{"id":16080,"date":"2020-05-18T00:41:51","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T07:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16080"},"modified":"2020-05-18T09:42:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T16:42:15","slug":"16080","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16080","title":{"rendered":"DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MAY 18, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

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DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MAY 18, 2020<\/strong>
\nTable of Contents:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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PROPAGANDISTS AND COLLABORATORS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Kyoto City issues comic book on local street safety to grade schoolers, created by Kyoto Seika Univ & Kyoto International Manga Museum, portraying \u201cforeigners\u201d as unintelligible ill-mannered tourists!<\/strong>
\n2) Kyoto City manga denigrating \u201cforeigners\u201d, produced by Kyoto Seika University, has naturalized African-Japanese citizen Dr. Oussouby Sacko as University President!<\/strong><\/p>\n

NJ TREATMENT DURING THE PANDEMIC<\/strong>
\n3) Debito interviewed by Shingetsu News Agency\u2019s \u201cSpeakeasy\u201d forum: \u201cJapan\u2019s Foreign Residents in the Coronavirus\u201d, Apr 27, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

… and finally …<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

4) Debito\u2019s SNA column: \u201cPandemic Releases Antibodies toward Non-Japanese\u201d, Visible Minorities col 9, April 20, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
\nBy Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter @arudoudebito)<\/p>\n

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PROPAGANDISTS AND COLLABORATORS<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) Kyoto City issues comic book on local street safety to grade schoolers, created by Kyoto Seika Univ & Kyoto International Manga Museum, portraying \u201cforeigners\u201d as unintelligible ill-mannered tourists!<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I recently said in an interview with the Shingetsu News Agency, people who live in Japan (including NJ Residents) have to speak up if they feel they are being unfairly treated or depicted in public. And they do, sometimes with success.<\/p>\n

Consider the case of RJO below, who writes that he saw a Kyoto Government comic book (ironically, scripted and edited by Kyoto Seika University, in conjunction with the Kyoto International Manga Museum!) issued to local grade-school children about traffic safety (a concern in Kyoto for commuting kids). Amidst other concerns, the booklet veered off on a tangent to target and alienate \u201cforeigners\u201d (not to mention Visible Minorities) as loud, ill-mannered loiterers and litterers.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the NJ Community\u2019s only appearance in the comic \u2014 as guests (not residents). Of course, according to eyewitness reports (and personal experience), this is in spite of all the ill-mannered loud littering Japanese around Kyoto as well. (Those kind of manners, you see, are exogenous to Japan. Even an elementary school student knows that. Now!)<\/p>\n

The good news is that RJO and a friend took this up on Facebook, then directly with the City Government. Within hours the downloadable link to this pamphlet disappeared! RJO tells his story below. Good job. Again, if you live here as a Resident, you have to make yourself known as one sometimes. Demand non-differential treatment. And definitely demand not to be alienated in a primary school setting!<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16041<\/a><\/p>\n

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2) Kyoto City manga denigrating \u201cforeigners\u201d, produced by Kyoto Seika University, has naturalized African-Japanese citizen Dr. Oussouby Sacko as University President!<\/strong><\/p>\n

A little over a week ago, Debito.org issued a report from a Kyoto NJ Resident who protested an official comic book, issued by the City of Kyoto to local grade schoolers, depicting NJ only as noisy English-speaking tourists, litterers, and loiterers. And how local residents managed to get Kyoto City to remove that comic with a phone call of protest. (Even that blog post had an impact: It smoked out a Gaijin Handler who tried to blame us as a foreign \u201ctroublemaking demographic\u201d wasting Japan\u2019s money.) That\u2019s fine. The irony here was that the people who developed this comic were Kyoto Seika University and the Kyoto International Manga Museum \u2014 \u201cinternational\u201d places you think would know better than to encourage prejudice.<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019m not sure why this didn\u2019t dawn on me sooner, but as pointed out on FB, Kyoto Seika University just happens to have a naturalized Malian-Japanese named Dr. Oussouby Sacko as its President (see Debito.org posts on him here and here). I wonder if he was aware of this project, and if he would have anything to say about it now? Given Dr. Sacko\u2019s flawed social science training regarding how racism works, and his apparent obliviousness about his own privilege in Japan, I\u2019m not so sure. (Dr. Sacko\u2019s only apparent public contact is at ksuinted@kyoto-seika.ac.jp.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, here is Kyoto Seika University\u2019s statement of principles, undersigned by the man himself. How does this square with being involved in encouraging prejudice in Japan\u2019s grade-schoolers?<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16066<\/a><\/p>\n

