mytest
Hi All. One more before we enter the holiday season:
DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 16, 2007
Contents as follows:
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1) MY NEXT COLUMN IN THE JAPAN TIMES DEC 18 2007
ON HOW XENOPHOBIA AND SHORT-SIGHTED POLICYMAKING IS DESTROYING JAPAN
2) SASEBO GYM SHOOTING: SOME MEDIA SPECULATES THAT A NJ DID IT.
WRONGLY. YET NO RETRACTION.
3) TV TARENTO PETER BARAKAN ATTACKED, PREMEDITATED TEARGASSING–
WITH RESPONSE FROM PETER HIMSELF
4) THE AUSTRALIAN/JAPAN TODAY ON KANAGAWA POLICE RAPE CASE LAWSUIT LOSS
5) MEDIOCRE ECONOMIST SURVEY ON JAPAN BUSINESS DEC 1 2007
6) MAINICHI WAIWAI: HOMI DANCHI AND JAPANESE-BRAZILIAN FRICTIONS IN AICHI
7) ALBERTO FUJIMORI REALLY GETS HIS–6 YEARS’ PRISON; AND THAT’S NOT ALL
8) UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 60TH ANNIVERSARY DEC 10, 2007
…and finally…
9) DEBITO.ORG PODCAST DEC 8, 2007
with links to more than two months’ of previous podcasts…
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By Arudou Debito, Sapporo Japan
debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org
Daily blog updates at https://www.debito.org/index.php
A note before we start: I’ve heard from at least one party that my previous essay style (with excerpts, comments, and segues to the next topic) is preferable to my quick RSS summary-and-link style, first tried last newsletter. However, RSS style saves me literally *hours* of preparation per week–and is far more sustainable. If you have a preference either way, please let me know at debito@debito.org. More essay-style reports will still be available in my podcasts (see item 9 below).
On with the Newsletter:
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1) MY NEXT COLUMN IN THE JAPAN TIMES DEC 18 2007
ON HOW XENOPHOBIA AND SHORT-SIGHTED POLICYMAKING IS DESTROYING JAPAN
My last column of the year in the Japan Times (number 42) will be on the aftermath of fingerprinting, and how at this juncture it spells the beginning of the end for Japan’s future as Asia’s #1 economy. For no longer is Japan’s xenophobia merely dismissible as a social development “lag” or a “cultural misunderstanding”–it’s a clear design by the powers that be to change treatment of the Gaijin from benign neglect to outright antipathy. Japan is thus trying to sour the milk of economic benefits for those who try to emigrate here. For after all, any foreigner here is only here to make money, right? They should entertain no thoughts of staying. Meanwhile, Japan as a whole is suffering economically, and those making such short-sighted policies will not be alive to see its faster-growing Asian neighbors (such as China) overtake a geriatric and ethnically-cleansed Japan as the new leaders of Asia.
Have I gotten you interested? Buy the Japan Times next Tuesday. I’m really quite proud of how this one turned out.
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2) SASEBO GYM SHOOTING: SOME MEDIA SPECULATES THAT A NJ DID IT.
WRONGLY. YET NO RETRACTION.
The media this time was very good about the recent shootings in Sasebo, Kyushu, where a tall perp entered a gym and shot several people. But some media were quick to speculate that a gaijin or a black person dunnit, based upon how tall the perp was (and the fact that Sasebo has a US military base). With information about an alleged stalking of one of the gym members, and an “expert” personality profile from a Sophia U prof named Fukushima Akira that the gunner was very likely a gaijin being influenced all the recent shootings in the USA!
Don’t hold your breath for any retractions. The Mainichi certainly hasn’t in its follow-up reporting, and Fathead Fukushima has gone back down his bolt hole…
https://www.debito.org/?p=841
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3) TV TARENTO PETER BARAKAN ATTACKED, PREMEDITATED TEARGASSING–
WITH RESPONSE FROM PETER HIMSELF
On Dec 8, 2007, famous TV NJ Disk Jockey and commentator Peter Barakan was attacked with four others by an unknown assailant, who sprayed them with mace shortly before he was to give a speech. The assailant got away in a rental car, meaning the crime was quite premeditated. Peter Barakan himself answers Debito.org, and notes that even though they tracked down the car (with the mace and a driver inside), nobody was arrested. Try doing that to a Japanese public figure and see what happens. Is this the next rung on the ladder regarding treatment of NJ in Japan? Dave Spector, lock your doors…
https://www.debito.org/?p=830
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4) THE AUSTRALIAN/JAPAN TODAY ON KANAGAWA POLICE RAPE CASE LAWSUIT LOSS
The Australian Magazine on a Kanagawa Police rape case investigation: “At the [police] station, [the victim] says she was denied medical treatment during the first six hours, though bruised, scraped and suffering a whiplash injury from the force of the assault. The attitude of the policemen throughout was coarse and mocking. She says no attempt was made by the police to preserve bodily samples as evidence. “Not only the rapist but even the Japanese police contributed to an abridgement of my civil and human rights,” she says. “I begged to be taken to a hospital from the onset of reporting the incident, but my pleas were repeatedly denied.” Even after finally being taken to a nearby hospital about 9 a.m., she says she was returned to the station about midday for a further three hours of questioning… And, at the end of it all, the Kanagawa police decided against charging [the alleged rapist]…”
Yet another case to show how crime is treated by police in Japan, where if it’s NJ on NJ crime, it’s ignored.
