18 comments on “Letters from J human rights groups to the visiting Olympic Committee re Tokyo 2020: Discrimination in Japan violates IOC Charter”

• March 5, 2013 at 1:46 pm

  j_jobseeker says:

  Debito,

  Glad some of this documentation is going to be making it into the hands of the IOC. However, do you know if there are any reports about the progress or lack thereof in cleaning up and recovering from Fukushima; the obvious long lasting effects both in ground, air and sea need to be considered in deciding a host country for the Olympiad where many visitors might be exposed to lingering amounts of radiation. Also, they need to be informed of the recent abuse of athletes (even on the Olympic level) that was exposed just recently.

  Reply
• March 5, 2013 at 3:16 pm

  s.w.b says:

  How would one go about supporting these concerns made by various human rights groups in Japan? For example, is there an online petition that can be forwarded to the IOC?

  Reply
• March 5, 2013 at 3:16 pm

  Bruno says:

  Really hope this report is taken in consideration by the Olympic Committee. Sure wish we could compile loads more for their perusal before they consider bringing the games to Tokyo.

  It’s about time some International organization made it very clear to Japan that they can’t just play by international rules when they want things and then blatantly disregard them when there is no one looking.

  Reply
• March 5, 2013 at 10:25 pm

  Andrew in Saitama says:

  Now, the problem is that even if this is enough to kill Tokyo’s bid, chances are the local media won’t cover it that way. The blame won’t fall on discriminatory policies or hate speech, it will no doubt be reported as some white-man’s circle within the IOC.

  Reply
• March 5, 2013 at 11:02 pm

  Mark Hunter says:

  I may get slaughtered for this, but I just don’t buy the argument that Japan could conceivably not get the Olympics because of the Olympic committee’s potential awarenes of human rights abuses in Japan. China got the Olympics. Russia has the next winter Olympics. Brazil has the Olympics. Ideally, none of these countries should have the right to host the Olympics based on their human rights records, but the Olympic committee thinks first about a country’s ability to put on a successful games – everything else is secondary (except perhaps bribe money). Sadly, I feel we are deceiving ourselves if we think any form of idealism by the committee is part of the decision making process.

  Reply
• March 5, 2013 at 11:28 pm

  Jim Di Griz says:

  I fully applaud the above organizations for transmitting this information to the IOC.

  However, I have some concerns. Firstly, it has a sole focus on the plight of ethnic Koreans in Japan, and neglects the vast discrimination against all other NJ (whose plight should also be reported to the IOC).

  As for the IOC, I remember watching a UK BBC documentary in the run up to the 2012 Olympiad that uncovered a huge amount of corruption within the IOC itself, putting it on a par with the mafia (or indeed, the LDP itself!). I am sure that if the IOC are forced to take note of the anti-eth ic Korean discrimination issue in Japan, an especially bulging manilla envelope will be all that is required to make the problem go away.

  Where is all the other inflammatory and discriminatory stuff? where’s ‘Little Black Sambo’, and ‘Gaijin Hanzai Ura Fairu’? Where are all the black-face TV talento? Where are all the ‘Japanese Only’ signs? Where are all the ‘foreign crime wave’ racial stereo-typing posters? Where are Blinky’s rants?

  All of that needs to be sent to the IOC.

  And even then, that’s not enough to ensure action.

  All of that evidence should be sent to the tabloid news outlets in the other candidate cities countries (Spain and Turkey). I am sure that the mass media in those countries will be happy to highlight why Tokyo should be dismissed from consideration. With that kind of negative publicity, it will be all the more difficult for the IOC to hush it up and take a bribe from Sick-note.

  Reply
• March 6, 2013 at 2:09 pm

  Colin says:

  I have a feeling Turkey will win it anyway. It is in the top list of most visited nations for tourism already. The Olympics would probably just increase those numbers.

  Reply
• March 7, 2013 at 12:19 am

  Baudrillard says:

  Mark Hunter is right. Human Rights records alone will have nothing to do with being awarded the Olymipics. However, safety issues might get Japan disqualified.

  If there are hooligans threatening to kill every Korean, then surely the Korean team would not want to attend.

