{"id":11322,"date":"2013-04-01T09:56:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T19:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11322"},"modified":"2013-04-01T09:56:39","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T19:56:39","slug":"debito-org-newsletter-march-31-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11322","title":{"rendered":"DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MARCH 31, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MARCH 31, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Table of Contents:<\/strong><\/em>
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THE UGLY SIDE OF JAPAN’S RIGHTWARD SHIFT (1): BIGOTRY AND HATRED<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Feb 9 2013 Tokyo Shin-Ohkubo Anti-Korean demonstrator slogans: \u201cGood or Bad, Kill All Koreans\u201d etc.<\/strong>
\n 2) Letters from J human rights groups to the visiting Olympic Committee re Tokyo 2020: Discrimination in Japan violates IOC Charter<\/strong>
\n 3) My latest academic paper on Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus: \u201cJapan\u2019s Rightward Swing and the Tottori Prefecture Human Rights Ordinance\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

4) Interesting cases: naturalized Japanese sues city councilor fiance who jilted her for Korean ethnicity, Pakistani parents file criminal complaint for injurious school bullying, Hatoyama Yukio officially called \u201ctraitor\u201d for not toeing official party line on Senkaku\/Nanjing issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE UGLY SIDE OF JAPAN’S RIGHTWARD SHIFT (2): ELITE DOMINANCE AND INSULARITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

5) Prof. Kashiwazaki Chikako: Japan\u2019s Nationality Law and immigration policy deviates from current international legal norm<\/strong>
\n 6) SITYS: GOJ\u2019s new \u201cPoints System\u201d to attract \u201chigher-skilled\u201d NJ being reviewed due to dearth of applications, impossibly high hurdles<\/strong>
\n 7) JT\/Kyodo: Record high applicants for J refugee status. Why media fixation on refugees? Because they are a bellwether of Japan\u2019s \u201clegitimacy as a competent, advanced, Western democracy\u201d<\/strong>
\n 8 ) Asahi: Business leaders call for law to allow firing of workers without justification: i.e., the gaijinization of all workplaces<\/strong>
\n 9) JT on \u201cKyakkan Setsu vs. Nibun Setsu\u201d: Grey zones in compensation for \u201cwork hours\u201d in Japan<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

10) Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Col 61 March 5, 2013: \u201cChild\u2019s quibble with U.S. \u2018poverty superpower\u2019 propaganda unravels a sobering story about insular Japan\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

PLUS bonus follow-up:<\/em><\/strong>
\n11) Tangent: Tsutsumi Mika\u2019s crooked Jewish character \u201cGoldberg\u201d in her \u201cUSA Poverty Superpower\u201d manga.<\/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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THE UGLY SIDE OF JAPAN’S RIGHTWARD SHIFT (1): BIGOTRY AND HATRED<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Feb 9 2013 Tokyo Shin-Ohkubo Anti-Korean demonstrator slogans: \u201cGood or Bad, Kill All Koreans\u201d etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was only a matter of time. Debito.org has reported on anti-NJ demonstrations in the past (start here). And after the Takeshima\/Dokdo Islands dispute, public displays of xenophobic hatred by Japan\u2019s strengthening Right Wing has been increasingly directed towards Zainichi Koreans in their Tokyo neighborhoods (see here).<\/p>\n

Now comes the next step: Public demonstrations advocating violence and death, marching through an ethnic Korean neighborhood in Tokyo for maximum effect and impact. They are happening. Check out these photos of demonstrator signs, taken February 9, 2013, courtesy of a human rights lawyer and used with permission. Here is a video of that demonstration, taken in Shin-Okubo along Meiji Doori and Ohkubo-Doori on February 9, 2013:<\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: \u201cKOREANS: HANG YOURSELVES, DRINK POISON, LEAP TO YOUR DEATHS.\u201d \u201cGOOD OR BAD, KILL ALL KOREANS.\u201d At this rate, it is only a matter of time before these threats of violence become real. Still holding out hope that \u201cJapan is a peaceful, nonviolent society\u201d and is therefore somehow exceptional? Heed this warning: People are people anywhere you go, and when encouraged in this way to resort to violence, eventually there will be blood. Time to wake up and recognize what is happening in Japan before it is too late.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11234<\/a><\/p>\n

