Good service

I dropped by the Denenchofu Maison Kayser bread shop at noon to pick up some expensive pizza for lunch. Until recently, most shops in Denenchofu have not seemed to be very enthusiastic about actually attracting customers---I have heard unproven rumors that some may have been set up for tax purposes---but MK has always seemed to be interested in doing business. Perhaps they let their prices select for them.

Like almost every shop in Tokyo, they offer point cards where after you buy a few zillion dollars worth of products, you get something "free." At MK, you get ¥500 off your purchase after 20 purchases at a certain minimum price.

I don't go for these things much as the payoff is minimal, and I don't want to carry dozens of point cards around. However, I do like to use one for this shop, not because the ¥500 yen discount is anything special, but because they seem so reluctant to offer one to me.

Today I forgot mine and went ahead and made my purchase without it. The clerk said nothing but the usual thank you. The Japanese guy in the line next to me was asked if he had brought his point card as soon as he stepped up to the register. I suppose I could consider it an oversight on the part of the lady who served me except that I have been going to that shop for 4 years and have only once been asked about a point card. When I got my first one, I had to ask. If I want a new one, I usually have to ask. If I lose mine, I have to ask for a new one.

Perhaps the staff and management is worried about my comfort and do not want to embarrass me by asking me a question in Japanese as they figure that I could not understand. But then again, I always speak Japanese there, and they speak Japanese to me. Perhaps they assume the point card system too complex for me to understand, so they are reluctant to offer one. Perhaps they consider me rich and don't want to offend me by offering a discount.

Not really sure why I get this extra special customer service, but it must be a good thing.

No objections voiced as Japan turns extremist

At least that is what I gather from reading this fine, well-written, and thoroughly researched piece from a professional paid journalist for the Globe and Mail (Canada).*

Somehow, I had missed the significance of the rise of the extreme right in Japan. I have even missed the rise itself, thinking it no more than the usual rightists and fellow travelers rattling off their poison. I never noticed that the anti-foreign sentiment---although always present among some, including the media and gov't---was any worse than it had been under Koizumi and Abe when it seemed that neither the government or the media could resist labeling crime, criminal tendencies, and non-Japanese in the same category. And of course we have heard the old bigot Ishihara and his oral bowel movements for about a million years.

But the Globe and Mail has found that things are turning truly sinister. So sinister that even the Old School extreme right is concerned. Concerned not with the beliefs of the newer more extreme nutjobs, but with the way they express their beliefs:

“These Net right-wingers have no rules, no restrictions … . I’m against this kind of hate speech, these ugly comments. Their thoughts and ideas are okay, but the way they express them is not,” said Mr. Kimura, whose own Issuikai movement made headlines earlier this year by hosting an international gathering of right-wingers...

Noting that some nutjobs reacted to the Senkaku incident by the usual "smokebombs" at an offending foreign consulate; concealed weapons near the residences of non-rightwing-extremist politicians; anti-Chinese demonstrations etc, our fine reporter observed that these run-of-the-mill events:

... highlight a tide of rising nationalism that is just one of the new social ills afflicting a country that 20 years ago was the richest** and most stable** on the planet.

But an even more frightening bit of evidence was uncovered by that sharp-eyed fellow, while watching (?) a demo of 2700 folks organized by the web-based New School extremists with whose ends the Old School agrees:

“Throw illegal immigrants into Tokyo Bay!” he yelled to loud cheers from his fellow marchers and silent stares from shoppers who paused to watch the procession. If anyone disagreed with the sentiment, no one said so publicly. [Emphasis mine]

There it is. I had mostly missed it. I knew of the newer more openly racist*** and extreme groups and their still small but reportedly growing numbers. I knew that many people in a historically xenophobic country exhibited xenophobia to some degree or another. I knew of the anti-Chinese sentiment, especially after Senkaku, but I never had evidence of the silent acceptance of extreme beliefs by the public until I read that last sentence.

Shoppers did not publicly disagree with a large group of noisy nutjobs!!!! What else can one conclude from this but that they must have agreed?

Somehow though, I as a foreign resident do not feel like "other foreigners":

...while other foreigners – including some long-term residents of Japan – say they also feel increasingly unwelcome, and complain of police harassment and rules that prevent non-Japanese from renting homes or gaining professional tenure.

for I don't see anything especially new. I don't feel "increasingly unwelcome." I never felt especially wanted nor loved here to begin with. I will have to keep a closer eye on this evil trend.

