{"id":12627,"date":"2014-09-04T13:43:15","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T23:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12627"},"modified":"2014-09-04T13:43:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T23:43:15","slug":"debito-org-newsletter-september-3-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12627","title":{"rendered":"DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 3, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 3, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Table of Contents:<\/strong><\/em>
\n =======================================<\/strong>
\n 1) United Nations demands Tokyo introduce anti-discrimination law to counter hate speech (HRC report CCPR\/C\/JPN\/CO\/6 text included in full, citing \u201cJapanese Only\u201d signs, thanks)<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) UN: Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination considers report of Japan 2014: Little progress made<\/strong><\/p>\n

3) Nikkei: Another Japanese nabbed for being like a \u201csuspicious foreigner\u201d in Ibaraki. Adding it to the collection<\/strong><\/p>\n

4) \u201cNo Foreigners\u201d (and no women) Capsule Inn Omiya hotel in Saitama (UPDATE AUG 21: No-foreigner rule withdrawn, but lots more exclusionary hotels found on Rakuten)<\/strong>
\n=======================================<\/p>\n

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

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1) United Nations demands Tokyo introduce anti-discrimination law to counter hate speech (HRC report CCPR\/C\/JPN\/CO\/6 text included in full, citing \u201cJapanese Only\u201d signs, thanks)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good news. The United Nations has once again reviewed Japan\u2019s human rights record (preliminary report below), and found it wanting. Here\u2019s the bit that has been cited in Japan\u2019s news media (also below):
\n=======================
\nHuman Rights Committee<\/strong>
\n Concluding observations (2014) CCPR\/C\/JPN\/CO\/6<\/strong>
\n ADVANCE UNEDITED VERSION<\/strong>
\n Human Rights Committee<\/strong>
\n Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of Japan (excerpt<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hate speech and racial discrimination<\/strong>
\n 12. The Committee expresses concern at the widespread racist discourse against members of minority groups, such as Koreans, Chinese or Burakumin, inciting hatred and discrimination against them, and the insufficient protection granted against these acts in the criminal and civil code. The Committee also expresses concern at the high number of extremist demonstrations authorised, the harassment and violence perpetrated against minorities, including against foreign students, as well the open display in private establishments of signs such as \u201cJapanese only\u201d (arts. 2, 19, 20 and 27).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The State should prohibit all propaganda advocating racial superiority or hatred that incites to discrimination, hostility or violence, and should prohibit demonstrations that intended to disseminate such propaganda. The State party should also allocate sufficient resources for awareness-raising campaigns against racism and increase its efforts to ensure that judges, prosecutors and police officials are trained to be able to detect hate and racially motivated crimes. The State party should also take all necessary steps to prevent racist attacks and to ensure that the alleged perpetrators are thoroughly investigated and prosecuted and, if convicted, punished with appropriate sanctions.<\/strong>
\n=======================<\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: Happy to see the generally-overlooked aftermath of the Otaru Onsens Case and the information on Debito.org\u2019s Rogues\u2019 Gallery of Exclusionary Establishments<\/a> is still being cited. Keep the pressure on, UN. The media reaction and the UN report in full follows, and there\u2019s lots more important stuff (including issues of \u201cTrainee\u201d NJ slave-wage work, Japan\u2019s historical wartime sexual slavery, abuses of police power, and even Fukushima irradiation!)<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12598<\/a><\/p>\n

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2) UN: Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination considers report of Japan 2014: Little progress made<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the previous post\u00a0I talked about the UN\u2019s most recent report on Japan\u2019s human rights record (and how there seems to have been almost no progress made). Well, also interesting is the public record of the give-and-take between UN officials and Japan\u2019s mission to the UN. That\u2019s below. It offers a glimpse of the mindsets of Japan\u2019s representatives, and how they will defend Japan\u2019s status quo no matter what. The parts that are germane to Debito.org are bolded up, so have a read. This is probably a glimpse as to what courses the GOJ will (not) take regarding human rights issues in future.<\/p>\n

BTW, If you want to see how much has not changed (these UN reviews happen every two years), get a load of what happened last time Japan faced the music in the UN regarding its human rights record, back in 2010. The GOJ even claimed Japan was taking \u201cevery conceivable measure\u201d to eliminate racial discrimination back in 2008 (yeah, except for an actual law against racial discrimination, unrequited since 1996!). Debito.org\u2019s archives and analysis go back even farther, so click here. And when everyone by now realizes that Japan\u2019s human-rights efforts are a joke (seriously, back in 2013), the Japanese representative will angrily shout to the audience, \u201cWhy are you laughing? SHUT UP! SHUT UP!\u201d This is not a joke.<\/p>\n

