“Japanese Only” Newspaper: Hokkoku Shinbun in Ishikawa Pref
Posted by debito on January 8th, 2008
Hi Blog. Things are getting surreal these days in Japan. Now even newspapers are getting xenophobic.
Let’s trace the logical development of all this. In the Otaru Onsens Case, the management said they would refuse foreigners because of, inter alia, different bathing customs and sanitation issues.
In various other cases catalogued at the Rogues’ Gallery of Exclusionary Establishments, foreigners would be refused (these are actual reasons given from people in charge) at bars and restaurants ‘cos they might not pay, stores ‘cos they might shoplift, at a disco ‘cos they might drink too much or hit on Japanese women, at an Internet cafe cos they might breach security, at hotels ‘cos the management doesn’t speak any foreign languages, at a women’s relaxation boutique ‘cos their feet are too big, at an opticians ‘cos the owner doesn’t like Black people, and by realtors because, well, just because–the landlord has a “thing” about foreigners, and legally in Japan there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.
But here’s a case that just boggles the mind. Of a newspaper refusing a foreigner his subscription. What, is the newspaper (in this day of withering print journalism) worried the gaijin might be able to read what they write?
Turning the keyboard over to the person was canvassed, subscribed, then got refused. Anonymized. Courtesy of The Community mailing list. With updates and sleuthing to get to the bottom of this afterwards. Arudou Debito in Sapporo
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November 27, 2007
Hi everyone, I thought this might be of interest to people in The Community.
About 2 weeks or so ago, a newspaper salesman came to my door. As soon as I opened the door, he gave a robust greeting in English that he works for Hokkoku Shinbun 北國新聞 (a local Ishikawa-ken paper) and asked if I understood Japanese. My Japanese isn’t great, but I like trying to read things. He then asked if I would like to subscribe for 3 months and I said sure. We filled out the form and he said that my paper would start to be delivered in December. He was extremely polite and happy that I wanted to subscribe and I was quite happy to have a chance to gather an abundance of reading materials.
Here’s the receipt (front and back, click on images to expand in browser):
However, about a week later, I got a postcard saying this: “Boss didn’t accept foreigner’s subscription. I am sorry.”
Naturally, this confused me. It’s for a three month subscription, of which I would pay each month for that month’s newspaper.
In our discussions, the salesman and I talked about where I work and it turns out that he took English classes at the same college way back when. So, he knew that I wouldn’t just up and run or that I wouldn’t be a deadbeat in paying.
Contact information on the newspaper:
北國新聞
販売所名： 野々市三馬（石川県）
代表者名：松田了三（まつだ・りょうぞ）
電話： ０７６−２４７－２１２０ (changed to 076-243-1810)
〒920-8588 石川県金沢市香林坊2丁目5番1号 TEL.076-263-2111
dokusha@hokkoku.co.jp
koho@hokkoku.co.jp
http://www.hokkoku.co.jp/
ENDS
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UPDATE JANUARY 8, 2008 FROM ARUDOU DEBITO
I made some calls around to get to the bottom of this. Here’s what I unearthed:
1) Mr Matsuda, who made the house call to get our client above signed up, is employed of those special selling agencies (hanbaisho) hired by the parent newspaper company. It is only tangentally-related (shita-uke) to the hanbaibu within Hokkoku Shinbun itself.
2) Mr Matsuda did not return my call. A Mr Oda at 076-247-7834 did. He said he hadn’t heard anything about this event–he hadn’t even received the actual contract forms I’ve blogged above. Hence he was not the “boss” referred to within the postcard.
3) That boss is a Mr Sakurai, and when asked by Mr Oda why he refused the client, there were some incomprehensible excuses about something or other having to do with some prior experience with something or other. (I don’t think Mr Oda even understood the excuse as he was trying to relate it to me.) What, nonpayment? Stop the subscription, like you would do for any Japanese deadbeat. But the client would be paying in advance anyway, so that’s not even a problem. Mr Oda tried to claim that this wasn’t a case of discrimination, but, I asked, what else could it be?
4) So unless I had made these phone calls, this refusal would have stopped at Mr Sakurai and nobody within Hokkoku Shinbun would have been the wiser. Who’s going to be taking responsibility for this?
Frankly, I felt there was something very fishy about all this (I have received warnings not to purchase newspaper subscriptions from these outlets–the ones that offer long-term subscriptions with big presents–because they are often run by organized-crime syndicates. This is according to Hokkaido Shinbun.) So I called the Hokkoku Shinbun head office above and asked if they knew of Mr Oda at this company at this phone number. They did, he’s legit. And when I asked if they would look into it all, they said I should take it up with Mr Oda’s company first. Huh?
