Yotomaya comments

@JeffLee

"There are worse places to live. Therefore, being an American ally is good."

"If you don't like it, leave."

These are two fallacies ignoring that geopolitics isn't one-dimensional and that life in the places you mention is "good" only thanks to rampant exploitation within and without of its borders.

There is no "global peace". It's just code for American hegemony. Kishida is conspicuously quiet about Gaza and other conflicts (or massacres) western and Japanese big business are actively contributing to.

@wallace

I didn't know about this specific proposal but I know it's being brought up (and, in some municipalities, enacted). However, never by the LDP as their hard-line supporters would definitely not approve.

@wallace

Same here. We choose candidates together with my partner. And it's quite easy as you're usually left with very few choices once you've ruled out all unhinged nationalists and xenophobes.

The system is made in a way in a way the LDP will win no matter what (Koike isn't a member anymore but her activities and affiliations suggest she might as well still be). And non-Japanese citizens won't get the right to vote as long as they're in power.

@wallace

In an ideal world not, but being head of the capital, largest metropolis or any other significant constituency has nationwide repercussions (e.g. Boris Johnson). She might want to take it further and become the first female PM, skillfully hiding behind her gender and drawing attention away from her regressive actions. This would be much less likely if she were the mayor of, say, Hamamatsu.

Saying a gender pay gap doesn't exist implies that women earn less because they are less capable/work less/don't want careers. Anyone can interpret that information as they like.

Maybe if I see them actually working on how the Tibetans and Uighurs are treated by China, or the Rohyngyas I might care.

They do mention these issues as well, and suggesting they should somehow make ruthless dictatorships "behave" is absurd. At this point this is just whataboutism. Japan doesn't act according to treaties and conventions it's agreed to on refugees as well as racial discrimination. I'd pull out the names, but I don't see a good-faith debate happening here, so I'll just leave it with that.

This means that while they should not return individuals to situations where they face danger (non-refoulement), they have discretion over how they process asylum applications and manage their asylum systems.

I'd argue Japan is leaning very heavily into the latter part. I have a problem with that interpretation of that convention, as do Amnesty International.

It's the difference in morals that puts most people off.

"People from other (poorer) countries have different (i.e. lower) moral standards." Cool!

Against my better judgement, I'm leaving a comment.

Most of the people here seem to be quite secure in their status of residence. Good for you. Now, Japan's refugee application system is in violation of international law as it is and has a laughably low acceptance rate. If you think over 99 percent of applicants are frauds, fine.

Also, far right candidates sweeping elections in Europe being indicative of the bad effects of accepting immigrants is like saying Hitler was right because he won in the 1930s. Tapping into people's prejudices during time of crisis is easiest way to score political points. The LDP is doing that now. It's refugees, easy scapegoats now, but the government is going for PR holders next.

It's ironic this article is just under another one about Japan's shrinking economy. Study after study has shown that immigration is a net benefit for countries. The fact that a lot of people think their neighbour having a different ethnic background from them is an affront doesn't change that.

@dagon

I'd add last year's Draconian immigration law amendment which actually is against international law. A country is changing its own rules to not abide by international rules but poses as an enforced of a rule-based order. Japan is in good company though.

exasperated by crowds of badly behaved foreign tourists

Wow! Way to start an article.

@winston

Spot on. I'd go even further and say no sincere apologies have been made, at least not by the system the PM represent. Saying "sorry" while keeping denying you did anything wrong doesn't sound very sincere to me.

But for Kishida to even publicly acknowledge any wrongdoing by the then Japanese government and army would be enough to enrage some of his voter base and other supporters, so he won't even do that.

"As a country that has suffered atomic bombings in war, (Japan) never accepts the threat of nuclear weapons by Russia, and they should never be used."

Here we go again, pacifists when it suits our narrative, aren't we?

Japan, or anyone really, won't go out of their way to suggest a "rule-based" system in Yemen or other places because it would mean calling out rule breakers that are better not called out. The rhetoric is understandable though as you can't just say you want money when you go to a country that obviously has very little of it. You have to make it look like you're helping.

Why is this even being reported in the news, if it's a gesture made as a private citizen

Nope, the PM doesn't act as a private citizen. I agree it's not newsworthy though, as it would be more shocking if the leader of the LDP wasn't a war-criminal worshipper.

