Japan’s Crackdown on Anti-Racist Activists: A Return to Its Fascist Past?
Credit: (Vice News/Google Images)
Written by: Kota Kimura
The dramatic escape of Carlos Ghosn, former CEO of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance from Japan, has attracted constant media attention. Ghosn publicly criticized the Japanese justice system for punitive detention practices he experienced such as harsh interrogation, being denied access to his family, and the country's rules that allow suspects to be detained for up to 23 days without criminal charges being filed.
Another foreign national, Scott McIntyre from Australia, recently launched a campaign against the Japanese custody law that prohibits joint custody of children of divorced parents, in which McIntyre argues this would lead to parental child “abduction.” McIntyre was arrested for trespassing his ex-wife's residence and detained for a month and a half before the case went to trial.
While both of these cases are criminal and civil in nature, there is another case of potential human rights violation that has received far less attention and is politically motivated.
Media reacts to parking offense
On Jan. 9, Japanese police arrested a man for an infraction of the proof-of-parking rule which requires drivers to register a garage where they park their car. What would normally be considered as an arrest over a minor offence has been criticized for its heavy handedness and as an attempt to crack down on anti-racist activists who are opposing the far-right hate speech.
At least three major news networks in Japan reported that a member of Counter-Racist Action Committee (CRAC) was arrested for shakotobashi or “garage skipping,” (a colloquial term for the violation of the parking rule), allegedly driving and parking a van registered in Sendai (a city in Miyagi Prefecture where his family lives) in Tokyo. The coverage identified the man by his real name and with a head shot, a common practice for the Japanese media when reporting on a serious crime. However, this arrest and the media coverage did not sit well with local activists and not least the man himself.
Who is CRAC?
CRAC, formerly known as Reishisuto o Shibakitai (Squad to Punish the Racists) or Shibakitai for short, is a network of anti-racist activists who monitor far-right organizations that target immigrant and resident Korean communities such as Japan First Party and Zaitokukai (Citizens’ Association to Oppose Special Rights for Resident Koreans). They hold counter-demonstrations when their opponents hold public demonstrations to broadcast their xenophobic and racist views, similar to the antifa movement in Europe and North America. They have also used “doxxing,” the internet-based tactic of obtaining and publicly circulating private information about known far-right figures such as the whereabouts of their residence and workplace.
According to Litera, a progressive Japanese news site which conducted an exclusive interview with the man (the writer uses a pseudonym “M” to respect his privacy), M is personally acquainted with Yasumichi Noma, a well known activist and co-founder of CRAC. However, M has only attended public events advertised on social media and did not directly participate in the group’s activities as a member. He has assisted other anti-fascist and social justice groups in the past, and provided logistical support for anti-government demonstrations by offering to drive and transfer sound equipment. However, he never considered himself as being part of CRAC.
Visitors at dawn
He was certainly not expecting a group of 10 police officers who showed up at his door at 7am. He recounts: “I heard the knock and thought to myself: ‘What is this? It’s so early.’ I opened the door half asleep and there were men in black suits and work clothes standing outside. I recognized some of them from the counter-rallies and realized they were cops.”
According to M’s account, the police identified themselves as from Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Public Security Bureau. The bureau is in charge of the internal security affairs such as counter-terrorism, and equivalent of the FBI in the U.S. and the RCMP in Canada.
M says they “flashed” the warrant at him, saying it was “in regards to your vehicle,” and they were going to investigate him for “garage skipping.” M was immediately suspicious and asked: “But isn’t that the jurisdiction of the MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism)? Are you guys in charge of traffic offense too?” They responded that they have grounds to believe M’s parking registration form is forged and forgery of a public document is under the bureau’s jurisdiction, but gave him no further information or chance to respond.
The cops then came in to his apartment and confiscated everything from his current and old smartphones, laptop, keys, health card, driver’s license, debit and credit cards, and a bundle of business cards he collected for work. They also demanded him to hand over his bankbook. “They made it seem obvious that I have no choice but to obey. I got the impression that they really want to know my personal connections and record of financial transactions.”
When police become political
After the search, he was handcuffed and taken to the local police division where he was strip searched and interrogated for nearly 4 hours. Some of the questions included: “Is CRAC an organization?”, “How many members does it have?”, “Does it have an office?”, “Who are the leaders?”, “Are they affiliated with any political parties?”
