(Freely Forwardable)
NEWS UPDATE MARCH 10, 2003
Hello All. A number of things to tell you about (click on the links to page
down):
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1) NEWSWEEK JAPAN: "SABETSU KOKKA NIPPON" ARTICLE
2) SEALION TAMA-CHAN NEWS, LINKS, JAPAN TIMES ESSAY ON
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY IN JAPAN
3) OTARU LAWSUIT: APPEAL AGAINST CITY: REASONS FILED
4) "THE COMMUNITY": NEW PROJECTS:
a) TAKAMADO PROJECT ("No foreigners in English
Contest")
b) KOKUTAI PROJECT ("No foreigners in Japan's
largest sports meet")
5) INSTANT CHECKPOINTS PT 5: Response from Japan's
Secret Police
6) UPCOMING SPEECHES, and
PUBLICATION DATE FOR "JAPANESE ONLY" BOOK
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1) NEWSWEEK JAPAN: "SABETSU KOKKA NIPPON" ARTICLE
One of the best articles I've seen in the domestic press on discrimination in Japan
appeared in Newsweek Japan, issue dated Feb 26, 2003, as the cover story. "Discrimination
Nation Japan" took up six pages and covered several cases, opening with Otaru
Onsens. See all six pages in Japanese scanned at:
http://www.debito.org/newsweekjapan022603.html
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2) SEALION TAMA-CHAN NEWS, LINKS, JAPAN TIMES ESSAY ON FREEDOM
OF ASSEMBLY IN JAPAN
A brief recap: A sealion named "Tama-chan" frequents rivers in
Yokohama, raising people's spirits and bolstering the local pastry economy. He became
so popular that Nishi-ku Ward Office issued him an honorary "juuminhyou"
(Residency Certificate) in February. This caused quite a furor with resident foreigners,
who, despite paying resident taxes (juuminzei) the same as citizens, cannot be issued
or listed properly on a juuminhyou. Japan is the only OECD country which requires
citizenship for residency status, and this unequal treatment is particularly galling
to the Zainichi Koreans, Chinese, etc., several generations born and raised here,
yet are apparently not held as in as high regard by the Japanese government as a
sea mammal.
Now the news: To draw attention to this unequal treatment, comedian Dave Gutteridge
(ml@autotelic.com) and internet volunteer group
The Community (http://www.debito.org/TheCommunity)
convened a "celebration" of Tama-chan's newfound status on the banks of
one of Tama-chan's rivers. Dressing up as seals (body suits, whiskers, flippers
and all), on Feb 22 we barked, "We can be cute too. So can we have a juuminhyou?")
in a very light-hearted event.
Result: A huge press turnout, with all major national and local newspapers, three
major TV networks, Newsweek Japan, and even the BBC, CBC, and South China Morning
Post covering. It was featured on wide shows (particularly "Toku Da Ne",
including commentator Dave Spector, and parody Burakku Waido Show). It became one
of the most successful awareness-raising campaigns The Community has ever taken up
(http://www.debito.org/TheCommunty/communityissues.html).
Nobody we saw in the domestic press was critical of our stance. Partly due to the
humorous approach, we suspect, but also because most Japanese simply didn't know
foreigners are technically not recognized as residents in Japan, and can see the
absurdity.
On Feb 24, Dave and I formally presented the issue in print to very affable officials
at the Nishi-ku Ward Office. We have already heard word back: They are deliberating
on a formal written response. Their standpoint is they are bound by national laws
and cannot change the directives of two ministries (MOJ and MOHA). True enough,
but I suggested they at least formally issue a statement of support for equal treatment
in the registry system. The Zainichis have since taken the issue off our hands...
