Racism, Part 2

Last week I talked about an encounter I had with the police, and my thoughts on how foreigners are treated in Japan. Since then I've done some more thinking and talked to several people (Japanese and NJ) about the situation. So today I'd like to follow up and perhaps stir up the hornet's nest, as well.

In Part 1, several commenters pointed out that Japan is not the only country to practice this kind of immigration enforcement - people are stopped and asked to show ID in other countries, as well. This is true, but it doesn't change the fact that the practice (at least in Japan's case) is arguably unjust and unwarranted. As Orchid pointed out, Japan is an island with few points of entry, and illegal immigration is hardly a pressing issue. Japanese police also often act on quotas (ID a certain number of foreigners today or no tea and Mr. Donut for you?), whereas I'm not so sure this is the case in many other countries.

Does this make Japan a racist country? Some might and do say so, but I wouldn't. I think it's important to realize that there can be a gap between the values of individual people and the policies that a government espouses. It may also be a generational thing. I've met (at least) hundreds of Japanese people, and I can honestly say that only a handful have struck me as racist (or more kindly "xenophobic"). After last week's encounter, I mentioned it to several teachers I work with. Two of them (English teachers), after confirming that everything was all right, simply said something to the effect of "Ah yeah, that happens sometimes..." and seemed a little too embarrassed to talk about it any further. Two others seemed genuinely surprised. The conversation started something like this:

Me: 先日は、警察に止まれた・・・外国人登録証明書を見せて欲しかった。
(So I was stopped by the police the other day...they wanted to see my foreign registration card.)

Them: えぇ？なんで？
(What? Why?)

Me: [Shrug] 外国人やから。
(I'm a foreigner.)

Them: えぇ？ほんまに？！
(Huh? You're kidding!)

I went on to explain that we foreigners have to always carry around our ID in case we are stopped by the police. These two teachers (Japanese and social studies) honestly seemed to have no idea. They went on to ask me about Japanese policies on naturalization, permanent residency, and the case that a foreigner wants to marry a Japanese citizen. I don't know if it's just the younger generation, but they seemed surprised and sympathetic.

I didn't talk about this as in-depthly with Yoshie, but she told me she doesn't associate foreigners with crime and doesn't think most Japanese people do either (I didn't push her on that, but I suspect it may just be that she hasn't spoken to many other people about the issue).

Talking with a lot of the Japanese people I know, especially those near my age, about the issue is encouraging. I don't mean that I have much hope for serious change, but I feel like it's the lesser of two evils for these xenophobic policies to survive because of ignorance and/or inaction than out of fear or hate.

Changing gears somewhat -- Oh, look, a can of worms!

In the comment section to Part 1, we also had a few mentions of the law recently passed in Arizona. While this doesn't directly relate to Japan, it does bear relation to the overarching topic of racism and racial profiling, so I think it's worth briefly discussing. I was talking with Dylan about this last week, and he put forward that the Japanese policy of randomly IDing foreigners is not that different from the Arizona law. We argued back and forth a bit, and then I suggested that we both read the actual law (something surprisingly few people with such strong opinions on either side have done). I told him that if I were wrong, I apologize and would not, in fact, support the law at all. So we read it. After having done so, he admitted that the law didn't do what he thought it did.

According to a recent poll, over 60% of Americans support the law. Some media are portraying these people as supporters of racial profiling or as racists. I think the problem here is a mistaken perception of what the law actually does. There are many people who seem to think that it allows police to randomly stop anyone suspected of being an illegal or looking as if they could be (a la Japan). Perhaps this is understandable - legislation is not always the easiest form of writing to understand. However if you read through the whole thing (it's not that long), I think it's fairly clear that police aren't allowed to indiscriminately stop anyone and ID them. They are only allowed to stop people who are suspected of committing a crime (other than being illegal).

So really I think it's more an issue of two sides largely agreeing but interpreting the law differently. I suppose what ultimately matters is how law enforcement officials and courts regard it. I don't think this kind of law is the best fix to the problem. But considering the American-Mexican border is largely unprotected, it does seem an understandable move for Arizona. Again, as Orchid pointed out - the situation in Japan is not the same as the situation in America.

Let the flame war begin?