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Racialized terms thrown about by cops and parroted by news outlets have consequences

Police, media must consider plight of those caught in linguistic dragnet

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A national media exerts a powerful influence over the lives of members of its society. For example, rumors or untruths disseminated through print or broadcast can destroy livelihoods and leave reputations in ruins.

This is why judiciaries provide mechanisms to keep media accountable. In Japan, laws against libel and slander exist to punish those who put out misleading or false information about individuals.

But what about broadcasting misleading or false information about groups? That’s a different issue, because Japan has no laws against “hate speech” (ken’o hatsugen). Consequently, Japanese media get away with routine pigeonholing and stereotyping of people by nationality and social origin.

An example? The best ones can be found in Japan’s crime reportage. If there is a crime where the perpetrator might be a non-Japanese (NJ), the National Police Agency (and by extension the media, which often parrots police reports without analysis) tends to use racialized typology in its search for suspects.

The NPA’s labels include hakujin for Caucasians (often with Hispanics lumped in), kokujin for Africans or the African diaspora, burajirujin-kei for all South Americans, and ajia-kei for garden-variety “Asians” (who must somehow not look sufficiently “Japanese,” although it’s unclear clear how that limits the search: aren’t Japanese technically “Asian” too?).

Typology such as this has long been criticized by scholars of racism for lacking objectivity and scientific rigor. Social scientist Paul R. Spickard puts it succinctly: “Races are not types.”

Even hard scientists such as geneticist J.C. King agree: “Both what constitutes a race and how one recognizes a racial difference are culturally determined. Whether two individuals regard themselves as of the same or of different races depends not on the degree of similarity of their genetic material but on whether history, tradition, and personal training and experiences have brought them to regard themselves as belonging to the same groups or to different groups . . . there are no objective boundaries to set off one subspecies from another.”

The NPA has in recent years gotten more sophisticated with its descriptors. One might see tōnan ajia-jin fū for Southeast Asians, chūtō-kei for Middle Easterners, indo-kei for all peoples from the Indian subcontinent or thereabouts, or the occasional chūgokujin-kei, firipin-kei, etc., for suspects involved in organized crime or the “water trade.”

But when the suspect is of uncertain ethnic origin but somehow clearly “not Japanese,” the media’s default term is gaikokujin-fū (foreign-looking).

Lumping suspects into a “Japanese” or “not Japanese” binary is in fact extremely unhelpful during a search for a suspected criminal, because it puts any NJ, or visible minority in Japan (including many Japanese citizens), under the dragnet.

Not only does this normalize racial profiling; it also encourages the normalization and copycatting of stereotypes. I have seen cases where people assumed that “foreigners” were involved in a crime just because they saw people who “looked different” or “acted different” (which has in the past encouraged criminals to adopt accented speech, or blame fictitious foreign perps to throw cops off their trail).

There are two other bad habits reinforced by publicly racializing criminality. One is the creation of a public discourse (discussed many times on these pages) on how “foreigners” in particular are a source of crime, and thus destabilizing to Japanese society.

The other is that any careless typology winds up associating nationality/phenotype/social origin with criminal behavior, as in, “He’s a criminal because he’s Chinese.”

Both habits must be stopped because they are, statistically, damned incorrect.

How should the NPA remedy this?

Easy, really. They should amend, if not outright abandon, any race-based typology when reporting crime to the media. The police and the media should try this instead:

1) When there is a suspect on the run, and the public is being alerted to be on the lookout, then give phenotypical details (e.g., gender, height, hair color) — the same as you would for any Japanese fugitive. Do not reveal any nationality (or use the generic word “foreign”). Why? Because nationality is not a matter of phenotype.

2) When there is a suspect in custody for interrogation (as in, not yet charged for prosecution), then it is not necessary to give phenotypical or nationality details. Why? Because an accusation without charge is not yet a crime statistic, so those details are irrelevant to the case. It is also not yet a fact of the case that this particular crime has been committed by this particular person — innocent before proven guilty, remember.

3) When there is an arrest, giving out details on specific nationality is permissible, as it is now a fact of the case. Pointing out phenotypical details, however, is unnecessary, as it may draw undue attention to how criminals supposedly “look.” (Readers will have their curiosity sated by seeing the inevitable photograph, now also a fact of the case.)

4) When there is a conviction, refer to 3 above. But when there is an acquittal, the police and media should mention the nationality of the former suspect in a public statement, to counteract the social damage caused by any media coverage that may have inadvertently linked criminality to a nationality.

Remember that at any time during criminal procedure, it is never necessary to use the generic word “foreign,” what with all the potential for overgeneralization and stereotyping. In addition, the police should repeatedly caution the media against any tone associating nationality with criminality.

Now, why am I devoting a column to this? Because the media must not only watch the watchers; it must watch itself. I also know that policymakers read the Japan Times Community pages and this column, because they have changed their policies after withering criticisms here.

Remedial actions inspired by this space include the Takamadonomiya All Japan Junior High School English Speech Contests amending their rules to disqualify “native English speakers” instead of just “all foreigners” (Zeit Gist, Jan. 6, 2004), NTT DoCoMo repealing their “security deposit” for all foreigners only (ZG, Aug. 29, 2002), the Cabinet’s human rights survey rewriting questions that once made human rights “optional” for foreign humans (ZG, Oct. 23, 2007) and, most significantly, the National Research Institute of Police Science discontinuing its racist “foreigner DNA” research scheme for crime scenes (ZG, Jan. 13, 2004).

Here’s hoping that the police and media realize what careless reportage does to NJ residents, and start monitoring themselves better. It’s time to make amends for all the social damage done thus far.

After all, both are generally more careful if the suspects are Japanese. Anyone ready to say in public “He’s a criminal because he’s from Osaka”? Thought not. Consistency regardless of nationality or social origin, please.

Debito Arudou’s “Japanese Only: The Otaru Onsens Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan” is now on sale as a 10th anniversary e-book on Amazon for ¥975. See www.debito.org/japaneseonly.html. Twitter @arudoudebito. Just Be Cause appears on the first Community pages of the month. Send comments and ideas to community@japantimes.co.jp.