Anyway, copious news coverage (including downloadable TV spots in .avi and .mov format)
can be found (Courtesy Colin Restall) at
http://tamachan.restall.org
Dave Gutteridge's official Tama-chan website with photos, our statements in English
and Japanese etc. can be found at
http://www.gutteridge.info/tamachan/index.html
More information on the registration process (including an article from Edward Crandall,
Saga Shinbun, in English and Japanese on the quirks behind juuminhyou law, as well
as town citizenship conferred on a seeing-eye dog in January), are available at
http://www.debito.org/TheCommunity/tamachanmoreinfo.html
And finally, I wrote a Japan Times article (March 4, 2003) on the limitations on
the right of assembly in Japan. Yes, despite guarantees in the Japanese Constitution,
you have to get official permission to assemble outdoors in Japan. We found this
out the hard way by organizing the Tama-chan celebration at the last minute, running
afowl of the cops. So what did we do? We stayed within the law by technically making
this gathering into a "picnic". See the article (with picture--I'm the
fat seal with ojisan glasses) at http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20030304zg.htm
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3) OTARU LAWSUIT: APPEAL AGAINST CITY: REASONS FILED
The Otaru Lawsuit Bengodan (Legal Team), which has grown to 19 pro-bono lawyers and
over 100 supporters and contributors, formally filed its "Reasons for Appeal"
(Kouso Riyuusho) against Otaru City with the Sapporo High Court on March 5, 2003.
The reasons are, in 70 words or less, because 1) the judge in the previous decision
intentionally ignored significant facts already established as evidence (as well
as accepting assertions as facts never established by submitted evidence), and 2)
because Defendant Otaru City committed gross negligence in allowing "Japanese
Only" signs to remain up within their jurisdiction for eight years (sending
a clear signal that businesses can discriminate without official reprisal).
We held a press conference on the day. Information distributed to the press viewable
in Japanese at the following sites:
Kouso Riyuusho (full text in Japanese)
http://www.debito.org/shikousoriyusho030503.html
Bengodan Info (Japanese)
http://www.debito.org/shikousohandout030503.html
General Bengodan Info in English
http://www.debito.org/bengodanenglish.html
BTW, there has been no word from the court on Defendant Yunohana Onsen's appeal against
us three plaintiffs--even though they appealed about the same time as I did and are
therefore on approximately the same schedule. No news is good news.
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4) "THE COMMUNITY": NEW PROJECTS:
"The Community" has webbed new information sites on some issues involving
Japan's internationalization.
a) TAKAMADO PROJECT ("No Foreigners allowed in English
Contest")
Coordinator: John Marshall (takamado_taikai@yahoo.com)
The Takamadonomiya Speech Contest is one of Japan's largest and most prestigious
English speech contests, sponsored by Japan's Imperial Family (the late Princes Takamatsu
and Takamado). It also excludes foreigners from competition. On the surface this
may seem a reasonable rule, for native speakers will clearly have an unfair advantage
over second-language learners. However, the contest has banned even foreigners that
come from non-English-language countries (such as Chinese diaspora), who may also
be learning English as a second language. It also bans people who have foreign blood,
meaning even Japanese citizens who have foreign parents or grandparents are disqualified.
While there is plenty of room for grey in this issue, as rules stand the potential
for a student's hurt feelings and stunted study incentives is unnecessarily great.
We suggest the requirements based on blood be loosened or removed entirely. Report
and links to a petition available at:
http://www.debito.org/TheCommunity/takamadoproject.html
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b) THE KOKUTAI PROJECT ("No Foreigners in Japan's sports")
Coordinator: Douglas Shukert (dshukert@yahoo.com)
The National Sports Festival (or Kokutai) is Japan's largest national sports meet.
