{"id":16841,"date":"2021-09-20T00:00:58","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T07:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16841"},"modified":"2021-09-20T08:28:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T15:28:13","slug":"debito-org-newsletter-sept-20-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16841","title":{"rendered":"DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPT 20, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Books, eBooks, and more from Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (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 SEPT 20, 2021<\/strong>
\nTable of Contents:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
\n1) 2018 United Nations CERD Report (CERD\/C\/JPN\/10-11) still mentions Debito.org\u2019s works: \u201cForeign nationals and individuals with a foreign appearance have reportedly been denied entry to and services of certain privately owned facilities like hotels and restaurants that otherwise serve the public, including through the posting of signage reading \u2018Japanese only\u2019.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) Karst Campsite in Okinawa has \u201cOnly Japanese\u201d rules due to Covid. Another one for the pile. UPDATE: Rules have been amended to exclude people who can\u2019t \u201cunderstand Japanese properly\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

3) Igarashi Kanoa, California-born athlete who won Silver for Japan in 2020 Olympics, rates himself worthy of representing Japan because \u201cMy blood is 100% Japanese. That\u2019s something that you don\u2019t change.\u201d Dangerous old-school Olympian thoroughbred-ism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

… and finally …<\/strong><\/em>
\n4) My SNA Visible Minorities 25: Tokyo 2020 Olympics Postmortem, where I argue the Games failed its goals of \u201cDiversity and Inclusion\u201d predictably and by design<\/strong>
\n\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

By Debito Arudou, Ph.D. (debito@debito.org, www.debito.org, Twitter @arudoudebito)
\nDebito.org Newsletters are as always freely forwardable<\/p>\n

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

1) 2018 United Nations CERD Report (CERD\/C\/JPN\/10-11) still mentions Debito.org\u2019s works: \u201cForeign nationals and individuals with a foreign appearance have reportedly been denied entry to and services of certain privately owned facilities like hotels and restaurants that otherwise serve the public, including through the posting of signage reading \u2018Japanese only\u2019.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s something that makes me smile. The 2018 United Nations CERD Report (CERD\/C\/JPN\/10-11) includes something that might not otherwise be there \u2014 had Debito.org not taken up the task of describing and cataloging discrimination for the past 25 years (back when people were even denying that racial discrimination actually happened in Japan!). Everything mentioned in the UN excerpt below is covered in my book \u201cEmbedded Racism in Japan<\/a>\u201d (Lexington Books, 2015). But especially close to my heart is in enlarged text below. One of my lifetime goals is leaving the planet a better place than when I arrived. This feels like proof that we at Debito.org have done something positive.<\/p>\n

UNITED NATIONS: 33.The Committee is concerned that:<\/em><\/strong>
\n(a)Non-citizens have reportedly been denied housing and employment because they are foreign nationals;<\/em><\/strong>
\n(b)Foreign nationals and individuals with a foreign appearance have reportedly been denied entry to and services of certain privately owned facilities like hotels and restaurants that otherwise serve the public, including through the posting of signage reading \u201cJapanese only\u201d;<\/em><\/strong>
\n[\u2026]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

34. Bearing in mind the Committee\u2019s general recommendation No. 30, the Committee recommends that the State party:<\/em><\/strong>
\n(a) Ensure access to housing and employment to non-citizens and foreign nationals without discrimination;<\/em><\/strong>
\n(b) Create and enforce legislation against the posting of discriminatory signs and the practice of excluding public services by privately owned facilities, such as hotels and restaurants, to persons on the basis of being a foreigner or of foreign appearance; [\u2026]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16831<\/a><\/p>\n

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2) Karst Campsite in Okinawa has \u201cOnly Japanese\u201d rules due to Covid. Another one for the pile. UPDATE: Rules have been amended to exclude people who can\u2019t \u201cunderstand Japanese properly\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Covid strikes again. Here\u2019s a campground in Okinawa that says that foreigners can\u2019t make reservations there due to Covid. Screen capture:<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly Japanese can take a reservation because of COVID\u201d<\/strong>
\nKARST CAMP SITE<\/strong>
\n\u3012905-0219 \u6c96\u7e04\u770c\u56fd\u982d\u90e1\u672c\u90e8\u753a\u5b57\u5c71\u91cc\u6771\u5c4b\u6bd4\u4e45\u539f1381\u756a\u5730<\/strong>
\n050-6864-3379, email karstcampsite115@gmail.com<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/karstcampsite.com\/facility\/<\/a><\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: I\u2019ve said this many times before, but associating contagion with nationality is unscientific. Again, because a) there are Non-Japanese residents who live in Japan the same as Japanese, exposed to the same risks of contagion as Japanese, b) there are few foreigners in Japan from overseas at the moment due to the mostly-closed border controls, and c) chances are that foreigners who do come in from overseas are better vetted (not to mention more likely vaccinated due to better jab regimes overseas) than Japanese.<\/p>\n

So there is no scientific reason to put up a rule like this. There is, however, plenty of reason if you\u2019re a xenophobe, like so many people who reflexively put up \u201cJapanese Only\u201d signs are, and will use any excuse (including foreign \u201chealth scares\u201d from SARS and AIDS) to justify, even if they are a health care provider. These are the people we will continue to expose for the record on Debito.org. Adding to the pile.<\/p>\n

