Tag: Japan

Three men are suing the Japanese government, citing a pattern of racially motivated police harassment and asking for improved practices and about ¥3 million ($20,330) each in compensation.

The suit is unusual in Japan, a historically homogeneous place with little precedent for punishing racial discrimination. The plaintiffs—two permanent residents and one a foreign-born Japanese citizen—are seeking to show that disparate treatment based on race violates the constitution and international human rights agreements.

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Plaintiffs say they have been repeatedly stopped for questioning by police for no apparent reason, and had their belongings searched, according to a summary of the case provided by lawyers. One, an African American who has lived in Japan for more than a decade and has a Japanese family, said he’d been stopped more than 15 times before he decided to join the suit. Another, a Pacific Islander, said he’d been questioned about 100 times. 

“If police officers are allowed to discriminate, then it creates this image from the top to the citizens that discrimination is OK,” said Moe Miyashita, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs. “On the other hand, if the police, the national government and other public organizations tell people that they can’t do this, it sends a strong message to the general public that discrimination is wrong.”

The suit names the Japanese government and the Tokyo Metropolitan and Aichi prefecture governments. All three declined to comment on the case.

The National Police Agency said in an email that officers do not question people on the basis of race or nationality, and they are not aware of such cases of discrimination. The agency added it would refrain from commenting on the lawsuit because it has not received details. 

The lawsuit adds to simmering questions about how Japan will manage the growing diversity of its population. To make up for its shrinking workforce, the country is increasingly reliant on immigrants. Foreign workers now number a record-high 2 million, according to the most recent government data.

Awareness of racism and racial profiling has been rising since a 2021 viral video showed a police officer admitting he’d searched a mixed-race man because “many people with dreadlocks carry drugs.” The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo warned U.S. citizens about racial profiling by Japanese police on their X account.

Japan’s constitution explicitly bans race-based discrimination, and the country is a signatory to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. 

Nevertheless, a study by the Tokyo Bar Association showed that among 2,000 respondents of foreign background, over 60% said they had been questioned by police and about 77% of those questioned said there was no apparent reason other than the fact they appeared foreign.

“More people are starting to recognize that these issues are happening,” Miyashita said. “I think this is just the beginning.”

The Tokyo government has been overwhelmed by interest in its new fertility subsidy program, one of several pilot programs across the country designed to address one of the lowest birth rates in the world.

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More than 7,000 women have registered for information sessions about the new program, which offers up to ¥300,000 ($2,023) toward the costs of egg-freezing, and 1,800 women have applied since October, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. 

The government estimated demand would be far lower. It budgeted ¥60 million for subsidies, enough to award the maximum amount to 200 women.

The program is open to all women between the ages of 18 and 39, a departure from earlier fertility policies that excluded unmarried women. There’s no deadline for the application and no pre-established limit to the number of subsidies that will be awarded. Tokyo Mayor Yuriko Koike told NHK the city plans to increase the budget significantly. 

The Japanese government is increasingly concerned by its record-low birthrate, now at 1.3. A rate of 2.1 is considered optimal to keep a population stable. In 2022, the government agreed to reimburse 70% of the costs of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Egg freezing is one of several assisted reproductive technologies that can help extend a woman’s fertility, but it’s expensive. In Japan, costs typically run from around ¥300,000 to 600,000 but can reach into the millions.

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The technology is also far from a panacea. Only about 8.4% of people used their frozen eggs to give birth, according to a survey of 87 clinics and hospitals conducted by the Tokyo government in August. The success rate of pregnancy using frozen eggs also drops with maternal age.

Still, keeping young eggs and increasing the odds of pregnancy is a vital option for women who aren’t ready to have children, according to Noriko Taniyama, who works in the city government’s Bureau of Social Welfare, Children and Child-Rearing Support Division.

Tokyo plans to assess the effects of egg freezing on birthrate by accumulating data from subsidy recipients.