Mainichi: A foreign woman seeking medical help in Japan after giving birth at home was rejected by five hospitals where officials said her Japanese wasn’t good enough and they didn’t have proper facilities, authorities said Thursday. The incident happened in August 2006, but was reported in Japan only after a similar thing recently happened to a Japanese too.
ブログの皆様、おはようございます。これを見て言語道断。温泉等じゃなくなりました。ましてや、昨年８月に起きた事件ですね。つまり外国人に遭った事件ならニュースにならないでしょうか。日本人妊婦に同様に遭ったからニュースになりますね。色んな意味でひとい！有道 出人 ／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／／ 出産直後の外国人拒否 「言葉通じない」と津市の病院 産經新聞 2007/09/27 http://www.sankei.co.jp/shakai/wadai/070927/wdi070927004.htm 津市内で昨年８月、出産直後の２０代の外国人女性が救急搬送の際、７つの病院で受け入れを断られ、到着するまでに約２時間かかった事例があったことが２７日までに分かった。母子ともに健康だという。 三重県消防・保安室によると、この女性は自宅で出産。１１９番で消防が駆け付けたところ、赤ちゃんにへその緒がついたままだった。消防が新生児集中治療管理室が空いている病院を探したが、女性が日本語を話せず、一度も産婦人科を受診していなかったため「言葉が通じない」「処置困難」などの理由で断られ、医療機関の調整に時間がかかった。 奈良県で救急搬送中の妊婦が死産した問題を受け、県が調査し判明した。 (2007/09/27 11:26)
Excellent article in The Economist this week regarding anti-terrorism measures and the erosion of civil liberties. How the pendulum has begun swinging back. As a twenty-year reader of The Economist, I’ve noticed a constant editorial slant favoring market-based solutions to just about everything, and the comcomitant (but wan and blinding) hope that the more politically-conservative elements of governments in the developed economies would follow their preferred course. Hence their often backwards-bending support of the current administration in the world’s most powerful economy, which has long demonstrated a pursuit of power for its own (and its cronies’ own) sake. Now, after struggling for years to come to terms with (and offering conditional, but certainly evident, support for) the American curtailment of civil liberties (enabling other countries, such as Japan, to take pages from their book and create policy rendering all foreigners suspicious as terrorists), this week’s Economist finally comes down against the erosion. Bravo. Now if only Japan’s opinion leaders were as intelligent and outspoken about the flaws in Japan’s new anti-terrorist and foreign-crime targeting regime…
Japan Times Community Page reports: Nova is on the rocks, and the rosy forecast from the man at the helm of the Osaka-based “eikaiwa” behemoth may not be enough to reassure members of the 7,000-strong Nova crew — including some 5,000 foreigners — that the company isn’t sinking as Japan’s biggest conversation school chain plans to abandon at least 200 of its 900 branches, according to reports. Advice on what to do if you are a NOVA employee also blogged, courtesy of the Japan Times.
Martin Issott reports: The new automated gate system for proocessing biometric data (read fingerprints etc., being enforced on foreigners only) will only be established at Narita and at no other International airport in Japan until processing via this system has been perfected and, very ominously, “when funds are available” to provide the system at other International airports. Resident foreigners entering Japan at other airports will be required to join the queue with all arriving visitors and to provide their fingerprints and photograph on every entry and re-entry into Japan.
Public lecture you might be interested in. Arudou Debito ********************************************************************** Symposium organized by Amnesty International Japan and Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ) Toward further control over foreign nationals? Japan’s anti-terrorism policy and a Japanese version of the “US-VISIT” program ********************************************************************** Date: Saturday, 27 October Time: 14:00 – 17:00 At: 9 Floor, KOREAN YMCA (YMCA …
バリー・スタインハードさん（米自由人権協会）を招いてシンポジウム
どこまで強まる？ 外国人管理 「テロ対策」と日本版US-VISIT
日時 2007年10月27日（土） 14:00〜17:00
Dear Debito. Please, kindly remind your bloggers about the date for my court attendance. 25th Tuesday September, 2007 at the Tokyo High Court, Kasumigaseki. by 1.30pm. Thanks, Valentine
Former President Alberto Fujimori returned to Peru on Saturday to face charges of corruption and sanctioning death-squad killings, a grim homecoming for the strongman who fled the country seven years ago as his government collapsed in scandal. He was flying to Peru under police custody Saturday, a day after the Chilean Supreme Court ordered his extradition on human rights and corruption charges.
