SNA (Tokyo) — Reuters and Kyodo recently reported that Japan is banning “foreign spectators” (or “overseas spectators”) from the Tokyo Olympics: “The government has concluded that welcoming fans from abroad is not possible given concerns among the Japanese public over the coronavirus and the fact that more contagious variants have been detected in many countries.”

Blogging about this at Debito.org, I worried aloud that excluding all “foreign spectators” would be interpreted to mean all foreigners, including Non-Japanese living in Japan. But commenters (some of whom already have tickets or will be volunteering to help) were quick to stress that the “overseas” wording meant only foreign tourists, not them.

But I wouldn’t be so sure about that.

Granted, the original wording in Japanese is kaigai kara no ippan kankyaku (regular spectators from overseas), not “foreigners” (gaikokujin). But words matter, especially when you’re categorizing people, and doing it wrong will lead to discrimination.

I think Japan will do it wrong, due to linguistics and force of habit.

First, linguistics. Specialists have long argued that the structure of a language influences how native speakers think about reality (look up the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis). In other words, if we don’t have a word for it, we don’t have a concept of it. Japanese society lacks a nuanced concept of a “foreigner” that clearly distinguishes between a foreigner fresh off the plane and a foreign resident living here many years. They’re all gaikokujin.

Yes, there are words that bureaucrats use for differing visa statuses, but they are rarely used in common parlance. The everyday words, especially in the media, are binary: you’re either a Nihonjin or a gaikokujin (or worse, gaijin).  And gaijin applies to you no matter how many years you’ve been here, how fluent your Japanese is, or even if you’ve taken Japanese citizenship and become a Visible Minority.

That’s why we need a word for “immigrant” to distinguish this concept. I’ve suggested imin jumin (移民住民) as a possibility. But that’s not going to happen since Japan has long refused to have an actual immigration policy.  And it affects how deeply a foreigner can assimilate into Japanese society.

Linguistically, they can’t. Every gaikokujin is a guest, a tourist, or at best a temporary resident–not much different than the excluded “spectators from overseas.” That’s why I’m worrying aloud that in practice, excluding “overseas spectators” will also target people who don’t “look Japanese.”

If you think I’m exaggerating, remember that this has already happened many times. For example, before World Cup 2002 the government issued repeat warnings about “foreign soccer hooligans” without distinguishing them from foreign-looking residents. Back then I lived in a city hosting the matches, and media scaremongering about “hooligans” created some very uncomfortable weeks of being hairy-eyeballed, confronted in public, and excluded from shops even after displaying proof of my Japanese citizenship. It was the same when then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced a policy targeting “foreign criminals” and “terrorists” in 2003, and when the G8 Summit came to Hokkaido in 2008. This is how international events, when carelessly worded, racialize the Japanese public.

But it’s not just words. Many government policies basically assume that foreign residents don’t exist. In case you need reminding, Japan initially treated all foreign residents the same as tourists when they closed the borders this past year. Japan doesn’t include foreign residents in its official domestic population tallies. And if there is any attention paid to foreigners in Japan, it’s not to salute their contributions as residents and taxpayers, it’s more to blame them for crime, terrorism, or most recently infectious “foreign clusters.” It’s habitual. Do you think things will suddenly be any different for the Olympics?

That’s why the government must make it very clear repeatedly in public announcements that these exclusionary rules do not apply to foreign residents, and that foreign residents and Visible Minorities will also be spectators at the Games because they are ticket holders like anyone else.

Otherwise what happened before will happen again: self-appointed guardians of Japan will be policing arenas, accosting and excluding anyone who doesn’t “look Japanese.” Online ticket sellers will refuse people with katakana names. Even if you get past these checkpoints, you’ll face the alienation of empty side seats and hairy eyeballs, and probably some banners and shop signs that say “Japanese Only.”

In fact, it’s already gearing up. Citing a Yomiuri poll saying that 77% were against “overseas spectators” attending, the government is already alleging “concerns amongst the Japanese public” as justification for excluding foreigners. That’s a bit rich. The government scares the public by creating an infectious foreign boogeyman, and then reacts because the public is scared?

But what’s involved here isn’t just careless public policy. It’s stupid science. Covid is already in Japan, and any gathering is potentially a superspreader event. If public safety is truly the concern, you bar (or socially distance) all spectators from games regardless of nationality. The government and media drawing lines between Japanese and foreign spectators (when the virus doesn’t) invites precisely the discrimination that Japanese society can’t cure itself of.

Tellingly, Japan announced this exclusionary policy before consulting the International Olympic Committee. Now even Japan Olympic Committee President Seiko Hashimoto is backpedalling to say, “We are still continuing discussions and have not reached a conclusion.” In other words, this is all a stunt, a policy trial balloon. If it turns out there is significant international outrage to this announcement (as there was for their racist Covid border policies), Japan may amend or back down. If not, or if the IOC cynically chooses money over sportsmanship, these exclusionary policies will stand, and Japan will have carte blanche for the world’s first “Japanese Only” Olympics.

What should Japan do instead? The obvious: vaccinations, mask mandates, social distancing for event seating, and testing and quarantining people (including Japanese) at the border. Or it could have all spectators watch the Games at home, or even consider the safest measure of all: postponing the Games until after the pandemic, and if that is not possible, canceling them altogether.

That’s what would happen if “public concerns” actually mattered, as a majority of Japanese polled oppose holding the Olympics this summer. But the only thing the government really cares about is recouping their investments in the most expensive Games in history. Never mind the potential for widespread public contagion or discrimination. Give us back our money for a Games few people want!

This is why Japan is simply not a suitable society for hosting international events. Our government is irresponsible and unaccountable: It spends money on boondoggles regardless of public opinion, ignores if not encourages the social damage they cause, and puts everyone at risk while blaming foreigners.

International events reify Japan’s embedded racism, and they keep happening again and again. But this time, with the possibility of the first “Japanese Only” Olympic Games, Japan looks likely to take the Gold Medal for Discrimination.