Dr. Debito Arudou s Home Page: Issues of Life and Human Rights in Japan
Following up from yesterday's blog entry on "Big Garbage Day", let me ask Readers: What's the favorite thing you've found in the Gomi? I'll start: Tatami mats. Took them back to my one-room apartment and instantly felt like I had leveled up in life. During my first few months of my first year in Sapporo in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. Good thing I was only aged 22 and it was a bachelor pad.…
Intro: “Dave! Dave! Get over here! I’ve found it! The Holy Grail of ‘Big Garbage Day’!” It was Joe ringing Dave’s keitai first thing in the morning. It wasn’t the first time. It was that regular time of the year in certain parts of Japan that for some foreign residents was better than Christmas: Sodai Gomi no Hi. That day was quite a celebration during Japan’s Bubble Era of the late 1980s-early…
Rustom: On July 5, 2026 my wife, and I went to change my carrier to Rakuten mobile. A week earlier in my wife had already changed to RM and the process was taking too long so I couldn’t get my carrier changed on the same day as well. Therefore, we elected to go on the 5 of July. All went well and smooth until the staff member directly asked me for my Zairyu card. I remembered last week that he…
This column is about living history, where I returned to my hometown of Geneva NY to unseal a time capsule we created in 1976 in fifth grade, and unlocked a lot of memories of the Bicentennial. I take this occasion to compare it to the current Semiquincentennial. Excerpt from the middle: ============================ "I’m fortunate to have experienced two commemorative years for America: the…
I write Debito.org SNA "Visible Minorities" columns once a month (SNA website here) and send Debito.org Newsletters to subscribers sporadically. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It’s been a good way to allow Readers to be heard and…
I recently received this question from a reporter: "Sanseito, which has promised to put 'Japanese First,' made a strong showing in the 2025 Upper House election. Some wonder why those who voted for the party were not aware that the slogan could promote discrimination and anti-foreigner sentiment. I would very much appreciate it if you give us your take on this." My answer was: "After several…
Intro: The world is living under a rogue regime -- or rather, a rogue individual -- who is wielding unprecedented power. Think about it: Donald Trump is Commander-in-Chief over the world’s mightiest military in history, and deployed it worldwide far beyond the empires of yore (Roman, Persian, Ottoman, British, Russian, Chinese...). He also has his finger on the button of the second-largest (if not…
Summary: For decades, Japan has presented itself as an increasingly international society, and its education system has been one of the most visible sites of that effort. Tens of thousands of non-Japanese educators have been recruited into public schools to support English language learning, often framed as part of a broader commitment to global engagement. On paper, this appears progressive. In…
Intro: Joint custody for divorced parents will be allowed from April 1 in Japan — one of the few jurisdictions in the world where custody has been granted to only one parent — in one of the biggest reforms to the country’s family law in decades. For the first time ever, revisions to the Civil Code and related laws will allow parents to choose between sole custody or joint custody following a…
Conclusion: Despite its 250th anniversary, American democracy has always been a bit creaky, with norms instead of laws that a chief executive could exploit. Countries that used the American model for their Nation-State wound up with autocratic executives. America didn’t because it got lucky. And because of that it never learned the outcomes of populism like France did. “It couldn’t happen here”…
I write Debito.org SNA "Visible Minorities" columns once a month (SNA website here) and send Debito.org Newsletters to subscribers sporadically. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It’s been a good way to allow Readers to be heard and…
Excerpt: I teach Political Science, and have an express zero-tolerance policy towards the use of AI in students’ submitted assignments. Two semesters ago, my policy was to give zeros on assignments in the first instance and Fs in the course for repeat offenders. But last semester, this became untenable as AI reached the event horizon. AI went from something students were still discovering to being…
I write Debito.org SNA "Visible Minorities" columns once a month (SNA website here) and send Debito.org Newsletters to subscribers sporadically. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It’s been a good way to allow Readers to be heard and…
