Deportations reveal fig-leaf diplomacy
Asia Times Online, 02/25/05
BY OSCAR JOHNSON
TOKYO - Japan is keen to look its best. And as the world's No. 2 aid donor eyes a United Nations Security Council seat, its US million pledge last month to tsunami-torn South Asia is sure to add to its image of benevolence abroad.
Foreigners seeking refuge here, however, are noting that such generosity often is for export only. It has made for some recent fig-leaf diplomacy.
Hundreds of Kurds here fear being deported to Turkey, where they say they face near-certain persecution. Despite the assessments of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and others, Japan's government insists Kurds have nothing to fear in Turkey.
And it's willing to stake some Kurds' lives on it--by sending them back.
The issue has sparked an unprecedented tit-for-tat with the UNHCR office in Tokyo. It also has drawn unwanted attention to Japanese asylum practices long criticized for being out of step with the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which Japan signed in 1981. | Restaurant serves food and Tokyo's Ainu community, too
 Asahi Shimbun/Int. Herald Tribune, 08/27/05
BY OSCAR JOHNSON
Like many of Hokkaido's indigenous Ainu people who trickled into Tokyo in recent decades, Mina Sakai wondered if her cultural identity would survive the trip to the big city.
She was pleasantly surprised. Those who came before her ensured she would never be alone.
Sakai, 22, says she learned more about her Ainu heritage after she took up studies at Obirin University in Tokyo in 2002 than she had in her hometown of Obihiro. She gives credit for her cultural maturation to Rera Cise, a small restaurant she barely remembers visiting during a trip to Tokyo as a junior high school student.
"I think that was the first time I ate Ainu food," says Sakai, now a staff member at Tokyo's Ainu Cultural Center, a government-affiliated information center for Ainu history and culture.
"My Ainu father died when I was 5, and my mother is Japanese. So I didn't eat Ainu food at home." During her university days, Sakai worked at the restaurant; now she practices traditional Ainu dance there once a month.
More is cooking at this tiny restaurant tucked in Tokyo's Nakano area than the savory mountain vegetables or the toasted smoked salmon it serves up. |
Ex-pats boost careers with cyberspace degree
Asahi Shimbun/Int. Herald Tribune, 08/27/05
BY OSCAR JOHNSON
Working from her Hachioji home in western Tokyo with a toddler in tow has given Annette Karseras Sumi a two-track mind.
While raising her son, she's considering cyberspace as a way to upgrade her career with a Ph.D. or an MBA. True, school is out for summer. For many mid-career expats, however, the virtual classroom is in.
Sumi, 36, is not just eyeing a boost to her freelance editing, writing and business-training career. She says the right program for her will include required trips to a strategically chosen university in or near her native Cardiff, Wales, allowing more chances for her son to visit relatives while growing up in Japan.
A growing number of expats are seeking degrees from overseas universities to advance their careers in Japan. | The ghostly road most traveled where angels fear to tread
JSelect Magazine, 11/04
By OSCAR JOHNSON
The dead walk among us, so we're told. And the living, at least while alive, can choose to believe it or not.
Nonetheless, whether it's Japan's Obon-holiday blitz to return home and placate the deceased, or All Hallows Eve of autumn in more western corners of the world, the dead do have their day.
Just as traditions abound for putting to rest, honoring and even comforting those who have passed on, most passers on of tradition also tell of those ill-fated souls who can't—or won't make the transition. Ichiyu Tanabe, 43, does it for a living.
On a July evening, she has a tour bus full of captive listeners rapt in suspense. Her words paint a vivid picture of how the maid Okiku was slain by her samurai master and tossed down a well for breaking one of 10 priceless plates she was dusting. Not only Okiku, but later other hapless souls who at the wrong time stumble across Hijemi Castle in Hyogo Prefecture relive her torment, Tanabe says. |
So, what is it really like being black in Japan?
Asahi Shimbun, 08/30/04
BY OSCAR JOHNSON |
OK. I'm black and stand nearly 2 meters tall. Suppose I was standing behind you in line for the ATM. What would be your reaction when you noticed me? Alarm, perhaps. Or might you bolt in a brisk walk of feigned composure?
This is no summer ghost story. But if you've ever had such a spine-chilling encounter, then in a way, we may have met.
As an African American, I have often been asked what it is like being black in Japan. Perhaps a better question is what is it like for Japanese to have someone like me here? For me, it's a bit like living in the U.S. suburbs.
Oh sure, a rousing Saturday night at the suburban all-you-can-eat buffet pales compared with Tokyo nightlife. And this city's rush-hour blitz could send any sane person fleeing for dear life to the quite byways of Suburbia, U.S.A. But aside from such glaring differences, by my experience, the two are similar.
The fear and suspicion I have encountered—from nervous purse-clutching glances to unwarranted questioning by police—is not uncommon here, or there.
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Don't get me wrong. For every such slight I can recall countless congenial encounters. And I certainly don't mind the pains that some Japanese take to avoid sitting next to me on the train. My wide shoulder span needs all the room it can get.
But the stepped-up pace of fellow pedestrians when they eye me in Ginza, and the countless guys in Okachimachi who grasp their wallets in desperation when spotting me—all this seems rather absurd.
Think about it. National police and media hype would have people believe that foreigners are responsible for a crime wave in Japan. The brutal truth is that foreigners account for just 2.3 percent of all crime. What's more, only a sliver of the nation's less than 2 percent foreign population is black. So what's all the paranoia about? It's not just crime.
Consider those ladies handing out ad-plastered tissue packets or, even worse, those with the Galaxy Art-store fliers in Ginza, Shibuya and elsewhere. |
