{"id":17392,"date":"2024-03-31T14:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-31T21:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17392"},"modified":"2024-05-16T21:39:02","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T04:39:02","slug":"my-sna-visible-minorities-54-non-japanese-residents-claim-political-power-mar-31-2024-where-i-argue-the-power-of-the-vote-matters-whether-you-are-a-candidate-or-part-of-the-electorate-the-j","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17392","title":{"rendered":"My SNA Visible Minorities 54: “Non-Japanese Residents claim political power” (Mar 31, 2024), where I argue the power of the vote matters whether you are a candidate or part of the electorate; the J Govt tries hard to make sure neither happens for Japan’s Immigrants."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. My latest SNA column talks about how NJ do have the ability to get some political power in Japan. \u00a0It will of course mean some work on their part, but that’s inevitable for all minorities anywhere. \u00a0But the biggest obstacle, aside from the willful exclusion of NJ from the electorate, is the will to naturalize and run for office. \u00a0You can do it, and I believe it’s likely you’ll get in, since the Japanese electorate is really quite hungry for something different to choose from. \u00a0But you’ve gotta stop believing that you’re merely a “guest” in Japan in the first place. \u00a0Read on to see some examples of elected former NJ and take note. \u00a0Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

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

Non-Japanese Residents claim political power despite obstacles<\/strong>
\nShingetsu News Agency, Visible Minorities column 54, March 31, 2024<\/strong>
\nCourtesy https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2024\/03\/31\/visible-minorities-non-japanese-residents-claim-political-power\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I teach Political Science at the university level.\u00a0 <\/span>In my first lecture every semester, I try to convince skeptical students why they should bother studying Political Science at all.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I argue that understanding how power flows through political structures will help students enfranchise themselves in a democratic system.\u00a0 <\/span>Because if they don\u2019t, other people who understand the system better will use it to their advantage instead.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But this assumes one major fundamental:\u00a0 <\/span>that they can participate in the democratic system at all.\u00a0 <\/span>Fortunately, most of my students are citizens, so they can vote.\u00a0 <\/span>Given how abysmal youth voter turnout generally is, I consider it a major educational outcome if they bother to.\u00a0 <\/span>Persuading people that their vote matters is the bare minimum a civics class can accomplish. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If I have the opportunity in higher-level classes to proselytize further, I encourage them to engage in community building, such as organizing into interest groups and consolidating power into voting blocs. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My real converts consider running for local office, thereby embedding themselves within the very power structure itself.\u00a0 <\/span>Because political power, especially for minorities in any society, is rarely surrendered without a struggle.\u00a0 <\/span>We need more diverse views in office as demographics change the makeup of future majorities. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s how democracy is supposed to work.\u00a0 <\/span>Unfortunately, this is a lesson that Japan\u2019s Non-Japanese (NJ) Residents and Visible Minorities still have trouble grasping.\u00a0 <\/span>As a result, they are letting the Japanese government deprive them of their potential as a political force in Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

GETTING BEYOND THE \u201cGUESTISM\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot of the issue is that, as I have written before, many of Japan\u2019s minorities believe they really don\u2019t have the ability\u2014or even the right\u2014to shape Japanese society.\u00a0 <\/span>They convince themselves that they are merely \u201cguests\u201d in Japan\u2014not taxpayers and residents\u2014and therefore have no say in how they\u2019re treated by public policy. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After all, they\u2019re in Japan by choice, and if they don\u2019t like the way things are, they should go \u201chome.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>They\u2019ve internalized the narrative that Japan is not \u201chome\u201d and foreigners don\u2019t belong here.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This dehumanizing mantra is well-established and reinforced on a daily basis.\u00a0 <\/span>But less considered are the underlying political structures enforcing it.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s hard to have a stake in a society when it might be booting you out shortly. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Official permission to work, i.e., visas, are generally only one to three years in duration, sometimes non-renewable, and often tethered to a specific job sponsor.\u00a0 <\/span>This means many NJ can\u2019t change jobs without losing their visa and risking going to jail as overstayers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Employers, of course, are happy with this situation, leveraging this vulnerability to abuse and exploit NJ workers even further.\u00a0 <\/span>Thus all the incentive structures are there to make NJ life in Japan temporary and miserable.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But consider one more disenfranchising mechanism:\u00a0 <\/span>The larger scheme to make sure NJ never coalesce into interest groups and voting blocs. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In other societies, minorities, newcomers and immigrants cluster in like-minded regions where they can create communities.\u00a0 <\/span>Harlem.\u00a0 <\/span>Chinatowns.\u00a0 <\/span>The Navajo Nation.\u00a0 <\/span>Little Tokyo, Little Armenia, and Little Saigon.\u00a0 <\/span>The Dearborn Muslims.\u00a0 <\/span>New York\u2019s Jewish communities.\u00a0 <\/span>The Polish Patches.\u00a0 <\/span>The Castro District.\u00a0 <\/span>The proposed states of Jefferson and Deseret.\u00a0 <\/span>And the majority-minority states of Hawaii, California, Texas, Nevada, New Mexico, Maryland, and soon Georgia. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once people reach a critical mass in a population, they can foster entire social movements, even elect representatives and become an unignorable political force.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