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  • Fight Back

    Well-put and well-said Debito! Someone needs to stand up and make a stand when it comes to the backward facing policies of the NPA and the media in Japan. As an NJ, I am constantly dismayed to see my fellow NJ portrayed as criminals by the Japanese, who are always ready to accept any stereotype the media feeds them. Where is the independent, critical thought? I sense people’s eyes of suspicion on me when I am just walking down the street no matter how much I try to intergrate. Debito is right, we must all be referred to as people, not races but I am dismayed that the Japanese may never ‘get’ this.

    • “I am constantly dismayed to see my fellow NJ portrayed as criminals by the Japanese, who are always ready to accept any stereotype the media feeds them. Where is the independent, critical thought?”

      Racist much?

      “I sense people’s eyes of suspicion on me when I am just walking down the street”

      Paranoid much?

      “we must all be referred to as people, not races”

      Then we can all join hands and sing “Kumbayah”…

      ” I am dismayed that the Japanese may never ‘get’ this.”

      Comments like this from people like you are why I am glad Arudou Debito doesn’t get his wish that people’s thoughts and words be censored for political correctness. Freedom of speech means we all get to know who the nasty little racists around us are.

  • Ned Kelly

    Accurate reporting of names is important too. In many cases, suspects are using an assumed Japanese name but their real name is different. This is often the case with Koreans in Japan, who often use a “Tsumei” fake Japanese name instead of their real names. Media should report both the assumed name or alias and the real name, to help the public identify the suspect or perpetrator. Hiding behind aliases should not be encouraged by the press.

  • See the problem is this, they’re not racializing criminals out of careless ignorance, they’re actively trying to get rid of foreigners because they don’t fit in with the image of Japan being a pure homogenous society. It’s their very policy in the first place; they’re trying to get rid of foreigners by negatively stereotyping them.

    The ideal situation would be the more conscientious citizens (even if it’s a small minority) would get angry about this enough to change the whole situation.

    • Eoghan Hughes

      Something gives me the impression that “Ryota Suzuki” isn’t this commenter’s real name. (Nothing wrong with that — my last name isn’t Hughes.)

      Anyway, Mr. Suzuki, would you mind citing some sources or statistics indicating that in fact the NPA are trying to expel all foreigners from Japan? I have gone to the police on a couple of occasions to ask for advice, and I have only ever found them to be polite and helpful.

      • Why wouldn’t it be my real name? If you are suggesting that I am not Japanese, then you are wrong.

        And why am I not surprised to see the usual Japan apologists furiously trying to defend what is basically a social injustice? You people are making my country WORSE, not better.

      • Masa Chekov

        Nobody is going to use the phrase “Japan apologists” if they are actually Japanese. Perhaps “Ishihara apologists” or “WWII apologists” or something similar, but not the entire country. Unnatural phrasing for your own country/own people.

      • Eoghan Hughes

        If you are Japanese then your use of the phrase “Japan apologists” surprises me — I come from Ireland, and while I have a number of problems with my country I would never attack foreigners who happen not to hate my country “Ireland apologists”. I would need to have a tremendous hatred of my own country to say that.

        Additionally, if you are Japanese then what gives you the right to tell me, a resident foreigner, that I don’t know how much “discrimination” and “social injustice” foreigners in Japan face? I merely pointed out how Debito has never presented any evidence for any of the arguments he makes here, in some places he consciously distorts facts (see his bogus original translation of “Policymaking Committee Against Internationalization”), and the only people who seem to agree with him are foreigners who don’t speak Japanese. If this is “Japan apologetics” then I apologize. I thought I was only pointing out the problems with this article.

      • Toolonggone

        I don’t think Mr. Suzuki is upset with you over the critique of Debito’s article. He is not happy with you possibly because of your first sentence: “Ryota Suzuki” isn’t this commenter’s real name,” in your previous post. That’s a killer ‘cuz you make an opening gambit with personal attack, even if you intend to make constructive criticism. Regarding the public recognition of issues, I second with Mr. Suzuki. Since human right issues are historically underrepresented (or neglected) in Japan, it takes a lot of time to comprehend the problem for both foreign residents and Japanese. Debito’s JT article here is just a piece of puzzle. It is totally up to each individual how to put each piece together for its critique.

      • Eoghan Hughes

        Not a personal attack. This comment’s CONTENT made it clear to me that the commenter was not Japanese. The commenter seems to think that all Japanese believe in some “racist creation myth”.

        How can the following statements

        (1) the commenter is Japanese,
        (2) the commenter agrees with Debito that all Japanese believe in a racist creation myth,
        (3) the commenter does not believe in a racist creation myth

        all register as true??

        The commenter claims all three are true, but how can all Japanese believe in a racist creation myth, and the commenter be Japanese, if the commenter himself does not believe in a racist creation myth? I took a shot in the dark and assumed (2) was true (the commenter would not have made a statement of belief if it were false), (3) was also true (same as (2)), and (1) was the false statement.

      • Toolonggone

        Wait. Are all three statements exactly what your opponent claims in his postings? I am not convinced. No one is saying that ‘all Japanese believe in a racist creation
        myth’ here. I also doubt that the commenter is pretending to be Japanese. It goes no further than he-said/she-said argument. This is an online discussion board–not face-to-face communication. People can make any kind of assumptions on who their allies and opponents are.

      • Eoghan Hughes

        The user claimed that enough Japanese people (read: almost all Japanese people) believe in a racist creation myth that it is a serious problem for foreign residents. Assuming good faith, the commenter must have been referring to the content of THIS editorial about police and the media being linked to racial profiling and “innocent” foreigners being subject to inappropriate association with foreign crime.

        As a resident foreigner who is fluent in Japanese and has been living comfortably in Japan for a number of years, I know this simply is not true. But I also know that some foreigners (read: those who can’t speak Japanese and/or work for dodgy Eikaiwa schools that mistreat them) may feel “oppressed” in Japan and think that Japan is just being racist against them. These are the kind of people who fall into Debito’s trap. Most Japanese I know are fairly internationalized and understand to some degree what life is like for foreigners in Japan. In fact, I would be willing to say they know MORE about what my life is like than, say, a foreigner who agrees with Debito would. And it would be very difficult for Japanese people, particularly those with the level of English that “Ryota Suzuki” has demonstrated, to be tricked into believing Debito’s nonsense in the first place.