I must admit that I learned something about myself from reading this piece. I too, am an anti-foreign extremist, for had I been at the demo, I doubt that I would have publicly disagreed with the goofballs either. Blinky Ishihara, old buddy, lets go out for a few drinks...

*A black sun rises in a declining Japan, by Mr. Mark Mackinnon.

**Huh and double huh?

***The more openly racist (is that possible?) newbees reject the idea that their racism is racist.

Foreign trainee voluntarily works self to death

just as his kindly company president was about to reduce his overtime and spread the labor to others. The unnamed president of Fuji Denka Kogyo may even have planned to pay the late Jiang Xiaodong (31) for his overtime work. Unfortunately, Jiang refused the offer to work less and died of cardiac arrest. It couldn't be helped. Nobody could expect the company president to require an employee to do anything.

Some mean people have accused the government of lax oversight of the slavery intern system. This, of course, could not be accurate.

Story in English at Japan Times.

Who let the dogs out?

The Denenchofu/Okusawa areas of Tokyo are generally kept pretty clean. Garbage is taken away regularly and efficiently and people usually clean up their doggy doodoo. Occasionally though, one can step in a pile of smelly dog crap that someone missed, as I almost did today.

The Kokuminshinto, aka the People's New Party, an insignificant bunch led by the fellow who went got mad and resigned his cabinet post after 3 days on Friday, has put up new campaign posters emphasizing why the country needs watchdogs like the PNP and alpha male Shizuka Kamei. It's to protect the country by opposing permanent resident "foreigner" suffrage in local elections---naturally this would include PR of Korean descent---and to protect families from the damage that would occur should married couples be allowed to keep their separate surnames. (Non-Japanese and mixed couples may keep their family names when hitched, but they don't count anyway.) Alberto Fujimori, although originally a foreign dictator* who was later put in the hoosegow for killin' and stealin,' once ran as a member of the PNP while under house arrest in Chile. Alberto, a buddy of Blinky Ishihara, had been hanging out in Japan for a number of years prior to being arrested in Chile.

They are recruiting volunteers should anyone be interested. Phone number is on the blue poster. Can't see it? 03-3239-454X. I shan't post the last number, but anyone who could add 1+4 could figure it out. The e-mail address is on the poster too, should you prefer a more modern method.

Edited: For corrections/clarifications and a few additions, not the least of which is the sexy alpha male's mugshot. By the way, need I mention Kamei and his party want to roll back postal reforms?

Sic 'im Shizuka-chan!

*Dictator is too strong. He was merely an authoritarian president who was later convicted of various human rights abuses and other crimes. Wikipedia notes that, ironically, "there is no law banning participation in an election by someone under house arrest in a foreign country" in Japan. (Kamei conveyed Fujimori's "original campaign statements.") I guess that's much safer than allowing non-Japanese permanent residents to vote in local elections.

Blinky the bigot

cannot trust himself, for folks of foreign roots owe allegiance to their foreign ancestors. Where did the Japanese---whomever "the Japanese" are---come from? Is Blinky-the-bigot Ainu by any chance?

Well, although Blinky was elected and has been re-elected governor of Tokyo by the citizens of this fine prefecture, we can't assume that just because he is a racist that everyone else is.

However, as Debito Arudou writes in The Japan Times: Last Gasps of Japan's Dying Demagogues, some are:

[Citing research from M. G. Sheftall of Shizuoka University---good god, A furriner! Who can believe him?] Ishihara's "Showa Hitoketa generation" (1926-1935) was "completely immersed, from birth until late adolescence/early adulthood, in prewar Japanese ideology at its most militantly militaristic, chauvinistic and xenophobic. It is unsurprising many never quite recovered from the trauma they suffered when their ideology was suddenly and catastrophically delegitimized in August 1945."

Arudou points out that the argument of the folks who opposed the partial foreign suffrage proposed by the DPJ that bakagaijin should naturalize if they want to vote is purely fatuous (he does not use those words) as folks of Blinky's ilk will never accept naturalized citizens as Japanese when they won't even accept people who have been here for generations as Japanese.

