Despite Japan's public narrative of racial and cultural homogeneity, the country is home to several minorities. These include the Burakumin, descendants of outcastes during the Tokugawa period, Ainu and Okinawan indigenous peoples, ethnic Korean and Chinese populations, and its 'newest' minorities nikkeijin, Latin Americans of Japanese descent who began to return to Japan in the late 1980s. The year 2012 saw several major events for minority rights and health in Japan – its second UPR by the UN Human Rights Council in October and a visit by the Special Rapporteur on the right to health in November.

In an August 2012 report the Japanese NGO Network for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination documented how legal authorities refused to deal with multiple cases of hate speech against minorities on the basis that there is no legal mechanism or law to prohibit such racial discrimination. The report also documents speeches from a handful of elected officials who have publicly remarked upon Japan's status as 'one nation, one language and one ethnicity' and linked economic success to its status as a country of 'one race'. The anti-discrimination network has pointed to the persistent problem of internet-based hate crimes including so-called 'Buraku Lists', which name town wards populated by descendants of the Burakumin community. One boy who discovered his Buraku origins on the internet committed suicide.

In Japan's UPR in October, several NGOs and UN member states underscored the persistence of direct and indirect discrimination against Japan's minorities. The Network for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern that the proposed national human rights institution would not address discrimination against minorities, and called for the government to adopt an anti-discrimination law.

Following December elections, the Liberal Democratic Party announced it will exclude Korean schools attended by third- or fourth-generation North Korean students from tuition subsidies, citing poor political relations between the two countries. Since then, local governments, including the Tokyo municipal government, have followed suit. Schools for children of migrant workers, such as Brazilian and Peruvian schools, have also not received financial support from the government.

Students of Korean schools have also been the target of hate crimes, a trend that has worsened in recent years. The government has failed to respond to violence against girl students, and so schools have changed the design of noticeably Korean school uniforms to less conspicuous styles.

Japan's minorities also face multiple forms of discrimination with regard to health care. Disadvantaged migrants face multiple barriers to accessing health care, particularly emergency, HIV/AIDS and maternal health care. Migrants and asylum-seekers held in detention centres are particularly at a disadvantage. In a 2012 report, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) asked the government to consider changing its current policy requiring asylum-seekers to pay for medical care up front and wait for later reimbursement.

A 2012 study published in BMC Public Health showed that, despite the universal health insurance policies for legal residents, documented Latin American immigrants disproportionately lack health insurance coverage.[13] A joint report by the Ainu Association of Hokkaido, the Buraku Liberation League Central Women's Division and other NGOs urged the government to provide counsellors who can offer culturally sensitive care for Ainu, Buraku and Korean women who face domestic violence. The minority organizations claimed there is complete failure to ensure the active participation of Buraku, Ainu and Zainichi Korean women in the deliberation, preparation and evaluation of women's policy, including health.

Notes

13. Pilar Suguimoto, S., Ono-Kihara, M., Feldman, M.D. and Kihara, M., 'Latin American immigrants have limited access to health insurance in Japan: a cross-sectional study', BMC Public Health, vol. 12, no. 238, 2012, retrieved June 2013: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/238.

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