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2) Letters from J human rights groups to the visiting Olympic Committee re Tokyo 2020: Discrimination in Japan violates IOC Charter<\/strong><\/p>\n

The International Olympic Committee is currently in Japan considering Tokyo as a venue for the 2020 Summer Games. In light of recent events that point to clear examples of discrimination and advocacy of violence towards, for example, Koreans (see below), human rights groups in Japan are advocating that the IOC understand that these actions violate the Olympic Charter and choose their venue accordingly. Articles, photos, and letters follow from the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (Nichibenren), Tanaka Hiroshi in the Mainichi Shinbun, and sources demonstrating that, for example, all GOJ educational subsidies for Korean ethnic schools have been eliminated as of 2013 from government budgets.<\/p>\n

Academic Tessa Morris-Suzuki might agree with the assessment of rising discrimination, as she documents on academic website Japan Focus the protection of xenophobic Rightists and the police harassment of their liberal opponents. Her conclusion: \u201cBut there is no rule of law if the instigators of violence are left to peddle hatred with impunity, while those who pursue historical justice and responsibility are subject to police harassment. There is no respect for human rights where those in power use cyber bullying in an attempt to silence their opponents. And democracy is left impoverished when freedom of hate speech is protected more zealously than freedom of reasoned political debate.\u201d Have a look.<\/p>\n

SITYS. This is yet but another example of Japan\u2019s clear and dangerous swing to the Right under PM Abe. And granting an Olympics to this regime despite all of this merely legitimize these tendencies, demonstrating that Japan will be held to a different standard regarding discrimination. Wake up, IOC.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11240<\/a><\/p>\n

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3) My latest academic paper on Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus: \u201cJapan\u2019s Rightward Swing and the Tottori Prefecture Human Rights Ordinance\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 9, No. 3, March 4, 2013.<\/strong>
\n Japan\u2019s Rightward Swing and the Tottori Prefecture Human Rights Ordinance<\/strong>
\n By Arudou Debito<\/strong>
\n ABSTRACT<\/strong>
\nJapan\u2019s swing to the right in the December 2012 Lower House election placed three-quarters of the seats in the hands of conservative parties. The result should come as no surprise. This political movement not only capitalized on a putative external threat generated by recent international territorial disputes (with China\/Taiwan over the Senkaku\/Diaoyu islands and with South Korea over Takeshima\/Dokdo islands). It also rode a xenophobic wave during the 2000s, strengthened by fringe opposition to reformers seeking to give non-Japanese more rights in Japanese politics and society.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This article traces the arc of that xenophobic trajectory by focusing on three significant events: The defeat in the mid-2000s of a national \u201cProtection of Human Rights\u201d bill (jinken y\u014dgo h\u014dan); Tottori Prefecture\u2019s Human Rights Ordinance of 2005 that was passed on a local level and then rescinded; and the resounding defeat of proponents of local suffrage for non-citizens (gaikokujin sanseiken) between 2009-11. The article concludes that these developments have perpetuated the unconstitutional status quo of a nation with no laws against racial discrimination in Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11273<\/a><\/p>\n

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4) Interesting cases: naturalized Japanese sues city councilor fiance who jilted her for Korean ethnicity, Pakistani parents file criminal complaint for injurious school bullying, Hatoyama Yukio officially called \u201ctraitor\u201d for not toeing official party line on Senkaku\/Nanjing issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are a couple of interesting cases that have fallen through the cracks recently, what with all the higher-level geopolitical flurry and consequent hate speech garnering so much attention. With not much to link them thematically except that these are complaints made into public disputes, let me combine them into one blog post and let them stand for themselves as bellwethers of the times.<\/p>\n

