Tidbits
Visa denial to spouses overturned - Two Bangladeshi men married to Japanese women had their right to live in Japan affirmed by the Tokyo District Court. A decision by former Justice Minister Shozaburo Nakamura to have the men deported was revoked. Defense attorneys for the two men argued that the deportation order was unfair since having a Japanese spouse qualifies for special permission for a foreigner to stay in Japan. Presiding Judge Karoru Aoyagi agreed saying the Justice Ministry decision "remarkably lacked a sense of propriety of socially accepted ideas." The government had argued that the marriages occurred after the men had been detained and therefore were likely entered into to avoid deportation. As many people may recall, Nakamura was forced to resign as Justice Minister in March 1999 after allowing his movie hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to enter Japan without a passport while keeping the paperwork as a souvenir.
Random interrogations have become abusive - There have been an abundance of incidents all over Tokyo indicating police are under marching orders from the top brass to routinely stop foreigners on bicycles riding around the metropolitan area at night and carry out impromptu interrogations in an effort to catch bicycle thieves. This generally consists of a series of questions starting with, "Is this your bicycle"... and ending with "Show me your gaijin card." Such fishing trips by police are legal as it is within their duties to stop anyone and ask any questions. By law you must stop upon police request whether on bicycle or on foot, but at the same time, you have the "right to remain silent." Just say "Mokuhiken!" to all questions and leave quickly on your own initiative once you have ascertained that the police stopped you randomly and have no legitimate reason to continue to deprive you of your liberty. You do not have to say anything to the police about your bicycle. When they begin with what essentially amounts to asking you to prove you did not steal a bicycle, at the least they deserve receiving zero cooperation. At most they deserve civil disobedience by your refusing to show a gaijin card.
Why are police targeting foreigners? Here is one possible reason. While discussing disaster preparedness Tokyo's right-wing, racist, rumormongering poor-excuse-for-a-governor Shintaro Ishihara recently told the superintendant general of the Metropolitan Police Department, Takeshi Noda, in the event of a major natural disaster, "There is a possibility that foreigners who reside illegally will do something out of hand." Apparently Governor Ishihara needs a bit of a history lesson on the last major Kanto earthquake, which occurred in 1923. Several thousand Koreans, by some estimates as high as 6,000 people, and several hundred Chinese were murdered by mobs in the aftermath of the earthquake when rumors spread that foreigners had poisoned wells and started fires.
Female condoms approved - After the approval of Viagara in record time by a mostly older male legislature, the results of government-sponsored VD studies that came out in August were not enough to prevent the approval of the birth control pill for use in Japan (See JT Nov. 1999.) Now Japanese women will have yet another option for birth control as The Ministry of Health and Welfare has approved the use of the female condom. Taiho Pharmaceutical has ordered 2.5 million female condoms for distribution in Japan during the first six months of 2000 under the brand name Myfemy, and customs officials should soon stop confiscating female condoms from travelers entering Japan. Approximately 600 million units of male condoms are sold every year in Japan.
Tokyo Weekender calls Japanese women "sluts." The November 5 issue of Tokyo Weekender included a story by James Bailey that started off, " It's undeniable. No ifs about it, no ands about it, no nicely rounded, perfectly pinchable butts about it, either. Japanese women are sluts. Well, not all of them, of course. Only about 2,400 out of every 10,000 Japanese women between the ages of 20 and 24 are gonorrhea-gorged, chlamyda-clogged, clap-happy skanks." After the opening accomplished its intended purpose of grabbing reader attention, the article then rambled into some incoherent discussion on fashion relating to sluttiness. While purporting to be covering the data released from a recent VD study, Bailey's "slut" comments did nothing more than reinforce two age-old male chauvinist ideals on women. First, if a woman has multiple partners, then that somehow makes her a slut. Secondly, if a woman has a venereal disease then she must be a slut (i.e., have had multiple partners). Tokyo Weekender overlooked the fact that many of these women may have contracted VD from their promiscuous husbands or boyfriends. Japanese women have a hard enough time overcoming a stereotypical "promiscuous" label reinforced by their own Japanese media in fraudulent yarase (staged) shows like TV Asahi's yellow cab series. Tokyo Weekender's article was a cheap shot and a meaningless insult to its readers, many of whom are Japanese women.
It won't bring the victims back? Opponents to the death penalty have often used the logic, "It won't bring the victims back" as an argument against the ultimate punishment. However, a contrite mass murderer, who has confessed to killing a doctor and a beautician in 1992, is adding new meaning to the debate by filling out an organ donor card and expressing his desire to the Yokohama District Court to "pay for his crimes" with a death sentence. The man in question, Masaru Kasai is waiting for the court to hand down his sentence on January 20. Organ transplant organizations in Japan have said that there are no legal grounds against transplants from executed prisoners, but other human rights organizations have opposed such procedures for ethical reasons.
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FEATURE
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