{"id":9372,"date":"2011-09-15T01:16:39","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T16:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=9372"},"modified":"2011-09-15T01:26:07","modified_gmt":"2011-09-14T16:26:07","slug":"fccj-no-1-shimbun-nothing-has-changed-my-article-on-j-media-blind-spots-towards-nj-resident-over-the-past-quarter-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=9372","title":{"rendered":"FCCJ No.1 Shimbun: “Nothing has changed”, my article on J media blind spots towards NJ residents over the past quarter century"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hi Blog. \u00a0Last month the FCCJ<\/a>‘s No.1 Shimbun invited me to give my opinion about “blind spots” in the Japanese media vis-a-vis Japan’s foreign communities. \u00a0Here’s what I wrote. \u00a0After a quarter century observing this, it was nice to put it all together in my mind. \u00a0Enjoy. \u00a0Arudou Debito<\/p>\n

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Nothing has changed\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n

After 25 years, little change for the better seen in the media’s coverage of foreigners<\/strong><\/p>\n

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by Arudou Debito<\/strong><\/p>\n

Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan<\/a>, No.1 Shimbun, September 2011.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courtesy\u00a0http:\/\/no1.fccj.ne.jp\/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=481:nothing-has-changed&catid=71:sept-11&Itemid=101<\/a><\/p>\n

Full September 2011 No.1 Shimbun with all articles at\u00a0http:\/\/no1.fccj.ne.jp\/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=71&Itemid=101<\/a><\/p>\n

No.1 Shimbun archives here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the quarter century I have been examining the treatment of foreigners in both the English and vernacular media, I have seen little improvement. In fact, in many ways it\u2019s gotten worse. The foreign element has been increasingly portrayed as the subterfuge that will undermine Japanese society. To crib from a famous book title, Japan has become not only the \u201csystem that soured,\u201d but also the \u201cmedia that soured.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I first got here in the mid-1980s, at the start of Japan\u2019s bubble era, non-Japanese (NJ) were seen as quirky \u201cmisunderstood outsiders,\u201d treated with bemusement for their inability to understand \u201cJapan\u2019s unique culture.\u201d NJ were here to help Japan learn English and internationalize itself into its hard-earned echelon as a rich country in the international community. After all, Japan had just surpassed the per-capita gross domestic product of its mentor \u2013 the United States \u2013 so the media was preparing the public for Japan\u2019s new role as oriental ambassador to the West.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Up in Sapporo, where I have spent most of my time, designs for NJ were a little less heady, but we were then treated like \u201chonored guests\u201d (if not \u201crare birds\u201d to be sighted with joy). We enjoyed instant comparative-culture ambassador status, complete with token slots in newspapers and talk shows, to offer bright visions of Japan\u2019s modern, tolerant, America-ish future (like the guest instructors who were brought over to modernize Japan during the \u201ccatch-up\u201d phase of the Meiji Era). The local print and broadcast media offered us polite winces for our error-filled (and perpetually uncorrected \u2013 so darn cute!) Japanese, and we tolerated wasabi-laden food in front of the cameras.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, the tacit understanding behind this century-old ersatz cultural ambassadorship is that ambassadors are temporary. Someday we would go home with the afterglow of pleasant memories, as a former guest of a faraway land with red lanterns and paper walls and all that. But that didn\u2019t happen. Over a million NJ, your correspondent included, liked it here so much they stayed on.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Then Japan\u2019s bubble economy burst in the 1990s. As economic indicators plateaued then headed south, the media mood subtly shifted. Perennially feel-good broadcasts (I remember one TV show entitled \u201cSports and News\u201d \u2013 yes in that order) shifted to programs dedicated to \u201cturning that frown upside down\u201d; when they ran out of good news to report, they switched more to comedy and food shows.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fortunately, these NJ media guests were still the \u201cmisunderstood outsiders,\u201d only this time more as curiosities to be examined under Japan\u2019s \u201cpigeonhole everyone in cultural boxes\u201d version of social science (visible in broadcasts such as \u201cKoko Ga Hendayo Nihonjin<\/a>,\u201d a watershed show that pitted 100 motley Japanese-speaking NJ panelists against several even more motley Japanese tarento). This time, however, thanks to new visa regimes importing cheap NJ labor to preserve the competitiveness of Japan\u2019s export industries (and keep farms and smaller factories from going bankrupt), NJ were now more culturally and linguistically fluent. They were beginning to speak for themselves, shape their own media image, and even possibly establish themselves as immigrants. But by the turn of the century, Japanese conservatives began to use the media to put the kibosh on.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The next phase, which has essentially continued to the present day, overtly began on April 9, 2000, when recently elected archconservative Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara made his famous \u201cSangokujin\u201d speech<\/a>. He claimed that some NJ were \u201crepeatedly committing heinous crimes,\u201d and called for the Self-Defense Forces to round up NJ in the event of a natural disaster as they would (unprecedentedly) riot. Even in light of the Tohoku disasters, where this has been proven as utterly false, there has been no amendment or retraction. But this speech emboldened Japan\u2019s reactionaries (particularly its police, fortified by its new internal \u201cPolicymaking Committee Against Internationalization<\/a>\u201d) to see rampant NJ bashing as politically viable.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2000s saw the \u201creverse course\u201d of the more liberal 1980s and 1990s. The National Police Agency launched biannual media campaigns against foreign criminals and \u201cillegal overstayers,\u201d <\/a>showing how NJ were somehow committing more crime than Japanese as drug smugglers, gun runners and general disturbers of the peace. The agency offered images of foreigners invading Japan\u2019s shores and pillaging its citizens, and established online \u201csnitch sites<\/a>\u201d for anyone to anonymously rat on NJ suspected to be an \u201cillegal overstayer.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The established media was exceptionally compliant in disseminating this propaganda. They reported NPA crime announcements verbatim as writ, without analysis of the faulty claims and flawed statistics (e.g., reporting NJ crimes separately, however small, and as percentages \u2013 not as raw numbers \u2013 and without any contextual comparison with crimes committed by Japanese<\/a>). By the end of the decade, the media was bending over backwards to criminalize NJ<\/a>. Even when overall NJ crime declined, newspapers pinpointed selective crime rises, headlined crime falls in their English articles while marking it out as a rise in the same Japanese article, or manufactured news on the prospect of NJ crime rises.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In sum, the \u201cblind spot\u201d of Japanese media is that hardly any of it treats NJ as actual residents, with needs, concerns, and a stake in Japan. Local media do give spots on how NJ community events are faring, with the occasional update on social problems facing stricken foreign families. But that generally happens in areas with \u201chigh\u201d concentrations of registered NJ residents (around 10% of total local population, achieved in increasingly fewer places as the NJ population drops). Rarely does NJ community news leak into more national arenas (unless, of course, it concerns foreign crime). Hardly anywhere in the Japanese-language media is a constant \u201cvoice\u201d or venue granted to NJ regulars to offer an alternative viewpoint of life in Japan. (Please note, and this is not meant as a criticism, but tarento regulars like Dave Spector are first and foremost entertainers, rarely spokespeople for minorities, and foreign tarento have in fact visibly declined in number compared to their bubble era heyday.) Thus, unabashed bashing of NJ in the Japanese media goes unanswered without check or balance.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Have things improved since March 11? I would argue not. In March and April, Japanese media bashed NJ afresh<\/a>. Despite foreign governments issuing advisories for their citizens to take evasive action during the disasters (which overseas Japanese in the same position would have followed), NJ were blamed for cravenly running away, deserting their posts (remember the \u201cflyjin,\u201d rendered in Japanese as nihon o saru gaikokujin?) and looting. Once again, there was no comparison with AWOL Japanese, and no questioning of Ishihara\u2019s 2000 prediction that foreigners would run amok. Predictably, that frenzy has died down, and some media outlets have reported on the volunteerism and generosity of NJ in relief efforts. But in the end, I believe that NJ will get at most a token expression of gratitude (as I did from the Kobe Government \u2013 a \u201cthanks\u201d sticker that I treasure \u2013 for going down and helping out during the 1995 quake), but not what they really need \u2013 a consistent, national-level public recognition of their longstanding contributions to Japanese society.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Japanese media is hard-wired against seeing Japan as anything but the \u201crealm of the Japanese people,\u201d with outsiders not allowed to \u201cjoin the club\u201d and express their views over time as insiders. Moreover, Japan\u2019s reflexive media bashing of the outsider will continue to isolate it from the outside world. As both the Japanese and foreign populations continue to dwindle, along with the dimming of Japan\u2019s future prospects, I don\u2019t see that changing anytime soon.<\/em><\/strong> \u2776<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No.1 Shimbun: In the quarter century I have been examining the treatment of foreigners in both the English and vernacular media, I have seen little improvement. In fact, in many ways it\u2019s gotten worse. The foreign element has been increasingly portrayed as the subterfuge that will undermine Japanese society. To crib from a famous book title, Japan has become not only the \u201csystem that soured,\u201d but also the \u201cmedia that soured.\u201d<\/p>\n

