{"id":15727,"date":"2019-08-23T03:28:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T10:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15727"},"modified":"2019-08-23T13:28:57","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T20:28:57","slug":"15727","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15727","title":{"rendered":"DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 23, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Books, eBooks, and more from Dr. Debito Arudou (click on icon):
\n\"Guidebookcover.jpg\"<\/a>\"japaneseonlyebookcovertext\"<\/a>\"Handbook<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>\"debitopodcastthumb\"<\/a>\"FodorsJapan2014cover\"<\/a>
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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 23, 2019<\/p>\n

Hello Debito.org Newsletter Readers. We are back after a few weeks off for Summer Vacation with news of a brand new column at the Shingetsu News Agency:<\/p>\n

\u201cVisible Minorities\u201d: Debito’s first monthly column for the Shingetsu News Agency, Aug 19, 2019<\/p>\n

Excerpt:
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\nMy name is Debito Arudou, that guy from Sapporo who started writing about Japan from the early 1990s on a long-dead mailing list called the Dead Fukuzawa Society. I wrote so much there that I decided to archive my writings on a webpage. Debito.org soon blossomed into an award-winning reference site on life and human rights in Japan, and later a platform for newspaper articles and fieldwork research on racial discrimination.<\/p>\n

After moonlighting at places like the now-defunct Asahi Evening News and Japan Today, I began writing in 2002 a column for Japan Times, first under Zeit Gist and then Just Be Cause. Decades later, here we are with a new monthly column at the Shingetsu News Agency, under the title Visible Minorities. I chose this title for two reasons\u2026
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Read the rest at
\nhttp:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2019\/08\/19\/visible-minorities-debitos-new-column-for-the-shingetsu-news-agency\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Alright, on with the Newsletter:<\/p>\n

Table of Contents:<\/strong>
\n\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
\n1) Kyodo: Japan celebrates its South American Japanese diaspora. Praising them for doing what it complains NJ immigrants to Japan do. (Like take Nippon Foundation money to sterilize Peruvian indigenous peoples?)<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) Reuters: Yet another NJ detainee dies after hunger strike after 3 years in Japan \u201cdetention center\u201d; time for a change in labeling<\/strong><\/p>\n

3) US State Dept. 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Japan: Highlights for Debito.org Readers<\/strong><\/p>\n

… and finally…<\/strong><\/em>
\n4) Japan Times JBC 116: \u201c\u2018Love it or leave it\u2019 is not a real choice\u201d (on how Trump\u2019s alienation of critics of color is standard procedure in Japan), July 24, 2019<\/strong>
\n\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

By Debito Arudou Ph.D.
\ndebito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter @arudoudebito
\nDebito.org Newsletters are Freely Forwardable<\/p>\n

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

1) Kyodo: Japan celebrates its South American Japanese diaspora. Praising them for doing what it complains NJ immigrants to Japan do. (Like take Nippon Foundation money to sterilize Peruvian indigenous peoples?)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kyodo: Princess Mako paid a visit to Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra on Thursday in Lima during her trip to mark the 120th anniversary of the start of Japanese immigration to the South American country. \u201cI feel Japanese Peruvians are treated very well in Peru. I\u2019m grateful that Peru accepted Japanese immigrants,\u201d the 27-year-old princess, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino, said during the meeting at the president\u2019s office.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Vizcarra said he is glad that Japanese Peruvians are actively involved in various fields. The president also showed his gratitude to Japan\u2019s contribution to Peru in the areas of technological and economic cooperation and archaeology. [Princess Mako] later met at a hotel in Lima with representatives of Japanese people living in Peru and Japanese volunteers dispatched by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, thanking them for their efforts in the country. On Wednesday, she attended a ceremony marking the immigration anniversary and met with Peruvians of Japanese descent. She is scheduled to travel to Bolivia on Monday to mark the 120th anniversary of the start of Japanese immigration to that country.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

COMMENT FROM DEBITO.ORG READER AIS:<\/strong> \u201cTeam Japan celebrates its emigrants for their contributions (i.e. being Japanese) \u2013 essentially praising them for doing what it complains its immigrants do.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

COMMENT FROM DEBITO.ORG READER JDG:<\/strong> \u201cNotice they don\u2019t talk about LDP members funding Peruvian government forced sterilization of ethnic minorities. That\u2019s some Japanese contribution to Peruvian society!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

