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NEWS: Tokyo Governor is Not a Mickey Mouse Fan

Exactly, there exists shades. Shades that obviously people on here do not comprehend because so many people are quick to point to the usual "Japan is racist and xenophobic" rhetoric. I mean, this was one right-wing politician who says he does not like Mickey Mouse (which is obviously not a sentiment shared by many Japanese), and suddenly this board starts exploding with the usual "Those racist Japan, how DARE they say something bad about America" type posts.

Seriously, in the past 2 years that I've visited this board whenever I hear about Japan, it's always "Japan is racist this and racist that and doesn't like China and doesn't like America and they're so bad and intolerant." And then all these armchair historians start going into their pseudo WWII lectures. I must have heard it hundreds of times (seriously, I don't even think your history professors spend this much time).

Not to say we should ignore the atrocities of Japan's past. I mean, there is racism and xenophobic in Japan. But I'm sick of the constant Japan-bashing, especially from people like you that like to sit on their high horse, and start lecturing, "Those racist Japanese, tssk tssk tssk." Is that not the narrow-minded extreme that you're lecturing me on?

I really don't like the way this person says that about Mickey. He should learn to respect our animation since we respect theirs so much.

Still, even if people like Ishihara were witness to the horrors of World War II, I doubt that gives him the right to blast other cultures, or to promote his own xenophobia, or to deny the atrocities that his own country have made.

We've already heard our share of people who claim that the source of their overwhelming malice is from past traumas like these, and that the recurring nightmares of such incidents steadily shape them in each waking hour...but that hardly gives them any reason to be so outwardly bitter about matters they hardly know anything about, or aren't willing to see in full view.

What I'm trying to get at here is that Ishihara may have his personal ghosts to deal with, but so do other people who have gone through the same hardships he has faced, if not worse.

And the beauty of these people is they didn't hide from the world around them in their bigotry, or lash out at everything that barely resembled the object of their hatred...they grew up, and as harsh as the times they were in were to them, they turned out kinder.

Mr. Ishihara may have shown his dislike for a particular culture -quite dramatically I might add- but if you listen very carefully to his speech, and the other statements he has made before this, despite the fact he's an influential politician, all I really see is an old, scared little man who's too afraid to open his eyes.

Well, shutting the country down for foreigners would also be economic suicide, and with the recent rise of China it would likely have an end result that's even worse.

It's no different than the US, matter of fact the US's rate of crime from immigrants both illegal and legal is double that of Japan in percentages, primarily in California and Texas.

Does that justify hatred of Mexico and their culture and statements of white supremacy?

Besides, according the the last figures, admittedly dated 2003, over 80% of foreign crime in Japan were foreigners from other Asian nations. Another 10% from South America and only 1.5% from North America. It's possible that number has gone up, but I can't see a huge difference considering the steady pace of the numbers on an annual basis. So you can't really use that as a justification of racial hatred towards a country that is 1% of their problem where as the majority of crime in Japan is still domestic, especially gang related. Now it just seems like a somewhat desperate attempt to justify his racial prejudice. I'm sorry though, but crime in Japan isn't an exclusive import and there's no shortage of domestic criminals. It's sad that intolerance and prejudice and hatred has reached a point it is defended despite its obvious irrational origins and irrational direction.

Hell, Ishihara is flat out racist and sexist. Sometimes I wonder how he was elected.

And what do you think he is afraid of? I know his past speeches. And I know what he wants. He wants to rid Japan of bad foreign influence. Because let's face it. There are a lot of foreigners in Japan who are not acting the way they are supposed to. Do you know how much crime foreigners commit in Japan. A lot. If you were in his position, wouldn't you be the same? Wouldn't you want to get rid of those people, and make you country safer for your people?

Actually, Japan has a great deal of tourism, I'm not sure where you get your facts from but it's a huge tourist destination, not only that but a major hub for a foreign workforce which is where the bulk of the crime problem lies.

Shutting a nation down has major implications, if you decline tourism you raise the cost of business because a lot of trade laws and domestic travel laws are directly connected.

