{"id":12959,"date":"2015-01-01T19:39:48","date_gmt":"2015-01-02T05:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12959"},"modified":"2015-02-20T12:45:19","modified_gmt":"2015-02-20T22:45:19","slug":"preview-japan-times-jbc-83-jan-1-2015-annual-top-ten-list-of-human-rights-news-events-for-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=12959","title":{"rendered":"My Japan Times JBC 83 Jan 1, 2015: “Hate, Muzzle and Poll”: Debito’s Annual Top Ten List of Human Rights News Events for 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

eBooks, Books, and more from ARUDOU, Debito (click on icon):
\n\"Guidebookcover.jpg\"<\/a>\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\"<\/a>\"Handbook<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>\"debitopodcastthumb\"<\/a>\"FodorsJapan2014cover\"<\/a>
\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
\nDEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free
\n“LIKE” US on Facebook at http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/debitoorg<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.facebook.com\/handbookimmigrants<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JapaneseOnlyTheBook<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BookInAppropriate<\/a>
\nIf you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little donation via my webhoster:
\n\"Donate<\/a>
\nAll donations go towards website costs only. Thanks for your support!<\/i><\/p>\n

JUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n\"justbecauseicon.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A TOP TEN FOR 2014<\/strong>
\n By Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/strong>
\n JUST BE CAUSE Column 83 for the Japan Times Community Page<\/strong>
\nPublished\u00a0January 1, 2015 (version with links to sources)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courtesy\u00a0http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2015\/01\/01\/issues\/hate-muzzle-poll-top-10-issues-2014\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

ISSUES<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0JUST BE CAUSE<\/a><\/h3>\n

Hate, muzzle and poll: a top 10 of issues for 2014<\/h1>\n<\/hgroup>\n

BY\u00a0DEBITO ARUDOU<\/a>, The Japan Times, January 1, 2015<\/h5>\n<\/header>\n
\n

As is tradition for JBC, it\u2019s time to recap the top 10 human rights news events affecting non-Japanese (NJ) in Japan last year. In ascending order:<\/p>\n

10) Warmonger Ishihara loses seat<\/h3>\n

This newspaper has talked about Shintaro Ishihara\u2019s unsubtle bigotry (particularly towards Japan\u2019s NJ residents) numerous times (e.g. \u201cIf bully Ishihara wants one last stand, bring it on<\/a>,\u201d JBC, Nov. 6, 2012). All the while, we gritted our teeth as he won re-election repeatedly to the National Diet and the Tokyo governorship.<\/p>\n

However, in a move that can only be put down to hubris, Ishihara resigned his gubernatorial bully pulpit in 2012 to shepherd a lunatic-right fringe party into the Diet. But in December he was voted out, drawing the curtain on nearly five decades of political theater.<\/p>\n

About time. He admitted last month that he wanted \u201cto fight a war with China and win\u201d<\/a> by attempting to buy three of the disputed Senkaku islets (and entangling the previous left-leaning government in the imbroglio). Fortunately the conflict hasn\u2019t come to blows, but Ishihara has done more than anyone over the past 15 years to embolden Japan\u2019s xenophobic right (by fashioning foreigner-bashing into viable political capital) and undo Japan\u2019s postwar liberalism and pacifism.<\/p>\n

Good riddance. May we never see your like again. Unfortunately, I doubt that.<\/p>\n

9) Mori bashes Japan\u2019s athletes<\/h3>\n

Japan apparently underperformed at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (no wonder, given the unnecessary pressure Japanese society puts on its athletes<\/a>) and somebody just had to grumble about it \u2014 only this time in a racialized way.<\/p>\n

Chair of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics committee Yoshiro Mori (himself remembered for his abysmal performance as prime minister from 2000 to 2001<\/a>) criticized the performance of Japanese figure skaters Chris and Cathy Reed: \u201cThey live in America. Because they are not good enough for the U.S. team in the Olympics, we included these naturalized citizens on the team<\/a>.\u201d This was factually wrong to begin with, since through their Japanese mother, the Reeds have always had Japanese citizenship. But the insinuation that they weren\u2019t good enough because they weren\u2019t Japanese enough is dreadfully unsportsmanlike, and contravenes the Olympic charter on racism.<\/p>\n

Mori incurred significant international criticism for this, but there were no retractions or resignations. And it isn\u2019t the first time the stigmatization of foreignness has surfaced in Mori\u2019s milieu. Since 2005 he has headed the Japan Rugby Football Union, which after the 2011 Rugby World Cup criticized the underperforming Japan team for having \u201ctoo many foreign-born players<\/a>\u201d (including naturalized Japanese citizens). The 2012 roster was then purged of most \u201cforeigners.\u201d<\/a> Yet despite these shenanigans, Japan will host the 2019 Rugby World Cup right before the Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n

