Could fear derail bold tourism bid?
Japan's foreign crime policies weaken drive for visitors
By BARRY
BROPHY
(This article, which first appeared in the
Japan Times of Dec. 2, 2003,
is reproduced here in Eyes on Japan by kind permission of the
author.)
There's a great irony in the
Japanese government's "action plan" to double the number of
tourists who come to these shores by 2010.
While the goal of the campaign is
to attract more foreigners to Japan, an ongoing tendency to blame a
deterioration in public safety on the foreign community could scupper
Japan's chances of really benefiting from a tourism windfall.
As Japan's jobless rate rises to
record levels and regional economies are being hit hardest by over a
decade of tough economic times, the government is now looking to tourism
to give the country a boost.
But a steady stream of
declarations from government ministers, local lawmakers and a beleaguered
National Police Agency warning of bad foreign elements has been
disturbingly reflected in national surveys that show the policy is failing
to garner the popular support needed to maximize the benefits of a tourist
influx.
In November, the government
released the results of its own poll that found nearly one in three
Japanese — 32.4 percent — do not want more foreign tourists to visit
here. Some 90.2 percent of those cited a rise in crimes allegedly
committed by foreigners as the reason.
Of those polled, 53 percent were
opposed to moves to simplify visa and other immigration procedures that
may discourage potential visitors from coming to Japan.
Antipathy toward increased
tourism, generated by an officially sanctioned fear of foreigners, could
see Japanese turn their backs on the tourist yen.
Of course, foreigners are
regularly depicted as the driving force behind Japan's skyrocketing crime
rate over the past decade, despite the fact that they account for only 1.2
percent — which includes visa violations, a crime only foreigners can
commit — of the national crime total. And the foreign crime issue
doesn't look like it's going to be going away in a hurry.
Just last Friday, a new government
White Paper on crime continued to emphasize the destructive influence of
foreign criminal elements, with organized crime involving foreigners,
particularly Chinese, emerging as the government's newest safety bane.
That organized crime should be of
such concern is a little odd, given the long-running and quite open
operations of this country's crime
syndicates, but while lumping together
all foreigners in the crime statistics is bad enough, particular targeting
of Chinese and other Asians in Japan should have tourism chiefs
shuddering, since the Asian market is key to Japan's efforts to increase
tourist numbers.
Also on Friday, Justice Minister
Daizo Nozawa repeated his vow to tighten immigration controls to make it
more difficult for "foreign criminals" to enter the country.
He didn't make clear how
immigration officials might be able to distinguish between criminals and
tourists.
Mind you, until recently the
government didn't really care too much about the economic benefits of
international tourism, an industry that accounts for 11 percent of the
world's gross domestic product.
Indeed, during the bubble period
the government saw it in its interest to run a big "tourism
deficit"
— Japanese tourists abroad outspending foreign tourists in
Japan — in order to offset the burgeoning industrial trade surplus the
country was running against many of its major trading partners.
But these days, it's an entirely
different situation. Japan has shifted into high gear in its international
tourism campaign.
Last month it signed an accord
with China and South Korea to boost efforts among the three to attract
tourists from outside North Asia. Japan also wants the United Nations
designate 2004 as an official "tourism year."
Yet how successful will such
efforts be? There's no doubting that Japan has much to offer the foreign
visitor, and the infrastructure to handle an influx.
However, as a result of the
targeting of foreign crime, the Japanese public in recent years has formed
a very clear, albeit utterly distorted, image of foreigners as being
dangerous troublemakers.
Thus, the government is helping to
undermine one policy, that of increasing tourism, by its pursuit of
another, that of targeting foreign crime as a serious social bane, a drive
assisted by the media and a police force finding it increasingly difficult
to catch any real criminals.
The extent to which the depiction
of foreigners as dangerous and or criminal can have negative economic
consequences was especially evident during the soccer World Cup, which was
co-hosted by Japan and South Korea in 2002.
Prior to the tournament, the media
and police continuously issued warnings about how foreign hooligans and
others would cause havoc in the land of Wa.
By the tournament's end, of
course, no such problems transpired. Yet on the other hand, police kitted
out in riot gear ready to pounce on foreign troublemakers were instead
called out to subdue homegrown hooligans on several occasions.
In Sapporo, those local retailers
who hadn't closed voluntarily were left fuming after authorities shut down
the city's main entertainment district for fear of violence and vandalism.
Additionally, many Japanese who
frequent the area were reportedly scared away by the prospect of hordes of
dangerous foreigners.
Of course, there were no such
troubles. And a lot of yen was left untouched in foreign and Japanese
wallets.
Elsewhere in the world, these kind
of large-scale events are a boon to local businesses.
Indeed, the hosting of the 1964
Olympics underscored Japan's incredible economic growth in the postwar
period.
In Sapporo, however, many local
businesses actually lost money during the World Cup.
Several hotels did well, though:
they were billeting stations for the huge army of riot police dispatched
to protect the city.
There remains a danger that unless Japanese
officialdom ceases to unfairly paint foreigners as lawless, devious
interlopers, the country won't be able to fully exploit the vast wealth of
resources, structural and social, that could provide massive economic
benefits in the future.
© Barry Brophy 2003
for the Japan Times. All rights reserved
This page last updated 2009-12-31
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