True Picture of Human Rights Peculiar to Japan

 It is a worthwhile dream of humanity to live in a society where genuine human rights are provided and everyone is given equal rights.

However, universally recognized democratic freedom and rights are not yet provided for the people in Japan, and Japan is thus turning into a human rights desert where undisguised and deep-rooted hatred against other nations and national chauvinism are rife.

Recently, an act of human rights violation against foreigners has been disclosed in Nagoya camp, throwing the world into a great shock. That is the incident whereby an Indonesian man died of no reason in five days of forced detention at the camp, after he had immigrated to Japan to seek “refugee status.”

Such incident is not the first in Japan. Since 1997, 19 “immigrants” held in detention have reportedly suffered the tragedy of committing suicide, being unable to withstand the nightmarish camp life.

The press commented that the reality in Japan ‐ where the foreign prisoners are subject to unsanitary food ration, nothing short of animal feed, and all sorts of contempt and maltreatment and dying of beating ‐ bears a resemblance to the death concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

Furthermore, the Japanese married to the foreigners in other countries including the United States and Europe are “enticing” their children away in disregard of the legal procedure of relevant countries. This is now becoming an international issue, and such cases reportedly amount to as many as 40,000 in the year 2005 alone.

In July, the European Union adopted a resolution by an absolute majority, indicating that Japan neglects to observe the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the “Hague Convention” (prohibiting parents from unilaterally taking away their children across borders), both having been ratified by Japan in 1994 and 2014 respectively, and that Japan also neglects to readjust its domestic laws.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has also pointed out that the government of Japan is ostracizing foreigners and infringing upon their human rights, and called for its rectification.

The judicial authorities of Japan recently passed a legal judgment, which backs the measure by its educational authorities to exclude the Korean children in Japan from a high school supporting system. This fact alone is a vivid mirror of the unfair legal system of Japan and its gloomy human rights picture.

Major media around the world are commenting that the international society is becoming unanimously vocal in denouncing the human rights violations of Japan – a self-seeking country giving no consideration to the international laws.

Shaped by and ingrained with national chauvinism and all other manifestations of immorality and depravity – this is the true picture of human rights peculiar to Japan.

Japan is not qualified to talk this or that on human rights of other countries – all of them being totally nonsense – in the international fora.

 

Min Kyong Mu

Researcher of Institute for Studies of Japan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea