{"id":13841,"date":"2016-03-01T20:12:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T06:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13841"},"modified":"2016-03-02T10:39:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T20:39:16","slug":"debito-org-newsletter-march-1-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13841","title":{"rendered":"DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MARCH 1, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MARCH 1, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fundraising for Debito.org: 2016 20th Anniversary Campaign for Donations via Paypal<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Debito.org celebrates its 20th Anniversary this year in March, I want to thank Readers for all of their support throughout the decades. The research and archiving done here has helped thousands of people and enabled me to create books, including my recent magnum opus, \u201cEmbedded Racism: Japan\u2019s Visible Minorities and Racial Discrimination\u201d (Lexington Books \/ Rowman & Littlefield, 2015\/2016)<\/p>\n

This year, and I would like to do something unprecedented: Launch a 20th Anniversary Fundraising Drive.<\/p>\n

Naturally, there are costs of hosting and safeguarding against online elements who would sooner see Debito.org taken down (they succeeded in doing so once). There are also projects I would like to support if possible, and having funds available under the aegis of Debito.org would be beneficial for supporting this website further. So if over the years you have found the thousands of documents and information sites on Debito.org helpful, please consider giving something back for all the volunteer work. Donations by Paypal accepted. Please remit to debito@me.com at Paypal, and please indicate in a message there whether or not you would like your gift acknowledged on Debito.org (and if so, using what moniker). Thank you all again for reading and supporting Debito.org!
\nhttps:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13748<\/a><\/p>\n

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Table of Contents:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

TIGHTENING THE NOOSE ON DOMESTIC DISSENT<\/strong>
\n1) ABC News Australia: Video on PM Abe\u2019s secretive and ultra-conservative organization \u201cNippon Kaigi\u201d<\/strong>
\n 2) Sankei column by Okabe Noburu suggesting Japanese language tests for foreign correspondent visas, to weed out their \u201canti-Japan\u201d biases<\/strong>
\n 3) JT on corporate threats to student activists\u2019 futures (SEALDs in particular); this is probably why they suddenly turned craven<\/strong>
\n 4) O\u2019Day in APJ: Japan Focus: \u201cDifferentiating SEALDs from Freeters, and Precariats: the politics of youth movements in contemporary Japan\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRAGIC UPDATES<\/strong>
\n 5) Suraj Case: Tokyo High Court rules Immigration Bureau not responsible for killing him during deportation<\/strong>
\n 6) ALTs (\u201coutsourced\u201d English teachers) earning slave wages (or less) working for Japanese public schools<\/strong>
\n 7) JT: Sakanaka argues success of \u2018Abenomics\u2019 hinges on immigration policy (old article from May 2014; not much has changed)<\/strong>
\n 8 ) JT: Japan\u2019s public baths hope foreign tourists and residents will keep taps running; oh, the irony!<\/strong><\/p>\n

TERRORISTIC XENOPHOBIA<\/strong>
\n 9) Nagoya anonymous neighborhood poster warning of crime that \u201cmay have been committed by foreigners\u201d: vigilantism that should be officially discouraged, but no.<\/strong>
\n 10) Tangent: McNeill in No.1 Shimbun: \u201cInto the Valley of the Trolls\u201d: Is ignoring them really an effective strategy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRYING TO HELP<\/strong>
\n 11) Asahi: Survey: Discrimination encountered by 42% of foreign residents in Tokyo\u2019s Shinjuku Ward; Asahi wants NJ resident opinions<\/strong>
\n 12) Asahi and JT: Osaka adopts Japan\u2019s first anti-hate-speech ordinance<\/strong>
\n 13) HJ on Mainichi article on \u201cPreventing Illegal Hires of Foreigners\u201d; what about campaigns to prevent illegal ABUSES of foreign workers?<\/strong>
\n 14) Ben Shearon on RetireJapan, helping people living in Japan learn more about personal finance, investing, readying for retirement<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

15) My Japan Times JBC 95, \u201cOsaka\u2019s move on hate speech should be just the first step\u201d Feb. 1, 2016<\/strong>
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By Dr. ARUDOU, Debito (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter @arudoudebito)
\nNewsletter Freely Forwardable<\/p>\n

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TIGHTENING THE NOOSE ON DOMESTIC DISSENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) ABC News Australia: Video on PM Abe\u2019s secretive and ultra-conservative organization \u201cNippon Kaigi\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here is an excellent bit of investigative journalism done by the Australians on an organization that the USG would do well to do their own research on (and the US media pay due attention to): PM Abe\u2019s Nippon Kaigi, which threatens to undo just about everything The Occupation did to demilitarize Postwar Japan and defang its self-destructive ultranationalism. Why hasn\u2019t anyone else done a good in-depth report on them, even after this report came out over a year ago? Because it\u2019s probably not something people want to believe\u2013that the belligerent elements of Prewar Japan are not only ascendant, they are already well-organized within Japan\u2019s highest echelons of government. A transcript follows, but I strongly recommend people click on the link and watch the video at the ABC News Australia Lateline program to get the full effect. http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/lateline\/content\/2015\/s4364818.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

LATELINE: It\u2019s been described as one of the most influential political organisations in Japan. Nippon Kaigi, or Japan Conference, has an impressive list of members and advisors, including the Prime Minister and much of his cabinet. But very little is known about this right-wing nationalist lobby group which aims to reshape Japanese politics and policies and even change the Constitution. It operates mostly out of the public eye, but North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney gained rare access to file this exclusive story for Lateline.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13806<\/a><\/p>\n

