplace experience and into institutional design. The ALT role does not sit on a pathway toward professional recognition; it is designed to remain adjacent to it. By maintaining the assistant designation, the system avoids the legal and administrative implications of recognising foreign educators as full participants, while still benefiting from their presence in classrooms.

The commonly cited phrase “ESID” (Every Situation Is Different) reflects how this structure is experienced on the ground. ALT roles vary widely between schools: some are actively involved in lesson planning and delivery, while others are confined to peripheral tasks. This variability is often explained as a cultural or logistical reality. In practice, it is a predictable outcome of decentralised governance. Local Boards of Education retain significant control over implementation, and there is limited national standardisation in training, evaluation, or role definition. Flexibility, in this context, becomes a mechanism through which inconsistency is normalised.

What is often overlooked is that this ambiguity operates within clear boundaries. ALTs may be given informal responsibility, but not formal authority. They may be relied upon in practice, but are not institutionally recognised. The system allows for variation in what ALTs do, but not in what they are.

This distinction matters because it shapes how internationalisation itself is understood. In many contexts, internationalisation implies structural change: the integration of international staff into existing professional frameworks, with corresponding rights, responsibilities, and career pathways. In Japan, the term often operates differently. It refers less to integration than to the visible presence of international elements within existing structures. The system appears globalised, while its underlying design remains largely unchanged.

Legal and administrative frameworks reinforce this stability. Public school teaching positions are embedded within a broader system of civil service employment, certification, and registration that is not easily reconfigured. Expanding full professional inclusion for international educators would require changes not only to hiring practices, but to licensure systems, employment categories, and, more broadly, how membership within institutional structures is defined. These are not incremental adjustments; they are structural questions.

The result is a model of internationalisation that is both functional and limited. The ALT system works in the sense that it delivers visible international presence and supports aspects of language education. At the same time, it maintains clear boundaries around authority, recognition, and long-term integration.

Japan is not alone in facing tensions between international recruitment and institutional inclusion. However, the scale and longevity of the ALT system make these dynamics particularly visible. After nearly forty years, its core features remain largely intact, suggesting that what appears as flexibility or ambiguity may in fact be a stable and deliberate configuration.

This raises a broader question. If internationalisation does not lead to structural inclusion, what is it intended to achieve?

These issues are explored in greater detail in More Than an Assistant: ALTs, Inclusion, and the Future of Educational Roles in Japan, which uses the ALT system to examine how education systems define roles, distribute authority, and maintain continuity even where inconsistencies are widely recognised.

Japan Times, “What you need to know about Japan’s new joint custody system: Advocates say that the changes will allow both parents to remain involved in the raising of their children”, March 24, 2026. On landmark legislation that came into effect on April 1, about 25 years too late for our generation of parents

Posted on April 1, 2026April 12, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Intro: Joint custody for divorced parents will be allowed from April 1 in Japan — one of the few jurisdictions in the world where custody has been granted to only one parent — in one of the biggest reforms to the country’s family law in decades.

For the first time ever, revisions to the Civil Code and related laws will allow parents to choose between sole custody or joint custody following a divorce. The Justice Ministry says the reform is aimed at placing “the best interests of the child” at the center of post-divorce arrangements.

Until now, sole custody was the only option a divorced couple had, in contrast with many Western countries where joint custody is commonplace. The system has long drawn criticism from foreign organizations — particularly in cases involving international marriages and cross-border custody disputes — because it robs the noncustodial parent from having any legal authority over major life decisions for the child.

Advocates say that the changes will allow both parents to remain involved in the raising of their children. However, critics warn that it could expose abuse victims to continued control by their former spouses and effectively cut off their only route of escape. Others say it places too much power in the hands of the family court, which decides whether or not to grant joint custody if the divorcing parents can’t come to an agreement on their own.

Other revisions to legislation include allowing trial visitation periods and having clearer procedures for the seizing of assets for a parent’s nonpayment of child support. Here’s what you need to know about the changes that take effect from April 1, 2026:

Debito’s Shingetsu News Agency col 73, “Revolution is Due in America” (March 1, 2026). Democracies happen because of a Middle Class, but you have to keep it fed and watered. America is no longer doing that.

Posted on March 1, 2026March 2, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Conclusion: Despite its 250th anniversary, American democracy has always been a bit creaky, with norms instead of laws that a chief executive could exploit. Countries that used the American model for their Nation-State wound up with autocratic executives. America didn’t because it got lucky. And because of that it never learned the outcomes of populism like France did. “It couldn’t happen here” has always been America’s blind spot.

