This is not about Kumamoto, but it reminds me of the “No Foreigners” issue that came up here in February. Whereas the good people of Kumamoto City’s Office for the Promotion of Human Rights intervened so that the issue in Kumamoto could be resolved successfully, Japan’s Ministry of Finance has failed to come to bat for the victim in this case:
— start quote — A European exchange student in his twenties who wished to rent an apartment in Kyoto could not get a rental contract because the apartment was “No Foreigners”. He asked for recourse from the Ministry of Justice’s Legal Affairs Bureau in Kyoto for discrimination against foreigners, but the Legal Affairs Bureau refused, stating, “We cannot determine that the facts constitute a violation of human rights.”
. . .
入居を希望した京都市のアパートが「外国人不可」のため、賃貸契約できなかった欧州出身の２０代の留学生が、法務省の京都地方法務局に外国人差別だとして救済措置を求めたところ、法務局は「人権侵犯の事実があったとまでは判断できない」と退けた。 — end quote —
