Friday, July 07, 2006

Racial Discrimination is legal and

acceptable here, but Tottori prefecture passed a law making it illegal. Then they "unpassed" it.
(Sorry, but you have to register with the Japan Times to read that.)

The UN Human Rights Commission has repeatedly criticized Japan for tolerating (and as far as I can tell encouraging and promoting) racial discrimination. Up till this bill, Japan made no attempts---as far as I can find---to make it illegal.

There were real problems with the law, and the fact that it ultimately failed does not mean that all of those who opposed it are racist bigots. Some were, I am sure. It is encouraging however, to see that some people in the government do realize that there is a problem and are trying to do something about it instead of denying any racism exists in Japan because "Japanese aren't racist."

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