4th Quarterly, 2006 No.142
2007 Yearbook on Human Rights
The 2007 Yearbook on Human Rights was published by BLHRRI in April 2007. It contains 380 pages of information about Japan’s human rights developments and activities for the period from April 2005 to March 2006. As it is available only in Japanese, we would like to share some of that information here in English.
Contents
Introduction
General Overview on 2005
Part 1: Special Features
- The family register system and the “Buraku Lists” scandal
- Problems with the revision of the Fundamental Education Law
Part 2: Trends of 2005
- Anti-discrimination and human rights protection activities
- Women
- Children
- Illegitimate children
- Youth
- Elderly people
- Persons with Disabilities
- Okinawans
- Ainu
- Zainichi Koreans (Korean residents)
- Migrant workers and their families
- Detainees in immigration centers
- Criminal detainees
- Victims of crime
- Former detainees
- Homeless people
- Part-time workers, seasonal workers and contract workers
- Sexual minorities
- People with Hansen’s disease (leprosy)
- People with HIV
- Advanced medical technologies
- The Buraku problem
- Survey of life conditions
- Survey of attitudes towards Buraku
- Buraku related discriminatory incidents
- Discriminatory incidents on the Internet
- Judiciary
- Retrial of the Sayama Case
- Reform of the judicial system
- Human rights protection system
- Human rights and Dowa administration
- Human rights and Dowa administration conditions in prefectures and government ordinance cities
- Community development with the promotion of human rights
- Neighborhood housing
- Human rights education and awareness-raising
- Overview
- School education
- Tertiary education
- Youth and adult education
- Awareness-raising programs conducted by local governments
- Movies and videos
- Human rights centers
- Overview
- Distinctive developments in learning activities
- The Center for Human Rights Affairs
- Human rights centers throughout the country
- Mass-media
- Newspapers
- Broadcasting
- Corporations
- Overview
- The Industrial Federation for Dowa and Human Rights Issues
- CSR
- Human rights NGOs and NPOs
- Religion
- Overview
- National Congress of Religious Organizations for the Solution of the Dowa Problem
- Other religious groups working for the Dowa problem and human rights
- Directory of religious organizations
Part 3: Appendix – data and information
General Overview on 2005
1. Introduction
The most significant development in international human rights trends was the UN’s decision to close the Commission on Human Rights and create the Human Rights Council. Under this reorganization, human rights would hold greater importance in UN systems and activities. However, the human rights situation in Japan has deteriorated. The suicide rate has exceeded 30,000 per year for the past eight consecutive years, and child abuse and domestic violence rates are immeasurably high. Economic policies, which depend heavily on the market economy, have resulted in widening gaps in various areas of society, and the working-poor problem has emerged. In politics, the general election on September 11, 2005, resulted in the formation of a giant ruling coalition occupying more than two thirds of the seats of the House of Representatives. This has facilitated a nationalistic trend leading to the enactment of an act to control “conspiracy” and the “revision” of the Fundamental Law of Education, threatening the future of peace and human rights in Japan.
2. Official Visit of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights
Mr. Doudou Diene, the Special Rapporteur on the Contemporary Forms of Racism appointed by the CHR, made an official visit to Japan from July 3 to 11, 2005, and met national and local government officers and social representatives, including people affected by racism and discrimination, and related NGOs. His report was published on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in January 2006. In the report, he made the following recommendations: for the state of Japan to recognize the existence of discrimination against Buraku and other minorities and to express its will to combat discrimination; for the state to conduct a survey to grasp the actual conditions surrounding discrimination; for the state to enact laws or regulations to prohibit discrimination (including ratification of the ILO C111 Convention); for the state to create national commissions for equality and human rights; for the state to review history textbook descriptions and to include the historical contributions made by minority groups’ industrial and cultural activities in the textbooks; for the government to create an office within it to address discrimination against Buraku and other minority communities; for the media to create more programs relating to minorities; for minorities to make efforts to promote women’s rights within their communities; for minorities to strengthen solidarity between different minority groups.
3. Poor Prospects for the Enactment of a Remedial Law for Human Rights Violations
It has been three years since the bill for the Human Rights Protection Law was first submitted to the Diet in March 2002 and subsequently withdrawn due to the dissolution of the House of Representatives in October 2003. It is difficult to predict whether or not the Remedial Law for Human Rights Violations (tentative name) will eventually be enacted. While then Prime Minister Koizumi, at the ordinary session of the Diet in January 2006, expressed the government’s will to submit a new human rights protection bill as early as possible, nationalistic elements of the LDP opposed and submission was deferred.
