How Can We Solve Discrimination Problems? Focusing on japanese situation

S.K

What is Discrimination?

I researched the basic information about discrimination. I want to explain the starting point of why I am interested in this topic. These days, many news programs report the discrimination problems related to racism. Therefore, I want to get more information about these problems. According to Anne Frank House (2019, n.d.), discrimination is treating someone unequally because of their skin color, age, and their sexual preference. All people have the right to do what they want. For example, anyone should be able to rent a home whether they are gay or wear a headscarf. Also, treating people differently does not always become discrimination.

One of the examples is job hunting. Employees are able to choose job applicants freely, like “what they have learned at the university.” However, employees should not choose their applicants for their skin color and other physical features. Also, sometimes people do not recognize or respect those who are different from themselves (NMC Videos, 2020). And that leads to discrimination and isolated situations. This also affects the enjoyment of their work and life. Sometimes it causes mental health problems like depression. However, everyone has the right to include any community, so discrimination is illegal based on international rules. To research these problems, I realized that discrimination problems are illegal. Next, I want to tell you about the specific problems about discrimination happened in Japan.

Japanese Discrimination Situation

I watched an interview movie on YouTube by a Japanese man Yuta (2015). According to this interview, many Japanese women thought that Japanese Gender Equality was becoming enough, but still not enough. One woman answered, “When a salesperson is a woman, some people don’t take her seriously (Japanese man Yuta, 2015). That is caused by gender stereotypes. More and more Japanese people believe that men are more important than women. This thought is like paternalism. However, another woman answered that “Japanese people are trying to support working women (Japanese man Yuta, 2015).”

These days, many politicians make laws to help working women. This is a good trend because it means that many people are interested in women’s hard situations. Also, I read the article, and according to BBC News (2023, March 2), Japan’s Prime Minister says that banning same-sex marriage is not illegal. And that got a lot of criticism. Moreover, Japan had a politician called Arai Masayoshi who said “even did not even want to look at sexual minorities (BBC, 2023).” This is a very serious problem. Fortunately, he was sacked from his position, but this is a serious problem. I think Japan should introduce more women politicians to change society. According to the Asahi Shinbun (2023), Japan’s gender gap rank is 125 places. We must change this situation.

Who are Zainichi Koreans？

Then, I want to explain who Zainichi Koreans are. According to the Zainichi Korean History Museum (n.d.), the term Zainichi refers to the Koreans and their descendants who moved or who were forced to move to Japan during the period of colonial rule in Korea. And Zainichi communities today are composed of a wide variety of nationalities and lifestyles.

I learned about the Zainichi Koreans situation at the SALP program. In this class, one of the people who is involved in this community told me the hard facts. She said that Zainichi Koreans are facing terrible discrimination like hate speech. UNESCO (n.d.) says that hate speech is any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group based on their religion, ethnicity, color, and other traits.

According to the Asahi Shinbun (2022, December 18), a group of Korean residents in Japan and their local supporters have been holding protest rallies since 2017 to call on the Japanese government to end its discriminatory policy excluding Korean schools from the country’s tuition-free program. How can we solve Zainichi Koreans discrimination? This situation is hurting those peoples’ human rights.

K.S

The Difference Between Discrimination, Prejudice and Racism

I started researching about discrimination. I was not interested in human rights problems like discrimination until I entered university because I took it for granted that everyone in the world has human rights. However, through my academic learning at Chuo University, I realized there are many people in the world whose human rights are infringed and the importance of human rights. Therefore, I chose this topic.

Firstly, I did not know the exact difference between discrimination, prejudice, and racism, so I researched its differences. According to the American Psychological Association (2022, October 31, para. 1), the definition of discrimination is the unfair or prejudicial treatment of people and groups based on characteristics such as race, gender, age, or sexual orientation. On the other hand, the organization noted that prejudice refers to the beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes someone holds about a group. Racism is a stronger type of prejudice and discrimination used to justify inequalities against individuals by maintaining that one racial category is superior to others (Openstax, n.d.). Through the research so far, I learned that prejudice and racism are to look down on other people and groups in mind, but discrimination is to treat unequally and even attacking people and groups based on race, gender, age, or sexual orientation. We should not discriminate and overlook discrimination. I would like to research examples of discrimination.

What is Racial Profiling ?

This week I researched about discrimination in Japan, and I found an article from the Mainichi. In this article, it is said that “the National Police Agency (NPA) announced that six incidents of racial profiling were acknowledged in a report” (Ida, 2022, December 19). The word “racial profiling” is new to me; therefore, I look up the meaning and definition of racial profiling. According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission (n.d.), "racial profiling is any action undertaken for reasons of safety, security or public protection, that relies on stereotypes about race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, or place of origin, or a combination of these, rather than on a reasonable suspicion, to single out an individual for greater scrutiny or different treatment. It is based on stereotypical assumptions because of one’s race, color, ethnicity, etc.” I think that everyone should not judge people just by appearance and especially police officers should never do that because they have to be appropriate and fair to people of all backgrounds.

In addition, a survey targeting foreign residents and those with foreign roots was carried out by the Tokyo Bar Association. According to the results, “62.9% answered they had been subjected to questioning by police in the past five years (Ida, 2022, December 19). Among them, 85.4% said that officers approached them while acknowledging that they were someone with foreign roots based on "physical features" and other factors. Among those who had been questioned, 76.9% believed that there were no other factors than them being "a foreigner or someone with foreign roots" that prompted the police officers to approach them” (Ida, 2022, December 19). This news made me uncomfortable, and I do not want to believe such discrimination is happening in Japan. I think we should change this situation.

What is Hate Speech?

I researched hate speech this week because I heard that hate speech is a difficult problem because it is connected to freedom of speech and the right of people to choose where they live. Therefore I want to know how we can solve this problem. Firstly I would like to explain the definition of hate speech. According to the United Nations (n.d.), “hate speech refers to offensive discourse targeting a group or an individual based on inherent characteristics (such as race, religion or gender) and that may threaten social peace.”

In Japan, hate speech against foreign people has been a serious issue for a long time. On July 3 2016, the Act on the Promotion of Efforts to Eliminate Unfair Discriminatory Speech and Behavior against Persons Originating from Outside Japan took effect and the Japanese government started to work on solving hate speech problems (Hurights Osaka, n.d.). There are five main visions of the law, and I think “responsibilities of the national and local governments on taking measures to eliminate hate speech” and “implementation of educational and awareness-raising activities” are particularly important (Hurights Osaka, n.d.). That is because the government has overlooked hate speech for years and many people have been suffering from hate speech.

However, I think this Act is not enough because it does not restrict online hate speech. In the era when everyone has their own device and can write their opinions freely on the internet, hate speech occurs on the internet as well as on the street. The government should include online hate speech movements in the Act.