Concluding remarks (excerpt):
\nANWAR KEMAL, Committee Member acting as Country Rapporteur for the Report of Japan, said Japan was making progress in the implementation of the Convention. Japan had a democratic constitution and therefore should be able to adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination law which would plug the gaps in the domestic legislation as recommended by the Committee five years ago. It should be able to tackle racist hate speech without impeding upon the right to free speech. It should install a national human rights institution without delay\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

AKIRA KONO, Ambassador to the United Nations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, [said] Japan would continue to make tireless efforts to improve the human rights situation without permitting any form of discrimination, including racial or ethnic.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12611<\/a><\/p>\n

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3) Nikkei: Another Japanese nabbed for being like a \u201csuspicious foreigner\u201d in Ibaraki. Adding it to the collection<\/strong><\/p>\n

NH: According to the Nikkei, two weeks ago a no-good busybody \u201creported\u201d to the police that there was a \u201csuspicious foreigner\u201d around. The police duly rushed to the scene and questioned a Philipino 20-year-old they found. They arrested him as caught in the act of not carrying his passport with him.<\/em><\/p>\n

After 7 hours of questioning, through an interpreter it came to light he also had Japanese citizenship and his father is Japanese. They double-checked, and since it was true released him in the middle of the night. The police stated \u201cWe are sorry. We will try to make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The article and police statement does not find any fault with the person who reported a suspicious foreigner, or with the police for going and questioning people alleged to be suspicious foreigners. That is pretty much just the whole story. It\u2019s not a bad law exam question, since we could ask, did he have to give up his Filipino citizenship now that he is 20, etc.? The article doesn\u2019t go there either, of course. Another example of this law\u2019s failure to account for Japan\u2019s diverse population, and people getting caught in the cross-fire. I can only imagine how this young man felt about all of this.<\/em><\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: I can imagine. I myself have been racially profiled (although not arrested) by J-cops on numerous occasions (see here and here, for example), even after naturalizing. So were these people (one of whom actually was arrested in 2006 for looking \u201ctoo foreign\u201d.) This is yet another reason why Japan needs laws against racial discrimination \u2014 because you can\u2019t always tell anymore who\u2019s \u201cJapanese\u201d based upon physical appearance alone. Innocent Japanese who don\u2019t \u201clook it\u201d are going to get caught in any dragnet of suspicion.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12586<\/a><\/p>\n

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4) \u201cNo Foreigners\u201d (and no women) Capsule Inn Omiya hotel in Saitama (UPDATE AUG 21: No-foreigner rule withdrawn, but lots more exclusionary hotels found on Rakuten)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joining the ranks of hundreds of other places nationwide that have \u201cJapanese Only\u201d rules in place is this capsule hotel called \u201cKapuseru In Ohmiya\u201d in Miyamachi 5-3-1, Ohmiya-ku, Saitama, close to JR Omiya Station East Exit, phone 048-641-4122. Incidentally, and also in violation of Japan\u2019s Hotel Management Law, it does not allow women to stay there either. Here\u2019s a screen capture of their entry on Rakuten as of August 18, 2014, with all their contact details.
\n(Front door with directions there)
\n(Entire site with \u201cNo Foreigners\u201d and \u201cNo Women\u201d rules listed at very bottom)
\nAnyone want to give them a call, and\/or to report them to the authorities? Here\u2019s how\u2026<\/p>\n

UPDATE AUGUST 21, 2014: THEIR RAKUTEN ENTRY HAS REMOVED THE \u201cJAPANESE ONLY\u201d RULE, AMENDED IT TO A \u201cBRING A JAPANESE SPEAKER IF YOU DON\u2019T SPEAK JAPANESE, AS THE STAFF DOESN\u2019T SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGES\u201d. THE \u201cMEN-ONLY\u201d RULE REMAINS. RAKUTEN PAGE SCREEN CAPTURE BELOW:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12590<\/a><\/p>\n

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Alright, that\u2019s all until next month. Thanks as always for reading!
\nDr. ARUDOU, Debito
\nDEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Table of Contents:
\n1) United Nations demands Tokyo introduce anti-discrimination law to counter hate speech (HRC report CCPR\/C\/JPN\/CO\/6 text included in full, citing \u201cJapanese Only\u201d signs, thanks)
\n2) UN: Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination considers report of Japan 2014: Little progress made
\n3) Nikkei: Another Japanese nabbed for being like a \u201csuspicious foreigner\u201d in Ibaraki. Adding it to the collection
\n4) \u201cNo Foreigners\u201d (and no women) Capsule Inn Omiya hotel in Saitama (UPDATE AUG 21: No-foreigner rule withdrawn, but lots more exclusionary hotels found on Rakuten)<\/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-12627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12627","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=12627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}