UPDATE AUG 27<\/strong>: After phone calls to the campsite, the website has been amended to say \u201cwe can take a reservation for someone who can understand Japanese properly Because you need to understand our rules correctly.\u201d Because of course, campsites are fraught with danger, and one language miscommunication and all goes to hell. After all, foreigners don\u2019t know how to camp if they can\u2019t \u201cunderstand Japanese properly\u201d. And that\u2019s after they decided in good faith just to blame Covid.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16813<\/a><\/p>\n

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3) Igarashi Kanoa, California-born athlete who won Silver for Japan in 2020 Olympics, rates himself worthy of representing Japan because \u201cMy blood is 100% Japanese. That\u2019s something that you don\u2019t change.\u201d Dangerous old-school Olympian thoroughbred-ism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just a follow-up on my Shingetsu News Agency column of this week. When I was talking there about the roots of the Olympics, I made the case that the Games are less about athleticism than about national demonstrations of power, particularly in the vein of racial superiority. In my summary of their history, I wrote:<\/p>\n

SNA: \u201cWhen the Games were resuscitated by aristocrats in 1896, in spirit they were still grounded in contemporary attitudes equating national strength with physical strength. Thanks to the racialized social theories in currency at the time, including Social Darwinism and eugenics, the Games soon became a public demonstration of the social engineering of supermen, which depended on how racially \u2018thoroughbred\u2019 an athlete and a society was. It\u2019s not difficult to draw a straight line from the geneticist attitudes promoted by the prewar Olympics to The Final Solution.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Those attitudes can still be felt not only in the bad-habit national medal tallies, but also in the athletes themselves. Consider how Igarashi Kanoa, US-born resident of Huntington Beach, CA, who won Silver for Japan in Surfing, decided to depict himself. As I wrote for SNA above:<\/p>\n

SNA: \u201cIgarashi indicatively promotes himself on his Olympics website entry in classic Olympic \u2018thoroughbred-ism:\u2019 \u2018I have so much support here in the USA and America will always be part of who I am. But I\u2019ve grown up with a lifestyle and in a generation where things can seem a bit borderless. And so representing Japan felt like a solid, comfortable decision. My blood is 100% Japanese. That\u2019s something that you don\u2019t change.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGood for his bloodline, I guess. But for mongrel non-medalists like Osaka Naomi, as the New York Times noted, Japan\u2019s social media pounced, contesting her Japanese language ability, her standing to represent Japan, and even her Japaneseness\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Again, you can self-identify with and play for whatever country will have you. But a person like this who has benefited from both systems does not deserve respect for this throwback-Eugenicist attitude, and it should be challenged appropriately in public. Doing so at Debito.org.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16799<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

4) My SNA Visible Minorities 25: Tokyo 2020 Olympics Postmortem, where I argue the Games failed its goals of \u201cDiversity and Inclusion\u201d predictably and by design<\/strong><\/p>\n

SNA (Tokyo) \u2014 The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are now past. This is a postmortem.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last month\u2019s column talked about the \u201cevil\u201d of the Japanese government and International Olympic Committee (IOC) in forcing an unpopular Olympics upon Japan\u2019s residents, all the while as Tokyo\u2019s cases spiked during a global pandemic. But I also argued how host Japan in particular is trained by national narratives to see \u201coutsiders\u201d (including residents who don\u2019t \u201clook Japanese\u201d\u2014our Visible Minorities) specifically as terrorists, hooligans, criminals, and vectors of disease.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

These fault lines have predictably exacerbated the endemic social disease of racial discrimination. International events just give people more excuses to create \u201cJapanese Only\u201d signs and rules.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that I boycotted the Olympics. In fact, given my background, I should be a superfan. [\u2026] But thanks to my background in political science, I\u2019m trained to view nationalism with a critical eye: How governments convince people to live, fight, and even sacrifice their lives for their country. The Olympics are rooted precisely in these attitudes, and forever filter athleticism through the lens of national representation and superiority.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So despite all their promises to showcase \u201cDiversity and Inclusion,\u201d the Tokyo 2020 Olympics shirked that opportunity \u2014 predictably and by design\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest at http:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2021\/08\/16\/visible-minorities-tokyo-2020-olympics-postmortem\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Anchor site for comments at https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=16791<\/a><\/p>\n

Support independent progressive journalism and subscribe to SNA for as little as a dollar a week!<\/p>\n

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

That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading!
\nDebito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER SEPT 20, 2021 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:
\n1) 2018 United Nations CERD Report (CERD\/C\/JPN\/10-11) still mentions Debito.org\u2019s works: \u201cForeign nationals and individuals with a foreign appearance have reportedly been denied entry to and services of certain privately owned facilities like hotels and restaurants that otherwise serve the public, including through the posting of signage reading \u2018Japanese only\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

2) Karst Campsite in Okinawa has \u201cOnly Japanese\u201d rules due to Covid. Another one for the pile. UPDATE: Rules have been amended to exclude people who can\u2019t \u201cunderstand Japanese properly\u201d.<\/p>\n

3) Igarashi Kanoa, California-born athlete who won Silver for Japan in 2020 Olympics, rates himself worthy of representing Japan because \u201cMy blood is 100% Japanese. That\u2019s something that you don\u2019t change.\u201d Dangerous old-school Olympian thoroughbred-ism.<\/p>\n

… and finally …
\n4) My SNA Visible Minorities 25: Tokyo 2020 Olympics Postmortem, where I argue the Games failed its goals of \u201cDiversity and Inclusion\u201d predictably and by design<\/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-16841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16841","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=16841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16842,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16841\/revisions\/16842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}