First up, we have a criminal complaint filed with the police for classroom bullying resulting in serious injury due to his Pakistani ethnicity. This is one of a long line of cases of ethnic bullying in Japan, once again with insufficient intervention by authorities, and we\u2019re lucky this time it hasn\u2019t resulted yet in PTSD or a suicide. Like it has in these cases here with an ethnic Chinese schoolgirl, with an Indian student in 2007, or a Filipina-Japanese student in 2010 (in the last case NHK neglected to mention ethnicity as an issue). Of course, even here the Mainichi declines to give the name of the school involved. Whatever happened to perennial promises of a \u201cmajor bullying study\u201d at the ministerial level a couple of years ago to prevent things like this? Or of grassroots NGO actions way back when?<\/p>\n

Next, here\u2019s an article about a victim fighting back. We have a thirty-something city councilor (in another unnamed local government in Hyougo-Ken) who proposed (in writing) to a woman (now 28, who accepted), then broke it off as soon as he heard that she was a Japanese citizen with a Zainichi Korean grandfather (horrors \u2014 how that might damage his political career!, he said). So in October of last year (appearing in an article dated January 28, 2013), she sued him for 2.4 million yen. Stay tuned. Interesting to see if the outcome will indicate how, once again, naturalization still doesn\u2019t make a former NJ a \u201creal Japanese\u201d in elite society\u2019s eyes:<\/p>\n

And finally, courtesy of japanCRUSH last January, we have this interesting titbit: \u201cJapanese defense minister Onodera Itsunori is the latest politician to enter the fray by calling former prime minister Hatoyama Yukio a \u2018traitor\u2019 on a television programme. Onodera\u2019s remark came after Hatoyama commented to Chinese officials that the Senkaku Islands should be recognised as disputed territory, rather than Japanese territory, during his trip to China. Interestingly, Hatoyama caused further controversy this week when he apologised for the Nanjing massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n

So this is what it\u2019s coming to. Dissent from prominent Japanese (who, in Hatoyama\u2019s case, are no longer even political representatives) who act on their conscience, deviate from the saber-rattling party line, and show any efforts at reconciliation in this era of regional brinkmanship get decried as \u201ctraitors\u201d. Doesn\u2019t seem like there is much space for tolerance of moderate or diverse views (or people) anymore.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11117<\/a><\/p>\n

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THE UGLY SIDE OF JAPAN’S RIGHTWARD SHIFT (2): ELITE DOMINANCE AND INSULARITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

5) Prof. Kashiwazaki Chikako: Japan\u2019s Nationality Law and immigration policy deviates from current international legal norm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the years I have gotten from many corners (particularly from people who have not researched things too deeply) how \u201cjus sanguinis\u201d (law of blood) requirements for Japanese citizenship are not all that far from the international norm, and how Japan\u2019s Nationality Law (which requires blood ties to a Japanese citizen for conferral of Japanese nationality) is but one example of many in the community of nations that confer nationality\/citizenship by blood.<\/p>\n

Well, I knew both from experience and in my gut that there was something wrong with that. I felt that Japan\u2019s method of conferring nationality\/citizenship was quite specially exclusive (for example, we\u2019ve had half a million Zainichi former citizens of Empire excluded from full \u201cDenizenship\u201d (see below) in Japanese society for three Postwar generations now, and only a tiny number of people becoming naturalized Japanese citizens every year). This exclusion (which every nation does when deciding national membership, but\u2026) has been done in ways unbecoming of a country with the reputation of being a legitimate, competent, advanced Western democracy \u2014 one Japan has had since its emergence as a \u201crich society\u201d in the 1980s \u2014 and thus expected to take on a greater role in international cooperation (such as acceptance of refugees) by accepting international legal norms (such as signing and enforcing international treaties).<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ve found something in writing from someone who HAS researched things deeply, Prof. Kashiwazaki Chikako at Keio, and she too finds that Japan\u2019s policies towards the outside world are outside the international norm. Excerpts from one of her writings follows:<\/p>\n

