塵も積もれば山となる

Over at JapanSoc.com I came across a curious and rather odd rant by Atlasien over at (curiously enough for her post) RealityCheck.org. It’s a delightfully titled piece; “Geishas and Whores.” Now, for most of us in the West, when we think of idealized Asian beauty we think of the geisha. A lot of us are also carrying with us a misconception brought back from the immediate post-war period by G.I.s that “Geisha girls” (read: prostitutes) are synonymous with geisha. They aren’t.

The author, ironically enough for an educated Japanese-American woman, is coming from a strictly Western view of what Geisha are. First off they are not prostitutes first and foremost, if at all. Entertainers though they may have been and sought after through the centuries by men of all stripes and shades, they were and still are thought of as symbols of feminine purity. This idea that they were simply high end call girls is entirely ignorant of the rather complex nature of the “floating world” in which prostitutes lived and where geisha were thought of as something to aspire to.

Simply speaking, prostitutes and geisha didn’t even inhabit the same areas of town in the past. Prostitutes in present day Tokyo during the Edo period were restricted to the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters, a den of legalized vice, STDs and shattered dreams. Women who worked here had short and often sickly lives. Tragically, the wives of men who frequented this place paid the price for their husbands’ infidelity in the form of disease. The women who worked in these areas were little more than sex slaves and had lives far removed from that of the fabled geisha of Gion. A simple wikipedia search of Geisha would’ve shown the author that there were quite a few types of “performers” who merely aspired to the image of the geisha. Furthermore, why is it that Shimabara was the pleasure quarter of Kyoto, while geisha have always been found in Gion? As I said before, history shows us that they were from completely different places and were completely different sets of women.

If I may say so the author is coming from a place of cultural confusion and down right ignorance. Turning the canons onto Western men and women who have fixations, of one kind or another, on the geisha is nothing more than an attempt at pushing some sort of weird white guilt trip on people who, though they might trivialize the geisha’s talents by focusing on their looks, genuinely admire geisha for what they are. By categorizing that admiration as some sort of white culture theft while comparing the geisha to working at a strip bar, disassociating herself from her own culture and completely misunderstanding the actual nature of the geisha’s role in Japanese society past and present the author is competing in a bizarre sort of cultural/racial blame game that can only result in ugliness if taken seriously.

All of this in the name of feminism? Try again sister.

Dare I suggest that the author’s eagerness to share her own ignorance on the matter does more harm to Asian women as a whole than does the admiration Western men and women, not to mention others from around the world, have for the geisha?

But then again what do I know.. I’m just a slightly overweight white guy. /sigh

It’s the newest craze.. First we were doing the twist. Then we were rocking the casbah. We even shocked the monkey. Now, dear friends, we have come to the only logical conclusion to the “gaijin” problem: bugging the alien. When I first read this I thought “Well, its about damn time. Those grey freaks have been on their flying saucer tours appearing in small southern towns in front of a handful of hillbillies for way too long. It’s time we start fighting back!” Then I realized our friend Debito was talking about us. That’s right. You and me. If things go according to “the plan” the tripods will be chipping all of us. Some might even consider it the fulfillment of end times prophecy. But this article written by Arudou Debito for the Japan Times is really nothing more than Luddite scare tactics.

The issues surrounds the introduction of something called a zairyu kado which seem to be little more than the traditional gaijin card with an IC chip (RFID) inside of it. This same technology is being used in all newly issued American passports. Some have raised legitimate concerns about the security of these cards though most of those people know what they are talking about. Debito is not one of them. The new cards also represent a shift in policy in regards to updating the cards with your information: for example, when you move you must register at the local ward or city office within a certain amount of time. It’s a fairly reasonable request and I’m sure other countries have similar requirements of their resident aliens, the United States included. The policy shift is more worrisome than the actual cards as it represents an effort to be tough on visa over-stayers and general gaijin nuisances, but Debito seems to ratchet up the scare factor by focusing on a dystopia future that awaits us all on Fortress Japan. “Rightfully so.” said a man when I asked about the new cards. He was wearing a white trenchcoat to hide a full bodysuit made out aluminum foil and sheet metal strips that he claimed would block out the Commie rays that bombard the Earth daily. Unbeknown to everyone, the Reds now control the moon. (Sarcasm Alert)

Anyways, it all starts going wrong when Debito starts talking about biometric data which he defines as the following:

“Name, address, date of birth, visa status, name and address of workplace, photograph etc.”

