Back to the baths: Otaru revisited
Paul de Vries sees worrying precedent for Japan in 2002 landmark court ruling
By PAUL DE VRIES
The story is familiar to regular readers of Zeit Gist. Debito Arudou, a naturalized Japanese citizen, originally from America, was living in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and had heard of the Yunohana public bath's policy of denying entry to foreigners. In 1999, media in tow, he decided to put that onsen's policy to the test. Sure enough, entry was denied, with the accompanying explanation that foreigners often "cause trouble" and, as such, the regulars "dislike sharing the facilities with them."
このコラムの購読者なら知ってると思うけど有道出人が1999年に起こした小樽温泉訴訟、そう彼がわざわざ拒否されに行ったやつね。
The origin of this controversy is the behavior of Russian sailors. The Yunohana "onsen" is located in Otaru, the main port between Japan and the Russian Far East. Otaru attracts over a thousand Russian vessels and more than 25,000 sailors a year on stays of varying lengths. In the mid-1990s, Russian sailors were frequently showing up drunk at the city's various onsen and jumping into the tubs with soap on their bodies, thus rendering the facilities unusable.
もともとの原因は年間25000人もやってくるロシア人船員の無謀な振る舞いだったわけなんだけど。Debito somehow ignored about the fact.
These efforts were successful with all but Yunohana, and it was that particular onsen against which Arudou and two other plaintiffs made a claim for million for the "mental distress" that the self-inflicted ordeal had put them through.
めでたく彼は600万円ゲット！
The problem is that the case was fought and won on the issue of racial discrimination when the policy being employed by the Yunohana onsen could more accurately be described as the racial application of "group accountability."
問題だったのは温泉側が人種で「連帯責任」を負わせたことだ。
In the West, are people prejudged by the actions of others from the same race, color, neighborhood or region? In the West, are preconceptions based on a history of behavior of others from the same sex or religion? The answer to both of these questions is an emphatic "Yes."
では西洋では人々を人種や地域で判断するか？性別や宗教による態度で先入観を持つか？両方ともイエスだ。
A subject on which the foreign (but most vociferously, Western) population did manage to find its voice was the regimen of photographic registering and fingerprinting that was introduced in November 2007.
2007年に法改正により入国時に指紋採取と顔写真撮影が義務付けられたとき、外国人たちは声を上げた。
Under the justification of countering terrorism, the Japanese government decided to require that visitors to its shores be photographed and have their fingerprints scanned at immigration ― a policy with both precedent and reasonable justification in that it was also being carried out by the U.S. and was in the process of being set up in Britain.
同じことをアメリカが既に導入しイギリスもこれからやるところだ。
But what a reaction followed! Online petitions, protests, letter after letter to The Japan Times, U.N.-sponsored seminars. It was unbelievable!
信じがたいことにオンライン署名、ジャパンタイムズへの投書、国連主催のセミナーなどのリアクションが起きた。
They protested only against J-government while same system was in use in the US and was in the process of being set up in Britain. Smell of racism.
Women-only train carriages and fingerprinting/photographing are both applications of group accountability. On both of these issues, a section of society (men and foreigners) is being asked to undergo a measure of inconvenience in order to counter a threat that comes from within their ranks (chikan and al-Qaida). The attitude of the Japanese toward these two issues is consistent. The attitude of the Western population is not. The Western population of Japan clearly draws a distinction between racial and nonracial applications of group accountability. Or perhaps more accurately, between applications that are primarily directed toward Westerners and those that are not.
女性専用車両にしても指紋採取にしても連帯責任という態度は日本人は一環している。一環していないのは西洋系外国人だ。彼らは人種的あるいは非人種的で連帯責任の適用を区別している。解り易く言えば白人か非白人かで区別している。
The use of group accountability as an instrument of social control in Japan has not historically been racial in application.
日本における連帯責任は歴史的に人種別ではない。
This contrasts sharply with the history of group-based discrimination in Arudou's America. "White America" has always been racial to the core, with "the other" always being a member of another race (the same being largely true for Australia, New Zealand, Canada or any of the other landmasses that "whites" succeeded in colonizing). As such, group accountability is a far touchier subject in the West than it is in Japan and much of Asia.
有道のアメリカと対照的だ。ホワイトアメリカは常に人種的に中心であり「その他」はいつも異人種だ。（オーストラリアやカナダなどもそうだが）
だから連帯責任は西洋ではアジアより身近ではない。
Debito Arudou has embraced the precedent set in the Yunohana onsen case and sought to make the "right of entry" something of an "inalienable human right." Precedent in hand, he has spent much of the past few years confronting unwelcoming Japanese "businesses" ― the vast majority of which no self-respecting person should want to be seen anywhere near. This crusade is essentially geared toward having Japan conform with American (as distinct from Western) standards.
有道はこの温泉事件に凝り固まって、ただの入場権をなにやら（壮大な）奪うことの出来ない人間の権利に摩り替えようとしている。
これを先例として有道はここ数年、気に食わない日本人の会社を攻撃している。
この十字軍（有道のこと）は要するに日本をアメリカの価値観に合致させたいだけなのだ。
有道ばかり見てると外人って傲慢で嫌な野郎ばかりだと思ってしまうけど、こういうマトモな人もいるんだよね。
ジャパンタイムズも年に一回ぐらいはいい記事出すんだね。
If we see only debito.org, people would think foreigners are all arrogant and nasty.
But there a few foreigners who don't have the same mental illness as Debito.
It's good to know the Japan Times publishes such a good article once a year.
