{"id":16103,"date":"2020-06-03T07:50:19","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T14:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16103"},"modified":"2020-06-03T07:50:19","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T14:50:19","slug":"online-petition-oppose-japans-generic-reentry-ban-on-foreign-residents-even-after-essential-travels-since-april-3-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16103","title":{"rendered":"Online petition: Oppose Japan’s generic reentry ban on Foreign Residents even after essential travels since April 3, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0I mentioned this petition in my previous post<\/a>, but it was subsumed under the Dejima Award headline. \u00a0It deserves its own blog entry, so here it is. \u00a0Sign the petition. \u00a0I did. \u00a0Courtesy of TG. \u00a0Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

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

From: Sven Kramer\u00a0<\/strong>
\nDate: June 3, 2020\u00a0<\/strong>
\nTo: eajs-l@listserv.shuttle.de<\/strong>
\nSubject: EAJS-L: Online petition against Japan’s generic reentry ban on foreigners living in Japan even after essential travels that is in effect since April 3, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear fellow EAJS members,<\/em><\/p>\n

I hope this finds you well, and that you are getting through the current public health crisis well and healthy. I am Sven Kramer, a scholar of Japanese studies based in Japan. Today, I would like to focus your attention on a private initiative I have started: a Japanese-English bilingual online petition against the de facto complete generic denial of reentry to foreign residents of Japan (including permanent residents and eminent relatives of Japanese citizens). On April 3, 2020, the government of Japan has implemented an almost complete closure of her borders to foreign residents on valid long-term visas (only the “special permanent residents” are exempt), while every Japanese citizen regardless of actual residency is allowed in.<\/em><\/p>\n

This regulation affects more than 2,000,000 foreign residents of Japan, who cannot reenter Japan for the foreseeable future even after traveling abroad for a very good reason (e.g. the death of a family member in the country of origin), and are thus in danger of using their livelihoods here. I anticipate that among those affected, a significant number should be scholars based at Japanese universities receiving this mailing list. According to my current knowledge, Japan is the only country on Earth with a liberal democratic constitution, that has implemented such a nonsensically discriminatory reentry restriction, which in my opinion cannot be justified even with the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a significant difference to the policy of India, which reportedly has implemented an entry ban on all people regardless of citizenship\/nationality. Furthermore, we don’t need to get into deflections of about how dictatorial countries currently behave in this crisis.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have watched the situation silently but with an uneasy feeling for almost two months, but after reading <\/em>this article by \u201eT\u014dy\u014d Keizai Online\u201c<\/a> that quotes some of the outrageous things going on behind the scenes without leading to any progress, I had enough. As a long-term foreign resident of Japan I could not keep silent any longer, so on May 28 I have started the following online petition at “change.org”: <\/strong><\/em>http:\/\/chng.it\/GN9Wp2Sj<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why an open online petition? Because the Japanese government, and also other officialdom at other levels, just show ignorance when addressed directly.<\/em><\/p>\n

I sincerely want to ask you for your support of this petition for the reasons stated in the bilingual text of the petition, especially if you are a Japanese citizen or an expat with his\/her livelihood in Japan.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is – as mentioned above – an entirely private initiative on my behalf as a long-term foreign resident of Japan with Japanese family. This is the reason why I did not do any statements referring to my current professional situation, neither in this letter, nor in the petition. Please understand. If you want to know more about my background, please feel free to ask me directly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is a short summary of my request:<\/em>
\n– Please sign, if you share my opinion that the government of Japan immediately should allow reentry of returning foreign residents of Japan under the same quarantine regulations that are applied to Japanese citizens.<\/em>
\n– Please help me spreading the word, if you agree with me on this.<\/em><\/p>\n

If a significant number of people sign (ideally at least some tens of thousands) I will try to get the petition to the Government of Japan.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you very much!<\/em><\/p>\n

Best regards,<\/strong>
\nSven Kramer, PhD<\/strong><\/p>\n

P.S.: Further articles in English dealing with this topic:
\nJapan Times: https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2020\/05\/19\/national\/social-issues\/japan-foreign-residents-stranded-abroad-coronavirus\/\u00a0<\/a>
\nJapan Today: https:\/\/japantoday.com\/category\/quote-of-the-day\/the-line-should-be-drawn-between-foreigners-on-short-stay-visas-and-those-who-stay-in-japan-based-on-other-statuses-of-residence.-those-whose-lives-are-based-in-japan-need-to-be-able-to-return<\/a><\/p>\n

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SK: I am Sven Kramer, a scholar of Japanese studies based in Japan. Today, I would like to focus your attention on a private initiative I have started: a Japanese-English bilingual online petition against the de facto complete generic denial of reentry to foreign residents of Japan (including permanent residents and eminent relatives of Japanese citizens). On April 3, 2020, the government of Japan has implemented an almost complete closure of her borders to foreign residents on valid long-term visas (only the “special permanent residents” are exempt), while every Japanese citizen regardless of actual residency is allowed in.<\/p>\n

This regulation affects more than 2,000,000 foreign residents of Japan, who cannot reenter Japan for the foreseeable future even after traveling abroad for a very good reason (e.g. the death of a family member in the country of origin), and are thus in danger of using their livelihoods here. I anticipate that among those affected, a significant number should be scholars based at Japanese universities receiving this mailing list. According to my current knowledge, Japan is the only country on Earth with a liberal democratic constitution, that has implemented such a nonsensically discriminatory reentry restriction, which in my opinion cannot be justified even with the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a significant difference to the policy of India, which reportedly has implemented an entry ban on all people regardless of citizenship\/nationality. Furthermore, we don’t need to get into deflections of about how dictatorial countries currently behave in this crisis.<\/p>\n

I have watched the situation silently but with an uneasy feeling for almost two months, but after reading this article by \u201eT\u014dy\u014d Keizai Online\u201c that quotes some of the outrageous things going on behind the scenes without leading to any progress, I had enough. As a long-term foreign resident of Japan I could not keep silent any longer, so on May 28 I have started the following online petition at “change.org”: http:\/\/chng.it\/GN9Wp2Sj
\n– Please sign, if you share my opinion that the government of Japan immediately should allow reentry of returning foreign residents of Japan under the same quarantine regulations that are applied to Japanese citizens.
\n– Please help me spreading the word, if you agree with me on this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,54,28,34,50,5,12,4,16,60,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-pinprick-protests","category-anti-discrimination-templates","category-exclusionism","category-gaiatsu","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japanese-government","category-labor-issues","category-nj-voices-ignored","category-problematic-foreign-treatment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16103","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=16103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16104,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16103\/revisions\/16104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}