Discrimination in Japan Concerning Children's Rights

There are no national laws against racial discrimination in Japan.  A local law was once passed, but that was repealed soon after it got national exposure.  To this day, Japan remains the only developed country without any form of a law, at any level, outlawing discrimination by race.

The Japanese Constitution does profess twice that there shall be no discrimination based on race, sex or family origin in Japan in family laws and social relations.

In Article 14: 

“All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin.”

In Article 24:

“With regard to choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family, laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.”

But this is not true in family law.  Children's and family rights related discrimination in Japan falls into three categories: racial discrimination, citizenship discrimination and gender discrimination.  Some of the discrimination is undeniable, we show, based on existing laws or statistical evidence.  But much is anecdotal and can be very hard to prove.  Although the Japanese court system reports statistics on gender in custodial decisions and government reports statistics on nationality in marriages and divorces, nationality in custodial decisions strangely eludes the statistical keeping process.

So in order to substantiate discrimination, we are trying to collect first hand evidence and will document it on this page.  For now, read about the personal stories of people who have experienced the Japanese Family Court and our Bullying and Racial Discrimination page.  In order to give you an idea of what to look for, here are some specific areas where discrimination may be occurring against non-Japanese parents or against one gender. 

If you have evidence that you can add to support any of these, please let us know.  We are happy to post evidence anonymously to protect the rights of the submitter in their life in Japan.

Gender Discrimination

Gender related discrimination occurs when a law favors either a father or a mother of a child, or when practices of the Family Court result in the  unjustified application of laws in favor of either fathers or mothers in a grossly unbalanced manner.

• Fathers of Children Born Out of Wedlock Have No Parental Rights
• Mothers granted child custody in 80% of court decisions
• The Law for Prevention of Child Abuse promotes parental alienation of and physical abuse of fathers.

Citizenship Discrimination

• The Nationality Law can cause children born overseas to lose Japanese citizenship
• The Nationality Law requires a dual citizen child to choose one nationality by age 22.

Racial Discrimination

Racial discrimination against non-Japanese parents in Japan can potentially happen in many ways, such as improper issuances of restraining orders, action by police.  (See the section on Being Careful for how to try to avoid these.)  There have also been accusations that certain lawyers will claim to be helping a foreign parent, but really have an agenda of encouraging you to accept loss of contact with your child in order that s/he can stay with the abducting Japanese parent.  But the most common complain is simply of racial discrimination in the Japanese Family Court system.  There is a widely held perception that the courts are strongly racially biased in favor of Japanese nationals, regardless of the inappropriateness for custody or danger to the child.

• Parental Kidnapping is not considered a crime in Japan, in particular when it is done by Japanese citizens
• Courts racially discriminate when awarding child custody in Japan.
• Japanese courts do not recognize foreign custody orders - since these are overwhelmingly by non-Japanese parents, this is also racial discrimination.
• Foreigners' constitutional right to trial is violated by visa denial or deportation
• Government officials refuse to help a parent find a child being hidden by the other parent
• Bad family law supports domestic violence by a Japanese spouse against a foreign spouse
• Out of wedlock birth requires before birth acknowledgement of paternity for citizenship
• The guarantee letter from a spouse required for a residency visa encourages domestic violence against children and foreign parents
• Courts racially discriminate when applying foreign laws in divorces, child visitation and child custody
• Restraining orders are more easily granted against foreign parents than Japanese parents
• Systematic foreign residency discrimination separates foreign parents from their children

Non-Family Law Related Racial Discrimination

Without laws to protect against discrimination in general, discrimination in Family Law cannot be effectively fought or prevented.  This section is just beginning, but we will try to document the many ways that discrimination is present in Japanese society today, even outside the family courts and laws.

"The Government of Japan (GOJ) signed The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1979, then the UN's International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 1995 (effected January 14, 1996). Under the CERD, Japan promised to take measures (including legislation) at all levels of government to eliminate racial discrimination 'without delay.'  Despite this, Japan to this day remains the only developed country without any form of a law at any level outlawing discrimination by race." For an excellent discussion (including the previous quoted summary) and an introduction to related current events, see www.debito.org (cached copy) web site, in particular here.  

Discrimination in rental of apartments and other property

Discrimination in denying entry to public establishments - Japanese only signs (Ana Bortz, Arudou Debito, bank loan discrimination case)

• Violate Article 14 of the Japanese Constitution.
• Violate the UN Convention on Racial Discrimination, which Japan enacted in 1996.
• More than ten years later, there is still no law against racial discrimination in Japan.  Thus, “Japanese Only” establishments are unconstitutional, yet not illegal.

Discrimination in participation in national sporting events (Kokutai case)

Police discrimination against foreigners (Cliff case)

Foreign Crime charges made it all sound plausible  (following info from debito slide)

• Regarding foreign crime: How the NPA cooks the statistics.
  
  Release six-month updates on foreign crime to great fanfare, but with no comparison to J crime rates.
  Focus on increases, never on decreases.
  Focus on percentages, not hard numbers.
  Include visa violations with harder crimes.
  Bias sample through racial profiling.
  No deflator to take into account rise in foreign population, static J population.

Media Articles

• Racism surfaces over bid by foreigner to buy land, settle; 06/29/2007; A local residents groups blocks a foreign man from buying real estate in the community. (cached copy)

• Groups try to level playing field by limiting foreign players; 06/29/2007; Athletic groups are banning foreign students from participating in athletic events.  (cached copy)

Essays

• Anti-Discrimination Laws in Japan (TBW)
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about discrimination in Japan. (Please send your questions to webmaster ( @ ]crnjapan.com)

Resource

• Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance : Mission To Japan (If this link gives you a "No Authorization" error, see our cached copy.); January 24, 2006, Doudou Diène.  Mr. Doudou Dienen (Senegal) was appointed by the Commission on Human Rights as Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance in 2002. He made two trips to Japan to investigate racism in 2005 and 2006.  You can find more information on Mr. Diene and his reports on racism in Japan on Arudou Debito's website. (His report on racism in Japan is available on the United Nations website.  Page down to "E/CN.4/2006/16/Add.2, Mission to Japan", and click on "Advance Edited Version E" - The E is a single letter and can be hard to see.)  (cached copy)

• Website of "The Community", which seeks to represent and organize the scattered and varied peoples who are concerned about the treatment of non-Japanese in Japan.

  • JAPAN'S DISINGENUOUSNESS : "We support human rights!"  Just don't scratch the surface.; website of Arudou Debito, well known Japanese human rights activist.  A more detailed examination of the lack of protections for human rights in Japan.

  • See www.debito.org for various other possible issues of racial discrimination in Japan. In particular see the page on the Otaru Onsen appeal, since the judge in the original case made some very questionable statements about how the UN treaty banning discrimination should and should not be applied in Japan.

  • JAPAN'S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD

  • Arudou Debito/Dave Aldwinckle's "ACTIVISTS' PAGE" for people concerned with social issues who want to help make life better for everyone in Japan.

• The Silver Web Journal

• The BENCI Project: Establishments which exclude non-Japanese - An Issho Kikaku project to protest racial discrimination in Japan. - This site seems to have been shut down by Tony Lazlo in December 2005.