{"id":14015,"date":"2016-05-24T08:03:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T18:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14015"},"modified":"2016-05-24T16:27:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T02:27:30","slug":"jt-diet-passes-japans-first-law-to-curb-hate-speech-hurrah-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14015","title":{"rendered":"JT: Diet passes Japan\u2019s first law to curb hate speech. Hurrah, but."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0A first step towards Debito.org’s overarching goal — a law against racial discrimination in Japan — happened yesterday: \u00a0Some kind of legislation to curb public expression of racism, in the form of a law against hate speech.<\/p>\n

Now, Debito.org cannot\u00a0wholeheartedly support this law\u00a0for the reasons noted in the article below: \u00a0It defines “hate speech” only narrow-band (only covering\u00a0legal residents of Japan), it doesn’t actually encode\u00a0punishments or penalties, and it joins all of Japan’s other laws that ineffectually ban things only in principle and get ignored in practice (such as Japan’s\u00a0Equal Employment Opportunity Law, which has not curbed male-female wage and promotion differentials one whit outside of a lengthy and risky Japanese court process<\/a>). \u00a0It is, as critics say below, mere window-dressing to make Japan look like a “civilized” country to its neighbors. \u00a0That said, I’m going to opt that it’s better to have some law that acknowledges the existence of a problem (as opposed to what’s been going on before<\/a>; even the article indicates below there was a hate rally on average more than once a\u00a0day somewhere in Japan). \u00a0Let it potentially chasten xenophobes and indicate\u00a0that minorities in Japan are here to stay and deserve dignity, respect, and the right to be unstigmatized. \u00a0Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

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

Diet passes Japan\u2019s first law to curb hate speech<\/strong>
\n BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI<\/strong>
\n STAFF WRITER<\/strong>
\n The Japan Times, May 24, 2016<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2016\/05\/24\/national\/social-issues\/diet-passes-japans-first-law-curb-hate-speech\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s first anti-hate speech law passed the Diet on Tuesday, marking a step forward in the nation\u2019s long-stalled efforts to curb racial discrimination.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But the legislation has been dogged by skepticism, with critics slamming it as philosophical at best and toothless window dressing at worst.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The ruling coalition-backed law seeks to eliminate hate speech, which exploded onto the scene around 2013 amid Japan\u2019s deteriorating relationship with South Korea.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It is the first such law in a country that has long failed to tackle the issue of racism despite its membership in the U.N.-designated International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Critics, however, have decried the legislation as ineffective.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While it condemns unjustly discriminatory language as \u201cunforgivable,\u201d it doesn\u2019t legally ban hate speech and sets no penalty.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

How effective the law will be in helping prevent the rallies frequently organized by ultraconservative groups calling for the banishment or even massacre of ethnic Korean residents remains to be seen.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Critics including the Japan Lawyers Network for Refugees have also pointed out the law is only intended to cover people of overseas origin and their descendants \u201cwho live legally in Japan.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The law\u2019s mention of legality, they say, will exclude many foreign residents without valid visas, such as asylum seekers and overstayers.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Submitted by lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, the bill initially limited its definition of hate speech to threats to bodies, lives and freedom of non-Japanese as well as other incendiary language aimed at excluding them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But at the urging of the Democratic Party, the scope of the legislation was expanded to cover \u201cegregious insults\u201d against foreign residents.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The law defines the responsibility of the state and municipalities in taking measures against hate speech, such as setting up consultation systems and better educating the public on the need to eradicate such language.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Justice Ministry\u2019s first comprehensive probe into hate speech found in March that demonstrations organized by the anti-Korean activist group Zaitokukai and other conservative organizations still occur on a regular basis, although not all involve invectives against ethnic minorities.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A total of 347 such rallies took place in 2013, while 378 were held in 2014 and 190 from January through September last year, the Justice Ministry said<\/em><\/strong>. \u00a0ENDS<\/p>\n

Do you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0We are celebrating Debito.org’s 20th Anniversary in 2016, so please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JT: Japan\u2019s first anti-hate speech law passed the Diet on Tuesday, marking a step forward in the nation\u2019s long-stalled efforts to curb racial discrimination. But the legislation has been dogged by skepticism, with critics slamming it as philosophical at best and toothless window dressing at worst.<\/p>\n

The ruling coalition-backed law seeks to eliminate hate speech, which exploded onto the scene around 2013 amid Japan\u2019s deteriorating relationship with South Korea. It is the first such law in a country that has long failed to tackle the issue of racism despite its membership in the U.N.-designated International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Critics, however, have decried the legislation as ineffective. While it condemns unjustly discriminatory language as \u201cunforgivable,\u201d it doesn\u2019t legally ban hate speech and sets no penalty.<\/p>\n

COMMENT: Debito.org cannot wholeheartedly support this law for the reasons noted in the JT article: It defines “hate speech” only narrow-band (only covering legal residents of Japan), it doesn’t actually encode punishments or penalties, and it joins all of Japan’s other laws that ineffectually ban things only in principle and get ignored in practice (such as Japan’s Equal Employment Opportunity Law, which has not curbed male-female wage and promotion differentials one whit outside of a lengthy and risky Japanese court process). It is, as critics say below, mere window-dressing to make Japan look like a “civilized” country to its neighbors. That said, I’m going to opt that it’s better to have some law that acknowledges the existence of a problem (as opposed to what’s been going on before; even the article indicates below there was a hate rally on average more than once a day somewhere in Japan). Let it potentially chasten xenophobes and indicate that minorities in Japan are here to stay and deserve dignity, respect, and the right to be unstigmatized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,34,50,35,52,5,4,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-exclusionism","category-gaiatsu","category-good-news","category-hate-speech","category-human-rights","category-japanese-government","category-victories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14015","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=14015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}