Job Discussion Forums

[Erikku]

[PAULH]

[Big John Stud]

[quote="Gordon"]This isn't about our lack of rights, but it's an interesting article about what the Japanese think of us.

Xenophobia soars as 70% hate idea of foreign workers in Japan


Doesn't every country have groups that don't want foreigners taking jobs from the local community?

[Nismo]

NEVER trust a statistic. 70%? From where? They didn't survey the entire Japanese population. Age group? Location? Sex? They only surveyed 3,000 - that's the kind of survey that takes place on my college campus of 20,000 students. I'm more interested in the polling demographics than the results at this point, because my experience in Japan is contrary to that survey's findings.

You also have to see the wording for something like that. For instance, there was a poll about American occupation in Iraq and the question on a survey read like this: "Do you want American soldiers to survive in Iraq?" Yes. Result: 95% of Americans surveyed are in support of American troops in Iraq.

A similar problem could have occured here.

[Big John Stud]

Nismo you made some very valid points. My major was in psychology! We did an experment on surveys! We were able to create any result we wanted just by wording the question.

[6810]

and then I see on the news this morning that 70 per cent of people interviewed cite Korea (not Kita) as their most "Kirai" foreign country... sigh

[observer]

There is no word in Japanese for "racism". The nearest translation is ?????? (racial discrimination policy) or ????? (racial prejudice) [I hope I got that right]. But these words do not include the sense of superiority felt by racists. It is has been said (and documented?) that Japanese feel superior to their Asian neighbours, while discriminating against them. It would seem rather convenient for Japanese not to have the word "racism" in their vocabulary, so that no law can effectively prohibit it, and discussion about it is also seriously hampered.
[/quote]

[observer]

Who exactly do Japanese envision when they think of undesiderable foreigners?

Well, that's a good question. If Japanese media is so hell bent on painting a negative picture for the lowest common denominator, then to the average J citizen, we're all potentially undesirable.

We're all criminals, the lot of us!

Consider the following stories:

http://www.zmag.org/japanwatch/22-CRIME.HTM
http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/danger%20feature.htm (reprinted from Japanzine)

A good source of news with a different slant is from the foreign correspondents club
http://www.fccj.or.jp/

[observer]

Vince said:
"Japanese authorities would have extended the same assistance to me as to my wife", and indeed, we'd like to think so.

Mike L said:
That was then more recently in 1995 nothing happened. Japan has come a long way!

Well, while both comments refer to earthquakes and treatment of foreigners during earthquakes, has Japan really come a long way? If you consider the following quotes (YES, admittedly of a different nature), it shows that Japan isn't quite as modern or mature as one might assume. Yes, nobody is perfect, and this isn't about stirring up past wounds, but the quotes are intended to be a character reference (and question whether Japan really has come a long way in it's thinking).

Japan doesn't discuss the issue of racism, but it does have well known figures presenting opinions on history that do provide insights into the present.

Denial of Japan's war guilt

"The Pacific War was a war of liberation..."
Nagano Shigeto, Japan's Justice Minister (1994).

"The Pacific War was a war to liberate colonised Asia."
A resolution moved in the Japanese Parliament (the Diet) in 1995 by 221 members of Japan's long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

"Japan was forced to go to war by American oil and other embargoes."
Hosei Norota, senior member of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (2001).

"Japan was forced into WW II to liberate Asia from the yoke of Western colonialism."
Hideaki Kase, producer of the controversial Japanese film "Merdeka" (2001).

Denial of atrocities

"The Nanjing Massacre is a lie made up by the Chinese."
Ishihara Shintaro, former Japanese Cabinet Minister, interviewed October 1990.

..the Nanjing Massacre is a fabrication.
Nagano Shigeto, Japan's Justice Minister (1994).

"The Americans brainwashed the postwar Japanese into believing they had committed terrible war crimes."
Professor Nobukatsu Fujioka, Professor of Education, Tokyo University (1997)

"Foreign 'Comfort Women' conscripted for Japanese Army brothels were 'prostitutes'."
Kajiyama Seiroku, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary (1997).

Rehabilitating Japanese war criminals

"Why should it matter any more?"
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's response to criticism of his paying homage to Japan's worst war criminals at the infamous Yasukuni Shinto Shrine in Tokyo (1996).

"Why do we have to select among the dead."
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's response to criticism of his paying homage to Japan's worst war criminals at the infamous Yasukuni Shinto Shrine in Tokyo (2001).

Reviving the ideology of Japanese militarism

"Japan is a divine nation centered on the emperor."
Yoshiro Mori, Prime Minister of Japan (2000).

And the final word

"I do not think things are going well in terms of Japan accepting responsibility for the past."
Professor Saburo Ienaga, distinguished Japanese historian (1998).

[Nismo]

[observer]

i'll have to back to my students who gave me the information! More research required!

[PAULH]

[Sheep-Goats]

[Gordon]

Here is another interesting article. What do you think about this? They want to fingerprint us now.

Japan seeks foreigners' fingerprints, photos, lists to fight terror


Japan will fingerprint and photograph all foreigners entering the country and allow for the immediate deportation of suspected terrorists as part of a comprehensive plan focused on foreigners, according to the government's counter-terrorism taskforce.

Japan has based its counter-terrorism policies on action already being taken by the United States, Britain and France.

Taskforce members hope to have the changes put before the Diet next year and adopted into Japanese immigration laws.

Government bodies have been working together on formulating the new steps in the fight on terrorism since September after Al Qaeda named Japan as one of its possible future targets.

Among the steps the government's taskforce wants taken are:

FINGERPRINTING and photographing of foreigners entering the country;

IMMEDIATE deportation upon approval from the Justice Minister of any suspected terrorist;

ADVANCE submission of passenger lists from air and sea carriers; and,

COMPILATION of a list of selected foreigners with criminal records in Japan.

Changes slated for the current fiscal year ending in March 2005 inspired by Britain and France include altering the Hotel Business Law to allow lodging facilities to ask foreign guests to register their nationalities and passport number when they stay.

(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Dec. 5, 2004)

[observer]

In the past, they used to fingerprint foreigners to Japan. Ironically, it was the Americans who complained and said, oh this is terrible...look what they've engineered now!

Here is an interesting link you may wish to look at:

http://www.debito.org/japaneseonly.html#English

It refers to a book by naturalized Japanese citizen ARUDOU Debito, formerly Dave Aldwinckle, and his experiences dealing with exclusionary onsen bathhouses in Otaru City, Hokkaido

"A reasoned and spirited denunciation of national prejudice, discrimination, and bigotry. It's not that the Japanese have all that much more of it than anyone else, but that they lack an interface to fight it. This lively accounting will help them find it." ---Donald Richie