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Friday 21st March 2008
 For those of you
not familiar with Japan and the language "Yokoso" translates as
"welcome". The image above, adapted to read NOKOSO against the backdrop of
a fingerprint indicates that YOU
ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. Your dollars and
international currency are. Funnily enough, the Japanese government has
just
wasted billions of yen in tax payers money on a campaign to promote
tourism in Japan while at the same time introducing a biometric data
scanning programme at airports to protect this hallowed land from
foreign terrorism. In the meantime, please do not visit Japan! This
is a country where discrimination is rife and where UN reports on such
matters are routinely ignored by the government and the media.The only
way to get this stopped is to hit the pockets of businessmen here and
to provide counter-intelligence internationally. By staying away, you
will help those of us living and working here with families who cannot
leave, and
those who believe that
people the world over have the right to live and work where they
please, with equal rights and status regardless of "nationality".
News
Activities are beginning to take
shape as activists both non-Japanese and Japanese are becoming
more aware of the implications of the new biometric data collection
programme. We have received a message from our friends at PINCH!
PINCH! Against War and Security
Control
Inquiries: PINCH! Against War and Security Control
at Kyuen Renraku Center, #14, 4F Ishida Bldg, 2-8-16
Shimbashi,Minato-ku, Tokyo.
03-3591-1301
http://www.iya-ten.net/pinch/pinch.html
Message from the Organisers
Police questioning on streets in
downtown areas is quite common in Japan under the name of
“security control.” Illegal interrogation, investigation, and arrest
are not uncommon things for both Japanese and non-Japanese. Many among
the targets of the checks are freeter-looking persons, musicians and
people who look like they play in a band. The police believes them to
be “suspicious,” and non-Japanese are targeted because of their skin
color.
In a 1998 report on the Japanese situation, a UN Human Rights Committee
called for the Japanese government to quickly establish an independent
institution to deal with complaints against abuses by police or
immigration officers, but there has been no move until now.
Now the Supreme court is deliberatinging on a damages case against the
state of a Nigerian who
was brutally attacked by
police in Kabukicho, Shinjuku.The
Nigerian was simply
handing out shop flyers, but several police surrounded him and kicked
and beat him up badlly. The Nigerian is now physically disabled. The
police, telling him that “the Blacks run fast, brutally kicked his leg
joints to pieces. Even though he received crush fractures,he was not
given appropriate treatment during interrogation and detention. He
finally got surgery after release but disability remained to the degree
that he was certified as physically disabled. At the first trial,
the man gave testimony in detail of his treatment and torture but
the court discriminated against him suggesting that the testimony of
Nigerians is not trustworthy.
In October, the Japanese government finally joined the International
Criminal Court.The ICC asks its member countries to assure the rights
of suspects and defendants, including providing lawyers during
interrogations. However, such pratices are not provided for in Japanese
legislation. If the laws were controlled based on fair human rights
standards, the Nigerian would not have ended up permanently disabled.
In Japan there are lots of
problems such as opacity and covering-up of police investigations
and the existence of substitute prisons, in which the public and the
state trample down human rights.This has profound consequences for
everyone living in Japan, japanese or not and will result in
unhappiness for all of us.
PINCH! Against War and Secutiry Control has been holding several study
sessions:
“What If You Face Police Check on Street?” (September 2004)
“Youngsters and Labor – Don’t Call Us Neet!”(October, 2006)
“Creeping On Police – For Whom the Safety and Relief are?”
This time, putting our focus to the Nigerian’s case, let’scriticize the
installment of the Japanese version of US-VISIT and the problems lying
in exercising human rights in Japn and in the world.
 As
you can see from the logo, the Yokoso
Japan weeks for 2008 are between
January 20th and February 29th.There are a host of commercial
events
taking place in Tokyo and other regions of Japan targetting, wait for
it!.....travellers and tourists with a focus on "shopping sprees" and
"experiencing Japan". According to the Yokoso website the three
principle themes for the weeks are 1).Experience Japan first hand.
2).Enjoy special discounts. 3).A variety of services that will
make your visit more enjoyable.(sic) Just what are we to make of this?
A first observation is that if we are to fight the immigration law, a
sure fire way is to hit them where it hurts-in their pockets - these
three "major points" (sic) are all connected to the economy."Let's
Shopping spree!" whooppeee! Experience Japan First Hand! What a
laugh! Every tourist entering the country will have
experienced Japan with
both hands for the first time at an immigration booth! It doesn't get
more first hand than that! A variety of services that will make your
visit more enjoyable! (sic) Such as the friendly Japanese cops at the
Koban?
It's time to organise,
and we can begin by pooling resources for direct
action. The Yokoso Japan Weeks 2008 are an opportunity for us to
demonstrate, leaflet and campaign against the immigration law. At
Spring, we would like to call on
all the activist groups, trade unions
and individuals out there to target Yokoso events. As the
government
campaign is about tourism we can begin by leafletting at tourist sites.
