Opinion

Shame on you

By Scott T. Hards

In a Japan Times essay last year, Gregory Clark wrote, "Large areas of [Japan's] society are vulnerable [to] the cultural insensitivities foreigners can inflict so carelessly. The would-be do-gooders who encourage court cases against Japanese shopkeepers, bathhouse owners or club managers who have suffered bad foreigner behavior and want to restrict foreign customers as a result are part of this insensitivity problem."

I was shocked to read these words.

Clark, 68, is a linguist, former diplomat, writer and educator, who has served as the president of Tama University and as a frequent advisor to Japan's government. By any measure, he's a scholar. Hence my surprise: It's not often that you hear such a well-educated man condoning racism.

The bathhouse refers to the Otaru "Yunohana" case. Concerned that ill-behaved Russian sailors would cause Japanese customers to stay away, this onsen banned all foreigners from the time it opened in 1998. Refused entry because of their appearance, three men sued in 2001 and were awarded damages by a Japanese court. These men are Clark's "would-be do-gooders."

So in a superlative example of "blame the victim," Clark accuses these men of "insensitivity," while defending those who turned people away based on skin color.

Enlightened societies around the world realized decades ago that discrimination should never be tolerated. Discriminating against an entire group for the actions of a few individuals is a remarkable intellectual and moral lapse for anyone, but shocking coming from someone of Clark's stature. So it's not surprising that almost no one agrees with him: not the United Nations, not Japan's courts, and few, if any, of Japan's resident foreigners.

What's more, he's mistaken about the facts in the Otaru case. Russians never damaged Yunohana, as he claimed. The onsen had always banned foreigners. And his view that the lawsuit was "insensitive" lacks credibility when one considers that the plaintiffs tried friendly negotiations directly with the onsen and the city for over a year before suing.

Perhaps saddest of all, Clark dismisses it all as petty, writing, "... if that is discrimination then there are many much more serious discriminations in this world about which little is done ..." Perhaps true, but the presence of greater evils is not reason to ignore this one.

Clark has done laudable work in Japan for decades to improve its language education, immigration policies and more. But his lapse on this fundamental human rights issue stains his other work, and calls into question whether this is a man that Japan's government, or students, should be listening to at all.

Shukan ST: Feb. 25, 2005

(C) All rights reserved