| Submit your comments on this article |
| International-UN-NGOs |
| Japan racism 'deep and profound' says UN |
| 2005-07-11 |
| An independent investigator for the UN says racism in Japan is deep and profound, and the government does not recognise the depth of the problem. Doudou Diene, a UN special rapporteur on racism and xenophobia, was speaking at the end of a nine-day tour of the country. He said Japan should introduce new legislation to combat discrimination. Mr Diene travelled to several Japanese cities during his visit, meeting minority groups and touring slums. He said that although the government helped to organise his visit, he felt many officials failed to recognise the seriousness of the racism and discrimination minorities suffered. He was also concerned that politicians used racist or nationalist themes, as he put it, to whip up popular emotions. He singled out the treatment of ethnic Koreans and Chinese and indigenous tribes. Mr Diene says he plans to recommend that Japan enact a law against discrimination, which he said should be drawn up in consultation with minority groups. He said he would now wait for the Japanese government to respond to his comments before submitting a report to the United Nations. Only one guy, from the UN speaking for 1% of the population. Hmmm...the word asshat comes to mind. Also, the Koreans and the Japanese have hated each other for centuries. Nothing real new there. |
| Posted by:mmurray821 |
| #16 Thanks X and Mrs Davis. Didn't know that - learn something every day :). I've heard of the Japanese racism (or, as my brother, a fisherman once said: "They think their shit don't stink!"). But I dont think its as hostile or aggresive as in some of the Arab states. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-07-11 23:30 |
| #15 You think that racisim might go away when these folks emigrate and have been here a generation, but it doesn't apperently. I have a person I know up in Vancouver B.C., even mentioning the Chinese and you will get an ear full, he was living in an apaertment complex with some Chinese folks, I thought I would never hear the end of it. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-07-11 22:59 |
| #14 Jarhead: "Gai-jen" -Japanese left handed word for foreigner or a polite way of calling an American a barbarian. Gaijin (in Chinese, wairen) stands literally for "outside person". The Chinese equivalent, waiguoren is rendered, literally, "outside country person". I think they both mean foreigner. There might be some derogatory meaning attached to both expressions, but I think the basic meaning is pretty neutral. (Of course, one might find this derogatory if one believes that not being considered Japanese or Chinese is a major insult). |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-07-11 22:48 |
| #13 I was deployed there for a while. Yes, they have their racists. Prolly a little more open about it then most places I've been. "Gai-jen" -Japanese left handed word for foreigner or a polite way of calling an American a barbarian. Used all the time in my presence, though I'm not sure in my case why they felt the need to be polite. I have to admit I was a little offended, I couldn't believe they didn't realize they had a full on knuckle dragging neanderthal in their midst! |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2005-07-11 22:33 |
| #12 This is just because the Japanese are such good allies of the US in the WOT and liberation of Iraq. The UN bureaucratics just want to turn a knife and this offered them the opportunity. I guess Saddam's treatment of the Kurds just didn't justify such their attention or their own BDS fever which only heightens their own xenophobia towards the unwashed Americans. This is on the same level as Libya and Cuba on the UN Human Rights Council. |
| Posted by: Unavinter Sloluque7110 2005-07-11 21:44 |
| #11 filpinos an vietmanese donet like eech other eether |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2005-07-11 21:29 |
| #10 ...can't remember the proper name, the people who were supposed to be tanners and that sort of thing Burakumin |
| Posted by: Classical_Liberal 2005-07-11 21:28 |
| #9 The Japanese are deeply, profoundly racist. This is not exactly news. It's almost equally true for the Chinese and the Koreans. Try and get a Beijing native started on the Koreans some time, you'd be amazed. But, since Japan is still obscenely overpopulated, is the polar opposite of expansionist, and isn't about to start getting great swarms of immigrants, I can't see as it's all that great of a priority. Yes, the Ainu and the untouchables and the Koreans get a raw deal, but there just aren't that many Ainu left, at least half of the Koreans are financially supporting one of the worst regimes on the face of the earth, and the untouchables - damn, I can't remember the proper name, the people who were supposed to be tanners and that sort of thing - can just emigrate to somewhere rational where the locals won't be all pissy about how their grandfathers were unclean and all that rot. And yes, there were indigenes in the Japanese islands. Operative word "were" - the Honshu indigenes have been gone for the better part of a millennium. (The red-hatted folk in Princess Mononoke are supposed to be these people, wiped out in actual history centuries before the period that movie was set in) The Ainu are the indigenes of Hokkaido, which was only heavily occupied by the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century. As I understand it, they're disappearing quite rapidly, half due to racial reasons, half due to the same demographic pressures that's wiping out the rural populations of the rest of the developed world outside of the USA. But the Japanese came over from Korea sometime between 300 AD and 300 BC. No more indigenes than the Anglo-Saxons in Great Britain. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2005-07-11 21:22 |
| #8 Japan is easily one of the most closed and xenophobic societies in the world, they also are one of the largest contributors UN so Doudou Diene, UN special rapporteur, STFU. No one need a "study" to tell us that. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-07-11 20:59 |
| #7 Why are our UN dues paying for the likes of this??? |
| Posted by: Neutron Tom 2005-07-11 19:45 |
| #6 This asshat should go study Saudi Arabia. |
| Posted by: Neutron Tom 2005-07-11 19:43 |
| #5 The Ainu were on Hokkaido before the Japanese. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-07-11 19:33 |
| #4 CrazyFool: Not defending the UN, but I think the reference was to the Ainu. And Japan does have a lengthy record of racism ( example), but the UN is the last group one would want addressing something like that. Japan's continued economic ties around the world will do more to alleviate this than all the BS the UN could produce. |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2005-07-11 19:28 |
| #3 Just another chapter in series "attack Bush allies" |
| Posted by: Hupomoque Spoluter7949 2005-07-11 19:21 |
| #2 indigenous tribes of Japan? Sorry, I don't know all that much about Japan and her history (and please correct me if I'm wrong) but aren't 'indigenous tribes' of Japan the... um... Japanese themselves? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-07-11 19:08 |
| #1 A little background on Doudou Diene... Doudou Diène, head of intercultural, inter-religious dialogue and peace culture at Unesco Why the SWC will not attend "Education for peace" Conference at UNESCO Misgivings Over UNCHR Resolution on Islamophobia OSCE Conf. Probes Europe's Racism (not what you think) Typical UN poofta. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-07-11 18:39 |