Color blinded: a user's guide to racism in Japan

Japan, Inc., April, 2004 by Tony McNicol

Aruhido won compensation from the owners (who are now appealing), but lost his case against the city. With the help of 27 human rights lawyers from Japan's Civil Liberties Union, he is now appealing to the Sapporo High Court.

"If you are contributing to Japanese society, then you should have your rights recognized," Aruhido says. "We are not talking about the right to vote--things that are guaranteed only to citizens. [But to be able] to spend money like anybody else, to enjoy public services that we pay for the same as anybody else."

Jean-Pierre Lehmann is a Professor of International Political Economy at Switzerland's IMD business school. A long-term Japan scholar and observer, he doubts that Japan will embrace multiculturalism any time soon. He calls Japan a "global outlier" as far as progress towards multiculturalism and action against racism goes. "I think most Westerners are totally ignorant of racism in Japan," Lehmann says. "It does not feature in the press, and there is no international campaign."

But even if the government won't legislate to protect minorities, Aruhido points out, the mix of ethnicity that you can find in other multicultural societies is already here. "Are you able to find Chinatowns in Japan? Yes. Are you able to find Koreatowns? In some sections, yes. Are you able to find pockets of different ethnicities? Of course. So I am pushing for legislation to protect the reality of what is already here. Things do change, you just have to keep pushing."

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Since winning his case, Aruhido has received hate mail and, at one point, as many as 30 prank calls per day. He welcomes debate and discussion, but says that, surprisingly, "non-Japanese have been the most visceral [critics] of this whole thing. I was asked point blank by a reporter one day: 'Why do you as a foreigner believe it is necessary to do all these things?'"

"I told him: 'I am not a foreigner. I am a Japanese citizen.'"

Fundamentally, Aruhido believes that changing racist attitudes and cultural norms is a resident's obligation: "Anybody who wants to make a place a better place to live has the right, if not the duty, to do something to improve things for everyone."