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Arudou Debito is back in an interview on the Japan Podshow. He talks about:
- The first few years of his life in Japan
- The Otaru Onsen Case
- The new Gaijin cards and associated human rights issues, and what you can do to stop their introduction
- Foreigners who defend discrimination against other foreigners claiming that ‘We are guests in Japan'
- Has the situation improved for foreigners in Japan in recent years?
- His public image, and new beard, Arthur.
Community-driven Japan news site
69 comments
If people are short for time I'd recommend they watch video 3 as it has implications for us all.
Regarding the "gaijin chips", Debito envisions a technologically-oppressive, tyrannical police state hunting down foreigners and says "It's not that far from the science fiction anymore". The Host (Tamegoeswild A.K.A. Joseph Tame) comments that the claim is preposterous. (And I'm inclined to agree with him!)
Debito is still confused about the difference between 日本人 and 日本国民; claims that "people know 'gaijin' is not a nice word." He takes a very rigid black-and-white stance on the term basically saying, "You're either with us or against us."
Debito blames the Japanese government for him not being able to conduct his own academic research. (A little bit of a baffling statement)
His whole IC Chip argument is technically ignorant, with the opinions formed by cherry-picking the results of a few Google searches.
Oh, and as of writing, seven comments but only two Socs!
I guess everyone else is really as tired of Debito as I am. I forced myself through the whole 40 minute video clip, but I posted it here because he's usually a hot topic. I guess the heat is dwindling.
I wonder where he is, he used "gaijin" 12 times in his "bugging the alien" article. Granted all in the context "gaijin cards", but he did introduce the topic as "alien registration cards" before switching exclusively to "nigger cards"...
Citing Alien 2 (hasn't he seen Minority report at least?) in his tinfoil hat rant is symptomatic of his lack of connection with current reality.
I think I heard him say "my blog" 3 or 4 times in part 3. In the end, Debito is all about Debito.
The successful ones are doing it in Japanese, and they are getting actual Japanese to side with them on the issue which is a lot more productive in the end. Also, they tend not to focus on the "white angle". There are other foreigners besides us "white boys", to use Debito's term.
Yes, very trying.
I find it interesting and a little sad that those who have commented are more interested in character assasination than the law currently going through the lower house that will affect non-Japanese in Japan. I think Debito's voice is only too necessary in a world where commenters make a point of defending a curb of their own civil rights!
Being able to track people with the IC Chip is a complete and utter red herring.
What civil rights are being curbed again? Its only when and if you consider an RFID chip to be a "bug" that you start to believe you are having your rights taken away from you.
The ID card debate has been huge in the UK with many people speaking out against them, and yet here it would seem to do so is something worthy of criticism.
I guess I'd better be careful what I say though or one of you might send the uyoku dantai round!
(N.b. this last comment is tongue in cheek and should not be taken seriously)
My problem with Debito's views (as opposed to the self-aggrandizing man) is the signal-to-noise ratio. Yes, he occasionally makes a good point, but I find I have to wade through a lot of chaff to get there and can't overlook that chaff. The nonsense about remote scanning of IC chips is a case in point - undercutting your own credibility is hardly the best way to be persuasive.
I tend to agree with others that the best way to help better integrate foreigners into Japan is not Debito's "activist" approach. What may work in the US won't necessarily work in Japan. Those working behind the scenes to better the lives of the majority foreigners in Japan (other Asians and South Americans, as opposed to self-important Westerners) are probably doing much more than Debito is, with less demand for recognition.
(Finally, you don't do yourself any favours by oblique accusations of uyoku dantai connections when you are accusing others of character assassination.)
As far as the RFID chips are concerned they are already used in new American passports and for the most part are safe from intrusion. There are still some problems, you are right, but the idea that you could scan one of those cards with any old scanner and get someone's personal information just isn't the case. In the American example, the only information the cards keep on them is an unique id number that is used to access personal files kept on Department of Homeland Security databases. So yes, you can copy that number from the chip itself, but good luck accessing that ever so precious personal information. Someone could potentially clone your passport, but without accessing and changing information in the DoHS's database, potential identify thieves have nothing.
Not saying Japan's system will be that tight knit, but that's not really the concern for Debito. The concern is that the government will track our every movement. For the most part, aside from setting up tracking stations at every building a gaijin may walk into and having a huge network monitoring gaijin traffic across Japan, it's a fairy tale scenario.
