The better U.S. media now use fact-checkers and truth meters to debunk outrageous claims by politicians. Maybe Japan should do the same toward its critics.

High on the truth-meter treatment list would be the never-ending claims that Japan is a racist society. One of the more egregious was the claim by the Dutch journalist, Karel van Wolferen, who once wrote that special schools existed to make sure that returnee children be "re-molded" into good, obedient Japanese.

True, special schools do exist to help children who have lived abroad readjust to the education system here. But they are few and hard to enter. They are also very popular with parents who want an international education for their children — the exact opposite of racism.