{"id":10630,"date":"2012-10-03T05:40:17","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T20:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10630"},"modified":"2012-10-03T06:01:31","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T21:01:31","slug":"debito-org-newsletter-october-1-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10630","title":{"rendered":"DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 1 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Books etc. by ARUDOU Debito (click on icon):
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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 1, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

Table of Contents:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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BAD POLITICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Mainichi: Japan\u2019s only human rights museum likely closing after Osaka Gov Hashimoto defunds, says doesn\u2019t teach Japan\u2019s \u201chopes & dreams\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) Discussion: JDG, Harumi Befu et.al on the end of Japan\u2019s internationalization and swing towards remilitarization<\/strong><\/p>\n

3) Kyodo: \u201cForeign caregiver program faces tightening\u201d: Death knell of program as J media finds ways to blame the gaijin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

4) Diet session ends, Hague Convention on Int\u2019l Child Abductions endorsement bill not passed<\/strong><\/p>\n

BAD SCIENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

5) AP Interview: Japan Nuke Probe Head Kurokawa defends his report, also apportions blame to NJ for Fukushima disaster!<\/strong><\/p>\n

6) Success, of a sort, as a \u201cGaijin Mask\u201d maker amends their racist product to \u201cGaikokujin Masks\u201d. Same racialized marketing, though.<\/strong><\/p>\n

7) Kyodo: J airport \u201crandom body searches\u201d start October. On \u201cint\u2019l passengers\u201d, naturally, so not so random, considering police precedents of racial profiling<\/strong><\/p>\n

8 ) Weird \u201cJapanese Only\u201d advertisement in U Hawaii Manoa Ka Leo student newspaper by Covance asking for medical-experiment volunteers<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026 and finally\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

9) Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column 55: Toot your own horn \u2014 don\u2019t let the modesty scam keep you down<\/strong><\/p>\n

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By ARUDOU, Debito (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, twitter @arudoudebito)
\nFreely forwardable<\/p>\n

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BAD POLITICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Mainichi: Japan\u2019s only human rights museum likely closing after Osaka Gov Hashimoto defunds, says doesn\u2019t teach Japan\u2019s \u201chopes & dreams\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s something quite indicative about the conservatives in Japan. As I will be alluding to in my next Japan Times column (due out October 2), there is an emphasis on making sure \u201chopes and dreams\u201d are part of Japan\u2019s future. Fine, but for Japan\u2019s conservatives, fostering \u201chopes and dreams\u201d means obliterating things like the shameful bits of Japan\u2019s past (which every country, doing an honest accounting of history, has). For Osaka Mayor Hashimoto (who just launched his ominously-named \u201cJapan Restoration Party\u201d), that means killing off Japan\u2019s only human-rights museum (which, when I visited, had a corner devoted to the Otaru Onsens Case). Because talking about how minorities in Japan combat discrimination against them is just too disruptive of Japan\u2019s \u201cdreamy\u201d national narrative:<\/p>\n

Tessa Morris-Suzuki<\/strong>: Founded in 1985, Liberty Osaka is Japan\u2019s only human rights museum. It features displays on the history of hisabetsu buraku communities (groups subject to social discrimination), the struggle for women\u2019s rights, and the stories of minority groups such as the indigenous Ainu community and the Korean minority in Japan. An important aspect of the museum is its depiction of these groups, not as helpless victims of discrimination, but rather as active subjects who have fought against discrimination, overcome adversity and helped to create a fairer and better Japanese society. By 2005 more than a million people had visited the Liberty Osaka. (See the museum\u2019s website (Japanese) and (English).)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, the museum faces the threat of closure. The Osaka city government has until now provided a crucial part of the museum\u2019s funding, but the current city government, headed by mayor Hashimoto T\u014dru, has decided to halt this funding from next year, on the grounds that the museum displays are \u2018limited to discrimination and human rights\u2019 and fail to present children with an image of the future full of \u2018hopes and dreams\u2019 (Mainichi Shinbun 25 July 2012)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10619<\/a><\/p>\n

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2) Discussion: JDG, Harumi Befu et.al on the end of Japan\u2019s internationalization and swing towards remilitarization<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a case that can be made nowadays that Japan is not only in decline, it\u2019s falling back on jingoism (beyond the standard nihonjinron and historical revisionism) to support the image of a Japan that was once better when it had fewer foreigners (or none, which was historically never the case).<\/p>\n

