Criminals or victims? the politics of illegal foreigners in Japan

Journal of Japanese Studies

Volumn 31, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 299-327

  Shipper, Apichai W ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33745828143     PISSN: 00956848     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jjs.2005.0060     Document Type: Review

References (104)

1. Asahi shinbun Weekly AERA, October 10, 1998, pp. 25-27.
2. In 2000, the foreign population alone (i.e., excluding ethnic minorities) accounted for 4.0 per cent of the total population in the United Kingdom, 4.1 per cent in the Netherlands, 5.6 per cent in France, 8.8 per cent in Belgium, 8.9 per cent in Germany, 9.3 per cent in Austria, 19.3 per cent in Switzerland, 37.3 per cent in Luxembourg, 10.4 per cent in the United States, 17.4 per cent in Canada, and 23.6 per cent in Australia. OECD, OECD in Figures: Statistics on the Member Countries (Paris: OECD, 2002), pp. 6-7.
3. Michael Weiner calls the homogeneity of the Japanese people a "myth" or "illusion" due to the existence of three million minority persons such as Ainu, burakumin, Chinese, Koreans, Okinawans, and foreigners of Japanese descent. See Michael Weiner, ed., Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity (London: Routledge, 1997). Even if we were to include the two million burakumin, who are Japanese, the percentage of Weiner's minorities in Japan was merely 2.4 per cent.
4. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Rice as Self: Japanese Identity through Time (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). p. 101.
5. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Rice as Self: Japanese Identity through Time Ibid., pp. 53-54.
6. Apichai W. Shipper, "Pragmatism in Activism: Organizing Support for Illegal Foreigners in Japan" (Harvard University Program on U.S.-Japan Relations Monograph Series. 2002).
7. Sheldon Garon, Molding Japanese Minds (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997).
8. On the source of power for civil society groups, see Ann M. Florini and P. J. Simmons, "What the World Needs Now? " in Ann M. Florini, ed., The Third Force: The Rise of Transnational Civil Society (Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2000), pp. 1-15, especially pp. 10-11.
9. On the elite's view of Japanese commoners as "stupid" and their fear that these commoners might collaborate with foreign powers and turn against them, see Masao Maruyama, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1974), pp. 328, 354.
10. Supporters of the Shimabara uprising, which began as a peasant riot, were purported to include the local feudal lord, who was a Christian, and Europeans. The Tokugawa regime suppressed the rebellion and massacred thousands of Japanese Christians thereafter.
11. The domains of Tsushima and Satsuma also carried on a substantial outbound trade with Korea and the Ryukyus (Okinawa) respectively - both of which functioned as entrepots between Japan and China. See Ronald P. Toby, State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984). In addition, the Tokugawa regime discouraged Japanese from the main islands from traveling abroad because they feared Japanese sojourners would succumb to dangerous ideas from foreigners.
12. Captain Frank Brinkley, A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era (New York: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1915), p. 656
13. quoted in Arthur Walworth, Black Ships Off Japan: The Story of Commodore Perry's Expedition (New York: Knopf, 1946), p. 6. This practice of trampling on the cross (fumi-e) was a widespread tactic for detecting "secret" Christians.
14. See Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning in Early-Modern Japan (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 1991), p. 105.
15. Quoted in Maruyama, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, p. 338.
16. Maruyama, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, Ibid., pp. 338-39.
17. See Wakabayashi, Anti-Foreignism and Western Learning, p. 60.
18. Donald Keene, Landscapes and Portraits: Appreciations of Japanese Culture (London: Secker and Warburg, 1971), p. 270.
19. Naimushō Keihokyoku, Shōwa hachinen-chū ni okeru shakai undō no jōkyō (1933), pp. 1397 and 1401
20. quoted in Richard Mitchell, The Korean Minority in Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 31 and 91.
21. San Kim and Nym Wales, Song of Ariran (New York: John Day Co., 1941), p. 37
22. and Marry E. Wildes, "Japan Struggle for Democracy," The World Tomorrow, Vol. 8 (June 1925), pp. 174-76
23. quoted in Mitchell, The Korean Minority in Japan, p. 39.
24. Matsuo Takayoshi, "Kantō daishinsai moto no chōsenjin gyakusatsu jiken," Shisō, Part I, No. 471 (September 1963), p. 36.