8) \u2018Points system\u2019 visa revamp<\/h3>\n

In a delicious example of JBC SITYS (\u201csee, I told you so\u201d), Japan\u2019s meritocratic Points-based Preferential Treatment for Highly Skilled Foreigners visa failed miserably in 2013, with only 700 people having even\u00a0applied<\/em>\u00a0for the available 2,000 slots six months into the program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

JBC said its requirements were far too strict when it was first announced, predicting it would fail (see\u00a0last year\u2019s top 10<\/a>, and \u201cJapan\u2019s revolving door immigration policy hard-wired to fail,<\/a>\u201d JBC, March 6, 2012). Policymakers arrogantly presumed that NJ are beating down the door to work in Japan under any circumstances (not likely, after Japan\u2019s two economic \u201clost decades\u201d), and gave few \u201cpoints\u201d to those who learned Japanese or attended Japanese universities. Fact is, they never really wanted people who \u201cknew\u201d Japan all that well.<\/p>\n

But by now even those who do cursory research know greater opportunities lie elsewhere: Japan is a land of deflation and real falling wages, with little protection against discrimination, and real structural impediments to settling permanently and prospering in Japanese society.<\/p>\n

So did the government learn from this policy failure? Yes, some points requirements were revamped, but the most significant change was cosmetic: The online info site contains an illustration depicting potential applicants<\/a> as predominantly white Westerners<\/a>. So much for the meritocracy: The melanin-rich need not apply.<\/p>\n

Good luck with the reboot, but Japan is becoming an even harder sell due to the higher-ranking issues on our countdown.<\/p>\n

7) Ruling in Suraj death case<\/h3>\n

This is the third<\/a> time the case of Ghanaian national Abubakar Awadu Suraj<\/a> has made this top 10, because it demonstrates how NJ can be brutally killed in police custody without anyone taking responsibility.<\/p>\n

After Suraj was asphyxiated while physically restrained during deportation in 2010, for years his kin unsuccessfully sought criminal prosecutions<\/a>. Last March, however, the Tokyo District Court ruled that immigration officials were responsible for using \u201cillegal\u201d excessive force, and ordered the government to pay \u00a55 million to Suraj\u2019s widow and mother<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The case is currently being appealed to the Tokyo High Court<\/a>. But the lesson remains that in Japan, due to insufficient oversight over Immigration Bureau officials (as reported in United Nations<\/a> and Amnesty International reports<\/a>; four NJ have died in Immigration custody since October 2013<\/a>), an overstayed visa can become a capital offense.<\/p>\n

6) Muslims compensated for leak<\/h3>\n

In another landmark move by the Tokyo District Court<\/a>, last January the National Police Agency was ordered to compensate several Muslim residents and their Japanese families, whom they had spied upon as suspected terrorists. Although this is good news (clearly noncitizens are entitled to the same right to privacy as citizens), the act of spying in itself was not penalized, but rather the police\u2019s inability to manage their intelligence properly, letting the information leak to the public.<\/p>\n

Also not ruled upon was the illegality of the investigation itself, and the latent discrimination behind it. Instead, the court called the spying unavoidable considering the need to prevent international terrorism \u2014 thus giving carte blanche to the police to engage in racial profiling.<\/p>\n

5) \u2018Japanese only\u2019 saga<\/h3>\n

If this were my own personal top 10, this would top the list, as it marks a major shift in Japan\u2019s narrative on racial discrimination (the subject of my Ph.D. last year<\/a>). As described elsewhere (\u201cJ.League and media must show red card to racism,<\/a>\u201d JBC, March 12, 2014), the Japanese government and media seem to have an allergy when it comes to calling discrimination due to physical appearance \u201cdiscrimination by race\u201d (jinshu sabetsu<\/em>), depicting it instead as discrimination by nationality, ethnicity, \u201cdescent,\u201d etc. Racism happens in other countries, not here, the narrative goes, because Japan is so homogeneous that it has no race issues.<\/p>\n

