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Hi Blog. Today celebrates 15 years since the Debito.org Blog went live. (The Debito.org Website as a whole, however, went live in 1996, and we celebrated that quarter-century of online activism earlier this year on April 15 with this post.)
The Debito.org Blog was created in addition after a friend named Jim suggested that a WordPress template would make things a lot easier for me to respond to and archive daily events in real time. He was right.
The Blog’s first post was the Debito.org Newsletter of June 17, 2006, with the headlines:
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1) “DANGER! HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION LAW” MANGA TRANSLATED
2) “ILLEGAL FOREIGN LABOR MONTH” SIGNS UP AGAIN IN SHINAGAWA STN
3) TOKYO PRESS CONF JUNE 22: HAMAMATSU MAYOR KITAWAKI
4) JT ON REINSTITUTION OF FINGERPRINTING, AND RESPONSE
5) KOFI ANNAN ON JAPAN’S NEW IMMIGRATION LAW
6) KOFI ANNAN ON MIGRANTS
7) JOHN EDWARD PHILIPS ON ACADEMIA AND MONOCULTURALISM IN JAPAN
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This might give you some idea of how much things have and have not changed over the past decade and a half.
As of today, in addition to the Debito.org original Website (which is still up, of course; artery site here), as of this morning the Blog alone has 2,935 individual posts by me (amounting to 16,703 pages) and 34,737 individual comments (of which only 862, or less than 2.5%, are mine).
That’s about one post every two days on average, and about 12 comments per post. That’s an active blog by many definitions, and still going strong. And materials archived here been cited in various newspapers, journals, and books. People take it seriously.
Long may it continue. While I’m limiting myself to posting here about once a week (I’ve got other writing projects, one big one due by the end of this month), I don’t see myself giving up the Debito.org project anytime, ever.
By now, it’s just what I do.
Debito Arudou, Ph.D.
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4 comments on “Celebrating 15 Years of the Debito.org Blog (June 17, 2006-2021)”
Very appreciative of all that you do!! Have been reading for years and find things covered here that foreign media dealing with Japan unfortunately have no clue about.
—- Thanks!
Congrats on the milestone Dr. Debito!
15 years of exposing to the cleansing sunlight issues that Japan would prefer were kept covered up.
臭い物に蓋をしない！
— Will continue.
In my opinion this is by far the best and most useful Japan focused English website out there. I have been reading Debito san’s writings for a very long time and have probably read all of the stories and articles.
If one makes use of some of the older information here the usefulness of the website, not only from a civil rights perspective, but also for practical matters is unsurpassed. Debito san’s experiences about buying a house, getting PR, getting citizenship, even getting divorced have lessons for all of us.
This website survived the aftermath of March 11 (the “Tepido” scandal….I guess I got caught up in that a bit too) and the website is still here. Those that attacked Debito san are gone and are no longer relevant in their writings or comments about Japan. I understand Debito san has since received his PhD and is now engaged at a University in the U.S.
I do not always agree 100% with the points of view here but I agree with more than I disagree with.
For those of you who have not visited the “older sites” it is very highly recommended as there is so much to be learned and Debito’s writing is engaging and fun to read.
I am a Permanent Resident here in Japan and will likely remain (I like Japan – but certainly recognize the issues). This website is still of great value and will remain so as there are incidents which I am unaware of which get publicized here.
Debito san; a sincere thanks for the efforts you have put into this site and I certainly hope you will continue.
— Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for reading all these years!
I have always found Debito a fair moderator and he allows comments from all angles of the spectrum as long as we make relevant points with evidence and logic. For instance, I recall a comment from Jim “Whatever Trump is, he is not Obama” (who basically destablized the Hatoyama govt and therefore the Japanese two party system) being allowed whereas anywhere else as soon as you mention the Donald one invites automatic censure and bleatings of “Orangeman baaad”, a knee jerk, emotive response.
So I appreciate the unbiased and open critical discourse and also emphasis on improving Japan, rather than “whataboutisms”.