The ancient Tokugawa Clan (which as daimyou closed off Japan for 250 years to foreign influences, known as the “sakoku” period) are facing their own sakoku. Their heir apparent has married a foreigner! A Vietnamese. Watch the feathers fly!
一昨日、友人からの連絡があり、「９月３０日京都にてのイズラーム教祭に行こうとしたが、予約を受けた代表に『貴方はムズリム（イズラム教の信者）ですか。』と聞かれました。『違います』と言うと、『それなら、外国人客はお断りです』と言いました。外国人は外国人を断ると大変皮肉を感じております。」
An Islamic festival taking place in Kyoto on Sept. 30 is open to Muslims and Japanese only, according to their director, a Mr. Selim. Muslim Aly Rustom comments on his feelings of how unIslamic this actually is. I comment on how even the holder of the venue, the Kyoto City International Foundation, is washing their hands of any responsibility–even though public places in Japan cannot refuse taxpayers even if they are foreign.
Hi Blog. Yomiuri reports that one tenet of former PM Abe’s “Beautiful Country” master plan has been withdrawn since his resignation–that of upgrading moral education. Good. I opposed this because these sorts of things, such as teaching (and grading) “patriotism”, would leave Japan’s children of international roots in a bind–how can they “love” Japan “properly”, …
Got a request from the editor of the Japan Times Community Page, Ben Stubbings, who would like information for the next column (draft due this weekend) re the NOVA eikaiwa school situation. Anyone out there who has some info they’d like to see hit a national audience? Let Ben know. Some questions from him follow in this blog entry.
Stars and Stripes Sept 6, 2007 on what it’s like for international children in South Korea. A lot of the things reported (the ol’ “homogeneous society” chestnut) sound quite similar to what’s going on in Japan, understandibly…
1) GOJ’S HUMAN RIGHTS SURVEY WITH ODD QUESTIONS
2) NEW JUSTICE MINISTER TO GET TOUGH ON FOREIGNERS AGAIN
3) UN NEWS: UN PASSES RESOLUTION ON RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
4) UN NEWS: UNHCR URGES HUMAN RIGHTS REVIEW OF EVERY COUNTRY
5) TPR NEWS: SHASETSU COLUMN ON SNAFU AT MOFA
6) LETTER FROM GRASSROOTS UYOKU, DISRUPTERS OF AUG 31 MOFA MEETING
7) “ISSHO KIKAKU REP” TONY LASZLO IN COURRIER JAPON
8) FUN FACTS FROM SEIDENSTICKER’S “TOKYO RISING”
and finally…
9) ACTIVIST REBECCA WALKER ON THE “IDENTITY POLICE”
Here’s a translated letter from one of the “grassroots uyoku” groups which obstructed the Aug 31 meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hearing arguments and feedback for the GOJ’s next (long overdue) report to the UN Committee on Racial Discrimination. They of course put on halos and claim that the NGOs denied them their democratic rights…
人権擁護団体について野次をとばした草の根右翼団体「家族の絆を守る会」は、８月３１日に開催された「人種差別撤廃条約に関する日本政府報告に関する市民・ＮＧＯとの意見交換会」について、いわゆる「問題点」と今後の対応についての意見、要望をまとめた「意見要望書」（９月４日付）を外務省に提出しました。
UN News agency press release reports: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today urged the Human Rights Council to press forward with its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, which allows the human rights records of every country to be scrutinized. Under this new mechanism, over the course of four years, all UN Member States – at the rate of 48 a year – will be reviewed to assess whether they have fulfilled their human rights obligations.
