Racial Profiling in Japan
Jun 9th, 2007 by Q
Yesterday we took the first train at 5:11 from our station to go to the Tsukiji fish market. When we boarded the Keihin Tohoku line at Akabane toward Ueno a uniformed police officer got on as well. He walked purposefully through the car and glanced at me briefly but then approached a young woman sitting down. The train was silent. All eyes focused on the woman (or dutifully away) as the cop spoke to her. She laughed nervously and produced her alien registration card and handed it to the officer. He examined it carefully before returning it and continuing his search without another word. We followed him to the next car where he approached a middle-aged Chinese woman and demanded her identification. She was clearly upset as she handed it to him and looked shaken as the cop walked to his next victim on the other side of the car. We followed him through the train as he carded a total of five women before getting off at Tabata station.
We followed him off the train and my wife demanded to know why he had been doing that. He claimed that it was a routine patrol aimed at catching foreigners who had overstayed their visas. He denied that he had been specifically targeting Asians, Asian women, or even non-whites. When asked why he hadn’t asked me for identification he replied that it was simply chance. When repeatedly asked if there was a policy of racial profiling or if he was simply racist he repeated his excuse that it was just random that he hasn’t harassed me. My wife eventually realized he was under orders for complete denial and dismissed him in disgust. (She literally told him, “Okay, you can go now.”)
While police deny racial profiling they seem to simultaneously justify it, claiming that there are more Asians overstaying their visas. This is like police in the States specifically targeting people that appear to be Middle Eastern as terrorists. And then doing it in a place like the train where everyone is watching is an affront on their dignity, an unacceptable humiliation. Is every non-Japanese Asian a potential criminal in their eyes? To the police in Japan they certainly are, and how can this type of practice not encourage the general populous to view them that way as well? How can this not further racism and feelings of isolation on the part of those targeted?
This was another unpleasant reminder of the privileged position occupied by Caucasians in Japan. I need to remember that like it or not I’m in a privileged minority. Benefiting from this system of racism makes me feel awful.
15 Responses to “Racial Profiling in Japan”
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[...] Great reporting today at Tokyo Tsure Zure Gusa about a police officer randomly checking foreign looking people for their alien registration cards. Check it out! [...]
In an Asian country where 99% of immigrants are non-caucasians, checking out a white guy with Japanese wife and child would be a total waste of time. It is just extremely unlikely. The police officer should have been honest and admitted that he has that approach, because his selection criteria is obviously non-random (he may be a fool after all, but for different reasons).
If you demand being checked as well you should also consider demanding a men-only train carriage for male victims of sexual harassment, because everything else would be sexual discrimination. Any woman “benefiting from this system of sexism” should also feel awful.
On the slippery slope of political correctness.
Lastly, the comparison with US police does not work because ethnicity has no obvious or likely relation the kind of offence they’re after. In Japan, to assume that a ethnic non-Japanese is a potential offender of immigration law is more likely and perfectly valid (not nice, but at least logical).
Dirk,
I should clarify and elaborate a bit. In terms of police checking, white people are generally given better treatment (not just if they have a Japanese family with them). A good friend of mine who is Caucasian and married to a Japanese woman was stopped a while back by police and questioned. His wife later came and complained to the officer who did this and he apologized for mistakenly questioning him saying, “すみません、アジア人だと思いました。” (Sorry, I thought he was Asian when I saw him.) So he admitted blatantly that he wouldn’t have questioned him if he had realized that he was white.
This racism isn’t just about police questioning either. When I first moved to Japan in 2000 and was looking for an apartment, the real estate company I first went to said that it would be hard to find a landlord that would accept a foreigner but that it would be easier because I was white. They told me outright that it would be significantly harder had I been Asian or African.
I feel bad that I benefit from racism here. This is just my reaction to an unjust situation. It has nothing to do with some artificial construct of “political correctness” and I don’t think it’s appropriate to bring that up here. I have been flat out told on a couple of occasions by South Asian friends that I cannot understand their experience in Japan because I am white and thus privileged here. A South American couple we know has had to suffer humiliating police harassment in front of their 7-year-old daughter and her Japanese classmates. I cannot believe that it is right to target and humiliate certain people on the basis of their race or nationality. What I witnessed yesterday morning was just one more example of something I have seen and heard many times before in various situations.
I don’t disagree and well aware of these problems. All I am trying to say is that the train guy, judging from his behaviour alone, is not necessarily acting racially motivated, simply because there is another plausible and reasonable explanation for what he did. In the other situations you mention this is not the case, so I think categorising the policeman’s behaviour as racially motivated is very premature.
I was once asked for my ARC while talking with a whiteguy in my “good” English. I told the police I was Japanese. He asked me for proof and I told him to fuck off.
My exact words, to my recollection, were:
「バカ野郎、くそったれ、かんけねーから。」
He got the point and moved on. My point here is that even Japanese can be asked and are asked for their ARC. This is an unacceptable situation and must be stopped for all residents.
I suppose the main questions here are, do we want immigration laws, and if so, do we want them to be enforced and by whom & how? And what are the consequences of doing or not doing it that way?
