Debito Arudou, a naturalized Japanese citizen, who was born in the United States, critiques an official Japanese survey on human rights and points out the inherent biases against non-Japanese residents living in Japan.

“On Aug. 25, the Japanese government released findings from a Cabinet poll conducted every four years. Called the “Public Survey on the Defense of Human Rights”, it sparked media attention with some apparently good news.

When respondents were asked, “Should foreigners have the same human rights protections as Japanese?” 59.3 percent said “yes.” This is a rebound from the steady decline from 1995 (68.3 percent), 1999 (65.5) and 2003 (54)…

First, why is the government even asking whether non-Japanese deserve equal rights? Are human rights optional, a matter of opinion polls? And if a majority says foreigners deserve fewer rights, does that justify the current policy of resisting introducing laws against racial discrimination? …

Now let’s turn to the lousy science. 3,000 people (1,776 respondents) aged 20 and up were interviewed “to poll the awareness of citizens (“kokumin”) regarding human rights protections, applying them toward shaping future policy” (survey, page 1).

Well then, the sampling is already biased. If you only survey “kokumin,” you aren’t surveying foreigners. As taxpaying residents, shouldn’t 2 million non-Japanese also have input into policy affecting them as profoundly as anti-discrimination measures?…

But the survey’s biggest blind spot is its approach toward issues of nationality and race.
Note how the aforementioned Q3 includes, in one category, “discrimination by race, creed, gender, and social status.” That’s painting the issue with an awfully big brush. Not to diminish the severity of these problems, but you can hardly lump them together and get meaningful results.
Consequently, 13.9 percent of respondents indicated they had experienced this kind of discrimination (probably mostly by gender).

But what are the chances of Japanese claiming they are victims of racism? If you exclude all foreigners from the survey, you guarantee an unrealistically low number, especially given the spread of “Japanese Only” signs and policies nationwide, and the long-standing practice of refusing apartments to foreign renters…

Is there any doubt about the existence of discrimination against foreigners in Japan? Even our courts have acknowledged it in several lawsuits — the Ana Bortz and the Otaru onsen cases being but two famous examples…”

Source: Arudou, Debito. “Human rights survey stinks.” The Japan Times. October 23rd, 2007. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20071023zg.html

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