Court recognizes hate speech as racism

October 8, 2013

The Kyoto District Court on October 7 recognized hate-speech demonstrations near a Korean school as racial discrimination, prohibiting a racist group from carrying out their activities within 200 meters of the school and ordering the group to pay about 12.26 million yen in compensation.

The court ruled that a series of xenophobic campaigns conducted by the group called the Citizens' Coalition against Special Privileges for Foreign Residents in Japan are in violation of the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Three times between December 2009 and March 2010, the group shouted out abusive and insulting slogans and comments using loudspeakers in the vicinity of the Korean school with the intent to disturb classes. The racist group streamed the video showing this operation on the Internet. Four of the group members have already received guilty sentences in court.

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi held a news conference on the same day and applauded the judgment made at the Kyoto District Court.

Ichida said, "Hate speech encourages and incites racial discrimination. It is unforgivable to use the constitutional rights to freedom of expression or association as an excuse to stage such a demonstration."

Pointing out that the UN Committee on social rights issued a recommendation to the Japanese government to put a stop to hate speech, Ichida said, "Relevant authorities should sincerely respond to this admonishment and recognize the need to increase public awareness to disallow the use of hate speech."

Referring to the fact that such public figures as Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru repeatedly gloss over Japan's past war of aggression and hold a distorted view of history, the JCP spokesperson said, "It is necessary to plunge a scalpel into the present extremist positions in politics that contribute to the emergence of hate speech."

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