OSAKA -- The U.N. rapporteur on racism repeated Wednesday his strong criticism of the Japanese government's attitude toward combating the problem, saying the country needs an antidiscrimination law.

"Japanese human rights groups and others, in linkage with the international community, can move toward creating an antidiscrimination law which will hopefully lead to addressing the deeper causes of racism and xenophobia," said Doudou Diene, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

Meeting in the afternoon with nearly three dozen human rights representatives, including foreigners' rights activists, Diene heard about the discrimination faced by the Korean, Okinawan, and Japanese-Brazilian communities, as well as descendants of the former "buraku" outcast class, and about specific incidents of government and corporate discrimination against foreigners.