{"id":12044,"date":"2014-01-06T01:05:28","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T11:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12044"},"modified":"2014-01-20T15:00:33","modified_gmt":"2014-01-21T01:00:33","slug":"happy-new-year-2014-my-next-japan-times-just-be-cause-column-january-2-sneak-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12044","title":{"rendered":"My Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE column January 7, 2014: “The empire strikes back: The top issues for NJ in 2013”, with links to sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Happy New Year to all Debito.org Readers. \u00a0Thank you as always for reading and commenting. \u00a02014 has a few things looming that will affect life for everyone (not just NJ) in Japan, as I allude to in my next Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE column (came out a few days later than usual, since there was no paper on January 2, on January 7, 2014).<\/p>\n

Thanks to everyone once again for putting it in the most-read article for the day, once again. Here’s a version with links to sources. Arudou Debito
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THE JAPAN TIMES ISSUES | JUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n The empire strikes back: the top issues for non-Japanese in 2013<\/strong>
\n BY ARUDOU Debito<\/strong>
\n JANUARY 7, 2014<\/strong>
\nCourtesy http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2014\/01\/06\/issues\/the-empire-strikes-back-the-top-issues-for-non-japanese-in-2013\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Welcome to JBC\u2019s annual countdown of 2013\u2019s top human rights events as they affected non-Japanese (NJ) in Japan. This year was more complex, as issues that once targeted NJ in specific now affect everyone in general. But here are six major events and five \u201cbubble-unders\u201d for your consideration:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

11. Marutei Tsurunen, Japan\u2019s first foreign-born Diet member of European descent, loses his seat (see \u201cOl\u2019 blue eyes isn\u2019t back: Tsurunen\u2019s tale offers lessons in microcosm for DPJ<\/a>,\u201d JBC, Aug. 5).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

10. Donald Richie, one of the last of the first postwar generation of NJ commentators on Japan<\/a>, dies aged 88.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

9. Beate Sirota Gordon, one of the last living architects of the liberalizing reforms within the postwar Japanese Constitution<\/a>, dies at 89.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

8. Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto takes a revisionist stance on Japanese history regarding the wartime sex-slave issue and reveals his camp\u2019s political vulnerability (\u201cBy opening up the debate to the real experts, Hashimoto did history a favor<\/a>,\u201d JBC, June 4).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

7. Tokyo wins the 2020 Olympics, strengthening the mandate of Japan\u2019s ruling class and vested construction interests (see \u201cTriumph of Tokyo Olympic bid sends wrong signal to Japan\u2019s resurgent right<\/a>,\u201d JBC, Sept. 1).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

6. Xenophobia taints No. 1 cleanup<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Fukushima debacle has been covered better elsewhere, and assessments of its dangers and probable outcomes are for others to debate. Incontrovertible, however, is that international assistance and expertise (despite this being an international problem) have been rejected due to official xenophobia.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last January, The New York Times quoted Hidehiko Nishiyama<\/a>, deputy director of the Environment Ministry and the man in charge of the cleanup, as saying that foreign technologies were somehow not applicable to Japan (\u201cEven if a method works overseas, the soil in Japan is different, for example\u201d), and that foreigners themselves were menacing (\u201cIf we have foreigners roaming around Fukushima, they might scare the old grandmas and granddads there\u201d). Nishiyama resigned several months later, but Fukushima\u2019s ongoing crisis continues to be divisively toxic both in fact and thought.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

5. Japan to adopt Hague treaty<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the last holdout in the Group of Eight (G-8) nations yet to sign this important treaty governing the treatment of children after divorces, both houses of the Diet took the positive step in May and June (after years of formal nudging by a dozen countries, and a probable shove from U.S. President Barack Obama last February) of unanimously endorsing the convention, with ratification now possible in 2014.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As reported on previous Community pages, Japanese society condones (both in practice and by dint of its legal registration systems) single-parent families severing all contact with one parent after divorce. In the case of international divorces, add on linguistic and visa hurdles, as well as an unsympathetic family court system and a hostile domestic media (which frequently portrays abducting Japanese mothers as liberating themselves from violent foreign fathers).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hague treaty seeks to codify and level the playing field for negotiation, settlement and visitation. However, Japanese legal scholars and grass-roots organizations are trying to un-level things by, among other things, fiddling with definitions of \u201cdomestic violence\u201d to include acts that don\u2019t involve physical contact<\/a>, such as heated arguments (b\u014dgen, or violent language) and even glaring at your partner (nirami). Put simply: Lose your temper (or not; just seethe) and you lose your kids. Thus, the treaty will probably end up as yet another international agreement caveated until it is unenforceable in Japan<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