As my current research (more on this in future) has sought to demonstrate, Japan\u2019s (Postwar, not Prewar, cf. Oguma Eiji) national narrative of \u201cmonoculturalism, monoethnicity, and homogeneity\u201d has sponsored an ideological ethnic cleansing of Japan, thanks in part to revolving-door visa regimes and all manner of incentives to make sure that few \u201cvisibly foreign\u201d foreigners stay here forever (hence the prioritizing of the Nikkei) for they agitate for more rights as generational residents (consider the visas that can be cancelled or phased out pretty much at government whim; we\u2019ve seen it before with, for example, the Iranians in the late 1990s).<\/p>\n

And if you ever thought \u201cthe next generation of younger Japanese will be more liberal\u201d, we now have Osaka Gov Hashimoro Touru (younger than I) also supporting historical revisionism (see below) and forming the \u201cJapan Restoration Party\u201d (the poignantly and ominously-named Nihon Ishin no Kai) on September 12, 2012. With the recent saber-rattling (which nation-states indulge in periodically to draw public attention away from larger social problems, in Japan\u2019s case the issues of nuclear power and the irradiating food chain) and the overblown flaps over the Takeshima\/Tokdo and Senkaku\/Diaoyu ocean specks, we have an emerging vision of Japan as a remilitarized power in Asia, courtesy of Debito.org Reader JDG.<\/p>\n

I thought we\u2019d have a discussion about that here. Take a look through the resource materials below and consider whether or not you share the apprehension that I (and some major academics overseas, including Ted Bestor and Harumi Befu, at the very bottom) have about Japan\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10554<\/a><\/p>\n

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3) Kyodo: \u201cForeign caregiver program faces tightening\u201d: Death knell of program as J media finds ways to blame the gaijin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s have a look at what\u2019s becoming of Japan\u2019s latest \u201crevolving door\u201d labor visa regime scam (after the \u201cTrainees\u201d, the \u201cNikkei Returnees\u201d, and the \u201cPoints System\u201d): the \u201cforeign caregivers\u201d, which has ground to a halt due to the (otherwise fully-qualified) NJ health professionals themselves realizing that the systematic barriers were creating an exploitative regime. So now according to Kyodo News it looks like it\u2019s being scaled back. But not without kicking someone in the ribs first. As submitter JDG notes:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe foreign caregiver program was launched because there was a realization that the looming shortage of caregivers to meet Japan\u2019s aging population had already arrived. However, as you have documented, from it\u2019s inception it has been riddled with unrealistic expectations, low pay, harsh conditions, few incentives, and subject to some strange accounting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, here is the logical conclusion: foreign caregivers are \u2018gaijin criminals taking advantage of the system\u2019. Rather than examining what is wrong with the system, the (of course) natural response by officials is to make the program even tougher to live with for caregivers. Only a Kyoto University Prof. seems to have any sense about him. I would say that this development will mark the end (in real terms) of the program. Of course, it\u2019s all the NJ\u2019s fault\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10497<\/a><\/p>\n

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4) Diet session ends, Hague Convention on Int\u2019l Child Abductions endorsement bill not passed<\/strong><\/p>\n

After much political gridlock (the likes of which have not been seen, since, oh, the LDP was in power and the DPJ controlled the Upper House \u2014 not that long ago), the current Diet session is over, and one bill that matters to Debito.org did not pass: The one endorsing Japan\u2019s accession to the Hague Convention on International Child Abductions. You know \u2014 the treaty that just about everyone else in the club of rich developed nations has signed, and the one that stops you at an international border if you\u2019re traveling single with a child, demanding proof that you\u2019re not abducting your child from the other parent. It\u2019s a good idea, since divorce in Japan due to the Koseki Family Registry System results in one parent (regardless of nationality) losing all legal ties to the child, and leads in many (almost all, it\u2019s estimated) cases to the child growing up with no contact whatsoever (since Japan does not allow joint custody) with the noncustodial parent. It\u2019s even worse for international marriages, and Japan has gotten a lot of pressure from other countries in recent years to sign. Now unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n

Well, so Japan will remain a haven for child abductions, both domestic and international. But the interesting thing I\u2019m seeing concrete evidence of these days is overseas Japanese taking advantage of this system, banding together to assist each other in abducting their children to Japan, and the Japanese embassies\/consulates cooperating with them as they spirit them into Japan. (I\u2019ll blog about that someday once I receive permission to make that information public.)<\/p>\n