Paul de Vries sees worrying precedent for Japan in 2002 landmark court ruling
By PAUL DE VRIES
The story is familiar to regular readers of Zeit Gist. Debito Arudou, a naturalized Japanese citizen, originally from America, was living in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and had heard of the Yunohana public bath's policy of denying entry to foreigners. In 1999, media in tow, he decided to put that onsen's policy to the test. Sure enough, entry was denied, with the accompanying explanation that foreigners often "cause trouble" and, as such, the regulars "dislike sharing the facilities with them."
このコラムの購読者なら知ってると思うけど有道出人が1999年に起こした小樽温泉訴訟、そう彼がわざわざ拒否されに行ったやつね。
The origin of this controversy is the behavior of Russian sailors. The Yunohana "onsen" is located in Otaru, the main port between Japan and the Russian Far East. Otaru attracts over a thousand Russian vessels and more than 25,000 sailors a year on stays of varying lengths. In the mid-1990s, Russian sailors were frequently showing up drunk at the city's various onsen and jumping into the tubs with soap on their bodies, thus rendering the facilities unusable.
もともとの原因は年間25000人もやってくるロシア人船員の無謀な振る舞いだったわけなんだけど。Debito somehow ignored about the fact.
These efforts were successful with all but Yunohana, and it was that particular onsen against which Arudou and two other plaintiffs made a claim for million for the "mental distress" that the self-inflicted ordeal had put them through.
めでたく彼は600万円ゲット！
The problem is that the case was fought and won on the issue of racial discrimination when the policy being employed by the Yunohana onsen could more accurately be described as the racial application of "group accountability."
問題だったのは温泉側が人種で「連帯責任」を負わせたことだ。
In the West, are people prejudged by the actions of others from the same race, color, neighborhood or region? In the West, are preconceptions based on a history of behavior of others from the same sex or religion? The answer to both of these questions is an emphatic "Yes."
では西洋では人々を人種や地域で判断するか？性別や宗教による態度で先入観を持つか？両方ともイエスだ。
A subject on which the foreign (but most vociferously, Western) population did manage to find its voice was the regimen of photographic registering and fingerprinting that was introduced in November 2007.
2007年に法改正により入国時に指紋採取と顔写真撮影が義務付けられたとき、外国人たちは声を上げた。
Under the justification of countering terrorism, the Japanese government decided to require that visitors to its shores be photographed and have their fingerprints scanned at immigration ― a policy with both precedent and reasonable justification in that it was also being carried out by the U.S. and was in the process of being set up in Britain.
同じことをアメリカが既に導入しイギリスもこれからやるところだ。
But what a reaction followed! Online petitions, protests, letter after letter to The Japan Times, U.N.-sponsored seminars. It was unbelievable!
信じがたいことにオンライン署名、ジャパンタイムズへの投書、国連主催のセミナーなどのリアクションが起きた。
They protested only against J-government while same system was in use in the US and was in the process of being set up in Britain. Smell of racism.
Women-only train carriages and fingerprinting/photographing are both applications of group accountability. On both of these issues, a section of society (men and foreigners) is being asked to undergo a measure of inconvenience in order to counter a threat that comes from within their ranks (chikan and al-Qaida). The attitude of the Japanese toward these two issues is consistent. The attitude of the Western population is not. The Western population of Japan clearly draws a distinction between racial and nonracial applications of group accountability. Or perhaps more accurately, between applications that are primarily directed toward Westerners and those that are not.
女性専用車両にしても指紋採取にしても連帯責任という態度は日本人は一環している。一環していないのは西洋系外国人だ。彼らは人種的あるいは非人種的で連帯責任の適用を区別している。解り易く言えば白人か非白人かで区別している。
The use of group accountability as an instrument of social control in Japan has not historically been racial in application.
日本における連帯責任は歴史的に人種別ではない。
This contrasts sharply with the history of group-based discrimination in Arudou's America. "White America" has always been racial to the core, with "the other" always being a member of another race (the same being largely true for Australia, New Zealand, Canada or any of the other landmasses that "whites" succeeded in colonizing). As such, group accountability is a far touchier subject in the West than it is in Japan and much of Asia.
有道のアメリカと対照的だ。ホワイトアメリカは常に人種的に中心であり「その他」はいつも異人種だ。（オーストラリアやカナダなどもそうだが）
だから連帯責任は西洋ではアジアより身近ではない。
Debito Arudou has embraced the precedent set in the Yunohana onsen case and sought to make the "right of entry" something of an "inalienable human right." Precedent in hand, he has spent much of the past few years confronting unwelcoming Japanese "businesses" ― the vast majority of which no self-respecting person should want to be seen anywhere near. This crusade is essentially geared toward having Japan conform with American (as distinct from Western) standards.
有道はこの温泉事件に凝り固まって、ただの入場権をなにやら（壮大な）奪うことの出来ない人間の権利に摩り替えようとしている。
これを先例として有道はここ数年、気に食わない日本人の会社を攻撃している。
この十字軍（有道のこと）は要するに日本をアメリカの価値観に合致させたいだけなのだ。
有道ばかり見てると外人って傲慢で嫌な野郎ばかりだと思ってしまうけど、こういうマトモな人もいるんだよね。
ジャパンタイムズも年に一回ぐらいはいい記事出すんだね。
If we see only debito.org, people would think foreigners are all arrogant and nasty.
But there a few foreigners who don't have the same mental illness as Debito.
It's good to know the Japan Times publishes such a good article once a year.
Paul de Vries is putting the finishing touches to a book about what the world can learn from Japan.
Paul de Vries って誰？