{"id":12897,"date":"2014-12-03T08:29:36","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T18:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12897"},"modified":"2014-12-07T08:30:41","modified_gmt":"2014-12-07T18:30:41","slug":"debito-org-newsletter-december-4-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12897","title":{"rendered":"DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 4, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 4, 2014<\/strong>
\nTable of Contents:<\/em><\/strong>
\n\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

1) Ministry of Justice Bureau of Human Rights 2014 on raising public awareness of NJ human rights (full site scanned with analysis: it\u2019s underwhelming business as usual)<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) \u201cJapanese Only\u201d nightclubs \u201cW\u201d in Nagoya and newly-opening \u201cCLUB Leopard\u201d in Hiroshima<\/strong><\/p>\n

3) Japan Procter & Gamble\u2019s racialized laundry detergent ad: \u201cCinderella and the Nose Ballroom Dance\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

4) Mainichi: Thousands of anti-hate speech demonstrators take to Tokyo streets Nov 2, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

5) Louis Carlet et al. on the misunderstood July 2014 Supreme Court Ruling denying welfare benefits to NJ: \u201cno rights\u201d does not mean automatic NJ denials<\/strong><\/p>\n

6) University of Hawaii at Manoa Center for Japanese Studies presents, \u201cJapan\u2019s Visible Minorities: Appearance and Prejudice in Japanese Society\u201d, by Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

7) Japan Times JBC 81, Nov 5 2014, \u201cDoes social change in Japan come from the top down or bottom up?\u201d<\/strong>
\n\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

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

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

1) Ministry of Justice Bureau of Human Rights 2014 on raising public awareness of NJ human rights (full site scanned with analysis: it\u2019s underwhelming business as usual)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debito.org Reader<\/strong>: Debito, I saw an internet banner ad on the asahi.com website that along with a cartoon figure, posed the question \u201cgaikokujin no jinken mamotteru?\u201d [Are you protecting the human rights of NJ?] I thought I must have been seeing things, but clicking through I landed on a Japan Ministry of Justice page offering advice on how to protect the rights of non-Japanese.<\/em>
\nhttp:\/\/www.moj.go.jp\/JINKEN\/jinken04_00101.html<\/a>
\nIt seems that this is a campaign is part of Japan\u2019s push to ready the country for the 2020 Olympics, addressing issues such as ryokan denying service to non Japanese. Definitely a nice change from the focus on hooliganism leading up to the World Cup in 2002.<\/em><\/p>\n

Debito<\/strong>: I would agree. It\u2019s much better to see Non-Japanese as people with rights than as rapacious and devious criminals who deserve no rights because, according to the Ministry of Justice\u2019s own surveys, NJ aren\u2019t as equally human as Japanese. And this is not the first antidiscrimination campaign by the Japanese Government, in the guise of the mostly-potemkin Bureau of Human Rights (jinken yougobu, or BOHR) nominally assigned to protect human rights in Japan (which, as Debito.org has pointed out before, have put out some pretty biased and insensitive campaigns specifically regarding NJ residents in Japan). And did I mention the Japanese Government in general has a habit of portraying important international issues in very biased ways if there\u2019s ever a chance of NJ anywhere getting equal treatment or having any alleged power over Japanese people? It\u2019s rarely a level playing field or a fair fight in Japan\u2019s debate arenas or awareness campaigns.<\/p>\n

So now that it\u2019s 2014, and another influential Olympics looms, how does the BOHR do this time? (And I bother with this periodic evaluation because the Japanese Government DOES watch what we do here at Debito.org, and makes modifications after sufficient embarrassments\u2026) I\u2019ll take screen captures of the whole site, since they have a habit of disappearing after appearing here. Here\u2019s the top page:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12144<\/a><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong>: Again, much talk about NJ and their lives here with minimized involvement of the NJ themselves. As my friend noted, it\u2019s better this than having NJ openly denigrated or treated as a social threat. However, having them being treated as visitors, or as animals that need pacifying through Wajin interlocutors, is not exactly what I\u2019d call terribly progressive steps, or even good social science. But that\u2019s what the BOHR, as I mentioned above, keeps doing year after year, and it keeps their line items funded and their underwhelming claims of progressive action to the United Nations window-dressed.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