The Tottori Prefecture Ordinance for Remedies for Human Rights Violations was enacted by Tottori Prefecture in October 2005. However, upon criticism by lawyers and journalists, the Tottori Prefectural Assembly enacted another ordinance to freeze the enactment of the above ordinance in March 2006. A committee to review the ordinance was later created to and is due to reach a final decision by summer of 2007. Considering the ceaseless occurrence of human rights abuses throughout the country and the creation and operation of national human rights institutes in 60 countries around the world, a Remedial Law for Human Rights Violations is urgently needed. As of March 2006, 514 local governments around Japan have adopted resolutions calling for the prompt enactment of the law.
4. Individual Human Rights Issues
1) The Buraku Problem
At the end of 2004, an administrative scrivener in Hyogo prefecture was found to have illegally acquired copies of a number of people’s family registers. Later, it was also discovered that similar professionals in other prefectures had undertaken similar practices. In November 2006, the Basic Law for Residential Registers was amended to protect the confidentiality of family registers as far as residence certificates are concerned. Also, discussion on the Family Registration Law is expected to begin and lead to revision at the ordinary session of the Diet for 2007. According to current information, such a revision will include the addition of stricter conditions by which a family register can be obtained and heavier sanctions when the law is violated. However, there is concern that no revision will be made to eradicate the illegal acquisition of copies of other people’s family registers.
Meanwhile, regarding the “Buraku List” scandal, three different versions of the lists were collected from private investigative agencies in Osaka by the BLL during the period between late 2005 and early 2006. So far, it has been confirmed that 10 different versions of the lists have been made. At the end of September 2006, two floppy discs containing Buraku list information were discovered at a private investigative agency in Osaka. At the end of October, it was discovered that information on the locations of Buraku districts had been distributed on the Internet under the title of “Buraku Lists.” Obviously, information on the Internet is without boundary since anybody can access it. The Buraku list problem has become more serious. Further investigation into the above case is required and effective measures to deal with such incidents must be established.
On March 16, 2005, the Supreme Court rejected the special appeal concerning the second request for a retrial of the Sayama Case. The one-sided decision, which was made without disclosure of any evidence held by the public prosecutor’s office, has met with strong opposition and criticism from around the country.
On July 1, 2005, the Tokyo District Court returned a guilty verdict in a case concerning a series of sending postcards for the purpose of Buraku discrimination. The defendant did not appeal to the higher court, so the sentence was determined by the district court. He was detained in jail, but was convicted due to acts of intimidation and defamation rather than discrimination. The background of the case therefore remains unexplained.
In recent years, the UN has recognized discrimination against Dalits in South Asia, including India, Buraku people in Japan, and similar types of discrimination that exist in some parts of the African continent, as “discrimination based on work and descent” or “descent-based discrimination,” and has taken initiatives towards the elimination of such discrimination. In April 2005, the Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution to create Special Rapporteurs for the development of principles and guidelines for the elimination of discrimination based on work and descent.
2) Women
To effectively control human trafficking, which is a grave crime and human rights violation, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, otherwise known as the Trafficking Protocol, was adopted by the UN in 2000 and came into effect in 2003. Japan was criticized both from within the country and internationally for signing but not ratifying the protocol. Finally in June 2005, with the creation of human trafficking as a crime under the Penal Code and Immigration Control Act, ratification of the Protocol was approved. Along with ratification, the sex industry law was also revised to address the problem of migrant women being coerced into prostitution at bars and nightclubs.
In June 2006, revisions to the Equal Employment Opportunity Law were passed by the Diet. The revisions included: 1) an expansion of the scope of prohibition of discrimination by sex, 2) the prohibition of discriminatory treatment on the grounds of pregnancy or childbirth, 3) the improvement of measures against sexual harassment, 4) the creation of a mandatory requirement for employers to take measures for maternity protection. The revised law was due to be implemented on the April 1, 2007.
3) Children
According to an announcement made by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in November 2005, the number of complaints of child abuse received and handled by public child consultation centers amounted to 33,408 in 2004, exceeding 30,000 for the first time. This increase reflects growing concern over the problem of child abuse. On April 1, 2006, the revised Law for Child Welfare was fully implemented to make it mandatory for measures to be taken to facilitate the enhancement of expertise of child consultation center directors and child welfare officers, and to allow local governments to create networks of local related agencies for the prevention of child abuse.
Children’s lives have also been threatened outside their homes, and many incidents occurred involving children as victims. To deal with this, the government set up a liaison conference among relevant departments on December 13 to develop measures to protect children from crime, and created a scheme consisting of specific measures on December 20.