Conclusion: It has never been policy in Japan, despite all the promises we heard in the \u201cKokusaika\u201d 1980s about \u201cgetting in, making the effort to work hard in Japanese companies, learning the language and culture, and ultimately becoming Japanese like everyone else\u201d, to let immigrants stay or make it easier for them to stay. So it\u2019s not going to happen (no matter what recent flawed GOJ Cabinet opinion polls claim about the public\u2019s \u201cno longer rejecting\u201d NJ), because of official government policy not to let people settle, and because policymakers don\u2019t trust foreigners to ever be \u201cJapanese\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11260<\/a><\/p>\n

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6) SITYS: GOJ\u2019s new \u201cPoints System\u201d to attract \u201chigher-skilled\u201d NJ being reviewed due to dearth of applications, impossibly high hurdles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asahi: A policy initiative designed to encourage highly skilled foreign professionals to come and stay in Japan is not working out as the Justice Ministry had envisioned. In fact, the point-based system has proved so unpopular that it is being reviewed only a year after it was introduced. […] According to the Justice Ministry, less than 1,000 will likely be certified in the initial year, compared with 2,000 that officials had expected.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: We\u2019ve talked about Japan\u2019s \u201cPoints System\u201d before on Debito.org, where I took a dim view of it as just another \u201crevolving door\u201d labor visa regime to bring people over, leech off their prime working lives, and then boot them back home without letting them settle and reap the rewards for contributing to Japanese society (cf. the \u201cTrainees\u201d, the \u201cNikkei Returnees\u201d, and the \u201cforeign caregivers\u201c, all of whom I have written about for the Japan Times). Well, now, in yet another episode of SITYS (\u201cSee I Told You So\u201d), Asahi reports the \u201cPoints System\u201d is going through similar \u201crevisions\u201d as the visa scams above due to a dearth of applications. As I thought would happen \u2014 the PS\u2019s qualifying hurdles are simply too high. Even if one assumes good faith in Japan\u2019s policymakers (some of whom do see the slow-motion demographic disaster in progress due to crushing public debt unsupportable by a society that is shrinking and aging) who might want to treat \u201cforeign laborers\u201d as people, Japan\u2019s bureaucrats are so paranoid about NJ somehow \u201cabusing\u201d the system that they make it practically impossible for anyone to ever \u201cuse\u201d the system to their benefit. Again, the GOJ keep wanting \u201cworkers\u201d and discover to their surprise later that they imported \u201cpeople\u201d, with livelihood needs beyond mere work hours converted into \u201cthe privilege of living in Japan\u201d. These policy failures will keep happening again and again until NJ are treated as \u201cpeople\u201d, and given a fair chance by the GOJ at becoming \u201cJapanese\u201d (with transfers of political, economic, and social power \u2014 and that includes input at the policymaking stage too). But I still don\u2019t see that happening anytime soon.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11300<\/a><\/p>\n

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7) JT\/Kyodo: Record high applicants for J refugee status. Why media fixation on refugees? Because they are a bellwether of Japan\u2019s \u201clegitimacy as a competent, advanced, Western democracy\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Making national news whenever statistics come out is how Japan deals with (i.e., mostly rejects) refugees. I was always curious about why refugee numbers have always been considered newsworthy (when there are many other significant NJ-related statistics that merit more fanfare but don\u2019t, such as the number of \u201cNewcomers\u201d with Permanent Residency overtaking the \u201cOldcomer\u201d Zainichis with Special Permanent Residency in 2007, representing a sea change in the composition of permanent immigrant NJs in Japan). But then I found something in an academic writing that put things in perspective: Acceptance of refugees are one bellwether of Japan\u2019s acceptance of international norms, as part of its \u201cgreater role in international cooperation\u201d and an attempt \u201cto increase its legitimacy as a competent, advanced Western democracy\u201d. First the most recent news article, then the academic article to put it in perspective:<\/p>\n