BBC in 2002: More than 200,000 people in rural Peru were pressured into being sterilised by the government of former President Alberto Fujimori, an official report has revealed. The Health Minister, Fernando Carbone, said the government gave misleading information, offered food incentives and threatened to fine men and women if they had more children.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Poor indigenous people in rural areas were the main targets of the compulsive family planning programme until 2000, when Mr Fujimori left for Japan amid mounting corruption allegations against him. Mr Carbone said there was evidence that Mr Fujimori and a number of high-ranking ministers could be held responsible for \u201cincorrect procedures\u201d and \u201chuman rights violations\u201d.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

COMMENT FROM DEBITO<\/strong>: Now, before anyone writes in and says, \u201cDon\u2019t be racist. Alberto Fujimori didn\u2019t do this BECAUSE he is Japanese. He just happened to be of Japanese descent. (And self-claimed citizenship.) While doing monstrous things.<\/p>\n

However, remember that Fujimori WAS being funded by the right-wing Nippon Foundation (founded by war criminal Sasakawa Ryouichi), especially when it was being headed by self-proclaimed South African Apartheid supporter (and apparently personal friend of Fujimori\u2019s) Sono Ayako.<\/p>\n

Meaning Fujimori, with the help of Japanese eugenicists, was cleansing Peru\u2019s countryside of Peruvian indigenous peoples without proper medical procedure or oversight.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve covered Sono Ayako\u2019s ideological hijinks and Alberto Fujimori\u2019s international criminal activity (which is why he is in prison now) on Debito.org before. What\u2019s missing from this celebration of Japanese history in South America, as JDG notes, is Japan\u2019s hand in overseas modern human rights atrocities.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15703<\/a><\/p>\n

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2) Reuters: Yet another NJ detainee dies after hunger strike after 3 years in Japan \u201cdetention center\u201d; time for a change in labeling<\/strong><\/p>\n

REUTERS: A Nigerian man died in a Japanese immigration detention center this week, an official said on Thursday, bringing to an end a hunger strike an activist group said was intended to protest his being held for more than three years. It was the 15th death since 2006 in a system widely criticized over medical standards, the monitoring of detainees and how guards respond to a medical emergency\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

RINK, a group supporting detainees at the center, told Reuters the Nigerian had been on hunger strike to protest his lengthy detention. Another 27 foreigners are on hunger strike at a detention center in Ushiku, northeast of Tokyo, said a separate group supporting detainees at that facility. Some of them have gone without food for 47 days, said Kimiko Tanaka, a spokeswoman for the group\u2026 Two other men at Ushiku have been detained for five years, she said. \u201cThe reality of a lengthy detention is nothing but a human rights violation,\u201d Tanaka said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: Dovetailing with last week\u2019s blog entry about how Japan\u2019s new \u201copen door\u201d visa programs violate basic human rights, here\u2019s the old classic \u201cclosed door\u201d policies aimed to punish bureaucratic transgressions by perpetually detaining people under conditions that don\u2019t fall under standards for sufficient monitoring (because technically, they\u2019re not \u201cprisons\u201d). Policywise, they\u2019re meant to be a deterrent \u2014 part of a separate judicial track for foreigners in Japan with fewer human rights (full details on this in \u201cEmbedded Racism\u201d Ch. 6). Separate and lethal.<\/p>\n

Again, given how Japan\u2019s ethnostate policies are an inspiration for xenophobes and racial supremacists worldwide, I would argue that these longstanding inhumane \u201cGaijin Tanks\u201d are a working model for the \u201cconcentration camps\u201d (the political term of debate in the US these days) for detainees along the American southern border. Except politicians in Japan don\u2019t have the cojones to call them anything but benign-sounding \u201cdetention centers\u201d \u2014 after all, who in any position of power cares about the plight of foreigners in Japan?<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15691<\/a><\/p>\n

