Hateful editorial in Japan Times

[womba]

Hi there, I'd like people to see this absolutely garbage antiforeigner editorial from the Japan Times from last week:

Put a stop to rising crime

Spurred by a spate of vicious crimes and a sharp rise in crimes by foreigners, the number of criminal offenses in Japan last year reached a record postwar high of 2,735,612 cases. The arrest rate, which is a barometer of public safety, fell to 19.8 percent, the first time since 1945 that it had dropped below 20 percent. The 2002 police white paper, issued by the National Police Agency last Friday, describes the grim reality of a vicious circle in which the nation's police officers struggle to keep up with the rising number of crimes, and new crimes occur before investigations into ongoing cases can be completed. Public order must not be allowed to deteriorate any further. In halting the slide, the capability of the police alone is limited. Each and every one of us must ask ourselves what we can do to reverse this trend. It is time for some serious thinking.
The number of recognized criminal cases is being driven up by a rise in street crime, such as theft and bag-snatching, but crime by foreigners, which is part and parcel of internationalization, is also a problem. Last year there were 27,763 cases involving 14,660 foreigners. Both of these figures are on an upward trend. In particular, the number of arrested persons has increased about 75-fold over the last two decades. Among the offenses committed by foreigners, special mention should be made of a spate of burglaries involving lock-picking. Such offenses began to appear in the Tokyo metropolitan region about five years ago. The police suspect most of these burglaries are the work of Chinese gangs.

It is said that many of these foreigners settle in Japan, become organized and move on from petty crimes to the more vicious kind. Police detention facilities in Tokyo are already full of foreigners, and a shortage of interpreters for investigations is becoming a constant problem. It is essential to cooperate with police authorities in other countries and strengthen efforts to prevent illegal immigration at points of entry.
_______________________________

This is vague, scurilous stuff. The only numbers given don't even support the accusation. Out of 2,700,000 odd criminal cases last year only 27,000 -- a huge 1 percent! -- were allegedly linked to foreigners. And most foreigners who are involved with the cops are caught on immigration related matters, not the serious crimes this piece of garbage implies.
If anyone out there is as angry as me, call or e-mail the Japan Times. opinion@japantimes.co.jp 03-3453-5312.
I think whoever wrote this should be fired

[moyashi]

Hi womba,
Welcome and yoroshiku.

@research
Hehe, you should check out the David Adlewink section.
Great bit of investigation work you did there.

Japantimes isn't my favorite place, which is why I hang out here. Most of the interesting articles are picked up by Thomas and few other members.

[thomas]

Welcome to the forum, womba!

I agree with Moyashi, Debito.org is the place to go. Debito also has his own section here at the Japan Forum.

I seldom check Japan Times for articles. Their reports are late and quite superficial.

[Shinmeiryu]

Hah. I couldn't find the point he was trying to make in that article.

Then again, I've never looked to Japan Times for a source.

[johnny]

I cant' see why you guys are so upset about this kind of information. If it's the case that foreigners commit 1% of the crimes in Japan, aren't the Japanese allowed to be upset? Who can say that "One out of 100 crimes are allowed to be commited by foreigners!"?

Do non-Japanese people have the right to commit a certain percentage of crimes in Japan?

[Mandylion]

What foreigners in Japan get upset about when these articles come out is the high degree of attention they get. Sure, you can mention in passing that crime by foreigners is rising, but what about addressing the 99% or other crimes, no matter who does them? Foreigners already labor under false impressions given by the media to Japanese people (just as happens all over the world, I'm not laying blame). What you get is a type of racial profiling where because you look like what the police suspect to be "criminal" (partly fed by reports like the one the OP put up) you get unwarranted police attention. I'm not going as far to say that Japan is rounding up its foreigners and setting up check-points, but is paying a lot of attention to 1% of all crime a good way to spend your resources? I don't think anyone here is saying it is okay for X% of crime to be committed by foreigners. What I think they are saying is that not bringing as much heat on the other 99% is not fair.

[X_ｹｷﾈﾋ_X~HUNTER]

Well... I think those problems casued by chinese mafia seriously damaged the reputation of Chinese in Japan. And unfortunately, this might be the most suitable reason for mayor of Tokoy to exaggerate the "threat of Chinese"...

[senseiman]

The reason the governor of Tokyo exaggerates the threat of the Chinese is that he is an unapologetic, ignorant bigot.

Mandylion has it pegged pretty well. There is nothing wrong with saying that foreigners comit crimes, but that article blatantly focused on that miniscule 1% of crimes while avoiding the much more serious 99% of crimes commited by Japanese. The motivations for this kind of reporting are obviously racist and whoever wrote that article should be fired.

[Iron Chef]

And of course whenever "Gaijin crime-sprees" are a hot topic of interest, they deliberately forget to mention that the majority of "foreign-related offenses" stem from routine Visa violations (overstays, etc.) and similar low-level infractions. Phfft...

[Kiwano]

Originally posted by johnny
I cant' see why you guys are so upset about this kind of information. If it's the case that foreigners commit 1% of the crimes in Japan, aren't the Japanese allowed to be upset? Who can say that "One out of 100 crimes are allowed to be commited by foreigners!"?

Do non-Japanese people have the right to commit a certain percentage of crimes in Japan?

Pleas re-read the previous post. This time without the Swedish mindset filter. You might find it quite different if you do.