Now Japanese people hate foreigners. It's not really a secret, and it's not really the young people, just the old ones, with power, that sit around thinking of ways to scare the rest of the population into disliking foreigners. I asked my friend Kenji what he thinks about this and he said that most likely it's because A. They hate communicating with foreigners because of the language barrier etc, and B. That they might not understand the culture and such yadda yadda yadda. So really they don't have any kind of sound reason.
But it's totally true. The students at Hokudai are all pretty cool and stuff, and I've never had a problem with any of them. However whenever I go into the grocery store, or any other people where old people congregate, I always seem to get loads of dirty looks. I mean come on, I'm not that horrible looking am I? One of my American friends said that I am rather scary because I am so tall, but I prefer to think of myself as more of a gentle giant.
Sorry, tangent, back to his wierdo guy. So he came to Japan 20 some odd years ago and has since then pretty much raised hell over the fact that the Japanese government and some laws that may or may not exist have made living in Japan a real pain in the ass. So lets stop right here, he's been here for 20 years, all the while complaining about the fact that Japanese people hate foreigners etc, he even naturalized himself, this doesn't really add up does it? Well he never really said why he stayed in Japan or why he has really done any of this, so who knows. Maybe Japanese people think he is scary too?
A quick current events update: So recently Japanese international law has created this super cool system to document all the foreign people that come into Japan. Right when you get off the plain, they take your fingerprints, and a mug shot. At the time when I did this I really didn't think all that much about it, but looking back I guess that was rather extreme when compared with other nation's policies when entering the country. But can you really blame them? I don't really have any problems with it, considering it's their country and they can do whatever they want...well...sort of.
Anyhoo he is actually rather famous now for being all up in arms about immigration policy and such into Japan, which on one hand is good, but on the other is really annoying. So let's talk a little bit about the good first:
Japan actually does do some pretty ridiculous things when it comes to immigration. The tokyo governor in 2000 during a speech announced a plan that if a natural disaster were to occur, the SDF (Self Defense Force) would 'round up' all of the foreigners in Tokyo, just to make sure they are all right. Certain districts of Tokyo and other parts of the country have made posters that the police sent to every house and posted around the town, warning people of what foreigners 'may do' such as bag snatching, and summoning godzilla. I couldn't find any of them online after 3 google image searches, but some of them depicted 6-8 cops all tackling 1 poor guy. Slightly disturbing, sort of funny.
Human Trafficking. Now this is actually a lot worse, and actual government policy encourages this. In 2007, the department of state actually moved Japan up to a tier 2 human trafficking country. After 5 minutes of searching I can't find the exact scale, or what this means, but basically the government has a program right now called the "foreign trainee" program. It's pretty terrible. The "3k" jobs in Japan are considered "dirty, dangerous, and something else that starts with K in Japanese" and basically Japanese people A. don't want to do them, and B. there aren't any more Japanese people TO do them. What's the solution? Instead of outsourcing, the Japanese government has made sure that the factories can stay in Japan, and then they just bring the labor here. Yay. Pretty nice right?
Maybe not so much. Under this program, participants are entered into a 3 year contract to work for whatever company they are brought in for. Since they are "trainee's" they are not part of the regular work force, but aren't really foreigners just hanging out either, they are...trainees. The Japanese law goes on to further state that BECAUSE of this, they do not fall under ANY of the current labor laws within Japan, including minimum wage, basic rights, and anything else that normal human beings are entitled to. In 2006, 2, yes two, people were convicted for human trafficking in the entire country of Japan for the entire year. In 2007, 15 people were convicted of human trafficking...What an improvement! But not so much.
After the trainees finish their 3 years of hell, if they have proved themselves worthy the company's then have to either hire them back as full interns (then they receive human rights) or just send them back to their country. You can imagine which of those options is chosen more frequently.
So in that respect, some of the work this guy is doing really is good. The Japanese government obviously thinks this is a GOOD policy considering they enacted it, and they have some other policies that are pretty shady, but my fingers are starting to get tired. If you really want to sink your teeth into it, this guy has a site:
http://www.debito.org/
On the other hand, he...probably brings some of this down upon himself. His presentation was the most unprofessional presentation I have ever seen in my entire life. To the point where I was feeling embarrassed at the things he was doing and saying. He's currently an associate professor at Hokkaido Information University, trying to get his doctorate, but at this rate I'm not sure how long that will take...But if you are going for your doctorate degree, and you are coughing and saying bullshit at the same time during a presentation? Come on. Get a life. He also has 2 books out which he NEVER failed to mention once during the class, and whenever he did he would say "wink wink nudge nudge buy them" which is maybe funny, the first time, for 15 year olds...but not in a college presentation.
Other part's about his presentation style and manner and way of speaking were pretty terrible, and considering all of these things are super important in everyday Japanese life, I have no idea how he is still in this country to be honest. He is actually most known for a case in which he and his family (married a Japanese women and had 2 kids in Japan) were not allowed into a hot spring because they were foreigners. Some people may think that that is super extreme and terrible and the entire country deserves to burn because of that, but I really don't mind. There are actually tons of places in Japan that foreigners can't go to alone, or really couldn't get in to without a Japanese person such as bars and clubs and things like that, but I guess hot springs are really in a different category.
He never told us the results of the case, or anything about the case at all to be honest, he just kept saying the was the plaintiff and that there are no laws against racial discrimination in Japan, so it happens all the time. Well buddy, I hate to say I told you so, but you have to remember this is a different country. Coming from the land of the free and the home of the brave and expecting to be able to waltz in wherever you like in a foreign country is a pretty childish in my opinion. People are different, countries are different, deal with it. The owners of the store, based on the laws which govern their country, can do whatever they want. Now obviously in some cases that maybe be pretty annoying, or even a pain in the neck, but it still just boils down to the fact that it's a different country, and the people are different.
If you want to find out more, I've heard his book are pretty good, but don't take my word for it...wink wink, nudge nudge
oh yeah, and a picture, because I think it pretty much sums this guy up, and HE made it lol:
Interesting. Dad
ReplyDeleteunfortunately sounds like "the ugly American" to me. How sad if the Japanese think we're all like this guy! UGH! Mom
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