  And there is always the trump card of Fukushima. The conversation is actually quite tiresome so simply saying “Fukushima” should be enough to close any discussion on why Japan is a safety country, the next Olympic host, blah blah.

  “Fukushima Japan” has potential as a negative brand to counter other attempts at branding such as “Safety Japan” and “Yokoso Japan”. I suppose it is why it is such a taboo topic and why non press club journalists are harassed in China, sorry I mean Japan.

  Actually the new brand is “Kowaiso Japan” a kind of post 3/11 Japan as victim. This, according to Blinky’s supporters, is the main appeal of Tokyo to being awarded the next Olympics (even though, according to the same sources, Tokyo is completely unaffected by 3/11, so why not hold the Olympics in Sendai?).

  Reply
• March 7, 2013 at 5:09 am

  Mark in Yayoi says:

  Off topic:

  Mexican baseball players feel less than welcome in “papers please” Arizona.

  http://sports.yahoo.com/news/team-mexico–including-world-series-hero-sergio-romo–feels-hostility-amid-arizona-s-immigration-fight-024742833.html

  Reply
• March 7, 2013 at 11:01 am

  debito says:

  According to Reuters/Asahi, we have an as-yet unfixable situation in Fukushima involving environmental contamination and refugees which requires massive budgetary outlay. Wouldn’t you think that should take a higher priority than hosting an Olympics? Hasn’t history demonstrated that bread and circuses in troubled times are not sustainable?

  ====================

  INSIGHT: Japan’s ‘Long War’ to shut down Fukushima
  ASAHI SHIMBUN/ REUTERS
  March 06, 2013
  http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201303060015

  Just months after Quince was deployed to inspect Japan’s tsunami-devastated Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the $6 million robot got trapped in its dark and winding pathways.

  Seventeen months later, the high-tech soldier is still missing in action–a symbol of a daunting decommissioning project that will take decades, require huge injections of human and financial capital and rely on yet-to-be developed technologies.

  “It’s like going to war with bamboo sticks,” said Takuya Hattori, president of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum and a 36-year veteran of Fukushima plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., known as TEPCO.

  The war began after a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a huge tsunami.

  Walls of water 13 meters high smashed into the Fukushima plant north of Tokyo, knocking out its main power supply, destroying backup generators and disabling the cooling system.

  Three reactors melted down as a series of hydrogen explosions rocked the plant.

  In the ensuing weeks, hundreds of Japanese workers and soldiers battled to contain the crisis.

  Their arsenal of weapons was often improvised, low-tech and underpowered. Helicopters dumped buckets of water over the plant to cool it.

  Electricians laid a cable to connect the plant to a power source miles away in what may have been the world’s longest extension cord.

  The world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl a quarter century earlier called into question Japan’s vaunted reputation for bureaucratic competence and leading edge technology.

  The reactors were declared to be in a stable state called cold-shut down in December 2011. But now Japan faces an unprecedented clean-up that experts say could cost at least $100 billion for decommissioning the reactors and another $400 billion for compensating victims and decontaminating areas outside the plant.

  TEPCO said in November the costs of compensation to residents and decontamination of their neighborhoods might double to 10 trillion yen ($107 billion) from a previous estimate. That did not include a forecast for decommissioning.

  Two years after the disaster, cleanup of communities around the plant is haphazard. Much of the work has been handed to Japanese construction companies with little relevant experience.

  Townships around the plant say the cleanup is behind schedule, while contaminated dirt, leaves and rubble removed by cleaning crews pile up all over Fukushima with no government decision in sight over its final storage space.

  The Japan Center for Economic Research, a Tokyo-based think tank, has estimated that decontamination costs alone in the Fukushima residential area could balloon to as much as $600 billion.

  Shutting down the 40-year-old Fukushima plant itself poses unique challenges.

  A TEPCO-government roadmap envisages starting to extract spent fuel from the most badly damaged of the station’s seven storage pools, which contain 11,417 new and used fuel assemblies, only later this year. Melted fuel debris is to be removed from the reactors from 2021 and the entire project wrapped up within 30 to 40 years.