We can only hope Debito is correct when he calls these types a dying breed. I ain't so sure, at best I think that they are a diminishing breed as there will always be others to pick up the flag.

I have nothing against that old extremist that the citizens of Tokyo decided to have represent them. The fact that he is a well-known racist, misogynist/misanthrope, and all-around kook was not important enough to give them pause. I wish him no bad luck, but if he were to be hit by a freight train, I would not spend the night crying. (What a mean thing to say!)

Google spell check does not recognize delegitimized as a word.

Edited 1010pm

Arudou's speech to UN Special Rapportuer on Human Rights

I hope to have a new post once a week for the time being, and occasionally finish and post a few still relevant drafts:

...we are not officially registered — or even counted sometimes — as genuine residents. We are not treated as taxpayers, not protected as consumers, not seen as ethnicities even in the national census....According to government polls and surveys, we do not even deserve the same human rights as Japanese....Debito Arudou Japan Times.

A well-written speech, at least from my point of view. Will it make any difference? I will wager no and pray* (without faith) that I am wrong. Doubt I will be though since we've been reading and saying the same things for years and years and years. The fact is that the whole issue is not important enough to most citizens to care much about except for the occasional sympathizing with affected gaijin.** I think Debito's final paragraph says it all, especially the plea for help outside of Japan. Don't expect much inside.

*Are an agnostic's prayers answered?

**An innocent, neutral term that simply means gaikokujin. We know it is innocent and neutral because many people use it all of the time mostly, but no longer exclusively, for those of certain non-Eastern ethnic origin.

Lots of idiots around...or is it just me?

Over the last few days there have been some stirrings about the DPJ possibly, maybe, perhaps opening discussion on raising the consumption tax. Of course PM Hatoyama countered Nutty Natto Kan with his version of "Read my lips, no consumption tax increase. We are just going to start talking about it during a recession to boost the economy. We'll let the voters decide although I am not going to increase it anyway maybe for sure."

I'm cool with this. Only a bunch of lunatics would try to run a country forever with promises of no new taxes except on the other guy, while spending the money of future generations for everything except filling in potholes in roads and in society because for one reason or another, deficits don't matter. But this is not about the USA.

Really, the DPJ has been trying its best to right the economy they inherited from the LDP. One of the things that impressed me is how the wasteful practice of moving large quantities of earth from one spot to another for no useful purpose seems to have decreased under the new government. I have no stats, but that's just an impression from my somewhat less frequent cycling workouts along the Tamagawa. Mud-moving projects have noticeably decreased in size if not quantity since the autumn.

Perhaps, however, the money was shifted elsewhere. Every day, on the walk from my Mansion to Denenchofu station, I get to pass through the now 2 (or 3?) year old water line project which makes the street nearly impassible for humans and autos. As on construction projects everywhere, there seem to be about 5 people standing around and "supervising" for each person who is actually working. But what makes this a great economic stimulus is that not only do we get to pay the salaries of folks who could be better utilized serving tea to those who are working, but we get to pay to have the street and sidewalk dug up every single morning and refilled and resurfaced (with asphalt) every single evening. Wonder how much time and money that costs? Did Yukio not notice this when he lived in Denenchofu just a few short months ago? But who am I---a taxpaying resident who should never be allowed to vote for fear upsetting the apple cart with dangerous foreign influence---to say anything about that. Let the neighbors grumble---which they are. (Hear anything Yukio?)

Speaking of EVIL foreign influence:

Referring to the downgrading of the outlook for Japan's long-term government bonds by foreign rating companies, State Minister for Financial Affairs Shizuka Kamei said, "The Japanese are susceptible to foreign influences. There are lots of idiots." He thus indicated his dissatisfaction with the nature of credit ratings and the way people respond to them. Kamei is set to have regulatory power over credit rating companies starting in April. (From Feb 16 Asahi Shimbun. I cannot find a link as of yet.)

Now I don't really know what the hell this fellow was trying to say. He seemed to be angry that credit rating companies could rate Japanese bonds without asking. Maybe he was hinting at some future administrative guidance for those foreign companies. Why not? It's surely a lot easier than trying to un-screw-up the now decades old screwed-up economy. Besides, Japan owes most of its money to its own citizens, not foreigners, and it is easier to get away with screwing your own investors than it is screwing foreign investors. Or so the theory goes.