I post these two articles because they offer evidence that becoming a part of Japanese society isn't just a matter of being "Good Gaijin", e.g., contributing and behaving until "your outward appearance causes no particular problems". These are good things to do, of course, but they are not a panacea, because the Netto Uyoku (Far-Right Internet Xenophobes and Trolls) in Japan are so well organized…
If you've never heard of author and memoirist Karen Hill Anton, her accomplishments are impressive. After five decades of living in Japan, Anton has been hired for diversity training consultancies at corporations such as Shinsei Bank, Corning Japan, Eli Lilly, and Citigroup. A Freeman Foundation Fellow and Plenary Speaker at JALT 2022, Anton has also been a member of the Jun Ashida Educational…
Karen Hill Anton, a memoirist, writer, and longtime columnist and commentator on Japan I respect a great deal (and have met in person), recently wrote something on her Substack that I take great issue with. It's not only poorly researched. It misrepresents history, distorts the science, and even winds up disrespecting the activists who invested so much of their lives into this issue. For example,…
Excerpt: PM Ishiba has since resigned his post and the LDP has had new elections for party leader. Stump speeches between successor candidates fell for the anti-foreigner hype and launched a foreigner-bashing olympics. Eventually the extremist candidate won, despite her weird past policy positions, overtly racist statements, and lying about, of all things, foreigners assaulting deer in a park. Say…
I write Debito.org SNA "Visible Minorities" columns once a month (SNA website here) and send Debito.org Newsletters to subscribers sporadically. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It’s been a good way to allow Readers to be heard and…
Excerpt: By the time I completed my column last month, Japan had held its July 20, 2025, Upper House elections. They deserve comment in this space, but not for the reasons you might expect. The major takeaway was that the ruling conservative parties (the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito) lost seats, while opposition parties on the right, left, and center generally gained. Notably, for the…
More than a month ago a reporter asked me some questions about the state of Japan in the run-up to the July 20 Elections. With permission, I gave some pretty thorough answers. They didn't end up getting used, so I'll publish them here. Since my next SNA column will probably develop the thoughts of my answer to Question 4 below, I'm open to your feedback. Thanks. 4) Do you think that…
Intro: President Trump has been on a mission of sorts to reform the Executive Branch of the American Federal Government. To do so, for a while he appointed billionaire CEO Elon Musk and a number of shady computer experts to fire as many civil servants as possible under a pseudo-department called DOGE, for "Department of Government Efficiency". SNA talked with one civil servant, whom we will call…
Hi Blog. I write Debito.org SNA "Visible Minorities" columns once a month (SNA website here) and send Debito.org Newsletters to subscribers sporadically. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It’s been a good way to allow Readers to be heard…
Excerpt: The rate of growth of Japan’s tourism from overseas has indeed been startling, tripling from under 10 million to over 30 million foreign visitors in about a decade. From that has sprung a lot of hoopla about Japan is becoming “overtouristed.” A quick Google will find much griping and sniping: overcrowding, traffic congestion, bad manners, garbage, luggage, noise, intrusive photography,…
Intro: The Trump Administration has just finished its first 100 days. It’s a good time to look back on what’s been done during a president’s “honeymoon period”, the high water mark of his political momentum; and b) it’s a bellwether for the pace and direction of the rest of the presidency. So far the report card is not good. Trump’s approval rating at this point in his presidency is the lowest of…
Hi Blog. I put out Debito.org Newsletters once a month. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It’s been a good way to allow Readers to be heard and engaged. I still put out Debito.org Newsletters, but since I’m only posting once a month,…
Excerpt: According to the CBC, support for Canada becoming part of the US is highest in Alberta, at 15 percent surveyed, as opposed to nine percent nationwide. That’s why MAGAts target Alberta for annexation. They’ve worked with Canadian separatists for quite some time, with regular networking and megaphoning on social media. But they’ve also been involved in secession rehearsals. In 2022, a…