25. quoted in Mitchell, The Korean Minority in Japan, p. 39, note 56.
26. Mitchell, The Korean Minority in Japan, Ibid., p. 38, note 56.
27. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taishō jūyonen-chū ni okeru zairyū chōsenjin no jōkyō (Tokyo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1926), p. 173
28. quoted in Mitchell. The Korean Minority in Japan, p. 39. note 57.
29. John W. Dower, War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York: Pantheon Books, 1986).
30. Garon, Molding Japanese Minds, p. 15.
31. Mitchell, The Korean Minority in Japan, p. 110. The Supreme Command for the Allied Powers (SCAP) was also responsible for the anti-Korean hysteria that swept Japan during the summer and fall of 1946. It issued a press release expressing fear that Koreans, who entered Japan illegally, were spreading cholera and typhus. Two months later, SCAP withdrew this charge and admitted that only one case of cholera had developed.
32. David Conde, "The Korean Minority in Japan," Far Eastern Survey, Vol. XVI (February 1947), pp. 41-45
33. quoted in Mitchell, The Korean Minority in Japan, pp. 110-11.
34. Keisatsuchō, Keisatsu hakusho (Tokyo: Keisatsuchō, annual).
35. It is possible that the police, knowing that foreign suspects would be deported, charged illegal foreigners with only a violation of the immigration and alien-registration laws instead of heavier offenses. To press other and more serious charges would have required extra energy and effort from the police. It is also possible that the police found it to their interest to load their uncleared cases on foreigners who would be kicked out of the country anyway.
36. Keisatsuchō. Keisatsu hakusho.
37. Keisatsuchō. Keisatsu hakusho. Ibid.
38. With the passage of the 1991 Bōryokudanin ni Yoru Futō no Kōi no Bōshi nado ni Kansuru Hōritsu (Law Concerning Prevention of Unjust Acts by Bōryokudan Members), there appears to be an emerging pattern of yakuza organizations willing to allow and accept criminal operations in their territories for a fee, and to accept and increasingly rely on foreigners as street-level drug retailers. Moreover, Iranians are more visible than Japanese or Koreans and operate primarily in public places such as parks and train stations. See H. Richard Friman, "Gaijinhanzai: Immigrants and Drugs in Contemporary Japan," Asian Survey, Vol. 36, No. 10 (October 1996), pp. 964-77.
39. "Japan Police Report Spotlights Crime by Foreigners," http://www.abcnews.com/, May 1, 2000.
40. Asuhi shinhu H. April 10, 2000, p. 1.
41. Asahi shinbun, April 11, 2000, p. 38.
42. On the Snake Heads and their illegal trafficking of Fuzhounese workers to the United States, see Peter Kwong, Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor (New York: The New Press, 1997). particularly pp. 26-39.
43. Interview with an official of the Foreign Crime Division. National Police Agency, in Tokyo, January 6, 2003.
44. Asahi shinbun, April 12, 2000, p. 29.
45. Asahi shinbun. July 13, 2003. p. 39.
46. This association of recent illegal foreigners with negative images can be traced back lo 1990. During an inspection in Shinjuku after a police crackdown on Southeast Asian women allegedly engaged in prostitution, Justice Minister Kajiyama Seiroku said, "It's like in America when neighborhoods become mixed because blacks move in and whites are forced out... .Prostitutes ruin the atmosphere in the same way." Mainichi shinbun, October 17, 1990, p. 1.
47. Sankei shinbun, April 26, 2000, p. 2.
48. Yomiuri shinbun, July 11, 2003, p. 38.
49. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Bluebook (Tokyo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, various years).
50. Since 1995 when a section on "Foreigners in Japan" was added, the language used by Ministry of Home Affairs in the Diplomatic Bluebook has changed regarding illegal foreign workers. Initially, the ministry showed a sympathetic attitude and wrote "illegal workers tend to work under poor labor conditions and with little protection under the Japan's social security system; some cases result in human rights issues" (http://www.mofa.go.jp/ policy/other/bluebook/1995/).
51. By 1996, the ministry began to equate illegal workers with criminal activities when it stated that "these illegal workers... tend to get involved in crime" (http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/other/bluebook/1996/).
52. In 1997, it added that this situation "creates prejudice among some parts of the population against foreigners in Japan" (http://www.mofa.go. jp/policy/other/bluebook/1997/).
53. In 2001, the ministry clarified itself and stated that "crimes committed by some of these illegal residents present an erroneous image of foreigners living in Japan to the Japanese public" (http://www.mofa.go.jp/ policy/other/blue-book/2001/chap4-b.html#5).