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2) Sankei column by Okabe Noburu suggesting Japanese language tests for foreign correspondent visas, to weed out their \u201canti-Japan\u201d biases<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an interesting column by one of our favorite newspapers, the Sankei Shinbun, famous for its anti-foreigner slants. Their columnist, Okabe Noburu, Senior Reporter for Diplomatic Issues, links a lack of language ability in foreign reporters to their tendency to hold \u201canti-Japan\u201d biases. In a meandering column that brings in all sorts of anti-immigration slants itself, Okabe finally reaches the conclusion that maybe Japan might make language tests a condition for visas for foreign correspondents. That way they\u2019ll have a \u201ccorrect\u201d view of Japan. Without any intended irony, it seems that Okabe, who seems to claim competency in English (enough to pick on ethnic accents in English), holds biased views himself despite.<\/p>\n

Okabe: After the war, because English people don\u2019t like manual labor, they brought in immigrants from former colonies, such as Asia, Africa, and the West Indies, but recently there has been a huge influx of people from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, so British society\u2019s multiculturalization and multiethnicification has been proceeding. The immigrant problem is one of a history of empire. The English spoken by this variety of races has several \u201ccountry accents\u201d mixed in, so it\u2019s hard to understand. Even English has been hybridized.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I applied for my visa I had to take an English test. As language ability had not been demanded of me as an exchange student in the 1990s or during my half-year posting in Russia in the 1990s, this struck me as odd. However, after being dispatched, I came to the painful realization that understanding England meant first acquiring the language.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Before being posted, I was a member of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. I was pained to see foreign reporters who couldn\u2019t function in Japanese broadcasting their \u201canti-Japan\u201d slants to the world. How about Japan making Japanese language ability a condition for foreign correspondents getting a visa? It might lead to a correct understanding of Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13713<\/a><\/p>\n

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3) JT on corporate threats to student activists\u2019 futures (SEALDs in particular); this is probably why they suddenly turned craven<\/strong><\/p>\n

JT: Opposition to the government\u2019s aggressive push to loosen restrictions on the use of military force is being heard from many corners. The beacon for students opposing the bills has been the Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy, or SEALDs. Under the slogan of protecting \u201cfreedom, peace and democracy,\u201d these students have loudly voiced their opposition to the government\u2019s push for militarization at protests around the country.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

SEALDs have put paid to two tired tropes that have been regularly trotted out over the years about Japan\u2019s students: first, that they have no interest in politics, and second, that student social movements here are a thing of the past. Inspired by SEALDs, even high schoolers and mothers who had never before engaged in social activism have taken to the streets to demand that our country commit to never again waging war, and that our youths are never asked to kill those of other countries. Jumping on the bandwagon have been the elderly, under the collective banner of OLDs, and even the middle-aged, or MIDDLEs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This resolute, relentless movement has already begun to have a clear impact on our society. The recent drop in support for the Abe government is at least in part a result of grass-roots movements such as SEALDs. One Liberal Democratic Party member of the Lower House tweeted: \u201cSEALDs members just don\u2019t want to go off to war, i.e., their actions are based on extreme selfishness.\u201d [\u2026]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For politicians chomping at the bit to deploy Japan\u2019s forces overseas, SEALDs are apparently quite an irritant. An independent member of the Yukuhashi city assembly in Fukuoka Prefecture also stuck his foot firmly in his mouth when he riffed on a comment by one SEALDs member that \u201cwe tremble at the thought of going to war.\u201d Shinya Kotsubo parodied it on his blog on July 26, titling his article \u201cSEALDs members should tremble at the thought that they\u2019ll never get a job.\u201d He explained further, writing, \u201cYou are demonstrating now while you\u2019re students, so don\u2019t come crying when no one will hire you later on.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13768<\/a><\/p>\n

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4) O\u2019Day in APJ: Japan Focus: \u201cDifferentiating SEALDs from Freeters, and Precariats: the politics of youth movements in contemporary Japan\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Day: SEALDs is suggesting that students can use some of the freedom that their positioning affords for political engagement, instead of channeling it into more traditional activities like sports clubs and social circles, that tend to dominate students\u2019 leisure time. Yet SEALDs is also proposing something more significant than a reallocation of students\u2019 time\u2014they are also attempting to construct a different kind of political identity among college students. Another SEALDs member explained it this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur movement is not our life; it is a part of our life not our whole life. I went to class yesterday as usual, and we have rappers, people who do music, people who just study, people who are trying to be teachers, we have all kinds of people, and our movement is a part of what we do in our life but not our whole life. If you focus on the movement and movement only, you will become narrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

What this SEALDs member is suggesting is a reconfiguration of what constitutes student political identity. SEALDs is essentially showing other students that it is acceptable to seriously engage political ideas, without become radical, or having to completely devote themselves to the cause. SEALDs is challenging an all-or-nothing orientation to politics that tends to cleave most students into taking either an apolitical stance, or fully committing to a cause that will likely marginalize them. Instead, SEALDs is coming up the middle with a proposition that you can be a regular student, have conventional ambitions, aspire to a middleclass life, and still carve out a piece of yourself that is informed and engaged with political issues. If this proposition is hardly radical, it is currently resonating with a broad spectrum of students.<\/p>\n

O’Day in APJ: Japan Focus: “Differentiating SEALDs from Freeters, and Precariats: the politics of youth movements in contemporary Japan”<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n