Quite what Disneyland has to do with traditional Japanese culture, we
don't know, but how about going along to "Cinderellabration: Lights of
Romance" (Tokyo Disneyland) (1/17-3/14
)"Tokyo Disney
Sea Season of the Heart"
(Tokyo DisneySea) ? The blurb goes like this: "Come enjoy special
programs filled with wonder and romance! The two
Parks sparkle under the crystal clear wintry skies, making it the
perfect occasion to spend a heartwarming time with the ones you
love." Perhaps we will
be fingerprinted on the way in? Perhaps we will go through metal
detectors and be subjected to full body searches to make sure we don't
have any pins for popping balloons in our pockets?
Alternatively there is
the Tokyo National Museum
(1/20-2/29 ) where we can focus a similar
effort on the more "cultured" visitors. An idea could be to set up an
alternative exhibition of crowd control measures, detention centres,
torture techniques and information on Japanese political and civil
rights abuses.
Let's see if we can
make these things happen. If anyone would like to organise for the
Yokoso Japan weeks in 2008, please get in touch via our forum. ( click here )
Here
are some quick links. Please note that we are not officially linked to
these groups/activists. We are providing the info in solidarity and
will provide more as we go on.
Demo
at the Ministry of Injustice
20/11/07
 
A group of
Japanese citizens and residents
protested against JAPAN'S VERSION OF
THE "US-VISIT PROGRAM" at noon today, November 20th to demand
that the J-Government stop
the fingerprinting and photographing of non-Japanese on entry to Japan.From
November
20, 2007, the Japanese government will
put into effect
the Japan version of the US-VISIT
Program,
where all non-Japanese entering Japan (with the exception of
children under age 16, Diplomats, and "Special
Permanent Residents" (i.e. ethnic Koreans, Chinese, etc.) will have
their fingerprints and facial photographs taken every time they
cross the border.This
is none other than a system to track and tighten controls on foreigners, including residents. The
government and the Justice Ministry loudly claim
that this is an "anti-terror measure", but consider the US-VISIT
Program, inaugurated four years ago in the United States, that this
policy is modeled upon: "It has been completely ineffective at
uncovering terrorists. Rather, it has been used as a way for the
government to create a blacklist and stop human rights activists from
entering the country." (Barry Steinhardt, American Civil Liberties
Union, Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan October 29, 2007).
We see Japan heading down the same path as
the US.
Japan's version of
the US-VISIT Program is
so laden with problems, and passed without
adequate deliberation by the Diet, that a call for the government and
the Justice Ministry to immediately suspend it was made by about 50
demonstrators who assembled before the Justice Ministry to
protest.Numerous groups were represented, from Amnesty International
Japan, to the
NUGW/NAMBU-FWC, the Peoples Plan Study Group, Peaceboat
and Spring, as well as a host of others. TV news crews and
newspaper
and magazine reporters covered the event and a yellow giant inflatable
hand with forefinger extended bearing a grubby ink print floated above
the demonstrators on the steps of the "Justice" ministry.
Spring
would like to
enocourage anyone living in Japan who visits this
site to get involved with any of the groups active against this racist,
xenophobic and anti-democratic law. Arguably, while tne reasons for the
immigration law and collection of biometric
data are grounded in officially propagated state racism and xenophobia,
it has been introduced now because of Japan's population problem.
As Japan needs thousands of workers a year to enter the country over
the next couple of decades to support its economy and pension and
benefits plans, the government has used the terrorism "threat"/excuse
to introduce the technology. Once it is in
place, they can test and refine it and sell it to the public when they
announce a mass influx of officially sanctioned immigration from poor
third world countries and countries that have skilled but poorly paid
workers. This is about the
control of the free movement of labour as opposed to capital.This is an
attempt at/contribution to the future branding of workers as resources
to be consumed globally and anyone interested in their own freedom of
movement, freedom of speech and expression should try to stop this
technology spreading and being used against ordinary working people.
If you care about whether or not your
children will have basic rights
in the future and whether or not your grandchildren will possibly be
having microchips implanted at the back of their necks in the worst
science fiction nightmare come true:
FIGHT THIS LAW!!!
You can start by writing to:
Kunio
Hatoyama
Appointed Minister
of Justice on August 27, 2007.As
Minister of Justice, Mr. Hatoyama has overall responsibility for
justice system administration; primarily ensuring maintenance of the
legal order of the state and protection of the rights of the people.
Please
bear in mind that Hatoyama has friends that associate with
al-Qaeda and
that it could be dangerous to wind him up too much. You might have a
visit in the night from Osama.Even the BBC reported this so it MUST be true! Just look here:BBC
Now, before regular SPRING
people say WHAT!?? BBC on this
site!?? Remember that this is a respectable member of the
establishment we are dealing with, and he won't pay attention to Counterpunch! That BBC story
might just get his goat.
The piece above was adapted from a notice
put out by People's Plan Study Group on behalf of AI Japan. It was
translated by Debito Arudou and additional opinion/commentary was added
by Spring organisers. Our point of view does not necessarily represent
the movement fighting this law as a whole.
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