The Neglected Masses in Japan

By Samuel I. Koshiishi

On March 26, 2004, a six year-old boy, who was preparing to begin primary school just ten days later, was killed by a revolving door in one of the most sophisticated buildings in Tokyo.

In spite of its “sophistication,” that particular revolving door has already caused 32 accidents, and in twelve of those cases a child was victimized and carried away by an ambulance. . . Yet despite these warnings, the owners of the building did not seem to have paid any attention. It may signify that, for them, human life is not a top priority.

The building, the so-called Roppongi Hills, was opened just a year ago. In spite of its “sophistication,” that particular revolving door has already caused 32 accidents, and in twelve of those cases a child was victimized and carried away by an ambulance. Though this was the first death, a total of 32 accidents might have predicted a death could happen at any point. Yet despite these warnings, the owners of the building did not seem to have paid any attention. It may signify that, for them, human life is not a top priority.

Now, it may be right and easy to blame those owners and various societal trends for neglecting human life, but is it possible to arrive at any solutions?

Roppongi Hills was the main project in one of seven areas of Tokyo that the national government had assigned to be urgently redeveloped. This designation was made according to the so-called Urban Renaissance report created by an urban redevelopment task force of the national government. While every Cabinet minister was represented on the task force, most Japanese people never knew about it.

The task force was set up in 2001 by the decision of the Cabinet and a special urban redevelopment bill was enacted the following year. According to the policy statement, the main purpose of the Urban Renaissance was to “redevelop our cities to be affluent and comfortable, and in international aspects full of energy, while transmitting our cultures and histories.” Although it utilized many attractive but abstract expressions to make the statement sound acceptable, their intention is blatantly obvious in the phrase “to form cities strongly equipped for international competitions.” This is witnessed in formative documents entitled “The Background of Urban Renaissance,” much of which consisted of tables that show the ranking of nations in international competitions, as determined by a Swiss firm. According to the 2002 document, Japan's general ranking was 30th, and it was its worst rank in a six-year period. Obviously, that gave a serious shock to the government.

The task force drew up the Urban Renaissance plan in response to the international ranking data. They assigned 17 communities – covering 3,515 hectares, mainly in big cities – as the areas for urgent redevelopment. However, about 70 percent of that space is located in Tokyo and its adjacent urban communities, 26 percent in the business center of Osaka, and 4 percent in Nagoya. Seven spots are specifically based in Tokyo.

For the prompt enactment of the projects in these specified areas, the measure adopted two basic principles: privatization and deregulation.

Privatization was backed by a special fund set up just for this purpose. The policy meant that the developers and constructers taking part in the redevelopment of these specified areas could procure necessary funds with favorable interest rates, and possibly receive a special tax reduction. Thus, the privatization policy actually served as subsidies to developers and constructers.

Deregulation was used as a tool to alleviate constraints on the building projects. Through deregulation, protection was no longer afforded to local residents or the natural environment. Much of this was connected to directives issued in the early 1990s by banks and other financial institutions that pushed developers to build office structures instead of residential housing. Later, when the economy crashed, the cost of land plunged and many of those office buildings were vacated.

Throughout this whole Urban Renaissance process, the national government neglected human rights in many ways. People outside of the city centers and small businesses were ignored. Reports of domestic violence dramatically increased, particularly by parents against their children. More people became jobless, or were forced to take short-term employment. New efforts forced schools to compete against one another, rather than create a holistic and supportive educational system. And although the government refuses to publish statistics related to homelessness, the experience of some of our churches is that they are constantly feeding hungry people and trying to offer missing social services.

In other words, most Japanese people have been neglected under the pretext of this Urban Renaissance. The revolving door's killing of a six year-old boy was not just a simple unpredicted event, but the consequence of a series of ways that human life has been neglected.

In other words, most Japanese people have been neglected under the pretext of this Urban Renaissance. The revolving door's killing of a six year-old boy was not just a simple unpredicted event, but the consequence of a series of ways that human life has been neglected. These problems are directly related to a government initiative created in reaction to the global market, and without prudent reflection.

It has been said that national governments were inadequately prepared for the process of economic globalization. That is not true. As shown above, governments still have strong power, as before, even in terms of intervening in the international movement of capital. Further, through neglect and veiling societal problems, governments have enormous public influence. They focus attention on public projects by maneuvering private sectors.

How can we resist against this kind of campaign?

It seems to me that it would be a simple but quite powerful resistance to look for the neglected in our communities and to truly relate to them. It seems to me that there is no difference between the global and the domestic in creating relationships to those hidden neglected members of society. Within the church, we Anglicans are privileged to belong to a worldwide family, and news of each part of the international family is relatively easily available to the rest of us. For instance, we can read an Anglican news report about the terrible pandemic of people suffering from HIV/AIDS in Swaziland , and then consider how we might relate to them.

But we need more than this. First, we need to understand how the process of finding the “hidden” neglected in our own communities is, in fact, the very process of walking with Jesus. We cannot just look elsewhere to identify the voices of the neglected – they are right here, in our own nation, and we must relate to them too. Second, we can build upon the strengths of our global church family – the ability to exchange information and ideas – to understand not only the problems, but also the strategies for local response. We need to learn from one another what works. Just recently the Episcopal Diocese of Tokyo created a companion relationship with the Diocese of Jerusalem. I see this initiative as an important mechanism for sharing how, in our localized Anglican communities, we each develop strategic models for social justice.

The Rev. Samuel I. Koshiishi served for many years as the general (provincial) secretary of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (The Anglican Church in Japan). He is a steering committee member of the Anglican Peace & Justice Network, and a founding member of the Anglican Urban Network. Sam may be reached by email at samk@nskk.org .