https://www.debito.org/?p=818
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5) MEDIOCRE ECONOMIST SURVEY ON JAPAN BUSINESS DEC 1 2007
The Economist Newsmagazine had a 14-page Survey on Japanese Business in their Dec 1, 2007 issue. It’s pretty crappy. Not only does the author overstretch a “hybrid car” metaphor to describe Japan’s economy, he even contrasts it with some kind of “Anglo-Saxon capitalism” (as if there is such a clear contrast or even such a concrete economic model).
The author winds up making what could have been an interesting survey into a graduate-school term paper. Feels like he swallowed the lines fed him by the GOJ Gaijin Handlers, that Japan’s economics and business practices are that transparent and quantifiable.
He also seems to have answered my past complaint that The Economist ignores foreign workers whenever they talk about Japan’s demographics. One line–only one–is included in the 14-page Survey saying immigration “is not culturally acceptable in Japan”. Relegating things beyond one’s own ability to understand as a matter of “culture” is the lazy person’s analytical approach. Further critique and links to the Survey articles included.
https://www.debito.org/?p=836
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6) MAINICHI WAIWAI: HOMI DANCHI AND JAPANESE-BRAZILIAN FRICTIONS IN AICHI
Mainichi Waiwai: “”All the Japanese ever do is complain about us,” a Japanese-Brazilian resident of the Homi Danchi housing estate tells Spa! “They don’t accept us at all. We try to greet them and they just ignore us. They don’t want to have anything to do with us.”
“And here’s where Homi can serve as a harbinger. Danchi housing estates across Japan are losing their inhabitants as the country’s population shrinks. Japan’s current population of 126 million is estimated to drop below 100 million by 2050 unless something is done. More than likely, foreigners are going to be needed to make up for the lost 20-odd million. More and more public housing estates are going to become like Homi, where over half the current 8,000 inhabitants are non-Japanese.”
Bonus points given to the people who dealt with soundtruck bullies shouting “foreigners go home” at Homi Danchi–they firebombed them!
https://www.debito.org/?p=834
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7) ALBERTO FUJIMORI REALLY GETS HIS–6 YEARS’ PRISON; AND THAT’S NOT ALL
Several news articles on former Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori, who took refuge in Japan as a “citizen” for five years before buggering off to Chile, on his eventual sentencing to 6 years’ prison on some charges (more charges to come)–with a little something on what this means for the world’s dictators on the lam. A couple of debates on Debito.org on whether Fujimori was actually a Japanese citizen or not, but in any case, it’s academic now–and a good precedent…
https://www.debito.org/?p=833
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8) UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 60TH ANNIVERSARY DEC 10, 2007
UN News: The freedoms upheld in the historic United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights must be enjoyed by everyone, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Dec 10, 2007 on the occasion of Human Rights Day… The UN’s independent rights experts marked the Day with a call for the elimination of the twin scourges of discrimination and exclusion. “Discrimination continues to distort the economic, social and political contours of societies,” the UN special procedures mandate holders — ranging from rapporteurs and experts to working groups — said in a joint statement. “Individuals and communities face discrimination and exclusion on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, language, sex or sexual orientation amongst many other grounds.” The group emphasized that if left unchecked, the consequences of discrimination and exclusion “can begin to create fault lines within society between those who have full rights, justice and dignity respected, and those who do not.
https://www.debito.org/?p=832
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…and finally…
9) DEBITO.ORG PODCAST DEC 8, 2007
I haven’t said much about my podcasts until now, as I wasn’t comfortable with the format. Eight podcasts later, I’m startiing to get used to it well enough to tell you they’re worth your time. Link below to last week’s. I’ll have the next one out by Tuesday night, where I’ll be reading my next Japan Times column.
Contents for Debito.org Podcast for December 8, 2007:
1) “Jinken Shuukan”: Dec 4-10 Human Rights Week In Japan–What The Official Goals are for This GOJ-Sponsored Event, and How They’re Fundamentally Flawed.
2) Racial Profiling At Toyoko Inn Hirosaki, Part And Parcel Of Toyoko Inn’s Nastiness Towards Non-Japanese and Wheelchair Customers. Suggest A Boycott….
Download in mp3 format, or listen live at Trans Pacific Radio
https://www.debito.org/?p=835
More than two months of podcasts (so far) archived at:
http://www.transpacificradio.com/category/debito/
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That’s all for today. Thanks for reading!
Arudou Debito
Sapporo, Japan
debito@debito.org, https://www.debito.org
Daily blog updates at https://www.debito.org/index.php
DEBITO.ORG NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 16, 2007 ENDS