REVIEWS
OF BOOK "JAPANESE
ONLY",
FULL TEXT
By Jeff
Kingston, Japan Times Book Review, January 30, 2005
By
Tom
Baker, Daily Yomiuri Book Review, January 16,
2005
By
Chris
Pitts, Amnesty International Japan
By
Eric
Johnston, Deputy Editor, The Japan Times newspaper
By
Steve
King, ELT Longman Osaka
By Patrick Rial, Japanzine
(more
to be added as
they come out)
THE
JAPAN TIMES ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Bathhouse
pushes a foreigner into the doghouse
(NB: Author disavows writing the title)
By
JEFF KINGSTON
Courtesy
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fb20050130a1.htm
JAPANESE
ONLY: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan, by
Debito
Arudou. Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2004, 407 pp., 3,500 yen (paper).
Discrimination
is an all too common experience for non-Japanese residents who study,
work,
marry and raise families here. Many of us have come to terms with this
prejudice and deal with it in our own ways, often avoiding
confrontation. There
is evidence of improvement and some non-Japanese may experience little
more
than petty hassles, but as in other countries around the world,
foreigners are
too often an easy target.
Even
though
Japan effected the United Nations' convention on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination
in 1996, it still has no law against racial discrimination; thus a
treaty
obligation exists without an effective means of carrying it out.
Debito
Arudou
(previously David Aldwinkle before he became a naturalized Japanese
citizen)
decided that confronting discrimination was important for his family,
other
foreigners and Japanese society. After reading this excellent account
of his
struggle against prejudice and racial discrimination, I think we are
fortunate
he did so.
"Japanese
Only" tells us about the case of three bath houses in Hokkaido that
excluded foreigners and naturalized Japanese citizens for six years
before the
author and two friends filed suit in 2001 against one of the
establishments and
the city of Otaru in which it operated. We learn of the struggle of
some
Japanese and non-Japanese residents to challenge discrimination and
effect
social change. This copious record of a social movement provides an
illuminating window on how people and institutions can influence
human-rights
practices and is an important contribution to our understanding of
contemporary
Japan that deserves a wide audience.
Arudou
was
instrumental in stirring national and international interest in this
case and
taking it to the courts for redress. Readers get a personal and
fascinating
account of how this movement evolved, its consequences and how it
affected
those who participated in it. It is a very readable story that ranges
from
diary-like entries, to extensive quotes from the media, e-mails to his
Internet
site and court rulings.
Ironically,
some
of the harshest criticism directed against Arudou and his supporters
has come
from other resident foreigners. In this vein, some of Gregory Clark's
articles
defending Japan from accusations of racial discrimination are
reproduced here.
With tortured logic, he asserts that foreigners like Arudou are in fact
the
ones acting in a discriminatory manner and engaging in a form of
cultural
imperialism. Arudou deflects such criticisms as so much pandering:
"Some
will
surely reiterate that I am foisting some American cultural values on
the
Japanese here. But it's not 'American.' It's just a good idea.
Regardless of
origin, the idea of fighting for one's rights is objectively good."
Chalmers
Johnson, in a caustic e-mail, asserts that the U.S. ambassador at the
time
"couldn't give a cold dog turd whether or not you, your wife and
children
get a bath at an onsen."
Undeterred
by
this apparent official insouciance, and some hostility among foreign
residents,
Arudou pressed on. It seems to have been a painful learning experience,
as
conflicts developed with other activists concerning the best way to
proceed.
Tony
Laszlo, now
famous as the humorous husband depicted in the best-selling manga
series
"Darling wa Gaikokujin (My Darling is a Foreigner)," was initially
involved, but we learn of their growing estrangement. Eventually they
parted
ways and one can sense the despair and personal toll an increasingly
lonely
crusade exacted on Arudou. He even endured threats against his children.
The
initial
court ruling on the Otaru Onsen lawsuit ventured into Catch-22
territory; the
judges ruled that the city of Otaru was indeed obliged to uphold the
U.N.
Convention on Racial Discrimination but not obliged to pass ordinances
that
would make this possible. As Arudou writes, "So this means that they
have
to enforce the treaty. But they don't. Huh?"
Eventually
the
Japan Civil Liberties Union took up the case and provided a pro bono
legal team
to mount an appeal. The high court ruling in September 2004 against the
appeal
argued that the Japanese state and its local governments do indeed have
an
international treaty obligation to eliminate discrimination, but that
the court
cannot force the government to make laws. Furthermore, the state cannot
be held
culpable for not passing a law; inaction is not illegal. Thus "the
judicial branch can only enforce what the legislative branch creates."