With growing public concern over the safety of children, control over children has also been intensified. In January 2006, the once-scrapped bill for the revision of the Juvenile Law was again submitted to the Diet. It was underlined with “stricter approaches” of juvenile offenses by strengthening police involvement into legal violations by juveniles and allowing children aged below 14 to be sent to juvenile correctional institutes.
However, it is necessary to guarantee the rights of children from a young age, to treat them as equal partners, to provide them with sufficient opportunities for participation in accordance with the Riyadh Guidelines (the UN guidelines concerning the prevention of juvenile delinquency), and to work for the development of rights-based schools as advocated by the World Programme for Human Rights Education.
4) Illegitimate Children
21,533 illegitimate children were born during 2005, accounting for 2.03% of total number of children (1,062,530) born that year. The proportion of illegitimate children is very small compared to other major countries. On November 18, 2005, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal for damages against the state for invasion of privacy by defining the familial relationship of children born from parents who do not register their marriage in a different and distinctive way to those born in a legitimate marriage, thus confirming the decision of the Tokyo High Court to reject the claim made by the plaintiff. The earlier decision (March 2004) by the Tokyo District Court rejected the claim itself, but recognized that such practices (identifying illegitimate children in the family registry) constituted an invasion of privacy. The state subsequently revised the regulation regarding the implementation of the Family Registration Law, and effective from November 2004, an illegitimate child can be registered in the same manner as a legitimate child when a party on the side of the child requests to do so.
The present family register system has generated an attitude to accept and reinforce hierarchy, thus playing a role as a hotbed for generating discriminatory consciousness. The present system requires drastic change to develop a new system based on individuals and not family.
5) Youth
From September 2004, the Cabinet Office organized a conference entitled the “Examination Board Concerning Comprehensive Strategies for Self-Reliance Support for Young People.” In June 2005, the conference produced a report clearly stating that, with the increasing number of socially isolated youth, an immediate task for the entire country was to ensure self-reliance support for young people. It also suggested directions for efforts to be made by parents, families, schools, employers, communities and local governments, and stressed the importance of cooperation with civil groups and NPOs.
In May 2005, the Ministry of Welfare and Labor set out a plan to tackle the problem of “freeters” (people who do not have permanent jobs and change their part-time jobs, which is especially prevalent amongst young people). The plan was entitled, “Plan to Promote Regular Employment of 200,000 Freeters.” Regarding the problem of NEETs, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry began sponsoring a training program in July 2005 to support the self-reliance of young people. There is a strong need for the encouragement of cross-sectional policies in labor, education and wellbeing. At the same time, for young people in more difficult circumstances, careful and fine-tuned support programs must be provided in a concerted manner by labor, education and wellbeing services at the local level.
6) The Elderly
As of October 1, 2005, the total population of Japan is 127.76 million. This represents a decrease of 20,000 from the previous year, the first drop in population since 1945. Those aged over 65 number 25.6 million people, accounting for 20.04% of the total population, which is the highest proportion on record.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry conducted a survey in 2003 into ill-treatment of the elderly at home. Ill-treatment includes such areas as psychological abuse, physical abuse, and neglect. About 10% of the cases reported involved life-threatening circumstances. Behind this is the reality that elderly people themselves are not aware of their rights and are dominated by feelings of submission. Another problem is the lack of adequate and easily accessible reporting systems and support mechanisms available to the elderly. In response to this urgent need, a law was implemented to prevent the ill-treatment of the elderly and came into effect in April 2006. With the revision of the law for care insurance in 2006, the co-payment made by the elderly for care services has increased. This continues to prevent the elderly from accessing such services. The government has set out a goal to reduce social welfare expenditure by 1,100 billion yen within five years. This attitude demonstrates that the government does not encourage respect for the human rights of the elderly.
7) Persons with Disablities
In October 2005, the Law to Support Self-Reliance of People with Disabilities was enacted, which has a major impact on the life and work of people with disabilities. Under the new law, service users have to pay 10% of the cost of services they receive. This has caused many problems for service users.
On August 25, 2006, the 8th Session of the Ad-Hoc Committee of the UN adopted the draft Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has been worked on at the UN since 2002. The fundamental principle of the draft rests with one of the general principles that reads, “Respect for difference and acceptance of persons with disabilities as part of human diversity and humanity.” The epoch-making point of the draft is the inclusion of “discrimination on the basis of disability” into the denial of reasonable accommodation under the definition clause of Article 2. It defines reasonable accommodation as “necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
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