Fingerprinting is but one sign of the government's now undeniable xenophobia
By Arudou Debito
Column 42 for the Japan Times Zeit Gist Column December 18, 2007, available at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20071218zg.html DRAFT NINETEEN--"Director's Cut" with links to sources
The atmosphere wasn't always so hostile. During the Bubble and
its aftermath, the official mantra was kokusaika
(internationalization), where NJ were given leeway as misunderstood
outsiders.
But in 2000, kicked off by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara's "Sangokujin" speech
- in which he called on the Self Defense Forces to round up foreigners
during natural disasters in case they riot - the general attitude
shifted perceptibly from benign neglect to downright antipathy.
As "Japanese Only" signs and exclusionary rules proliferated, up popped
the "cultural" excuses: Japan can't help itself (after all, it
has an isolationist history and deep-rooted, unique concepts of
racism); Japan is catching up with the West, and will change when the
more internationalized youngsters grow up and take the reins;
international marriages and foreign neighbors will ultimately clear up
residual "gaijin allergies."
It's reached saturation point. In addition to October's new law
requiring all employers to register their NJ workers with the
government, last month Japan reinstated fingerprinting for foreigners
at the border.
Things might have been different in a society where the accused has the
right of reply. But in Japan it's not a fair fight. Media
blackouts on minority views are commonplace. And this time it
became clear how officialdom manufactures "Team Japan vs. The World".
After little public debate over the years, fingerprinting was rammed
through the Diet during the era of then Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's virtual omnipotence. When it came into effect on Nov
20, debate was again stifled.
Nothing was left to chance that day.
NHK 7PM's 3-minute segment only parroted the government's line of
protecting "citizens" from the outside world, with no airtime given to
the protests outside the Justice Ministry. NHK 9PM's 6-minute
segment gave positive feedback from a couple of tourists, but no word
from any NJ residents whatsoever. NHK's BS News at 10:50PM didn't
even bother to carry the story.
How can NHK ignore a story affecting well over a million NJ residents
(and millions more if you include their families)? Why are
foreigners paying NHK fees if they're not valued as an audience?
Other networks and newspapers carried news about concerns for human
rights, the malfunctioning fingerprint machines, and angry
tourists. But not one network had the presence of mind to
interview a NJ resident or immigrant.
Then, right on cue, came the vindication:
Hours past midnight, the Nikkei, Sankei, and Yomiuri dailies all
released articles in time for their Nov 21 morning editions:
"Five foreigners snagged!" Huzzah for our new system!
Not so, actually. The Sankei Shimbun admitted they were snagged
for odd passports, not fingerprints, which happens every day
anyway. Thus this was not news. It was propaganda.
This shouldn't be necessary. Plenty of domestic avenues recognize
the need for foreigners, and actively created policy to bring them
here. Even Japan's largest business lobby, Keidanren, is
partially responsible for the Trainee Visa regime that has doubled
Japan's NJ population since 1990. Policymakers want foreigners
here.
But scratch the surface.
I recently attended a speech by a Keidanren foreign labor
policymaker. I asked why Japan would import so many foreign
"trainees" yet not take care of them. Why exempt their visas from
Japan's labor laws and social safety net?
His answer was enlightening. He claimed Japan's labor protections
are haphazard for everybody (which justifies full exemption for
foreigners?), and that Japan's society is not wired for
immigration. (So why import more than a million foreign
workers? Just to exploit them as revolving-door work units?)
Now I get it. Policymakers just don't care. In their view,
gaijin only come here to make money off the rich society we Japanese
alone built, right? So once they get here, they're on their own,
and should entertain no thoughts of planning to stay.
The rot reaches the very top. I harbor no illusions about who
makes policy in this country (the bureaucrats, of course), but let's
take a look at our elected Diet members, since the public has some say
in their existence.
Politicians are even further out of touch. No wonder, considering
they are effectively a peerage masquerading as an elected legislature.
As the party cream floats to the top, debates become very
closed-circuit, intellectually incestuous--and even oddly
anti-gaijin. For example, Justice Minister Kunio "friend of a friend in al-Qaeda" Hatoyama was quoted as saying (Shuukan Asahi Oct 26, 2007 p. 122),
"The Japanese place more importance on the value of life... European
civilizations of power and war mean their concept of life is weaker
than the Japanese. This is why they are moving towards abolishing
the death penalty." Then he approved three execution orders. Earth to Kunio, come in?
These isolated people (and our unvetting media cartels) are simply
unable to see anyone's interests but their own. They not only
serve the country poorly--they are devastating it.
Crunch the data from the IMF World Economic Outlook (http://www.econstats.com/weo/V016.htm) for percent change in GDP per capita, at current prices between 1996 and 2006.
As Japan sinks into elderly obsolescence and threatens to retire to the
economic backwaters, it needs more openness, not less. Yet our
leaders insult NJ residents by calling them names and policing them
further. Not to mention the purposeful xenophobes, capitalizing
on a complicated world, who whip up public fear of foreign terrorism
and crime. The nation is being run by people out of sync with
Japan's present and future, who won't live to see the full extent of
the damage they are wreaking anyway.
We cannot expect people like these to lead us to a world they cannot
envision. Neither Japanese citizens, nor the international
residents who plight their troth here, deserve this fate. At the
very least, Japan needs a change in leadership. Knock the LDP
from its half-century in power, for starters.
As for the media, let's have a pro-gaijin campaign for a change.
To paraphrase one of Japan's outspoken historical revisionists and
xenophobes, the late Diet member Eto Takami, "we're doing good things too". Acknowledge that.