Amnesty International comments on the Noriko Calderon case
Amnesty International has posted its view about the case of Noriko Calderon, a girl born in Japan to illegal immigrant parents:
“Japan must uphold their international obligations by placing the interests of the child as the primary consideration in all actions and deporting Noriko’s parents would clearly be counter to her best interests,” said Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific Deputy Programme Director.
Article 9 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, to which Japan is a state party, provides that “State Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine, in accordance with applicable law and procedures, that such separation is necessary for the best interests of the child”
Japan has attempted to circumvent this obligation by declaring that it interprets this provision as inapplicable to a case where a child is separated from his or her parents as a result of deportation in accordance with its immigration law.
Amnesty International believes that this interpretation is unacceptable. “The principle of placing the child’s interests first, lies at the very heart of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and simply cannot be set aside. We urge Japan to abide by its international obligations, as well as heed the voice of common sense and basic humanity, and allow the family stay united in Japan,” said Roseann Rife.
As the organization seems opposed to the idea of breaking up the family by deporting only the parents, maybe they’d be more satisfied if the Japanese government had not given the Calderons the option of letting their daughter stay in Japan?
The Japanese government announced a few days ago that Noriko’s parents would be allowed to visit their daughter in Japan if they made the decision not to take her back to the Philippines. (Those deported for violations of immigration law are usually banned from entry to Japan for 5 years.)
Update: Noriko’s father has been detained and her mother has been granted another week of permission to stay in Japan. The Calderons are still insisting that they all be allowed to stay in Japan, but the government has stated that the parents must be deported.
The decision to only detain one parent and grant a one week extension to the other is, quite frankly, odd.
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan
Japanese comedian tries not to belch
Can you chug an entire bottle of cola and then jump over flaming hurdles without belching? This Japanese comedian tried (with burp judges on hand):
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Obama wants tougher US stance on whaling
In January, the United States seemed to be pushing for a compromise over Japanese whaling. Now, it looks like things may have changed:
Anti-whaling campaigners said Obama was signaling a tougher US stance leading into the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) opening Monday in Rome which is set to look at a controversial compromise proposal.
Japan hunts hundreds of whales a year in the Pacific and Antarctic using a loophole in a 1986 IWC moratorium that allows “lethal research” on the ocean giants. Norway and Iceland defy the moratorium altogether.
“The United States continues to view the commercial whaling moratorium as a necessary conservation measure and believes that lethal scientific whaling is unnecessary in modern whale conservation management,” said Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality.
We’ll have to wait until the IWC meets in Rome this week to see what exactly is meant by a “tougher US stance” on whaling.
The Japanese government is said to be considering the previously mentioned compromise, and it could reduce its antarctic whaling quotas. It has no plans to stop all of its research whaling.
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Categories: Japanese Food
Japanese police officer verbally abuses veil-wearing teenager
A teenager in Tottori Prefecture who wears a veil (see above picture) due to a skin condition was stopped and questioned by a police officer who accused him of being a member of the Taliban:
The officer from Yonago Police Station stopped the boy as he was riding double on a bicycle near JR Yonago Station on Oct. 28 last year, accusing him of being “strangely-dressed” and asking him, “Are you a Taliban member?”
The chief of the prefectural police headquarters later admitted that he was stopped because the veil looked suspicious, not because he was riding double.
The police have apologized and are taking measures to educate all their officers about the existence of such skin conditions so that this kind of thing will not happen again.
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Categories: Discrimination
Governor prostrates himself before prefectural assembly
The governor of Iwate prostrating himself before the prefectural assembly yesterday in an attempt to get them to reconsider a part of his proposed budget:
The governor had planned on dealing with doctor shortages in the prefecture by purchasing buses that could transport patients to where they could receive care, but the assembly cut the buses from the budget. There is a chance that supporters of the governor could re-introduce the bus plan as a separate bill, but it doesn’t seem very likely that it would pass.
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Categories: Politics
Jero to perform in America
Kyodo News reports that Jero will be giving a performance in Washington, D.C.:
Popular African-American “enka” singer Jero will belt out his soulful tunes at the opening ceremony March 28 of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, according to the Japanese Embassy here.
Jero, 27, is scheduled to sing two of his songs that have become major hits in Japan, probably including “Umiyuki” (Ocean Snow), about a heartbroken woman and her unrequited love.
More details can be found at the National Cherry Blossom Festival’s official site.
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Categories: Celebrity News