But when Urawa Reds soccer fans last March put up a \u201cJapanese only\u201d banner at an entrance to the stands at its stadium, the debate turned out differently. Despite some initial media prevarication<\/a> about whether or not this banner was \u201cracist,\u201d J.League chair Mitsuru Murai quickly called it out as racial discrimination and took punitive action against both the fans and the team<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More importantly, Murai said that victims\u2019 perception of the banner was more important than the perpetrators\u2019 intent behind it. This opened the doors for debate about jinshu sabetsu more effectively than the entire decade of proceedings<\/a> in the \u201cJapanese only\u201d Otaru onsen case<\/a> that I was involved in (where behavior was ruled as \u201cracial discrimination\u201d by the judiciary as far back as 2002). All of this means that well into the 21st century, Japan finally has a precedent of domestic discourse on racism that cannot be ignored.<\/p>\n

4) Signs Japan may enforce Hague<\/h3>\n

Last year\u2019s top 10 noted that Japan would join an international pact that says international children abducted by a family member from their habitual country of residence after divorce should be repatriated. However, JBC doubted it would be properly enforced, in light of a propagandist Foreign Ministry pamphlet arguing that signing the Hague Convention was Japan\u2019s means to force foreigners to send more Japanese children home (\u201cBiased pamphlet bodes ill for left-behind parents<\/a>,\u201d JBC, Oct. 8). Furthermore, with divorces between Japanese citizens commonly resulting in one parent losing all access to the children, what hope would foreigners have?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, last year there were some positive steps<\/a>, with some children abducted to Japan being returned overseas. Government-sponsored mediation resulted in a voluntary return, and a court ruling ordered a repatriation (the case is on appeal).<\/p>\n

However, the Hague treaty requires involuntary court-ordered returns, and while Japan has received children under its new signatory status, it has not as yet sent any back. Further, filing for return and\/or access in Japan under the Hague is arduous, with processes not required in other signatory countries.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this is a step in the right direction, and JBC hopes that respect for habitual residence continues even after international media attention on Japan has waned.<\/p>\n

3) Ruling on welfare confuses<\/h3>\n

Last July another court case mentioned in previous top 10s concluded<\/a>, with an 82-year-old Zainichi Chinese who has spent her whole life in Japan being denied social-welfare benefits for low-income residents (seikatsu hogo<\/em>). The Supreme Court overturned a Fukuoka High Court ruling that NJ had \u201cquasi-rights\u201d to assistance, saying that only nationals had a \u201cguaranteed right\u201d (kenri<\/em>).<\/p>\n

People were confused. Although the media portrayed this as a denial of welfare to NJ, labor union activist Louis Carlet called it a reaffirmation of the status quo<\/a> \u2014 meaning there was no NJ ineligibility, just no automatic eligibility. Also, several bureaucratic agencies stated that NJ would qualify for assistance as before.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t matter. Japan\u2019s xenophobic right soon capitalized on this phraseology, with Ishihara\u2019s Jisedai no To (Party for Future Generations) in August announcing policies<\/a> \u201cbased on the ruling\u201d that explicitly denied welfare to NJ. In December, in another act of outright meanness, Jisedai made NJ welfare issues one of their party platforms. One of their advertisements featured an animated pig, representing the allegedly \u201ctaboo topic\u201d of NJ (somehow) receiving \u201ceight times the benefits of Japanese citizens,\u201d being grotesquely sliced in half<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You read that right. But it makes sense when you consider how normalized hate speech has become in Japan.<\/p>\n

2) The rise and rise of hate speech<\/h3>\n

Last year\u2019s list noted how Japan\u2019s hate speech had turned murderous<\/a>, with some even advocating the killing of Koreans in Japan. In 2014, Japanese rightists celebrated Hitler\u2019s 125th birthday in Tokyo by parading swastika banners<\/a> next to the Rising Sun flag. Media reported hate speech protests spreading to smaller cities<\/a> around Japan, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered little more than lukewarm condemnations of what is essentially his xenophobic power base<\/a>. Even opportunistic\u00a0foreigners<\/em>\u00a0joined the chorus, with Henry Scott Stokes and Tony \u201cTexas Daddy\u201d Marano<\/a> (neither of whom can read the Japanese articles written under their name<\/a>) topping up their retirement bank accounts with revisionist writings.<\/p>\n

That said, last year also saw rising counterprotests<\/a>. Ordinary people began showing up at hate rallies waving \u201cNo to racism\u201d banners and shouting the haters down. The United Nations issued very strong condemnations<\/a> and called for a law against hate speech. Even Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto confronted Makoto Sakurai<\/a>, the then-leader of hate group Zaitokukai (which, despite Japan\u2019s top cop feigning ignorance<\/a> of the group, was added to a National Police Agency watch list as a threat to law and order<\/a> last year).<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, most protesters have taken the tack<\/a> of crying \u201cDon\u2019t shame us Japanese\u201d rather than the more empowering \u201cNJ are our neighbors who have equal rights with us.\u201d Sadly, the possibility of equality ever becoming a reality looked even further away as 2014 drew to a close:<\/p>\n