Tony Laszlo, hero of the Daarin Wa Gaikokujin books, finally comes out as an American in the October issue of Courrier Japon. His byline also mentions his position as rep of “Issho Kikaku”, even though the website of the group has been offline for nearly two years and the archives have long since disappeared…
Sorry for not talking about the Abe resignation (truth is, I don’t know what to say. Yet. Nor does anyone, really). Instead, germane to Debito.org is that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been approved after more than two decades of debate. This may become a historical event, especially given the indigenous peoples in Japan (Ainu, Ryukyuans) and their lack of official recognition (in 1997, the Ainu received tentative recognition for their aboriginal status from the GOJ, not that it meant they got any money or special favors for it).
Been stampeding through the late Edward Seidensticker’s book TOKYO RISING, and these are some fun facts that popped up for Debito.org: On the unaccountable Tokyo police, their targeting of the sangokujin, and Japan’s postwar prosperity kickstarted by the Korean War. Very quick review of the book at the very bottom too.
A hearing on human rights is disrupted by right-wingers
In 1995, Japan signed the United Nations Convention against all forms of Racial Discrimination. By doing so, it promised “without delay” to take all measures, including legislation, to eliminate racial discrimination within its borders. However, more than a decade later, Japan still has not passed any laws against discrimination by race. And as the spread of “Japanese Only” signs and rules nationwide attests, laws are sorely needed.
So is the urge to come clean. Under this treaty, the Japanese government must submit a report every two years on what it is doing to eliminate racial discrimination. It is mighty late, filing its first report, due in 1998, in 2001. And it has filed no reports since then.
In preparation for the next report, and to avoid charges that the bureaucrats were not listening to the public, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has held open hearings, attended over the years by NGOs and “concerned citizens”. The latest meeting took place yesterday afternoon, August 31, and I attended. It was, in a word, a disaster…
「川崎Ｗ女児いじめ裁判」傍聴参加のお願いを載せます。日時： 2007年9月20日(木) 午後4時30分、 横浜地裁川崎支部第一法廷
Hi Blog. Friend Michael Fox sent me this article from Heeb Magazine, Issue 13. An interview with Writer/Activist Rebecca Walker. Now, while the focus may be on how one person grew up straddling two cultures within the same country (Black and Jewish), the points she makes about having a healthy attitude towards people who would …
The new Justice Minister Hatoyama tells the Japan Times he intends to reverse former Minister Nagase’s proposal for a revolving-door guest worker program. Instead, he proposes more skilled NJ labor (okay) and expresses fears about more NJ crime (not okay). Again, people in charge of this field are ignoring the need for immigration.
In August 2007, the PM Cabinet released the results of its survey on the awareness of human rights in Japan. Done every 4 years, it demonstrated that more people believe that NJ deserve the same human rights as other humans in Japan (thanks, I guess)–up after a declilne in 1999 and 2003. However, given the vague, leading, and misleading questions, the survey is most enlightening when viewed in regards to just how clueless even our government professionals are about the portrayal and promotion of human rights in Japan.
1) DISCRIMINATION AT “HOLIDAY SPORTS CLUB” CHAIN, BY JIM DUNLOP
2) TPR ON US HR 151 ON COMFORT WOMEN, AND WHY IT’S NOT A BAD THING
3) THE IDUBOR CASE: INCARCERATION WITHOUT EVIDENCE, WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
4) MOFA ALLOWS CONVICTED DISRUPTER INTO HUMAN RIGHTS MEETING (UPDATED)
5) THREE JAPAN TIMES COLUMNS ONLINE
… along with RESPONSE TO DOREEN SIMMONS ON ASASHORYU SCANDAL
6) IJUUREN PUBLISHES NGO POLICY PROPOSALS ON MINORITIES IN JAPAN
and finally…
7) GREGORY CLARK DEFENDS PM MIYAZAWA’S CORRUPTION, AND MY RESPONSE
Last July, Gregory Clark wrote an epitaph-style Japan Times column about his old friend, former Prime Minister Miyazawa Kiichi, who was facing mixed reviews in the J press at the time of his death for not dealing with the Bubble Economy properly. Greg defends his old friend with aplomb. So much so that he excuseth too much, in my opinion–even Kiichi’s corruption. First Greg’s column, then my unpublished letter to the editor in response.