Just because we aren't up in arms about nothing doesn't mean we don't care about our rights in Japan. Debito is the proverbial "gaijin who cried discrimination" and most of us have been around long enough to know that by now. Furthermore, the uyoku dantai have nothing to do with this.
Do you think foreigners in Japan should have the right to vote in civil elections? There are some civil rights that are simply not afforded to foreign residents of a country.
If Debito wants to be a self-proclaimed "shit stirrer", fine, but not everyone who he claims to be advocating for wants to deal with the spatter. I don't want his antics to be representative of me or of foreigners in Japan in general.
It's clear that many don't want Debito / Debito's articles to be representative of foreigners in Japan ...yet we don't seem to see anyone else putting themselves forward - is it better to just be a submissive community accepting the proposed changes?
Is there a beneficial effect to just going about life in a reasonable and professional way? D is happy with the decline of the "Gaijin da!" or shunning response, but that really just comes from more Japanese in more walks of life having a normal interaction with foreigners on a regular basis. Time! It does take time. If you compared Japan with most advanced industrial societies, the timeline for civil rights for immigrants is relatively short. And then, compare Japan with the treatment of immigrants in the US where I'm from, and you open a whole other can of worms.
The more foreigners there are out there just doing their thing, the society will change. The bellowing aggrieved approach hasn't worked all that well.
If you don't see anyone else out there, it may be because they are quietly getting things done, rather than making a spectacle of themselves.
Joe is dead right on the point of who is doing the heavy lifting in the human-rights field here. Remember the finger-print on the gaijin card? It was mainly the Koreans who got that one lifted in 1999. What was Debito doing that year? Fighting the human rights travesty which was the Otaru onsen...
You'll excuse me if I don't wish to have a man, whose priorities put "having a warm bath" ahead of "not being fingerprinted like a criminal", as the unofficial representative of my civil rights in Japan.
Most foreigners in Japan don't speak English as a native language, and the leaders of their communities don't have their own personal "dot org" with blogs in English. They're not famous within the very small community of native English speakers, but they're doing good work.
I think there's room for people in all three 'categories'. I would hope that Debito's ability to reach a wide audience may prompt more of those in the middle ground to act.
Debito has done more for us than anyone else. And the price he's paid (e.g. lose his family) more than make up for his overflowing zeal for his cause that leads the lot of you trolls bashing him.
☆Pro Tip☆ Realize Japan isn't the promised land you've made it to be.
That's an interesting claim, that his activism caused his divorce - according to his far too lengthy divorce report on his own site he initiated the action and (I don't really want to read it again, so I'm working from memory) it was basically that she was no longer the woman he married.
☆Pro Tip☆Realise that disliking Debito's actions doesn't mean that we are ga-ga fresh off the boaters.
As other have mentioned, similar technology exists in the States and soon in the UK. That isn't to say that it right or acceptable however. I don't know what Debitio thinks about the technology in other countries, but if he's hoping to have any sort of consistency, he would have to damn it everywhere else too. I think his arguments about the technology having the potential for misuse are fine -read: 'potential'. I am aware of what has been said above regarding RFID chips and their limitations, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a step in the Orwellian direction.
@CJW @Gotanda I sympathise with what you say about not wanting Debito to represent you as a foreigner, but the irony is that a lot of what Debito is fighting for (or at least, believes he is fighting for) is exactly to get rid of that sort of misassociation. You claim that Debito's actions harm the perception of foreigners in Japan - and you are probably right - but then one of the best ways to dispell the image that all foreigners are like Debito is get out there in the limelight and show it. I agree much of the 'real' work may be done in the background, but if foreigner image is what concerns you, we arguably need more people to step forward and show the spectrum of differing opinions and approaches that exist in the foreign community. Perhaps some of us should voice our opinions more in the Japan Times and other places?
@CJW I also don't think you're right to accuse Debito of relaxing in the bath when real issues were at hand. You're doing exactly what you accuse him of doing and painting distorted images that you believe him to have. Unless you have some sort of evidence where he says it was most important to fight the onsen case over fingerprinting? You usually cite such sources, so I'm surprised at your comment this time -did I miss something earlier?
http://www.debito.org/fingerprinting.html
The whole tenor of the article hardly suggests that he was throwing his weight behind the campaign, does it?
He makes his disinclination for fighting for significant rights in the courts quite clear. That he chose to take a isolated and trivial case to court (the Otaru onsen) speaks volumes.
Finally, what concerns me is not "foreigner image". What concerns me is that Debito is telling me that my rights are being abused when I don't think they are.