Arudou
fumes:
"Hence, the government, which can take our taxes yet not be legally
obligated to protect our rights, is exonerated from doing anything.
Despite the
U.N. treaty, which has the force of law, but alas is not binding
because it is
not properly codified. That argument has not held water in other
signatory
countries (all of which) . . . have codified laws to outlaw racial
discrimination."
The
author is
not optimistic that the government will pass such laws, but has decided
to
pursue his case to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, the Hokkaido
Shimbun
lent its support to the cause, arguing for antidiscrimination
legislation with
penalties.
One
can only
marvel along with Arudou's friend who said, "Who'd thunk all those
years
ago that our actions one afternoon in Otaru would have resulted in a
lawsuit of
this magnitude?" What has been normal -- exclusionary signs -- is now a
matter
of public censure.
Arudou
convincingly concludes that "raising your voice against social wrongs
is
the way to make life better for everyone in Japan. It is the way civil
societies everywhere in the world develop. Japan is no exception."
Jeff
Kingston
teaches history at Temple University Japan. To purchase a copy or get
more
related information contact the author at his Web site: www.debito.org
The
Japan Times: Jan. 30, 2005
THE
WATER'S FINE, BUT DON'T COME IN
"JAPANESE
ONLY", By Arudou Debito
Book
Review by Tom
Baker, Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
Courtesy
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm (available for
one week)
Sunday,
January 16,
2004
//////////////////////////////////////////
Soaking
in a hot,
traditional-style bath is one of the great pleasures of
being
in Japan. Or so
you might think. According to certain bathing facility
owners
in Hokkaido, a
good bath is not a pleasure of being in Japan, but a
pleasure
of being
Japanese.
And
they will define
"Japanese" for themselves, thank you very much.
Arudou
Debito began to
learn their definition in 1999 when he, his family
and
some friends tried
to visit a deluxe bathhouse called Yunohana in Otaru,
Hokkaido,
the town
where they live. Not everyone in Arudou's group looked
Japanese--and
in fact
several of them were not--so they were barred entry.
The
manager explained
that drunken Russian sailors had caused trouble at
the
facility in the
past and the management wanted to keep such people out,
adding:
"We can't
just ban Russians. That would be blatant discrimination...
So
we ban all
foreigners out of fairness."
But
banning foreigners
isn't as simple as it might sound. Arudou, who was
named
David Aldwinckle
until he became a naturalized Japanese citizen in
2000,
is a U.S.-born
white male. His wife is more recognizably Japanese. And
their
daughters, he
writes, "are a study in contrasts. My older is very
Asian,
with black hair,
brown eyes and tan skin. My younger is quite fair,
with
brown hair and
green eyes.
"The
(Yunohana)
manager took one look and said, 'When they get older, the
older
one can come in.
But the younger one will have to be refused.'"
Say
what you will about
a person who could make such an obnoxious
utterance,
but any
policy based on it is clearly illegal.
Or
so you might think.
"Japan
happens to
be the only (major developed) country without any form of
domestic
law against
racial discrimination," Arudou writes.
This
is despite the
fact that Japan adopted a U.N. resolution against
racism
in 1996 (decades
after other U.N. members), and has ever since
ignored
the fact that
the resolution calls for member states to pass
legislation
to
implement it. The relevant U.N. organs have publicly scolded
Japan
for its
foot-dragging, but to no avail.
Japanese
Only is
Arudou's account of how he and many other people, Japanese
and
foreign, have been
trying to change this situation. Much of it is told
in
his own words, but
it also includes substantial excerpts from letters,
e-mails,
court
decisions, government documents, press releases, newspaper
articles
and even
transcribed television shows. These are presented in a
choppy-looking
mishmash
of multiple fonts and bits of boxed text that a
casual
bookstore
shopper flipping through the pages might expect to find
unreadable.
Fortunately,
this is
far from the case. Not only is Japanese Only clear,
well-paced,
balanced
and informative, but the scrapbook style lends the
described
events a
riveting sense of immediacy. Through it all, the author
pulls
no punches, but
he refrains from the rants and tirades that must have
been
sorely tempting at
times.
Arudou
and his allies
began with a public relations effort urging the local
government
to adopt
some antidiscrimination laws and asking local businesses
to
voluntarily cease
discriminating.
They
made no headway
with the Otaru municipal government, which put up a
stone
wall padded with
mealymouthed excuses, all recounted here.
They
had mixed results
with the baths: One voluntarily began admitting
foreigners,
but
Yunohana continued to bar Arudou on admittedly racist
grounds
even after he
became legally Japanese.
