Japan is a low-confrontation society that finds any kind of social conflict deeply troubling, so it's no surprise that it's growing dependency on migrant labour is starting to cause problems.
One of the hotspots of its "multicultural meltdown" appears to be Warabi, a rather nondescript part of Saitama prefecture that has ten-minute train access to Tokyo.
In recent years the area has become something of an enclave for Turkish Kurds, earning it the nickname "Warabistan." In 2023 the Economist reported that there were around about 2,000 Kurds living there, alongside other sizable ethnic groups, including Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Chinese.
However, it is the Kurds who stick out the most and who are becoming the focus for a rising nationalist backlash, as seen in the image above which is trying to stir up fears of the outsider. Posted on the internet and used in flyers, it appears to be the work of Japanese "ultranationalists," who often, ironically, belong to marginalised groups themselves, such as Korean-Japanese or "Burakumin" (Japan's own caste of "Untouchables") often with yakuza connections.
In the image an arrogant-looking Kurdish man is holding one of his doting Japanese wives, who has been converted to Islam and forced to wear a hijab. The main headline says, "Let's prepare to take over Japan in the next 30 years." As the Kurdish population of Warabi has quadrupled in just 10 years this may even sound plausible to some.
Even more shocking are the other captions that claim Muslim men should "rape" as much as they like because the Japanese legal system is weak against foreigners and that Japanese women will in fact chase after them "wagging their tales."
The image is designed to be as offensive as possible and stir up as much animosity as possible against the racial minority based on acts, words, and attitudes that could be ascribed to perhaps its worst members.
The fact is that most Kurds in Japan do not conform to this stereotype, with most of them eking out a precarious living working in the small factories in the area and hoping to be granted refugee status at some distant point in the future.
However, this is unlikely to happen. According to the available information, only one Turkish Kurd, a 30-year-old man has been granted refugee status in Japan back in 2022, and this was based on direct medical evidence of torture.
Human Rights activists at the time hoped that this case would "open the floodgates," but Japan has no wish to anger its Turkish trading partner by legitimising Kurdish opposition to the government in Ankara. So, a single swallow did not make a summer. Since then, no one else has gained the same privilege.
This means that Japan's Kurdish population, along with many of its other migrant workers, are in the country purely on sufferance, even though some of them have lived there for decades, and they can be evicted at any time of the government's choosing, unless, of course, they have managed to gain themselves a Japanese wife (or husband). But even that has limited power to protect them from having their visa terminated.
One of the hotspots of its "multicultural meltdown" appears to be Warabi, a rather nondescript part of Saitama prefecture that has ten-minute train access to Tokyo.
In recent years the area has become something of an enclave for Turkish Kurds, earning it the nickname "Warabistan." In 2023 the Economist reported that there were around about 2,000 Kurds living there, alongside other sizable ethnic groups, including Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Chinese.
However, it is the Kurds who stick out the most and who are becoming the focus for a rising nationalist backlash, as seen in the image above which is trying to stir up fears of the outsider. Posted on the internet and used in flyers, it appears to be the work of Japanese "ultranationalists," who often, ironically, belong to marginalised groups themselves, such as Korean-Japanese or "Burakumin" (Japan's own caste of "Untouchables") often with yakuza connections.
In the image an arrogant-looking Kurdish man is holding one of his doting Japanese wives, who has been converted to Islam and forced to wear a hijab. The main headline says, "Let's prepare to take over Japan in the next 30 years." As the Kurdish population of Warabi has quadrupled in just 10 years this may even sound plausible to some.
Even more shocking are the other captions that claim Muslim men should "rape" as much as they like because the Japanese legal system is weak against foreigners and that Japanese women will in fact chase after them "wagging their tales."
The image is designed to be as offensive as possible and stir up as much animosity as possible against the racial minority based on acts, words, and attitudes that could be ascribed to perhaps its worst members.
The fact is that most Kurds in Japan do not conform to this stereotype, with most of them eking out a precarious living working in the small factories in the area and hoping to be granted refugee status at some distant point in the future.
However, this is unlikely to happen. According to the available information, only one Turkish Kurd, a 30-year-old man has been granted refugee status in Japan back in 2022, and this was based on direct medical evidence of torture.
Human Rights activists at the time hoped that this case would "open the floodgates," but Japan has no wish to anger its Turkish trading partner by legitimising Kurdish opposition to the government in Ankara. So, a single swallow did not make a summer. Since then, no one else has gained the same privilege.
This means that Japan's Kurdish population, along with many of its other migrant workers, are in the country purely on sufferance, even though some of them have lived there for decades, and they can be evicted at any time of the government's choosing, unless, of course, they have managed to gain themselves a Japanese wife (or husband). But even that has limited power to protect them from having their visa terminated.
A useful reference point in considering the likely fate of Japan's Kurdish population is what happened to Japan's once flourishing Iranian community, which reached a peak of over 40,000 in the 1980s, but collapsed to around 4,000 once the government tightened up visa regulations over concerns about crime and terrorism.
A key milestone here was the murder of Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses." Igarashi was stabbed to death in 1991 by an unknown assailant in the wake of a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran. The next year alone 15,000 Iranians were deported from the country.
A key milestone here was the murder of Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses." Igarashi was stabbed to death in 1991 by an unknown assailant in the wake of a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran. The next year alone 15,000 Iranians were deported from the country.
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