        Nothing is ever 100% certain (a bit like history), so I made a judgement call. Since I would estimate that there are infinitesimally few Japanese people who are both (1) fluent in English and (2) completely and utterly ignorant of the issues foreigners in Japan face and why they face them, then the odds of such a creature finding his way onto this article and commenting on it are exceedingly low.

        So low, in fact, that the odds of this person being some random foreigner who agrees with Debito and is posing as a native Japanese in order to lend himself credibility, are significantly higher.

      • Toolonggone

        >Most Japanese I know are fairly internationalized and understand to some degree what life is like for foreigners in Japan. In fact, I would be willing to say they know MORE about what my life is like than, say, a foreigner who agrees with
        Debito would. And it would be very difficult for Japanese people, particularly those with the level of English that “Ryota Suzuki” has demonstrated, to be tricked into believing Debito’s nonsense in the first place.

        So your bottom line is…, what? “Ryota Suzuki” is not Japanese because of his poor language skills?—or because of his nod with the issue (and, hence, he could be Debito’s ally!?) I’m sorry. I’m getting cringed at your judgmental view on those who use English as a foreign/second language.

      • Elonkareon

        His bottom line is that because “Ryota Suzuki” IS fluent in English (fluent enough to be a native speaker), it is highly unlikely he could also be both Japanese and ignorant of the issues foreigners face in Japan. It’s quite the opposite of “poor language skills”, if anything it’s an accusation that English isn’t his second language at all.

      • Toolonggone

        Well, I’m not 100% sure about that. His opponent’s doesn’t seem to see it that way. Who knows? Since that’s not much of my interest, you can make an educated guess. All I can see so far is unnecessary insults and swipes, though.

      • Eoghan Hughes

        Dude, re-read my comment! I said that since “Ryota Suzuki” is saying things that no Japanese would say, then he probably isn’t Japanese. The fact that he has a high level of English gels well with my theory that English is his FIRST language and that he is posing as a Japanese to lend his views credibility.

  • Ironically Arudou seems to be conflating “race” with “nationality” himself, particularly in his bullet point #1 about reporting a suspect on the run. “White”, “Black”, “Asian” or “Hispanic” are not nationalities. Whilst I have seen nationality explicitly mentioned in reporting of suspects on the run, I can only ever recall seeing it in cases where the identity of the suspect was already confirmed and the suspect’s name, age, nationality and other identifying characteristics were noted. I see no problem with mentioning an unidentified suspect on the run is “Chinese” or “Filipino”, or even “asian” (when the nationality of the suspect is unknown, and yes, I have seen and read news reports where an “asian” was being looked for an upon arrest he turned out to be Japanese!), as a description of “mid-30s, male, dark brown hair and eyes, medium height, slim to medium build” has basically just described better than 50% of all male individuals of that age group and is so generic as to be completely meaningless!

    In fact, such descriptors are perfectly normal, as in this set of pointers from the Chicago Police Department’s website:

    “A variety of general description information about the suspect should be noted:
    Sex
    Race or national origin
    Age (estimated)
    Height-use comparisons with your own height, a door, or some other standard measure
    Weight (estimated)
    Build-fat, husky, slim, muscular, etc.”

    Or merely read the police reports in any local newspaper wherever you are.

    I would also like to point out that despite Mr. Arudou’s attempted slur, “chuugokujin-kei” and “firipinjin-kei” mean “Chinese” and “Filipino/a” respectively, not people “involved in organized crime or the “water trade”. Similarly, “Brajirujin-kei” means “Brazilian”, not “South American”, “South American” is rendered as “Chuunanbeijin-kei”, and Japanese media does differentiate even if supposed human rights activists apparently can’t be bothered to.

    Finally, when it comes to giving the public a negative impression of, for example, Chinese as criminals, who should we properly blame for that? The Japanese media reporting the facts, or those Chinese who are committing crimes? Let’s put the blame where it lies, Mr. Arudou.

    • Toolonggone

      >”White”, “Black”, “Asian” or “Hispanic” are not nationalities.

      No it’s not. But does the author say it otherwise in the article? I can’t see it. Speaking of which, “Asians” and South Americans” are not nationality, either.

      You also seem to argue that there is a hidden assumption that suggests the association between nationality and criminal behavior, and it is ok for the media to frame their news report in a way to inflame anti-foreign sentiment. Crimes can be committed by anyone–regardless of race, ethnicity, and nationality. Does that give any justification to put some or all group of ethnic people under scrutiny just because certain crime is committed by specific non-Japanese? Would it be the same if crimes are committed by Japanese? That’s exactly where the blame lies.

      • >But does the author say it otherwise in the article?

        Yes, he does: “Japanese media get away with routine pigeonholing and stereotyping of people by nationality and social origin. … An example? The best ones can be found in Japan’s crime reportage. … The NPA’s labels include hakujin…, kokujin…, burajirujin-kei …, and ajia-kei”

        None of these examples Arudou has held up reflect “nationality and social origin”.

        Arudou then goes on to say that “when there is a suspect on the run… do not reveal any nationality” (which I already pointed out above Japanese police currently do not, unless the identity of the suspect has already been ascertained) but instead “give phenotypical details (e.g., gender, height, hair color)”. Surely ethnicity is a “phenotypical detail”? If Japanese police are looking for a black suspect would they say “he has dark brown hair and eyes” and NOT mention “he’s black”? In an Asian country where 98% of the population has dark brown hair and eyes?

        So we go from Arudou saying “don’t say someone is white/black/Chinese (ethnicity, I assume)”, which is ludicrous in the extreme, to saying “don’t mention nationality”. While I do actually agree with the argument that it is wrong to announce that an unknown suspect being searched for is, for example, “Nigerian” based on the fact he is a) black and b) seen touting in Kabuki-cho, as neither of those two are enough on their own to ascertain nationality, at the same time I reject Arudou’s argument that therefore we can’t mention “the suspect is black” either. I have no idea what Arudou is trying to say (and I suspect he doesn’t either) when after criticizing police reports for describing someone as “white” he says “Typology such as this has long been criticized by scholars of racism for lacking objectivity and scientific rigor.” A police report is not an anthropology thesis. Saying a criminal suspect is caucasian is an objective fact.

