{"id":14573,"date":"2017-05-03T14:20:49","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T00:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14573"},"modified":"2017-05-03T15:52:23","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T01:52:23","slug":"nikkei-no-foreigners-allowed-survey-shows-heavy-discrimination-in-japan-which-editorializing-nikkei-asian-review-tries-to-excuse-and-dismiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14573","title":{"rendered":"Nikkei: ‘No foreigners allowed’: Survey shows heavy discrimination in Japan (which editorializing Nikkei Asian Review tries to excuse and dismiss)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0Following my most recent JBC column on the MOJ Foreign Residents Survey<\/a> (which showed significant and substantial rates of “foreigner discrimination” in Japan, particularly in housing), we have the right-of-center Nihon Keizai Shinbun (roughly equivalent to the Wall Street Journal in stature and tone) offering their interpretation of the Survey. \u00a0Note the editorializing (which I will point out within the article below [in square brackets]) to try to be discounting or dismissive of the report — trying to pass it off as somehow “worries” about mere cultural misunderstandings, or issues not serious enough to seek help for.<\/p>\n

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‘No foreigners allowed’: Survey shows heavy discrimination in Japan<\/strong>
\n 40% are refused housing because they are not Japanese<\/strong>
\n NIKKEI ASIAN REVIEW, April 6, 2017, Courtesy of JH<\/strong>
\n By TSUBASA SURUGA, Nikkei staff writer<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/asia.nikkei.com\/Japan-Update\/No-foreigners-allowed-Survey-shows-heavy-discrimination-in-Japan<\/a><\/p>\n

TOKYO — Nearly 40% of foreign residents seeking housing in Japan are turned down because they are not Japanese, according to a new government survey. Roughly the same percentage also report being refused housing due to the lack of a Japanese guarantor.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[Aha. \u00a0So let’s immediately mitigate the problem by saying it’s a systemic issue, one that applies to Japanese too. \u00a0Even though it’s a lot tougher for NJ to get guarantors because they don’t have family or other “credible” connections in Japan, meaning it’s still slanted against the NJ renter regardless.]<\/p>\n

Nearly 27% of the 2,044 foreign respondents who had sought new housing within the past five years reported giving up on a potential residence after discovering a notice saying “no foreigners allowed.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“The landlord told [me and my husband] that the house is not for foreigners,” a Filipino woman in her forties was quoted as saying in the survey, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“We visited a different real estate agent, but they said a Japanese guarantor was required,” she said. “We explained that we were both permanent residents, only to be declined because we did not meet the conditions.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

These rejections, however, are not necessarily motivated by racism. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[But that’s not what the survey says. \u00a0This is the Nikkei offering their interpretation. \u00a0And look at their reasoning:]<\/p>\n

Many landlords fear they may not be able to communicate easily with foreign tenants. Other reasons for refusal to rent include worries that foreign tenants will not follow Japanese customs, such as taking off their shoes inside the house.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[And that’s not racism? \u00a0Presuming that foreign tenants cannot communicate? \u00a0And justifying the denial of housing due to unfounded “worries” that people allegedly\u00a0WON’T TAKE OFF THEIR SHOES!? \u00a0How would Nikkei editors\u00a0feel if they were stationed overseas, but were refused apartments because of landlord “worries” that Japanese eat too much rice and might clog the toilets with their BMs<\/a>? \u00a0(We already get enough Japanese grousing about racism when they get seated\u00a0in an overseas restaurant too close to the toilet<\/a>.) \u00a0On what planet would this not be interpreted as a normalization of prejudice expressed performatively as racism? \u00a0I guess Planet Nikkei.]<\/p>\n

The survey, the first of its kind conducted by the government, was aimed at obtaining a detailed understanding of human-rights abuses faced by foreigners as Japan at a time when the country is preparing from a dramatic influx in foreign visitors due to the coming of 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The number of foreign residents reached an all-time high of 2.38 million at the end of 2016, up 6.7% on the year, according to the ministry.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The survey was conducted by the Center for Human Rights Education and Training across 37 areas nationwide between November and December last year. The organization mailed surveys to 18,500 foreign residents and received 4,252 responses.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Chinese and South Koreans combined accounted for over half of the adult respondents, followed by Filipinos, at 6.7%, Brazilians, 5.2%, and Vietnamese, 4.8%.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Of the 2,788 respondents who either worked in Japan or were looking for work here, 25% said they were denied employment because they were not Japanese. The report suggested that language ability did not appear to be the problem, as nearly 95% of those respondents said they spoke conversational, professional-level or fluent Japanese.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

About 20% of those working in Japan said they received lower pay than their Japanese counterparts in the same job.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly 30% of all respondents said they had been the target of derogatory remarks or insults due to their ethnic background in the past five years. Of those respondents, about 80% called the experience “unpleasant” or “unacceptable.” However, only 11% had sought help or consultation in response.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[And what’s the point of pointing out like this\u00a0that they hadn’t sought help or consultation? \u00a0That it’s their fault for not seeking help, or that it wasn’t serious enough an issue to bother? \u00a0Perhaps they know by now that seeking official assistance in Japan\u00a0is generally meaningless (see for example here<\/a>, here<\/a>,\u00a0and here<\/a>)]
\nENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

So many little needles, Nikkei, so little tolerance for news that reflects badly on Japan. \u00a0That’s why getting rid of Japan’s embedded racism<\/a> is so difficult — it’s embedded in even the most mainstream of publications and discounted for whatever reasons plausible. \u00a0Dr. Debito Arudou<\/p>\n

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

Do you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>. Or even click on an ad below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following my most recent JBC column on the MOJ Foreign Residents Survey (which showed significant and substantial rates of “foreigner discrimination” in Japan, particularly in housing), we have the right-of-center Nihon Keizai Shinbun (roughly equivalent to the Wall Street Journal in stature and tone) offering their interpretation of Survey results. Note the article’s editorializing (which I will point out within the article below [in square brackets]) to try to be discounting or dismissive of the report — trying to pass it off as somehow “worries” about mere cultural misunderstandings, or issues not serious enough to seek help for.<\/p>\n

NIKKEI: Nearly 27% of the 2,044 foreign respondents who had sought new housing within the past five years reported giving up on a potential residence after discovering a notice saying “no foreigners allowed.” […] These rejections, however, are not necessarily motivated by racism.<\/p>\n

[But that’s not what the survey says. This is the Nikkei offering their interpretation. And look at their reasoning:]<\/p>\n

Many landlords fear they may not be able to communicate easily with foreign tenants. Other reasons for refusal to rent include worries that foreign tenants will not follow Japanese customs, such as taking off their shoes inside the house.<\/p>\n

[And that’s not racism? Presuming that foreign tenants cannot communicate? And justifying the denial of housing due to unfounded “worries” that people allegedly WON’T TAKE OFF THEIR SHOES!? On what planet would this not be interpreted as a normalization of prejudice expressed performatively as racism? I guess Planet Nikkei.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,36,5,4,13,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-bad-social-science","category-human-rights","category-japanese-government","category-media","category-nj-voices-ignored"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14573","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=14573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}