Good, but it'd be great if there was more media coverage of the changes the government is planning for the immigration law. The system is fundamentally cruel, and the ruling party is planning to make it even worse, i.e. making it easier to deport unsuccessful refugee status applicants.

(No need to reply to this post about how it's more "humane" to deport than to detain. You won't convince me and I won't convince you.)

or is he an economic migrant

Even if he was (probably not), what would be great the problem with that? Do you believe some people are more deserving of prosperity than others? What's more, we need to get rid of the delusion that the so-called developed world is inherently a better place to live than elsewhere. Japan, for example, is hostile to outsiders, has a twisted working culture and worse gender equality than most of the countries people are fleeing. You're probably either really privileged or really in need of help if you choose to live here.

Toshimitsu Motegi, secretary general of the LDP, said, "It is deplorable that such violence took place during an election, a bedrock of democracy."

Lol. Now the LDP cares about democracy.

citing such reasons as the high cost and anxiety about Japan's future

The first part is obvious and understandable. The second, however, is incredibly vague.

Some issues that come to mind are the economic decline, social isolation, political instability in the region we have been reading about a lot recently and climate change.

It might be good to find out what young people are anxious about rather than throw money at the problem and pose for photographs.

I bet you feel silly now demanding it. Every time a child is educated, they are much less likely to support a murderous tyrant.

No, I don't feel silly. Sharing a US government agency's data doesn't really work as independent proof. What's more, the notion of western powers "educating" poor countries for their own good is as old as colonial history.

And even if the US, and other "developed" countries, do contribute to advances in education in less wealthy countries, it always comes at a price, often in the form of extraction of resources and cheap labour. What's more, "murderous tyrants" in countries such as Nicaragua, Chile, Zaire (now the DRC), Iran (before another one took over), Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, just to name a few, were or are openly supported by the US, in some cases at the expense of less harmful system. In other situations, such as Iraq, the US with their allies helped replace a dictator with complete chaos.

The US isn't responsible for what goes on in Iran until the end of time. You should not support the murderous Ayatollahs and then cynically say it is all the US' fault.

It's only a hypothetical, but I wonder how many people would have gotten radicalised and toppled the Shah's regime if they'd live under the democracy the US had helped end. The same goes for other parts of the Middle East. The same goes for the Khmer Rouge that recruited largely from areas heavily bombed in Cambodia.

@girl_in_tokyo

You mention legal rights heterosexual couples have. Let me just add a few informal, or social, ones that a potential anti-discrimination law and support systems might help tackle:

A name designating who you are is not used as a slur.

Your parents won't disown/reject you because you shared this important piece of information about you.

When looking for housing, you don't have to look for places that are "heterosexual-friendly", because you always assume someone might have an issue with who you are. In fact, you don't have to make that assumption ever when you meet new people.

Your group isn't vilified by large parts of society and accused of trying to destroy it.

These are things most of us never even have to think about, which is why every society is slow to respond to the needs of marginalised groups. Asking to receive support in these situations isn't asking for anything more than others, it's just to approach a daily life most other people can enjoy without even thinking about it.

The fact that this needs to be spelled out repeatedly on a forum presumably mainly consisting of non-Japanese people living in Japan (and, therefore, experiencing some of the same issues as LGBTQ+ people in their daily lives) only shows how many of us can't think beyond our own lived experience, empathise and have little interest in creating a society that caters to the needs of anyone different from us.

India is the US's ally?

Yes, it is. And Japan's, Kishida visited India a few days ago with a mission of "creating a safe Indo-Pacific". There was an article on it here, on Japan Today. Both Japan and US are hell-bent on countering what they see as a threat from China in the region.

Democracy does exist and it is better for the world than despotism.

Of course.

Ridiculous. It doesn't always make the news when education is provided or disputes are mediated or anti-corruption laws are enforced on overseas transactions.

I don't know what "education is provided" is supposed to mean, but anyway. The fact you haven't given a single specific positive example (rather than picking random countries that have bad relations with the US to show how bad they are) may give a clue as to why it doesn't make the news. Also, didn't the Ayatollah seize in a series of events pretty much started after the US staged a coup against a democratically elected PM?

I'm glad you hate America and Japan

Being critical of a country's policies doesn't mean the same as "hating" them. But to some people it's all about taking sides, I guess.

