{"id":17367,"date":"2024-01-26T19:06:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T03:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17367"},"modified":"2024-01-26T19:34:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T03:34:50","slug":"my-latest-sna-vm-column-52-positive-steps-for-non-japanese-in-japan-a-report-of-a-month-spent-in-tokyo-and-all-the-progress-towards-tolerance-observed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17367","title":{"rendered":"My latest SNA VM column 52: “Positive Steps for Non-Japanese in Japan” (Jan 23, 2024), a report of a month spent in Tokyo and all the progress towards tolerance observed."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. While I’m aware that the bigger news is the recent Miss Japan Carolina Shiino debate once again bringing to light Japan’s ethnostatist narratives<\/a>, I’ll get to that in February’s SNA column. Meanwhile, here’s January’s column. Enjoy. Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

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POSITIVE STEPS FOR NON-JAPANESE IN JAPAN<\/strong>
\nBy Debito Arudou. Shingetsu News Agency Visible Minorities column 52, January 23, 2024<\/strong>
\nCourtesy https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2024\/01\/23\/visible-minorities-positive-steps-for-non-japanese\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Last month SNA (and this column) went on vacation for Christmas and New Years. During the hiatus, I spent a month in Tokyo meandering around visiting sights and people, developing my inner flaneur as well as conducting relaxed random research. Tokyo, a walking city riddled with world-class transportation and public facilities, is an ideal place for that.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I spent almost every afternoon or evening talking with long-term Japan residents from many walks of life. This included six academic researchers, two foreign correspondents, a media celebrity, a long-term resident vlogger, an employee of NHK, two secondary school teachers, a naturalized regional politician, a rural ryokan operator, a high-tech product salesman, a retired airbnb operator, a foreign exchange graduate student, and a labor union leader. All are specialists in their fields in terms of training and experience, most are Lifers in Japan, and all offered insightful analysis of current conditions in Japan. My research will probably inform future columns this year.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This month’s column will offer my impressions about how much Japan has changed regarding the issues that have always been on my radar screen — society\u2019s openness to Newcomers. On that score, I have some positive developments to report:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n