Foreigners Finding Their Voice
During Japan's 200 year closed period foreigners were occasionally admitted but kept segregated in Nagasaki. After the opening in the mid eighteenth century, foreigners remained in their own quarters in Yokohama for safety. In those days, most all men on the streets wore pistols or swords and authorities were unable to prevent attacks on foreigners by some of the more zealous samurais rebelling against the shogun for his weakness in failing to keep Japan isolated.
Today in this "developed" nation foreigners are still kept at arm's length by various methods out of fear of having the country's racial homogeneity and culture polluted. Third generation Koreans born and raised in Japan are still defined as "foreigners," and must renew their visas and reentry permits periodically throughout their lives along with other Asians having no Japanese blood line birth record "koseki," and are systematically and legally kept out of government, business, and social life. At the same time, obvious "foreign-looking" people, usually whites or blacks are easily distinguished and refused entrance to some businesses which occasionally have gone as far as posting "Japanese Only" signs on their doors.
One spring day in 1998 when Ana Bortz, who had been working in Japan for six years, went shopping in Hamamatsu outside of Tokyo, the jewelry shop owner threw her out physically and forcibly when she admitted she was Brazilian. Japan has no laws against discrimination on its books although it has promised the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination of 1965 which it signed in 1995 to take "concrete measures" to draft them. It may come as no surprise that Japan has taken no measures at all still five years later in this spring of 2000.
Although offered an out-of-court settlement, the Brazilian TV journalist refused, bravely saying, "Nothing will ever change for anyone by keeping it out of court." Japan's own laziness to fulfill its promise to the CERD forced the judge to use international law to award Bortz 1.5 million yen (approx. US$12,000) in damages in the first precedent setting discrimination case in the nation. By comparison, France's penalty is one month to one year in prison and a 5,000,000 yen fine for the guilty, in Switzerland three-year prison sentences are sometimes handed down and Brazil has its own similar discrimination.
To this day the jewelry store owner refuses to admit his wrongdoing, and the award Bortz received was inadequate to cover all the costs she incurred during the year while preparing her case for court. Now a member of ISSHO, Bortz said "It was my choice to pursue the case, but if anyone would like to make a donation to help the antidiscrimination cause, please make it to the ISSHO Kikaku BENCI Project (details below).
Meanwhile in 1999, up in the northern island of Hokkaido, an American tenured professor, David Aldwinckle, married to a Japanese (their children therefore are Japanese nationals), was outraged upon hearing about a foreigner having been turned away from a family onsen in the resort town of Otaru and decided to do something about it. After talking it over with concerned friends and family he traveled to the onsen with a couple of interracial families and a journalist who then documented the incident of the Japanese-looking family members being admitted while the foreign-looking members were turned away. The reason given? Some Russian sailors had been rude and made a mess of the baths so the onsen banned all foreigners "just to be fair." Aldwinckle's network of friends, family and colleagues made sure this "fair policy" made the international news for the blatant discrimination it was.
Aldwinckle then linked up with journalist Tony Laszlo of ISSHO Kikaku, a Tokyo-based nongovernmental, nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to facilitate intercultural awareness in Japan while striving to find and implement resolutions to cultural conflict on a global level (http://www.issho.org). Together they formed the BENCI Project (Businesses Excluding Non-Japanese Customers, ISSHO) to combat discriminating policies, sending letters out to several governmental and legal bodies about the foreigner-excluding Otaru Onsens. ISSHO has since taken the antidiscrimination issue a step further in April of this year by calling on Diet members to draft Japan's first domestic law against discrimination (See Japan Traveler May 2000).
Aldwinckle also contacted the mayor, city assembly members and other city officials and proposed a town meeting but to no avail. The assembly members did meet, but foreigners were not allowed! Later he was gingerly allowed into only one meeting and to this date has not been allowed back. Otaru City as well as other Japanese governmental offices when discussing what action to take on discrimination still makes no serious effort to include its non-Japanese tax-paying residents who are victims. (Extensive articles, documents and photos can be found at http://www.issho.org/BENCI).
Korean-born In Ha Lee, a human rights activist in Japan for more than 50 years has enabled the fingerprinting of foreigners to be removed as a requirement for the mandatory city registration cards because it insinuated that foreigners were similar to criminals, the only ones required by law to be fingerprinted. He simply calls it as he sees it, "Racist!" This is the first year foreigners will not need to ink their fingers and can in fact turn in their old embarrassing cards for new unfingerprinted ones.
