Date : 2018.01.24

Japan NGO Network for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ERD Net) handed in the appeal to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Kono calling for support and implementation of the UPR recommendations concerning the racial discrimination issues. ERD Net is a nationwide network of NGOs and individuals working for the issues relating to racism, racial discrimination and colonialism in Japan which IMADR works as the Secretariat.

Read the appeal below or download here in English or Japanese 

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Japan NGO Network for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ERD Net)

c/o International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR)

6 Floor, 1-7-1, Irifune, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0042, Japan

24 January 2018

H.E. Taro Kono, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan

Appeal for support to and implementation of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations

We, the human rights NGOs gather together as the Japan NGO Network for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ERD Net), welcome the 218 recommendations contained in the report of the Working Group on the UPR of Japan adopted on the 16th of November 2017.

As the UPR entered the 3rd cycle in the aim of universal and full implementation of the international human rights standards, our NGOs have become to be able to engage with the review more effectively.

From the outcome of the UPR of Japan, we attach importance to the recommendation below concerning the racial discrimination issues which we work on in our daily activities.

1. In this 3rd cycle of the UPR of Japan, the number of concerns and recommendations regarding the lack of law prohibiting racial and other forms of discrimination dramatically increased.
2. Furthermore, many recommendations were made to demand the Government of Japan to strictly address hate speech and racial discrimination against foreigners, in spite of the Ministry of Justice’s campaign to combat discrimination, the effectuation of the “Act on the Promotion of Efforts to Eliminate Unfair Discriminatory Speech and Behaviour Against Persons Origination from Outside Japan” and the “Act on the Promotion of the Elimination of Buraku Discrimination”.
3. Concerns were raised on discriminatory treatments including against ethnic minorities and foreign residents in education policies by public institutions, and the Government of Japan was asked to redress them.
4. A large number of States demanded the immediate establishment of an independent national human rights institution (NHRI) in accordance with the Paris Principles which was repeatedly recommended by the human rights treaty bodies in the reviews of the periodic reports of the Government of Japan. In addition to investigation to and remedy for complaints on human rights violations, an NHRI has a role of awareness raising, human rights education and consultation. The establishment of an NHRI is crucial including for effective implementation of the two Acts mentioned above.
5. Multiple States issued a recommendation on the acceptance of individual complaints procedures under the human rights treaties which Japan ratified.
6. At the same time, the Government of Japan was asked to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, the ILO Convention N°111 on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) and the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention N°169.
7. Concerns and recommendations were shared on human rights violations and challenges caused by the Technical Intern Training Programme which is more widely used in recent years.
8. The Government of Japan was asked to appropriately address the issue of violence against minority, indigenous and foreign women.
9. All issues such as on the tuition waiver program and Korean high schools, indigenous Ainu, Ryukyu/Okinawa, “comfort women”, which the human rights treaty bodies repeatedly made recommendations, were addressed.

We are of the view that the acceptance and implementation of those recommendations by the Government of Japan will lead to solve the racial discrimination issues in Japan.

Since the establishment of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Japan has nominated itself to be a Member State with a pledge to achieve the highest standard of human rights policies, and assumed the responsibility almost continuously.

In order to fulfil its promise, we demand the Government of Japan to accept all of those recommendations and implement them in a prompt manner.

Japan NGO Network for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ERD Net)

Japan Network towards Human Rights Legislation for Non-Japanese Nationals and Ethnic Minorities

Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ)

International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR)