REPORT ON THE WAKKANAI/MONBETSU TRIP FEB. 4-8, 2004
By Olaf Karthaus (with additions by Arudou Debito)
mailto:[email protected]
Released February 16, 2004
(freely forwardable)
RELATED LINKS
The rogues gallery of discriminatory signs in Japan
http://www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html
newspaper reports about our trip
http://www.geocities.com/okarthaus/press.html
picture gallery of the submissions
http://www.geocities.com/okarthaus/pictures.html
The text of the petition we submitted
http://www.debito.org/hokkaidochinjou2004.html
SUMMARY
Arudou Debito and I went up to Wakkanai and Monbetsu, two of Japan's northernmost
port cities and the site of "JAPANESE ONLY" signs on businesses since 1995,
to submit draft ordinances to the city assemblies and governments in order
to eliminate racial discrimination. The trip was a success, not only because
the authorities received our petitions without event, but also because while
we were in Monbetsu, we got the managers of a restaurant, a bar, and a karaoke
parlor to take down down their exclusionary signs. We're getting better
at this.
THE PURPOSE OF THE TRIP
was to submit a petition and a draft for a local ordinance to outlaw racial
discrimination to the city government and the city assembly of Wakkanai and
Monbetsu.
Japan effected the UN Convention for the Elimination of all forms of racial
discrimination (CERD) in January 1996. But even after more than 8 years,
Japan has yet to pass, or even draft, a domestic law that makes racial discrimination
illegal. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination stated
in its March 2001 report on Japan that this situation is unsatisfactory (see
Footnote).
An anti-racial discrimination law is not just a nice idea. It is necessary
to deal with a concrete problem getting worse in Japan. Around Japan there
have been "JAPANESE ONLY" storefront signs--up even in places you'd expect
few cross-cultural problems: bathhouses, restaurants, karaoke parlors, even
a sports store and a ramen shop.
Wakkanai and Monbetsu are no exception: In Wakkanai, a public bath has displayed
a sign barring entry to foreigners since 1997. In Monbetsu, a public bath,
funded with tax monies, had a sign up from August 2003 to January 2004 barring
Russian sailors from entering (illegally barring non-Russian taxpaying customers
as well). Likewise, a nearby restaurant barred from its opening day last
year "anyone who doesn't speak Japanese", thanks to recommendations from
a fearful head office hundreds of kilometers away. Finally, up to 30 bars
and a karaoke parlor have had signs in Cyrillic since 1995 stating "This
shop for Japanese Only", and barred entry even to those who did not read
Cyrillic; these were made and distributed by the local restaurateurs association,
and still remain up despite official demands by the Ministry of Justice,
Bureau of Human Rights Asahikawa, to take them down (Caution dated July 4,
2000).
What follows is an eyewitness tale of the two cities:
WAKKANAI, FEBRUARY 4-5, 2004
After convincing Debito to drive than 6 hours and 350 kms, through one of
the worst snow storms I have ever seen, we arrived amazingly safely in Wakkanai
(thanks of course to my excellent chauffeur) at 12:30 AM Feb 5. However,
too tired to even find our own hotel, we stopped at a police box for directions.
Since Debito is notorious for somehow arousing suspicion in any cop downwind,
I thought it prudent to do the talking. Just as well--the cop gave me a
grilling: questions on my country of origin, length of stay in Japan and
current residence, before getting around to showing us our hotel. Had a
feeling Debito would have reacted badly and landed us in jug. We truly felt
we had arrived in Wakkanai.
The next morning we met Mr. Izumi, the owner of the Wakkanai Grand Hotel,
whom we met on one of our earlier trips to Wakkanai (http://www.debito.org/onsennyuuyokutimes041300.html).
A very helpful and kind person, he knows that the future of Wakkanai lies
in its international relations. The local fishing and crab industry is in
the doldrums (thanks to overfishing, poaching, and smuggling into Japan),
and now Wakkanai, which has lost about a third of its population since the
1970's, needs foreign customers in its shops. Across a 26-mile strait lies
Sakhalin, Russia, with international consortiums exploiting oil and gas reserves
and promising riches all around. Wakkanai could actually become a boom town,
catering to people who want a commute to a calmer side of the frontier--if
it doesn't blow its public relations with "JAPANESE ONLY" signs.
After a short briefing to Jim Brooke from the New York Times, who flew up
specially to cover this and other stories, Debito and I headed to meet the
city government and assembly officials.
