Les discours de haine en hausse au Japon. Ils ne concernent plus uniquement les minorités raciales, sétendent aux militants antinucléaires, syndicalistes, etc. Hate speech rallies spreading across August 30, 2014 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN The United Nations panel that called on Japan to crack down on hate speech rallies targeting ethnic Koreans focused on demonstrations held mostly in Tokyo and Osaka. Increasingly, it seems that hate speech rallies are spreading to small municipalities around the country. On a Saturday in late July, several dozens of people gathered at a park near the Kawasaki municipal government building for a demonstration to protect Kawasaki against anti-Japanese leftists, traitors and lawless foreigners. About 8,000 ethnic Koreans live in Kawasaki, whose city government set up a council of representatives from the foreign community to reflect their voices in city administration. The aim is to create a community where different cultures can co-exist. The demonstrators carried military Rising Sun flags and screamed abuse using hand-held microphones. Among the slogans were: To all you ugly Koreans, please get on the train and return to North Korea and The Japanese government must end all special privileges given to South Koreans living in Japan. Street demonstrations targeting foreigners in Japan became more prevalent from around 2008. The National Police Agency first took note of the growing problem in fiscal 2009 when it issued a report about the public security situation in Japan and abroad. One of the main instigators of the campaign is a group called Zainichi Tokken wo Yurusanai Shimin no Kai (Group of citizens who do not tolerate privileges for ethnic Korean residents in Japan), known more commonly as Zaitokukai. The group submitted its own report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. A high-ranking member of the group said, We were always on the receiving end as only the voices of leftist groups that were critical of us were reaching the U.N. panel. However, the member went on to say that criticism also amounted to a form of publicity that would attract more supporters to the rightist groups cause. There were at least 360 cases of hate speech demonstrations and related street protests last year, according to a citizens group which has been keeping track. The rallies triggered a backlash from citizens groups, which sprung up one after another to organize their own street demonstrations to denounce the actions of rightists in their communities. As a result, hate speech demonstrations petered out in the capitals Shin-Okubo district, where many Korean businesses are located. However, Takahiro Akedo, a part-time lecturer of multicultural society studies at Kanto Gakuin University, said, The protests have not gone away, but have only spread to outlying areas. Hate speech demonstrations have been held in Sapporo as well as Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, and Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Approval from prefectural public safety commissions must be sought before holding a street demonstration. A high-ranking National Police Agency official said, Because freedom of expression is something that must be respected, we cannot reject requests unless participants will be clearly placed in danger. Asked whether shouting such comments as Die and Kill them could be categorized as grounds for defamation of character and intimidation, the official said, Criminal Law covers acts toward specific individuals so it would be impossible if the comments were directed at groups or ethnic races. That has not stopped Lee Shinne, 43, an ethnic Korean freelance writer, from taking Zaitokukai to court. Lee sued the group for compensation on grounds she had been defamed by Internet postings that called her a Korean hag and a lawless Korean. While she, in principle, favors regulations in line with the concluding observations of the U.N. panel, Lee was also concerned that the government might use the recommendations to place restrictions on anti-nuclear demonstrations. It will be important to foster a proper awareness of human rights in the school classroom, she said.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 11:44:14 +0000
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