Anyway, I'm just about done on this one. The big vein in my temple is starting to throb...
I understand where you are coming from though. Debito's methods do inflame people and there is no clear line on human rights. The result is debates like these,and we have no choice but to listen when somebody cries out injustice.
I would encourage you to write more in a context that can adequately compete with Debito though - you certainly appear to have the knowledge an aptitude for it and it couldn't hurt to get more people standing up and giving a variety of opinions
The 'nonsense' regarding IC chips you mention is your own personal view.
Yes, all we have here are our personal views. The difference is that my view is backed up by a little knowledge of the technology in this area and something even more powerful than Debito's imaginary "gaijin detector", and that is my trusty ol' BS Detector. The US and other militaries have been spending millions on ways to identify their own soldiers on a GIS display so that they can locate all friendlies - that technology is a ways off and it's a safe bet that if they're having difficulties, it's not that likely that handheld gaijin scanners are imminent.
So...
it is not so ridiculuous that it could not be imagined to happen at all.
There are lots of things that could not be imagined to happen at all, but that doesn't mean that something which we can imagine is likely or even possible. That is the problem with slippery-slope arguments like Debito's - they pick one possibility (and usually an unlikely one) which is more reflective of their own fears and biases than any likely future.
Could the imaginary "gaijin scanner" be developed? One day maybe, but so could other, more intrusive technologies like, oh I don't know, a cell phone which can be remotely programmed to start screaming "Gaijin! Gaijin!" when remotely triggered by the police. Which I probably shouldn't have throught up because now someone will take it seriously...
That's the whole point. Getting out in the limelight, or some would say in poeple's faces, is a failing strategy. It just doesn't work that well at accomplishing change in people's attitudes-or in the law. Another attention-seeker will compound the problem, not diminish it.
Okay, I didn't mean 'getting in people's faces' by being in the limelight, but I did certainly mean standing and and being heard. Please tell me, if more people who feel mistreated and discriminated against don't raise their voice don't speak out, how is the situation going to change? Are you subscribing we go down stereotypical Japanese routes of toumawashi and indirectness? Don't get me wrong, I agree with you in that I think Debito's approaches are a little too antagonising, but people like you and I who sit here debating the pros and cons in a place nobody cares about (no offense Nick, but Japansoc isn't exactly a political arena) will not likely do much. I was saying that, rather than here, let more of us stick our necks out in places they are likely to be heard - that's what I meant by limelight.
Though I haven't heard of problems in developing such technology...
I'm sure you'd find it amazing how much you've never heard of...
As an example of how the US Army is having difficulty with a system for tracking troops in an urban environment, and when those troops are equipped with transmitters actively sending out information (as opposed to a passive RFID tag which needs to be pinged to send out info) and which shows results on large and bulky displays...
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2007/09/when-the-soldie/
Now imagine trying to discriminate (in the technological sense) who in a crowd is "tagged" - having a display with icons of those people conveniently flashing and with arrows to identify them is still the stuff of Hollywood.
I'm not sure whether or not you're having a dig at me for not knowing about the military's use of tracking technology, but please don't assume everyone has the same knowledge you do. You would deliver your argument a lot more effectively if you had explained why Debito was wrong about such technology and shown articles such as this from the start rather than simply branding it as 'nonsense'.
That said, thank you for taking the time to find an article and link it here. It has given me a greater insight into things
No dig was intended and apologies if it sounded that way (though I can do without the school-marmish lecturing on etiquette). I would say that if someone (like Debito or others) is going to make outrageous claims about non-existent technologies the onus is on them to back it up rather than the onus being on me to back up why it's nonsense.
Apologies for the lecturing too - I just wish these discussions could be more adult sometimes. Many of the discussions in the past on Japansoc have degenerated into madness.
Err, can't be a terribly important issue if a bit of rain (in the rainy season) is going to cause a cancellation.
...especially considering that it's organised by the "NGO Committee against the Introduction of the ‘Zai-ryu' Residence Card" and not Debito, and that he's merely publicising it on his site.
Personally I think he should make sure that every protest held by any group campaigning for human rights anywhere in Japan is held no matter what the weather and regardless of whether or not he's an active member of the organising committee, otherwise it shows that he clearly doesn't give a hoot
Debito doesn't represent all foreigners in Japan. Not even close. But he does represent some, and they deserve a representative.
Let's also look at the fact that the job of an activist is to be visible and to make issues known so that those who want his help or want to know what is happening can go and find out the who, what, when, where and why of the current situation. Most foreigners living in Japan aren't reading the papers or following changes in the law because it's too time consuming to track such things down and they live busy lives. If you're an activist and you're laboring quietly behind the scenes, then you've already partially failed at your asserted purpose.
As for doing it in English, Debito sometimes offers other languages as well, but he is bilingual in English and Japanese. He's not an activist for the Japanese. They don't need such a person. It makes sense for him to reach people in English, you know, the current common language.
I'm not sure that the people criticizing Debito even listened to the interviews or watched the videos. If so, you should be appalled at the way in which an onsen was going to allow one of his daughters in because she looked more "Japanese" and reject the other because she looked too "foreign". This experience is a good metaphor for life for the foreigners and Japanese here. What is worse, imagine if you have children with a Japanese person and they are treated differently because of how they look. One daughter is going to grow up entitled and accepted and the other feeling rejected and inferior. Is this what people want for their children?
At any rate, Debito isn't speaking for those of you who feel just fine with whatever the Japanese do to foreigners in Japan. He's speaking for those who aren't fine with it, and if you don't like it, you can feel free to ignore him. However, most people aren't okay with ignoring him. They malign him and ascribe motives to him which are clearly not in evidence after listening to and watching him speak.
And finally, comparing life here to other countries is pointless. It doesn't matter what other countries do if we're not living in those countries. When and if you decide to reside in such countries as an expatriate, then it becomes your concern. Trying to draw comparisons between Japan and other countries is just a way of distracting people from the topic at hand. The bottom line is that the changes in policies at hand have nothing to do with tracking illegal immigrants (as has been mentioned before) and everything to do with monitoring foreigners more closely because they are regarded as more likely to commit crimes. If you think that these cards will do much more than increase instances of identity theft so that those who are inclined to be here illegally can acquire the means to remain here undetected, then you are mistaken.
http://www.imadr.org/
http://www.ijimezero.org/contents/npo.html
http://www.jclu.org/
http://www.nbr.org/ (Japan-U.S. forum)
Then there's Tony Laszlo, who Debito absolutely loves to rag on because he thinks Tony's tactics are too soft. (Despite his wife's Darling series which has brought the issue into many more homes than Debito's English rants)
The reason many of us find it useless for him to be conducting himself in English is because he's just preaching to the choir. The way you get results is to take it to the native population.
And to extend your logic (and by no means do I actually think Debito is a terrorist):
If I disagree with American neo-colonialism, I should support terrorism because they are trying to put an end to it.
I will leave this (edited): "you should be appalled at the way in which an onsen was going to allow one of (Debito's) daughters in because she looked more "Japanese" and reject the other because she looked too "foreign""
That is appalling. What I am more appalled at is a "father" who would knowingly and deliberately subject his children to that. If Debito and Olaf Karthaus and Debito's wife, all adults, wanted to drive halfway across Hokkaido to pull off a stunt to get refused entry to an onsen so Debito could make a lot of noise, that's one thing. That was admirable and worthy of support.
But dragging his pre-school-age kids into it? And making a scene with them saying "Okay kids. We're being ejected from the premises. For reasons we were born with."?? That's child abuse. Absolutely unforgivable. A parent's duty is to protect his/her children, not use them as pawns in adult games.
Author of JapaneseSnackReviews...
I let him know we could call any number of my Japanese friends who were there with me and they could explain I was not the person he was after. He refused to reason, he demanded I show him my alien registration card and persisted to ask why I started a fight.
I refused. I replied that he should ask for a description of what kind of 外人 was involved. He said they only knew it was a 外人. I refused again based on his outlandish claims that I was the one based solely on my appearances. The whole stretch to my mansion gate the police officer pleaded with me to let him "do his job" but I refused.
At the very end I closed the gate on him and told him he really should do his job and not be a racist アホ to which he replied it was not 人種差別, but was in fact 区別.
When you've been unfairly treated just because of your appearance, you may not think Debito is so extreme or bold in his statements afterall.
Anyway, again, my apologies.
PS - just realized Japansoc allows editing of your own posts, so I have deleted the false accusation. You may stop throwing umeboshi now (please?) No, wait, I like umeboshi! Now I'm confused...
Part 1:http://www.japansoc.com/Foreigners/japan-is-not-america-a-comparison-of-how-foreigners-are-treated/
and perhaps of particular relevance to some people in this thread...
Part 2: http://www.japansoc.com/Discrimination/japan-is-not-america-pt2-why-foreigners-defend-discrimination-against-foreigners/
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39352924,00.htm