        Finally, I am not arguing that there is an association between nationality and criminality. Nor am I arguing that it is acceptable for the media to write news reports that inflame anti-foreign sentiment. I am saying I reject the idea that merely reporting a suspect’s or perpetrator’s race is inflaming anti-foreign sentiment. which seems to be what you and Arudou are saying – that if a criminal appears to be non-Japanese ethnically it should not be reported at all, as doing so damages the image of all Japanese who are not ethnically Japanese as well as damaging the image of foreigners. Which is why I said that if a criminal is an ethnic Chinese, and the media reports that simple fact (without editorializing), and somehow this results in people having a negative image of Chinese as thieves, then who is to blame for that? The media and police for doing their jobs or the Chinese who chose to break the law?

      • Toolonggone

        > “Japanese media get away with routine pigeonholing and stereotyping of people by nationality and social origin. … An example? The best ones can be found in Japan’s crime reportage. … The NPA’s labels include hakujin…, kokujin…, burajirujin-kei …, and ajia-kei”

        Nope. These are what Arudou suspects that the media and NPA are doing in their business by associating race with nationality or social origin. This is NOT the same as Arudou says (or argues) that white (hakujin) and blacks (kokujin) are equivalent to nationality.

        >None of these examples Arudou has held up reflect “nationality and social origin”.

        Not at all. Because that’s not what he is suggesting in the article. Thank you for providing examples for misquoting. Your trick has been debunked.

        > which seems to be what you and Arudou are saying – that if a criminal appears to be non-Japanese ethnically it should not be reported at all, as doing so damages the image of all Japanese who are not ethnically Japanese as well as damaging the image of foreigners.

        Excuse me!? I am NOT making any comments touching on that issue at all. Don’t put someone’s words in my mouth. That’s disingenuous.

  • Masa Chekov

    This is a rather ridiculous article. Don’t give any description of nationality when reporting a suspect on the run? You mean, don’t give out what might be the most distinguishing feature about this person because someone might possibly make an association with foreigners (sorry, I am not using David’s preferred “NJ” acronym) and crime? How ridiculous.

    A (for example) Vietnamese national might speak Japanese with a non-native accent (if at all), so knowing this suspect is Vietnamese might help someone in identifying him. Saying he is 170cm with fair skin, between 30-40 years with black hair and brown eyes alone may not really do that, right?

    Unless you just want to identify the language that someone speaks or their accent while speaking Japanese without identifying their nationality, which is PC to the point of ludicrousness.

    • Toolonggone

      Explain why nationality is “the most distinguishing feature” about individuals, if it is different from any characteristic traits or phenotypes (i.e., White, black, Hispanics, etc.). Your example does not fit in because many Japanese have no clue how non-Japanese Asian look like in contrast to them.

      • Masa Chekov

        Read what I wrote again. I didn’t say nationality IS the “most distinguishing feature” about someone, I said it might be. Koreans and Japanese people can look very similar, so being Korean is a distinguishing feature in the case of a suspect who is a Korean national. In the case of a white German being German is not necessarily the most distinguishing feature.

      • Toolonggone

        So, you believe nationality is a part of phenotypes, right? I am NOT suggesting you literally say “nationality is the most distinguishing feature,” but you identify it as the key factor to detect a target suspect, apart from other genetic factors. That doesn’t put you in a different position. Your example of white German doesn’t make sense because it contradicts with your “description of nationality.”

      • Masa Chekov

        I’m not sure why this is difficult for you to get.

        If many other physical characteristics are common enough among the greater population nationality could be the distinguishing factor. My example about a Korean suspect.

        If physical characteristics are distinct from the greater population (such as in the case of the white German) nationality is less distinguishing. Though of course it IS distinguishing between a white German and a white Englishman.

        Why do you dispute this? This is obviously true.

      • Toolonggone

        You are not answering the question on your initial point. You’ve made it clear in your initial statement that removing nationality is ‘ridiculous’ because it “might be the most distinguishing feature about this person,” as you quote. You can make whatever argument you want based on the hypothesis above. But, as long as you cock your head on the assumption of nationality in relation to phenotype, you are only making the similar argument with people who preach ‘all foreign-looking persons–regardless of their real nationality– need to be scrutinized,’ which is inherently bigoted view.

      • Masa Chekov

        You seem to be assuming that I equate nationality with appearance, and I 100% do not do this. Of course I do not support scrutiny of someone based solely on their “foreign appearance”.

        That’s also not what I said. Please read again.

      • Toolonggone

        Assumption is a core belief or premise you hold in your argument. It doesn’t require you to put it in an explicit statement. You are suggesting that withholding nationality from crime investigation is a bad idea. Again, if you insist nationality is separated from any category of genetic traits or appearance, explain how nationality can help people to recognize the features of suspect on the run. Why is it still necessary, if the police authorities already get the information about physical appearance?

      • Masa Chekov

        It DOESN’T help people recognize features of the person. Why are you assuming I said this? I never said nor implied that. You said that.

        But if you are looking for a person of a certain physical description who happens to be Korean, and you know this, and you see someone who looks like that person AND they are speaking Korean, don’t you think knowing they are Korean is a help in identifying that person?

      • Toolonggone

        >It DOESN’T help people recognize features of the person. Why are you assuming I said this? I never said nor implied that. You said that.

        Then answer the question below:

        Why does information about nationality help ordinary people to detect or identify suspect on the run, if it is NOT related to phenotype?

        And, don’t you think it is right time to know that you are falling into the trap of your own argument by making lines of questionable hypotheses?

      • Masa Chekov

        You seem to be actively ignoring what I write. I don’t know what agenda you have but it doesn’t seem to involve having a proper conversation on this topic. I have answered what you ask repeatedly; I am not doing it again.

      • Toolonggone

        I’m not ignoring anything at all. You are the one who brought it(i.e., whether it is good idea to withdraw nationality from crime report or not) up on your initial blog–and I asked the question on that. You repetitively parried the question and made an answer that eventually contradicted with your first statement.

        Here’s your statement in your first posting:

        >Don’t give any description of nationality when reporting a suspect on the run? You mean, don’t give out what might be the most distinguishing feature about this person because someone might possibly make an association with foreigners (sorry, I am not using David’s preferred “NJ” acronym) and crime? How ridiculous.

        But later, you said,

        > “It DOESN’T help people recognize features of the person.” (IT=nationality)

        That’s a smoking gun. I don’t think I can make this kind of argument and say it
        makes perfect sense to anyone–because it doesn’t. Thank you for giving me an important lesson. Have a great day!