This is when M was convinced that what the police are really interested in is not his car or a possibility that it is used for criminal purposes, but his political affiliation and details about CRAC’s activities, and that his arrest is a case of illegal policing tactic called bekken taiho (arrest for another matter).
After the interrogation, the cops told him that he will be transferred to the central office. When they put him in a car and turned on the engine, a cop next to him said “the media is here.” Then he realized there was a crowd of journalists outside taking flash photography, which led him to believe that the police notified the media, and as he learns later, allowed major news outlets to cover this as a spectacular “Arrest of CRAC Ring Leader.”
Despite the police’s request to extend his detention, the judge turned down the request and dropped the charge citing lack of evidence. M was released thereafter.
A watchful eye
While the arrest understandably caught M off guard, he recounts in the interview that he understands now why his van was targeted. As previously mentioned, he has volunteered for various mobilizations in the past including a protest against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2018, and his contribution has been to drive his van.
In fact, he was scheduled to do the same for a large demonstration on January 12 against Japan’s participation in the U.S.-led war against Iran in which over 3000 people participated. To obtain permission to drive his van for the rally, he submitted a request form to the City of Tokyo’s Public Safety Committee on Jan 6. However, it is common for the Japanese police to monitor demonstrations where they photograph and video record their participants for intelligence gathering.
M believes that, considering his arrest was three days prior to the rally, the arrest was intended as a harassment against the rally organizers. “The city hall may have Information like types of cars and number plates recorded, but the only people who would know which car was used at protests are the cops. It would be difficult for them to find out what ideology demonstrators have in their minds, but material things like cars are easier to follow. I think that’s how they marked me first and used my car to suppressed us.”
Skipping justice
M’s lawyer Hajime Kambara says the very fact that the police publicized that they arrested a “core CRAC member” should be considered as a violation of the right to privacy. “Just like religion, organizational affiliation is information that pertains to one’s personal beliefs. The constitution prohibits the divulgence of such information. It was revealed in 2010 that the Public Security Bureau was compiling a list of Muslim residents in Japan as part of its anti-terrorism investigation, which was then leaked on the internet, insinuating that people in this list are terrorists with no evidence whatsoever. They’ve been doing whatever they please with innocent people’s personal information, and this will surely be scrutinized in this case as well.”
Kambara adds that the bureau has used “garage skipping” in the past as a pretext to arrest members of Chongryon (The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan) and people affiliated with Korean Schools loyal to North Korea, and routinely arrest foreign nationals for minor offenses such as trespassing and not carrying their passports. “These instances show the authorities’ tendency toward an expanded interpretation and arbitrariness. It is fair to conclude that they are using these minor offenses for the purpose of repression, and presume that they arrested M to obstruct the demonstration on January 12.”
The ghost of fascism
In 1925, then Empire of Japan enacted the Public Security Preservation Law. The law stipulated that anyone who forms or joins organizations with the intent of tampering with kokukai (national body) and private property will be imprisoned for up to 10 years. It led to the creation of “Thought Police” known as Tokkō within the Home Ministry to monitor socialists and communists.
According to Japan Times, a mass arrest of communists in 1928 resulted in 1,652 arrests, some of whom died in police custody including a novelist Takiji Kobayashi. From its enactment to its abolition in 1945 at the end of WWII, the police used this law to arrest more than 70,000 people.
While Japan is considered as a “democratic” nation today, the adaptation of new conspiracy law in 2017 and Shinzo Abe’s incessant push for constitutional reform suggests a less rosy picture.
With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics six months away, the language of “total unity” is revived to marginalize its critics and cover up massive social costs and environmental risks involved in hosting it such as the eviction of homeless camps, the exploitation of migrant labour, and the climate change-induced scorching summer heat. Japan Today reported that there is also a reported surge in “stop-and-question” police stops (similar to carding or street checks in Canada), and members of maintenance trade has been particularly singled out.
Karl Marx famously said in the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte that history repeats itself, “first as tragedy, then as farce.” Japan may no longer be a fascist country, but these developments certainly cast doubts on such assurance.
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