{"id":14847,"date":"2018-01-03T09:30:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T19:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14847"},"modified":"2018-01-28T13:27:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-28T23:27:13","slug":"a-top-ten-for-2017-debitos-japan-times-jbc-110-in-2017-japan-woke-up-to-the-issue-of-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14847","title":{"rendered":"A Top Ten for 2017: Debito’s Japan Times JBC 110: “In 2017, Japan woke up to the issue of discrimination”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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JUST BE CAUSE
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Hi Blog. As is tradition, here is JBC\u2019s annual countdown of the top 10 human rights events as they affected non-Japanese (NJ) residents of Japan over the past year, as published in The Japan Times.<\/p>\n

ISSUES | JUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n In 2017, Japan woke up to the issue of discrimination <\/strong>[NB: I didn’t write the headline.]
\n BY DEBITO ARUDOU<\/strong>
\n THE JAPAN TIMES, JAN 3, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2018\/01\/03\/issues\/2017-japan-woke-issue-discrimination\/<\/a><\/p>\n

(Version with links to sources.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In ascending order:<\/strong><\/p>\n

10) As Japan\u2019s population falls, NJ residents hit record<\/strong><\/p>\n

Figures released in 2017<\/a> indicated that Japan\u2019s society is not just continuing to age and depopulate, but that the trends are accelerating. Annual births fell under 1 million \u2014 a record low \u2014 while deaths reached a record high. The segment of the population aged 65 or older also accounted for a record 27 percent of the total.<\/p>\n

In contrast, after four years (2010-2013) of net outflow, the NJ resident influx set new records. A registered 2.38 million now make up 1.86 percent of Japan\u2019s total population, somewhat offsetting the overall decline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alas, that didn\u2019t matter. Japanese media as usual tended to report \u201cJapan\u2019s population\u201d not in terms of people living in Japan, but rather Nihonjin<\/em> (Japanese citizens),<\/a> indicating once again that NJ residents simply don\u2019t count.<\/p>\n

9) \u2018Hair police\u2019 issue attracts attention with lawsuit<\/h3>\n

Japan\u2019s secondary schools have a degree of uniformity that stifles diversity. And this trend reached its logical conclusion with the news that one school was forcing children with natural hair color that\u2019s anything but black to dye and straighten their locks.<\/p>\n

We talked about dyeing a decade ago (\u201cSchools single out foreign roots<\/a>,\u201d July 17, 2007), noting its adverse effects on children\u2019s physical and mental health. Yet the Asahi Shimbun reported in May that 57 percent<\/a> of surveyed Tokyo metropolitan high schools still require \u201cproof of real hair color.\u201d In Osaka, it\u2019s more like 80 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last October a student filed suit against Osaka Prefecture for mental anguish<\/a>. Kaifukan High School in the city of Habikino had forced her to dye her naturally brown hair every four days<\/a>, regardless of the rashes and scalp irritation. When even that proved insufficiently black, she was barred from a school festival and deleted from the school register.<\/p>\n

The tone-deaf school justified this by saying, \u201cEven a blond-haired foreign exchange student dyed her hair black.\u201d This lawsuit\u2019s outcome will signal whether Japan\u2019s increasingly diverse student population can ever escape this kind of institutionalized harassment. But at least one student is standing up for herself.<\/p>\n

8) Five-year limit on contract employment backfires<\/h3>\n

As reported in the JT by Hifumi Okunuki (\u201c\u2018Five-year rule\u2019 triggers \u2018Tohoku college massacre\u2019 of jobs<\/a>,\u201d Nov. 27, 2016), Japan\u2019s Labor Contract Law was revised in 2013 to increase worker job security. To put an end to perennial full-time contracted employment, anyone working more than five years on serial fixed-term contracts will now be able to switch to normalized full-time noncontracted (seishain<\/em>) status if they wish.<\/p>\n

However, the law was not retroactive and the clock started ticking on April 1, 2013, so as the five-year deadline approaches this coming April, employers are now terminating contracts en masse: Last April, Tohoku University told 3,200 employees their current contracts would be their last.<\/p>\n

But contract law has a special impact on NJ workers, as many endure perpetual contracted status (especially educators in Japan\u2019s university system<\/a>). The five-year rule has now normalized the practice of periodically \u201cvacationing\u201d and \u201crehiring\u201d NJ to avoid continuous contracts, while encouraging major companies to finagle NJ employees\u2019 working conditions<\/a> by offering them \u201cspecial temp status\u201d (for example, explicitly capping contracts at less than five years).<\/p>\n

