{"id":12712,"date":"2014-10-04T12:25:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-04T22:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12712"},"modified":"2014-10-05T11:41:54","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T21:41:54","slug":"jt-on-hate-speech-and-gojs-connections-to-organized-crime-yakuza-do-what-abe-cabinets-yamatani-cant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12712","title":{"rendered":"JT on hate speech and GOJ’s connections to organized crime: “Yakuza do what Abe Cabinet’s Yamatani can’t”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Drawing to a close this curlicue about the PM Abe Administration and hate speech in Japan, here’s an excellent article by Jake Adelstein in the Japan Times about Cabinet Member Yamatani Eriko’s inability to disavow the hate group Zaitokukai, and her lying to the FCCJ last month (discussed in our previous blog entry<\/a>) about her awareness and connections to it. I am very pleased that how NJ are treated in Japan is being made into a major issue that shows the misguidance of ever putting Abe back in power<\/a>. Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

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NATIONAL \/ MEDIA | DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN<\/strong>
\n Yakuza do what Abe Cabinet pick can\u2019t (excerpt)<\/strong>
\n BY JAKE ADELSTEIN<\/strong>
\n THE JAPAN TIMES, OCT 4, 2014, courtesy of JDG<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2014\/10\/04\/national\/media-national\/yakuza-abe-cabinet-pick-cant\/<\/a><\/p>\n

In most countries, police officers and criminals are supposed to be on opposite sides of the law, especially the higher up the chain of command you go, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn\u2019t appear to think this is necessary.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last month, photographs surfaced showing several members of Abe\u2019s new Cabinet socializing with members of an anti-Korean hate group known as Zainichi Tokken wo Yurusanai Shimin no Kai (more commonly known as Zaitokukai). The appearance of such images raises some disturbing issues.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded circa 2006, Zaitokukai is an ultranationalistic, right-wing group that seeks to eliminate the \u201cspecial privileges\u201d extended to non-Japanese who have been granted Special Foreign Resident status. These people are predominantly ethnic Koreans, many of whom were conscripted and brought to Japan as slave labor in the 1930s and \u201940s. Zaitokukai also hates other non-Japanese as well \u2014 it just has a special hatred for Koreans.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In July, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the government to crack down on the growing number of hate-speech incidents targeting non-Japanese. The committee made special mention of Zaitokukai in its report and called on Japan to introduce legislation that specifically punishes hate crimes. The U.S. State Department has also named Zaitokukai in its annual human rights white paper. However, Zaitokukai isn\u2019t on a U.S. blacklist like, say, the Sumiyoshi-kai yakuza syndicate \u2014 or, at least, not yet.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The National Police Agency has even touched upon Zaitokukai-related issues. \u201cIn parts of Tokyo and Osaka heavily populated by Korean-Japanese, racist right-wing groups have engaged in radical demonstrations, drawing the attention of society to the hate-speech problem,\u201d the agency wrote in its white paper on public safety.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And yet Eriko Yamatani, the newly appointed chairman of the National Public Safety Commission that oversees the National Police Agency, doesn\u2019t seem to be aware of Zaitokukai\u2019s existence nor does she seem to believe hate speech is a problem. When photographs of her posing alongside several Zaitokukai members were uncovered by the Shukan Bunshun weekly tabloid, she said that she didn\u2019t know the name of the group, and didn\u2019t know the former Kansai bureau chief of Zaitokukai who was standing in the same photo. The man in question, however, claims to have known her for more than a decade in a recent interview with the tabloid. What\u2019s more, Yamatani has appeared in a newsletter he previously published (even penning a column in it) and worked with various Zaitokukai members at other political rallies.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents\u2019 Club of Japan on Sept. 25<\/a>, Yamatani denied that the weekly\u2019s article was true and alleged she had been misquoted. However, when she was asked to publicly repudiate Zaitokukai, she refused \u2014 three times.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shukan Bunshun last week published a follow-up article and included an audio recording of its interview with her, suggesting Yamatani did indeed lie at her news conference. It also added a proverb to its coverage: \u201cAll thieves start as liars.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But lying to the press is not a crime, nor is hate speech illegal in Japan. Hate crimes are not illegal either. That said, generating profit for organized crime is something else.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Zaitokukai has had a tight relationship with Nihonseinensha, a right-wing group that is part of the Sumiyoshi-kai, the second-largest yakuza syndicate in the country. In testimony in the Diet, the National Police Agency acknowledged that Nihonseinensha\u2019s top adviser was also a senior figure in the Sumiyoshi-kai.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest of the article at http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2014\/10\/04\/national\/media-national\/yakuza-abe-cabinet-pick-cant\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JT: In most countries, police officers and criminals are supposed to be on opposite sides of the law, especially the higher up the chain of command you go, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn\u2019t appear to think this is necessary. Last month, photographs surfaced showing several members of Abe\u2019s new Cabinet socializing with members of an anti-Korean hate group known as Zainichi Tokken wo Yurusanai Shimin no Kai (more commonly known as Zaitokukai). The appearance of such images raises some disturbing issues. […]<\/p>\n

At a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents\u2019 Club of Japan on Sept. 25, [Cabinet member] Yamatani [Eriko] denied that the weekly\u2019s article was true and alleged she had been misquoted. However, when she was asked to publicly repudiate Zaitokukai, she refused \u2014 three times. Shukan Bunshun last week published a follow-up article and included an audio recording of its interview with her, suggesting Yamatani did indeed lie at her news conference. It also added a proverb to its coverage: \u201cAll thieves start as liars.\u201d But lying to the press is not a crime, nor is hate speech illegal in Japan. Hate crimes are not illegal either. That said, generating profit for organized crime is something else…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,52,26,4,10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaiatsu","category-hate-speech","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-policeforeign-crime","category-japanese-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12712","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=12712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12712\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}