Excerpt: [Header] WE LIVE IN EXTREME TIMES… The postwar order of interlocking trade that made the world generally rich and peaceful looks mortally wounded. All thanks to one man, believing his place is secure in the “Great Man theory” of world history, who doesn’t understand the concept of consequences for his actions because he has never faced any in his life. He invokes a turn-of-the-century…
Excerpt: Donald Trump has been sworn in today as the 47th American president, returning to power in what is being built up in politics and media as popular legitimacy for his authoritarianism. Since November, his supporters have claimed that he was re-elected by “a massive margin” (Vivek Ramaswamy), giving him “an overwhelming mandate” (Spokesman Steven Cheung and House Majority Leader Steve…
I put out Debito.org Newsletters once a month. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It’s been a good way to allow Readers to be heard and engaged. I still put out Debito.org Newsletters, but since I’m only posting once a month, there’s only…
Opening: I read an inspiring column in the New York Times, “The Supervillain is the Hero Now” (Nov 23), by cultural critic A.O. Scott. It surprisingly offered me a plausible theory as to why Trump got re-elected. Scott’s thesis was that popular culture and politics are linked, in that politics is downstream from culture. That is to say, metaphorically speaking, what condenses in the snowpack of a…
Hi Blog. I put out Debito.org Newsletters once a month. After sending, I archive them here, and below, Debito.org Readers have been adding recent issues and articles that concern them regardless of the content of the post over the past several years. It's been a good way to allow Readers to be heard and engaged. I still put out Debito.org Newsletters, but since I'm only posting once a month,…
Intro: Raise your glass. Another authoritarian is worm food. I’m trying not to make a habit of writing obituaries, but people who affected policymaking in Japan just keep dying. I’ve done ruminations on the deaths of Shinzo Abe, Shintaro Ishihara, Henry Scott-Stokes, and even on positive influences such as Ivan Hall and Chalmers Johnson. Now it’s Alberto Fujimori’s turn. Alberto Fujimori, who died…
It’s been called the “silly season” in American politics: The last weeks before the November election, when politicians sling whatever mud comes to mind and hope something sticks. Use the media to define your opponents before they define you. And if innocents get caught in the crossfire, oh well. Too bad. That’s politics. This season’s most insidious indictment of innocents are the false claims,…
Hello Debito.org Readers. I am generally posting around once a month here. Not because of a lack of interest on my part, but because I am working full-time these days at the university level, teaching more credits than ever before on multiple campuses. All of my energies are currently being devoted to my hundreds of students. If I'm not preparing a lecture or giving one, I'm grading papers or…
Intro: I love elections. It’s not just that they are the quickest and most effective way for people to select their representatives. It’s also that elections are a fascinating reflection of how leaders are held accountable in a society, and how often the ruling elites feel they have to listen to the public. Put simply, without good elections, you don’t have a democracy. As a Political Science…
SNA: A fundamental issue for any country is knowing who lives there, and this is generally measured by a national census every ten years. Censuses are serious things. They should accurately reveal in granular detail who people are, where they live, and how they live, in order for public policies to effectively target social services, health and welfare. Censuses even have international standards,…
Excerpt: “Overtourism” has become a trendy word to describe Japan attractions (e.g., Shibuya Scramble, Hachiko, Ginza, Kyoto, Senso-ji, Mount Fuji) being overrun by tourists. But in Japan the word is specifically associated with “foreign tourists,” i.e., mobs blocking traffic, disrupting local businesses and mores by littering and chattering away in their foreign languages. I don’t dispute that…
Table of Contents: 1) Robert Whiting on “Slaughter in Saitama adds to list of foreigners murdered in Japan, shines light on social issue”, on the Bishop Family Murder Case, an underreported event in 2022 that I consider to be a hate crime 2) Incidents of confrontationalism toward NJ are on the rise. Debito.org argues that this is standard social bullying of foreigners being disguised as a reaction…
