{"id":13776,"date":"2016-01-30T11:23:47","date_gmt":"2016-01-30T21:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13776"},"modified":"2016-02-02T10:57:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T20:57:53","slug":"sneak-preview-my-japan-times-jbc-column-95-osakas-move-on-hate-speech-should-be-just-the-first-step-out-monday-feb-1-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13776","title":{"rendered":"My Japan Times JBC 95, “Osaka’s move on hate speech should be just the first step” Feb. 1, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Here is my\u00a0Japan Times Just Be Cause column 95 on hate speech legislation in Japan. Thanks once again for sending it to #1 again on the Japan Times Online!\u00a0Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

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

“Osaka’s move on hate speech should be just the first step”<\/strong>
\n By Dr. ARUDOU, Debito, Just Be Cause column 95 for the Japan Times Community Page<\/strong>
\n The Japan Times, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Jan. 15, the Osaka Prefectural Assembly passed the first local ordinance against hate speech in Japan<\/a>. JBC sees this as a step in the right direction<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Until now, there was no way to define what \u201chate speech\u201d was, let alone take any measures against it. Defining a problem is fundamental to finding a solution.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Moreover, passing an ordinance makes a general statement to society that the existence of hate speech is not only undeniable but also impermissible. This matters, given Japan\u2019s high tolerance for racist outbursts from public officials, and clear cases of bullying and intimidation that have otherwise been protected under \u201cfreedom of speech\u201d (genron no jiyuu). Osaka has made it clearer that there is a limit to what you can say about groups of people in public.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, this still isn\u2019t quite at the stage where Osaka can kvell. There are no criminal or financial penalties for haters. An earlier version of the ordinance offered victims financial assistance to take their case to court, but that was cut to get it passed. Also, an adjudicating committee (shinsa-kai) can basically only \u201cname and shame\u201d haters by warning and publicizing them on a government website<\/a> \u2014 in other words, it can officially frown upon them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even the act of creating a law against hate speech has invited criticism for opening up potential avenues to policymaker abuse. They have a point: tampering with freedom of speech invites fears, quite reasonably, about slippery slopes to censorship. So let\u2019s address the niggling question right now: Should there ever be limits put on what you can say?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

JBC argues yes…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the rest in the Japan Times\u00a0at\u00a0http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2016\/01\/31\/issues\/osakas-move-hate-speech-just-first-step\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Jan. 15, the Osaka Prefectural Assembly passed the first local ordinance against hate speech in Japan. JBC sees this as a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Until now, there was no way to define what \u201chate speech\u201d was, let alone take any measures against it. Defining a problem is fundamental to finding a solution.<\/p>\n

Moreover, passing an ordinance makes a general statement to society that the existence of hate speech is not only undeniable but also impermissible. This matters, given Japan\u2019s high tolerance for racist outbursts from public officials, and clear cases of bullying and intimidation that have otherwise been protected under \u201cfreedom of speech\u201d (genron no jiyuu). Osaka has made it clearer that there is a limit to what you can say about groups of people in public.<\/p>\n

However, this still isn\u2019t quite at the stage where Osaka can kvell. There are no criminal or financial penalties for haters. An earlier version of the ordinance offered victims financial assistance to take their case to court, but that was cut to get it passed. Also, an adjudicating committee (shinsa-kai) can basically only \u201cname and shame\u201d haters by warning and publicizing them on a government website \u2014 in other words, it can officially frown upon them.<\/p>\n

Even the act of creating a law against hate speech has invited criticism for opening up potential avenues to policymaker abuse. They have a point: tampering with freedom of speech invites fears, quite reasonably, about slippery slopes to censorship. So let\u2019s address the niggling question right now: Should there ever be limits put on what you can say? JBC argues yes…<\/p>\n

Read the rest in the Japan Times at http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2016\/01\/31\/issues\/osakas-move-hate-speech-just-first-step\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,18,35,52,5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-discrimination-templates","category-academia","category-good-news","category-hate-speech","category-human-rights","category-japanese-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13776","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=13776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}