Posts Tagged ‘human rights’

Foreigner feigns ignorance of Japanese to avoid speeding ticket

A clip from yesterday’s “Real Time News” in which a police officer in Kanagawa prefecture stops a Mercedes Benz that was traveling at 128 km/h (80mph), 58 km/h over the speed limit:

The driver of the car is a foreigner, and when the Japanese police officer starts speaking to her in Japanese, she pretends she can’t understand and speaks English. The officer cannot speak English and isn’t quite sure what to do. If he were to give up and wave off the foreigner without a ticket, his action would be caught on film and he would no doubt end up like the Tokyo police officer who resigned in shame recently for failing to enforce the law in a similar circumstance.

The officer continues to speak in Japanese to the woman. Eventually he notices that she seems to understand what he is saying, so he suggests that she can actually understand Japanese. She finally caves and and admits she can speak “a little” Japanese. He then informs her of that driving 128 km/h in a 70 km/h zone is a grave speeding offense that will result in a suspension of her license. The woman is shocked, so shocked that she suddenly develops the ability to speak enough Japanese to make the accusation that, “this country doesn’t treat gaijin like humans.” The officer says he is not treating her in such a way.

She starts to cry and say (in Japanese) that she will kill herself. The officer calms her down, tells her to drive carefully, and sends the woman away with a ticket. The woman will have a chance to dispute the ticket in court. Hopefully the judge will have a chance to see the video footage of the incident and get a look at how she tried to weasel her way out of taking responsibility for her violation of the law.

I don’t believe this woman’s action to be an isolated incident. I’ve met quite a few foreigners who swear by the “I don’t speak Japanese” method of avoiding traffic tickets, and anecdotal evidence across the internet seems to support the claim that this kind of thing is very common. When police officers are not on camera, many prefer to let foreigners off without a ticket instead of going through the hassle of dealing with the language barrier.

Note: This is just a short clip from a segment that included several other lawbreakers, all of whom were Japanese. Its primary focus was not on foreign criminals.

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Japanese journalists beaten & detained by Chinese police

Two Japanese journalists who had been reporting near the scene of a terrorist attack in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China were attacked and beaten by Chinese paramilitary policemen:

Masami Kawakita, a photographer for The Tokyo Shimbun, and Shinji Katsuta, a Beijing-based reporter for Nippon Television Network Corp., were knocked down, kicked, trampled on and hit in the face at a police facility on Monday night, their respective media organizations said.

Kawakita, 38, and Katsuta, 37, were detained for about two hours, although they were not seriously injured.

Police seized two of Kawakita’s cameras, demanding he hand over photographs, although he had not taken any.

One of the cameras was rendered useless. Kawakita also had his cellphone seized.

The Japanese government issued an official complaint about the incident, and Chinese authorities apologized to the journalists.

United Nations Human Rights Council reviews Japan

The UN Human Rights Council has held a review of Japan:

Japan was urged by friends and critics in the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday to abolish the death penalty and take concrete steps to settle the long-standing issue of wartime “comfort women”.

In a review of the Asian power’s rights performance, it was also accused of mistreating minorities and failing to give equal treatment to women and urged to improve its handling of immigration and to set up a national human rights body.

In response, Japan said it could not drop the death penalty because public opinion favoured it for “extremely vicious crimes”, while it had expressed apologies and remorse over “comfort women” and was “in good faith” on the issue.

It was also working to improve its legislation on gender equality and the treatment of foreign migrants and workers.

Protests Hit Nagano Relay

The Japan leg of the Olympic torch relay is underway, and there are reports of minor disturbances:

• Not long after the 8:30AM start of the relay, a Japanese protester threw something at the torch runner. Police blocked it and arrested the man.
• Around 9:00AM, a protester dashed into the road and was tackled by the police.

Update: Here’s a slightly better video of the few disruptions that took place during the relay and some news links.

The man being carried away by police while screaming “free Tibet” was a Taiwanese citizen. The four other protesters arrested were Japanese. There were also incidents in which Chinese students were injured in attempted attacks on pro-Tibet protesters:

At least four people were injured in the scuffles in the mountain resort of Nagano, where more than 85,000 people packed the streets including Chinese students who turned the town into a sea of red national flags.

After relative calm elsewhere in Asia, the torch met at least hundreds of protesters here ranging from Buddhist monks and pro-Tibet demonstrators to nationalists, who provocatively waved Japan’s old imperial flag.

Protesters threw trash, an egg, a tomato and flares as the torch was paraded through the streets despite more than 3,000 police guarding the route, who had raised security to a level usually accorded to Emperor Akihito.

[...]

