{"id":12162,"date":"2014-03-11T21:38:14","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T07:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12162"},"modified":"2014-03-18T21:48:03","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T07:48:03","slug":"my-next-japan-times-just-be-cause-column-73-on-saitama-stadium-japanese-only-urawa-reds-soccer-fans-march-13-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12162","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Col 73, “J.League and Media Must Show Red Card to Racism” on Saitama Stadium “Japanese Only” Urawa Reds soccer fans, Mar 13, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thanks for your support!<\/i><\/p>\n

Hi Blog and JT Readers. \u00a0Thanks again for putting this article top of the JT Online for two straight days again! ARUDOU Debito<\/p>\n

ISSUES| JUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n\"justbecauseicon.jpg\"<\/a>
\nJ.LEAGUE AND MEDIA MUST SHOW RED CARD TO RACISM\u00a0<\/strong>
\n JBC Column 73 for the Japan Times Community Page<\/strong>
\n To be published March 13, 2014<\/strong>
\n By ARUDOU Debito<\/strong>
\nCourtesy http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2014\/03\/12\/issues\/j-league-and-media-must-show-red-card-to-racism\/<\/a>
\nVersion with links to sources<\/p>\n

\"Urawajapaneseonlysideview030814\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On Saturday, during their J. League match against Sagan Tosu at Saitama Stadium, some Urawa Reds fans hung a \u201cJapanese only\u201d banner over an entrance to the stands.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It went viral. Several sports sections in Japanese newspapers and blogs, as well as overseas English media, covered the story. The banner was reportedly soon taken down, and both the football club and players expressed regret that it had ever appeared. Urawa investigated, and at the time of going to press Wednesday, reports were suggesting that the club had decided that the banner was discriminatory, reversing a previous finding that the fans behind the incident had \u201cno discriminatory intent.\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So case closed? Not so fast. There is something important that the major media is overlooking \u2014 nay, abetting: the implicit racism that would spawn such a sign.<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

None of the initial reports called out the incident for what it was: racial discrimination (jinshu sabetsu). News outlets such as Kyodo, Asahi, Mainichi, Yomiuri, AP, AFP, Al-Jazeera \u2014 even The Japan Times \u2014 muted their coverage by saying the banner \u201ccould apparently be considered\/construed\/seen as racist.\u201d <\/a>(Well, how else could it be construed? Were they trying to say that \u201conly the Japanese language is spoken here\u201d?) Few ran pictures of the banner to give context or impact.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Japanese media appended the standard hand-wringing excuses<\/a>, including the cryptic \u201cI think the meaning behind it is for Japanese to pump up the J. League,\u201d and even a reverse-engineered claim of performance art: \u201cI think it was just tongue-in-cheek because the club is not bolstering the team with foreign players.\u201d (Oh, and that\u2019s not prejudiced?)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Internet buzzed with speculation about the banner\u2019s intent. Was it referring to the fact that Urawa was allegedly fielding a Japanese-only team for a change (notwithstanding their Serbian coach)? Or were the bleachers to be kept foreigner-free?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t matter. \u201cJapanese only\u201d has long been the exclusionary trope for Japan\u2019s xenophobes. The phrase came to prominence in 1999 in the Otaru onsen case, which revolved around several public bathhouses in Otaru, Hokkaido, that refused entry to all \u201cforeigners\u201d based on their physical appearance (including this author, a naturalized Japanese)<\/a>. Later, exclusionary businesses nationwide copycatted and put up \u201cJapanese only\u201d signs of their own. \u201cJapanese only\u201d is in fact part of a social movement<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The upshot is, if you don\u2019t \u201clook Japanese,\u201d you are not welcome. That\u2019s where the racism comes in. Why should the Urawa banner be \u201cconstrued\u201d any differently?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The better question is: Why does this language keep popping up in public places? I\u2019ll tell you why. Because Japan keeps getting a free pass from the outside world.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Just look at Japan\u2019s sports leagues and you\u2019ll find a long history of outright racism \u2014 excluding, handicapping and bashing foreigners (even the naturalized \u201cforeigners\u201d) in, for example, sumo<\/a>, baseball<\/a>, hockey<\/a>, rugby<\/a>, figure skating<\/a>, the Kokutai national sports festivals<\/a> and the Ekiden long-distance races<\/a>. So much for a sporting chance on a level playing field.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Japan keeps getting rewarded with major international events, such as the FIFA World Cup in 2002<\/a>, the Rugby World Cup in 2019, and the Olympics in 2020<\/a>. So be as racist as you like: There\u2019s no penalty.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyplace else and soccer governing body FIFA would probably take swift action to investigate and penalize offenders in line with its policy of zero tolerance for racism, as has been done in the past, most recently in China. In January, the Hong Kong Football Association got fined for shirking its responsibility to stop racial discrimination against Filipino supporters by Hong Kong national team fans during a \u201cfriendly\u201d match<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Urawa Reds incident is still fresh. I await FIFA\u2019s reaction (if any) with anticipation. But after more than two decades of watching this stuff \u2014 and even doing a doctoral dissertation on it \u2014 I\u2019m not hopeful.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After all, Japan is not China. The developed world sees Japan as their bulwark of democracy in Asia,<\/a> and is willing to overlook one very inconvenient truth: that a racialized narrative in Japan is so commonplace and unchallenged that it has become embedded in the discourse of race relations. Foreigners are simply not to be treated the same as Japanese.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

