Stop Hate Crimes in Japan: Dec. 19, 2002

Archive of Joint Statement with Mr. Kashiwagi, former Executive Director of Japan Pacific Resource Network in regards to the post-"9/17" incident in Japan - in which North Korean government admitted publicly for the first time in history its role in the politically movitvated abduction of Japanese civilians. It was published in a weekly Bay Area/California paper, AsianWeek, December 19, 2002 edition.


Stop Hate Crimes in Japan

By Hiroshi Kashiwagi and Miho Kim

Earlier this year in September, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) publicly admitted to having abducted Japanese citizens from the coastal shores of Japan. Some of the abductees, North Korea added, had died while in its custody. Since then, there has been a nationwide outbreak of hate crimes against the innocent North Korean residents of Japan, committed by Japanese citizens. However, the Japanese government has yet to take any visible action or measure to halt such heinous crimes against an innocent group of people already vulnerable to the rising hostility against Koreans throughout the country.

As those residing in the United States for whom Japan is our homeland, we express deep regret for the continuing human rights violations committed against the Korean people in Japan, and urge the Japanese government to immediately take drastic measures to resolve this national crisis. At a minimum, Japan must ensure prevention of hate crimes and ensure justice for the victims around the country. In fact, crude data about hate crime incidents are not even collected by Japan’s Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for compilation of criminal data. Indeed, the current framework of criminal law in Japan still does not recognize hate crimes as an independent criminal category. However, after a long, tenuous process of searching, we were able to obtain a list of reported hate crime cases tallied by the Zainichi Chosun Human Rights Association of Japan. According to this source, between Sept. 17 – the day after the North Korean government’s public admission of its abduction of Japanese civilians – and Dec. 5, a minimum of 99 cases of hate crimes targeting North Korean students were reported throughout the country.

These cases consist of physical and verbal threats by phone and email, and physical and verbal assault, including physical threats and racial epithets, made on the commute route between home and school and in other public paces.

An abuse of human rights committed by a state upon innocent civilians is a crime both at home and abroad. In a situation of heightened political tension between nations, such as in a time of war, the governments of the United States and Japan have demonstrated their willingness to inflict violence and condone violent backlash against those unilaterally deemed to be members of the “enemy” state. The incidents of hate crimes against Koreans and Korean Japanese in Japan today are, unfortunately, only few examples of many equally deplorable injustices with which the world is all to familiar.

We firmly demand that resources be allocated first and foremost to develop global alliances based upon genuine commitment to eradicating such manifestations of hate and human rights abuses around the world.

To this end, Japan must do its part by instituting nationwide human rights education programs, to prevent any further occurrence of hate crimes against any members of its society. We also urge the Japanese government to take immediate actions to adequately address this national crisis of human rights in Japan.

Only then can a nation begin to demonstrate its genuine commitment to uphold and honor the fundamental principles of human rights.

On this day of International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2002