{"id":11925,"date":"2013-09-01T11:13:38","date_gmt":"2013-09-01T21:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11925"},"modified":"2013-10-19T11:16:58","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T21:16:58","slug":"debito-org-newsletter-september-1-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11925","title":{"rendered":"DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 1, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

eBooks, Books, and more from ARUDOU Debito (click on icon):
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DEBITO.ORG\u00a0NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 1, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hello\u00a0Debito.org\u00a0Newsletter Readers. \u00a0Most of August I took off as Summer Vacation (I’ll be taking much of September off too), so here is an abbreviated Newsletter for this month:<\/p>\n

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1) Japan\u2019s \u201chate speech\u201d debate proceeds apace, but not sinking in, according to university survey cited in Mainichi<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the now-famous incidents (fortunately) earlier this year of the \u201cKill All Koreans\u201d march in Tokyo and the \u201cTsuruhashi Korean massacre\u201d speech in Osaka, hate speech has become a topic for discussion in Japan\u2019s media. Here are some examples (click on image to expand in browser): Good. Have the debate, good, bad, and ugly. That said, it doesn\u2019t seem to be making much of an impact, according to the Mainichi:<\/p>\n

Mainichi: In the wake of public demonstrations in places including Tokyo and Osaka displaying hate speech towards Zainichi Koreans, about 1000 students in Osaka area universities were surveyed for their awareness of the problem. It was revealed that more than 60% did not know about the hate speech. Touyou University Department of Sociology\u2019s Izawa Yasuki, who carried out this survey, analyzed the results as follows: \u201cIt could be said that many young people have no idea how they should take in the problems of Asia, because they were not given the materials to discern these things during their primary and secondary education,\u201d noting the significant number of people who did not answer the survey at all.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

COMMENT: Although surveys like these are generally easy to poke holes in methodologically (I skipped translating the last paragraph because, for example, the sample size was too small), I think that we can still broach a conversation here about how hate speech (even examples of it advocating murder and massacre) should be registering more of a shock within \u201cpeaceful Japan\u201d than it apparently is. Of course, we can say that college students as a survey sample are more interested in playing video games, drinking and getting laid than soaking in the news. But when something is REALLY shocking in Japan, there\u2019s enough carpet-bombing media debate on it that it certainly appeared in my college classrooms, and I doubt that has happened in this case. What do others think?<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11825<\/a><\/p>\n

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2) Summer Tangent: Korea Times on racial discrimination in South Korea: Striking parallels with Japan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some food for thought about the debate on discrimination in this part of the world. Contrast the Korea Times article below about racial discrimination in South Korea with any article about racial discrimination in Japan. I see striking parallels, especially given my experience as a naturalized Caucasian Japanese myself. The debate in South Korea seems to be falling into similar mental traps and policy-level blind spots.<\/p>\n

KT: In a report submitted to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 2003, the Korean government explained that the \u201chomogeneity of the Korean people and the relative lack of multiethnic experiences have been conducive to prejudice against foreign cultures and people.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But Hyung-il Pai, a professor of Korean history at the University of California, argues in her book, \u201cConstructing \u2018Korean\u2019 Origins,\u201d that the idea of a pure Korean race is a myth constructed by Japanese colonial scholars and Korean nationalists. The archaeological record actually shows that Korea\u2019s historical development reflected diverse influences from throughout Northeast Asia.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, \u201cRace as the basic unit of analysis in Korean history was the pedestal on which the nation was built. Race or blood was considered the most critical factor in Korean identity formation,\u201d she explained about modern Korean attitudes on history.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11671<\/a><\/p>\n

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

3) Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Col 66: \u201cOl\u2019 blue eyes isn\u2019t back: Tsurunen\u2019s tale offers lessons in microcosm for DPJ\u201d, Aug 5, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ol\u2019 blue eyes isn\u2019t back: Tsurunen\u2019s tale offers lessons in microcosm for DPJ<\/strong>
\n By ARUDOU Debito<\/strong>
\n JUST BE CAUSE COLUMN 66 FOR THE JAPAN TIMES COMMUNITY PAGE<\/strong>
\nPublished August 6, 2013
\nCourtesy\u00a0http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2013\/08\/05\/issues\/ol-blue-eyes-isnt-back-tsurunens-tale-offers-lessons-in-microcosm-for-dpj\/<\/a>
\nVersion with links to sources at\u00a0https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=11821<\/a><\/p>\n

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That’s all for this month. \u00a0September will also be a slower month for blogging on\u00a0Debito.org<\/a>, with a break and some touring around. \u00a0Enjoy the respite, and thanks as always for reading!<\/p>\n

ARUDOU, Debito (debito@debito.org<\/a>,\u00a0www.debito.org<\/a>, twitter arudoudebito)
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DEBITO.ORG<\/a>\u00a0NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 1, 2013 ENDS<\/p>\n

……………………………………………………….
\nTo Unsubscribe from the\u00a0DEBITO.ORG<\/a>\u00a0NEWSLETTER, go to any blog page at\u00a0https:\/\/www.debito.org<\/a>\u00a0and click the “unsubscribe” button in the top left column. Debito can of course be reached directly at\u00a0debito@debito.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1) Japan\u2019s \u201chate speech\u201d debate proceeds apace, but not sinking in, according to university survey cited in Mainichi
\n2) Summer Tangent: Korea Times on racial discrimination in South Korea: Striking parallels with Japan
\n3) Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Col 66: \u201cOl\u2019 blue eyes isn\u2019t back: Tsurunen\u2019s tale offers lessons in microcosm for DPJ\u201d, Aug 5, 2013<\/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-11925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11925","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=11925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}