Hence the bamboo ceiling remains alive and well, except it\u2019s been expanded from just filtering out foreign nationals to affecting anyone.<\/p>\n

7) Hate-speech law has concrete effects<\/h3>\n

Despite concerns about potential infringement of freedom of speech, a hate speech law was enacted in 2016 to, among other things, specifically protect foreign nationals from public defamation. It worked: Kyodo reported last year that xenophobic rallies, once averaging about one a day somewhere in Japan, were down by nearly half<\/a>. Racialized invective has been softened, and official permission for hate groups to use public venues denied.<\/p>\n

Of course, this hate speech law is not legislation with criminal penalties against, for example, racial discrimination. And it still assumes that noncitizens (rather than, for example, members of \u201cvisible minorities\u201d who happen to be citizens) need special protection, incurring accusations of favoritism and \u201creverse discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, according to the Mainichi<\/a>, haters have been chastened. A report quotes one hate rally attendee as saying that before the law change, \u201cI felt like anything I said was protected by the shield of \u2018freedom of speech\u2019\u2026 I felt safe because I knew the police officers would protect us. It felt like we had the upper hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not so much anymore.<\/p>\n

6) Pension system qualification lowered to 10 years<\/h3>\n

Last year saw an important amendment to Japan\u2019s state pension (nenkin<\/em>) rules. Until last August, you had to invest a minimum of 300 months, or 25 years, in the various schemes to qualify for payouts after reaching retirement age.<\/p>\n

Japan thus turned workers into \u201cpension prisoners\u201d \u2014 if you ever took your career elsewhere, you would get at most a small lump-sum payout from Japan, and possibly zero from your new country of residence for not paying in enough. (It was especially punitive toward Japan\u2019s South American workers, who forfeited pensions when bribed by the government<\/a> to \u201creturn home\u201d during 2009\u2019s economic downturn.)<\/p>\n

Although things have improved under bilateral totalization agreements (where pension payments in designated countries get counted toward Japan\u2019s 25-year minimum), this year Japan lowered the bar to the more reasonable 10 years. (More on this at www.debito.org\/?p=14704.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Of course, this does not resolve the fact that Japan will have the highest proportion of pensioners anywhere on Earth. Payouts and minimum retirement ages will be revised accordingly to make the pension worth little. But still, it will not be zero, and payments can be claimed anywhere in the world when you\u2019re ready.<\/p>\n

5) Renho resigns, Democratic Party withers<\/h3>\n

In 2016, in an unprecedented move, a member of an ethnic minority became the leader of a major Japanese political party. Alas, that party was the Democratic Party (formerly the Democratic Party of Japan), which in 2017 crumbled into nothing.<\/p>\n

Renho, a Taiwanese-Japanese who served in Cabinets under two DPJ prime ministers, was a popular reformer. (She was re-elected in 2010 with a record number of votes<\/a> for her district.) However, last year her integrity was questioned when it emerged that she had technically retained dual citizenship<\/a> by not formally renouncing her Taiwanese nationality. That was rectified in July, but weeks later Renho resigned<\/a>, ostensibly to \u201ctake responsibility\u201d for a poor DP showing in the Tokyo prefectural election. From there, the DP downward-spiraled<\/a> into virtual oblivion.<\/p>\n

Many Japanese politicians have been tainted by scandal merely for associating with foreign types (for example, former DPJ Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara in 2011<\/a>). Renho, alas, could not escape the stigma of her own putative \u201cforeignness\u201d \u2014 a huge setback for Japan\u2019s politically invested ethnic minorities.<\/p>\n

4) \u2018Trainee\u2019 program expanded, with \u2018reforms\u2019<\/h3>\n

Since 1993, to offset a labor shortage in Japan\u2019s rusting small-firm industries, the government has been providing unskilled labor under an ostensible training program for foreign workers.<\/p>\n

However, because \u201ctrainees\u201d were not legally \u201cworkers\u201d protected by labor laws, the program was rife with abuse<\/a>: exploitation under sweatshop conditions<\/a>, restrictions on movement<\/a>, unsafe workplaces, uncompensated work and work-site injuries<\/a>, bullying and violence, physical and mental abuse, sexual harassment<\/a>, death from overwork and suicide<\/a> \u2014 even<\/a> slavery<\/a> and murder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Things have not improved in recent years<\/a>. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced that about 70 percent of some 5,200 companies that accepted trainees in 2015 violated laws, and in 2016 a record 4,004 employers engaged in illegal activities. The program is so rotten that even the United Nations<\/a> demanded Japan scrap it.<\/p>\n