  Officials say the project is mostly on schedule and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government wants to speed up the timetable. Experts, however, say it may already be too ambitious.

  “It’s a pipe dream,” Michio Ishikawa said of the four-decade target shortly before he retired last year as chief adviser at the Japan Nuclear Technology Institute, adding it could take decades more.

  Reuters reporters visited the plant three times since February 2012 and interviewed dozens of experts, officials, engineers, workers and industry executives to compile the first comprehensive report on the decommissioning project.

  Many of those interviewed expressed serious concerns about a lack of vital technology, a potential labor shortage and the vast amount of funds Japan’s heavily indebted government will need to spend.

  FOG OF WAR

  At the leafy campus of Chiba Institute of Technology’s Future Robotics Technology Center east of Tokyo–nerve center for Fukushima robotics projects–students and engineers are working flat out to create machines to go where none has gone before.

  Some nap on make-shift beds surrounded by robot parts at the Center’s airy loft-like building while others slurp noodles as they stare at computer screens or fiddle with smartphones.

  A slim 20-something research scientist uses a simple joystick to make an advanced version of the lost Quince robot climb stairs, turn around in a narrow landing, and descend.

  Quince was first deployed in June 2011 and was carrying out a survey of one of the reactors when the operators lost contact with the machine later that October. Attempts to retrieve the robot have failed, though developers conjecture one day they will find Quince and it could give them valuable information about the effects of prolonged radiation on electronics.

  The new version, called “Sakura” or Cherry Blossom, can navigate narrower spaces and, unlike its predecessor, plug into a battery charging station on its own.

  Technology, however, must still be developed to accomplish even the most basic first step–the ability to find and repair leaks in the reactors and fill them with water to shield human workers from high radiation emitted by the debris.

  “It’s like the fog of war,” said John Raymont, president of U.S.-based Kurion Inc., which supplied a water treatment system briefly used to filter contaminated water at the plant. “They are only now getting to know what the problem looks like.”

  So far, TEPCO has only managed to insert remote controlled cameras, similar to endoscopes, into outer vessels of the reactors.

  The effort has obtained little useful data on the fuel debris, a vital first step before technology to remove it can be developed.

  One potential device being considered is a fish-like swimming robot that would glide inside the doughnut-shaped suppression chambers filled with water to create detailed maps.

  A key reason for the belated effort to develop such technology was Japan’s reluctance to acknowledge the possibility of atomic disasters. Doing so would have contradicted a decades-old myth of nuclear safety.

  Robots developed after a 1999 nuclear accident at the village Tokai in Ibaraki Prefecture ended up in science museums after research was abandoned.

  “The government didn’t spend more money after that to develop robots. That’s because people were obviously going to ask, ‘Wait, is there going to be a situation so dangerous that humans can’t enter the plant?’,” said Eiji Koyanagi, vice director of the Future Robotics Technology Center.

  The first robots into the plant were U.S.-made Packbots, which were deployed just after the disaster to enter areas heavy with radiation.

  TEPCO’s most immediate challenge is to remove spent fuel from pools at the plant, starting with reactor No.4, where more than 1,500 rods rest inside a pool that was exposed to the atmosphere after an explosion blew off the top of the unit’s building.

  Debris from the top of the reactor building, where radiation levels are too high for humans, has had to be removed painstakingly using cranes and other lifting equipment to get to the spent fuel pool.

  That project has a special sense of urgency given concerns another big quake could further damage the building, although TEPCO says the structure was reinforced to withstand shaking as intense as in the March 2011 quake.

  Another fraught task is to treat and store the contaminated water that results from cooling the reactors to keep them in a stable state at below 100 degrees Celsius. The contaminated water is flooding reactor building basements and threatening to seep into the ocean and groundwater.

  WOUNDED WARRIORS

  Fukushima No. 1 plant sits like a carbuncle on Japan’s northeast coast 240 km from Tokyo. Its damaged reactors still seep radiation, although at a rate of 10 million Becquerel per hour for cesium versus about 800 trillion right after the disaster.

