Osaquoi ?

Merci http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/01/15/national/osaka-set-pass-japans-first-ordinance-hate-speech-will-name-shame-offenders/#.VpuILU8RqAh

E. Johnston, The Japan Times 15 janvier 2016

OSAKA – The city of Osaka passed the nation’s first ordinance by a major city against hate speech late Friday.

The text is a watered-down version of a proposal that the assembly made last year and will serve merely to name and shame perpetrators.

It does not provide city funds to victims of hate speech for use in fighting the perpetrators in court. Nor does it fine those who make racial slurs and threats of violence.

Instead, the ordinance creates a committee that investigates allegations of hate speech filed by Osaka residents.

The committee is expected to consist of five academic and legal experts whose appointments must be approved by the assembly. If the committee judges that a particular group is engaged in hate speech, its name will be posted on the city’s website.

Last year’s version of the ordinance failed to win the assembly’s approval because of disagreement over a provision that would have given the city the authority to loan money to victims who secure recognition by the committee and who want to take their case to court.

Although the ordinance was supported by then-Mayor Toru Hashimoto and his Osaka Ishin no kai (One Osaka) local party, the measure was opposed by the LDP and Komeito.

Earlier in the session of the the municipal assembly deliberating the ordinance, a man in the gallery threw two colored balls filled with orange paint onto the floor, bringing the discussions to a standstill.

When the man was subdued by guards, he resisted by shouting, “Protect the self-esteem of Japanese people,” Kyodo News reported.

After the disruption, the session resumed late Friday night.

Osaka became the international focus of hate speech in 2013, following an incident that February in which the anti-Korean group Zaitokukai held a rally in the city’s Tsuruhashi district, home to many ethnic Koreans.

In a video that was translated into numerous languages and placed on YouTube, a 14-year-old was shown screaming insults, death threats and racial slurs about Koreans as Zaitokukai members applauded.

That led to calls by Hashimoto for crackdowns on hate speech, which intensified after the mayor squared off in a heated debate with the head of Zaitokukai in October 2014.

Korean activists in Osaka welcomed Friday’s decision by the city assembly, saying it was an important step forward but that more needed to be done.

“It’s a shame that there are no penalties imposed on those who engaged in hate speech. But we welcome it as the first ordinance of its kind in Japan,” said Kwak Jin Woong, head of the Osaka-based Korea NGO Center.

How effective the new ordinance will be in stopping hate speech is difficult to determine. But city assembly members said last year that even without an ordinance, local bureaucrats could already use existing rules and regulations about public welfare to refuse permission for certain groups to use public buildings and spaces for such gatherings.

This is basically the policy that Kadoma, a city in Osaka Prefecture, has been pursuing since 2014, when it said it would not approve applications for use of public facilities by those who habitually engage in violent and discriminatory behavior. The city also said it may revoke permission for rallies if applicants are likely to engage in such behavior.

Il est vraiment dommage que les Japonais ne respectent pas plus leur patrimoine architectural et urbain.

Merci http://ajw.asahi.com/article/business/AJ201512310034

82-year-old Osaka landmark awaits wrecking ball

December 31, 2015

OSAKA--Despite an uproar over its impending demolition, the historic main building of the Daimaru Shinsaibashi department store, an art deco masterpiece, closed its doors for the last time here on Dec. 30 to end its 82-year history.

Representing the style of bold modernization that blossomed during the Taisho Era (1912-1926), the gothic-style building will be torn down to make way for an earthquake-resistant structure.

The eight-story building was designed by renowned U.S. architect William Merrell Vories (1880-1964), and has served as a major branch for the popular department store chain in the city’s busy Shinsaibashi district since 1933.

Although some parts of the structure were destroyed in an air raid during World War II, it was rebuilt based on the original design.

In July, Daimaru operator J. Front Retailing Co. decided to tear down the building to construct one that can withstand a major earthquake. The company will spend 38 billion yen ($316 million) to erect a new 11-story building with three basement levels. The new structure will be about 60 meters tall, 20 meters taller than the current building.

J. Front Retailing said it will try to preserve much of the original building’s interiors, including the ceilings, which are noted for their geometric patterns, and stained glass panes.

Daimaru will stay in business by moving its popular clothing brands and other operations from the main building to the north and south buildings of the branch while the new building is going up. It is set to open in autumn 2019.

“Our floor space will be condensed (until the new building opens),” a Daimaru official said. “But we hope to keep our loss of sales low by having an exclusive selection of goods.”

The Daimaru Shinsaibashi department store's main building in Osaka features ceilings with geometric patterns and stained glass panes. The building was designed by U.S. architect William Merrell Vories. (Kenta Sujino)

The art deco-style main building of the Daimaru Shinsaibashi department store in Osaka represents the style of modernization that flourished in the Taisho Era (1912-1926). (Kenta Sujino)

Merci http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201505010073

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN; 01/05/2015

OSAKA--A museum famed for its many exhibits showing Japanese aggression during World War II has removed them, bowing to pressure from conservative politicians.

“We had no choice but to remove the exhibition on the aggression to ensure the survival of the museum,” a source close to the museum explained.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto had threatened to close down the Osaka International Peace Center museum when he was governor of the prefecture.

Hashimoto's successor as Osaka governor and a close ally, Ichiro Matsui, praised the facelift when he toured the museum in the city’s Chuo Ward on April 30, the day the facility reopened after renovations.

“This looks better now,” Matsui told reporters. “I believe exhibits should not represent the view of one side when there are diverse perceptions (on the war).”

The Osaka International Peace Center is operated by an entity funded by the Osaka prefectural government and Osaka municipal government.

Among the dozens of exhibits removed were panels on Japan’s invasion of the continent, the colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, suffering in Southeast Asian countries due to Japanese aggression, text describing the 1937 Nanjing Massacre and abuse of prisoners of war, and photos showing piles of dead bodies and civilians being buried alive.

Instead, the museum now houses an expanded section on U.S. air raids in Osaka Prefecture between December 1944 and August 1945 and shows a 14-minute war-related video in which Japan is not labeled an aggressor.

The Osaka International Peace Center was established in 1991 and was known for being a rare public facility in Japan shedding an equal amount of light on the nation’s role before and during World War II as well as the sufferings of the Japanese during that period.

Masaaki Arimoto, who led the secretariat of the museum for three years from 1992, said the facility opened at a time when there was growing awareness of the importance of learning about Japan’s militaristic past.

“There were advances in the research on Japan’s aggression, and many of those who fought in the war were alive,” said Arimoto, 78. “People in Osaka shared a notion that they would never be able to fully understand the backdrop behind the air raids without knowledge of Japan’s acts in other parts of Asia.”

Although the museum attracted about 70,000 to 80,000 visitors annually, it has long been condemned by conservative politicians and organizations.

In some cases, the museum was forced to withdraw or revise exhibits following protests.

Yoshinori Kobayashi, a renowned manga artist, denounced the museum by calling it a “system to brainwash viewers in the name of a peace museum” in his 1998 manga “Sensoron,” which defended Japan's actions during World War II.

The critical turning point came in 2011, when the Hashimoto-led Osaka Ishin no Kai became the dominant political party in both the prefectural and municipal assemblies.

The museum was already planning a renovation when Osaka Ishin no Kai party members at the prefectural assembly in the autumn of that year lambasted it, with one saying it had “too many unbalanced exhibits.”

In response, Hashimoto, who was the governor at the time and pushing through a review of public affiliated entities, pledged to “consider the possible closure of the museum if the exhibits are determined to be inappropriate.”

As a result of the criticism, the Osaka International Peace Center proposed in 2013 to scale back the display on the aggression and widen the exhibits on the air raids.

What was installed as a direct replacement for the items on the aggression was 14 minutes of footage portraying the period leading up to Japan’s defeat in World War II starting with the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 and including the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5.

The section has an overall title of “When the world was embroiled in war.”

The narration of the footage does not use the term aggression regarding Japan’s wartime behavior.

On the Nanjing Massacre and Bombing of Chongqing, it simply states a large number of residents were killed.

The exhibits removed from the museum were thrown away late last year.

“Our storage room is small and very old,” explained Shigenobu Okada, the head of the museum.

Kazuya Sakamoto, a professor of international politics at Osaka University, defended the removal of the exhibits.