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

3) US State Dept. 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Japan: Highlights for Debito.org Readers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every year, the US State Department issues its \u201cCountry Reports on Human Rights Practices\u201d. As highlighted by the Shingetsu News Agency, the 2018 Report on Japan came out last March. Now while it\u2019s quite rich for the US to be reporting on other countries (but not, notably, itself) while it has an ongoing human-rights debacle for detained foreign entrants and asylum seekers (and their children) around its southern border, this Report has been cited over the years as authoritative (and it has also included the work of Debito.org and others). So here are the highlights on issues pertaining to Debito.org. As you can see, a lot of information is glossed over. Here are some highlighted sections for Debito.org Readers:<\/p>\n

2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Japan, March 13, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person<\/strong>
\nPrison and Detention Center Conditions<\/strong>
\nD. ARBITRARY ARREST OR DETENTION<\/strong>
\nROLE OF THE POLICE AND SECURITY APPARATUS<\/strong>
\nARREST PROCEDURES AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES<\/strong>
\nPretrial Detention<\/strong><\/p>\n

Section 2. Respect for Civil Liberties<\/strong>
\nA. FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND PRESS<\/strong>
\nFreedom of Expression<\/strong>
\nD. FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT, INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS, PROTECTION OF REFUGEES, AND STATELESS PERSONS<\/strong>
\nAccess to Asylum<\/strong>
\nAccess to Basic Services<\/strong>
\nElections and Political Participation<\/strong>
\nParticipation of Minorities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Section 5. Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights<\/strong>
\nGovernment Human Rights Bodies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Section 6. Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons<\/strong>
\nInternational Child Abductions<\/strong>
\nNational\/Racial\/Ethnic Minorities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Section 7. Worker Rights<\/strong>
\nB. PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR<\/strong>
\nE. ACCEPTABLE CONDITIONS OF WORK<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15599<\/a><\/p>\n

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

… and finally…<\/em><\/strong>
\n4) Japan Times JBC 116: \u201c\u2018Love it or leave it\u2019 is not a real choice\u201d (on how Trump\u2019s alienation of critics of color is standard procedure in Japan), July 24, 2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My latest Japan Times column, talking about how Trump\u2019s recent use of a racist trope, denying people of color the right to belong in a society simply because they disagree with the dominant majority\u2019s ideology, is taking a page from Japanese society\u2019s standard tactics of forcing NJ and Visible Minorities to \u201clove Japan or go home\u201d. Excerpt:<\/p>\n

JBC116: Roiling American politics last week was a retort by President Donald Trump toward congresswomen of color critical of his policies. First he questioned their standing (as lawmakers) to tell Americans how to run the government. Then he said they should \u201cgo back\u201d to the places they came from and fix them first. For good measure, he later tweeted, \u201cIf you are not happy here, you can leave!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The backlash was forceful. CNN, NPR, The New York Times, Washington Post and other media called it \u201cracist.\u201d Others called it \u201cun-American,\u201d pointing out that telling people to go back to other countries might violate federal antidiscrimination laws. The Atlantic was even apocalyptic, arguing that \u201cwhat Americans do now (in response) will define us forever\u201d as the world\u2019s last great bastion of multiracial democracy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is this an issue for this column? Because it\u2019s hard to imagine a similar backlash happening in Japan, even though this kind of alienation happens here often.<\/em><\/strong> [In fact, in Japan it\u2019s old hat\u2026]<\/p>\n

Rest at https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2019\/07\/24\/issues\/love-leave-not-real-choice\/<\/a>
\nAnchor site on Debito.org with comments at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15708<\/a><\/p>\n

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

That’s all for this Newsletter! Thanks for reading!<\/p>\n

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER AUGUST 23, 2019 ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

=====================
\nLike what you read on Debito.org? Support our activities by making a donation here.<\/a> Or just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Table of Contents:
\n1) Kyodo: Japan celebrates its South American Japanese diaspora. Praising them for doing what it complains NJ immigrants to Japan do. (Like take Nippon Foundation money to sterilize Peruvian indigenous peoples?)
\n2) Reuters: Yet another NJ detainee dies after hunger strike after 3 years in Japan \u201cdetention center\u201d; time for a change in labeling
\n3) US State Dept. 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Japan: Highlights for Debito.org Readers<\/p>\n

… and finally…
\n4) Japan Times JBC 116: \u201c\u2018Love it or leave it\u2019 is not a real choice\u201d (on how Trump\u2019s alienation of critics of color is standard procedure in Japan), July 24, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15727","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=15727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15729,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15727\/revisions\/15729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}