So guess what: In 2014, Prime Minster Shinzo Abe announced it would be expanded<\/a>. Once restricted to the construction, manufacturing, agricultural and fishery industries, as of November it also includes nursing and caregiving. New opportunities were also proposed in \u201cspecial economic zones\u201d (so that foreign college graduates with Japanese language skills can pull weeds and till farmland \u2014 seriously<\/a>). Furthermore, visas will be longer-term (up to five years).<\/p>\n

To counter the abuses, the government also launched an official watchdog agency in November to do on-site inspections, offer counseling services to workers and penalize miscreant employers. But labor rights groups remain skeptical<\/a>. The program\u2019s fundamental incentives remain unchanged \u2014 not to actually \u201ctrain\u201d foreign laborers (or even provide Japanese language instruction<\/a>), but rather to exploit them as cheap unskilled labor.<\/p>\n

So expect more of the same<\/a>. Except that now the program will ingest even more foreign workers for longer. After all, uncompetitive factories will continue to use cheap labor to avoid bankruptcy, construction will expand due to the Olympics, and more elderly Japanese will require caregivers.<\/p>\n

3) North Korean missile tests and the fallout<\/h3>\n

Last year North Korea, the perpetual destabilizer of East Asia, commanded even more worldwide attention than usual (even popularizing the obscure word \u201cdotard\u201d among native English speakers). Flexing its muscles as a probable nuclear power, it test-fired missiles over Japan. The Japanese government responded by calling 2017 \u201cthe most severe security environment since the end of World War II<\/a>\u201d and warned regions of launches via the J-Alert system, while local authorities ran duck-and-cover-style nuclear attack drills.<\/p>\n

This is but the most recent episode in a long history of Japan-North Korea reactionary antagonism. However, Japan is particularly wary of the possibility of infiltration. Members of the North Korean diaspora live in Japan (attending ethnic schools with photos of the Kim dynasty on their walls), with established networks for smuggling, money laundering and kidnapping of Japanese.<\/p>\n

Essentially, North Korea\u2019s international recklessness and habitual stupidity empower Japan\u2019s warmongers and xenophobes to reinforce Japan\u2019s bunker mentalities. They\u2019ve successfully created domestic policies (such as the new \u201canti-conspiracy law<\/a>\u201d) that curtail civil, political and human rights for foreign and Japanese nationals alike \u2014 all legitimized based on the fear of North Koreans gaining even an iota of power in Japan.<\/p>\n

Thus, North Korea\u2019s antics ruin Japan\u2019s liberal society for everyone. And last year Kim Jong Un upped the ante.<\/p>\n

2) Abe glides to fifth electoral victory<\/h3>\n

In October, PM Abe won his fifth straight election<\/a> (Lower House 2012, Upper House 2013, Lower House 2014, Upper House 2016, and this time Lower House 2017<\/a>). No Japanese leader has ever enjoyed such a winning streak. But why?<\/p>\n

Abe\u2019s success is partly down to an aging society being predictably more conservative. No political party in the democratic world has held on to power as long as Abe\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party. Voting LDP, particularly in rural Japan, where votes count more than urban ones do<\/a>, is often generational habit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also partly due to an opposition in disarray: After the DP stumbled and fell, the newly formed Kibo no To (Party of Hope) (whose policies weren\u2019t all that different from the LDP\u2019s) soured under the leadership of mercurial Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike<\/a> \u2014 who resigned as party head, effectively abandoning her baby, in November.<\/p>\n

And, to give due credit, it\u2019s partly because Abe offers reassuring policies that, as usual for the LDP, sloganize stability and preservation of the status quo over concrete results or necessary reforms.<\/p>\n

As far as Japan\u2019s NJ residents are concerned, this election offered no good news. No party offered any policy improvements whatsoever for Japan\u2019s international residents. (As noted above, how could they, what with North Korea\u2019s missiles<\/a> flying overhead?)<\/p>\n

But xenophobia in fact had political traction: A prerequisite for DP politicians to defect to Kibo no To was a pledge to oppose suffrage rights for NJ permanent residents<\/a> \u2014 for fear, they openly argued, that NJ would swarm into a voting bloc and take control over regions of Japan<\/a>!<\/p>\n