But it IS happening here. America is experiencing crisis after crisis, and I predicted in an earlier column that there will be blood before this phase passes. ICE has already drawn blood without consequence. As in days of yore, the President and his henchman have a king’s immunity from accountability.

So where is the breaking point? Time for another prediction:

A draft executive order made public a few days ago dictates that Trump will declare a national emergency to take control of the 2026 Midterm Elections (for example, feds seizing ballot boxes and counting the votes themselves). This despite the administration of American elections being constitutionally delegated to the states.

I predict the breaking point will be when state and federal forces skirmish.

Already California’s Middle Class pays by far the most taxes to the federal government and gets the least back. This is basically true of 19 other mostly left-leaning states. Proposals have been floated to just not pay the feds—called “soft-secession”—and do better things with the $800 billion California would save. And that’s where the Democratic-leaning “blue states” are headed. Why should they pay the federal government to suppress them?

This is how the Middle Class is fighting back. As, historically, it always does when it is over-taxed and feeling like it’s not getting anything back.

Democracy exists for a reason. Compared to all the other governing systems, it is actually the best way to allocate resources over time. Let’s see if people in democracies can learn from history and change course.

But I’m not sure that’s going to happen in America. Trump has the most personal power of any president in American history, and he rules with complete historical incuriosity. His toadies only study historical examples of how to advance their power. They don’t study the backlash because they are so cocksure they can suppress it.

But there will be backlash—because the Middle Class aren’t powerless peasants. So, sadly, there will be more blood. Where it all ends up remains uncertain, but the conclusion of my lifelong learning is that I don’t think the American Nation-State can survive in its present form. Revolution is due.

DEBITO.ORG READERS’ ISSUES OF CONCERN, POST-ELECTION FEBRUARY 2026

Posted on February 9, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Past “Issues of Concern” pages are getting filled with comments that are running farther afield than the original title, so let’s create a new one now. This month, after the landslide election in favor of the LDP under a PM pandering to xenophobia, I think Debito.org Readers should be particularly concerned about where life is going.

Thanks as always for reading and contributing to Debito.org

My Shingetsu News Agency Visible Minorities column 72: “Confronting AI in Higher Education” (Jan 27, 2026), with decent primary source data on the harm being done to universities — by enabling students in the Social Sciences to cheat.

Posted on January 30, 2026July 6, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Excerpt: I teach Political Science, and have an express zero-tolerance policy towards the use of AI in students’ submitted assignments. Two semesters ago, my policy was to give zeros on assignments in the first instance and Fs in the course for repeat offenders. But last semester, this became untenable as AI reached the event horizon. AI went from something students were still discovering to being a regular part of their toolbox. Colleges were suddenly even encouraging them to use it. What this has signaled to students nationwide that they now have an alternative to doing the fundamental work of doing research—i.e., formulating a research question, gathering evidence to answer it, and presenting it for review in a coherent and convincing manner. Now you could ask a computer to do all that. And then copy-paste.

I have a strict rule against using AI in classes. Zero tolerance. Why? Because if I don’t enforce that, the flood gates open. Students who actually do their own work will grumble about being graded via demanding rubrics, while students who cheat their way through college will get away with high grades on something they didn’t create. This gives incentives for everyone to cheat, because why bother putting the effort in? And that in term moots the development of fundamental college skill sets of researching and writing. It also cheapens students’ degrees. Like getting a degree from a ‘party school,’ if the college becomes known as a degree from an ‘AI school,’ employers and the academy will discount student credentials even if they put in the work to get them. Guilt by association. Despite some colleges short-sightedly adopting AI as a tool, I see AI technology now undermining the very act of getting an education.

AI is not seen as cheating in all fields. For example, Math and Computer Sciences are all-in and don’t see it as a threat—more as a competitive advantage. AI saves them a lot of time and work, especially for computer programmers writing code or training to be cybersecurity analysts. But for us in the Humanities and Social Sciences, where we are trying to teach skills essential to basic critical thinking, AI is generally seen as a short-circuit. This divisiveness is why it’s been difficult for universities to come up with an official policy regarding AI use. So professors are left to decide their own policies. And zero tolerance is mine. This column gives statistics from teaching hundreds of students a semester to assess how effective this policy is at stemming the tsunami of cheating.

DEBITO.ORG READERS’ ISSUES OF CONCERN, JANUARY 2026

Posted on January 1, 2026January 3, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Mainichi & Asahi: 40% of Japan’s local govts received complaints about their policies designed to help NJ Residents. This fits a history of coordinated efforts from Far-Right internet trolls nationwide to stymie conscientious public policy. Hence being the “Good Gaijin” will not help you assimilate in this political climate.

