There is an interesting gloomy article by Terrie Lloyd stirring the tiny microcosm - and how tiny it is ! - of Western residents of Japan about the starker evolution of control of we-gaijin in this country. It has been reprinted elsewhere as well, sometimes with slight but interesting modifications, but this blog is not into linguistics. It is now a matter of fact that waiting time in lines at the entrance gates has been the major practical concern topping the grumble on control tightening. I for one had never ever thought about the issue in terms of waiting time. The potential inconvenience never crossed my mind. It is also a testimony about who is writing and commenting about biometrics filtering in Japan, that is mainly people who just and simply care about getting out of that airport AFAP.
When it comes to scheduled organization, I trust the Japanese to do their job by the manual, and more than often efficiently. Narita being a small hub of transportation, and visiting gaijin despite growing in numbers being not in the dozen of millions going through the gates, clogging and the fear of it had never been on my mind. They'll pay you back for broken luggage, not for bruised dignity. Speaking about dignity doesn't pay off, sounds weeny to others and doesn't reflect in ROI estimates. But are the measures and possible intensification of cross-checking of gaijin information the signs of any hardening in terms of standard level of ostracism toward foreigners in Japan? I don't think so.
Being a white Westerner puts me in a category that is overly more advantageous than being a low paid Chinese trainee toiling in unfair conditions at a workshop somewhere in Japan's nowhere province. All these measures and potential cross-checking and over-exploitation of data about my being a gaijin are nothing but a form of "IT-zation" of state and media controlled mood toward "others", a "naturalization" of standard viewing gaijin as a risk, a pet, a weird animal. Gaijin tarento who are targets of crave and hate for all the money and sex they can acquire are the utmost example of "playing with the system and cashing while keeping the stat quo". Daily life as I feel it is telling a different varied story though. But this aside, the best remark of Lloyd's article is this :
Over the last 2 years, there have been a number of
legislatory submissions and trial PR balloons floated that
indicate that the government is intending to significantly
increase its control over foreigners living here. Given
that many other countries also impose strict tracking and
controls on foreign residents who are not migrants, this
wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing providing that
there was some upside offered such as by those other
countries. In particular, Japan needs to make laws and
apply the proper enforcement of UN human rights to
foreign residents. Rights such as anti-discrimination,
right to impartial justice, fair treatment of refugees,
proper criminalization of human trafficking, and rights of
children are all severely lacking. But these unfortunately
don't seem to be part of the agenda at this time.
Japan is a dream nation from the point of view of immigration control, starting almost from scratch, and able to impose strict, racially based control and management of foreigners by class, that is based on wealth, considering racism at core value, as a natural trait that does not call for philosophical pondering and hand wringing. There is no Kevin Rudd at the helm, nor anyone that can lay bare some of the truths that hurt. First, because there is no Rudd. Second, because truths that hurt are relative to the listeners point of view. Human rights, racism, ostracism and the likes doesn't ring any specific bell in the mind of the average citizen or politician. These concepts are not so much rejected than they simply mean nothing. The unlashing of anti-chinese feeling with the gyoza scandal is just a reminder of that fact. And on the other side of the sea, they hate Japanese as much while or despite doing commerce and visiting each other's country. Meaning is about resonance. These concerns strike no deep inside string because they have nothing to resonate with.Interestingly enough, a measure of integration as a possibility offered is to be seen in the orientation of measures to come, meaning that one can "turn Japanese", not at the holy genetical level, but at least at the level of "behaving like a Japanese" in society. And this integration plainly means and is strictly limited to "disintegration". It is nothing new but technology will clarify it. My son came back the other day from school, Japanese school, with a simple home work to do related with food. The task was to "draw a cup of your home miso soup". What if it were minestrone? You can be sure that from the teacher's level who distributed the home work sheet, up to close to the minister of Education, probably no one would get a clue at my raising "what about chicken soup"? Gaijin are culprits-to-be in the worst of case, but never "object" of indifference. The relationship here is that of pure, honest "animality" in the most earnest case when the length of your nose is worth a word or two in the conversation. But at the core lay the ingrained belief which is equal to the total absence of intelligence at the "possibility of multiplicity". Of course, "multiplicity" exists in Ameyoko at Ueno, but besides exoticism for food magazines. Real life is the least interesting subject for media.That more than 60% of the population believe in the obvious of a relationship between (perceived) rise in crime is less dramatic than the percentage of politicians going along the same matrix of thought. That is why there is no Rudd at the helm, no guilt, no ambivalence, no hidden shame, no shame at all, no uneasiness to be tickled with discourse on racism, lack of humanism or whatever. Seeing a value in the multifarious of people making up a society comes totally at odds where this point of view is extra marginal. This is why once again Japan is a dream society from the point of view of the bland, pragmatical management of immigration, because the historical log is so light as compared with the US and colored people, France and North Africa or Australia and Aborigines. The plight of whales and the finger pointed at Japan are from that point of view simply amazing as a mean of diversion from way much more tangible issues. Experts on migration policies are feverishly observing Japan with awe, and for some, with envy. If they are not watching Japan, then they are disqualified.
Technorati Tags: gaijin, immigration, Japan