My question is: Does Kamei consider himself to be one of the idiots, or is he referring to the people whom he supposedly serves? (Let's pretend. We know that most folks in his line of work here do not consider themselves servants of the public, but more "nannies" of the childish masses. Tuche' to Fujiwara Masahiko.)

Incidentally, Kamei, a Shintaro Ishihara fan, "studied" economics at Tokyo University. Mr. Idiot also opposes foreigner suffrage* as allowing those bastards to vote could fuel nationalism. Who said that the LDP was dead?

A big arigatou in the direction of the Potomac for alerting me to this.

*We Western immigrants ought not be too hard on Kamei for this view, for he was apparently referring to those permanent residents of Korean heritage which makes it all OK.

22 Feb 2010 update: They have now begun to work directly on the road (instead of the sidewalk) and are no longer covering it with asphalt every evening. Time and money saved---what will they think of next?

English-reading smorkers and dopers be warned!

Denenchofu's new Dada Theque Cafe is not for you!

The neighborhood has apparently gone all to hell since Yukio Hatoyama moved out a few months ago. Two or three years ago, you couldn't even buy a beer in the convenience stores and now it's come to this.

Not sure why this is only written in English---there is a notice for Japanese readers below about no unaccompanied young kids, but no anti-doper warnings in Japanese that I could see. It's an innocent omission, I am sure.


Wonder if they will stock issues of High Times?

Medical help for smorking addressed here.

LDP's Shiozaki, All-American

The LDP's (well, which party would you expect?) Yasuhisa Shiozaki has defended the recent revisions to the immigration law requiring non-Japanese to carry residence cards with them at all times by showing his own iron backbone: Well, America does it too.

One of [the DPJ's Ritsuo] Hosokawa's proposals that Shiozaki did not agree to was eliminating a clause requiring foreigners to carry residence ("zairyu") cards.

"We can't give in on that," Shiozaki said. "Carrying green cards is mandatory in the Unites [sic] States as well."* Japan Times

An excellent reason! No simpleton he. It is always impressive to see a politician with his own moral standards and irrefutable logic.

Unfortunately, Pot-Iron Shiozaki did not mention why the penalty for not carrying the card in Japan would be so much higher. There is, however, little reason to believe that money from the huge fines to be imposed will be used to pay for a Japanese war with Vietnam and its future invasions of a few Middle Eastern countries. The US, after all did those things, and Japan is already late.

There is also no truth to rumors that Shiozaki is spearheading efforts to give non-Japanese rights equal to those of permanent residents in the US or to introduce legal penalties with teeth---again like those in the US---prohibiting racial discrimination. Unfortunately, the interview ended before the reporter could ask when Shiozaki planned on pushing for an amendment to the Japanese constitution to allow citizens to possess firearms.

And can you believe that Hosogawa said these words: ..."illegal foreigners who are as good a citizen as ordinary Japanese"...My god, we can't let the DPJ win with members like him running around! This article and full in-context quote is here.

*I wonder---if the US repealed it's law, would Ol' Iron Balls support repealing the Japan version?

International marriage analyzed by TV star

An exciting new TV drama is scheduled to begin on NHK called Plastic (Vinyl?)Sheets Blowing in the Wind. In it, a Japanese woman marries her American boss at the Tokyo Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (an ironic location for such an office). Naturally problems ensue. Staring i a TV show and going to eikaiwa lessons gave the star, Kasue Fukisii, special insight into the mysterious world of international marriage

"I take English conversation classes, and when I say to my American or English or Canadian teacher that I'm making this or that drama, they say 'Who is in it?' And when I tell them they are like, 'Hmmm.' They have no idea who I am talking about," Fukiishi explained.... "If that sort of gap becomes apparent in just a 40-minute conversation lesson, imagine what would happen during a whole life together!"...

and to show that she does not work for a bunch of manipulative goofballs with next to no morals: "my management office recommends I date a foreigner — to improve my English language skills." Japan Times

I can't wait to watch. I am sure that it won't be the typical program of its type full of simple-minded stereotypes.

Hospitals take action to avoid (foreign) flu germs

Some patients were rejected by hospitals after reporting that they worked at Narita International Airport or have a foreign friend. Japan Times.