  Becquerel per hour measures the amount of radiation emitted or the rate of radioactive decay. As atomic isotopes decay, they spin off energized particles that can penetrate human organs and damage human cells, potentially causing cancer.

  To minimize the dangers to human health from radiation, the government is enforcing a 20-kilometre no-go zone around the plant.

  Every day the roughly 3,000 workers who will enter the plant assemble at a base camp – a former sports complex called J-Village – on the edge of the exclusion zone.

  There, they don full-body protective suits, rubber gloves and plastic shoe guards. Once at the plant, they put on face masks to keep from inhaling radioactive particles.

  Front-line workers, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, complain about working in the stifling protective gear, the relatively low pay, loneliness – and stress.

  About 70 percent of a sample of workers surveyed by TEPCO late last year made more than 837 yen per hour, while a day laborer in that part of Japan can earn as much as 1,500 yen per hour.

  Wages are lower than those offered locally for other jobs requiring similar skills, including decontaminating and rebuilding areas further from the plant, said Junji Annen, a professor at Chuo University who last year chaired a panel on TEPCO’s finances.

  “The money is getting worse and worse, and who would want to come and work under these conditions?” a heavy machinery operator in his 40s said as he unwound in the Ai Yakitori bar in Hirono, a town about 40 km from the plant, where dormitories have sprouted up for workers.

  “I get stomach aches. I am constantly stressed. When I’m back in my room, all I can do is worry about the next day,” added the worker, employed by a small subcontractor. “They should give us a medal.”

  Mental health experts compare the stress to that suffered by soldiers at a battle front. Moreover, public outrage at TEPCO has spilled over into attitudes toward workers.

  “TEPCO workers are at risk of following in the steps of Vietnam veterans, many of whom were rejected by society on their return, became homeless, committed suicide or got addicted to alcohol and drugs,” said Jun Shigemura, a lecturer in the psychiatry department of the National Defense Medical College who conducted a survey of 1,500 TEPCO nuclear workers.

  The decommissioning plan says authorities can supply enough workers through the decades ahead, but signs of potential shortages are evident, partly because workers are “burning out” by reaching their radiation limits.

  As of the end of December 2012, 146 TEPCO workers and 21 contract workers had exceeded the maximum permissible exposure of 100 millisieverts in five years, TEPCO data showed.

  Eight workers have died at the plant, including two on the day of the tsunami. None of the deaths were caused by radiation.

  GROPING IN THE DARK

  The industry faces a shortage of nuclear engineers as well as blue-collar workers in the decommissioning work for both Fukushima No. 1 and other ageing reactors.

  Abe’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party-led government has scrapped its predecessor’s plan to exit atomic energy by the 2030s but has yet to map out an alternative energy program. Public safety concerns persist–a recent poll showed 70 percent want to abandon atomic power sooner or later–clouding the industry outlook.

  For example, at the University of Tokyo, applications for advanced nuclear engineering degrees fell about 30 percent for the year from April from the previous year and Tokyo City University saw a similar decline in applicants for its undergraduate nuclear engineering program in the academic year starting in April 2012 from 2010.

  “Who will clear up the mess after the accident? It will be young people like us,” said Yuta Shindo, a 25-year-old master’s student at Tokyo City’s nuclear engineering department. “We are the ones who will be working on this decades from now.”

  Cleaning up the mess will mean total demolition of the four damaged reactor facilities and disposal of the nuclear waste in a yet-to-be determined site, an end-game likely to face opposition from potential host communities.

  Japan has rejected the “sarcophagus” option used at Chernobyl, where the damaged reactor was encased in a massive concrete envelope.

  This is partly because of the difficulty of monitoring an entombed facility to ensure safety, said Kentaro Funaki, director of the industry ministry’s office in charge of decommissioning.

  Estimates for total costs are mostly guesswork. “Only God knows,” said Chuo University’s Annen.

  Whatever the final bill, Japanese consumers are likely to end up paying much of it, either through taxes, higher electricity rates or both, even as Japan’s government struggles with massive public debt and the costs of an ageing population.

  That may be unpopular but also inevitable.

