mytest
Hi Blog. I put out Debito.org Newsletters once a month. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It’s been a good way to allow Readers to be heard and engaged.
I still put out Debito.org Newsletters, but since I’m only posting once a month, there’s only one article to repost (my SNA column), and I have it here as Debito.org post anyway. So it’d only be a repeat if I dedicated another post to the Newsletter.
But I don’t want to deprive Readers of a forum, so let me continue this “Issues of Concern” section (still categorized under “Newsletters”) and let it be a free space for articles and comments germane to the mission of Debito.org. Thanks as always for reading and contributing to Debito.org. Debito Arudou, Ph.D.
20 comments on “DEBITO.ORG READERS’ ISSUES OF CONCERN, JANUARY 2025”
@Dr. Debito, those pesky 「迷惑外国人」 are getting outta hand back in your old stomping grounds!:
Hokkaido city posts guards at tourist hotspot ahead of Lunar New Year
— I know the spot. Been there many times. And Otaru is reacting as Otaru does.
It looks these guys could be facing some omotenashi torture a la Ghosn & Taylor if the J-Gov gets its way:
London court backs extradition of 2 men to Japan over Tokyo robbery
While the following issue of concern does not directly impact visible minorities, it is nevertheless germane to Debito.org. Why? Because it highlights a novel response to external pressure (gaiatsu) when it is applied to a J-Gov policy sacred cow.
In this case, the divine bovine in question is Japan’s male-only imperial succession rule enshrined in the Imperial House Law of 1947. Here’s the latest wrinkle in this ongoing saga: back in October 2024, the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) said that this rule contravenes the “the object and purpose” of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Japan’s response — as was the case when the CEDAW raised this issue back in 2016 — was to make a stink which it did by lodging a protest against the committee, saying that the imperial succession system is linked to Japan’s “foundation” and that the reference to the law is “unacceptable” and should be deleted from the report.
This time around, things were taken a step further: in a press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesman Toshihiro Kitamura said that Japan has requested its funding to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) — i.e. the entity which oversees the CEDAW’s administrative affairs — not be used for CEDAW-related activities. In fact, none of the J-Gov’s precious yen has been spent on the CEDAW since 2005!
Put another way, Japan has decided that, despite there being a shortage of successors to the throne, the best thing to do is a) maintain the status quo, and b) explicitly de-fund the U.N. committee that issued a less-than-flattering report.
Returning to visible minorities, the use of this new bullying tactic sets a disturbing precedent: should another J-Gov sacred cow find itself under scrutiny by the U.N. (e.g. the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination or CERD), fiscal retaliation is now a viable response.
Japan to take steps to protest U.N. call over imperial succession law
Japan halts U.N. panel funding, wants only men as imperial heirs / 国連女性差別撤廃委、日本に夫婦別姓の導入を勧告 皇室典範の改正も
EDITORIAL: Japan’s response to U.N. gender report runs afoul of its principles / （社説）国連機関拠出 女性委除外は筋が違う
So the tourism dual pricing racism is going full stream ahead.
https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/japan-tourist-entry-fees-dual-pricing-costs
Japan has literally become a second world country like Thailand, Indonesia, etc., as the article mentions. 12 years of Abenomics at work I guess.
Good point. Abenomics indeed was “Make Japan a weird, second rate destination once again” although not sure that was his intention.
He wanted to go back to the 40s/80s but the garbage Yen makes it more like the 60s/70s and just another “difficult” little Asian country you might want to skip in your itinerary.
The perception of “difficult, hard to get to/into” Japan is back. Plus due to online media, the jig is well and truly up with widespread discussions of racism and exploitation of trainees leading to not a few Japan passing.
Still, there is always Uzbekistan as a source of new cheap “trainees”.
They are impoverished enough to come but somehow I do not think their culture is, errr, compatible with Japan’s. The Japanese Brazilians was in hindsight a smarter move- it even worked for Dear Leader Alberto Fujimori- but Japan has burned their bridges with there by treating them so badly and sending them all home when the economy tanked.
I have heard more Thai people visit Japan than the other way around. Also many Japanese companies are finding it hard to get some of their workers to work abroad.
Hate speech against Kurds continues.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250325/p2g/00m/0na/032000c
„The government must craft legislation that eliminates discrimination and disinformation. It’s not a foreigners issue, it’s an issue for the Japanese people as a whole.“
The truth has been spoken.
Also, it goes to show how toxic Japanese SNS have become when a) J-police are on your side (“there is a lot of commotion happening on social media badmouthing Kurds for crimes, but I don’t feel that there has been an increase in the crimes exclusively committed by them”), and b) “hate speech has just become part of life, we’re used to it now”.
This was quite enlightening:
Opinion: The superficial notion of Japanese as ‘polite people’ / 礼儀正しい日本人？＝吉井理記
More truth has been spoken!
TL;DR: In the eyes of Japanese jurisprudence, mediation = wielding public authority.