2) \u201cJapanese Only\u201d nightclubs \u201cW\u201d in Nagoya and newly-opening \u201cCLUB Leopard\u201d in Hiroshima<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two more places to add to the roster of \u201cJapanese Only\u201d Exclusionary Establishments in Japan, and this time, they are places that Japan\u2019s youth frequent: nightclubs (nothing like catching them when they\u2019re young and possibly more open-minded\u2026)<\/p>\n

1) Nightclub \u201cW\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u540d\u53e4\u5c4b\u5e02\u4e2d\u533a\u68043-10-13 W\u30d3\u30eb 6F&7F
\nTEL 052-242-5705<\/p>\n

Contributor SM writes:<\/strong> Last night I was in downtown Nagoya (Sakae) and I saw this sign posted at the entrance of a large dance club called \u201cW.\u201d There was a very buff bouncer beside the sign. I approached him and asked if I\u2019d be allowed to go in. He apologized and said no. I asked if it was because of dress code or because I was foreign. (I was in a nice outfit, having gone out for dinner with my husband earlier.) He said it was because I was foreign. I asked why this was a policy. He said it was the rule of management, and he had to enforce it. I took some photos (although he had said no photos allowed.) He didn\u2019t try to stop me from taking the photos, we said good night, and went on our way.<\/em><\/p>\n

2) CLUB Leopard in Hiroshima (opening December 5)<\/strong>
\n\u4f4f\u6240 \u5e83\u5cf6\u5e02\u4e2d\u533a\u6d41\u5ddd\u753a7-6
\n\u7b2c\u4e94\u767d\u83f1\u30d3\u30ebB1F TEL 082-569-7777
\nIt also has a pretty impressive website:
\nhttp:\/\/clubleopard.jp<\/a>, and here is a very impressive number of rules that all patrons must follow, including those NJ who apparenty can\u2019t be patrons: \u201cDO NOT ENTER NON-JAPANESE\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12846<\/a><\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

3) Japan Procter & Gamble\u2019s racialized laundry detergent ad: \u201cCinderella and the Nose Ballroom Dance\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Debito.org Reader<\/strong>: Dear Dr. Arudou, Thank you for your continued work raising awareness on issues of race here in Japan. Have you seen this latest ad campaign for Bold detergent, [which retells the Cinderella story with exaggerated noses on their Caucasian characters]?<\/em>
\nFull video: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pjFsvkm7pws<\/a>
\nCampaign website: http:\/\/boldbutoukai.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Debito<\/strong>: After ANA airlines got pretty badly stung for its \u201cchange the image of Japan\u201d (into a Caucasian Robert Redford lookalike) ad earlier this year, Toshiba got slapped for their racialized home bread maker ad, and McDonald\u2019s Japan faced enough pressure that they terminated their \u201cMr. James\u201d burger campaign early, one wonders whether Japan\u2019s advertisers will ever learn their lesson that grounding their product in racialized stereotypes is pretty bad form. Imagine if you will some overseas company marketing an \u201cAsian\u201d product that was so delicious, it made your incisors go all \u201cAsian buck teeth\u201d reaching out to eat it? No doubt Japan\u2019s patrol of internet police would soon start howling racism and lobbying the company (and Japan\u2019s missions abroad) to send out protests and orders to withdraw the ad campaign. People making fun of Asian \u201cslanted eyes\u201d has been criticized before, and withdrawn with apologies. So what about this? Do you think Procter & Gamble HQ in the US would approve of this?<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12821<\/a><\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