Shuukan Shinchou: “During June, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and Immigration Bureau staged a series of joint crackdowns on these so-called “gaijin clubs” in Kinshicho and Ikebukuro, in search of visa violators. ”From June 15 to 18, the authorities mobilized 370 staff to conduct raids, including house searches,” an unnamed reporter at a city desk tells the magazine. “This was the largest raid they’ve conducted in quite some time. They went after Russian clubs and made 14 arrests, and remanded 35 more women to immigration on visa violation charges.”
Holiday Sports Club is a chain of gyms/exercise centers all across Japan. http://www.holiday-sc.jp/ There are about 33 locations spanning Honshu and one in Hokkaido… This also happens to be the club where my wife and I are currently members). Since we joined this gym, a number of issues have arisen that I think need to be made public and brought to the attention of anyone who may be considering supporting this business. Be aware, that if you are either a foreigner, or have any sort of physical disability, you may be discriminated against, or even prevented from joining…
Two recent Japan Times Community Page articles (one co-written by friend James Eriksson) discuss how Sumo wrestler Asashoryu might be being scapegoated by the Japan Sumo Association for its own excesses, and how Japan is trying too hard to blame the NJ community for social problems no longer limited to crime: Try military security, education, sports uncompetitiveness, even shipping! Updated to include Doreen Simmons KTO essay on Asa with comment.
As further evidence that the GOJ has little interest in enforcing its own guidelines (or at least those secured when it signed the UN Convention on Racial Discrimination), information has surfaced that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allowed in a convicted agent provocateur into the August 31, 2007 meeting on Japan’s response to the UN treaty. Moreover (as a link to a transcript of the meeting will demonstrate), MOFA officials did not stop him and his ilk from shutting down the meeting. Appeals to other government ministries with appropriate powers look futile.
０７年８月３１日外務省における人種差別撤廃条約政府報告に関する意見交換会の脚本です（抜粋）。草の根右翼の野次で中断となりました。
On August 31, 2007, a public meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in Tokyo was disrupted and sabotaged by right-wing troublemakers. Shouting epithets and arguments designed to wind up the human-rights NGOs, the unidentified right-wingers managed to bring the meeting to a standstill, while the six ministries attending the meeting showed a complete inability to keep the meeting under control. Proceedings ended a half hour early without hearing the opinions of all the attendees, and my opinion is mixed on whether or not the impasse could have been avoided by not taking the bait. In any case, it is a sign to this author that the ultraconservative elements within Japan are not only taking notice of the gain in traction for human rights in Japan, they are doing their best to throw sand in the deliberation process. We will have to develop a thicker skin towards these elements in future, as this is probably only the beginning.
From the archives, this somehow escaped being blogged. Including for the record:
1) DIETMEMBER KOUNO TARO PRESS CONFERENCE JULY 31, 2006
2) FOREIGN MINISTRY FORUM ON UN CERD AND DIENE REPORT JULY 28, 2006
The persecution of Yokozuna sumo wrestler Asashoryu is all a diversion from the real story: That Sumo’s house of cards is being shaken. We have a death deterring people from joining a system with institutionalized bullying, renewed allegations of bout fixing, the very real possibility of bodybuilding chemicals banned in most world sports, and the entirely possible death of the Sumo’s credibility that the Ohnaruto Scandal of 1996 would have done a lot sooner…
Japan Times article on the Valentine Case, which came out August 14, 2007: Japan Times column 37: “ABUSE, RACISM, LOST EVIDENCE DENY JUSTICE IN VALENTINE CASE: Nigerian’s ordeal shows that different standards apply for foreigners in court”. Plus news on new JT column 38, coming out next week Tuesday.
これは物的証拠がなくても拘留して迅速な裁判にしてもらう権利を問う事件です。
Excellent essay on the entertainment industry: “In the movie business, there are several ways to spot a lie. Some involve math: For instance, the sentence ”The movie was great — it was just marketed badly,” which is said every hour in Hollywood, is true exactly 3 percent of the time, whereas ”The movie was bad — it was just marketed really well,” which is almost never said, is true 97 percent of the time. Some lies are formulaic: Anybody in movies who starts a sentence ”At the end of the day…” is clearly revving up the manure spreader. But there’s an even more common lie. The sentence ”We’re just giving the people what they want,” when uttered by a studio executive, is always, always untrue. How can you tell? Easy: There’s no such thing as ”the people.” Not anymore…”
Solidarity with Migrants Japan (SMJ, Ijuuren) has just published a book, “Living Together with Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Japan: NGO Policy Proposals”. Table of contents, ISBN, and links enclosed.