PREVENTING RESIDENTS FROM BECOMING VOTERS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But Japan makes sure NJ never reach a critical mass.\u00a0 <\/span>Whenever we hear about, for example, Chinese buying up land in an area, out come the politicians stoking fear about Chinese becoming the local majority and \u201cseceding from Japan.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Essentially, the logic is that more foreigners means less Japan, and if NJ ever get power over Japanese, Japan is lost.\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s especially visible when NJ are officially denied administrative roles in any public sector positions.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s simply getting rid of NJ Residents by not renewing visas en masse.\u00a0 <\/span>Clean house and ethnically cleanse.\u00a0 <\/span>The lost historical Iranian, Filipina, and Brazilian communities in Japan are testament to that.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But even without a critical mass, power within a democracy is granted to people who can vote, so Japan makes sure NJ Residents never become part of the electorate. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan still has no official immigration policy to encourage NJ Residents to become Japanese citizens.\u00a0 <\/span>Further, whenever Japan announces an expansion to any working visa program, politicians at even the highest levels of government are quick to clarify this does not mean these migrants will become immigrants.\u00a0 <\/span>The very word \u201cimmigrant\u201d (as in a person) isn\u2019t an established concept in Japanese policymaking circles. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This situation seems unlikely to change, despite the recent resumed mass migration into Japan.\u00a0 <\/span>Japan\u2019s NJ Registered Resident population reached a record high of 3.4 million in 2023, up more than 10% over the previous year<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet the government has made it more difficult over the past two decades to go from a one-year visa to a three, not to mention obtain Permanent Residency.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The numbers reflect this.\u00a0 <\/span>Although the largest group of NJ Residents are Permanent Residents, their numbers only grew about 3% in 2023<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the issue of actually taking out Japanese citizenship, as this author has.\u00a0 <\/span>Yet the number of people who have naturalized on average over the past decade is less than 1000 per year<\/a>, and on a general downward trend. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

No wonder.\u00a0 <\/span>After years languishing in nasty jobs and jumping through so many visa hoops, getting Japanese citizenship is often a very arbitrary process, with applications rejected even for parking tickets and \u201ccultural incongruities.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>There\u2019s also favoritism shown to applicants from countries with richer economies and lighter skins.\u00a0 <\/span>Not to mention the identity sacrifice of forcing people to give up their birth nationality.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

IMMIGRANT POWER AND POLITICIANS IN JAPAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Consequently, the only NJ groups in Japan that have accrued any political power are the Zainichi generational \u201cforeigners.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>They\u2019re the Japan-born descents of the former citizens of empire, who have lived in Japan more than a century yet are still \u201cforeigners.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Also known as the \u201cOldcomers,\u201d they have formed lobbying groups such as as Mindan, Mintoren, and Soren.\u00a0 <\/span>Then there are also historical and indigenous minority groups such as the Burakumin Liberation League and Utari Kyoukai.\u00a0 <\/span>They all have managed to move the needle on how minorities are portrayed in the media. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But in terms of shifting real political power, there is no substitute for getting the vote and a seat at the policymaking table.\u00a0 <\/span>And that means overcoming it all to become a citizen and get elected to office.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That happens, even in Japan.\u00a0 <\/span>Perhaps the most visible case was Finland-born Tsurunen Marutei, who not only served in his local town council in Kanagawa Prefecture from 1992, he also served two terms in Japan\u2019s national Diet from 2002 to 2013.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Others have since followed.\u00a0 <\/span>Decades ago US-born Anthony Bianchi<\/a> and Canadian-born Jon Heese won back-to-back city council seats in Inuyama and Tsukuba respectively.\u00a0 <\/span>Bianchi has since retired, but Heese (whom I have interviewed for this column before<\/a>) has since graduated up to a prefectural-level elected position. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We have also seen incumbents such as Bolivian-born Noemi Inoue<\/a>, elected in 2011 to the Sumida-ku Assembly; Syrian-born former Egyptian Sultan Nour<\/a>, elected in 2021 to Shonai Town Assembly in Yamagata Prefecture; and Uzbekistan-born Babakhodjaeva Orzugul<\/a>, elected to a seat in Tokyo\u2019s Setagaya-ku Assembly in 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Notably, all of them won their seats quite easily, some even getting the highest number of votes of all candidates running, despite the fact that their fellow NJ Residents cannot vote for them.\u00a0 <\/span>Bravo.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A reporter recently asked me<\/a> if this meant change in Japan was afoot. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My answer was that yes, this is not something we\u2019ve seen before, and Visible Minorities claiming the right (and the structural power) to be Japanese is a positive change.\u00a0 <\/span>I think anyone who wants to see the change has to be the change, and they\u2019re doing that.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