The end result is that despite a rise in foreign crime the bulk of crime in Japan is still internal and the end result would be negligible, and the loss of foreign income from both consumers and businesses, not to mention the effect of placing a xenophobic label on the nation, would have a significant impact on their economy. Japan's major internal crime problem is gang related, yes, but that is hardly the bulk of it and overall murder, rape and especially theft are a rising problem in Japan domestically. Sorry, but it's not simply foreigners causing problems and overall foreign crime is still a small percentage of the whole.

None the less, Mr.Ishihara could use some perspective, while a minor percentage of American citizens (and that figure is North America) commit crimes within Japanese borders, American citizens also equate a much larger percentage of their tourism and immigration than their total foreign crime. Mr.Ishihara does indeed have issues to deal with, but it's a doctor he'll have to see to deal with them, this isn't just about a guy who hates a cartoon mouse but a guy who has some serious racial and nationalistic hatred that's been incredibly apparent in no shortage of cases.

It's not too easily prevented, and it's apparent you still don't fully understand law and economics. It's a bit much to get into here so I simply recommend you possibly look into some economics courses and a few social studies electives on modern culture.

Either way, it's a pretty much safe bet that those in the know and in control are not going to make that move and if anything what Japan should be focusing on more than anything is the corruption in their own law enforcement which is pretty well known by now.

Comparing tourism to the top tourist destinations in the world is pointless, because you have to compare that to the economy and market and so on and so on.

Either way, to the focus of the thread in general. The guy is a recognized racists, nationalist, among other things. He has the right to say it, he has the right to his opinion, but we have the right to recognize him for what he is as well.

This isn't about numbers and economics because the people in charge of that nation know more than you and I, despite my career, they make the choices and they seem to think tourism and immigration is the right one.

Quote:

Actually, Japan has a great deal of tourism, I'm not sure where you get your facts from but it's a huge tourist destination, not only that but a major hub for a foreign workforce which is where the bulk of the crime problem lies.

What? Hey, just because a lot of us here like Japan, and see it as a cool place, and would ofcourse want to go there, that doesn't mean that other people want that. Japan has somewhere around 5 million tourists per year. That is almost nothing. Compared to:

France - 75,500,000 million tourists
USA - 50,900,000
Spain - 48,200,000
Italy - 41,200,000
China - 31,200,000

Now you see, those are the countries that profit highly from tourism, and not Japan. So if those countries didn't allowe tourists, now THAT would be a blow to the economy. Not Japan's 5 million visitors a year.

I never said that Japan should shut itself from the world completly. It is only the tourists who shouldn't be allowed to go there. The diplomats would ofcourse be OK. And the people who are needed for overseas deals and trade. But no, the foreigners who want to live in Japan should not be allowed to. Now, that I think has nothing to do with economy, right?

This here list is for the year 2003. It shows how much crime which nationality has done in Japan.

Chinese (0.428%)
Brazilians (0.351%)
Japanese (0.291%)
Russians (0.271%)
Philippinos (0.101%)
Thais (0,051%)
Koreans (0.024%)
Britons (0.021%)
Americans (0.016%)

You can clearly see that Chinese and Brazilians are above Japanese in crime rates. But you also must understand that those who are below Japan in crime are still WORSE than Japanese. It is because there is a lot of organised crime in Japan among the total crime of Japanese. Do you understand this. The Yakuza are the people who are there to do crime! The ordinary people are not so bad to commit crimes. But among the foreigners, there is no organised crime, they are just bad people who are criminals and should be deported.

And I already said, the economic loss from tourism would be almost non existant.

As for the "xenophobic mark": Well, don't people think of Japan as xenophobic already?

Plus, what does that have to do with Japanese and they everyday life anyway? I mean, peoples opinion from another countries don't really have much effect on Japanese anyway. I mean, you live in the US, right?

Now let's say someone from Holland thinks that the US is a country that goes around the world killing innocent people for their profit. Like Iraq, for an example. Would your life change? Or would you simply say: "Who gives a crap what you think people!" And you would simply continue with your everyday life...