{"id":9529,"date":"2011-10-14T12:52:50","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T03:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=9529"},"modified":"2011-10-16T00:42:50","modified_gmt":"2011-10-15T15:42:50","slug":"korea-times-naturalized-korean-decries-refusal-of-entry-to-sauna-parallels-with-otaru-onsens-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=9529","title":{"rendered":"Korea Times: Naturalized Korean decries refusal of entry to sauna, parallels with Otaru Onsens Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"IN<\/a>
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Hi Blog. \u00a0I’ve been to South Korea a few times, and always thought it felt like I was visiting Japan in a different dimension. \u00a0No more so than right now.<\/p>\n

According to the Korea Times article below, we have a naturalized citizen getting turned away from a bathhouse. \u00a0The management justifies it by saying that she, as a foreigner by appearance, is dirty or contagious. \u00a0She calls the police, but it turns out there is no domestic law to prevent this from happening. \u00a0The excluded person then claims racial discrimination, takes it up with the authorities, and we currently are at the point of seeing whether anything official will happen to stop this.<\/p>\n

Reminds me, of course, of the Otaru Onsens Case (1993-2005, my friends and I getting involved from 1999) in Japan. \u00a0There we had exclusionary onsens in Otaru with signs up refusing all foreigners, refusing entry to not only foreign-looking people, but ultimately foreign-looking Japanese<\/a>. \u00a0We also take it up with the authorities, only to have them tell us there’s nothing they can do — Japan has no domestic law against racial discrimination. \u00a0In Japan’s case, however, their MOJ’s Bureau of Human Rights not only tells us they have no enforcement power to stop this, but also interferes with the advancement of human rights — to the point of advising the Otaru City Government in writing (see my book JAPANESE ONLY, English version<\/a>, pg. 347) that Otaru authorities legally need to do nothing to resolve the situation. \u00a0Whether or not the Korean bureaucracy will be this negligent remains to be seen, so let’s keep an eye on this case. \u00a0The parallels are that striking. \u00a0Arudou Debito<\/p>\n

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

The Korea Times 10-13-2011\u00a020:03, courtesy of NNH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Naturalized Korean decries refusal of entry to sauna\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>
\n\"\"
\nCourtesy http:\/\/www.koreatimes.co.kr\/www\/news\/nation\/2011\/10\/117_96613.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Ku Su-jin, an Uzbek native who was naturalized in Korea, shows her passport indicating Korean nationality during a media briefing at Gyeongnam Migrant Community Service Center in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. Ku said she was prohibited from using a sauna in a case of racial discrimination. \/ Yonhap<\/em><\/p>\n

Lack of law against racial discrimination leaves foreigners vulnerable<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Kim Rahn<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

An ethnic Uzbekistan woman has filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission after she was denied entrance to a sauna here.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A sauna employee refused to admit to the woman, a naturalized Korean, saying she was still a \u201cforeigner\u201d by appearance and foreign users may \u201cmake water in bathtub dirty\u201d and \u201cpass on AIDS.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Such an action was possible because there is no law on discrimination by race, according to a support center for immigrants.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMany foreigners face such discrimination often but mostly they remain silent because they don\u2019t speak Korean well and don\u2019t know where they can appeal,\u201d said Ku Su-jin, whose Uzbek name is Karina Kurbanova.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Assisted by a civic group, she held a media briefing at Gyeongnam Migrant Community Service Center in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Thursday.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m filing the petition on behalf of other foreigners and especially our children including my seven-year-old boy, as I don\u2019t want him to be discriminated against because of physically appearing different to Koreans,\u201d she said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ku visited a sauna in Busan at around 3 p.m. on Sept. 25. But the employee denied her entry, saying foreigners are prohibited.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

She reported this immediately to the police.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe sauna worker told police that foreigners are not allowed there because they may make the water dirty. He also said Koreans customers don\u2019t like using the facility with foreigners because in the town there are many foreign women working at bars and there were rumors that some have AIDS,\u201d she said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ku is legally a Korean as she obtained citizenship in 2009 after marrying a Korean man. She told this to the owner, but he said she was a foreigner by appearance.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Police officers said there is no law to regulate such racist discrimination, advising her to go to another sauna, she said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Officials at the center, who are supporting Ku\u2019s petition, said the owner took advantage of a legal loophole regarding discrimination.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are laws banning discrimination by gender or by worker\u2019s status. But there is none governing discrimination by race, not only do Koreans discriminate against foreigners but also Koreans discriminate against other Koreans like in Ku\u2019s case,\u201d a director of the center said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The director said if the rights commission recommends the sauna to change, the group will help Ku file a civil suit against the sauna owner for the mental distress she sustained.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

She said what Ku and the center ultimately call for is the establishment of a law banning discrimination by race, against both foreigners and naturalized Koreans.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn these modern times when 1.3 million immigrants live here, it is shameful that they have their human rights infringed upon and are deprived of many entitled rights in daily life only because they look different or they came from other countries. Korea claims to stand for multiculturalism, but is far short of laws and systems for immigrants,\u201d the director said.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

According to the Korea Times article below, we have a naturalized citizen getting turned away from a bathhouse. The management justifies it by saying that she, as a foreigner by appearance, is dirty or contagious. She calls the police, but it turns out there is no domestic law to prevent this from happening. The excluded person then claims racial discrimination, takes it up with the authorities, and we currently are at the point of seeing whether anything official will happen to stop this.<\/p>\n

Reminds me, of course, of the Otaru Onsens Case (1993-2005, my friends and I getting involved from 1999) in Japan. There we had exclusionary onsens in Otaru with signs up refusing all foreigners, refusing entry to not only foreign-looking people, but ultimately foreign-looking Japanese. We also take it up with the authorities, only to have them tell us there’s nothing they can do — Japan has no domestic law against racial discrimination. In Japan’s case, however, their MOJ’s Bureau of Human Rights not only tells us they have no enforcement power to stop this, but also interferes with the advancement of human rights — to the point of advising the Otaru City Government in writing (see my book JAPANESE ONLY, English version, pg. 347) that Otaru authorities legally need to do nothing to resolve the situation. Whether or not the Korean bureaucracy will be this negligent remains to be seen, so let’s keep an eye on this case. The parallels are that striking.<\/p>\n

Korea Times: An ethnic Uzbekistan woman has filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission after she was denied entrance to a sauna here. A sauna employee refused to admit to the woman, a naturalized Korean, saying she was still a \u201cforeigner\u201d by appearance and foreign users may \u201cmake water in bathtub dirty\u201d and \u201cpass on AIDS.\u201d Such an action was possible because there is no law on discrimination by race, according to a support center for immigrants…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,52,5,2,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-issue","category-hate-speech","category-human-rights","category-otaru-onsen-lawsuit","category-shoe-on-the-other-foot-dept"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529","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=9529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}