このページはフレーム対応ブラウザ用に作成されています。下のリンクは非フレーム使用ページですのでそちらをご覧ください。
この記事をプリントする
犬お断り、外国人お断り
あからさまな人種差別は昔のものだと言いたいが
日本では今も、差別がまかり通っている
人種差別撤廃条約もうまく機能しているとは言えない
それならばもっと地域社会で差別反対を表明し、
具体的な行動を起こしていくべきではないか
No Dogs, No Foreigners
By TONY LASZLO
In one key scene of "La Vita e Bella" (Life is
Beautiful), the Academy Award-winning tragi-comedy set
in Italy before and during World War II, a Jewish
bookstore owner attempts to explain the growing racial
discrimination against the Jews to his inquisitive
son. As they pass a sign which reads "no dogs and Jews
in this shop," the boy asks, "And do we let anyone and
everyone in our own shop?"
the boy from the painful truth, the father quips:
"Look, for some it's dogs and Jews. Other shops don't
allow horses and ... uh ... Spaniards to enter. What
about us? You don't like spiders, right? Why don't we
make it `no spiders and no ... Visigoths"'
With this segment, the film subtly reminds the
viewer that such shops did and do exist in the world.
It also points out how difficult it would be to answer
the questions of an innocent child who was
experiencing firsthand the pointy end of racial
discrimination for the first time.
For most developed societies, this sort of socially
condoned, blatant discrimination is something of the
past — a sad part of history that one reflects upon but
doesn't experience directly. Unfortunately, this is not
quite the case in Japan.
Even setting aside the real estate sector, where
"No Foreigners/ Japanese Only" business practices run
rampant and largely unchecked, there is a small but
significant minority of establishments that
discriminate against foreign nationals — and Japanese
whose appearance differs from the "norm" — on an
everyday basis. Sadly, such restaurants, department
stores, bookshops, pubs, pools, hotels and convenience
stores can be found among ordinary establishments in
communities across Japan, from Okinawa to Hokkaido.
Though Japan ratified the International Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
unlike the other signatories, it has done very little
to enable the police and other authorities to penalize
the management of establishments that discriminate. In
the hopes that Japan will revise its laws and live up
to its obligation to "eliminate discrimination,"
ISSHO Kikaku (a non-profit organization that I direct)
recently sent a report containing 23 cases of the more
outstanding of these violations to both the Ministry
of Justice and to the U.N. committee that oversees
the above-mentioned treaty.
In it, the organization cites a case in Monbetsu
(Hokkaido) in which about half of the 200 restaurants and
pubs in the center of town posted identical "Japanese
Only" signs on their doors. Also included in the report:
a sign visible from the entrance of the Shinjuku Ward
office (Tokyo), which reads "No Chinese" and a futon
shop in Hamamatsu (Shizuoka) whose employees turn their
backs on anyone who looks foreign. The report also
points out that, even in cases in which the Japanese
authorities wish to act against the violations, they are
unable to do more than issue a warning.
Of course, while not a replacement for legal
remedies, community-based measures are also needed. I
think that more people must come to vocally condemn
such discrimination and offer advice to the private
sector on how they may establish practices that do not
exclude people because of ethnic difference.
In one key scene of "La Vita e Bella" (Life is
Beautiful), the Academy Award-winning tragi-comedy set
in Italy before and during World War II, a Jewish
bookstore owner attempts to explain the growing racial
discrimination against the Jews to his inquisitive
son. As they pass a sign which reads "no dogs and Jews
in this shop," the boy asks, "And do we let anyone and
everyone in our own shop?"
Quick on his feet, and determined to shield
the boy from the painful truth, the father quips:
"Look, for some it's dogs and Jews. Other shops don't
allow horses and ... uh ... Spaniards to enter. What
about us? You don't like spiders, right? Why don't we
make it `no spiders and no ... Visigoths"'
With this segment, the film subtly reminds the
viewer that such shops did and do exist in the world.
It also points out how difficult it would be to answer
the questions of an innocent child who was
experiencing firsthand the pointy end of racial
discrimination for the first time.
For most developed societies, this sort of socially
condoned, blatant discrimination is something of the
past — a sad part of history that one reflects upon but
doesn't experience directly. Unfortunately, this is not
quite the case in Japan.