China is killing Tibetans, who are a very peaceful people, so I hate the Chinese government,” said Hisakazu Hattori, a 21-year-old student.

Another protester, Mitsuru Ishikawa, said he feared China’s rise.

“China wants to conquer the world. I’m afraid that China will conquer Japan in the near future,” Ishikawa said.

Furious Chinese supporters in turn surrounded demonstrators waving Tibetan flags. In one brawl the Chinese charged with flagpoles and were kicked by anti-Beijing demonstrators until police intervened, witnesses said.

At least four Chinese were injured, none of them seriously, said the fire department of Nagano, the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics some 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Tokyo.

Mainstream international media coverage of the relay

• Protesters jeer Olympic torch in Japan (CNN-IBN)
• In pictures: Olympic torch in Japan (BBC)
• Torch supporters, protesters mark Japan relay (Reuters)

If NTV’s report is to be trusted, the Chinese media’s coverage of the Nagano relay was 100% positive. A heavily edited video of portions of the relay that did not have any Tibetan flags in the background was shown and there was absolutely no mention of protests.

Irene has kindly brought to our attention a YouTube video and 2-channel archives that give a firsthand account of the relay from the perspective of Japanese protesters:

It wasn’t the total chaos that some had predicted, but protesters seemed to have made a bigger impact in Japan than in the other countries the torch passed through in the last week. The torch travels to South Korea tomorrow, where North Korean defectors have vowed to interrupt the relay in protest of China’s repatriation of refugees to the North where they often face execution.

A Preview Of Tomorrow’s Olympic Torch Relay

The Olympic torch has arrived in Japan, and a few protests have already taken place:

As torch-bearers rolled into Nagano, hundreds of Falun Gong supporters marched with a loud brass band through the city’s streets to condemn China’s leadership, which considers the spiritual movement an “evil cult.”

“Stop the mass murder by the Chinese Communist Party,” read a banner held by marchers in yellow Falun Gong T-shirts, who were closely watched by dozens of police.

Separately, at least two demonstrators unfurled Tibetan flags as the Chinese torch delegation stopped at a highway rest area on its way to Nagano, 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Tokyo.

Japanese authorities have decided to ban the public from the start, midpoint and end of tomorrow’s relay, citing security concerns. About 3,000 policemen will provide security along the route and a group of about 100 police will run together with the torch bearers. Two Chinese paramilitary guards will accompany the torch as “attendants” and have agreed not to act as security.

Below are a some computer-generated examples of what the relay should look like:

CCTV, a state-controlled Chinese news outlet, reports that 10,000 Chinese will be in Nagano tomorrow to witness the relay. If such numbers are accurate, the torch runners shouldn’t expect much trouble, as the pro-Chinese crowds will likely block and intimidate protesters as their countrymen did in Australia.

Japan Won’t Welcome Chinese Torch Guards

The Olympic torch relay is coming to Nagano later this month, and Japanese authorities are not keen on the idea of having Chinese paramilitary guards provide security:

National Public Safety Commission Chairman Shinya Izumi indicated on Friday that Japan will not welcome “security runners” from China to accompany the Olympic torch when it arrives in Nagano if their role is to serve as guards.

China plans to send two runners to accompany the Olympic torch when it arrives in Japan later this month. In a post-Cabinet meeting on Friday, Izumi said, “I don’t know what status they have, but if their role is providing security or something like that, then I think that’s a job for Nagano Prefectural Police. I can’t welcome the idea of them running in Japan just because they have run in other countries.”

It remains unclear whether the “security runners” will actually end up being sent and what role they would play. In other countries where the torch has been carried, runners in matching blue clothes have surrounded the Olympic flame and held back people who came near it.

“We should not break our principle of having security upheld by Japanese police. We are considering taking security measures focusing on Nagano Prefectural Police to ensure a safe relay,” Izumi said.

Nagano City officials are not expecting huge protests like the ones that took place in Europe and America, but they are still worried. Here’s a news report from April 8th about their preparations for the relay:

Summary

• A shopkeeper says she is half-worried and half-excited about the torch relay, but she is happy about the increase in sales the crowds will bring.
• A meeting of city workers taking part in the event is shown, complete with glossy pamphlets and a powerpoint presentation.
• One city employee says he thinks it will be safe and there won’t be any big protests.
• Another city employee is asked for his opinion on the news reports of the protests in Europe. He declares that such activities are “stupid,” and thinks there are better methods available.

The National Police Agency announced today that it is planning to use the “hooligan provision” of immigration law to prevent radical anti-China activists from entering Japan and holding protests in Nagano. It has also been announced that the initial security force plan of about 500 Nagano police officers and 1,000 private security guards will be boosted to an unspecified number.