| The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Newsletter |
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Newsletter No. 16. 2013
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April 22, 2013
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Greetings!
"Murder the Koreans!"
"Smash the Korean cockroaches!"
Matthew Penney chronicles the extremist Zaitokukai's poisonous demonstrations against Koreans in Japan. More important, perhaps, is the beginning of efforts to challenge their views by citizens appalled by the racist campaign. See his "Racists Go Home!", "Go Crawl Back to the Net!" - Anti-Racism Protestors Confront the Zaitokukai. Paul Jobin and Sumi Hasegawa discuss An appeal for improving labour conditions of Fukushima Daiichi workers.
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The Asia-Pacific Journal is freely available to all. We invite those who wish to support our work by allowing us to make technical upgrades, defray technical, mailing and maintenance fees, and to enable us to expand our output since the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami. Recommended support level: $25 ($10 for students and residents of developing countries); $40 for institutions including libraries, research centers, government offices. If you experience difficulty in subscribing, write to us with the error message at info@japanfocus.org
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Sumi Hasegawa with an introduction by Paul Jobin, An appeal for improving labour conditions of Fukushima Daiichi workers
Reacting to testimonies of workers published in Sekai (a progressive Japanese monthly journal) and recent radio broadcasts, this individual call from Canada echoes the requests of Japanese NGOs that have been engaged in negotiations with the Ministry of Health and Labor since April 2011 to defend the rights of the workers involved in the "cleanup" of the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and of those hired to carry out "decontamination" work in Fukushima prefecture.1
If one considers the tremendous task remaining to be done in Fukushima Daiichi (such as the removal of the thousands of spent fuel rods) to avoid an apocalyptic scenario for Japan and the northern hemisphere,2 the workers employed at Fukushima Daiichi merit world attention and support. Their living and working conditions are indeed apocalyptic.
Paul Jobin is Director, French Center for Research on Contemporary China, CEFC, Taipei Office, Associate Professor, University of Paris Diderot, and an Asia-Pacific Journal Associate.
Sumi Hasegawa is a Faculty Lecturer at McGill University (Retired)
Recommended Citation: Sumi Hasegawa with an introduction by Paul Jobin, "An appeal for improving labour conditions of Fukushima Daiichi workers," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 11, Issue 16 No. 1, April 22, 2013.
Read More. . .
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Matthew Penney,"Racists Go Home!", "Go Crawl Back to the Net!" - Anti-Racism Protestors Confront the Zaitokukai
"Murder the Koreans!"
"Smash the Korean cockroaches!"
In the first months of 2013, the rhetoric of the Zainichi tokken wo yurusanai shimin no kai(Citizens' League to Deny Foreigners Special Rights) or Zaitokukaihas turned more and more extreme. The above quotes are representative of Zaitokukai slogans and placards in 2013. Now there are signs that anti-racism protestors and ordinary citizens are fighting back.
The Zaitokukai was founded in 2006. It claims over 12,000 online members. The group is devoted to ending the so-called "special privileges" of Japan's Korean community. Alexis Dudden detailed the group's history and the violence of their rhetoric in the 2010 article Memories and Aporias in the Japan-Korea Relationship. Tessa Morris-Suzuki has described some of their recent protest activities in Freedom of Hate Speech: Abe Shinzo and Japan's Public Sphere.
Shin Okubo in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward has become the main target of the Zaitokukai's protests because of the large number of Korean restaurants and shops selling South Korean pop culture products.
Matthew Penney is an Assistant Professor in History at Concorida University, Montreal. He is an Asia-Pacific Journal coordinator.
Posted April 22, 2013.
Read more . . .
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