“It runs a risk of instilling an erroneous idea in the public that air raids (on Osaka Prefecture) were only expected since Japan did terrible things abroad,’” he said. “There is a need to fully convey the suffering of local residents first. After this, officials can get the public to ponder the development leading up to the aerial bombings, as well as Japan’s aggression.”

But Keiichi Harada, professor of modern Japanese history at Bukkyo University in Kyoto, said the display depicting Japan's wartime acts was vital in offering a bigger picture of the war.

“If the tendency to scale back exhibits of the aggression continues, war could be glorified and prevent the masses from grasping the reality of war,” he said. “That would make it easier for the nation to go back to war. We need to show both sides of war in peace education.”

Merci http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201502130078

By AKIRA NAKANO/ Staff Writer

OSAKA--Korean poet Kim Shi-jong, who has lived in Japan for more than 60 years, said while Japan can serve as a common base for the two Koreas, he is saddened over the “genetic" tendency of Japanese to discriminate against ethnic Koreans.

Kim, 86, who has written poems on how ethnic Koreans live in Japan, has given lectures in Osaka for more than 18 years.

He will look back on his checkered life during a lecture scheduled for Feb. 21, which will be his last due to his advanced age. His new book about his life, which encompasses the Korean Peninsula and Japan, will be published on Feb. 20.

During a recent interview, Kim said people from the divided peninsula can join hands in Japan.

“Being a Korean resident in Japan is like leading a life comprising many white hair roots planted in bedrock,” said Kim. “Each hair is too weak, so they live their lives by wrapping it around Japan, their common base. They spend time together at ceremonial events even if they have opposing views.

“If we do all we can do along with other members of the same ethnic group, it virtually represents the unification (of North and South Korea).”

Kim spent his early life on the Korean Peninsula when it was a colony of the Japanese Empire. At school on Jeju Island, he said he was taught to work hard to “be a fine Japanese and a child of the emperor.”

Consequently, Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II had a strong effect on him.

“I felt a sense of disappointment--it was as if my feet had been sinking into the ground on which I stood,” Kim said, recalling Aug. 15, 1945, the day the emperor announced the surrender of Japan.

After the peninsula was liberated from Japanese colonial rule, Kim studied the Korean language and history to reconnect with his ethnic identity.

Around the same time, the country was tragically divided by the United States and the Soviet Union into north and south.

Many residents on Jeju Island, opposed to the partitioning, rose up in protest in 1948, which led to clashes with authorities and the eventual slaughter of many by police and military forces.

Kim, who worked as a liaison for the opposition camp, escaped the bloodshed after his father arranged for him to leave the island. Kim was smuggled to Japan aboard a boat in 1949.

“We drifted and made it to (Japan),” Kim said. "It was like a miracle.”

Kim started a new life in the Ikaino district of Osaka's Ikuno Ward, which now makes up one of the nation’s largest Korean communities.

Kim, who now lives in Ikoma, Nara Prefecture, calls the district as “the starting point of ethnic Koreans in Japan.”

While working at a candle manufacturing plant in the district, Kim devoted himself to the opposition movement against the Korean War.

Even after leaving Ikaino, Kim continued to compose poetry themed on the lives of Korean residents in Japan.

Although he said the difficulties his homeland faced sometimes caused Koreans living in Japan to quarrel with their family members, Kim believes “ethnic Korean residents are a living group that has great potential.”

And it is because of that dual Korean-Japanese identity that growing discrimination against Korean residents in Japan is so disappointing.

“I was told (by a Japanese teacher once) that the Japanese kimono was the most beautiful garment in the world,” he said, recalling an incident from his childhood. “But (the teacher) said your clothing is far from being civilized.”

“The Japanese people’s disdain for Koreans has been growing since the Meiji Restoration (in the 1860s),” said Kim. “They have since unconsciously been underestimating Koreans, and the tendency continues to be passed on like a gene.”

Kim's new book, titled “Chosen to Nihon ni Ikiru: Saishuto kara Ikaino e” (Living in Korea and Japan: From Jeju Island to Ikaino), comprises 40 serial articles published in the magazine Tosho (Books), as well as passages he wrote exclusively for the publication.

By AKIRA NAKANO/ Staff Writer