Left
with no other
remedy, Arudou and several other plaintiffs sued
Yunohana
in 2001 for
racially discriminating against them, simultaneously
suing
the local
government for failing to do anything about it.
They
won against the
bathhouse, which unsuccessfully appealed. But as
described
in this book,
the court's decision was too poorly worded to set a
useful
precedent.
Meanwhile,
the
plaintiffs lost their case against the local government, and
also
appealed. That
part of the case has yet to be resolved.
Arudou's
book is an
excellent summary of events so far, and provides a lot
of
background
information that may startle readers outside this country.
"Close
to half of
all 'registered foreigners' in Japan were born and raised
here
as native
speakers, and would be citizens already in just about any
other
developed
country," he writes.
The
narrative flows
quickly despite such asides and despite a certain
amount
of
repetition--but this repetition only shows what a Sisyphean task
Arudou
had taken on. He
has to keep up a steady drumbeat of the same basic
assertion--that
discrimination is wrong--in the face of various flimsy but
tenaciously
held
arguments in favor of discrimination.
The
pro-discrimination
arguments put forward in Hokkaido could have been
used,
and were, by
white segregationists in the United States several
decades
ago: Businesses
should be free choose their own customers, for
instance;
those
excluded are welcome to go elsewhere; those who complain are
just
trying to make us
look bad; racism exists everywhere, so get used to
it;
people outside our
approved group are ill-mannered, dangerous and
smelly;
our racially
correct customer base would abandon us if we let just
anyone
come in; our
part of the world is a special case where discrimination
is
actually OK; just
wait a few years and the problem will naturally go
away.
It
may be that the
discriminators in Hokkaido are unaware that their U.S.
counterparts
wound up
on the wrong side of history. Or it may be that
learning
from history
is not a strong point of those who regard themselves
as
"unique."
But
Arudou's study of
history has taught him "that rights--any rights--are
rarely,
if ever,
granted unilaterally. People must fight for them. So it is
not
only our option,
but our obligation as residents of Japan, to do
something."
//////////////////////////////////////////
REVIEW
ENDS
More
information on the
book and how you can get a copy at
http://www.debito.org/japaneseonly.html
ENDS
Review of
Book Japanese
Only by Arudou
Debito
Akashi
Shoten, 2004,
JPY3,500
Reviewed
by Chris Pitts,
Coordinator, Amnesty
International Group 78, Tokyo, Japan
January
2005
MY experience of
working for human
rights is a predictable mixture: mostly humdrum--stuffing envelopes,
writing
letters, rattling the collecting tin; occasionally depressing or
distressing--as when reading about "comfort women" or Guantanamo; all
too infrequently, except for meeting like-minded people, is there
anything
enjoyable. One source of enjoyment and inspiration this year was Arudou
Debito's book, Japanese Only.
First,
I have to
declare an interest, because Arudou is a personal friend of mine. Then,
I want
to make a couple of criticisms. My main gripe is that the book has no
index. I
guess specific information is accessible, because most of the source
material
is archived on Arudou's website, but I like my non-fiction books to
have one. I
was also disappointed not to see the marvelous photo of Debito and the
formerly
excluding onsen manager, Mr Ohkoshi, in the bath together. That photo
symbolizes the success of Debito's approach and activity. To view it:
<http://www.debito.org/kumanichi012102.html>
Having
got the caveats off
my chest, I strongly recommend that you buy it, and read it. WHY do I
like this
book so much? Japanese Only is more than an
account of a campaign. Like Dr Who's time
machine, the Tardis, it compasses far more than you expect. (Not so
much
WYSIWYG as WYSIJAPOWIG [what you see is just a part of what you get]).
Arudou
tells his story in a readable way, focusing on the personalities on all
sides
of the conflict (You thought there were just two sides to this story?
Oh, no!).
He manages this by largely letting the characters use their own voices,
through
summaries of contemporaneous emails and conversations. Along the way he
reproduces
many of the arguments and counter arguments that come up in discussion
(e.g.
Don't businesses have the right to refuse obnoxious customers?) for the
reader
to mull. He describes some of the workings of local government and the
courts
in Japan. The experiences he relates and the lessons he learned on
dealing with
the media alone are, for any social activist, worth the cover price.
Further,
with over 50 references to documents and sources on the Internet, this
book is
more than just a book. It is almost like a college course on human
rights and
social activism, delivered by an avuncular professor.