As usual, some hospitals are refusing to treat patients for some rather curious reasons. That's not a problem though, for they can do that here even if someone dies (a number of such cases have appeared in the news over the last few years).

Now some are refusing to treat people with a fever, instead telling them to go to the special flu clinics set up earlier. This doesn't always work, for some who have visited a flu clinic have still been rejected by hospitals after being directed to go to one by a clinic.

The Tokyo government might investigate these incidents as violations of the medical practitioner's law. Thank goodness! Expect immediate and decisive action to end this sort of practice forever!

Wonder what happens when someone with a foreign friend who happens to be non-Japanese herself asks for treatment at one of these sleazy places? I wondered how long it would take before the "dangerous foreigner" angle appeared. It is never a question of if, but of when and to what degree.

Ouch, that hurts

...We already have a country that operates on the notion that it can mass-produce the poor and force young people to join the military and go off to fight on a battlefield somewhere. That would be the US...Minoru Morita in his interesting new book, Curing Japan's American Addiction.*

and it especially hurts because it is so close to true, except only certain young people go and many of them are either poor or not far from it.

Mr. Morita has some interesting things to say in the book, but unfortunately he seems to have an extreme form of the affliction that Paul Krugman had when he was in his NYT columnist blame-every-bad-thing-in-history-on-George Bush mode (before Paul won his Nobel Prize). Morita, however, blames everything wrong with Japan on Bush, Koizumi, and---naturally and most especially---the US.


Life in the shadows, the result of a vast US conspiracy by Bush, Koizumi, the LDP, and evil, evil, yes we do mean EVIL foreign money.

*Available in exchange for your evil foreign money at Amazon.com or for pure Japanese yen at Amazon Japan.

Fingerprintin' them thar furriners

Over the last few days, the government and media have been reporting that last year's law requiring all non-Japanese (including permanent residents) to be fingerprinted when entering or re-entering Japan, has been a success as it has kept 800-odd "undesirables" out of Japan.

The law was controversial when passed, as many---permanent residents in particular---were angered and offended. Too bad, said the government (and most others, including many non-Japanese) it's for safety and security and it stays.

So where did all this fingerprinting of non-Japanese begin? We all know that it was done to ethnic Koreans for decades until the law was rescinded mainly due to their protests in the 80s. While reading Mark E. Caprio's article in Japan Focus I found this interesting little tidbit:

...in May 1947, just months prior to SCAP’s January 1948 announcement that Koreans would be treated as “Japanese nationals,” SCAP reversed course by subjecting Japan-based Koreans and Taiwanese to its Alien Registration Ordinance. Mirrored after the U.S. Alien Registration Act of 1940, it required all non-Japanese over the age of 14 to register their alien status and carry with them at all times their alien registration passbook. It further stipulated that violators would face deportation. This legislation served as the forerunner for the more comprehensive Alien Registration Act of 1952 that introduced mandatory fingerprinting of foreign residents. See Japan Focus: The Cold War explodes in Kobe---the 1948 Korean Ethnic School "Riots" and the US Occupation Authorities.

I suppose the Japanese government of the time could have objected to Dugout Doug, SCAP, and Uncle Sam, but they didn't. Just like today, when the US passes tougher laws controlling foreign visitors or residents, Japan rarely declines adopting a similar law because of moral reasons as long as it citizens (or industries) are not affected. .

Shocking. Simply shocking.

I can't believe it: Foreign Reporters covering G8 face harassment: media group. (Japan Times)

They don't even get free detention or meals at the Immigration facility; they gotta pay.

Some unpatriotic folks are complaining that this sort of action threatens free thought and expression in Japan as well as violates human rights. It's ok though, for the US has been doing somewhat similar things (or worse) in the name of security so that gives a free pass to others.

Related story here.

More security and better services for bakagaijin

And it includes non-gaijin foreigners too. (meaning not Caucasian)

Report urges closer watch on foreigners (Japan Time headlines)

Foreigners living in Japan should be allowed five-year visas but kept under the eye of a new unified Justice Ministry-run nationwide identification system, a government panel on immigration control said in its report released Wednesday.

...a new foreigner registration system and revision of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law should aim at creating "a symbiotic community" by providing a "pleasant environment for foreign residents in Japan...

Of course. This has to be a good idea since it will place non-Japanese under the benevolent care of Hatoyama's ministry.