  “This kind of job has never been done,” said Keiro Kitagami, a former lawmaker who headed a government task force overseeing R&D for the project. “The technology, the wherewithal, has never been developed. Basically, we are groping in the dark.”
  ENDS

  Reply
• March 7, 2013 at 3:59 pm

  Jim Di Griz says:

  This is interesting….

  Yesterday (7th March), ailing Sharp announced the sale of 3% of shares to Korea’s Samsung (who need to ensure Sharp stays in business to help them meet their huge demand for tablet and phone screens).

  Subsequently, Sharp is bombarded with anti-Korean comments from on the net, forcing Sharp to tweet ‘Even if you hate me, don’t hate my products’;
  https://twitter.com/SHARP_JP/status/309279191013134336

  Reply
• March 8, 2013 at 2:43 am

  Blue says:

  I was having a discussion with one of my more en-lightend students about the olympics and he shocked me with his views on not wanting the olympics in Tokyo because he said “foreigners would come to tokyo and stand out side and cause trouble trying to get tickets illegally “. I did point out it would cost someone a lot of money just to come Japan and stand outside a stadium, when there are better ways to spend a thousand dollars.

  I have no Idea what some of the J-media is saying but it really shocked me that one my best students, had these sort of views and felt no problem airing them in front of me. Suffice to say I didn’t let him away with it.

  Reply
• March 8, 2013 at 4:01 pm

  Loverilakkuma says:

  If I were teaching Japanese students public speaking class and had students making foreigners-are-criminals kind of speech, I would penalize them for that regardless of their fluency in English. Why?—because that’s totally inappropriate for the main objective of class. Imagine a conversation with a petulant J student like this:

  Me: Sorry X, you will receive zero on your speech assignment.

  Student X: What!? What’s wrong with talking about badly mannered foreigners? It’s true!

  Me: Here you go. Because this is Japan, and that gives you privilege to talk whatever you want in my class!? Sorry, doesn’t matter. Read the syllabus once again. This is a persuasive speech assignment, and you are required to cite at least 5 minimum credible sources–not blubber-mouthing taken from someone’s personal blog. It doesn’t count. Also, I have explained to my class dos-and-donts in speech assignments several times. And I warned you what’s gonna happen if you broke the oath.

  Wish NJ teachers deserve the rights to write their own policy in class.

  Reply
• March 11, 2013 at 2:31 am

  DR says:

  Well, I wouldn’t stop just with visiting IOC members, I would sent everything I could find to IOC HQ too, care of the President, Mr. Jacques Rogge. Address: Château de Vidy, Case postale 356, 1001 Lausanne, Switzerland. Or call & fax: Phone +41 21 621 61 11, Fax +41 21 621 62 16

  I’d also send copies to Ishihara’s & the Tokyo 2020 offices too. The best thing for the whole sorry saga is to be openly exposed to the disinfection of bright sunlight. If you’re chummy with one or more of the members of the IOC (names on their site) then copy those people too. Spead the love around! “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good wo/men to do nothing.”

  My take is that this whole thing will become moot anyway, and soon. When the extent of the radiation in Japan is finally exposed, and the number of real casualties hits siren-levels on the external media, like: http://enenews.com/japan-radiation-expert-after-311-dont-just-leave-tokyo-leave-the-country-if-possible-journalist-im-losing-my-words-video ,or, http://fukushima-diary.com/category/dnews/ the decision on where to hold an Olympiad elsewhere will make itself. It will be a no-brainer.

  Reply
• April 2, 2013 at 2:56 am

  Adam2 says:

  The latest article I found:

  http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/387357/Two-years-after-the-Fukushima-nuclear-disaster-is-Japan-facing-a-cancer-time-bomb

  I`m finally leaving J land. Enough radiated air my lungs absorbed during 2 years.
  Next big earthquake will come sooner than people expect (probably Summer 2014,Tokyo M7.8~) I don`t really want this to come regardless of what I think about this country. This is tragedy and I don`t want anyone to suffer. There are many wonderful people after all. I will be watching from Europe big news

  Reply
• April 16, 2013 at 7:56 am

  Kaerimashita says:

  Insensitively timed and naive comments like this from the bid CEO might force the IOC’s hand, or at least it should.

  http://sports.ndtv.com/othersports/othersports/206395-after-boston-marathon-blasts-tokyo-promises-safe-games

  After Boston marathon blasts, Tokyo promises ‘safe’ games
  Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Summer Games, lost its bid for the 2016 edition to Rio de Janeiro, the first South American city to host an Olympics.

