NGO Report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Submitted by Japan NGO Coalition against Racial Discrimination Series No.1 Outline

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Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD)
96th session (6 – 30 August, 2018)
Japan
NGO Report
in relation to the tenth to eleventh periodic reports of JAPAN
July 14, 2018
Japan NGO Coalition against Racial Discrimination (JNCRD)
4F-B Shinko Bldg., 3-13-4 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061 Japan
TEL & FAX: +81 5031530391
Email: JapanNetwork1@gmail.com
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About JNCRD
Japan NGO Coalition against Racial Discrimination (JNCRD) is a coalition of civil
groups involved in the racial discrimination issues in Japan and human rights violation
issues against Japanese in foreign countries.
JNCRD Members
 Academics’ Alliance for Correcting Groundless Criticisms of Japan
 Citizen’s Committee for Reexamining Municipal Position on Comfort Women Issue
 Citizen’s Group against Local Autonomy Basic Ordinance
 Grass Roots Action about Fabricated Comfort Women Issue
 HANADOKEI, the Patriotic Women’s Association
 Indigenous and Minority Rights of Japan
 Japan Association for Fostering the Seeds of Historical Truth
 Japanese Citizen’s Group against the Suffrage of Foreigners
 Japanese Volunteer Association to Rectify the Fabricated Comfort Women Issue
 Japanese Women for Justice and Peace
 Meeting in Hokkaido Aiming at a Solution of a Forgery Problem of the Japanese
Military “Comfort Women”
 Okinawa Policy Research Forum of Japan
 Research Group on Political Rights
 Study Group on Freedom of Expression
 Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact
 Soyokaze
 The Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women
 The Study Group for School Education
 Toronto Seiron
 True Japanese Society
 Veteran’s Voice Memorial Project
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Contents
Preface ———————————————————————– 4
1. The Circumstance of the Ryukyu / Okinawa —————— 6
2. The Circumstance of the Ainu People ————————- 10
3. The Circumstance of Korean Schools in Japan —————- 17
4. The Elimination of Hate Speech Act ————————- 21
5. Political Right and Local Suffrage for Foreign Residents —- 28
6. The Case against Japan : Casualties of Japan’s Foreign Policy Disaster
—————————— 32
7. Comfort Women and the Coomaraswamy Report ————- 38
Appendix ———————————————————————– 43
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Preface
It is a very fortuitous coincidence for Japan that the Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) for Japan will be holding its session in this
timing because the 100th anniversary of Japan’s initiative to abolish racial
discrimination within the international arena will be nearing soon. On February 13,
1919, the Japanese government first made a proposal for racial equality within the
committee responsible for drafting the Covenant of the League of Nations at the Paris
Peace Conference in Versailles, to the effect that elimination of racial discrimination
should be clearly stated in the Covenant. Japan’s proposal was supported by an
overwhelmingly majority (11 to 5) of committee members on April 11, 1919. However,
US President Woodrow Wilson, chairman of the committee, unfairly intervened and
overruled the majority decision. He blithely argued that such an issue of importance
should be decided unanimously.
Moreover, the US Congress passed the Jonson-Reed Act in 1924 which
virtually singled out Japanese immigrants. Even very pro-American Japanese
intellectuals, such as NITOBE Inazo, UCHIMURA Kanzo and ASHIDA Hitoshi, greatly
resented the passage of this Act. They stated that they would never visit the United
States again since this Act was an inexcusable form of racial discrimination clearly
targeted against a specific nation.
Japan endured racial discrimination from Western countries for a very long
period of time since she was the only country among non-white countries that succeeded
in state modernization and industrialization in the 19th century. Soon after Japan’s
victory in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), fears of the so-called “Yellow Peril”
emerged in Europe at the end of the 19th century. In fact, Japan spent many years,
without success, in trying to revise unequal treaties with Western countries.
These sentiments of discrimination against the Japanese people eventually
led to the US-Japan War (1941-1945). Racial discrimination was obviously one of the
major reasons behind the Second World War. During the war, Japan convened the
Greater East Asia Conference with seven East Asian countries in Tokyo in November
1943, and announced the Joint Declaration of the Greater East Asia Conference on
November 6, 1943, stating the abolition of racial discrimination. This was entirely
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different from the US’s and UK’s so-called Atlantic Charter of August 14, 1941, which
did not contain anything concerning racial equality at all.
It is very natural for Japan to be a pioneer of the racial equality movement
in the international community because Japan had been the biggest victim in this sense
for a very long time. After the Second World War, Japan has been the leader of the
movement for racial equality.
Just 50 years after Japan’s proposal for racial equality at the Paris Peace
Conference, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination (ICERD) finally came into being in 1969. With the passage of time, we
are very pleased to have the 96th Session of the CERD at the United Nations in Geneva
in August 2018. We believe that Japan will continue to enthusiastically contribute as
a leader and as a pioneer of the movement for racial equality.
Academics’ Alliance for Correcting Groundless Criticisms of Japan (AACGCJ)