Even setting aside the real estate sector, where
"No Foreigners/ Japanese Only" business practices run
rampant and largely unchecked, there is a small but
significant minority of establishments that
discriminate against foreign nationals — and Japanese
whose appearance differs from the "norm" — on an
everyday basis. Sadly, such restaurants, department
stores, bookshops, pubs, pools, hotels and convenience
stores can be found among ordinary establishments in
communities across Japan, from Okinawa to Hokkaido.
Though Japan ratified the International Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
unlike the other signatories, it has done very little
to enable the police and other authorities to penalize
the management of establishments that discriminate. In
the hopes that Japan will revise its laws and live up
to its obligation to "eliminate discrimination,"
ISSHO Kikaku (a non-profit organization that I direct)
recently sent a report containing 23 cases of the more
outstanding of these violations to both the Ministry
of Justice and to the U.N. committee that oversees
the above-mentioned treaty.
In it, the organization cites a case in Monbetsu
(Hokkaido) in which about half of the 200 restaurants and
pubs in the center of town posted identical "Japanese
Only" signs on their doors. Also included in the report:
a sign visible from the entrance of the Shinjuku Ward
office (Tokyo), which reads "No Chinese" and a futon
shop in Hamamatsu (Shizuoka) whose employees turn their
backs on anyone who looks foreign. The report also
points out that, even in cases in which the Japanese
authorities wish to act against the violations, they are
unable to do more than issue a warning.
Of course, while not a replacement for legal
remedies, community-based measures are also needed. I
think that more people must come to vocally condemn
such discrimination and offer advice to the private
sector on how they may establish practices that do not
exclude people because of ethnic difference.
Shukan ST: Feb. 23, 2001
(C) All rights reserved
chu.htm
- "La Vita e Bella"
- ロベルト・ベニーニ監督・主演のイタリア映画『ライフ・イズ・ビューティフル』。(98年アカデミー外国語映画賞、主演男優賞獲得)
- tragi-comdedy
- 悲喜劇
- racial discrimination
- 人種差別
- Jews
- ユダヤ人
- inquisitive
- 好奇心の強い
- pass a sign
- 標識の前を通り過ぎる
- Quick on his feet
- 即座に
- determined to shield 〜 from 〜
- 〜 を 〜 から守ろうと決意して
- quips
- 当意即妙に答える
- Spaniards
- スペイン人
- Visigoths
- 西ゴート族(ゲルマン族の西方の分派で、418年ごろに王国を築き、南仏で507年、スペインで711年ごろまでその王国を維持した)
- segment
- 部分
- subtly reminds 〜 that 〜
- 巧みに 〜 ということを 〜 に気付かせる
- innocent
- 無邪気な
- was experiencing firsthand 〜
- 直接 〜 を体験した
- pointy end of 〜
- 〜 の先端
- socially condoned
- 社会で大目に見られていた
- blatant
- 露骨な
- reflects upon
- 思い起こす
- setting aside 〜
- 〜 を除いても
- real estate sector
- 不動産分野
- business practices
- ビジネス習慣
- run rampant
- はびこっている
- significant minority
- 重大な意味のある少数派
- establishments
- 施設
- foreign nationals
- 外国人
- "norm"
- 標準
- ordinary
- 普通の
- ratified
- 批准した
- International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
- 人種差別撤廃条約(国連が1969年に発効、日本については1996年に発効し、日本は146番目の当事国となった)
- signatories
- 条約国
- enable 〜 to 〜
- 〜 に 〜 する権限を与える
- authorities
- 権威者
- penalize
- 罰する
- management
- 経営者
- revise
- 改訂する
- live up to 〜
- 〜 に従って行動する
- obligation
- 義務
- non-profit organization
- 非営利団体
- more outstanding of 〜
- 〜 のうち顕著なもの
- violations
- 違反
- Ministry of Justice
- 法務省
- U.N. committee
- 国連の委員会
- oversees
- 監督する
- above-mentioned treaty
- 前述の条約
- cites
- 例証する
- identical
- 同一の
- turn their backs on 〜
- 〜 を無視する
- points out
- 指摘する
- issue a warning
- 警告を発する
- while not a replacement for legal remedies
- 法的な救済方法の代わりにはならないが
- measures
- 処置
- vocally condemn
- はっきりと非難する
- private
- 民間の
- exclude
- 排除する
- ethnic
- 人種の