When I first got here in the mid-1980s, at the start of Japan\u2019s bubble era, non-Japanese (NJ) were seen as quirky \u201cmisunderstood outsiders,\u201d treated with bemusement for their inability to understand \u201cJapan\u2019s unique culture.\u201d NJ were here to help Japan learn English and internationalize itself into its hard-earned echelon as a rich country in the international community. After all, Japan had just surpassed the per-capita gross domestic product of its mentor \u2013 the United States \u2013 so the media was preparing the public for Japan\u2019s new role as oriental ambassador to the West…<\/p>\n

The next phase, which has essentially continued to the present day, overtly began on April 9, 2000, when recently elected archconservative Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara made his famous \u201cSangokujin\u201d speech. He claimed that some NJ were \u201crepeatedly committing heinous crimes,\u201d and called for the Self-Defense Forces to round up NJ in the event of a natural disaster as they would (unprecedentedly) riot. Even in light of the Tohoku disasters, where this has been proven as utterly false, there has been no amendment or retraction. But this speech emboldened Japan\u2019s reactionaries (particularly its police, fortified by its new internal \u201cPolicymaking Committee Against Internationalization\u201d) to see rampant NJ bashing as politically viable…<\/p>\n

In sum, the \u201cblind spot\u201d of Japanese media is that hardly any of it treats NJ as actual residents, with needs, concerns, and a stake in Japan. Local media do give spots on how NJ community events are faring, with the occasional update on social problems facing stricken foreign families. But that generally happens in areas with \u201chigh\u201d concentrations of registered NJ residents (around 10% of total local population, achieved in increasingly fewer places as the NJ population drops). Rarely does NJ community news leak into more national arenas (unless, of course, it concerns foreign crime). Hardly anywhere in the Japanese-language media is a constant \u201cvoice\u201d or venue granted to NJ regulars to offer an alternative viewpoint of life in Japan. (Please note, and this is not meant as a criticism, but tarento regulars like Dave Spector are first and foremost entertainers, rarely spokespeople for minorities, and foreign tarento have in fact visibly declined in number compared to their bubble era heyday.) Thus, unabashed bashing of NJ in the Japanese media goes unanswered without check or balance.<\/p>\n

Have things improved since March 11?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,36,52,26,4,10,14,13,11,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-bad-social-science","category-hate-speech","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-policeforeign-crime","category-japanese-politics","category-media","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9372","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=9372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}