{"id":15894,"date":"2020-01-06T10:39:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T18:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15894"},"modified":"2020-01-20T07:18:22","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T15:18:22","slug":"my-japan-times-jbc-column-117-the-annual-top-ten-for-2019-of-human-rights-issues-as-they-affected-nj-residents-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=15894","title":{"rendered":"My Japan Times JBC column 117: The annual Top Ten for 2019 of human rights issues as they affected NJ residents in Japan, Jan 6, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog and Happy New Year. Here’s my Annual Top Ten for The Japan Times. \u00a0Thanks for putting this column in the Japan Times Top Five for several days running!<\/p>\n

Let’s start with some Bubbling Unders\/Notable Obits with didn’t make the cut for space concerns, and excerpt the rest. Debito Arudou Ph.D.<\/p>\n

\"justbecauseicon.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ISSUES | JUST BE CAUSE<\/strong>
\n‘Low IQ’ kids, parental rights and problematic terminology dogged Japan’s international community in 2019<\/strong>
\nBY DEBITO ARUDOU, Column 117 for the Japan Times Community Page, January 6, 2020<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2020\/01\/06\/issues\/japan-international-community-2019\/<\/a><\/p>\n

For over a decade, Just Be Cause has recapped the previous year\u2019s biggest human rights and human rights-related issues that have affected the non-Japanese community in Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With the start of a new decade upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to mix a little of what was going on in 2019 and connect it to the broader topics that came up during the 2010s. Some are victories, some are losses \u2014 some are dangerous losses \u2014 but all of the entries below (in ascending order) are at the very least highly relevant to all of us.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bubbling under:<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u2022 The Ainu Recognition Law<\/strong> passes last February, meaning Japan is officially multiethnic.
\n\u2022 Donald Keene<\/strong>, scholar who opened Japanese literature to the world but senselessly portrayed fellow NJ residents as criminals and cowards, dies aged 96.
\n\u2022 Sadako Ogata<\/strong>, UN superstar for refugees who did surprisingly little for refugees in Japan, dies aged 92.
\n\u2022 Yasuhiro Nakasone<\/strong>, assertive former Prime Minister with a history of claiming Japan\u2019s superior intelligence due to a lack of ethnic minorities, and of operating wartime \u201ccomfort women\u201d stations, dies aged 101.
\n\u2022 Shinzo Abe<\/strong> becomes Japan\u2019s longest-serving Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

10) Otaru onsen, 20 years on<\/strong><\/p>\n

In September 1999<\/a>, several international couples (including myself) tried to take a public bath at an onsen (hot-spring bath) in Otaru, Hokkaido, but were met with a \u201cJapanese Only\u201d sign rather than friendly customer service. The people who looked insufficiently \u201cJapanese\u201d (including myself and one of my daughters) were refused entry, while those who did (including a Chinese foreign resident) were allowed in.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The same onsen refused me entry again even after I became a Japanese citizen, and a group of us took them to court. The case, which went all the way to Japan\u2019s Supreme Court, found the onsen guilty of \u201cdiscriminating too much,\u201d while the city of Otaru \u2014 which was also sued for not enforcing the United Nations Convention on Racial Discrimination that Japan had ratified in 1996 \u2014 was found not liable.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Twenty years later, \u201cJapanese Only\u201d signs are still posted<\/a> in places and Japan is still not living up to its international treaty commitments, with no national law protecting non-Japanese communities from racial discrimination.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

9) Diversity in sports…<\/strong><\/p>\n

See if your favorite issue made the Top Ten (yes, Ghosn did, again). \u00a0Read the rest at https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2020\/01\/06\/issues\/japan-international-community-2019\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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

======================
\nDo 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 if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For over a decade, Just Be Cause has recapped the previous year\u2019s biggest human rights and human rights-related issues that have affected the non-Japanese community in Japan.<\/p>\n

With the start of a new decade upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to mix a little of what was going on in 2019 and connect it to the broader topics that came up during the 2010s. Some are victories, some are losses \u2014 some are dangerous losses \u2014 but all of the entries below (in ascending order) are at the very least highly relevant to all of us.<\/p>\n

Bubbling under:
\n\u2022 The Ainu Recognition Law passes last February, meaning Japan is officially multiethnic.
\n\u2022 Donald Keene, scholar who opened Japanese literature to the world but senselessly portrayed fellow NJ residents as criminals and cowards, dies aged 96.
\n\u2022 Sadako Ogata, UN superstar for refugees who did surprisingly little for refugees in Japan, dies aged 92.
\n\u2022 Yasuhiro Nakasone, assertive former Prime Minister with a history of claiming Japan\u2019s superior intelligence due to a lack of ethnic minorities, and of operating wartime \u201ccomfort women\u201d stations, dies aged 101.
\n\u2022 Shinzo Abe becomes Japan\u2019s longest-serving Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

10) Otaru Onsens Case, 20 years on
\n9) Diversity in Japanese sports
\n8) Japan’s students challenge draconian rules (hair and underwear policing, etc)<\/p>\n

See if your favorite issue made the Top Ten (yes, Ghosn did, again). \u00a0Read the rest at https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/community\/2020\/01\/06\/issues\/japan-international-community-2019\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,28,18,43,36,49,22,19,34,33,50,35,20,5,12,4,10,14,16,15,13,2,11,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15894","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-fingerprinting-nj","category-gaiatsu","category-good-news","category-history","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-policeforeign-crime","category-japanese-politics","category-labor-issues","category-lawsuits","category-media","category-otaru-onsen-lawsuit","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-racist-images-in-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15894","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=15894"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15909,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15894\/revisions\/15909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}