How did they win so handily?\u00a0 <\/span>My theory is that given Japan\u2019s single-party democracy, I think the Japanese electorate are hungry for any hope of change.\u00a0 <\/span>Something different.\u00a0 <\/span>Newcomer Immigrant Japanese can be precisely that.\u00a0 <\/span>So for once, being seen as an outsider in Japan can be an advantage.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This theory also holds when you consider the opposite example:\u00a0 <\/span>When Diet Member Tsurunen didn\u2019t offer his constituents anything new beyond having blue eyes<\/a> (seriously, that was his slogan), he got voted out.\u00a0 <\/span>They realized he was basically running more for himself than them.\u00a0 <\/span>So you really have to be the change, not just look it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, the reporter said, \u201cI think Heese, Orzugul, Inoue, and Sultan offer interesting insights into the shifting demographics of Japan.\u00a0 <\/span>But none of them are Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Filipino\u2014the four groups who make up the most non-Japanese residents.\u00a0 <\/span>Do you think it is easier for certain types of Non-Japanese to gain power and acceptance in the country?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My answer was this:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 <\/span>There is certainly a hierarchy of treatment based upon country of origin and skin color in Japan, especially in naturalization processes.\u00a0 <\/span>But certainly people of Chinese and Korean ancestry have been elected in the past. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cProbably when other ethnic groups aren\u2019t overworked, underpaid, and restricted to unstable visa statuses, we\u2019ll see more of them naturalizing and running for office.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll talk again with Jon Heese about running for office next column<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ENDS
\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":"

Intro: I teach Political Science at the university level.\u00a0 In my first lecture every semester, I try to convince skeptical students why they should bother studying Political Science at all. I argue that understanding how power flows through political structures will help students enfranchise themselves in a democratic system.\u00a0 Because if they don\u2019t, other people who understand the system better will use it to their advantage instead. But this assumes one major fundamental:\u00a0 that they can participate in the democratic system at all.\u00a0 Fortunately, most of my students are citizens, so they can vote.\u00a0 Given how abysmal youth voter turnout generally is, I consider it a major educational outcome if they bother to.\u00a0 Persuading people that their vote matters is the bare minimum a civics class can accomplish. \u00a0<\/p>\n

If I have the opportunity in higher-level classes to proselytize further, I encourage them to engage in community building, such as organizing into interest groups and consolidating power into voting blocs. \u00a0 My real converts consider running for local office, thereby embedding themselves within the very power structure itself.\u00a0 Because political power, especially for minorities in any society, is rarely surrendered without a struggle.\u00a0 We need more diverse views in office as demographics change the makeup of future majorities. \u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how democracy is supposed to work.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this is a lesson that Japan\u2019s Non-Japanese (NJ) Residents and Visible Minorities still have trouble grasping.\u00a0 As a result, they are letting the Japanese government deprive them of their potential as a political force in Japan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,54,18,22,19,34,20,12,73,4,14,16,13,60,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-pinprick-protests","category-academia","category-cultural-issue","category-education","category-exclusionism","category-history","category-immigration-assimilation","category-japans-blame-game","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-labor-issues","category-media","category-nj-voices-ignored","category-practical-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17392","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=17392"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17427,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17392\/revisions\/17427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}