Staff writer

KAWASAKI -- Housing discrimination is a problem faced by many foreigners and elderly or disabled people in this country. But thanks to the participation of foreign residents in the local administration, the situation may be eased here next April.

Based on a proposal by the Kawasaki City Representatives Assembly for Foreign Residents, an advisory panel to Kawasaki Mayor Kiyoshi Takahashi that was set up in 1996, the Kawasaki Municipal Government is planning to establish a new regulation and a guarantee system aimed at eliminating housing discrimination.

"When we first discussed this issue at an assembly meeting, we found that almost all members have experienced discrimination," said the Rev. Lee In Ha, chairman of the assembly, which comprises 26 foreign residents from 16 countries.

One assembly member, Mario Juan Sugeno -- a second-generation Japanese-Argentine -- was refused by about 20 real estate agents when his family was looking for a new apartment here seven years ago.

"I look like a Japanese, so the agents treated me fairly in the beginning," Sugeno said. "But when I told them that my wife is an Argentine, their attitudes changed and they refused to rent out rooms to us."

Even though his Japanese mother talked to the agents, nothing changed, he said, adding that it took him a couple of months to find a landlord willing to rent an apartment to him and his family.

Discrimination related to housing is a problem that also extends to the aged and the disabled.

In a 1992 survey of real estate agents conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, more than half of the 254 respondents said they refused to rent their properties to the aged, 26 percent replied they turned down people with disabilities, and 42 percent said they rejected foreigners.

Reasons for the refusals included landlords' worries about illness and domestic accidents involving the aged and the disabled. They were also concerned that foreign tenants might not have proper guarantors, might cause trouble with neighbors or might not pay their rent, the survey showed.

In 1997, the foreign residents' assembly first proposed that the city government establish a regulation to ban housing discrimination. After learning about Japanese victims of discrimination as well as landlords' concerns, the assembly asked the city the following year to set up a guarantee system to encourage landlords to rent their properties to foreign, elderly and disabled residents.

"It was meaningful that the proposals (were based on) landlords' perspectives as well as our own," said Lee. "By forging proposals that can be beneficial for Japanese residents who also face discrimination, we want to have a system for the community to overcome human rights oppression."

The municipal government is now drawing up concrete procedures to implement the guarantee system and the antidiscrimination regulation.

Under the planned regulation, the city would hear from both parties -- prospective tenants and landlords or real estate agents -- involved in reported cases of discrimination and act to mediate their dispute, officials said. The municipal assembly is set to discuss and vote on the measure by March. If passed, it will become effective in April.

Currently, complaints are referred to the prefecture's association of real estate agents.

Although the regulation would not include punitive measures against any body found to be discriminatory in its leasing practices, the city may consider recommending that it stop such practices or possibly disclose their names in the future, they said.

Under the blueprint of the guarantee system, users of the system would pay a sum equal to 30 percent to 40 percent of their monthly rent every other year to a private housing guarantee company designated by the local government.

The money would be used to cover unpaid rent by members and to buy property insurance. If the fund is unable to cover those expenses, taxpayers money may be used, the officials said.

The city is planning to make lists of real estate agents and properties available to those using the system.

Agency screening procedures, including an evaluation of a prospective tenant's income, occupation and personality, will remain unchanged.

The city expects about 250 households per year to use the system, said Hisataka Okazaki, a spokesman for the city government's urban improvement bureau.

In Kawasaki, of 13,500 foreign families -- or 20,000 foreign residents -- 5,800 households reside in rented properties. About 6,200 elderly people who live alone and about a quarter of the households who care for the disabled also dwell in rented apartments or houses.

In addition to the guarantee system, the city is seeking cooperation from nongovernmental organizations to help these tenants solve everyday problems.

"This is a kind of mutual support system. Providing them guarantors is not enough to get rid of landlords' concerns," said Okazaki. "Support networks by NGOs are necessary to reduce problems that occur after tenants move in."

Citizens' groups can teach foreign residents Japanese customs related to living in rented apartments, while other groups can provide necessary care to the aged and the disabled, he said.

Although the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has a regulation that covers housing discrimination, Kawasaki's public guarantee system would be the first in Japan, according to Shigetaka Kobayashi, a law professor at Yokohama National University who chaired a city government committee to revise basic housing planning.

Florence Debaud, vice chairwoman of the foreign residents assembly, who also experienced housing discrimination, said the legal measures could be powerful tools to eliminate discrimination.

"This will be a step forward ... But we don't know if those measures will produce good results yet," she said. "So if it's necessary to revise the regulation, we should propose various ideas to the city."

Lee said he hopes Kawasaki's attempt will have a favorable effect on other municipalities.

"This mechanism will unveil the deeds of the real estate industry to residents," he said. "But because landlords are allowed to select tenants by law, the success of the mechanism, after all, depends on how public values will change."