...critics view the new registry system as increased state control.

Cynical fools. If they don't like it, why don't they just shut up and leave? This is a democracy, after all.

This thoughtful measure could also prevent me (and other untrustworthy bakagaijin/criminal/terrorist types) from overstaying visas, working illegally, going into a bar in Tokyo to complain about noise and getting killed, being murdered by sexual predators, and other such things. Plus, we could get better access to all the educational opportunities here. And, it's for security. We need to trust Hatoyama-sama, a man with personal knowledge about the danger of terrorists.

I can't wait to read about it in a Japanese article, even if I get a headache doing so. Full article here

The price of xenophobia

Again, no surprises here. Japan to wants to return to the past which it never really left; to go to the fantasy world of Fujiwara. There are a few penalties to pay, but I am sure it can all be blamed on sneaky, Japan-bashing foreigners who don't understand The Beautiful Country:

By raising barriers to foreign investment and impeding the flow of foreign nationals, Japan, as a nation, is at risk of becoming a "subprime state."

[The Japanese Supreme Court labeling of Steel Partners as an "abusive acquirer"]...the overwhelming lesson to be learned from this case was that external capital is no longer welcome in Japan.

...there are also steps that affect the people who move through them [speaking of Japan's attempt restrict foreign investment in airports], in particular, foreign nationals.

It is hard to imagine another world-leading nation engaging in such regressive and exclusionary behavior. From an article in the JT online by Jochen Legewie, President of CNC Japan.

Japan has been playing a rather insincere game of being an international, open, market-based economy for decades. It has never really been true. Japan won't usually open anything unless outside pressure is applied---how often has the government taken the position that opening some sector of the market or even society to foreign companies or people is good because it is good for Japan and the Japanese?

I know it is childish and spiteful, but I wish other countries would take a simpler policy towards Japan. "OK, we can't enter or freely work in your markets/society. No problem. It's your country and your 'tradition.' We won't argue. However, your companies and your people will not have free access to our markets/society. That's all. Should you ever decide to open up, come and see us after you have do so. We don't want to hear sweet talk and "we are unique" excuses. It's action or nothing. Until then, goodbye."

If Japan wants to return to a Third World status let it. If it wants to give up let it.

Fingerprinting already a dead issue?

I suspect all the protests will lead to nothing. And it does not seem to deter visitors as long as the yen is weak. Hasn't hurt the US.

Weak yen will trump prints row for tourists: JapanTimesOnline

Government takes action against dastardly foreign airlines

The Japanese government has finally taken steps to protect the safety and purity of Japan's airspace from unsafe, poorly maintained---and most importantly---non-Japanese airlines in Japan. In addition to fingerprinting all non-Japanese passengers who, being non-Japanese, are potential terrorists, these aircraft will be subject to greater scrutiny:

The safety measures officer, who would be part of the Civil Aviation Bureau, would be tasked with gathering information about non-Japanese carriers and liaising with aviation safety officials of other countries, the sources said. Full story.

The government has not yet set up a similar office to watch Japanese airlines, even though recently JAL* and others have had some rather troublesome safety issues,

Japanese airlines reported 159 incidents of parts falling off aircraft during the year to March 31, up from 96 reported the previous year, a transport ministry survey made available Sunday showed.

or other problems:

Japan Airlines Corp. said Friday it has been selling Hugo Boss-brand wallets and commuter pass holder sets made in China as having been made in Italy on domestic flights since Oct. 1.

Three employees of a Japan Airlines Corp. cleaning subsidiary are suspected of stealing digital cameras and other items left on planes by passengers, aviation industry sources said Wednesday.

nor have they set one up for Japanese automakers even after wheels falling off Mitsubishi trucks and killing mothers or after Mistusbishi was caught hiding vehicle defect data. They have not yet set up a watchdog/inspection system for Japanese food products even after a solid year of scandals concerning mislabeled and expired food being sold by previously prestigious food producers.

There is no need for that of course, because those problems are Japanese problems and not evil like foreign things.

*JAL was put on a ministry watch list in 2005 for a string of mishaps and was subject to more inspection until 2006:

The transport ministry said Thursday it will subject the Japan Airlines Group to special safety inspections through the end of the year, following a spate of safety-related problems involving the nation's largest carrier.