Another
extra that you
get for your money, though, unlike most college courses, is a strong
feeling of
optimism about the future of (t)his country, Japan. Although we don't
have the
Tardis and can't visit Japan's future, we know from other countries at
other
times that social attitudes and values are not set in concrete. Will
Japan's
minorities face antagonism, even violence, during straitened economic
times in
the future? Conversely, will the majority social group learn to see
minorities
as a positive, beneficial social resource rather than a threat? Will
the
majority resist the cheap grandstanding of racists and xenophobes who
will try
to pin responsibility for future social difficulties on the different
and the
dispossessed? Arudou Debito is one of the people providing the
leadership that
we who live in Japan today need for tomorrow. "The idea of fighting for
one's rights is objectively good," he writes on p. 270. Human rights
are
not divisible, Debito. Fighting for one's rights is fighting for
everyone's
rights. Thanks. Keep it up. Right on!
Chris Pitts
Coordinator,
Amnesty
International Group 78
(personal
capacity)
January
2005
There
are a lot of people, foreign and Japanese, who would simply like Debito
Arudou
to go away and be quiet. But regardless of whether or not you agree
with his
tactics, Arudou raises profound questions in JAPANESE ONLY about what
it means
to be not only Japanese but also a foreigner living -- as opposed to
simply
visiting, studying, or trying to make lots of money as quickly as
possible --
in today's Japan. The questions he raises are thus of vital importance
as the
country debates whether or not to maitain economic prosperity by
bringing in
millions of foreign workers.
And
this is why
JAPANESE ONLY is so important. In the midst of all the overblown
rhetoric about
foreign workers, whether it be from woolly-headed academics, plotting
technocrats, major corporations looking only at the bottom line,
well-meaning
NGOs, or fascist politicians, Arudou's battle against the Otaru onsens
shows us
real Japanese struggling with real, practical issues of integration,
assimulation, and human rights, and attempting to answer for themselves
questions about what is fair and what is not, what is legal, what is
not, and
what is moral, and what is not.
In
the process, Arudou
reveals some ingrained attitudes that no government white paper,
blue-ribbon
panel of experts, or cadre of nervously smiling bureaucrats will be
able to
easily ignore. Twenty years from now, JAPANESE ONLY may well be one of
the
seminal studies on just how Japan did, or did not, deal with the
integration of
foreigners into its society.
--
Eric Johnston
Deputy
Editor
The
Japan TImes
January
2005
For
people interested in coming to Japan for the first time, and for some
of the
more hard-nosed, long-in-the-tooth long-term foreign residents of
Japan,
Arudo's book provides both fascinating insights for the newcomer and
relevant,
recognisable accounts of Japan's murkier side for the veterans.
Arudo
manages, however,
to rid himself of both the preconceptions and hackneyed cliches that
pervades
so much of writing on Japan whilst at the same time succeeds in
avoiding the
bitter cynicism of outright Japan-bashing.
In
short, Arudo neither
lionizes Japan nor does he write it off, and along the way shows the
reader
that tenacity, courage and self-belief are worthy opponents of
bureacracy,
prejudice and artificial social barriers
Steve
King
ELT
Consultant
Longman
ELT Osaka
Office
January
2005
However, some factual errors:
1) "The story starts when Arudou and two other foreigners sue the city of Otaru..."
Actually, the story starts on page one, and the lawsuit starts on page 276. And I was not a foreigner when we sued.
2) "The problem is that Arudou fails to spell out exactly what he is after, other than the ambiguous goal of ending racial discrimination."
Actually, I would hope I made things very clear by stating several times in the book: what we are after is a law against racial discrimination in Japan.
3) "When an onsen opens its doors to foreigners accompanied by a Japanese, Arudou claims a victory. However, the book leaves the reader guessing if he is satisfied with this outcome..."
There's a good reason why this is unclear. The above event never happened. None of the three exclusionary onsen explicitly opened their doors to foreigners if they were accompanied by a Japanese. One opened their doors fully, another instituted a membership system, and the third never opened its doors until we sued them.
As for the remaining psychoanalytical two-thirds of the review, there's no use commenting about my motives or methods since people will believe what they want to believe, interpret things how they want to. What happened is out there for people to draw their own conclusions about, and I respect the reviewer's job doing so here.
I will say that for the comments about Gregory Clark, "who is made to look like a Japan-obsessed apologist": If that is the reviewer's read, then it is his read, not mine, of the primary source materials--for I extensively quoted Gregory Clark's own writings (eight pages' worth) in the book.
Anyway, thanks for the review. I just wish the reviewer had digested the book as thoroughly as he did the author.--Arudou Debito, December 7, 2005.