Blocked at the GatePerhaps it’s the lack of sleep this past week, but I’m getting pretty upset with the xenophobic attitudes of some people in Japan.

A Daily Yomiuri editorial from February 23rd (”Foreign residents’ suffrage not a political issue” - I’d post a link, but the Yomiuri’s Link Policy wouldn’t permit it) says, once again, that permanent residents in Japan must not be permitted to vote in national or local elections because we are a subversive threat to national security. Permanent residents hostile to Japan could abuse the right and somehow obstruct cooperation between the federal and local governments.

Considering the less-than-stellar degree of cooperation the state has fostered with the prefectures and cities over the years, the author really needs to take his head out of the sand and look around.

Is it theoretically possible for a hundred-thousand immigrants from some hostile nation move to Japan, go through all the ridiculously painful legalities to become a permanent resident then, in a single bold fashion, all move to a larger city and elect a representative that would be detrimental to the well-being of the country? Theoretically, yes. Is it likely? Keep this shit up and I might just organize a take-over of Osaka … suffrage or no.

The Cold War Is Over

The Cold War ended when Soviet Russia fell apart. Almost 20 years have passed since that time of extreme paranoia, but it seems the editors with their fingers in the media are still relying on out-dated, racist and otherwise backward ‘logic’. Not only does this increase the false preconception in Japan that foreigners are dangerous and a threat to the locals, but it reinforces and justifies it.

One Finger SaluteThe editorial concludes that the political motives behind the DPJ’s moves to push for voting rights are “impermissible in respect to the issue that concerns what this nation should aspire to be.” And what, pray-tell, is that? To be an un-welcoming, regressive state that fails to trust non-Japanese as equal members of society capable of thinking for themselves?

Fuck you, un-named author.

The only thing people like this author have to fear from us foreign nationals is the airing of the government’s dirty laundry when more of us have a reason to pay attention to the garbage that goes on behind the closed doors of the ever-exclusive men’s club that is Japanese politics.

Breeding Hostility With Hostility

Considering how the next day that very same paper stated that a staggering 68% of Japanese are “disenchanted with their politicians”, you’d think the Yomiuri would have the foresight to hold back their opinion on the foreign suffrage bit. Heck, if so many Japanese have trouble with the existing politicians, perhaps the “national threats” could be called in to offer a little bit of perspective on their ways. Fukuda, following Abe’s lead, wanted to institute reform, right? What better way to reform than by getting a non-Japanese person a nice role as a political adviser.

Just as every Japanese person does not like baseball and sumo, not every foreign resident is from a nation with hostile intentions towards Japan. However, if the system continues to be hostile towards us, then it might not be hostile nations the government needs to worry about, but local residents instead.

With such obsolete outlooks being distributed in a national newspaper and echoed in the government halls, it’s no wonder people aren’t happy with the politicians in this country. If someone tried to publish this hostile, xenophobic tripe back in Canada, they’d be out of a job before the article even reached print.