Policing is like a business. A target market. If You know that most of those that overstay their Visas are Asian women brought for hostess bars/prostitution/etc. and African Males used to propogate the Rasta or Hip Hop Lifestyle (just examples, not a blanket reason/excuse), then those are who You ask. Given my appearance, whether they thought that I was a Mexican, Pakistani, Egyptian, Saudi, Indian, Puerto Rican, Haitian or anyone else with a Tan that’s done something wrong, I’ve never made it through an Airport domestically in the U.S. or Internationally without being checked several times (even before “9-11″). In my opinion it was a bit rude of Your wife to ask the man who has been told by a superior to do something and take it out on him. A bit heavyhanded, isn’t it? Shooting the messenger? If You thought it was Racial Profiling and You expected a Talk Off–why not go to a Decision Maker then instead of pressuring the one who doesn’ t have the answer for which You’re looking? If there weren’t bad apples in a bunch–he wouldn’t have been asked to seek them out. Thank You for realizing Your fortunate, privileged position in all of this. Your final paragraph really gets to the heart of what many should hear.
The final paragraph refers to the privilege almost all white people are born with, whether they ask for it or not – and the other side of the coin, the racism against all others in one form or another. Feeling awful about it is also counterproductive in the long run, it fixes nothing. We didn’t invent it, we didn’t ask for it and to the best of our abilities we are not perpetuating it. This privilege whites ‘enjoy’ has been with us for many thousands of years and will probably continue for a few more. Our awareness of it is a huge step. But more intelligence, and less emotion will have a bigger impact in the long run. I agree – don’t shoot the messenger – the policy won’t change, but in this case I bet the guy was a little less likely to continue that kind of questioning after your conversation with him!
Azim,
You are of course correct in the nature of policing. I perhaps exaggerated a little bit how my wife spoke with them. She used very polite and official language, but was just very direct in questioning the nature of what he was doing and how he was targeting specific groups. She specifically addressed what she found to be wrong with what he was doing and when he denied it she pressed confidently, but still keeping polite language. And she did wait until he got off the train and did it when we were alone so there was no shame factor for him, etc. It was funny how she dismissed him when it was clear he would keep denying everything. (A polite dismissal, but a dismissal none the least.)
Maggie,
I’m not sure about feeling awful being counterproductive. It doesn’t of course help, but I think it’s a step in the right direction. It’s a lot better than just taking it for granted.
I am not so sure that the cop we talked will behave any differently, but maybe it’s good for them to be aware of how they appear.
I’m black, and on day a cop came over to chat with me while I was in the lobby of Kansai airport enjoying a finally 551 nikuman while waiting for my flight.
He tried to be all chummy, asking where I was going. Complementing my Japanese. Asking how long I would be gone, before asking for my ID card. I asked him how he was selecting his targets, and he gave me the “oh it’ll totally random” story. I told him I felt bad because I think he is actually only selecting me because of my race. He said he was sorry, but he was just doing his job. I told him that if I had an Asian face, he wouldn’t have stopped me, and I could have enjoyed my nikuman in peace. He said that he was also stopping Asians, I said yeah right.. and he showed me his little memo book showing the other names of people he had stopped. I didn’t get a good look at it, but I noticed other western names on it as well. Anyway…
So, in my case it wasn’t only Asian’s he was after. I guess there are many illegal Africans as well that they’re watching out for? I’m American btw.
That really made me mad though. I hate that stuff.
One of my friends, a black guy from Princeton here on research, was taken into a Coban for hours because the police randomly stopped him shortly after arriving in Japan and he didn’t have his gaikokujin registration card yet. He was locked up for hours.
another thing, we can help to do something about it.
ask to volunteer for an anti-discrimination or human rights organization.
Here are a couple.
IMADR – http://www.imadr.org/
Hurights Osaka – http://www.hurights.or.jp/
Harvey,
Ouch, in the airport! That sounds annoying as hell. I’m not surprised they’re also targeting Africans. A couple of African Americans I know have reported being stopped randomly on the street and having the cop act shocked that they were American. That sounds really terrible with your friend being dragged into a Koban. What a thing to be subjected to right after arriving!
Thank you for the links to those organizations. It wouldn’t hurt all of us to put in more (or some) volunteer hours! (Cash helps too I’m sure!)
I was riding my scooter, going home after shopping near my train station. There was a roadblock set up by the railroad tracks–checking bike riders for stolen scooters. As I went by, every policeman/woman looked everywhere but at me. I realized they didn’t want to stop me in case I didn’t speak much Japanese. I told my husband about it afterwards and he laughed. His opinion, if they stopped me and ended up having to communicate in Eglish–it would have been a very embarrassing situation for the one who pulled me over, so they didn’t even try.
I was at the Ginza station about 2 years ago on a way to a date, obviously in good spirits and as I walked out of the station 2 police officers stopped me and with the familiar(but weird in a policeman) shy type of laguhter-they asked for my passport, I more than willingly showed my military I.D. and I wasn’t at all bothered, I was a little surprised thats all. What did get on my nerves though is that while boarding a flight from Narita to go home on leave in the US, while actually walking on the tubular ramp thing to get on the plane, one of the greeter employees suddenly noticed that I was not anglo or japanese and hastily hurried me to a side and asked for my passport, security check, well I dont know I was just so tired and had done the whole security passport control and could clearly see that this was not random that I just scoweld angrily at her while she asked me how long stay in japan, only to be waved off because I was a military guy. Well I dont know, its not my country but when it really interferes with your life I guess it really makes me mad that this type of thing is allowed in Japan. I cant say that it’s any better in the USA, on that very same flight when I arrived at San Fran I was castigated by an immigration officer because he said it’s really odd that people have passports issued by an embassy abroad and was he thinking (and look like a poor motherf**** like me )I guess. Well maybe if I was white(r) this would’nt happen? or would it?