Foreign-born Japan residents allege racial profiling
Three foreign-born residents of Japan filed a lawsuit on Monday (January 29) against the national and local governments over alleged illegal questioning by police based on racial profiling. - REUTERS
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Three foreign-born residents of Japan filed a lawsuit on Monday against the national and
00:05 local governments over alleged illegal questioning by police based on racial profiling.
00:11 It is the first such lawsuit in Japan, according to the plaintiffs' lawyers.
00:15 It comes amid a sharp rise in the number of foreign workers coming to the country to help
00:20 stem labour shortages as its population ages and declines.
00:25 It also comes amid a renewed debate over what it means to be and look Japanese, after a
00:30 Ukrainian-born naturalised Japanese citizen was crowned Miss Japan last week.
00:36 Syed Zeng took Japanese citizenship after migrating from Pakistan as a child.
00:41 In four years, I was stopped by the police more than ten times.
00:47 So when things happen that much, you start to realise, am I wrong?
00:53 Am I doing something wrong?
00:55 That's why they're stopping me.
00:56 He and two other men filed the lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, demanding governments
01:02 recognise that it is illegal for police officers to stop and question people solely on the
01:07 basis of their race, nationality or ethnicity.
01:12 The plaintiffs say they have suffered distress from repeated police questioning based on
01:16 their appearance and ethnicity, which they say is a violation of the constitution.
01:22 Maurice has lived in Japan for ten years and has a permanent residency visa.
01:26 A lot of apathy here has allowed people like me to be abused and mistreated.
01:32 So even if we lose, which I highly doubt, I think that if we can shine a light on some
01:40 of the things that most people just, they say, oh, it's a foreigner thing or it's just
01:44 people that are just being troublemakers, they're just making noise.
01:48 I want them to understand that this is an everyday occurrence, it's an everyday thing
01:52 and that we have to do something to prevent that for the future generations.
01:58 The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Aichi Prefectural Government and National Police Agency all
02:03 declined to comment, while representatives of the Ministry of Justice could not be reached.
02:09 The lawsuit also seeks 3 million yen, or just over $20,000 in damages for each plaintiff.