      • Masa Chekov

        Forgive me for asking, but is English your first language? Because I never said nationality was a distinguishing “physical feature”, I said it was a “distinguishing feature”. I have since clarified to explicitly say I did not mean “physical feature”. If I had meant “physical feature” I would have said so.

        “feature” =/= “physical feature”.

      • Toolonggone

        It’s not my first language. And it was not even a second language(it is now, though). Most people can guess from the way I use words to construct sentences.

      • Toolonggone

        >It DOESN’T help people recognize features of the person. Why are you assuming I said this? I never said nor implied that. You said that.

        Then answer the question below:

        Why do you think withdrawing nationality from crime report is “ridiculous,” if you truly believe that it does NOT help people to detect suspect on the run!?

        Police believe it necessary for whatever reason they may have. Who is saying people’s right to know is the main reason for the disclosure of
        nationality? You can hem and haw on your position as much as you want to the detriment of buying into the logic of media/police authorities, who tend to use nationality for creating racial stereotyping for both non-Japanese and Japanese (native and naturalized citizen). You are making the lines of hypotheses that cloud the point of the problem.

        Don’t you think it is right time to know that you are already falling into the trap of your own argument?

      • Elonkareon

        “Assumption is a core belief or premise you hold in your argument.”

        Indeed, and it is yours which make you incapable of comprehending his.

      • Toolonggone

        That’s correct. I am totally incapable of comprehending the argument made out of fallacies. It’s a tall order to call it rational argument.

      • Toolonggone

        So, you believe that nationality is a part of phenotype, right? I know you do not literally say “it is the most distinguishing feature,” but you identify it as a key
        factor to detect a target suspect. That won’t put you in a different position since
        you believe it desirable. And, the example shown in your last sentence doesn’t
        make sense because it contradicts with your assumption on “description of
        nationality.”

    • Nationality ≠ race, features, accent, etc.

      Okay, and what the hell is “foreign” or “foreign looking”? Last time I checked, “Japanese” was a nationality, not specifically a race or some features. Oh yes, and Debito Aridou is Japanese. An ethnic Japanese can be a “foreigner” because he does not possess Japanese nationality.

      This just goes to show that there is still a myth that Japan is a perfectly homogenous society where there is only one race. Or at least, apparently they all look the same.

      And that there’s still a bunch of Japan apologists furiously defending this nonsense aka politicized Japanese creation myths.

      • Eoghan Hughes

        Please, “Ryota Suzuki”, tell me about the Japanese creation myths. You are, after all, Japanese. Can you tell me about the creation myths in Kojiki and Nihon Shoki? Or Hitomaro’s variant creation myth in #167 of the Man’youshuu?? I mean, all Japanese learn these myths in the Japanese school system, right? I mean, in my experience virtually no Japanese born in the last 60 years have even HEARD of these creation myths, let alone believing in them. But of course, the number of Japanese who have not heard of the three works mentioned is equally small. I wish all the Debito fanboys would bother to study up on these things, really …

  • Ken Yasumoto-Nicolson

    Mr Arudou says: “the police should repeatedly caution the media against any tone associating nationality with criminality.”

    However, Article 21 of the Constitution says:”Freedom of […] speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed. No censorship shall be maintained […].”

    It is most certainly not the police’s role to advise newspapers on what they should or should not print, and although there are no hate speech laws, this newspaper has reported on both French people and women who have sued Shintaro Ishihara for offensive comments he made against them as groups, not individuals.

    • Fight Back

      It would be easier to take Mr Nicholson’s disingenuous claims more seriously where it not for the fact that he is well known as the leader of the terrorist-cell-like group the Tepido Twelve who have a proven history of denigrating Mr Arudou on Twitter and the Internet. Nice try Mr Nicholson but you’ve been called out by Debito and Christopher Johnson and others too many times to be able to pull your stunts here. You and Mr Keene need to focus your energies elsewhere, like reducing NJ-suffering rather than using it as entertainment for yourself and your friends.

    • Toolonggone

      You sound pretty much naive about the censure on free speech. Police is a part of national bureaucracy, affiliated with powerful DOJ (Department of Justice). They have close connections with powerful politicians and corporate media owners. They can control media report if they want, to the best interest of stakeholders, by pressuring on journalists and media based on a top-down order.

      • So just to clarify: you think handing the police and unelected bureaucrats the power to censor the press or curb free speech is a GOOD thing?

        Terrifying.

      • Toolonggone

        Of course not. Do you really think these people show their dirty hands in front of the public?

      • First, it’s not called the DOJ. That’s an American term. It’s called the Ministry of Justice (MOJ). Second, the NPA (National Police Agency) is neither “affiliated” with the MOJ nor the Cabinet. A special organization called the NPSC runs it. They do not answer to the MOJ or the executive or any other Ministry. This is in order to keep the police separated from political pressure and allow the media to be one of its watchdogs, as well as keeping the police semi-decentralized.

      • Toolonggone

        Yeah, you’re right. It’s MOJ. Speaking of NPA, it’s administered by National Public
        Safety Commission, which is associated with Cabinet Office. The commission consists of the Minister of State, and five following members are appointed by prime minister, with the consent of upper and lower houses in the Diet. In general,
        the commission operates independently of the cabinet. But I am skeptical if their job is always immune to political clout, since they are associated with the Minister of State. Japanese politicians are very sensitive of media coverage.

  • Fight Back

    What Debito wrote about the power of this column and others to effect social is inspiring. Mr Arudou himself is probably the leading figure in Japan at applying ‘outside pressure’ or ‘gaitsu’ to policy makers in the government, but of course he is not alone. And it would be even more inspiring if many posters here stopped trying to portray Debito negatively and instead focused on effecting positive change themselves.

    Apologists do nothing but deny, deny, deny and it’s only a reflection on themselves. It’s known as Stockholm Syndrome, please look it up. Siding with your oppressors just makes it worse when we could move forward as NJ together, with Debito as our guiding light.

    • Masa Chekov

      Oppressors? You have freedom of movement, freedom of speech, religion, thought in this country. You’re not being oppressed. If you don’t like living in Japan as a foreigner you are certainly allowed to leave if you choose. No point in staying and making yourself miserable, is there?