These do not constitute biometric data. The digital fingerprints we have to give to port authorities when we enter Narita airport (like other nations including Debito’s former home, the USA) are an example of biometric data. Retinal scans record biometric data. Facial recognition software records biometric data. Writing down your name, address, etc. does not have anything to do with your body. This much is obvious.

The authorities will be able to remotely scan crowds for foreigners.

Debito continues this silly tech-ignorant thought process by saying these chips are “transponders” and “bugs” that can be used to follow your movements say a crowd of people. He is once again off the mark. Most RFID handheld readers have a read range of about 5 feet (1.5 m) and a write range of about 19 inches (.5 m). The idea that someone could follow your every movement in a large crowd remotely ala GPS and steal or chage your data while using this technology is ridiculous. They might as well be watching you on CC or following right behind you holding out the reader. So unless all of Shibuya crossing is going to be covered by a static and humongous IC reader, Debito has it all wrong tech-wise here.

As far as the mentioned checkpoints are concerned, if they did put such a system in place why, where and when would they do this? To catch illegal immigrants? On public property? 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? The logistics of such a system on a national level are simply insane, not to mention time consuming and expensive. My question is why even bring up the proposed checkpoint system? There is practically no way such a operation would be worth the funds put into it. Sure they could introduce a passive system you would have to use when riding the trains via your Suica or Pasmo card, but again for what reason? It wouldn’t stop visa-overstayers from living in Japan and it sure as hell would not stop crime. This sort of system makes absolutely no sense on any level. In terms of implementation to reduce crime, it wouldn’t amount to anything. Most people can understand this. I can’t help but feel that Debito feels there is some sort of terrible police state on the way in which authorities would do these things regularly. I don’t see it. Just for the record, Debito, it’s comments like these that make people think you are out of your mind:

Why stop at bugging the gaijin? Why not just sew gold stars on their lapels and be done with it?

Godwin’s Law in action, folks. Anyways…

Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture and Yokkaichi, in Mie, have long petitioned the national government for improvements, such as facilitating foreign access to public services and education, and easing registry and visa applications.

Now, all this criticism might lead you to believe that I’m all for this system, but believe me I’m not. This is the sort of idea that xenophobic National bureaucrats come up with when they start to read the writing on the wall. Debito is right to note that many Prefectures are ailing and in need of more people. The other thing I agree with him on is that an increase in immigration is coming to this country and is needed. There’s no denying it. With the way the birth rate is going and the stress of an increasingly aging population starting to take its toll on the nation, it’ll be sooner rather than later. Conservative (read: clueless) politicians want to make sure that any “foreign” element in this country is kept under tight control and at the same time they want to consolidate their control over the prefectures. If any change (cultural, political or otherwise) is going to come to the system it is going to come from ground up and foreigners will play a large part in that change. Conservative members of the Diet know that and these sort of policies are put in place by them to work as a bulwark against that. I don’t doubt that for a second. I think on these issues most foreigners who care about Japan are on the same team with Debito.

Furthermore, the insane fines and possible deportation for not reporting a change in address are over the top for sure, but Debito doesn’t specify just exactly how these things will be enforced. You could say he “speculates before he informates.” I’m willing to bet that the police will be following you with a card reader about as often as they stop you and ask for your gaijin card. That is to say very rarely. The funds aren’t there in most prefectures and cities to enforce such an Orwellian system and it is at this point that Debito’s ideas stray from reality into fiction.

To be clear I don’t think the proposed system is a good one. It’s seems oppressive, top heavy and for the most part, it probably won’t work. The funds that will be put into it won’t be enough and will end up being another example of wasteful government spending. That being said foreigners will not be hunted down in the streets, pre-cogs will not predict gaijin crimes before they happen and police will not be implanting you with the mark of the beast or any such insanity. Get a grip, Debito… and some tinfoil. The tripods are coming… (Not really)