Posted on December 22, 2025December 23, 2025 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

I post these two articles because they offer evidence that becoming a part of Japanese society isn’t just a matter of being “Good Gaijin”, e.g., contributing and behaving until “your outward appearance causes no particular problems”. These are good things to do, of course, but they are not a panacea, because the Netto Uyoku (Far-Right Internet Xenophobes and Trolls) in Japan are so well organized and will not accept NJ as Residents under any circumstances.

There is in fact a long history of the Netto Uyoku and helpful local government policies shot down one after another due to a storm of “complaints” like these (many of which aren’t even from local residents; see the Asahi article below the Mainichi in Japanese), as seen in this case study from 2013 about Tottori Prefecture passed, then UN-PASSED, a human rights ordinance. This is how the structural barriers to NJ Residents remain, and will not be removed until governments stand up to racists and trolls like these.

Mainichi: A Mainichi Shimbun survey covering 67 local bodies — 47 prefectural governments and 20 ordinance-designated cities — found that 40%, or 26 of 65 bodies responding to the survey, had instances of complaints, protests and opinions streaming in regarding foreigner policies over the past year. […] Several local governments indicated that complaints were driven by unverified or false information on social media. Of the 26 governments, 19 reported feeling burdened by handling complaints, with Miyagi Prefecture noting instances requiring 1 1/2 to 2 hours to respond and Shizuoka Prefecture revealing that staff were subjected to verbal abuse, causing them to feel scared of answering calls. While most governments said there was no impact on their policies from a rush of baseless complaints, Shizuoka Prefecture noted increased caution in sending out information on multicultural coexistence policies to avoid complaints. Nara Prefecture, while admitting there were cases where complaints, protests and opinions flooded in, refrained from responding to the survey due to concerns about similar incidents arising from media coverage.

Asahi: Miyagi Governor Yoshihiro Murai abruptly scrapped a plan to build burial sites for Muslims on Sept. 18, citing unanimous oppositiion from local mayors–just weeks ahead of the gubernatorial election. […] The proposal, which had been under consideration since late last year, sought to accommodate religious burial practices for foreign workers—but faced strong public opposition and political resistance. Murai revealed that between Sept. 13 and 17, he had called every mayor in the prefecture to confirm their position. “All of them said they could not accept the plan, even if the prefecture formally proposed it,” he said. […] When media reported in late December that Murai was considering building burial sites, the prefectural office was flooded with calls and emails expressing concern and opposition. […]

The prefecture has received more than 2,000 emails and phone calls to date. Approximately half of these reportedly came from outside the prefecture.

Despite the backlash, Murai initially stood firm. He said the plan was based on requests from Muslim residents and argued, “If we talk about multicultural coexistence, but ignore (burial) needs, that’s a failure of governance. Even if criticized, we must move forward.” In March, Murai condemned discriminatory social media posts targeting Muslims and reiterated his commitment to the burial site plan. […] The sudden reversal has sparked speculation that Murai’s decision was politically motivated. He is currently serving his fifth term and plans to run for a sixth. […] While the burial site plan was never part of his official campaign platform, some candidates voiced opposition, saying it could lead to increased immigration and should not be led by the prefecture. […] [T]he Muslim populations in the prefecture–once made up primarily of international students–now includes workers in the automotive and construction industries, reflecting both steady growth and increasing diversity.

My SNA Visible Minorities column 71: “Karen Hill Anton’s Willful Ignorance of History” (Dec 1, 2025), on how a self-declared spokesperson on behalf of Japan’s Visible Minorities is hurting them by deliberately ignoring info counter to her narrative

Posted on December 15, 2025June 9, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

If you’ve never heard of author and memoirist Karen Hill Anton, her accomplishments are impressive. After five decades of living in Japan, Anton has been hired for diversity training consultancies at corporations such as Shinsei Bank, Corning Japan, Eli Lilly, and Citigroup. A Freeman Foundation Fellow and Plenary Speaker at JALT 2022, Anton has also been a member of the Jun Ashida Educational Foundation, the Shizuoka Human Rights Association, and the Board of Overseers at Temple University, Japan. Her gigs include 14 years writing the “Crossing Cultures” column for the Japan Times, and another 15 writing the “Another Look” column for the Chunichi Shinbun. She has even advised the highest levels of the Japanese government, serving on the Internationalization in Education and Society Advisory Councils of Prime Ministers Obuchi and Hashimoto.