      • Fight Back

        How about freedom of housing? Freedom from ID checks? Freedom to be sat next to on the train? Freedom to not be harassed by small children? Freedom to not be spat on in the street? Freedom to not be excluded from business meetings that are ‘Japanese only’?

        In Osaka it is well known that it is not safe for NJ to walk alone at night. Assaults are common and some people have been killed, so much for your ‘freedom of movement’.

        Any NJ who protests at a rally or speaks out may lose their job or be investigated by the police. This is the reality of the unending, relentless oppression that some choose to ignore but all NJ must endure.

        You can sugar coat it or whitewash it away but at the end of the day Debito Arudou and this column, among others, are the only things that stand between us and the xenophobic, racist fury that underlies all government policy making in Japan.

      • Masa Chekov

        “Freedom to be sat next to on the train?” – What???
        “Freedom to not be harassed by small children?” – What???
        “Freedom to not be spat on in the street?” – What???

        You are dealing in pure, unvarnished fiction, Fight Back. I’m not sure what your agenda is, if you are just having a lark or if you have a medical condition or what. What a bizarre string of comments.

        “In Osaka it is well known that it is not safe for NJ to walk alone at night. Assaults are common and some people have been killed, so much for your ‘freedom of movement’.”

        Completely and totally false. 100%

        “Any NJ who protests at a rally or speaks out may lose their job or be investigated by the police.”

        Absolutely untrue.

        “at the end of the day Debito Arudou and this column, among others, are the only things that stand between us and the xenophobic, racist fury that underlies all government policy making in Japan”

        Yes, you are clearly having a lark. Nobody actually thinks this way.

      • Masa, I believe FB is referring to the Nepalese man who was beaten to death on a street in Osaka last year. A truly tragic singular incident made all the more notable by its exceptionality. This singular event received a tremendous amount of national news coverage in a way that a Japanese-on-Japanese crime would almost certainly have not. So while it did happen, which sort of supports FB’s claim (but it was not “some people”, it was “an individual”) the extreme rarity of the event as well as domestic Japanese reaction to it proves FB’s claim false.

      • Fight Back

        Tell that to Bishnu Darhmala who was murderedby the Japanese in Osaka as reported in this newspaper. You need to open your eyes. Stop being an apologist for the Japanese.

      • Masa Chekov

        One horrible, yet isolated crime does not a trend make, Fight Back.

      • Eoghan Hughes

        The Japan Times reported that Bishnu Dhamala was killed in a random act of violence, not a racially-motivated attack. And in my experience Japan has the LEAST random violence of any country I have visited. You claiming that he was murdered by “the Japanese” is highly offensive, and is equivalent to claiming that both Arisa Yamada and Yurika Masuno were killed by “the Romanians”, or Nicola Furlong was killed by “the Americans”. Please take the above racist attack back.

        (And I would appreciate you retracting your ridiculous conspiracy about DONALD KEENE, the most respected Nihonbungaku scholar in the world, is behind the various websites that are critical of Debito.)

    • Eoghan Hughes

      http://tangorin.com/general/%E5%A4%96%E7%97%9B

      Try as I might, I couldn’t find “gaitsu” in the dictionary — did you mean “gaiatsu”? I’ve found that people who don’t speak Japanese are automatically more susceptible to feeling paranoid while living here, and therefore more open to accept Debito’s gibberish. Tell me, FB, what gives you the right to attack those who disagree with you here? At which distinguished academic institution did you get your superior knowledge of Japanese culture and society? Have you ever even heard of, say, George Sansom or Donald Keene? Reischauer maybe? Seidensticker?

      I wish foreigners who live in Japan would listen to proper authorities as well as/instead of Debito. The fact is that almost every Japanese one could interview on the street has at least heard of Keene, and probably knows what he is known for, but almost none of them have heard of Debito. And with foreign residents it is the opposite — why is that, I wonder?

      • Fight Back

        Donald Keene is well known to many NJ as the backing behind several attack websites that focus on denigrating Debito Arudou’s works and achievements. I suspect some sort of jealousy on Donald Keene’s part as lately Debito has become the pre-eminent voice for the disaffected NJ in Japan whereas Mr Keene has slid further and further into obscurity.

        The fact is that while Mr Keene and others have ‘cosy’ relationships with the establishment, Japanese policymakers live in trepidation of the first Tuesday of the month because they know that Debito’s clear and unflinching eye is watching. Read the column above again and note the achievements listed. And they are just the tip of the iceberg. I am hard pressed to find any real advance in NJ-rights that Debito has not had a hand in. Instead of quoting obscure sources, isn’t it time to admit that both academically and on the front lines, Debito Arudou is the only man whom matters in modern-day Japan?

      • Eoghan Hughes

        HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        Donald Keene is probably the most respected scholar of Japanese literature in the world, and Debito is just some guy who complains.

        It is Debito fanboys like you who are the reason I have to keep bringing up Keene in these discussions. No doubt you, as someone who has never engaged in Japanese studies in any formal setting, had never heard of Keene before Debito decided to make an ignorant, ageist attack against him in this very column a few months ago. That is why Debito fanboys have a problem integrating in Japanese society, and so continue to believe that Japan is shunning them rather than vice-versa.

      • Eoghan, I honestly don’t think you are talking to a “Debito fanboy”. Far from it – FB seems to be but one pseudonym adopted by a particularly prolific poster at Mr. Arudou’s blog, a poster who under yet another transparent pseudonym on another blog openly admitted he was trolling Mr. Arudou for fun and to ruin Arudou’s reputation. FB is Poe’s Law incarnate, and I am always torn as to whether to downvote his racist posts for their offensiveness or upvote them for the damage they due to Arudou’s “reputation”.

      • Fight Back

        And while you are sitting at your computer, ‘torn between upvotes and downvotes’. Mr Arudou is out there in the real world, effecting positive change and making Japan safer and a better place for the NJ community as a whole. That’s what I support him and not pathetic trolls like yourself with nothing better to do than smirk at people who try to help you.

      • Eoghan Hughes

        How?? If Japanese knew what kind of bs Debito was spouting in his editorials here and on his own site, then them associating all non-Japanese with HIM would make life much worse than any supposed association with foreign crime.

        (Seriously, can Debito actually claim he has been stopped and interrogated by policy merely for “looking foreign” at any point in the past??)

