Visible Minorities: A Despotic Bridge Too Far
How bad does it have to get? I’m talking about Japan’s cruelty and meanness towards its Non-Japanese residents. How bad before people think to step in and stop it? With Covid-19, we might have an answer.
All posts by Debito Arudou
Visible Minorities: Advice to Activists in Japan
Sparked by the George Floyd murder by police in the United States last month, street protests against official violence towards minorities and disenfranchised peoples have sprung up worldwide.
Visible Minorities: The Guestists and the Collaborators
We shouldn’t wait for the government to deign to divvy out what it thinks foreigners want, as if it’s the omotenashi (hospitality) Japan offers any guest. Instead, NJ residents should be telling the government what they want, on their terms.
Visible Minorities: Pandemic Releases Antibodies Toward Non-Japanese
Treating outsiders like contagion has consequences: Society develops antibodies, and Japan’s already-normalized discrimination intensifies.
Visible Minorities: No Free Pass for Shirking Responsibility
There’s an oft-used expression in Japanese: sekinin tenka. Best translated as “passing the buck,” it’s a reflex of dodging blame for one’s own actions by transferring responsibility to others. For too long, Japan has done so on the world stage with impunity—even when it affects the world adversely.
Visible Minorities: Japan’s Botched Response to the Coronavirus
The drama of cruise ship Diamond Princess, currently moored at Yokohama and quarantined by Japan’s Health Ministry due to some of the 3,700 passengers and crew testing positive for the coronavirus, is a human rights crisis.
Visible Minorities: Carlos Ghosn’s Escape from Japan Was the Right Move
I have to admit more than a twinge of sympathy for Carlos Ghosn’s Great Escape.
Visible Minorities: Local Governments Classifying Japanese Citizens as Foreigners
The disturbing implications of yet another Japanese-language designation for foreign residents.
Visible Minorities: The Xeno-Scapegoating of Japanese Halloween
After Halloween, you could be forgiven for thinking Shibuya was set aflame and Hachiko knocked off his plinth. But drop by sometime; everything is still there just fine.
Visible Minorities: Racial Profiling at Japanese Hotel Check-Ins
It’s dehumanizing to be denied service somewhere, not for what you did, but for who you are, and to realize that discrimination is real.