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NJ TREATMENT DURING THE PANDEMIC<\/strong><\/p>\n

3) Debito interviewed by Shingetsu News Agency\u2019s \u201cSpeakeasy\u201d forum: \u201cJapan\u2019s Foreign Residents in the Coronavirus\u201d, Apr 27, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an interview I had with the Shingetsu News Agency, in one of their \u201cSpeakeasys\u201d (YouTube, 25 minutes). I\u2019m making the case that the GOJ could be doing a much worse job taking care of their NJ Residents, but that\u2019s because people have been vigilant about potential human rights abuses. It could very easily revert to racist and exclusionary habits if systems get overloaded or panic hits. Also, I argue that it\u2019s also incumbent upon NJ Residents themselves to step out of their \u201cGuestism\u201d mentalities and claim their due as taxpayers and residents.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16058<\/a><\/p>\n

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

… and finally …<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

4) Debito\u2019s SNA column: \u201cPandemic Releases Antibodies toward Non-Japanese\u201d, Visible Minorities col 9, April 20, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

SNA (Tokyo) \u2014 Pandemics can bring out the best in people. Newton came up with theories on calculus, optics, and gravity while in quarantine. Shakespeare wrote some of his best plays, and Edvard Munch created iconic paintings in isolation. Even today, we\u2019re seeing heroes in the health care industry, volunteers sewing and distributing basic personal protective equipment, neighbors checking up on each other, and leaders stepping up their organizational skills. When the daily normal becomes a struggle between life and death, we see what people are really made of.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In Japan, we\u2019re seeing much of the \u201ckeep calm and carry on\u201d mettle found in a society girded for frequent natural disasters. But that grit hasn\u2019t trickled upward to Japan\u2019s political elite, which has ruled largely without accountability for generations, and at times like these appears particularly out of touch. More concerned about the economics of cancelling the Tokyo Olympics than about the safety of the general public, Japan\u2019s policymakers haven\u2019t conducted adequate Covid-19 testing, exercised timely or sufficient social distancing, or even tallied accurate infection statistics.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As happened in prior outbreaks, such as SARS and AIDS, leaders have deflected blame onto foreigners. First China, then outsiders in general, starting with the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship (which, despite a third of its passengers being Japanese citizens, was even excluded from Japan\u2019s coronavirus patient tallies). But treating outsiders like contagion has consequences: Society develops antibodies, and Japan\u2019s already-normalized discrimination intensifies. Consider the case of Mio Sugita, a Liberal Democratic Party Lower House Diet Member from Tottori\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Read the rest at http:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2020\/04\/20\/visible-minorities-pandemic-releases-antibodies-toward-non-japanese\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Debito.org discussion at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16031<\/a><\/p>\n

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

That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading!
\nDebito Arudou, Ph.D.
\nDEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER MAY 18, 2020 ENDS<\/strong><\/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":"

Table of Contents:
\nPROPAGANDISTS AND COLLABORATORS<\/p>\n

1) Kyoto City issues comic book on local street safety to grade schoolers, created by Kyoto Seika Univ & Kyoto International Manga Museum, portraying \u201cforeigners\u201d as unintelligible ill-mannered tourists!<\/p>\n

2) Kyoto City manga denigrating \u201cforeigners\u201d, produced by Kyoto Seika University, has naturalized African-Japanese citizen Dr. Oussouby Sacko as University President!<\/p>\n

NJ TREATMENT DURING THE PANDEMIC
\n3) Debito interviewed by Shingetsu News Agency\u2019s \u201cSpeakeasy\u201d forum: \u201cJapan\u2019s Foreign Residents in the Coronavirus\u201d, Apr 27, 2020<\/p>\n

… and finally …
\n4) Debito\u2019s SNA column: \u201cPandemic Releases Antibodies toward Non-Japanese\u201d, Visible Minorities col 9, April 20, 2020<\/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-16080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16080","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=16080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16082,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16080\/revisions\/16082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}