Over forty events are held over three sessions (winter, summer, and fall), with
as many as 30,000 Japanese athletes competing each year. Even though the Kokutai
can consume more than 50 billion yen in tax money annually, the event excludes taxpayers:
only citizens may participate. The best logic available holds that winners may
become Olympians, meaning that they would have to be citizens anyway to represent
Japan. However, in my view this is inadequate justification for excluding children
from lower-level competitions which are not in themselves Olympic trials. It also
encourages the view at an impressionable age that exclusion of fellow school classmates
by nationality is permissible. We hope that Kokutai rules will be revised so that
anyone registered in schools in Japan will be allowed to compete. Report available
at:
http://www.debito.org/TheCommunity/kokutaiproject.html
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5) INSTANT CHECKPOINTS PT 5: Response from Japan's Secret Police
You might remember a little incident I had with the police at Chitose Airport last
December, when a cop demanded to see my passport as I was coming out of a post office
(background at http://www.debito.org/policeapology.html). Since under Japanese law
(Shokumu Shikkou Hou) this activity is illegal without probable cause (soutou na
riyuu), the only reason the cop did this was because he thought I was a foreigner--making
this a case of racial profiling. Filing requests for an explanation and an apology
with the Chitose Airport police, the Hokkaido Police (twice), and the Ministry of
Justice Human Rights Bureau (Jinken Yougobu), I was given predictable excuses (the
cop couldn't have known I was a Japanese without asking my ID, as if that justifies
the intrusion; the Human Rights Bureau says it has no power to enforce laws, only
to encourage "enlightenment" (keihatsu), etc.). I was also steered by
the latter towards the Public Safety Committee (Kouan Iinkai--a division of Japan's
secret police, who spy on undesirable elements in Japanese society, such as Aum Shinrikyou
and sundry foreigners--particularly the Russians and Chinese). I sent them my report
as well.
I received an answer from the Kouan Iinkai this morning. Results of their survey:
The cop was decidedly within his rights to ask questions about a person's livelihood
(shokumu shitsumon). As I am a Japanese citizen, my right not to answer was in their
view suitably upheld. No apology for the unjustified intrusion was necessary, as
they were just doing their job.
Hum. Goes to show, you can't expect cops to police themselves. And given the revelations
in a recent court decision (the Okegawa Case, where a woman being stalked had her
repeated pleas for help ignored by police; when she was ultimately killed by her
stalkers, the police falsified documents to make it seem like she didn't ask for
help properly. In a landmark decision, the Saitama District Court last monthforced
the police to pay her parents 5,500,000 yen for negligence; moreover, Japan finally
has a Anti-Stalker Law now to make sure this doesn't happen again), I am not confident
in the police's ability to abide by the public duties they are entrusted in, especially
when they can so freely bend the laws. (More on the Okegawa Case at http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20030227a1.htm)
What next? Short of a lawsuit (and I'm already involved in one of those), I don't
know. But I do have a couple of reporters interested in this story...
See the letter I got from the Kouan Iinkai in Japanese at
http://www.debito.org/chitosecopcheckpoint.html#kouaniinkai
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6) UPCOMING SPEECHES
PUBLICATION DATE FOR "JAPANESE ONLY" BOOK
a) Saturday, March 15, 2003, between 3 and 4:30 PM I will be speaking (along with
Ryougoku Univ Prof Tanaka Hiroshi) on the Otaru Lawsuit Appeal in Atago, Tokyo (Minato-ku
Atago 1-6-7, Atagoyama Bengoshi Bldg Kaigishitsu, about 7 minutes from Toranomon
Stn.). Prof Tanaka's topic will be "Responsibilities of the local and national
governments vis-a-vis discrimination". Both presentations in Japanese. Sponsored
by the Japan Civil Liberties Union (http://www.jclu.org).
More information via 03-3437-5466, FAX 3578-6687
b) Saturday, March 22, 2003, 1:30-3PM, I will be speaking on life in Japan at Kurisawa-chou,
Sorachi-gun, Hokkaido, Kurisawa Chomin Center. Sponsored by the Kurisawa-Chou International
Communications Committee. Attend either if you like.
Finally, my book, entitled "JAPANESE ONLY--The Otaru Exclusionary Onsens Issue
and Racial Discrimination in Japan", will be coming out in Japanese at the end
of March. 270 pages, published by Akashi Shoten KK (http://www.akashi.co.jp).
Preliminary cover viewable at http://www.debito.org/nihongo.html#JObook
I am working on the English version. Interested?
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All for now. As always, thanks for reading!
Arudou Debito
Sapporo
debito@debito.org
March 10, 2003