But as I have argued before, I\u2019m not sure it really matters if Japan signs the Hague. The GOJ has signed other treaties before (most notably the Convention for Elimination on Racial Discrimination), and refuses to enforce them under domestic laws with criminal penalties (or in Japan\u2019s case regarding the CERD, now signed 17 years ago, refuses to create any laws at all). In the Hague\u2019s case, the GOJ was looking for ways to caveat themselves out of enforcing it (by creating laws of their own advantageous to Wajin spiriters of children that would trump the HCICA, or finding loopholes, such as claims of DV (that only NJ inflict upon us gentle, mild, weak, peaceful Wajin), that would allow the children to stay in Japan out of fear.) Or, true to character, we\u2019ll have people claiming that it\u2019s a matter of \u201cJapanese custom\u201d (shuukan), the last resort for any unjustifiable situation (only this time coming from elected Japanese Dietmember Ido Masae who herself abducted her kids). It\u2019s pretty messy, by design, so visit the Children\u2019s Rights Network Japan Website to try and untangle it.<\/p>\n

So I guess the question I\u2019d like to open up for discussion is: Is it better for a nation-state to be bold-faced about it and just say, \u201cWe can\u2019t enforce this treaty due to our culture, so we\u2019re not going to sign it, and if you don\u2019t like it, don\u2019t marry our citizens\u201d? Or, is it better for a nation-state to sign it, not enforce it, and face the (geopolitically mild) pressure of a broken promise? I know which route the GOJ has taken so far.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10548<\/a><\/p>\n

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BAD SCIENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

5) AP Interview: Japan Nuke Probe Head Kurokawa defends his report, also apportions blame to NJ for Fukushima disaster!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s something interesting. A Debito.org Reader submits an article about an AP interview with the head investigator behind the Fukushima Nuclear Disasters, Kurokawa Hiroshi, who in his report on what caused the disaster (depending on which version you read) not only points a finger away from \u201cspecific executives or officials\u201d (rather blaming \u201cingrained conventions of Japanese culture\u201d), but also rather subtly points a finger at NJ. As written below, part of the responsibility also lies within the international community. Quote:<\/p>\n

\u201c[Kurokawa] said [his six-month investigation] showed that bureaucrats brushed off evidence of tsunami risks that had been clear as far back as 2006, and that representatives from international watchdog groups took travel money from the utilities.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gosh, travel money as hush money? That must have been quite a lavish journey. As the submitter notes: \u201cNJ allowed themselves into being bribed by TEPCO, and therefore, failed to make sure TEPCO was acting properly? Total blame shifting. Why didn\u2019t he say that in his English presentation to the FCCJ?\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps because \u201cKurokawa made similar points in other parts of the report,\u201d sort of thing (see article)? Or maybe it\u2019s the flip side of \u201cwe\u2019re all victims\u201d now: \u201cWe\u2019re all to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10567<\/a><\/p>\n

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6) Success, of a sort, as a \u201cGaijin Mask\u201d maker amends their racist product to \u201cGaikokujin Masks\u201d. Same racialized marketing, though.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Been doing some writing and inserting the definition of \u201cgaijin\u201d in Japan in terms of marketing into my research, and found that the \u201cGaijin Mask\u201d found at Tokyu Hands in 2009 and featured on Debito.org has recently been changed to \u201cGaikokujin Mask\u201d, according to Amazon Japan.<\/p>\n

Note the stereotypical racialized characteristics for both \u201cdokkiri\u201d party goods include large a large nose, blue eyes, cleft chin, blond hair, \u201cHollywood smile,\u201d and grand gesticulations. The default language for the \u201cforeigner\u201d (as seen by the har\u014d and ha-i!) is English (if not katakana Japanese for the desu copula). However, \u201cgaijin\u201d has been adjusted to \u201cgaikokujin\u201d (as if that makes the commodification of racism all better).<\/p>\n

Note also that even though this apparently has been a recent change (information was received by Amazon Japan only last month), it\u2019s suddenly \u201cCurrently unavailable\u201d and \u201ccan not be shipped outside Japan\u201d. (I wonder if anyone looking at the product with an IP in Japan is also unable to purchase it.) See screen capture here:<\/p>\n

Same thing with the racialized Little Black Sambo dolls I found on Amazon Japan last night (which have been on sale since shortly after unbook Little Black Sambo was resuscitated in Japan, extending racism into the next generation): It\u2019s also \u201cCurrently unavailable.\u201d And not for sale anyway outside of Japan. So methinks the producers are well aware that they could get in trouble if marketed to an overseas audience. But no matter \u2014 there\u2019s money to be made here \u2014 who cares if the product is racialized when the domestic market from childhood thinks racism of this sort is unproblematic?\u2026<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10591<\/a><\/p>\n