Kyodo<\/strong>: In 2011, there were 21 foreigners recognized as refugees, but for 2012, the number fell to 18. Since Japan began its refugee recognition system in 1982, there have been 14,299 people who applied and 616 who were recognized as refugees.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Kashiwazaki<\/strong>: Since the mid-1970s, Japan has come into prominence in the international arena as a major player in the world economy. Internationalization became a slogan for the new direction of the country, with demands from both within and abroad to open, to take a leadership role, and to assume international responsibility. For the Japanese government, successful economic development provided the opportunity to assume a greater role in international cooperation and to increase its legitimacy as a competent, advanced Western democracy. To do so would require accepting an emerging set of international legal norms, including those in the area of citizenship\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The end of the Vietnam War in 1975 generated refugees from Indochina. In the same year, the G7 Summit meeting was established. As the only Asian country admitted to membership in the G7 Summit, Japan was obliged to take some steps to accommodate refugees\u2026 With the acceptance of refugees, the Japanese government was compelled to join relevant international conventions. Japan acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural, Rights in 1979, and then ratified the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees in 1981.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: Japan basically only acceded to these international norms and agreements as a vanity project \u2014 a matter of \u201cnot looking like an outlier\u201d in the international community. Not because policymakers had any good-faith interest in helping NJ or outsiders in need come to Japan and settle. That\u2019s why we see honne hiccoughs from time to time (like the one in 2010 when a 78-year-old Zainichi granny was denied social welfare by Oita Prefectural Government \u2014 where a court ruled that \u201cWelfare payments to non-citizens would be a form of charity\u201d. So much for those international treaties guaranteeing equal treatment being respected by Japan\u2019s judiciary!). We\u2019ve also seen how Japan simply will not pass a law against racial discrimination (despite signing another international agreement, the UN CERD, in 1995) \u2014 and will in fact counteract anyone who does. So in this context, Kyodo\u2019s reporting that \u201csince Japan began its refugee recognition system in 1982, there have been 14,299 people who applied and 616 who were recognized as refugees,\u201d should come as no surprise. The GOJ has no intention of keeping its international treaty promises. They are merely national self-esteem boosters, not real guidelines or goals.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11282<\/a><\/p>\n

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8 ) Asahi: Business leaders call for law to allow firing of workers without justification: i.e., the gaijinization of all workplaces<\/strong><\/p>\n

Asahi<\/strong>: Business leaders at a government panel have proposed that employers in Japan be allowed to fire workers at their discretion as a way to improve the nation\u2019s economic growth. Members of the Industrial Competitiveness Council called March 15 for rules that will, in principle, allow employers to dismiss regular employees freely if the workers are compensated with \u201cre-employment support.\u201d The council is chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: Debito.org has previously discussed the curious phenomenon of \u201cGaijin as Guinea Pig\u201d, where future reforms that put the general public at a disadvantage to the elite are first tested out and normalized through application on Japan\u2019s foreigners. For example, \u201cAcademic Apartheid\u201d (the practice of contracting all NJ educators while granting Japanese educators tenure from day one in Japan\u2019s higher education system) gave way to contract employment for every educator in 1997. More examples here. Now according to the Asahi we have the previous legally-enshrined practice of making all workers (roudousha) protected by Japan\u2019s labor laws being chipped away at. Previously seen in the labor-law exemption given NJ workers under \u201cTrainee\u201d Visas (e.g., foreign factory workers, farm laborers, caregivers), we are now seeing a similar push to exempt all Japanese workers from labor law protections. Japan hopes to make themselves more attractive to international labor migration when they\u2019re in process of making an exploitative labor market even more so, for everybody? Again, deserves to be known about.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11308<\/a><\/p>\n

