Yesterday, I reported on the resolution of the RIGO “no foreigners” issue:
In this message, I’d like to try to describe the historical relationship of this forum to such issues. First and foremost, I’d like readers to know that this forum (Facebook page and mailing list) is a byproduct of the “Coalition Against Discrimination by the Prefectural University of Kumamoto.” The image I’ve attached to this Facebook post was taken from the web site of the organization:
http://www2.kumagaku.ac.jp/teacher/~masden/mamorukai/english/index.html
One good source on the web about the background of the issue is Cynthia Worthington’s article on the Japan Policy Research Institute’s website:
http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp58.html JPRI Working Paper No. 58: June 1999 “Combating Discrimination at a Japanese University”
I started the Kumamoto-i mailing list (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/info) to provide the Coalition with a way of communicating with interested persons in the Kumamoto area about this and other local issues. As readers of the mailing list and this Facebook page can attest, since it’s establishment in 1999, the bulk of the content shared here has been non-political (local news, events, opportunities, buy and sell, etc.). Nonetheless, I believe that networks such as this one can be indispensable if and when the need for social activism arises.
The Prefectural University of Kumamoto case was successful by some measures and unsuccessful by others. It was successful in that a good deal of international attention was placed on the discriminatory practices of PUK. For example, the New York Times published a front-page story mentioning the case:
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/15/world/japanese-only-policy-takes-body-blow-in-court.html
It was unsuccessful, however, in that the court case to secure the employment of the non-Japanese teachers who raised their voices against the university ended in defeat. For a brief treatment of the court case see Farrell Cleary’s “Hostile Verdict for Prefectural University of Kumamoto Teachers”:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kumamoto-i/conversations/topics/3895
I published a more detailed analysis of the court case (and by extension, the entire issue) as a book chapter:
http://goo.gl/7inSJB Native-Speakerism in Japan: Intergroup Dynamics in Foreign Language Education edited by Stephanie Ann Houghton, Damian J. Rivers Multilingual Matters, Feb 19, 2013 “Kumamoto General Union vs. the Prefectural University of Kumamoto: Reviewing the Decision Rendered by the Kumamoto District Court” Kirk Masden
Cynthia Worthington and Sandra Mitchell lost their jobs but the publicity about the case (including many articles in the Kumanichi, Kumamoto’s local newspaper) dealt a significant blow to the Prefectural University of Kumamoto’s prestige. If nothing else, it sent a clear message to institutions throughout Japan that discriminatory employment practices might lead to significant backlash.
My experience has taught me that the handling of cases of discrimination can become object lessons for other potential discriminators. For this and other reasons, I felt it was important to make sure that the discriminatory practices revealed by Sean Michael Wilson did not go unchallenged. In a separate post, I’ll write a bit more about the importance of precedent in cases such as this one.
Posted by Kirk