Most recently Mr. Lee has retired from serving in Kawasaki as Chairperson of the Representative Assembly for Foreign Residents which has been responsible for first city hall to initiate more inclusive policies for foreign residents. City information has been made available in various foreign languages, foreigner's education is planned, the national government has been lobbied to improve systems concerning foreign residents, and concrete steps have been taken to establish a fundamental ordinance on city residences to forbid discrimination in housing.
Within the "Japanese guarantor" system Kawasaki has this year become the first city in Japan to offer housing guarantorship by the city itself. As of March 2000, foreigners, the elderly, and the disabled will be able to have their Kawasaki City Hall sign as their guarantor in renting and buying residences.
It seemed like things were looking up for foreigners in Japan. With the new millennium upon us many in the foreign community figured Japan was indeed turning the corner into the international world. Therefore it came as a devastating shock when with attack-like timing the right-wing new governor of Japan's most populated and supposedly most international city, Tokyo, chose to publicly advise the Japan Self Defense Forces to be ready to crack down on foreigners residing illegally who "will likely loot and riot in times of earthquakes" thus setting public opinion back to the dark ages of the "foreigners are barbarians" period.
The international community was horrified and called for his resignation. The issue was then clouded when the use of the derogatory term "sangokujin" became the focus point for which the governor expressed regret saying he would not use that word again. But alarmist Ishihara has yet to apologize for causing an increase of unjustified fear of foreigners in Japan's native population and subsequent increase in fear among foreign nationals for their own safety in times of disasters from being publicly and wrongly defamed and singled out as the major criminals to be feared when official police statistics simply do not bear this out.
Apparently trying to protect this country's mafia, the yakuza, Ishihara went further to cry that an entertainment district of Tokyo was "unsafe" for them to enter while thousands of people walk the streets of Shinjuku peaceably and without harm every day. One can only wonder who Ishihara's allies are, who he sincerely hopes to defend, and why?
Unfortunately, Japanese politicians seem to be infected with foot-in-mouth disease across the board. Whether they are declaring Japan a "divine nation under the Emporer" as now Prime Minister Mori has recently stated just prior to the G8 Okinawa Summit (if the G8 will not meet in Austria because of Joerg Haider the neonazi leader, why should they come to Japan lead by Mori?), denying that Japan ever invaded China or massacred millions there (now well-documented with more evidence coming forth), or inferring that difficulties experienced by the US during its recession were due to the country's tainted "mixed blood" of its races, Japan's "representatives" have done an excellent job of implying that Japan is run by a group of racist "ultraright-wing nationalists" who have an extremely hard time biting their tongues about their true character. No wonder the foreign community here and the international community around the world is worried.
If an argument can be made for letting the Japanese off the hook on the "unique culture" excuse, it is flimsy at best, a justification of racism at worst. When murder and thievery in any other culture is called so, so must racism and discrimination be seen and labeled for exactly what they are. Asked to be good guests and accept "the Japanese way" including these more negative points, most foreigners have up until now towed the line, endured instead of left Japan, and have accepted the fact as a positive one that they are also sometimes put on a pedestal of specialness though while at the same time many experience this as a distancing and objectification. Not wanting to rock the boat in their companies which sponsor their visas many have kept silent. But now more and more long-termers, many married with families who have decided to make Japan their home, paying taxes and often purchasing property (and in many other countries would already be entitled to citizenship after five years residency), are now beginning to ask respectfully yet with growing impatience that this peaceful and harmony-oriented society fully recognize them too as another note in its national symphony. At last, foreigners are beginning to find their voice. It is about time.
by Katherine Oh
ISSHO accepts donations at SAKURA BANK, Fujisawa Branch, regular "futsu" acct no.6705502. Acct name: ISSHO - T. Laszlo.
To become an ISSHO SUPPORTER, send ´5,000, and notify ISSHO of your donation. ISSHO Kikaku, 2-24-20 Liberty Hill 305, Midorigaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo. 03-5701-1010. To join their free mailing list see: http://www.issho.org or write Tony Laszlo at issho@gol.com
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