4. Visa regimes get a rethink<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two years ago, domestic bureaucrats and experts held a summit to hammer out some policies towards foreign labor. JBC pointed out flaws in their mindsets then (see \u201cIn formulating immigration policy, no seat at the table for non-Japanese<\/a>,\u201d July 3, 2012), and last year they ate some crow for getting it wrong.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

First, a highly touted \u201cpoints system\u201d for attracting highly skilled workers with visa perks (which JBC argued was unrealistically strict; see \u201cJapan\u2019s revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail<\/a>,\u201d March 6, 2012) had as of September only had 700 applicants; the government had hoped for 2,000. Last month, the Justice Ministry announced it would relax some requirements<\/a>. It added, though, that more fundamental reforms, such as raising salaries, were also necessary \u2014 once again falling for the stereotype that NJ only alight in Japan for money.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In an even bigger U-turn, in October the government lifted its ban on South American NJ of Japanese descent \u201creturning\u201d to Japan. Those who had taken the repatriation bribes of 2009 (see \u201cGolden parachutes for Nikkei mark failure of race-based policy,\u201d JBC, April 7, 2009), giving up their accumulated welfare benefits and Japanese pensions for an airfare home, were now welcome to return to work \u2014 as long as they secured stable employment (as in, a one-year contract) before arrival<\/a>. Good luck with that.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, what\u2019s missing in all this is, for example, any guarantee of a) equal protection under labor and civil law against discrimination, b) equal educational opportunities for their children, and c) an integration and settlement program ensuring that revolving-door visas and tenuous jobs do not continue forever. But the Abe administration has never made a formal immigration plan one of its policy \u201carrows\u201d<\/a>; and, with the bigger political priorities discussed below, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Hate speech turns murderous<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This was also the year that the genteel mask of \u201cpolite, peace-loving Japan\u201d slipped a bit, with a number of demonstrations across the nation<\/a> advocating outright hatred and violence towards NJ. \u201cGood Koreans or bad, kill them all<\/a>,\u201d proclaimed one placard, while another speaker was recorded on video encouraging a \u201cmassacre\u201d <\/a>in a Korean neighborhood of Osaka. An Asahi Shimbun reporter tweeted that anti-Korean goods were being sold on Diet grounds<\/a>, while xenophobic invective (even rumors of war with China) became normalized within Japan\u2019s salacious tabloids (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It got so bad that the otherwise languid silent majority \u2014 who generally respond to xenophobia by ignoring it \u2014 started attending counterdemonstrations<\/a>. Even Japan\u2019s courts, loath to take strong stands on issues that might \u201ccurb freedom of speech,\u201d formally recognized \u201chate speech\u201d as an illegal form of racial discrimination in October, and ordered restitution for victims in one case<\/a> (a Zainichi Korean school) and a year of actual jail time in another<\/a> (for harassing a company that had used a Korean actress in its advertising).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, leading politicians offered only lukewarm condemnations of the hatred (Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called it \u201cdishonorable,\u201d months after the fact<\/a>) and no countermeasures. In fact, in April, Tokyo\u2019s then-governor, Naoki Inose, slagged off fellow Olympic candidate city Istanbul by denigrating Islam<\/a> \u2014 yet Tokyo still got the games.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, people who discussed issues of discrimination in Japan constructively (such as American teacher Miki Dezaki<\/a>, whose viral YouTube video on the subject cost him his job and resulted in him retreating to a Buddhist monastery for a year) were bullied and sent death threats, courtesy of Japan\u2019s newly labeled legion of anonymous netto uyoku (Internet rightists).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This political camp, as JBC has argued in the past two annual Top 10 lists, is ascendant in Japan as the country swings further to the right. With impressive victories:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

2. LDP holds both Diet chambers<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In July, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party accomplished its primary goal by chalking up a landslide victory in the Upper House<\/a> to complement its equally decisive win in the Lower House in December 2012<\/a>. Then, with virtually no opposition from the left, it got cocky in its deceptiveness.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shortly after the election, Deputy PM Taro Aso enthused aloud about Nazi Germany\u2019s policymaking tactics<\/a>, advocating similar stealth for radical constitutional reforms before Japan\u2019s public realizes it. Later it became clear that LDP reform proposals (excising, for example, \u201cWestern\u201d conceits of individuality, human rights and a demystified head of state, and replacing them with the duty to \u201crespect\u201d national symbols, the \u201cpublic interest\u201d and \u201cpublic order\u201d<\/a>) might be too difficult to accomplish if laws were actually followed. So off went Abe\u2019s gaijin-handlers on overseas missions (see \u201cJapan brings out the big guns to sell remilitarization in U.S<\/a>.,\u201d JBC, Nov. 6) to announce that reinterpretations of the Constitution\u2019s current wording would resolve pesky postwar restrictions.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Abe was being rebranded for foreign consumption as a peace-loving \u201cethnic nationalist\u201d <\/a>instead of (in JBC\u2019s view) a radical historical revisionist and regional destabilizing force. Not only was his recent visit to controversial Yasukuni Shrine repackaged as a mere pilgrimage to Japan\u2019s version of Arlington National Cemetery<\/a>, but Japan\u2019s remilitarization was also portrayed as a means to assist America and the world in more effective peacekeeping operations<\/a>, as seen in Abe\u2019s \u201chuman security\u201d and \u201cproactive peace policy\u201d neologisms.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As always, a liberal slathering of \u201cpeace\u201d talk helps the munitions go down. Just pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. For curtains are precisely what are being drawn with the passage of:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

