← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Julian the Apostate
Thread ID: 12440 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2004-02-22
2004-02-22 00:51 | User Profile
[url]http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20040221p2a00m0dm017000c.html[/url]
Immigration Bureau introduces 'xenophobic' homepage
Human rights activists are up in arms after the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau added a new "tip-off" system to its homepage urging the public to provide information on any "suspicious" foreign nationals in Japan.
[IMG]http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/image/200402/21/20040221p2a00m0dm016000c.jpg[/IMG]
Courtesy of Immigration Bureau
The pull down menu offers a variety of reasons to inform on "suspicious" foreigners. The list contains entries such as foreigners are a "nuisance to the community" or their mere presence is a "cause for concern.
Manami Yano, secretary general of the Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ), also condemned the informing system saying, "(The homepage) divides Japanese and foreign nationals. It diverts Japanese society away from a multicultural society."
Immigration Bureau officials vehemently denied the accusations that the tip-off system violates human rights, saying they have been receiving the same kind of information by mail and phone for years. It received from the public some 75,000 pieces of information on suspected illegal immigrants in 2002.
The system is apparently part of a government effort to cut the number illegal immigrants staying in Japan -- some 250,000 -- by 50 percent in five years. More than 200 tip-offs were sent to the bureau through the homepage in the first five days of the new system's operation. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Feb. 21, 2004)