Sorry Tsuwabuki, I was a bit busy last weekend and didn't have the time to respond, but hey, you didn't really come back ether.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki
I have never, ever, NOT ONCE seen or heard of a Japanese person being asked to produce ID for no other reason than because they might not be Japanese
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The "Questioning" Debito got is called "職務質問(しょくむしつもん)" which by itself is perfectly legal and a standard practice performed to the citizens in Japan. There are millions if not tens of millions 職務質問 preformed yearly.
Under the Japanese law, a policeman can perform 職務質問 anytime, and to any person he thinks it is necessary, and it is rather a matter of controversy for the law allows very arbitrary execution. If your friends are, say, young well dressed women, they pretty much never get 職務質問. If you are a middle age man, wearing an old T-shirts walking in the middle of a weekday in a residential area, you WILL get questioned and asked for ID sooner or later, regardless if you are foreign looking or not.
And as for the amendment and stuff, Japan has pretty much the same law. If you want to leave, the cops technically can't stop you, unless you do something suspicious like push them and run. The only power they have is to "ask" questions. They have the power to "ask" for hours though, as long as there is no force involved there. Did Debito get arrested? No. Was he physically stopped? No. The cop just "asked" if he could see his ID which the cop was entitled to.
Now, I actually hate 職務質問 law. I think it should be invalidated. However, a law is a law and it is ridiculous to purposely make it an issue of 外国人差別, and although I agree with the target of his action, I can't hold with the way he is doing it nor do I think it is even an effective strategy. He "purposely" made you and other guys who are not very familiar with how 職務質問 works "think" it is a problem with racism when it is actually a matter of how the police use their power to the citizens, ANY citizen. Google 職務質問 and you'll see that it is a huge controversy.
I found his web site too and checked this page out.
www.debito.org: THE ROGUE'S GALLERY: Photos of places which refuse non-Japanese in Japan
It totally looks like there is blatant racism going on left and right in Japan. But wait a minute. A half of these "racist" places are these shady places, the bars where girls serve men, or some of them down right brothels. OK. You want the right to be treated equally at a brothel. Sure. Japan is a free country you may have the right even for that. But think about it. If a Japanese person immigrates to the US and goes to these shady businesses, and purposely gets discriminated, and with these "evidences" makes it look like it is a standard practice at normal bars and restaurants in the states, and does all this in Japanese, making Japanese people think the US is a racist country... will you think that really is the way to make the US a better country? Do you think he will get a lot of support from his fellow US citizens?
I don't think so.
Again, I want to stress that I am not against what he wants to do. And I feel sorry for him being frustrated. I just don't agree with how he's doing it. Of course he might have done some other things that I'm not aware of and I might agree with these, but that's a different discussion.