There is a slight difference---only the airline with that string of problems was subject to increased inspections and only temporarily. All non-Japanese airlines will be subject to them no matter the safety record, and it appears that this will be permanent.

The history of fingerprinting legal residents in Japan

Just to refresh the memory of some who do not know that Japan used to routinely force all non-citizen residents to give their fingerprints every 3 years (In case them thar dastardly foreigners changed their fingers in order to do evil.) Kathleen Morikawa who was one of the original fingerprint refusers has written an article in the Japan Times on the history of this issue. It will not convince the naive who swallow anything as long as the government can say it's for security, nor will it convince the hopeless useful idiot class. It is a good, basic review of the issue. There was more to it than this, especially the forced fingerprinting of Korean residents in Japan. I have to admire the balls that it took to refuse (or ovaries). I wonder if push comes to shove, how many of us would do so again? And if we did, would it have any effect with the US actually pushing this sort of nonsense thereby making it easier for countries whose xenophobic leaders have no problem with discrimination to do so.

....Well, it was a long, hard slog but we finally got fingerprinting abolished. I am now of the "obasan" generation, and what do you know? My prints are in demand once again and down in Kanto the old, yellow index-finger balloon of the 1980s protests has been resurrected.

One would have to be utterly devoid of a sense of humor not to find something ridiculously ironic about all this. As an American, it is all the more ironic as the recent actions of my own government have created the atmosphere that has allowed Japan to so easily reintroduce mandatory fingerprinting.

What can we learn from the experiences of the past 25 years, aside from the fact that without constant vigilance the rights we fight so hard to win can be very easily lost? Full article.

But every country does it or might maybe do it. It's for security. It's ok.

The safety country

I have long wondered about the repeated, mostly unchallenged claims about Japan's being one of the most (or as some seem to believe) the most crime free country on earth. The later is obviously not true. There is a big problem in comparing crime stats---or most others---country to country. Laws are much different. Conviction rates, investigation methods, the willingness of the police to investigate reported crimes, the relationship between the populace and the police are just a few things that could affect reported crimes.

In the early 90s, the Japan Times had a long article on the police in Japan concerning how the cops would often refuse to take action on criminal complaints. One non-Japanese, who had been assaulted by a shop-owner was told by the cops that if he were in the US, he would have been shot implying that being assaulted by a guy with hedge trimmers wasn't so bad. The shop owner was not charged with any crime. Also in the article, the attitude of the Japanese police toward rape victims was addressed, which was basically the idea that the woman was responsible in some way. (Yes, I know that this is a problem in many countries, but that does not in any way excuse it in Japan. Sorry.) Most of us have seen cops either on TV news shows or in real life being assaulted by people---pushed and shoved. Now in the US, that is a crime and you are gonna be arrested after being introduced to the pavement. Apparently not in Japan. I watched a TV program earlier this year in which the cops were investigating graffiti "artists." With a TV crew in tow, they confronted a group which included a young French guy. When the Japanese guys were shoving and shouting at one group of cops, the French kid was sitting on a short concrete barrier and took out a marker and made a 2" or so mark. Immediately, Tokyo's finest jumped him with the reporter screaming---and I mean SCREAMING---into the mic about the "gaijin" being arrested. The others who would have been arrested for assault, thereby increasing the crime stats in the US, were not arrested in Japan.

The LATimes has an article about this sort of thing, but I cannot get my registration to work on their site, so it can be accessed at debito.org. Scroll down to LA Times how J Police Ignore...An excerpt:

Police discourage autopsies that might reveal a higher homicide rate in their jurisdiction, and pressure doctors to attribute unnatural deaths to health reasons, usually heart failure, the group alleges.

Odds are, it says, that people are getting away with murder in Japan, a country that officially claims one of the lowest per capita homicide rates in the world… “All the police care about is how they look to people; it’s all PR to show that their capabilities are high,” Saikawa says. “Without autopsies, they can keep their percentage [of solved cases] high. It’s all about numbers.”…

I am very skeptical about most stats, especially Japanese government stats which show how Japan is in some way ahead of, uniquely different than, or better than other countries. Japan is not a crime-filled, dangerous country, especially as far as foreigners are concerned. But I'd bet it ain't as safe as believed and that the most dangerous criminals ain't non-Japanese.