In sum, 2017\u2019s election was not a rout of the opposition as has been seen before; the ruling coalition even lost a few seats. Moreover, the biggest victors, a new Constitutional Democratic Party<\/a> streamlined of wishy-washy former DP members, offered a clear voice to the strong opposition among Japanese to changing the Constitution.<\/p>\n

That said, JBC believes those changes will probably happen anyway, because despite this year\u2019s scandals (e.g., the Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Gakuen<\/a> school debacles), five wins at the ballot box have made it clear that voters are just fine with Abe in power, whatever he does.<\/p>\n

1) Government human rights survey<\/a> of foreign residents<\/h3>\n

In March, the Justice Ministry released the results of a nationwide survey of NJ about the discrimination they face<\/a>. It offered valuable insights: Nearly 40 percent of respondents looking for a place to live in the past five years had been refused for being foreign (and this did not include multiple rejections); more than a quarter gave up on a place after seeing a \u201cno foreigners\u201d clause.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five percent of respondents looking for work said they had been rejected for being foreign, and nearly a fifth said they had received a lower salary for the same reason. Nearly 30 percent said they were targeted by race-based insults. More than 37 percent said they supported a law against \u201cforeigner discrimination\u201d (sic).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s lots more (see \u201cTime to act on insights on landmark survey<\/a>,\u201d JBC, April 26), and even with all the caveats<\/a> (e.g., excluding Japan\u2019s visible-minority citizens, who tend to be treated as foreigners, and offering no questions about discrimination by officialdom, such as police street ID checks or the manufacturing of fictitious foreign crime waves), it\u2019s an unimpeachable<\/a> set of official stats that may, despite the xenophobic political climate, result in future antidiscrimination policies.<\/p>\n

Bubbling under:<\/h3>\n

Osaka cuts sister-city ties with San Francisco as \u201ccomfort women\u201d wartime sex slavery issue heats up.<\/a><\/p>\n

Turkish resident Ibrahim Yener<\/a> wins discrimination lawsuit against Osaka car agency<\/a> \u2014 without using a lawyer.<\/p>\n

In an international child custody dispute, Japan\u2019s Supreme Court OKs defying a Hague Convention return order from a U.S. court<\/a>, enabling future child abductions to Japan regardless of the treaty.<\/p>\n

Record numbers of foreign tourists come to Japan and spend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More<\/a> NJ deaths<\/a> in official custody<\/a>, including those incarcerated at immigration detention centers and a New Zealander who died while strapped to a bed at a psychiatric hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Charles Jenkins, U.S. Army deserter to North Korea and husband of a Japanese woman abducted to the same country, dies in Niigata Prefecture at age 77<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

=======================================
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As is tradition, here is JBC\u2019s annual countdown of the top 10 human rights events as they affected non-Japanese (NJ) residents of Japan over the past year. In ascending order:<\/p>\n

10) As Japan\u2019s population falls, NJ residents hit record
\nFigures released in 2017 indicated that Japan\u2019s society is not just continuing to age and depopulate, but that the trends are accelerating. Annual births fell under 1 million \u2014 a record low \u2014 while deaths reached a record high. The segment of the population aged 65 or older also accounted for a record 27 percent of the total. In contrast, after four years (2010-2013) of net outflow, the NJ resident influx set new records. A registered 2.38 million now make up 1.86 percent of Japan\u2019s total population, somewhat offsetting the overall decline. Alas, that didn\u2019t matter. Japanese media as usual tended to report \u201cJapan\u2019s population\u201d not in terms of people living in Japan, but rather Nihonjin (Japanese citizens), indicating once again that NJ residents simply don\u2019t count.<\/p>\n

9) \u2018Hair police\u2019 issue attracts attention with lawsuit…
\nEntire article at https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2018\/01\/03\/issues\/2017-japan-woke-issue-discrimination\/
\nVersion with links to sources now on Debito.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,28,18,43,36,49,22,19,34,50,35,52,5,12,4,14,16,15,13,56,60,11,64,55,7,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-anti-discrimination-templates","category-academia","category-bad-business-practices","category-bad-social-science","category-child-abductions","category-cultural-issue","category-education","category-exclusionism","category-gaiatsu","category-good-news","category-hate-speech","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-labor-issues","category-lawsuits","category-media","category-nj-legacies","category-nj-voices-ignored","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-sitys","category-tourism","category-united-nations","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14847","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=14847"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14881,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14847\/revisions\/14881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}