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9) JT on \u201cKyakkan Setsu vs. Nibun Setsu\u201d: Grey zones in compensation for \u201cwork hours\u201d in Japan<\/strong><\/p>\n

As our last post talked about labor law issues (and the proposal to abridge Labor Standards in favor of greater \u201cflexibility\u201d to dismiss labor without reasons), here\u2019s an important article that came out in the Japan Times last December that I was waiting to get to, discussing issues once again of employer power over employees: When is a person under the authority of his or her employer, deserving compensation as \u201cwork time\u201d? Okunuki talks about important cases in a very enlightening article about just how grey \u201cwork hours\u201d are, and underscoring how powerless Japanese employees are regarding all that overtime going unpaid \u2014 how many people take things to court or to labor unions to fight under this precedent, or are even aware of \u201ckyakkan setsu vs. nibun setsu\u201d?. And the proposal we discussed last blog entry is to give even more power to employers?<\/p>\n

JT: The Labor Standards Law sidesteps a proper definition, and labor law scholars fall into two camps over how a work hour should be defined. One subscribes to what is known as kyakkan-setsu, roughly translating as \u201cobjective theory.\u201d This camp argues that work hours are the entire time during which the employee can objectively be considered to be under the authority of her or his employer.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The nibun-setsu (two-part theory) camp, on the other hand, splits work hours into \u201ccore\u201d and \u201cperipheral\u201d work hours, with the status of the latter gray area between strictly defined work hours and break time to be determined through agreement between the employer and employed.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The gold standard in case law regarding work hours is the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki Shipyard case. The Supreme Court\u2019s Petty Bench on March 9, 2000, rejected outright the nibun-setsu approach and backed the kyakkan-setsu interpretation. Let\u2019s examine the case.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=10918<\/a><\/p>\n

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

10) Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Col 61 March 5, 2013: \u201cChild\u2019s quibble with U.S. \u2018poverty superpower\u2019 propaganda unravels a sobering story about insular Japan\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

JT JBC: Last November, a reader in Hokkaido named Stephanie sent me an article read in Japan\u2019s elementary schools. Featured in a sixth-grader magazine called Chagurin (from \u201cchild agricultural green\u201d) dated December 2012, it was titled \u201cChildren of America, the Poverty Superpower\u201d (Hinkon Taikoku Amerika no Kodomotachi), offering a sprawling review of America\u2019s social problems.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Its seven pages in tabloid format (see debito.org\/?p=10806<\/a>) led with headlines such as: \u201cIs it true that there are more and more people without homes?\u201d \u201cIs it true that if you get sick you can\u2019t go to hospital?\u201d and \u201cIs it true that the poorer an area you\u2019re in, the fatter the children are?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Answers described how 1 out of 7 Americans live below the poverty line, how evicted homeless people live in tent cities found \u201cin any town park,\u201d how poverty correlates with child obesity due to cheap junk food, how bankruptcies are widespread due to the world\u2019s highest medical costs (e.g., one tooth filling costs \u00a5150,000), how education is undermined by \u201cthe evils (heigai) of evaluating teachers only by test scores,\u201d and so on.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For greater impact, included were photos of a tent city, a fat lady \u2014 even a kid with rotten-looking picket-fence teeth. These images served to buttress spiraling daisy chains of logic: \u201cAs your teeth get worse, your bite becomes bad, your body condition gets worse and your school studies suffer. After that, you can\u2019t pass a job interview and you become stuck in poverty.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The article\u2019s concluding question: \u201cWhat can we do so we don\u2019t become like America?\u201d\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11245<\/a><\/p>\n

