Readers may be expecting this column to have something to say about the Supreme Court decision of July 18, which decreed that non-Japanese (NJ) residents are not guaranteed social welfare benefits.
But many have already expressed shock and outrage on these pages, pointing out the injustice of paying into a system that may choose to exclude them in their time of need. After all, no explicit law means no absolute guarantee of legal protection, no matter what court or bureaucratic precedents may have been established.
I'm more surprised by the lack of outrage at a similar legal regime running parallel to this: Japan's lack of a law protecting against racial discrimination (RD). It affects people on a daily basis, yet is accepted as part of "normal" unequal treatment in Japan — and not just of noncitizens, either.