1. The state secrets law<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a country where most reforms proceed at a glacial pace, the Act on Protection of Specified Secrets took everyone by surprise, moving from the public-debate back burner to established law in mere weeks. We still don\u2019t know what will be designated as a \u201csecret,\u201d<\/a> although official statements have made it clear it would include information about Fukushima<\/a>, and could be used to curtail \u201cloud\u201d public rallies by protesters LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba likened to \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We do know that the punishments for leakers, including journalists<\/a>, will be severe: up to 10 years\u2019 jail for leaking something the government says it doesn\u2019t want leaked, and five for \u201cconspiracy\u201d for attempting to get information even if the investigating party didn\u2019t know it was \u201csecret.\u201d It\u2019s so vague that you can get punished for allegedly \u201cplanning\u201d the leak \u2014 even before the leak has happened or concrete plans have been made to leak<\/a>. Although resoundingly condemned by Japan\u2019s media, grass roots and the United Nations<\/a>, it was too little, too late: Stealth won.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The state secrets law is an unfolding issue, but JBC shares the doomsayers\u2019 view: It will underpin the effort to roll back Japan\u2019s postwar democratic reforms and resurrect a prewar-style society governed by perpetual fear of reprisal, where people even in privileged positions will be forced to double-guess themselves into silence regarding substantiated criticism of The State (see the JT\u2019s best article of the year, \u201cThe secret of keeping official secrets secret<\/a>,\u201d by Noriko Hama, Japanese Perspectives, Nov. 30).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After all, information is power, and whoever controls it can profoundly influence social outcomes. Moreover, this law expands \u201cconspiracy\u201d beyond act and into thought. Japan has a history of \u201cthought police\u201d (tokubetsu k\u014dt\u014d keisatsu<\/a>) very effectively controlling the public in the name of \u201cmaintaining order.\u201d This tradition will be resuscitated when the law comes into force in 2014.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In sum, 2013 saw the enfranchised elite consolidating their power further than has ever been seen in the postwar era, while Japan\u2019s disenfranchised peoples, especially its NJ residents, slipped ever lower down the totem pole, becoming targets of suspicion, fear and loathing.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

May this year be a healthy one for you and yours. ARUDOU, Debito<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year to all Debito.org Readers. Thank you as always for reading and commenting. 2014 has a few things looming that will affect life for everyone (not just NJ) in Japan, as I allude to in my Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE column of January 7, 2014:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe empire strikes back: The top issues for NJ in 2013\u2033
\nBy ARUDOU, Debito, Column 71 for the Japan Times Community Pages<\/p>\n

Welcome to JBC\u2019s annual countdown of 2013\u2019s top human rights events as they affected non-Japanese (NJ) in Japan. This year was more complex, as issues that once targeted NJ in specific now affect everyone in general. But here are six major events and five \u201cbubble-unders\u201d for your consideration:<\/p>\n

6. Fukushima is complicated by xenophobia
\n5. Japan to adopt Hague treaty
\n4. Visa regimes get a rethink
\n3. Hate speech turns murderous
\n2. LDP holds both Diet chambers
\n1. The state secrets law<\/p>\n

Bubbling under:
\n11. Marutei Tsurunen, Japan\u2019s first foreign-born Diet member of European descent, loses his seat.
\n10. Donald Richie, one of the last of the first postwar generation of NJ commentators on Japan, dies aged 88.
\n9. Beate Sirota Gordon, one of the last living architects of the liberalizing reforms within the postwar Japanese Constitution, dies at 89.
\n8. Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto takes a revisionist stance on Japanese history regarding the wartime sex-slave issue and reveals his camp\u2019s political vulnerability.
\n7. Tokyo wins the 2020 Olympics, strengthening the mandate of Japan\u2019s ruling class and vested construction interests <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,18,36,49,22,19,34,50,52,20,5,12,26,4,14,16,13,60,64,17,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-discrimination-templates","category-academia","category-bad-social-science","category-child-abductions","category-cultural-issue","category-education","category-exclusionism","category-gaiatsu","category-hate-speech","category-history","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-labor-issues","category-media","category-nj-voices-ignored","category-sitys","category-sport","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12044","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=12044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}