NGO移住労働者と連帯する全国ネットワークは０６年に出版した『外国籍住民との共生にむけて−−ＮＧＯからの政策提言』の英訳版を出版しました。目次と注文する明細を。
I listened last night to yet another excellent essay from Garrett DeOrio on HR 121 (the “Comfort Women” Resolution), and why its passage by the US House of Representatives is not a bad thing. What I didn’t know was all the “nicely, nicely” that went into it, and even then the Japan Lobby in Washington came down on it hard. But in his view this “meddling” just made matters worse…
1) HIROSHIMA PEACE FOUNDATION STEVEN LEEPER’S ODD VIEWS ON NJ IN JAPAN
2) JAPAN TIMES SERIES ON DIVORCE AND CHILD ABDUCTION IN JAPAN
3) ECONOMIST’S SOPHOMORIC ARTICLE ON J FUTURE DEMOGRAPHICS
4) KYODO AND YOMIURI ON JAPAN’S NEGLIGENCE EDUCATING NJ CHILDREN
5) UCLA BASKEBALL PLAYER NATURALIZES… SO DOES BOBBY OLOGUN
6) WHILE DPRK REFUGEES REMAIN STATELESS DESPITE FUJIMORI PRECEDENT
7) SPEECH ON UNIVERSITY BLACKLIST AT TOUDAI, PLUS NEW ADDITIONS
and finally…
8) TPR INTERVIEW RE NJ LABOR MARKET… AND MY LOVE OF DURAN DURAN
Normally I would proclaim “congratulations” at the momentous appointment of a non-Japanese to be director of an important Japanese institution–particularly when said institution is tasked with an issue the GOJ brings up constantly in its untiring quest for uniqueness in the world stage (“the only country in history ever to be bombed by nuclear weapons”). But Steven Leeper, the newly-appointed director of the Hiroshima Peace and Culture Foundation, is proving to be a historical curator with an odd attitude not only towards history, but also towards non-Japanese in Japan (a category he still falls into, of course)…
Michael Hassett writes about divorce in Japan for The Japan Times, and tells me in advance that Debito.org in part inspired the article. Two more articles come out from Mark Smith and Colin Jones on the same subject the same day. Capital!
In this Trans Pacific Radio interview Debito and Ken Worsley discuss the foreign labor market in Japan – where it’s united, where it’s fractious, and where it still needs help – as well as what is being done to improve conditions and opportunities for foreign workers, and what needs to be done in the future. This is an important issue that relates to Japan’s economic future, and immigration policy (or reform) still seems untouchable within the nation’s political discourse. Why is this so? But the interview opens with Debito trying to convince you why rock band Duran Duran is worth being taken seriously…
The Blacklist of Japanese Universities gets Kyushu University, Shokei Gakuin U, and Kansai Gaidai, now totalling 105 universities which offers full-time contracted work with no hope of tenure to Non-Japanese academics. Greenlisted 34 get Nagoya University and Aichi University of Education (although they still refrain from a tenure review system, so they also remain on the Blacklist).
I briefly blogged last week that I was visiting San’ya, Tokyo’s day-laborer and homeless district, and was asked to write up a brief describing the dynamic, the conditions, and the odd infighting that comes with this odd slum. I make no case that my narrative is properly informed, empathetic, or representative. It’s just an eyewitness account from someone who stayed one night in the comfort of a dive hotel, with proper access to food and basic amenities. Those who wish to know more, links enclosed.
Hi Blog. Some articles substantiating the emerging issue of what happens when you don’t make compulsory education a requirement for non-Japanese children. How nice of Japan to bring NJ laborers all the way over here but not take care of their children’s educational needs. Thanks for forgetting to include that in your educational reforms last …