Japan reelected to U.N. Human Rights Council

Thursday 22nd May, 05:09 AM JST

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tkoind2 at 11:42 AM JST - 22nd May

Rjd jr. How so? Japan's legal system still allows coersion to gain confessions, prison here is barbaric, Japan still has the death penalty, Japan does not respect refugee standards. This is all before you start to talk about rights protections for foreigners and protections from discrimination. Not to mention inadequate labor laws to prevent having an entire society over worked.

Ok. so Japan is better than some places. But it has a long way to go.Then again, almost all nations do. Deserve? No. As good as the next country. Ok.
European1 at 03:28 PM JST - 22nd May

http://www.debito.org/index.php/?p=1673
Shumatsu_Samurai at 03:35 PM JST - 22nd May

Ok. so Japan is better than some places. But it has a long way to go.Then again, almost all nations do. Deserve? No. As good as the next country. Ok.

I would say that Japan is better than a lot of places. At least it is willing to support meaningful action/reports by the Council - many other countries will use it to veto activities or make petty reports.
rjd_jr at 04:26 PM JST - 22nd May

I concur with Shumatsu. Japan is certainly as deserving or more deserving than some of the same nations on this council. Isolated incidents of violations are hardly representative of the whole.
GW at 09:37 PM JST - 22nd May

Japan is given these token positions to keep the $$ flowing to the UN, thats it! Jpn gets to make a big deal out of these things, all the while not doing much of anything & want to become a permanent member of the security council so they can put that on their biz cards, all the while doing little of any real consequence, especially back here in good ole Jpn!

Jpn as the 2nd largest economy needs to start doing the right thing instead of just trying to add titles they can put on plaques & biz cards.....
rjd_jr at 10:14 PM JST - 22nd May

Funny, people seem to always automatically criticize Japan for these alleged human rights violations, citing the usual litany of death penalty, "barbaric" prison conditions, protection from discrimination, etc. etc., and drum roll please....DEBITO. Yet these same allegations are true for about all the other nations on the "Human Rights" council. Having the second largest econcomy obviously means more things are right than wrong in Japan. So come on people, you don't have to automatically hate and nitpick on Japan, making up false allegations and whatnot, for something as minor as being elected to UN Human rights council. Again, Japan is as or more deserving than many nations on the same council.
Patrick Smash at 10:38 PM JST - 22nd May

rjd jr

If you check, you'll find this is a Japan Today website about Japan, so people ten to comment on...drumroll...Japan. If those things to you are nitpicking, well, that is a truly sad state of affairs. That's almost the Spinal Tap view of nitpicking you have there.
OssanULTRA at 01:43 AM JST - 23rd May

Japan may be far from perfect, but it is far more deserving of being on the UN Human Rights Council than China is of being a PM of the UNSC. And we won't even think about China and the UNHRC.
weedkila at 02:07 AM JST - 23rd May

Interesting. The U.N. General Assembly re-elects Japan as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council, yet a few years back a UN Special Rapporteur reported that racism in Japan was "deep and profound."

Also Japan's prosecution rate is something like 99.9%. Talking about Japan and human rights as if the two are somehow compatible is laughable. Ask the victims, lawyers, NGOs etc whether Japan is deserving to be in this club.
weedkila at 04:09 AM JST - 23rd May

One more thing... I'll probably get flamed as a conspiracy nut or something but what the hell.

The issue of human rights can be a double edged sword. If people are well meaning and genuinely have others interests at heart then that's great and I'd be the last to criticise any work they are doing. But on the other hand, there seems to be a fairly serious agenda to break down society, especially in the west and advanced countries like Japan, and if you look at things a little more deeply you can see that human rights plays a part in this. What I am talking about is the part feminism has played in the courts and break up of the family etc., or gay rights and it's insidious agenda which is now reaching into schools to influence children at an impressionable age. It's all in the name of human rights and the list goes on.

To emphasise, I have nothing against woman, gays, or any other group asking for a fair go. But people become selfish and milk h/rights for everything it's worth so that in the end the victims tend to shift to another group and nothing really changes. I started learning of the other side to h/rights some time ago through people like Aaron Russo (movie director) whose friend, Nick Rockefeller, let him know that it was a Rockefeller foundation that started off feminism and, as he admitted, wasn't for reasons which would benefit society.

http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2007/03/08/nick-rockefeller-revealed-elite-agenda-to-aaron-russo-during-friendship/

Well, that's the end of my rant but I must admit that I look at the UN human rights council and see in a slightly different light to most.
Shumatsu_Samurai at 07:41 AM JST - 23rd May

The U.N. General Assembly re-elects Japan as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council, yet a few years back a UN Special Rapporteur reported that racism in Japan was "deep and profound."

The former is a lot of countries - the latter was one guy visiting one country over the course of a few weeks. A country that he had little problem in accessing people with grievances, I might add.

Also Japan's prosecution rate is something like 99.9%.

True, but you fail to admit that in Japan this matter can be discussed without people being bundled into black vans during the middle of the night by the government for "disrupting public harmony". The problem has been identified and raised repeatedly - and that won't stop until something is done about it.

Talking about Japan and human rights as if the two are somehow compatible is laughable.

Sure because there aren't elections, there aren't rights to protest, run newspapers without the government removing criticism against it, etc.....

If you were right, no one in Japan would be allowed to talk about the conviction rate without fear of arrest.
Hughgarse at 12:13 PM JST - 23rd May

Is china on this Council?
GW at 12:48 PM JST - 23rd May

rjd jr

pretty weird for some of us to expect Jpn to behave a little better then 2bit dictators or poor 3rd world nations, silly us, Jpn carry one yr at the same level as said poor countries & 2bit dictators, we shudnt expect you can rise up about that lot!! Sorry my bad..........
weedkila at 01:43 PM JST - 23rd May

True, but you fail to admit that in Japan this matter can be discussed without people being bundled into black vans during the middle of the night by the government for "disrupting public harmony". The problem has been identified and raised repeatedly - and that won't stop until something is done about it.

The easiest way to control people is to distract them or to give the illusion that they have a choice. To make them believe they live in a democracy and that their vote means something. The US and Japan are more like corpocracies than democracies. Sure, things aren't like China and hopefully they never will be, but there is a push for this new world order and things may change if the majority of people fail to realise what is happening. There are powerful behind-the-scenes groups like the trilateral commission which apparently have a major influence on Japan. Until Japan gets a real democratically elected government which is willing to help the people then I think any change will continue to be very slow in coming on these kinds of issues. "Order out of chaos" seems to be more than just an empty slogan.

Sure because there aren't elections, there aren't rights to protest, run newspapers without the government removing criticism against it, etc.....

Until some years ago Japan's LDP party ranked up there with N.Korea and Cuba as the parties which had been in power the longest. I think it took less than a year before the LDP got back in power again. Look at the US. The 2 main parties are basically the same. Does protest or criticism really change things? Don't want to be too negative but things need to change at a more fundamental level.
nigelboy at 01:48 PM JST - 23rd May

Until some years ago Japan's LDP party ranked up there with N.Korea and Cuba as the parties which had been in power the longest. I think it took less than a year before the LDP got back in power again. Look at the US. The 2 main parties are basically the same. Does protest or criticism really change things? Don't want to be too negative but things need to change at a more fundamental level.

Having consistent politically party in power does not necessarily mean that it's not democracy. LDP has many factions (habatsu) that often conflict one another on various policies. In other words, instead of bickering among different political parties, they do so through habatsu. This is also true within the DPJ which also has her on habatsu.