I'm glad you brought it up. American freedom of the press is 1000x better than that of Russia and China.

This is not a binary. Not everybody who criticises the US needs to side with China or Russia. You're the one who keeps bringing up the worst possible examples that also happen to compete with the US and its allies on the international stage.

In terms of freedom of press, Japan was 9th in 2009 and is 71st now (PFI 64.72). The US have a press freedom index of 72.24, landing it in 42nd place just behind Burkina Faso.

Russia has an index of 38.82 and China of 25.17. It is bad, landing them close to the bottom, but 1,000x is a huge overstatement.

By the way, India, the US's and Japan's ally is only a few places above Russia at 41. Saudi Arabia, another important ally, has a PFI of 33.71.

This is a lot of detail, but it's impossible to get the full picture by making sweeping statements.

Neither the US nor Japan have contributed to the democratization or enforcement of law or any kind of fairness anywhere outside its borders (and are, to a great extent, not doing a great job within either) in the last 70 decades, and in the Global South ever.

The rhetoric about "freedom", "democracy" or "rule of law" is only a way to sell the otherwise less than appealing means to extract resources outside the country's borders that help advance the economic interests of those most powerful within that country.

It's completely understandable these powers are afraid of losing their hegemony in their respective areas. Also, places like Taiwan would arguably be a much worse place to live if it was ruled by the CCP. However, I have no illusions Japan or America want to protect anything else except their own economic interests. So does China, but two wrongs don't make a right.

Democracy does exist and Russia and China ain't it.

Nor is the US with its oligarchical system and Japan with its one party rule and plummeting freedom of speech.

Japan blatantly disregards international law when it comes to foreign citizens, has an abysmal record on gender equality. US has, unlike China, been bombing countries and toppling their democratically elected governments in the global south for decades.

But no social issues or things like freedom of press matter if we can rile everyone up against a common threat from the outside.

This is nothing new.

The US and its allies (such as, right now, Japan) have been always using buzzwords like "democracy" and, more recently, "rule of law" or "rule-based order" to promote mostly exactly the opposite of that.

Obviously, many of us see through this kind of double speak, but way too many don't, making it just efficient enough for people like Kishida, or whoever is in the hot chair that month, to gain enough public support for pretty much anything.

Obviously some woke Supreme Court

The story is, despite the acquittal, tragic. However, this made me laugh. The famously woke Japanese judicial system with its virtue-signalling support for minorities and gender equality. Lmao!

Or are we at the stage where everything showing any decency or compassion is considered "woke"?

free and open Indo-Pacific

India is about as far from "free" as it gets. For examples, it ranks 150th in the world on the Press Freedom Index. But I understand that two ultranationalists would have a slightly different perception of "freedom" than most of us.

As Tokyo spins up its defense industry for the country's largest military expansion since World War II

This is one of the most terrifying ways to begin an article, but it does only describe where we are right now.

a country with famously high standards of cleanliness.

Completely unnecessary and anyone who's ever visited a men's public toilet would know it's untrue.

The youngsters' behaviour would be unacceptable anywhere. Kaiten zushi places are one of the best things about daily life here, but there's no need to appeal to Japanese exceptionalism.

If my girlfriend takes a job interview she is outright asked if she has a partner or plans on having kids.

Afaik that's illegal. But who is going to sue an interviewer, right? Especially if it's something everyone does.

The test for granting asylum is not whether the claimant feels unhappy or unfulfilled. It's whether or not they have a well-founded fear of persecution.

That's not what your original question was about. One could argue that "they didn't die" is not proof there weren't persecuted, but that doesn't matter because you dodged my question anyway.

Can you point to a single case of a rejected asylum seeker deported from Japan and later killed or persecuted by their own government?

I don't know enough refugees or asylum seekers personally. What I do know is people who have death warrants or are in situations where returning from Japan after having fled "illegally" would at least land them in prison.

Refugee NGOs have a huge incentive to track and publicise such cases but none seem to exist.

If that's the case, can you point to a single case where someone was deported and ended up living a happy, fulfilling life in the country they fled? Even if such cases exist though, that doesn't prove the point that it's safe to return for everybody, not even the majority.

Japan's record for assessing the credibility of asylum claims appears to be quite good.

If you think 99.9% of them are frauds, sure.