      • Actually, Eoghan, yes, Arudou can claim that. He was stopped at Chitose several years ago when passing through the airport on his way home during the G8 Summit at Toyako – although he did not help himself by standing in baggage claim taking pictures of the cops through a large window. Exactly the sort of suspicious activity which one would expect to attract a cop’s attention. Still, thanks to the fact Arudou had a hidden pocket recorder turned on, and the fact he made the recording public, we know that the police did decide to stop him at least in part because he looked foreign, as we also know that Arudou was completely incapable of carrying on an understandable adult-level conversation in Japanese as to who he was. why he was there, etc. If I was the cop, endless repeats of “Nihonjin desu” to all questions asked, even when that was not an appropriate answer to the question, would have raised suspicions, not alleviated them. Still, Arudou did manage to turn things around to the benefit of all of us, by giving what he called his “third-best press conference ever”, with the effect of… err…

        Sorry, there *wasn’t* a benefit to any of us.

      • >Mr Arudou is out there in the real world

        So “Japan” is no longer in “the real world”, then?

        >effecting positive change and making Japan safer and a better place for the NJ community as a whole.

        So the following are not members of the “NJ community”, then? Because Arudou, his mrs. and his followers have spared no effort in slandering them, calling employers with demands that they be fired, etc.:

        Mike Guest

        Donald Keene

        Ken Yasumoto-Nicholson

        Tony Laszlo

        Amongst more than a few others. That was why I found it particularly amusing for Arudou to start off this month’s column with:

        “For example, rumors or untruths disseminated through print or broadcast can destroy livelihoods and leave reputations in ruins.”

      • Eoghan Hughes

        GMainwaring, honestly I think if this were a recurring problem Debito would address the open racists “trolling” him. The problem is that Debito openly encourages his fanboys (and he has A LOT — I’m honestly afraid to mention him in polite conversation with my fellow foreign residents just in case an argument breaks out) to engage in this kind of racist behaviour. As a long-time reader of Donald Keene’s works, I was bloody offended at what Debito wrote about the latter a few months back. It was not so much that Debito made a statement that I deeply disagreed with (this happens all the time), but that while Keene has been helping foreigners to understand the real Japan for DECADES now, a large number of foreign residents in Japan probably haven’t heard of him — and so, when Debito posts an attack piece aimed at him, Debito’s fans will start forming ridiculous, ignorant conspiracy theories. See FB’s comment above (“Donald Keene is well known to many NJ as the backing behind several attack websites that focus on denigrating Debito Arudou’s works and achievements”).

        Although, your theory that FB is a troll aiming to defame Debito by association is interesting. By not denouncing the open racists among his fans, Debito has already made himself guilty by association (“‘The Japanese’ killed Bishnu Dhamala”, etc…). Can you show me any evidence of FB’s other activities under different pseudonyms? (A comment I made linking to a news site yesterday appears to have been rejected, though, so it’s possible if you try to reply to me with a link your reply won’t show up.)

      • Eoghan, “Fight Back” is almost certainly an alternate ego of an individual who also posts to various discussion boards and blogs, including the Japan Times, as “Jim Di Griz”, “JDG”, “James Grey” or “Jane Grey” amongst others. It was as “James Grey” on a now defunct blog called Tepido that s/he admitted what s/he was up to re. trolling Arudou.

      • Eoghan Hughes

        That’s ridiculous. Donald Keene is probably the most respected Japanese literary scholar in the world today — what would he have to be jealous of Debito for? And why would he be backing attack websites that denigrate Debito? Seriously, your above comment doesn’t make ANY sense.

        And, show me one policymaker who has even mentioned Debito. ONE.

  • jim

    Debito really hit the hammer on the head with this article and its really unbelievable that in 2013 we still have to talk about these things because the GOJ/Spineless ABE should of already done like for example making a law against any hate speech and another law against discrimination. If japan want to be seen as a first world nation then they need to stop acting like a third world nation in regards to human rights and until that time frankly speaking they can kiss the TOKYO OLYMPICS goodbye!

    • Constitution of Japan

      Article 19. Freedom of thought and conscience shall not be violated.

      Article 21. Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed. No censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated.

      There are no footnotes to the above stating “unless someone’s feelings get hurt”.

      Or perhaps you feel that countries like the US (which wrote Japan’s Constitution) and have identical constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and conscience, and no hate speech laws because they would be unconstitutional, are acting like “a third world nation”?

      It amazes me to no end that people like Mr. Arudou can hold the Japanese government and police in almost complete contempt on the one hand and yet on the other openly advocate giving these same entities MORE power, including the power to censor free speech and punish people for “wrong thoughts”. As another commenter noted above, Mr. Arudou really hasn’t thought all this through very well – assuming he’s thought it through at all, which I don’t think he has.

      • Eoghan Hughes

        Can we blame Debito’s homeland (“the Americans”) for that clause in the Japanese constitution?

        EDIT: For clarity, I meant to say that it’s ironic that Debito would criticize Japan for conforming to standards his country set. I did not mean to imply, for instance, that it’s Japan’s constitution, so we can’t blame “the Americans” for it.

  • Sam Gilman

    This is just some old news mixed in with the author’s own subconscious problems with race.

    The initial proposition is correct. Police reports that systematically neglect to mention the ethnicity of a suspect if they’re a member of the majority group lead to a highly exaggerated public impression of minority ethnicity involvement in crime. Of course, this is not a newly discovered problem, and it’s certainly not limited to Japan.

    What is “new” is Debito’s suggestion that the police should never refer directly to a suspect’s ethnicity, but instead be encouraged to use insinuating phrases about distinguishing racial features – what he refers to as their “phenotype”. So, we’d have a whole host of racialised codewords in police and media reports! I’m not sure he has thought this through. In many other countries that have addressed this issue, the solution has been to make sure ethnicity is always mentioned, even if the person is a member of the majority group, to avoid systematic bias or stereotyping.

