arudoudebito
Jul 25, 2002, 13:06
In related news:
Australian Commissioner appalled at club owner's race ban
THE AGE, July 23, 2002
"The head of Victoria's Equal Opportunity Commission is appalled at a Melbourne nightclub owner's admission that Asians in groups are barred from his venues for fear of gang violence...."
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/23/1027332370421.html
COMMENT: An Australian version of the Otaruesque fear of foreigners (in this case, fears of violence from the local Vietnamese community), some Aussie nightclubs are barring larger groups of Asians.
The thing that stops one from going all relativist, throwing up one's hands and saying, "Discrimination is everywhere in the world, so it's hopeless to try to pursue something like exclusionary onsens and nightclubs in Japan!" is the fact that antidiscrimination laws in Oz are here being cited and public commissions are very publicly looking into the affair. There are societal checks and balances kicking in.
On the other hand, Japan has no anti-racial-discrimination laws, and government followups of issues raised (such as by the Ministry of Justice's Jinken Yougobu, or Bureau of Human Rights) are cursory at best, and officials are not required to make public reports (or even answer those who file the issue, as happened with the Aomori Jinken Yougobu over the Misawa Exclusions Case, March-April 2002).
Related pages:
http://www.debito.org/otarulawsuit.html
http://www.debito.org/misawaexclusions.html
Arudou Debito
One Community Coordinator
http://www.debito.org/TheCommunity
Australian Commissioner appalled at club owner's race ban
THE AGE, July 23, 2002
"The head of Victoria's Equal Opportunity Commission is appalled at a Melbourne nightclub owner's admission that Asians in groups are barred from his venues for fear of gang violence...."
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/23/1027332370421.html
COMMENT: An Australian version of the Otaruesque fear of foreigners (in this case, fears of violence from the local Vietnamese community), some Aussie nightclubs are barring larger groups of Asians.
The thing that stops one from going all relativist, throwing up one's hands and saying, "Discrimination is everywhere in the world, so it's hopeless to try to pursue something like exclusionary onsens and nightclubs in Japan!" is the fact that antidiscrimination laws in Oz are here being cited and public commissions are very publicly looking into the affair. There are societal checks and balances kicking in.
On the other hand, Japan has no anti-racial-discrimination laws, and government followups of issues raised (such as by the Ministry of Justice's Jinken Yougobu, or Bureau of Human Rights) are cursory at best, and officials are not required to make public reports (or even answer those who file the issue, as happened with the Aomori Jinken Yougobu over the Misawa Exclusions Case, March-April 2002).
Related pages:
http://www.debito.org/otarulawsuit.html
http://www.debito.org/misawaexclusions.html
Arudou Debito
One Community Coordinator
http://www.debito.org/TheCommunity