1) Abe re-election and secrets law<\/h3>\n

With his third electoral victory in December, Abe got a renewed mandate to carry out his policies. These are ostensibly to revitalize the economy, but more importantly to enforce patriotism, revive Japan\u2019s mysticism, sanitize Japan\u2019s history and undo its peace Constitution to allow for remilitarization (\u201cJapan brings out big guns to sell remilitarization in U.S<\/a>.,\u201d JBC, Nov. 6, 2013).<\/p>\n

Most sinister of all his policies is the state secrets law, which took effect last month, with harsh criminal penalties in place for anyone \u201cleaking\u201d any of 460,000 potential state secrets. Given that the process for deciding what\u2019s a secret is itself secret, this law will further intimidate a self-censoring Japanese media into double-guessing itself into even deeper silence.<\/p>\n

These misgivings have been covered extensively elsewhere<\/a>. But particularly germane for JBC is how, according to Kyodo (Dec. 8)<\/a>, the Abe Cabinet has warned government offices that Japanese who have studied or worked abroad are a higher leak risk. That means the government can now justifiably purge all \u201cforeign\u201d intellectual or social influences from the upper echelons of power.<\/p>\n

How will this state-sponsored xenophobia, which now views anything \u201cforeign\u201d as a security threat, affect Japan\u2019s policymakers, especially when so many Japanese bureaucrats and politicians (even Abe himself<\/a>) have studied abroad? Dunno. But the state secrets law will certainly undermine Japan\u2019s decades of \u201cinternationalization,\u201d globalization and participation in the world community \u2014 in ways never seen in postwar Japan.<\/p>\n

\n

Bubbling under:<\/h3>\n

a) Jisedai no To\u2019s xenophobic platform fails to inspire, and the party loses most of its seats<\/a> in December\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

b) Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Japan\u2019s biggest drugmaker, appoints Christophe Weber<\/a> as president despite the Takeda family\u2019s xenophobic objections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

c) Media pressure forces Konsho Gakuen cooking college to (officially) repeal its \u201cJapanese only\u201d admissions process<\/a> (despite it being in place since 1976, and Saitama Prefecture knowing about it since 2012).<\/p>\n

d) All Nippon Airways (ANA) uses racist \u201cbig-nosed white guy\u201d advertisement to promote \u201cJapan\u2019s new image\u201d as Haneda airport vies to be a hub for Asian traffic (\u201cDon\u2019t let ANA off the hook for that offensive ad<\/a>,\u201d JBC, Jan. 24, 2014).<\/p>\n

e) Despite NJ being listed on resident registries (j\u016bmin kihon daich\u014d<\/em>) since 2012, media reports continue to avoid counting NJ as part of Japan\u2019s official population<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As is tradition for JBC, it\u2019s time to recap the Top Ten human rights news events affecting non-Japanese (NJ) in Japan last year. In ascending order:<\/p>\n

10) WARMONGER SHINTARO ISHIHARA LOSES HIS DIET SEAT
\nThis newspaper has talked about Shintaro Ishihara\u2019s unsubtle bigotry (particularly towards Japan\u2019s NJ residents) numerous times (e.g. \u201cIf bully Ishihara wants one last stand, bring it on,\u201d JBC, Nov. 6, 2012), while gritting our teeth as he won re-election repeatedly to the National Diet and the Tokyo governorship. However, in a move that can only be put down to hubris, he resigned his gubernatorial bully pulpit in 2012 to shepherd a lunatic-right fringe party into the Diet. But in December he was voted out, drawing the curtain on nearly five decades of political theater…<\/p>\n

Read the next nine and five bubble-unders below with links to sources:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,28,18,43,36,49,22,34,50,35,52,20,5,12,37,4,10,14,16,15,13,2,65,64,17,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pinprick-protests","category-anti-discrimination-templates","category-academia","category-bad-business-practices","category-bad-social-science","category-child-abductions","category-cultural-issue","category-exclusionism","category-gaiatsu","category-good-news","category-hate-speech","category-history","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-injustice","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-policeforeign-crime","category-japanese-politics","category-labor-issues","category-lawsuits","category-media","category-otaru-onsen-lawsuit","category-racist-images-in-media","category-sitys","category-sport","category-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12959","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=12959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}