
Yoroku: Debate on regulations against foreigners in Japan should be conducted rationally
This came in response to the surge in online searches following the United Kingdom's move to leave the European Union due to a backlash against an influx of immigrants. In the United States, then-President Barack Obama used the term to criticize presidential candidate at the time Donald Trump's immigration policies.
This was seen as a reaction against globalization, which had advanced after the Cold War's end and China's accession to the World Trade Organization. The trend continues, as evidenced by the anti-immigrant far-right's success in Germany's general election in February.
Japan appears to have been no exception. In the July 20 House of Councillors election, "regulations on foreigners" became a more contested issue than measures to combat high prices. An American newspaper described the election strategy of the right-wing populist party Sanseito, which significantly increased its seats by promoting "Japanese First" policies, as Trump-style.
Since the bubble economy era mainly in the late 1980s, Japan's society, once considered closed, has become more internationalized. The "alien" label disappeared from foreign entry counters at entry points to Japan in 1988. The following year saw the enactment of a revised immigration law, and in 1993, the Technical Intern Training Program for foreigners began. The rapid increase in foreign residents resulted from national policies addressing challenges like the declining birth rate and an aging population.
The term "post-truth," where emotions have more influence than facts, was also named "word of the year" nine years ago. The lingering closed nature toward refugees remains, and "preferential treatment for foreigners" is far from reality. Seeking to vent dissatisfaction with foreigners and falling into exclusionary attitudes will lead to a dead end. Given the major setback of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito in the upper house election, political instability is inevitable, but it is hoped that the debate on regulations on foreigners will be conducted in a rational manner.
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Japan Today
an hour ago
- Japan Today
In American life, a growing and forbidding visual rises: the law-enforcement officer in a mask
By DEEPTI HAJELA FILE - Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents escort a detained immigrant into an elevator after he exited an immigration courtroom, Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, file) In a matter of months, it has become a regular sight around the country — immigration enforcement agents detaining people and taking them into custody, often as public anger and outcry unfold around them. But in the process, something has disappeared: the agents' faces, covered by caps, sunglasses, pulled-up neck gaiters or balaclavas, effectively rendering them unidentifiable. With the year only half over, the covered face — as deployed by law enforcement in a wave of immigration crackdowns directed by President Donald Trump's White House — has become one of the most potent and contentious visuals of 2025. The increase in high-profile immigration enforcement was already contentious between those opposed to the actions of Trump's administration and those in support of them. The sight of masked agents carrying it out is creating a whole new level of conflict, in a way that has no real comparison in the U.S. history of policing. Trump administration officials have consistently defended the practice, saying that immigration agents have faced strident and increasing harassment in public and online as they have gone about their enforcement, and hiding their identities is for their and their families' safety to avoid things like death threats and doxxing, where someone's personal information is released without their permission on the internet. 'I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don't like what immigration enforcement is,' Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons said last month. Democrats and others, including the several state attorneys general, have pushed back, saying the use of face masks generates public fear and should be halted. In a letter to Lyons last week, a group of Democratic senators said the stepped-up immigration enforcement in workplaces, restaurants and other sites was already causing dismay and the increasingly common sight of masked agents 'represents a clear attempt to compound that fear and chaos – and to avoid accountability for agents' actions.' In American culture, covering one's face has often gone hand in hand with assumptions of negative behavior. Think bandits donning bandanas in cowboy movies, or robbers putting on ski masks before pulling a heist on a bank. Even comic-book superheroes who cover their faces have been swept up in storylines in recent years that derisively refer to them as 'masks' and say their decision to hide their identities while enforcing justice is transgressive. And the presence of masked police or paramilitary forces in other countries has been seen by Americans as antithetical to promised democracy and justice for all — and to the common-law principle of being able to face your accusers. Mask-wearing overall in American life took another hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Trump supporters scoffed at notions that protective masks would insulate people from the deadly virus and scorned people who wore them. More recently, Trump has come out against masks, at least when they're being worn by protestors. He posted on social media last month that demonstrators wearing masks should be arrested. Given all that cultural context, it's even more problematic that those enforcing laws be the ones with their faces covered, said Tobias Winright, professor of moral theology at St. Patrick's Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland. He has worked in law enforcement in the U.S. and writes frequently about policing ethics. If 'what you're doing is above board and right," he said, 'then why conceal your identity?' For those who question why it's different for law enforcement to wear masks if protestors and non-law enforcement personnel are doing it, it's because symbols have different meanings based on the power and position of the people using them, said Alison Kinney, author of 'Hood,' a book about that clothing item and the various ways people have used it. 'ICE agents are agents of the state. and they're invested with not only power but also with protections in carrying out their job,' she said. 'But that job is also supposed to be public service. It's also supposed to be accountable and responsible to the public." 