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PLUS bonus follow-up:<\/strong>
\n 11) Tangent: Tsutsumi Mika\u2019s crooked Jewish character \u201cGoldberg\u201d in her \u201cUSA Poverty Superpower\u201d manga.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve devoted a couple of blog entries (here and here) plus a Japan Times column to propagandizing journalist Tsutsumi Mika, who has had her \u201cPoverty Superpower of America\u201d book series adapted for Japanese grade-school audiences nationwide and a manga-reading Japanese public.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already gone into detail elsewhere about the latent journalistic problems with her reportage (not the least the outright falsification of evidence), and the implicit ironies involved with her demonizing a foreign society as a cautionary tale to audiences without sufficient training in comparative cultural study and critical thinking.<\/p>\n

Now here\u2019s another irony, sent to me by a friend who wishes to remain anonymous. Further inspection of Tsutsumi\u2019s works reveals an odd attitude towards Jews. Consider this excerpt from her \u201cPoverty Superpower of America\u201d manga, courtesy of Amazon Japan: Here we have a Jew named \u201cDavid Goldberg\u201d from a financial agency selling bogus house loans to an immigrant Mexican family before the whole US derivatives crisis. Goldberg announces himself as \u201cthe ally of the weak\u201d before destroying all of their hopes and dreams.<\/p>\n

I wonder what the Jewish anti-defamation leagues would make of Tsutsumi\u2019s Jewish crook? The American Embassy (unlike the Japanese Embassy) is pretty lackadaisical about how the US is portrayed in Japan\u2019s media. But I doubt, say, the Simon Wiesenthal Center would be.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11252<\/a><\/p>\n

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That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n

ARUDOU, Debito (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, twitter arudoudebito)
\nDEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MARCH 31, 2013 ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Table of Contents:
\nTHE UGLY SIDE OF JAPAN’S RIGHTWARD SHIFT (1): BIGOTRY AND HATRED<\/p>\n

1) Feb 9 2013 Tokyo Shin-Ohkubo Anti-Korean demonstrator slogans: \u201cGood or Bad, Kill All Koreans\u201d etc.
\n2) Letters from J human rights groups to the visiting Olympic Committee re Tokyo 2020: Discrimination in Japan violates IOC Charter
\n3) My latest academic paper on Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus: \u201cJapan\u2019s Rightward Swing and the Tottori Prefecture Human Rights Ordinance\u201d<\/p>\n

4) Interesting cases: naturalized Japanese sues city councilor fiance who jilted her for Korean ethnicity, Pakistani parents file criminal complaint for injurious school bullying, Hatoyama Yukio officially called \u201ctraitor\u201d for not toeing official party line on Senkaku\/Nanjing issues<\/p>\n

THE UGLY SIDE OF JAPAN’S RIGHTWARD SHIFT (2): ELITE DOMINANCE AND INSULARITY<\/p>\n

5) Prof. Kashiwazaki Chikako: Japan\u2019s Nationality Law and immigration policy deviates from current international legal norm
\n6) SITYS: GOJ\u2019s new \u201cPoints System\u201d to attract \u201chigher-skilled\u201d NJ being reviewed due to dearth of applications, impossibly high hurdles
\n7) JT\/Kyodo: Record high applicants for J refugee status. Why media fixation on refugees? Because they are a bellwether of Japan\u2019s \u201clegitimacy as a competent, advanced, Western democracy\u201d
\n8 ) Asahi: Business leaders call for law to allow firing of workers without justification: i.e., the gaijinization of all workplaces
\n9) JT on \u201cKyakkan Setsu vs. Nibun Setsu\u201d: Grey zones in compensation for \u201cwork hours\u201d in Japan<\/p>\n

\u2026 and finally\u2026
\n10) Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Col 61 March 5, 2013: \u201cChild\u2019s quibble with U.S. \u2018poverty superpower\u2019 propaganda unravels a sobering story about insular Japan\u201d<\/p>\n

PLUS bonus follow-up:
\n11) Tangent: Tsutsumi Mika\u2019s crooked Jewish character \u201cGoldberg\u201d in her \u201cUSA Poverty Superpower\u201d manga.<\/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-11322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11322","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=11322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}