'Showered with abuse': Hate toward Kurds in Japan surfaces via phone calls, email (Pt. 2)

SAITAMA -- Hate speech against Kurdish people living in Saitama Prefecture has been escalating since around the spring of 2023. In late February 2024, a Kurdish man in his 30s who belongs to an organization representing Kurds showed a Mainichi Shimbun journalist the call log of his mobile phone and said, "I received about eight calls in a row late at night that day. When I answer the phone, I get showered with abuse."

It is not only Kurds who are exposed to such abuse. A support group in Japan providing Japanese language lessons and medical support has also been targeted through emails and other means. On Feb. 20, 2024, a message repeating "Cheers for the slaughter of Kurds," among other phrases was received. Such messages have increased in intensity since last year, with about 40 received over the space of about half a year. The group has reported the damage to Warabi Police Station in Saitama Prefecture.

In January, when it was reported that Kurds had applied for permission this year to hold the "Newroz" New Year festival that had been staged annually, officials at Akigase Park in Saitama, where the event was to be held, were hit with a succession of protests. An official at the Saitama Parks & Greenery Association, which manages the park, divulged, "We received over 10 calls a day asking things like "Are you taking part in terrorism?"

On Feb. 18, meanwhile, a group that has repeatedly expressed anti-foreign views toward Koreans living in Japan, demonstrated in front of JR Warabi Station. The approximately 10 demonstrators held up signs reading "Eradicate them! Kurdish criminals and fake refugees," among other statements, and passed by shops run by Kurds.

Security and immigration

Since then, every time an incident involving Kurds or foreigners is reported, a portion of the hatred on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) is directed at Kurds, with statements such as "Kurds should be brought in (to the police) even for minor offences" and "Deport all Kurds."

Discriminatory remarks targeting ethnic groups are repeatedly made based on individual "crimes" or "terrorism." Takahiro Akedo, an associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University who is familiar with the issue of hate speech, points out, "In Western countries, anti-foreign sentiment easily escalates from a sense of crisis over labor and employment, with people claiming, 'Our jobs are being taken by immigrants,' but in Japan, there is a tendency to call for the exclusion of immigrants and refugees as a security issue based on the self-consciousness that 'Japan is a safe country.'" He added, "Recently we've seen incitement and heightened hate, mainly online, coming from visible incidents involving Kurds and the fact that they have been labeled 'terrorists' and other things."

He added, "The hate speech elimination law maintains a relatively narrow definition of hate, but even then, it regards public announcements threatening lives, exclusion of people from communities, and severe insults targeting people belonging to specific groups as hate speech. Claims directed at 'foreigners' and specific groups identified by nationality are problematic in and of themselves, and the issue of whether or not there are criminals within that group is not grounds to justify hate speech."

Thinking of children

Kurdish people, who predominantly live in mountainous regions in countries including Turkey and Syria, are referred to as the "largest ethnic group without a nation." Many of them have experienced government oppression and say they have come to Japan fearing for their safety and applied for refugee status after they or their relatives have been detained by Turkish authorities.

However, there has been only one case of a Kurdish person being recognized as a refugee. Some hold residence statuses such as "Designated Activities" and have permission to work in Japan, but there are quite a few others living under provisional release, temporarily exempted from detention. Provisional release does not come with permission to work. Those who are provisionally released are forbidden from traveling outside the prefecture without permission and cannot enroll in the national health insurance program. They are placed in a harsh situation, and some of them have secretly engaged in demolition and other such work to make a living, even though they fear detention by immigration authorities.

A man in his 30s belonging to the Kurdish organization commented, "I realize that in any country there are people who harbor rejection toward refugees and those who utter hate speech. That's why I want to do the things I can to live here." As a member of the organization, he takes part in patrols at night, informs people about rules on putting out trash, and cautions Kurdish people hanging out in the streets.

Having seen hate directed toward him and other Kurds, what comes to the man's mind is his own children. Some 30 years have passed since Kurds began living around Kawaguchi. The number of children born and raised in Japan has also increased. They are attending school in Japan and apparently hope to find jobs and continue to live in the country.

"Those of us who apply for refugee status in Japan are always thinking of our children. We've come here with the sole desire for them to live in an environment without persecution. When children born and raised in Japan see hate, what will they think? I don't want to allow them to suffer," he said.

(Japanese original by Takuro Tahara, Saitama Bureau)

(This is the second part of a two-part series. The first part was published on March 31, 2024.)