Whiting: Tokyo was stunned in late December by the news of the brutal killing of longtime Japan resident William Bishop, a 69-year-old U.S. national, his 68-year-old wife Izumi Morita, and their daughter Sophianna Megumi Morita, 32. All three were found dead outside their residence in Hanno, Saitama, with multiple wounds early Christmas morning. Later that day, prefectural police arrested the…
We've had plenty of reports in recent months of people being confrontational towards NJ (Resident and Tourist), or people who look like NJ, accusing them of all manner of cultural slights and faux pas. In recent weeks, we've had a confrontation at Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto, and enough tourism in Kyoto and Mt Fuji to warrant bans on people going to certain places -- even the recent overkill of a local…
SNA: It has been one of Japan’s worst-kept secrets. It has shattered lives and caused enormous international embarrassment to Japan’s reputation as a nation of laws. It has caused untold misery to countless children and families worldwide. And amongst all the G7 “developed” nations, it only happens like this in Japan. I’m talking about Japan’s issues with child custody and access after divorce.…
Debito.org has been quiet on these developments until they actually came to fruition, and now that they have, it's time to cheer. Japan has finally gotten around to fixing one of its worst-kept secrets: Child Abductions after divorces. After years of international pressure (and all manner of racist justifications of the status quo, including even the Foreign Ministry accusing foreigners of being…
Reuters: U.S. President Joe Biden included ally Japan along with rivals China and Russia in a list of countries he called "xenophobic” on Wednesday, in a speech at a campaign fundraising event in Washington. Biden reiterated remarks he made last month linking China’s economic woes to its unwillingness to accept immigration. [...] "You know, one of the reasons our economy is growing is because of…
BIO: Jon Heese is becoming an old hand in Japanese politics, having served 13 years at various levels of government. He is presently one of five councilors representing Tsukuba (60 km NE of Tokyo) in the Ibaraki Prefectural Assembly—similar to a state or provincial legislature. After winning four terms at the city level, Mr. Heese leveled up in December, 2022. He is the first foreign-born…
On a personal note, it's been the busiest semester for me ever, teaching around 250 students and 19.5 college credits. Consequently, updating Debito.org has been slow since I've been devoting all my energies to creating lectures, lecturing, grading, and sleep. Repeat cycle for sixteen weeks. Just coming out of it now. I'll try to do better, since there's plenty to comment about (and Debito.org…
CSM: A former swimming instructor from Egypt is helping revive the sleepy mountain town of Shonai, Japan. About 200 miles away, a Canadian polyglot is singing the praises of Tsukuba city. And Orzugul Babakhodjaeva is standing onstage at a food festival outside Tokyo, decked in a traditional Uzbek dress, expressing her desire to “create a society where diversity is accepted.” The first-term city…
Intro: I teach Political Science at the university level. In my first lecture every semester, I try to convince skeptical students why they should bother studying Political Science at all. I argue that understanding how power flows through political structures will help students enfranchise themselves in a democratic system. Because if they don’t, other people who understand the system better will…
Kyodo: "The number of foreign nationals residing in Japan hit a record high of over 3.4 million in 2023, government data has shown, with employment-related visas seeing significant growth amid the country's efforts to address its acute labor shortage. As of the end of December, 3,410,992 foreign nationals resided in Japan, up 10.9% from the previous year to mark a record high for the second…
Table of Contents: 1) My SNA Visible Minorities 54: “Non-Japanese Residents claim political power” (Mar 31, 2024), where I argue the power of the vote matters whether you are a candidate or part of the electorate; the J Govt tries hard to make sure neither happens for Japan’s Immigrants. 2) Kyodo: “Record 3.4 million foreign residents in Japan as work visas rise” in 2023. Only a brief reference to…
Dr. Debito, I'm writing you because I'm experiencing a new type of discrimination by Rakuten Card. I've been a Rakuten Card owner since 2014, and it is the card I've hold the longest, making it the biggest chunk of my credit history. Also, I'm a naturalized Japanese citizen, that naturalized back in 20XX, and one month afterwards I had already completed all the requirements for change of name and…