'And so they have a greater responsibility for transparency and accountability and making themselves known so that we can hold them accountable for the justice or injustice of their actions,' she said. Concerns over how law enforcement is held accountable to the public have come up before. Advocates pushed for officers to wear body cameras and demanded that police officers have visible names and badge numbers. But there hasn't previously been much discussion around police masking because there isn't a history of it being done in any kind of official widespread way in the United States, outside of SWAT- or undercover-type operations, Winright said. The most high-profile example of mask-wearing in American history for the purpose of hiding identity is also its most negative one — racist attacks carried out by the members of the Ku Klux Klan. The masks served a purpose, of course, of keeping the wearers' identities secret, said Elaine Frantz, a history professor at Kent State University and author of 'Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan during Reconstruction.' But they also made it easier for those wearing them to commit violent acts against others, she said. 'One thing about a mask is it kind of works like being behind a riot shield,' Frantz said. 'When you have more of separation from the person you're attacking, it's easier to dehumanize that person.' Winright said he hoped law enforcement mask-wearing wouldn't be normalized. There has been at least one expansion into local policing. In Nassau County, on Long Island just outside New York City, County Executive Bruce Blakeman last week signed an executive order allowing police officers to wear masks during certain types of work, including working with immigration agents. Winright is concerned, though, that the move could strain police-community relations even more, thus putting officers at even more risk. 'Wearing a mask seems to increase fear and decrease trust, and policing from federal to local in America needs trust and transparency and community relations that are positive,' he said. He added: 'The harms, the risks, are greater by wearing masks, not only to the individual officers, but to the profession itself, as well as to the United States society. It's just going to further exacerbate the us-versus-them polarization, the lack of trust, and that's the probably the last thing we need right now.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Nikkei Asia
2 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Philippine President Marcos to meet Trump, seeking trade deal
WASHINGTON/MANILA (Reuters) -- Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will meet U.S. President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila's status as a key Asian ally will secure a more favorable trade deal before an Aug. 1 deadline. Marcos will be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila's regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China. "I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also on trade," Marcos said in a speech before leaving Manila. "We will see how much progress we can make when it comes to the negotiations with the United States concerning the changes that we would like to institute to alleviate the effects of a very severe tariff schedule on the Philippines." The United States had a deficit of nearly $5 billion with the Philippines last year on bilateral goods trade of $23.5 billion. Trump this month raised the threatened "reciprocal" tariffs on imports from the Philippines to 20% from the 17% threatened in April. Although U.S. allies in Asia such as Japan and South Korea have yet to strike trade deals with Trump, Gregory Poling, a Southeast Asia expert at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Marcos might be able to do better than Vietnam, with its agreement of a 20% baseline tariff on its goods, and Indonesia at 19%. "I wouldn't be surprised to see an announcement of a deal with the Philippines at a lower rate than those two," Poling said. Marcos, who arrived in Washington on Sunday, went to the Pentagon on Monday morning for talks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and will see Secretary of State Marco Rubio later in the day, before meeting Trump at the White House on Tuesday. He will also meet U.S. business leaders investing in the Philippines. Philippine officials say Marcos' focus will be on economic cooperation and Manila's concerns about the tariffs. They say he will stress that Manila must become economically stronger if it is to serve as a truly robust U.S. partner in the Indo-Pacific. Philippine Assistant Foreign Secretary Raquel Solano said last week trade officials have been working with U.S. counterparts seeking to seal a "mutually acceptable and mutually beneficial" deal for both countries. Trump and Marcos will also discuss defense and security, and Solano said the Philippine president would be looking to further strengthen the longstanding defense alliance. Philippine media quoted Manila's ambassador to Washington, Jose Manuel Romualdez, as saying on Sunday that the visit would see a reaffirmation of the seven-decade-old mutual defense treaty and "discussions on how we can continue to cooperate with the United States, our major ally." With the Philippines facing intense pressure from China in the contested South China Sea, Marcos has pivoted closer to the U.S., expanding access to Philippine military bases amid China's threats toward Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by Beijing. The United States and the Philippines hold dozens of annual exercises, which have included training with the U.S. Typhon missile system, and more recently with the NMESIS anti-ship missile system, angering China. Manila and the U.S. have closely aligned their views on China, Poling said, and it was notable that Rubio and Hegseth made sure their Philippine counterparts were the first Southeast Asian officials they met. Poling said Trump also seemed to have a certain warmth toward Marcos, based on their phone call after Trump's reelection.

Nikkei Asia
5 hours ago
- Nikkei Asia
Nvidia CEO Huang replaces Elon Musk as China's bridge to Trump
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers remarks as U.S. President Donald Trump watches at an "Investing in America" event in Washington on April 30. © Reuters KEN MORIYASU and YIFAN YU WASHINGTON/PALO ALTO, California -- In the summer of 2018, two red Teslas drove into Beijng's Zhongnanhai, the walled-off compound that houses the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council. The Teslas parked in front of the Zi Guang Ge, or Hall of Purple Light, and CEO Elon Musk walked into the two-story pavilion to meet the powerful vice president, Wang Qishan, a close ally to President Xi Jinping.