WAKKANAI CITY HALL, FEB 5, 2004, 11 AM
We were greeted by Mr. Kudo of the public relations section in the social
welfare bureau, who acted as our guide within these halls of power (I had
called and arranged this event weeks in advance). While Debito went to the
Press Club and did sherpa work for the press conference, I went to the city
assembly and submitted our draft ordinance to the administrative chief, a
Mr Onodera, since the assembly spokesperson was notably absent. Mr Onodera,
along with the general affairs chief of the assembly, Mr. Ishioka, read over
the petition while I explained breifly why Wakkanai needs to pass a local
ordinance:
- Japan effected the UN CERD in 1996, where it promised to pass laws
without delay, and to take steps at all levels of government to ensure that
racial discrimination does not occur.
- In Wakkanai there is at least one public bath, Yuransen, which bans
foreigners from its premises, sending them to a separate, smaller "gaijin
buro" on the premises while charging them them six times more (2500 yen,
as opposed to the regular 370 yen for Japanese) for the privilege.
http://www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html#Wakkanai
- In 1998, I cycled up to Wakkanai with a Japanese friend and was refused
entry. I resented being subjected to the humiliation of separation from
my friend and relegation to expensive and segregated facilities.
- This is not sustainable. Japan not only needs immigrants, since a
declining birthrate creates a labor shortage and taxation shortfall, but
also needs foreign tourists and business in order for a place like Wakkanai
to flourish. With an increasing number of foreigners, and children of international
marriages, incidents of excluding or discriminating against people who "look
foreign" will most likely increase in the future. Thus it is necessary for
Wakkanai as an administrative body to nip this in the bud and take swift
legislative action.
It was a short but friendly conversation over a cup of coffee, and we parted
with a promise that they would notify the assembly spokesperson about the
matter. Then, on Mr Onodera's advice, I went to the city office and submitted
the same to Mr. Ogawa, the general affairs chief of the city. Local ordinances
are made in the city office and then passed to the assembly for ratification,
thus all submissions of petitions should be to both bodies, we found out.
PRESS CONFERENCE, WAKKANAI CITY HALL PRESS CLUB
FEB 5, 11:30AM-12:30PM
We had NHK, Yomiuri Shinbun, Mainichi Shinbun, Asahi Shinbun, Hokkaido Shinbun,
Wakkanai Press, Souya Shinbun, and The New York Times present. I showed
the evidence of excusionary signs all around the country (Wakkanai, Monbetsu,
Otaru, Sapporo, Misawa, Akita, Hamamatsu). Projecting the photos from the
Rogues' Gallery Site (http://www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html)
onto the wall of the press club room was very effective to show that discrimination
undeniably exists in Japan. A lively Q&A session followed, keeping us
talking for 30 minutes longer than expected. See the resultant articles
at:
http://www.geocities.com/okarthaus/press.html
VISIT TO YURANSEN BATHS AFTERWARD
I then visited the public bath Yuransen together with the reporters from
the New York Times. Jim Brooke entered the bath, and immediately a clerk
tried to wave him out of the door to the separate "gaijin buro" entrance.
To Jim it was clear he was not welcome here and should go to the Gaijin Buro.
Only after his (Japanese) photographer intervened, the employees decided
that Jim could come in, since he was indeed technically accompanied by a
Japanese.
(This was the same logic used when Yuransen refused my friend Ken and me
again in a 2001 visit. We were suddenly let in because Debito followed afterward.
They remembered Debito's face and the fact he sues people, and said, "Debito
is a Japanese, so you can come in cos he can explain you the rules." Nice
try.)
My take on this is that Yuransen has gotten smarter. They clearly have taken
some flak for segregating their facilities (only one block away, it turns
out, from the Russian-Japanese Friendship office), so they have figured out
if there's any chance Yuransen will be held publicly accountable, let the
gaijin in. The fact still remains they have a blanket refusal policy of
foreigners--save those with any social impact. In any case, why should a
Japanese national be necessary to guarantee the good behavior of a foreign
customer?
THE MONBETSU LEG OF THE TRIP
We then hopped in our cars and (superdriver Debito, natch) drove the 300
kms to Monbetsu, another seaport town on the Ohkotsk Sea Coast famous for
being barracaded in the winter months with sea ice. Cape Soya, the northernmost
tip of Japan, had some 15 m/s wind, so we only jumped out of the car once
to get a memorial picture taken ;-)
After arriving in Monbetsu we had dinner and an update on information concerning
the exclusionary signs:
http://www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html#Monbetsu
- 1. Tokkari no Yu, the newly-built Dai-San Sector bath in 2003 that
had a sign up and (technically) refused Russian sailors, responded to all
the negative press coverage by taking their sign down on January 23, 2004.
- 2. As of January 30, the total number of “Japanese Only” signs have
come down to about 30 (from more than 100 signs two years ago when we first
took up this case). So our efforts have borne fruit.
- 3. We have heard no reports that crimes or unruly behavior were comitted
by foreigners in the 70 or so places that took down their signs within the
last months and years. This clearly shows much of the fear spreading throughout
the Monbetsu barkeep industry was based on rumors and hearsay. One person
told me that they allow in foreigners, but reserve the right to refuse drunken
persons, including Japanese. That's much better.
After dinner, we went to a restaurant named "Joy" which, despite our (nice,
hourlong) requests last November 2003, still had the sign up that said in
Russian: "Please. If you are not accompanied by a Japanese or by a Japanese
speaker, you are not allowed to enter the premises."
A clearly annoyed Debito confronted them, asking what part of the words "discriminatory
sign" was hard for them to understand. They told us they had notified the
owner of the restaurant chain (which caters to the Chitose International
Airport, of all places, and also owns a big brewery in Chitose), but that
they did not get any reply. Yet. So they said, "If you feel so strongly
about this, why don't you contact our head office?"
An unusually irate (12 hours of flawless snowstorm driving can do that to
a person) Debito replied, "So you're 'just following orders', are you? To
me, this is not an excuse to keep the sign up. It's been three months.
Have you no sense of social responsibility?" I told them that I would mention
this at the press conference the next morning, and we left. When we returned
one hour later, the sign was gone, and the manager told us that he had called
the Chitose head officeimmediately and gotten the okay to remove it.
Well, well, see what a little persistence--and publicity--can do.
SUBMISSION OF PETITION TO MONBETSU CITY HALL
FEB 6, 2004, 11 AM
The next morning, we submitted again to the city hall and the assembly.
This time, two television cameras (STV and HBC) recorded every single facial
tic and fanny scratch. The reception at both places was basically the same
as in Wakkanai (except the atmosphere was much chillier -- no beverage.)
The reply of the bureaucrats was as noncommittal as it was in Wakkanai:
"We will study the content of the peptition and will make a decision to implement
it in due time", said Mr. Kubota of the city government and Mr. Sugimoto
of the assembly. They did not give any time frame, so I think they will
bury the petition in committee, which will be dissolved after the next elections
in 2006. Then it will die a natural death, as did our 2000 petition to Otaru
in 2003.
PRESS CONFERENCE IN MONBETSU
MONBETSU CITY HALL PRESS CLUB, 11:30 AM
A repeat performance of Wakkanai. The New York Times, STV, HBC, Hokkaido
Shinbun, locals Okhotsk Shinbun and Hokkai Minyuu Shinbun were present. This
time, one interesting question: "Do you think that a law or a local ordinance
will change the perception of discrimination in the minds of the people?"
My reply: "I know that making discrimination illegal will not stop offenders.
Speed limits also do not stop speeding. But by outlawing discriminatory
signs, a clear signal is sent to the public--that discrimination will not
be tolerated. We have already seen that the unchallenged signs lead to copycatting.
A copy of the Otaru 'Japanese Only' sign popped up in front of Misawa bars
already. In sum, getting the signs down is not about eliminating racial
discrimination. It's about containing it, to stop the ideas of racists from
gaining common currency."
Later that evening we went to two watering holes in Monbetsu. One owner,
after seeing us in the door, thought for a few seconds and then let us in.
Even though he had one of those infamous Cyrillic signs on the door. Speaking
with him, it turned out that the real problem he has is not of criminal and
unruly sailors, but of a lack in communication. We offered to translate
his rules into several languages, which he said he would think over. Then
Debito convinced him to take down the sign--and give it to him as a present!
(Debito has it, now up with the others in his office as a trophy...)
Another argument we heard was that the single mama-san of a small "sunakku"
bar would be in danger of being raped if she allowed foreigners in. Of course,
we pointed out that propensity to rape is not a factor of ethnic group or
nationality. We recommended that the police beef up their patrols, or improve
their means of emergency communication. Moreover, I know a bar where the
matron had golf clubs under the counter. Not to bash foreigners, she says.
