The world has now entered the 21st Century, with the promises and problems of global and "borderless" societies. Japan too is in the throes of an inevitable internationalization, with record numbers of resident foreigners year on year. Registered foreigners (that is, on three-year visas and up) surpassed 2 million souls in 2006 (1.6% of the population), and with a net increase of c. 50,000 people per annum. However, even though international residents pay taxes and contribute to Japanese society the same as citizens, there are several societal and legal barriers to them enjoying equal rights and social treatment. In fact, overt exclusionism remains largely unremedied, often by Japanese Government (GOJ) design. This handout will describe several social and structural problems that warrant attention, and in the end propose some modest solutions to make Japanese society easier for everyone regardless of nationality to live in.
1. SOCIETAL BARRIERS TOWARDS JAPAN'S INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTS
- THE PROJECTION OF THE FOREIGNER AS CRIMINAL
- Unfettered defamation. Shuukan Asahi of Feb 25, 2000: Miwa Lock KK, Japan's biggest locksmith, ran an advertisement headlining: "Are your safety measures adequate? Crimes by foreign gangs skyrocketing", in a cynical attempt to promote sales by stoking fear of foreigners. Likewise with magazine "GAIJIN HANZAI URA FAIRU" (Gaijin [sic] Crime Underground Files, Eichi Shuppan Inc. Jan 2007, more at www.debito.org/ index.php/?cat=27), which had caricatures of gaijin criminals coming to "lay waste to Japan" and "targeting everyone in 2007", lurid manga reenacting a Fukuoka murder with smiling Chinese drowning and strangling an entire family for a pittance ("Did they do this crime, incomprehensible to Japanese, because they are Chinese?"), and depicted foreigners turning parts of Tokyo into "lawless zones". It also included sections on things that were NOT crimes, such as interracial couples (one depicted as a "nigger") engaging in public displays of affection, and whether or not Korean prostitutes have nether regions that smell like kimchee. like these assigning criminality to foreignness would be seen as most problematic (under the ICERD and ICCPR) as speech encouraging hatred towards a group of people. But not in Japan, which required a social movement by consumers to take it off the shelves. More at www.debito.org/TheCommunity/communityissues.html #gaijinimages.
- Politicians and media engage in "foreigner bashing". April 9, 2000, Tokyo Gov. Ishihara Shintaro speech to the Nerima Ground Self Defense Forces: "foreigners and 'Third-County Nationals' (a derogatory term for certain foreign Asians) are committing heinous crimes over and over", calling for the SDF to round them up in the event of a national disaster. He later indicated he meant rounding up "illegal foreigners", but how an officer would determine "illegality" on sight was left unclear. This sentiment fed into a May 1, 2000 Sankei Shinbun cover story proclaiming "foreign crime skyrockets, six-fold in ten years", without comparison to (also rising) Japanese crime. Ishihara also claimed in his Sankei Shinbun column of May 8, 2001, "Japan, Guard Your Inner Flank", that Chinese have genetically criminal tendencies due to "ethnic DNA". (See more at www.imadr.org and www.tae.or.jp . Contemporary NPA crime statistics for non-Japanese can be found at www.debito.org/crimestats.html, and demonstrate that foreign crime had levelled off, even falling in some areas. Even today the non-Japanese crime rate in total is still below the Japanese crime rate (especially when excluding visa violations, which Japanese cannot commit), but reporting that has less "news value"; so much so that the Mainichi (Feb 8, 2007) headlined a drop in English but a rise in Japanese (Japan Times, Feb 20 2007). More of the same, with only one retraction in the lot:
- "A million [Chinese, Koreans, etc.], all thieves and murderers, are in Japan... making Kabukicho a lawless zone." (Dietman Etoh Takami Jul 12 2003)
- "Given the exceptional atmosphere of the [2002 World Cup], we must face the possibility of unwanted babies fathered by foreigners who rape our women." (Miyagi Pref. Assemblyman Konno Takayoshi Jun 27 2001)
- "Foreigners are all sneaky thieves. As Tokyo Gov. Ishihara cracked down on them, they flowed into Kanagawa Prefecture." K. Gov Matsuzawa Nov 2 2003)
- "Roppongi is now virtually a foreign neighborhood. Africans—I don't mean African-Americans—who don't speak English are there doing who knows what. This is leading to new forms of crime such as car theft. We should be letting in people who are intelligent." (Tokyo Gov. Ishihara, Feb 19, 2007).
- The National Police Agency willfully exaggerates foreign crime. One of their 2001 homepages depicts foreign gangs invading the Japanese archipelago. The Shizuoka Pref. Police published a Feb. 2002 handbook entitled "Characteristics of Foreign Criminals—How to Avoid Being Victimized", depicting the local Brazilian and Peruvian population as violent indigents. Distributed to shopkeeps, it provides advice like "if two or more foreigners walk in your store, report their licence plate number to the police" (perfect for police targeting with circumstantial evidence). See www.debito.org/TheCommunity/ shizuokakeisatsuhandbook.html.
- Targeting as police policy. The NPA 2000 White Paper (pg 37) reported the May 1999 establishment of a "Policymaking Committee against Internationalization" (kokusaika taisaku iinkai)—the nuance being that "kokusaika" (internationalization) is now a social bane, not a boon. It is specifically charged with taking measures against foreign crime. As with any committee with line-item budget, it found ways to justify its annual tax budget—by issuing "beware of bad foreigners" etc. banners and posters for public places (bank ATMs, train and subway stations etc) nationwide. How were foreign-looking customers to enter banks etc now without arousing fear in other customers, and criminal suspicion in police? Unclear, especially since the author (a Japanese citizen) has been stopped several times (illegally) and questioned for no reason except for walking while White. New policy pushes now include deputizing hotels to record (i.e. demanding passports for photocopying) and report to police "all foreign guests", even though the 2005 revision to the Hotel Management Law only requires ID from "foreigners without addresses in Japan", with two differing notices to all hotels. See www.debito.org/whattodoif.html #passportnumber, www.debito.org/TheCommunity/communityissues.html#police, and www.debito.org/policeapology.html.
- Result: Public opinion shifts against protecting foreigners' human rights. According to the Mainichi Shinbun (Apr 4, 2003), a PM Cabinet Survey on human rights asked the question, "Should foreigners in Japan have their human rights protected equally with Japanese?" Only 54% of respondents said yes, down 11.5% from the last survey in 1997. Respondents agreeing with the statement, "Foreigners not having the same human rights protections is unavoidable" rose from 18.5% in 1997 to 21.8%. Why a GOJ survey would make protection of human rights for human beings seem optional is odd enough, but in any case, quantifiable social damage has been done by all the foreigner-bashing. A Ministry of Justice official noted in the same Mainichi article, "It is probably due to the rise in foreigner crime." See www.debito.org/jinkenreport0403.html.