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7) Kyodo: J airport \u201crandom body searches\u201d start October. On \u201cint\u2019l passengers\u201d, naturally, so not so random, considering police precedents of racial profiling<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kyodo<\/strong>: The transport ministry said Thursday it will start conducting random body searches on international passengers at 29 airports across the country in October to prevent explosives from slipping through metal detectors. At present, body searches are only performed on passengers who set off metal detectors before boarding, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry [sic]. The ministry did not elaborate on how the body searches would be carried out or by whom.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: Well, the ministry might well use the word \u201crandom\u201d, but precedent dictates that enforcement of any policing operation in favor of \u201csecurity\u201d tends to see anyone who \u201clooks foreign\u201d as the security threat. Examples are Legion here on Debito.org, but see a few here, here, here, here, and here. My point is that we\u2019re just making racial profiling, which is standard procedure in policing operations in Japan, ever more systematic and justified under formal policy. After all, without the \u201cprobable cause\u201d of a metal detector alarm, the procedure has now become completely discretionary.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10565<\/a><\/p>\n

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8 ) Weird \u201cJapanese Only\u201d advertisement in U Hawaii Manoa Ka Leo student newspaper by Covance asking for medical-experiment volunteers<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently researching on the University of Hawaii Manoa Campus, and late last month I found this weird advertisement in the Ka Leo student newspaper (August 20, 2012, the debut issue for the start of the semester for maximum exposure):<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you ever wanted to help Japanese people in a way that could make a meaningful difference? Participating in a clinical trial can be a deeply rewarding way to possibly help advance medical breakthroughs in Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cVolunteers should be: Healthy, between the ages of 18 and 60, born in Japan, or have both parents or all 4 grandparents born in Japan\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThink you can volunteer? Great! COVANCE, Honolulu, Hawaii\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The upshot: We want healthy \u201cJapanese\u201d for \u201cmedical breakthroughs in Japan\u201d (as opposed to breakthroughs in medical science anywhere). I smell patents, or at least patently racist language of \u201ctesting Japanese for Japanese since Japanese bodies are different\u201d that infiltrates Japan\u2019s physical and social sciences. But what I find especially interesting about this ad is the imported racialized conceits about what defines a \u201cJapanese\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10563<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2026 and finally\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

9) Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column 55: Toot your own horn \u2014 don\u2019t let the modesty scam keep you down<\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan Times, Tuesday, Sep. 4, 2012<\/strong>
\n JUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n Toot your own horn \u2014 don\u2019t let the modesty scam keep you down<\/strong>
\nCourtesy http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/text\/fl20120904ad.html<\/a>
\nBlogged version with reader comments at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10539<\/a>
\nBy ARUDOU DEBITO<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

All for this month. Thanks for reading!
\nDEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 1, 2012 ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Table of Contents:
\nBAD POLITICS
\n1) Mainichi: Japan\u2019s only human rights museum likely closing after Osaka Gov Hashimoto defunds, says doesn\u2019t teach Japan\u2019s \u201chopes & dreams\u201d
\n2) Discussion: JDG, Harumi Befu et.al on the end of Japan\u2019s internationalization and swing towards remilitarization
\n3) Kyodo: \u201cForeign caregiver program faces tightening\u201d: Death knell of program as J media finds ways to blame the gaijin?
\n4) Diet session ends, Hague Convention on Int\u2019l Child Abductions endorsement bill not passed
\nBAD SCIENCE
\n5) AP Interview: Japan Nuke Probe Head Kurokawa defends his report, also apportions blame to NJ for Fukushima disaster!
\n6) Success, of a sort, as a \u201cGaijin Mask\u201d maker amends their racist product to \u201cGaikokujin Masks\u201d. Same racialized marketing, though.
\n7) Kyodo: J airport \u201crandom body searches\u201d start October. On \u201cint\u2019l passengers\u201d, naturally, so not so random, considering police precedents of racial profiling
\n8 ) Weird \u201cJapanese Only\u201d advertisement in U Hawaii Manoa Ka Leo student newspaper by Covance asking for medical-experiment volunteers
\n\u2026 and finally\u2026
\n9) Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column 55: Toot your own horn \u2014 don\u2019t let the modesty scam keep you down<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}