To whack yakuza. Again, not a matter of foreignness.
One bar had a sign up a couple of years ago said they took it down because
Japanese customers felt embarassed to bring Russian business partners there.
After taking down the sign, there were in fact no major problems reported.
The occasional unruly or drunken person at the doorstep was refused entry--regardless
of nationality.
The last place we visited that evening was a karaoke parlor named O-Edo.
When we first visited there in November 2003 for an extended exchange of
views, they only had a crappy A4 xerox copy of a "Japanese Only" sign up.
This time, however, they had laminated it. So our negotiation had seemingly
resulted in them taking a firmer, more permanent stance.
We spoke with the manager again, who initially refused to take responsibility
for the sign. "It is the decision of the main office in Sapporo to have the
sign up." Yep, pass the buck. But Debito, playing bad cop again (says he:
"Look, I'll ask them nicely the first time. But if I have to ask them again,
I'm going to be cross."), demanded it come down, promising to replace it
with a multilingual sign that explains, not excludes. It worked. The manager
said okay, and allowed us to take down the sign personally. See a photo
of this occasion at http://www.debito.org/roguesgallery.html#Monbetsu
We will get help from cyberspace for Russian, Chinese, English, and German,
and O-Edo will laminate and post the text at the entrance.
We also learned that Russian sailors, refused at drinking holes in the city,
now tend to buy liquor in convenience stores and then gather in parks and
on the street to socialize. This behavior makes them then even more suspicious
and it fuels the notion of Russians being unruly. But where else are they
supposed to drink? Not on board ship--captain's orders. Not in a bar.
Or a restaurant. So on the street? While wading on the beach? This is
a prime example of a vicious circle--barring foreigners from entry leads
to more prejudice and thus to more discrimination.
FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
After a few days on the road, meeting with so many people, a frazzled Debito
and I had a relaxed final Saturday in Monbetsu. We drove out to a beach
near Yubetsu and climbed on some famous drift ice (some about the size of
a car!) as it ground its way onshore like whales beaching. Worth the trip,
and it brings thousands of tourists annually.
But this sea ice is also a curse. The port of Monbetsu can do no business
in wintertime--no ships, including Russian ships, can fish or trade. (This
was one reason the karaoke parlor took down its sign--there are no Russians
in town). So during lean months these northern cities rely on winter tourism,
and do not want it to be adversely affected by bad publicity, ahem.
So what we are looking for is a thaw in international relations. An undeniable
fact is that both this part of Japan and that part of Russia need each other,
for trade in natural resources, used goods, and hard currency. Both sides
are suffering from a freeze in government support, and it takes somebody
to break up and carve a path through all the grating icebergs.
In our case, standing up and submit a law. Maybe Wakkanai and Monbetsu will
be the first cities in Japan to say, "We will protect our foreign guests
and residents from less desirable attitudes latent in any society. So here
are the rules Japanese people have to follow. We will also make it clear
what rules foreigners have to follow and enforce them strictly." Worth a
try, says Debito and I. Could bring about a PR miracle. First steps have
been made: we are in contact with assembly members, and the realization that
the exclusionary signs are discriminatory is spreading in the cities we visited.
As Debito completed his typically perfect driving record on our way back
inland to Sapporo, we stopped at a convenience store for a late lunch. Back
out of the port towns which have some "bad experience" with "bad sailors",
we breathed a little easier. Inland clerks were again "not used" to foreign
faces, and we got our normal double-takes and occasional stammers as we procured
what we needed.
Chowing down, I said, "Y'know, it is nice to be back in a town where you
are looked at with curiosity instead of suspicion."
Debito added: "It would be nicer not to be looked at with any attitude at
all."
I guess that's ultimately what we're working for.
Olaf Karthaus
Chitose
February 13, 2004
REPORT ENDS
FOOTNOTE:
http://www.imadr.org/geneva/cerd.2001.japan.html
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination:
Japan
58TH SESSION 6-23 March 2001
Original: ENGLISH UNEDITED VERSION, 20 March 2001.
Section C. Concerns and recommendations
[…]
12. Regarding the prohibition of racial discrimination in general, the Committee
is further concerned that racial discrimination as such is not explicitly
and adequately penalised in criminal law. The Committee recommends the State
party to consider giving full effect to the provisions of the Convention,
in its domestic legal order and to ensure the penalisation of racial discrimination
as well as the access to effective protection and remedies through the competent
national tribunals and other State institutions against any acts of racial
discrimination.