Kobe lawyer fighting discrimination against foreign-born attorneys in mediation system / 外国籍の調停委員の採用を求める弁護士 吉井正明さん（78） 多様性求め差別に対抗
Yusuke Ishiguro (associate professor at Hokkaido University’s graduate school) speaks about overtourism in an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun in Sapporo’s Kita Ward on Feb. 12, 2025:
Well, fat chance of convincing J-Gov to take a pay cut by reigning in their cash cow; tough luck Otaru, Biei, and Kyoto!
‘In Europe there would be protests’: Scholar weighs Japan’s approach to ‘overtourism’ / オーバーツーリズム「欧州ならばデモ」 観光客抑制や料金徴収必要
Depends. Went to Oita and over tourism is in force. Very crowded with Chinese and Koreans but they spend money in Beppu and Yufuin.
In Tokyo people complain about tourists with their suitcases in trains already crowded.
Regarding allegations by Yuichiro Tamaki (head of the Democratic Party for the People) of foreigners abusing the High-Cost Medical Expense Benefit system (Kōgaku Ryōyōhi Seido / 高額療養費制度), Reo Takaku (professor of health economics at Hitotsubashi University) had this to say:
“Foreigners account for an extremely small percentage of overall medical expenses. One cannot alleviate the (premium) burden on the working-age population by reducing benefits to foreigners.”
Under this system, the J-Gov paid out 960.6 billion yen between March 2022 and February 2023 of which foreigners received just 1.15 percent of the total!!
Tamaki: Medical fee cap reforms needed to stop foreign misuse / 高額療養費制度、外国人の利用割合限定的 支給額全体の約1%
Kyodo News has also picked up this story: Japan probes foreigners’ medical insurance use amid misuse concerns
From the article:
TL;DR: despite the data, a senmonka, and now a J-gov official from Kōsei Rōdō-shō contradicting Yuichiro Tamaki’s claims, the xenophobia pot continues to be stirred!
Funny how it‘s a health ministry guy from the LDP actuslly debunking it. Usually it‘s them who start such unnecessary probes. Does anyone remember how about a decade ago they claimed that foreigners take out too much social payments, so they fought a 80 year old Chinese woman who was born and raised in Japan all the way up to the Supreme court in order to ovtain a clear ruling that only Japanese nationals are entitled to social benefits, foreigners only have the same rights due to a government ordinance from 1955, but local governments have the right to reject it, since it‘s not a law.
Then a few years ago we had some LDP rightwingers who were against giving foreigners covid handouts. Thankfully that didn‘t go through in the end, but it‘s sad that it was even considered.
So now, you actually have some guy from the ministry defending the right to medical care for foreigners. Crazy. Just shows how far to the right the DPP driftet. If you‘re right of the LDP and still call yourself „democratic“, you really have an identity problem.
They should do a probe on how much money the average Diet member blows in a month and how much the average tax payer has to work for it, but it‘s of course always easier to punch down.
KAWAGUCHI, again! I used to think that area must be tolerant of NJs, due to the number of foreigners living there, partly because of the many corporately owned apartments which did not discriiminate so long as one could speak Japanese well enough to deal with their realtor offices. That seemed progressive and fair enough.
But then, this oldie but goodie that is so Theatre of the Absurd its purely Monty Python. Couldn’t make it up, really. ‘On Feb. 25, 2006, a 28-year-old foreign-looking Japanese woman was arrested in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, for not carrying a foreign passport…” – Japan Times, by Debito https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/09/03/issues/visible-minorities-caught-police-dragnet/
Other sources have mysteriously disappeared…… She was the one who refused to say anything because “she is not good at talking to strangers” according to her family. So the police thought she could not speak Japanese!
So Japanese cultural absurdities are now confounding each other (Xenophobia vs Fear of Strangers, and a whole lot more)
Then again, I saw a demo in Kawaguchi once against giving foreign residents local voting rights on e.g. garbage collection days ditto Kawasaki. These red neck satellite towns masquerading as “cities” are incredibly backward minded, despite the best efforts of their progressive local governments.
We’ve reached the point where a senmonka needs to tell us why it is that some Japanese commuters are irked by multilingual train displays (駅の多言語案内は「邪魔」なのか? 数秒で日本語表示なのになぜ)!:
The J-Gov’s myopic policy focus on NJ as ‘foreign workers’ is quickly creating a growing pool of under-educated children that local governments are struggling to support:
Kids with foreign roots’ Japanese language, integration efforts face systemic hurdles
Per the senmonka for this article:
Furthermore, the racism embedded in the J-Gov’s education policy is leaving these children with dim prospects for the future:
Hey Dr. Debito, I thought Otaru was famous for canals (and a particular onsen, wink, wink), not ninjas!:
忍者も参戦！人気観光地「小樽」のオーバーツーリズム対策、若者がSNSで啓発ポスター
「小樽のマナーを確ニンニン！」オーバーツーリズム対策啓発ポスター
Translation from GPT-4o mini:
I am dealing with academic harassment at a couple universities as a a part-timer. Asked to do recruitment for free and ignored a couple times when I request a computer room then have to make the request again even though I made the request two months or more in advance and was told it would not be a problem.
Class sizes going up. Classrooms are not big enough.