    It’s correct to say that race is not a genetic category, but again, this should not be a revelation. Race is a social category, as has been stated by geneticists for decades. Ironically, Debito doesn’t quite seem to grasp the whole of this. He scoffs that Hispanics are “lumped in” with “hakujin” in Japan. Of course, in the US the white/Hispanic distinction is currently considered important, just as white/Irish/Polish distinctions used to be, but these are not universal or objective categorizations. Barack Obama is considered “black” even though half his genetic origins are “white”. That’s an illustration of what it means for race not to be genetic, or a biologically distinct “type”, but a social category. Debito’s persistent use of the word “phenotype” (meaning your physical form, including your internal organs, limb count, and nervous system as determined by your genes and how they interact with the environment) where one would normally say “appearance” suggests he hasn’t fully understood this. And in general, he really needs to stop viewing America as the default universal “correct” condition for racial politics. It has its own particular history and warehouse of problems that don’t always suit export elsewhere.

    For this is one of the main problems with Debito Arudou’s columns on racial issues. The targets are often good ones, but he ruins his attacks by assuming that he, by virtue of his self-declared image as a crusading liberal outsider, is immune from prejudice. Alas, it seeps out of the corners of everything he writes. What does “garden-variety Asian” mean? Tame, ordinary, controllable? (unlike some ideal-type assertive westerner?) Why talk about them like a species of plant or animal? Why, in a list of ethnicities indicating greater recent sensitivity on the part of reporters and police to differences between people, does he apropos of nothing highlight Filipinos and Chinese as being suspects in organized crime and the sex trade? Isn’t this exactly the problem with what he says the police do? If reference to racial appearance and stereotype is so bad, why, in a previous column did Debito call his foreign critics “white-faced hornets”? Why did he feel confident enough as a wealthy-US-born majority ethnic individual to “satirically” label nikkei south American immigrants as “cockroaches” and Chinese as “wasps” with (get this) “yellow jackets”, and in general compare East Asians to hive insects? The “satire” wasn’t welcomed by those it was supposed to defend.

    A second major intellectual problem is that Debito never distinguishes between systemic and individual problems of racism. I’m sorry, but police naming a suspect’s ethnicity or nationality is not hate speech. It’s something the police may need to do if they want a suspect identified. The systemic, or institutional, racism comes in when police or media, neglect to mention a suspect’s ethnicity if they’re from the dominant group. Thus, no one individual need be assertively racist for a racially problematic situation to occur. The problem is at least in part systemic. Greater awareness and sensitivity – something the columnist himself could do with – is a large part of the answer. A failure to understand systemic issues of racism tends to result in the irony-failure of accusing an entire ethnic group of being racist, as some of Debito’s devotees have already managed to do in other replies to this column.

    At the end of the day, I want to know if this particular problem of racial stereotyping in crime reports by police and media (one that is found all over the world) is currently getting better or worse in Japan. What are the data like? Curiously, despite his writing at length, that’s something that Debito failed to look at. Isn’t that rather a curious oversight, particularly in a newspaper?

  • Jameika

    I find the comments here quite an overreaction. The take-home from this for me is that in reporting a crime suspect, the police (and by extension the media) should be using descriptive terms, rather than group identities. Group identities are different for different people. If the goal is to make public what a possible criminal might look like, then height, hair color, and other actual descriptive language is helpful. Broader categories that have definitions which vary from person to person are distinctly not helpful since they distract people from looking for what the person actually looks like. This is why racial profiling has such a terrible success record.
    I think the article lays these things out pretty well, but the comments seem bent on attacking the author based on other things he does for whatever reason. I don’t quite get it.

    • “Caucasian” is a descriptive term, as are “Black”, “Chinese”, etc. The author appears to be conflating objective terms used to describe a third-party suspect with social issues concerning how that suspect views him/herself. It doesn’t matter if an individual who objectively appears “black” personally identifies himself as “hispanic”. If we are describing his appearance for purposes of visual identification then only his physical appearance matters.

      • Jameika

        I felt that was addressed pretty clearly, though, in the article that
        racial descriptions are subjective. “Social scientist Paul R. Spickard
        puts it succinctly: ‘Races are not types.'”
        He further gives examples of the lack of consistency in those descriptions as well.
        I’m
        not sure we would all agree what “Chinese” is, for example. Therein
        lies the beginnings of the problem that is being outlined here.

    • Sam Gilman

      There’s a difference between racial profiling, where the police target certain ethnic groups for increased surveillance (stop and search, car checks, etc.) – basically treating them as criminal risks – and what Debito is talking about here. Racial profiling doesn’t work, and it’s offensive too, and creates tension between police forces and minority communities the world over.

      What Debito is talking about here is how to describe the perpetrator of a crime that has actually happened. If the suspect is caucasian, he thinks it is better for the distinguishing physical characteristics of the caucasian to be mentioned without the ethnicity. So in his eyes it’s better to say “pale-skinned, fair hair, large nose” than “white”. He would prefer “dark-skinned, flatter-nosed, with black tightly curly hair” to “afrika-kei”. The police would still be associating skin colour with crime (the distinguishing feature of a Japanese criminal would not be their skin colour), and into the mix would be added extra ethnic features that people could also begin to associate with crime. It would be like going back to some Victorian theory linking face-shape and criminality. Which was a racially-driven theory. We might even get code words for Korean and Chinese.

      The alternative, adopted by many places, is to always mention the ethnicity, even if the suspect is from the majority ethnic group. I’m really not sure why Debito has not considered this.

  • Franz Pichler

    masa chekov is spot on! The usual Arudo Debito banging about… a lot of fuss about nothing… last time I heard his wife divorced from him and he left the country… not being here doesn’t however stop him banging about…. May I suggest he visits multicultural Europe, Sweden is right now a good point to start …. I strongly recommend Husby …

  • PRosdiufos

    Yes I completely agree with this article. Japan should have laws against hate speech, otherwise what will self important useless “professionals” such as journalists have to do with themselves. As a NJ, non Japanese, I have an expectation that when I commit my crimes I should enjoy privacy by not having my race/nationality revealed. Of course Japan should change this terrible practice of correctly using the short cut of race labels to help catch criminals. Language, which doesn’t really exist in the physical world, is much more important than crime. Oh and definitely Japanese culture should change in spite of the fact that it produces excellent outcomes in terms of education, social relations, fair and equitable distribution of wealth across society. How dare these people labels us trouble making and ignorant outsiders as NJs and continue to enjoy a constructive Übermensch culture. Let’s break their goddam superior culture apart through forcing them to change their language, on top of what we do with Hollywood. Inferior western trash unite!