54. The website of the NPA in 2000 on foreign crime, for example, had Japan threatened from all sides by an invasion of bad and fearful foreigners (http://www.npa.go.jp/koho2/mado_3.htm [May 9, 2000]).
55. Reported in the monthly newsletter of the United Front Japan, The UFJ, Vol. 3.2 (June 1998), p. 6.
56. Patricia Steinhoff keenly notes a broad range of "illegal activity carried out by organized crime groups that is neither reported as crime nor prosecuted." See Patricia Steinhoff, "Pursuing the Japanese Police," Law & Society Review, Vol. 27, No. 4 (1993), p. 849.
57. See Hakoishi Mami and Hatade Akira, "Rainichi gaikokujin no hanzai," in Tanaku Hiroshi and Ebashi Takashi. eds., Rainichi gaikokujin jinken hakusho (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1997), pp. 328-29.
58. Hakoishi Mami and Hatade Akira, Rainichi gaikokujin jinken hakusho Ibid., p. 321.
59. Asahi shinbun, October 4, 1992.
60. Asahi shinbun, December 26, 2000, p. 15.
61. Keisatsuchō, Keisatsu hakusho (Tokyo: Keisatsuchō, 2001).
62. Network News, No. 32 (May 1998), p. 1; English in original.
63. FWBZ News, No. 8 (June 5, 1999), p. 1; English in original.
64. MF-MASH News, No. 6 (October 1993).
65. Yamazato dayori, No. 12 (December 1997), p. 2; English in original.
66. View from Sanya, No. 2 (April 1998), p. 2.
67. View from Sanya, No. 2 (1998), p. 2. Ibid.
68. Jodmaikao "Saalaa," No. I (January 1995), p. 8; my translation.
69. Similar surveys have been conducted and published by women's NGOs, community workers' unions, medical NGOs, lawyers' NGOs, and concerned citizen groups.
70. Shimodate-jiken Tai 3 Josei o Sasaeru Kai, ed., Baishun shakai Nihon e, taijin josei kara no tegami (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten. 1995). pp. 14-95.
71. Higashizawa Yasushi, Nagai tabi no omoni (Tokyo: Kaifū Shobō, 1993).
72. Immigration Review Task Force, "Kȳsei s̄kan sareta gaikokujin no shōgen '95-'97" (Tokyo: unpublished manuscript, 1999), pp. 43-48.
73. Interview with Osuwa Yoshio of Akushi Shoten in Tokyo, June 5. 1999.
74. See the May 1, 2000, issues of Sankei shinbun (p. 1)
75. Yomiuri shinbun (p. 26)
76. Nikkei shinbun (p. 34)
77. Mainichi shinbun (p. 22)
78. and Asahi shinbun (p. 26).
79. See respectively Yomiuri shinbun, April 18, 1993, p. 26;
80. Daily Yomiuri, September 4, 1998;
81. Sankei shinbun, May 1, 2000, p. 1.
82. Interviews with journalists from the Sankei shinbun in Tokyo, May 15, 2001, and the Asahi shinbun in Tokyo, May 19, 2001.
83. Keisatsuchō, Keisatsu hakusho (Tokyo: Keisatsuch̄, 1994-99).
84. Yomiuri Weekly. November 16, 2003, pp. 10-19.
85. Daniel H. Foote finds that the media and the public often regard a suspect, upon arrest, as guilty despite the existence of a presumption of innocence under Japanese law. But fewer than five per cent of the adult suspects of Penal Code offenses are sentenced to prison. See Daniel H. Foote, "The Benevolent Paternalism of Japanese Criminal Justice," California Law Review, Vol. 80 (1992).
86. See Wolfgang Herbert, Foreign Workers and Law Enforcement in Japan (London: Kegan Paul International, 1996), pp. 262-302.
87. Yomiuri shinbun, May 26, 1988, p. 31.
88. Mainichi shinbun, March 14, 1994, p. 10.
89. Yomiuri shinbun, August 11, 1996, p. 31.
90. Mainichi shinbun. October 12, 1994, p. 10.
91. Nikkei Weekly, July 6, 1998.
92. Published interview with Watanabe Hideyoshi at http://www.abcnews.com/ (May 1, 2000).
93. Mainichi shinbun, January 3, 1991, p. 3.
94. Mainichi shinbun (Osaka evening edition), October 2, 1996, p. 3.
95. Yomiuri shinbun, October 3, 1995, p. 75.
96. Yomiuri shinbun, September 27, 1991, p. 30.
97. Mainichi shinbun, October 2, 1996, p. 3.
98. Mainichi shinbun, May 2, 1997, p. 14.
99. Hiroshi Komai, Foreign Migrants in Contemporary Japan (Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2001), particularly pp. 45-49.
100. These surveys on Japanese public opinion are taken from the Roper Center at http://ropercenter.uconn.edu/jpoll/home.html. Polling organizations and the release dates of their surveys were: Yomiuri shinbun, March 30, 1993, and March 30, 1994; NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, January 6, 1995;
101. and Asahi shinbun, July 15, 2004.
102. These data are also from the Roper Center: NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, July 1, 1993; Yomiuri shinbun, March 19, 1997; and Prime Minister's Office, July 1, 1988, July 1, 1997, and July 1, 2002.
103. Interview with a high-ranking NPA official in Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 10, 2000.
104. Peter J. Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996), pp. 62-63.