  Agence France-Presse | Last updated on Tuesday, 16 April 2013

  Tokyo: Tokyo’s Olympic bid chief vowed Tuesday to ensure safety if the city wins the 2020 Summer Games, as the sporting world reeled from twin blasts at the Boston Marathon.

  “First of all, Tokyo is one of the safest cities in the world,” Masato Mizuno, chief executive officer of the city’s Olympic bid committee, said. “We’ll do our best to prevent any of those wrongdoings.”

  He also played down the possibility of random bombings at the Olympics in which more than 200 countries take part.

  Mizuno, a former chairman of sporting goods giant Mizuno, said groups that conduct such acts of violence know it is “not very clever” to target the Olympics and become the “enemy of the whole world.”

  He said the bid committee needed to know what has actually happened in Boston before considering whether to review their security plan.

  Mizuno was speaking after a luncheon with the US and British chambers of commerce in Japan, both of which have expressed their support for Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic bid against Madrid and Istanbul.

  Tokyo, which hosted the 1964 Summer Games, lost its bid for the 2016 edition to Rio de Janeiro, the first South American city to host an Olympics. Istanbul could become the first city with a predominantly Muslim population to host the Games.

  Mizuno told the luncheon: “We have much stronger city function.”

  “Now Rio’s preparation is very, very late,” he said. “More and more IOC members want a safe pair of hands.”

  The 101 IOC members will vote to choose the 2020 host city on September 7 in Buenos Aires.
  ENDS

  Reply
• August 22, 2013 at 12:49 pm

  john k says:

  Interetsing twist:
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561

  “..A nuclear expert has told the BBC that he believes the current water leaks at Fukushima are much worse than the authorities have stated…”

  No surprises there then!

  Concludes:

  “..”The Japanese have a problem asking for help. It is a big mistake; they badly need it.”…”

  Again no surpirses there.

  So why this here?…this part is most telling:

  “..The “worsening situation” at Fukushima has prompted a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland to call for the withdrawal of Tokyo’s Olympic bid. In a letter to the UN secretary general, Mitsuhei Murata says the official radiation figures published by Tepco cannot be trusted. He says he is extremely worried about the lack of a sense of crisis in Japan and abroad”…..”

  No sure about the “abroad part” everyone is concerned, save for the Japanese. But now saying please dont host the Olympics!!….watch this space..

  — Yes, quite a few articles coming out these days demonstrating that TEPCO bungling was as bad or worse than we anticipated here on Debito.org (to great criticism and accusations of deliberate scaremongering, of course). Well, SITYS. Debito.org Readers are welcome to append a choice article here under the proper blog entry. “It’s time for the naysayers to capitulate regarding the Fukushima Crisis; referential articles”, Debito.org, August 25 2011, at http://www.debito.org/?p=9314 (Of course, there will be no capitulation, even now.)

  Reply
• August 22, 2013 at 9:22 pm

  DeBourca says:

  @17:

  The terrible thing is that accusations of scaremongering levelled at you and others possibly encouraged people to stay in situations where they and their families were in real danger. I had been in Japan long enough to realise that I couldn’t trust the authorities OR their NJ aplogists/defenders. When it became clear that people in charge had lied about the initial leak/meltdown, and that the crisis was ongoing, I took my young family out of the country, as I didn’t want them to be exposed to massive amounts radiation consistently over the long term.

  Unfortunately, it seems that many NJ (and Japanese) have chosen to stay in the general locality due to misleading reports on the state of Fukushima Daiichi.

  For the record, if one takes into account food and air contamination (as well as water), I don’t think any part of Japan north of Tokyo is unaffected and is potentially unsafe, especially for young children and pregnant women.

  On a separate note, enjoy your well earned holiday Debito!

  Reply