People often blame this phenomenon on legal issues (foreigners are not treated exactly the same as citizens anywhere else either, right?) but the pachyderm in the parlor is that the practical definition of \u201cforeigner\u201d is racial, i.e., identified by sight. Anyone \u201clooking foreign\u201d who defied that Urawa banner and entered that stadium section would have gotten \u2014 at the very least \u2014 the stink-eye from those (still-unnamed) xenophobes who put it up. What other purpose could the banner possibly serve? In any case, it has no place under official FIFA rules.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Make no mistake: \u201cJapanese only\u201d underscores a racialized discourse, and the media should stop making things worse by kid-gloving it as some kind of cultural misunderstanding. It does nobody any favors, least of all Japanese society.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider this: As Japan\u2019s rightward swing continues, overt xenophobia (some of it even advocating murder and war) is getting more vociferous and normalized. Not to mention organized: The Asahi Shimbun reported<\/a> that in Tokyo\u2019s recent gubernatorial election, about a quarter of the 611,000 people who voted for extreme-right candidate Toshio Tamogami, an overtly xenophobic historical revisionist, were young men in their 20s<\/a> \u2014 a demographic also over-represented at soccer games.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Giving their attitudes a free pass with milquetoast criticism (J. League Chairman Mitsuru Murai said that he will act if the banner was proven to be \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d<\/a> \u2014 meaning he could possibly find otherwise?) only encourages discriminatory behavior: Be as racist as you like; there\u2019s no penalty.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Point is, the only way to ensure Japan keeps its international promises (such as by creating a law against racial discrimination, after signing the U.N. Convention on Racial Discrimination nearly 20 years ago!) is to call a spade a spade. As scholar Ayu Majima notes, Japan has a fundamental \u201cperception of itself as a civilized nation,\u201d an illusion that would be undermined by claims of domestic racism. Remember: Racism happens in other countries, not here.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Source: \u00a0Ayu Majima, \u201cSkin Color Melancholy in Modern Japan.\u201d\u00a0 In Kowner and Demel, Eds., RACE AND RACISM IN MODERN EAST ASIA.\u00a0 Brill, 2013, p. 409.)<\/p>\n

By always denying racism\u2019s existence, Japan preserves its self-image of civilization and modernity, and that\u2019s why calling out this behavior for what it is \u2014 racial discrimination \u2014 is such a necessary reality check. FIFA and media watchdogs need to do their jobs, so I don\u2019t have to keep writing these columns stating the obvious. Stop abetting this scourge and show some red cards.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Arudou Debito is the author of the \u201cGuidebook for Relocation and Assimilation into Japan\u201d (www.debito.org\/handbook.html) Twitter: @arudoudebito. Comments and story ideas: community@japantimes.co.jp<\/em>
\n==============================<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong>: \u00a0A lot happened soon after this article came out; I believe some of it because. \u00a0You can read comments below for some updates, and see my separate blog entry for the conclusions and lessons I learned from it<\/a> —\u00a0that essentially you’re not going to get any progress on the human rights front by appealing to moral arguments, because Japan’s elites and national narrative-setters don’t really care about that. \u00a0What they really DO care about is Japan’s image abroad as a “civilized” country, and that is the only pressure point NJ have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

J.LEAGUE AND MEDIA MUST SHOW RED CARD TO RACISM
\nJBC Column 73 for the Japan Times Community Page
\nTo be published March 13, 2014
\nBy ARUDOU Debito, Version with links to sources<\/p>\n

On Saturday, during their J. League match against Sagan Tosu at Saitama Stadium, some Urawa Reds fans hung a \u201cJapanese only\u201d banner over an entrance to the stands.<\/p>\n

It went viral. Several sports sections in Japanese newspapers and blogs, as well as overseas English media, covered the story. The banner was reportedly soon taken down, and both the football club and players expressed regret that it had ever appeared. Urawa investigated, and at the time of going to press Wednesday, reports were suggesting that the club had decided that the banner was discriminatory, reversing a previous finding that the fans behind the incident had \u201cno discriminatory intent.\u201d<\/p>\n

So case closed? Not so fast. There is something important that the major media is overlooking \u2014 nay, abetting: the implicit racism that would spawn such a sign.\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,36,22,34,50,35,52,5,4,13,2,65,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-bad-social-science","category-cultural-issue","category-exclusionism","category-gaiatsu","category-good-news","category-hate-speech","category-human-rights","category-japanese-government","category-media","category-otaru-onsen-lawsuit","category-racist-images-in-media","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12162","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=12162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}