August 5, 2013
Hate speech directed at Korean residents is increasing in Japan fueled by the present prime minister and some political leaders “beautifying” Japan’s wartime aggression and colonization in Asia with the deputy prime minister recently speaking in favor of Nazism.
Hate-speech demonstrations have frequently taken place since January in communities where many Korean residents live, with participants shouting, “Kill Koreans! Fling them into gas chambers!”
A group called the Citizens’ Coalition against Special Privileges for Foreign Residents in Japan is not alone in calling for anti-foreignism.
In April, the Educational Board of Tokyo’s Machida City excluded six-year-old children of a North Korean school from a city service to provide crime-prevention alarms to all children who newly entered elementary schools in the city because of the tensions involving North Korea. Faced with a flood of protests, the board later reversed the decision.
Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru, also a co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party, are providing fuel to this breeding ground of ethnic discrimination. They both are well-known for having a particular view of history that glosses over and glorifies Japan’s past war of aggression.
In response, anti-hate speech actions have become increasingly visible. For example, about 600 Osakans paraded through the main street of Osaka last month, shouting, “We want to be friends!”
At an in-Diet gathering, sociologist Jung Yeong-hae said sometimes with tears in her eyes, “Please, imagine that you are living in another country, and one day you wake up in the safety of your home with dozens of people outside shouting, ‘Hang Japanese!’.”
Her daughter used to go to a Korean school in Tokyo because she wanted to learn about her grandparents’ culture, but the recent events forced her to choose to live abroad for security reasons.
The postwar world order stands in opposition to fascism and wars of aggression. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1945 at the UN General Assembly states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
Past related articles:
> No personal alarms provided North Korean students in Machida City [April 6 & 9, 2013]
Hate-speech demonstrations have frequently taken place since January in communities where many Korean residents live, with participants shouting, “Kill Koreans! Fling them into gas chambers!”
A group called the Citizens’ Coalition against Special Privileges for Foreign Residents in Japan is not alone in calling for anti-foreignism.
In April, the Educational Board of Tokyo’s Machida City excluded six-year-old children of a North Korean school from a city service to provide crime-prevention alarms to all children who newly entered elementary schools in the city because of the tensions involving North Korea. Faced with a flood of protests, the board later reversed the decision.
Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru, also a co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party, are providing fuel to this breeding ground of ethnic discrimination. They both are well-known for having a particular view of history that glosses over and glorifies Japan’s past war of aggression.
In response, anti-hate speech actions have become increasingly visible. For example, about 600 Osakans paraded through the main street of Osaka last month, shouting, “We want to be friends!”
At an in-Diet gathering, sociologist Jung Yeong-hae said sometimes with tears in her eyes, “Please, imagine that you are living in another country, and one day you wake up in the safety of your home with dozens of people outside shouting, ‘Hang Japanese!’.”
Her daughter used to go to a Korean school in Tokyo because she wanted to learn about her grandparents’ culture, but the recent events forced her to choose to live abroad for security reasons.
The postwar world order stands in opposition to fascism and wars of aggression. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1945 at the UN General Assembly states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
Past related articles:
> No personal alarms provided North Korean students in Machida City [April 6 & 9, 2013]
