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- Tokyo
governor Shintaro Ishihara Remarks about Foreigners
- By:
Imtiaz A. Chaudhry
- The
UMJ Volume 5.1
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A
series of remarks by Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara
has made the situation worse in Japan. I personally
think this is either his way of calling attention to
himself, a bizarre attempt to get build a reputation
among Tokyoites. He
has changed his remarks almost daily since his initial
reference to "Sangokujin" (a derogatory word
that literally means "people from third
countries," and generally refers to those from the
former Japanese colonies of Taiwan, China, and
the Korean Peninsula). Now he is claiming that the
Pakistanis, Iranians and Chinese in Japan are criminals
and drug dealers and that Pakistanis are pushing
Chinese-made drugs. As
a foreigner myself, I don’t think non-Japanese are
actually involved in many drug cases here. Of course
there are all kinds of people in every country. But
Ishihara is wrong to imply that all Japanese are good
people and all drug trafficking is done by foreigners.
Before making such remarks he must learn to think about
what he is going to say. Blaming other nationalities
without proof is playing with fire and with Japan’s
future. What
about the Japanese nationals involved, especially the
gangsters? It seems that Ishihara will not say anything
about them because they are his own nationals. This
indicates that Ishihara shamelessly blames people of
other nationalities but will not risk a Yakuza bullet by
talking about them. This is both racist and cowardly. It
is not acting in the interests of the people Ishihara
was elected to represent. Shintaro
Ishihara as a politician: Look
around the world and you will find many politicians like
Ishihara who tried to build their popularity by
pandering in ugly ways. This is one of the few things
Ishihara is good at. His
recent goading of China reveals a long-held disdain for
other Asian people. When
a Japanese citizen of Korean descent, Shokei Arai, ran
for the Diet in the same constituency as Ishihara in
1983, Ishihara's principal Is
this an appropriate campaign method for an advanced
country politician? Is this the sort of man who deserves
to be the Governor of Tokyo? These
types of activities are routine for Shintaro Ishihara
and his thugs. They have no place in a modern and
increasingly international Tokyo. This city deserves a
leader we can be proud of. If Ishihara hopes to be that
man, he must change his racist ways and remember that
the foreign community is also a part of the Tokyo
population., a segment of the population that, despite
Japan's immigration policies, is increasing day by day. If Ishihara cannot live up to his job, he should step down from it. |
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