But in a recent essay, where she offered herself up as an example of how Visible Minorities live in Japan, she showed not only a willful ignorance of what other Visible Minorities have done to combat discrimination in Japan, but also essentially denied racial discrimination happens in Japan because it doesn’t rise to the level of racial discrimination in America. This needs to be called out, because when a prominent spokesperson for NJ in Japan tries to overwrite history (especially one I’ve painstakingly curated) as a self-promotion marketing gimmick, by minimizing, ignoring, denying or even deleting facts and other historical case studies because they don’t fit her narrative, that’s not just dogmatism. That’s dishonesty. And as people have been writing me since I first put this up on Debito.org, it’s hurting them.

It’s also one reason why it’s been difficult to get “Newcomer” Visible Minorities to unite and speak with one voice in the form of, for example, domestic anti-defamation leagues. (The “Oldcomer” Zainichi ethnic Koreans and Chinese do it much better.) Because spokespeople within the minorities’ own ranks undermine any potential social movement and self-disempower — by saying that all we have to do is cooperate and behave. After all, it worked for these spokespeople. They made a life out of it.

Denialism may be Karen Hill Anton’s survival strategy in Japan, but ultimately it’s not going to help Japan’s Visible Minorities, the very group she claims to speak for. Current Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently rose to power in part by blatantly lying about foreigners kicking park animals, and Cabinet minister Kimi Onoda (who herself was a dual citizen of Japan and America until she too was called out) promises to find new ways to scapegoat NJ Residents for Japan’s ills. All this pandering by the likes of Anton will mean little in the end. The powers-that-be will still treat you as second-class citizens and residents no matter how hard you try to assimilate.

Here’s the issue: The onus is not on NJ to scrape for acceptance, as Anton essentially advocates. The onus is on Japanese society and legal structures to treat all of its legal residents, regardless of citizenship, as human beings with equal rights. Karen Hill Anton’s methodology doesn’t lend itself to pushing for that. It’s certainly been an effective survival strategy for her, as she’s accomplished a lot for herself. But it should be seen for what it always has been: An isolated sample size of one. Not a template. And as she keeps on keeping on, vigilance: Anton should not be permitted to continue minimizing, ignoring, dismissing, or overwriting the history of other NJ in Japan.

Japan commentator Karen Hill Anton writes on “What Racism is — and isn’t — in Japan” (her Substack, Nov 12, 2025). I critique, as it’s under-researched and willfully ignorant of the historical record. UPDATE: Karen responds on her Substack to say anyone is “free to disagree” with her, then deletes all of our correspondence from her Substack (which I archive as screen captures here)

Posted on November 16, 2025June 8, 2026 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Karen Hill Anton, a memoirist, writer, and longtime columnist and commentator on Japan I respect a great deal (and have met in person), recently wrote something on her Substack that I take great issue with. It’s not only poorly researched. It misrepresents history, distorts the science, and even winds up disrespecting the activists who invested so much of their lives into this issue.

For example, she concludes her essay with: “There was an incident a some years ago in Japan when racism was charged in a civil suit against a shopkeeper who did not want a Brazilian woman in his jewelry store. The woman, who filed a discrimination lawsuit, and won — as well she should have — was described by a foreign journalist as “the Rosa Parks of Japan. Rosa Parks? Surely not the same Mrs. Rosa Parks, revered by Americans and people of conscience worldwide, for her courage and principled stance in literally sitting down while standing up to injustice. She succeeded in galvanizing a nation in challenging hundreds of years of oppression and institutionalized racism, protected by law, in the most powerful country on earth. That Rosa Parks? I don’t think so.”

Note what was left out by ending the essay there. No mention of the Otaru Onsens Case, which we took all the way to Japan’s Supreme Court, and where lower courts unanimously ruled that “Japanese Only” signs ARE “racial discrimination” (jinshu sabetsu). Or the Steve McGowan Case, where an African and African-American were refused entry to a store, and we caught the manager on tape expressly saying he refused Steve because he is black and he personally hates black people. Or the Yener Case. Or the Aigi Golf Club Case. Or any mention of the umpteen other lawsuits, many successful, regarding racial discrimination? How disrespectful to them!

I critique the rest of her essay in full because I don’t feel that an influential commentator should ignore and overwrite history just because it doesn’t fit her personal narrative on Japan.

UPDATE: I notified Karen that I critiqued her essay by posting to her Substack. She responded. But soon she just deleted my post to her Substack completely. All of that is substantiated with screen captures on this blog. My takeaway from this event is that willful omission is the MO behind this world view. A deliberate short-sightedness. No mention again in Karen’s response of the Otaru Onsens Case or anything any other case I mentioned beyond Ana Bortz. To Karen, as long as you put in the effort to contribute to your community, anything bad that happens is I guess your fault because you didn’t put in enough effort somehow. No amount of clear-cut examples to the contrary shall be factored in. They’ll even be deleted.

But for someone who continuously holds herself up as a template for how to live in Japan, both in writing and in her public speeches to places like JALT, this is dangerous behavior. I’ve already had one person contact me directly to say, “As a darker skinned minority whose kids were brutally bullied, who has experienced real racism, her platform and narrative allows real concerns to be dismissed.”

My SNA Visible Minorities column 70: “Takaichi’s PM Election Changes My Projections”, on how I have to recant my previous column because this new LDP party leader and probable PM is bad news (Oct 8, 2025).

Posted on October 5, 2025October 10, 2025 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Excerpt: PM Ishiba has since resigned his post and the LDP has had new elections for party leader. Stump speeches between successor candidates fell for the anti-foreigner hype and launched a foreigner-bashing olympics. Eventually the extremist candidate won, despite her weird past policy positions, overtly racist statements, and lying about, of all things, foreigners assaulting deer in a park.

Say hello to Sanae Takaichi, the LDP’s new leader and likely Japan’s first female PM.

But don’t celebrate Japan finally choosing a female. In Japan’s long history of women vying for the PM post — from opposition party leader but panderer to the LDP Takako Doi, to outspoken reformer but alleged foreigner Renho — Takaichi has prevailed. The problem is, her world view has been warped by Japan’s systemic sexism, and her policies ironically will only make things worse for her ilk.

Consider the Japanese metaphor (from the opening frame of “Barefoot Gen”) of how if wheat gets trampled down constantly, it eventually shoots back up with even stronger roots. In a society where women of talent have to work twice as hard to get half of what men do, women like Takaichi emerge far more resilient and studious of the rules of engagement in male-dominated societies.

That’s why Takaichi is particularly scary. Not only because she clearly can play the game, but also because, in her thirst for power, she learned the authoritarian playbook better than most…
Rest at https://shingetsunewsagency.com/2025/10/08/visible-minorities-takaichis-pm-election-changes-my-projections/

DEBITO.ORG READERS’ ISSUES OF CONCERN, SEPTEMBER 2025

Posted on September 26, 2025 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Past “Issues of Concern” pages are getting filled with comments that are running farther afield than the original title (such as last July’s UH Elections), so let’s create a new one now.

Thanks as always for reading and contributing to Debito.org.

My SNA Visible Minorities col 69: “Japan’s Rightward Swing is Overblown” (Aug 24, 2025), on how the emergence of Sanseito shouldn’t be ignored but it doesn’t deserve the media hype, as its ideas are neither new nor well-planned

Posted on August 25, 2025September 7, 2025 by Debito Arudou, Ph.D.

Excerpt: By the time I completed my column last month, Japan had held its July 20, 2025, Upper House elections. They deserve comment in this space, but not for the reasons you might expect.

The major takeaway was that the ruling conservative parties (the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito) lost seats, while opposition parties on the right, left, and center generally gained. Notably, for the first time since the LDP was founded in 1955, the party lost its ruling majority in both the Upper and Lower Houses of the National Diet. This meant they had to expand their coalition to stay in power, which they did—Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba remained in office.

So, my take is that we’ll have to wait and see whether Japan’s parliamentary system will become as fragile as, say, postwar Italy’s, with frequent elections (until recently) as coalitions fail. My read is pretty milquetoast. But that’s not what the media shouted about.

The headlines were dominated by the rise of a new far-right party called Sanseito, a “burgeoning” “election force” that “won big” and became “the talk of the town.” Sanseito openly trumpeted Trump-like themes, campaigning on a Japan First strategy, singling out foreigners as the cause of Japan’s woes, and promising xenophobic policies to disenfranchise, penalize, limit, or even expel non-Japanese. Their core stance is that foreign residents aren’t real members of Japanese society—even if they naturalize—and should never have equal access to taxpayer-funded services or constitutional guarantees.

One might expect me to “do a Debito” here, sounding the alarm about a new fascist era in Japan. But I’m going to argue the froth is overblown. I won’t tell people to ignore Sanseito, but this election is more a case study in media hype than a definitive political shift. Sanseito is saying nothing new and still lacks real power…