What a strange situation. Newsprint hurting for subscribers these days and they’re refusing foreigners, based upon the stealthy prejudices of one person sitting at a veto gate? Hurting the reputation of the newspaper? And the head office doesn’t want to do anything about it? What bad business practices.
I’ve already sent out the above notices to my Japanese press lists, as well as to the dokusha and koho Hokkoku Shinbun email addresses above. The media should find this interesting as it’s one of their own. Should draw up a report in Japanese tonight.
More updates as they come in. Debito in Sapporo
January 8th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
As I’ve said before, you’re doing a great job Debito. I’ll be disappointed if Hokkoku Shinbun does not put some pointed questions to Mr. Sakurai about refusing a willing, pre-paying, customer.
But I’ll be even more disappointed if someone trots out the old “we’ve had problems with foreigners before” routine. That line always seems to imply that they’ve never had problems with Japanese before.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Xenophobia (stupid) is as xenophobia (stupid) does. You really should try to use this to light a competition fire among the newspapers…any Japanese company LUVZ to hear dirt about their competition. I see it at work every day.
January 8th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Edit - I should have said ” ‘eventually’ put some pointed questions to Mr. Sakurai…”
Because it seems like they’re doing nothing at the moment.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
This comment brought me back to the Japan Times debate held some months ago on this website. Not that I am an expert on media, but as I see it newspapers “struggling for subcribers” need to be looking for something more. While one reason they are struggling for subscribers is racism, I think another may be the fact that they have no idea who their subscribers are. These days the biggest asset is a “name list” but newspapers don’t actually have that list in Japan. This rather short-sighted local newspaper’s dastardly and just embarrassing behavior aside, my question is how is Japan Times going to increase subcribers if they don’t know who is reading their daily, as good as it is.
January 9th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Interesting find. It speaks more to the sophistication of people who choose to contract as newspaper subscription sellers more than anything else. However, I wonder if the situation will actually be rectified?
January 9th, 2008 at 8:15 am
FEEDBACK FROM CYBERSPACE:
I had a similar thing happen to me with the Yomiuri Shimbun in Yamagata City several years ago. The salesman told me and my wife that we could sign up under her name but not under mine, as a foreigner would be refused. At the time we just decided not to go with Yomiuri. I also didn’t know about their conservative politics at the time. I had almost forgotten about that.
ENDS
January 9th, 2008 at 9:34 am
The relation between newspaper publisher and newspaper retailer (Hnabaisho) is similar to that of a book publisher and a bookstore. A publisher is not liable to what a retailer does, unless the publisher itself is forcing some odd policy to the retailer.
–AS YOU CAN READ, THE CONTRACT IS WITH HOKKOKU SHINBUN, NOT WITH THE HANBAISHO. HOKKOKU SHINBUN IS LIABLE. NO?
January 9th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
A bit of an eye-opener this …
What legitimate excuse could there possibly be? Petty wee man venting his frustrations in a pointless little power-trip … sad.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I was very surprised when I heard that this problem is related to the Hokkoku Shinbun. As a tactic to bolster their international image, the Hokkoku Shinbun pours bundles of cash into an NPO called Japan Tent (http://www.japantent.com/).
Each year, Japan Tent invites over 1000 foreign students in Japan to do a homestay in Ishikawa prefecture in the name of promoting international understanding. The Hokkoku Shinbun then proceeds to turn it into a disgusting media event, complete with bows on the stage from the president of the company. Needless to say, they milk it for all they can.
Granted, the Hokkoku Shinbun did not have any direct influence over the decision to deny this fellow’s subscription, but they do have a controlling relationship over the newspaper vendor. (They can choose not to do business with them anymore) Furthermore, Hokkoku Shinbun is clearly very sensitive of their image as a company with an international outlook.
It seems to me that pointing out (either publicly or privately) this contradiction in attitude could go a long way toward preventing this kind of treatment of foreign customers in the future.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Well, despite its appearance, the contract slip does not specify the name of the party to the contract other than the reader. The name “Hokkoku Shinbun” appears on the slip, but it is the name of the newspaper purchased, not the party to the contract.
Actually, Debito, you hit the tip of a big social problem in Japan called “Newspaper Retailers”. Here is a horrifying article about them in wikipedia.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E%E8%B2%A9%E5%A3%B2%E5%BA%97
The publisher will keep saying, “we are not the party to the contract.” People will have a lot of trouble bringing them down.
–THANKS VERY MUCH FOR WRITING BACK AND CLARIFYING. DEBITO