4) Mainichi: Thousands of anti-hate speech demonstrators take to Tokyo streets Nov 2, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good news. With the upswell in hate speech in Japan, particularly against Zainichi Koreans, we have social antibodies kicking in, with public counterdemonstrations on Nov. 2 to say that this behavior is unacceptable. Of course, this is only the second time that the anti-racists have demonstrated, as opposed to the many, many, many times the pro-racism forces have turned out on the streets. But it is a positive step that Debito.org salutes, and I hope that they will take a more proactive (as opposed to reactive) approach to set the public agenda. That agenda should be: punitive criminal laws against hate speech and racial discrimination in Japan. For the lack of legislation in Japan means that the xenophobic elements can essentially do as they please (short of breaking already-established laws involving more generic violence towards others) to normalize hatred in Japan. And they will probably succeed in doing so unless it is illegal. My fear is that opponents of public hatred might think that just counter-demonstrating is sufficient, and if hate speech ever dies down, they\u2019ll think problem solved. As the United Nations agrees, it won\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12794<\/a><\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

5) Louis Carlet et al. on the misunderstood July 2014 Supreme Court Ruling denying welfare benefits to NJ: \u201cno rights\u201d does not mean automatic NJ denials<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two months ago Debito.org wrote on the aftermath of the Supreme Court of Japan\u2019s ruling that NJ have \u201cno right\u201d to social welfare (seikatsu hogo) because they are not citizens (https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12769). I have been hearing rumblings that the media have been misinterpreting this ruling due to linguistics and politics, and that an adjudged no legal right has not resulted in denials. I submit to you the corrections from Tozen Union\u2019s Louis Carlet, with a followup from another Debito.org Commenter that are simply too good to languish within comments. Nevertheless, as noted in that earlier Debito.org post, the point remains that there are some very nasty and xenophobic people in Japan\u2019s political system who are capitalizing on what people think the Supreme Court said. Which may mean, in this increasingly ultra-rightist political climate, that the effect might ultimately be the same.<\/p>\n

CARLET<\/strong>: [Japan Times\u2019] Otake\u2019s article is mistaken on two major points. First, the Supreme Court in no way found foreigners ineligible for welfare. Second, the ruling, far from landmark, upheld the status quo. The highest court overturned the High Court\u2019s actual landmark ruling which said that foreigners have \u201cquasi rights\u201d to welfare. Up until then foreigners never had the \u201cguaranteed right\u201d (kenri) to welfare but they were and are eligible just like Japanese citizens.<\/em><\/p>\n

I think the problem is mistranslation. Kenri means a guaranteed right whereas \u201cno right\u201d in English suggests ineligible. The only difference arising from not having the kenri is that if the welfare office rejects an application from a citizen then the Japanese person can appeal the decision to the office. A foreigner with no kenri for welfare cannot appeal at the office but only in court. That is the ONLY difference between how foreigners and Japanese are treated by the welfare office. Foreigners get welfare just like Japanese do. In fact the plaintiff currently gets welfare although originally rejected.<\/em><\/p>\n

OSFISH<\/strong>: The clarification that needs to be repeated over and over again is that \u201cwelfare\u201d here does not mean \u201cwelfare\u201d in its biggest sense of all social expenditures, such as pensions, health costs, unemployment insurance and so on. It does not mean shakai hoken in any sense at all. Welfare in this limited sense is a means-tested benefit for people who have fallen through the gaps of insurance-based social protection because they cannot contribute, or are not under the umbrella of a contributor. The main recipients are long-term disabled, single mothers (abandoned by their partners) and elderly with inadequate or no pension rights. It is a completely different system to shakai hoken and operates on a different logic of desert and eligibility. Broadly speaking, the same social insurance\/social assistance split operates in large parts of the industrialised world. Japan more or less imported its system from Europe.<\/em><\/p>\n

To repeat: welfare here does not mean shakai hoken. Please rest easy, and do NOT consider opting out based on this ruling; it\u2019s got nothing legally or logically to do with shakai hoken. And in any case, welfare is not being taken away. People in dire straits need to know that.[\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n

[According to this GOJ source] 66% of all recipients are Koreans \u2013 almost all probably zainichi SPRs: a group that really stretches the concept of \u201cforeign\u201d, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll agree. Of those Koreans, and quite disproportionately compared to other groups, around half of the recipients are old people. I would hazard a guess that this is a strong reflection of the economic disenfranchisement of the first post-war generation of zainichi. These are people who were disproportionately not properly or poorly integrated into the economy and welfare system. (For what it\u2019s worth, incomer \u201cforeigners\u201d claim less than their \u201cshare\u201d, but this shouldn\u2019t be too surprising or interpreted as anything meaningful, as residence status is attached to visa status, is attached to good evidence of financial stability. Of course there are going to be fewer incomer recipients.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s combine this fact that Koreans make up the bulk of recipients with the far-right party\u2019s suggestion that \u201cforeign\u201d recipients should naturalise or leave. For a westerner claiming social assistance, it would be very hard indeed to naturalise if you could not demonstrate financial stability. It\u2019s pretty much out of the question. However, for zainichi Koreans, that financial stability condition doesn\u2019t apply. The rules for SPR naturalisation are not strict. So it looks to me like an attempt to coerce elderly impoverished zainichi Koreans into giving up their nationality and identity. That\u2019s why this relatively small amount of budget money matters to these thoroughly unpleasant people.<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12811<\/a><\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

6) University of Hawaii at Manoa Center for Japanese Studies presents, \u201cJapan\u2019s Visible Minorities: Appearance and Prejudice in Japanese Society\u201d, by Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/strong><\/p>\n

I spoke at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Campus November 7, 2014, on my doctoral research.\u00a0 Here’s the flyer:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12805<\/a><\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

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

7) Japan Times JBC 81, Nov 5 2014, \u201cDoes social change in Japan come from the top down or bottom up?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opening: This month I would like to take a break from my lecture style of column-writing to pose a question to readers. Seriously, I don\u2019t have an answer to this, so I\u2019d like your opinion: Does fundamental social change generally come from the top down or the bottom up?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By top down, I mean that governments and legal systems effect social change by legislating and rule-making. In other words, if leaders want to stop people doing something they consider unsavory, they make it illegal. This may occur with or without popular support, but the prototypical example would be legislating away a bad social habit (say, lax speed limits or unstandardized legal drinking ages) regardless of clear public approval.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By bottom up, I mean that social change arises from a critical mass of people putting pressure on their elected officials (and each other) to desist in something socially undesirable. Eventually this also results in new rules and legislation, but the impetus and momentum for change is at the grass-roots level, thanks to clear public support.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Either dynamic can work in Japan, of course\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
\n(Your thoughts on the question welcome here and at the JT site.)<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12798<\/a><\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

That’s all for 2014.\u00a0 See you in 2015 with my annual countdown of the Top Ten Human Rights Events!\u00a0 And as always, thanks for reading and contributing to Debito.org!\u00a0 Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 4, 2014 ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Table of Contents:
\n1) Ministry of Justice Bureau of Human Rights 2014 on raising public awareness of NJ human rights (full site scanned with analysis: it\u2019s underwhelming business as usual)
\n2) \u201cJapanese Only\u201d nightclubs \u201cW\u201d in Nagoya and newly-opening \u201cCLUB Leopard\u201d in Hiroshima
\n3) Japan Procter & Gamble\u2019s racialized laundry detergent ad: \u201cCinderella and the Nose Ballroom Dance\u201d
\n4) Mainichi: Thousands of anti-hate speech demonstrators take to Tokyo streets Nov 2, 2014
\n5) Louis Carlet et al. on the misunderstood July 2014 Supreme Court Ruling denying welfare benefits to NJ: \u201cno rights\u201d does not mean automatic NJ denials
\n6) University of Hawaii at Manoa Center for Japanese Studies presents, \u201cJapan\u2019s Visible Minorities: Appearance and Prejudice in Japanese Society\u201d, by Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

And finally\u2026
\n7) Japan Times JBC 81, Nov 5 2014, \u201cDoes social change in Japan come from the top down or bottom up?\u201d<\/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-12897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12897","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=12897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}