WHO director in Asia accused of racism, abuse indefinitely put on leave

Documents and recordings showed Kasai made racist remarks to his staff and blamed the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.”

Looks at the past few weeks of Japan having the highest number of COVID infections and deaths worldwide.

I wonder if Dr. Kasai has revised his conclusions based upon the recent data?

Why am I not surprised?

If he were superior,he would still have his job

Documents and recordings showed Kasai made racist remarks to his staff and blamed the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.

Yes, maybe so…that would be HIS OWN.

It will be good for him and his family.

WHO and UN 2 useless international organizations just to drain taxpayers' money.

Good riddance!!!

Taro Aso's "mindo" incident redux. When will international organizations learn that these views about cultural superiority/inferiority, etc. are common and accepted among the Japanese.

what a complete jackass

But will he just appear again as a "specially appointed professor" or can he really be removed from a future leadership role?

Sad it was uncovered by AP, and not the J-media.

So much in common with Taro.Fast forward,look at the current cases in Japan.

Pride comes before a huge THUD.

@JeffLee To put it another way, 19th century ideas of Social Darwinism aren't dead in Japan which is simply mind-boggling.

Why am I not surprised?

Most of us who have lived in Japan for an extended period of time are not.

Not uncommon ideas among many Japanese I know and worked.

Many of the Japanese workers I knew on the factory floors in Japan would include laziness in the list of things which make foreigners inferior.

If he’s looking for a career change, I think this man is better suited to Japanese politics.

alleging that Kasai had created a “toxic atmosphere” in WHO’s offices across the Western Pacific.

Kasai doing his best to spread Japanese working culture around the world I see.

Documents and recordings showed Kasai made racist remarks to his staff and blamed the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.”

To which Pacific countries or cultures was he specifically referring? In reality, many of them there have coped with covid very well compared with other regions in the world, such as NZ and Taiwan. Away from other continental regions, Pacific islands used to be covid-free.

He's not only politically incorrect, but also factually wrong.

I hope he can get some wisdom out off the books as well. Good Luck Dr.

""Documents and recordings showed Kasai made racist remarks to his staff and blamed the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.” Several WHO staffers working under Kasai said he improperly shared sensitive coronavirus vaccine information to help Japan, his home country, score political points with its donations.""

IF, that is found to be true then he should be SACKED and not put "on leave"

he improperly shared sensitive coronavirus vaccine information to help Japan, his home country, score political points with its donations.

Donations to what organisation/s? Kind of a crucial part of the story...

Good. But WHO is still has a lot of making up to do. They lost all credibility when they downplay the virus at the start of the pandemic.

Great…..another idiot with a superiority complex to mask their actual inferiority complex….Albeit WHO as an organization was a bit of a joke after the whole Covid fiasco.

Good! Took a while though. Wonder if he still feels superior...

Good. But WHO is still has a lot of making up to do. They lost all credibility when they downplay the virus at the start of the pandemic.

The WHO (and every other international health authorities) can only make determinations based on data they recieved. At the beginning of the pandemic the only country that could provide that data refused to do it, so the only thing the WHO could do is to say "no evidence of human to human transmission has been found".

This changed the moment other countries that also had cases shared the information necessary to make much more valuable recommendations, correcting a problem originated by the refusal of the CCP to recognize the risk of a pandemic.

No organization is free of problems, Kasai is clear evidence of this, but that is very different from just dumping every problem into the WHO when most of the actual falls are the consequence of pressure the international community to reduce what the organization can do more than a decade ago, coincidentally the same countries that made sure the WHO could not excert any pressure on any country are now complaining about this not being done to prevent the worst of the pandemic.

Sad it was uncovered by AP, and not the J-media.

I think that is an impossible ask.

The world and acceptable terms have changed drastically in the last 20 yrs. Not everyone "got the message" and in cultures where change moved extremely slow, like a slug, in the cold, going over fly paper, it is even harder.

If you are around only other racist who are allowed to criticize, it is hard for anyone else to educate you. Even after learning of deficient behavior, the leader in an organization needs to make the effort to learn. With a viral pandemic competing for time and being "sensitive" on the list, it is understandable how it wasn't high enough on the priority list.

Will he learn or not? I suppose that is his choice and he will have time to decide now.

What is it with doctors' toxic god complex here?

To bad. WHO is beyond salvage with its political correctness. Kasai and people like him who call a spade a spade cannot remain. Same with some other UN agencies. Need a total remake.

BTW this is not the first time the WHO suffered under a Japanese- Hiroshi Nakajima who was a director general had his own scandals during his tenure as director general.

"30 unidentified staffers" lol. Can be anyone I guess. In addition, what he said may be mistranslation even or misunderstood. He should be given a chance to speak on what he meant.

Another example how racism and complex of superiority is deeply ingrained in Japan.

Kasai can have behave like this in his own country which such behavioir is widely accepted but in the international community not.

For sure Japan is declining with it’s international reputation.

And to add a note,some posters with multiple accounts just trolling should find psychiatric assistance ASAP.

Such elements fail to realize that such immature and hateful comments won’t do any good to the reputation of their “glorious” country.

Goodness me - I'm shocked, SHOCKED I say - to learn that a 60-year-old Japanese bloke thinks the Japanese are some kind of master race.

I will also be shocked to learn in a couple of weeks that this bigot is on full pay while on indefinite leave. Because nothing teaches you a lesson like putting your feet up and watching the yen keep pouring in.

depends on the country. Unlike YOU I know there are many countries in the west and all are different

It’s time to talk about anti-Asian racism in the UK

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/4/1/its-time-to-talk-about-anti-asian-racism-in-the-uk

Looks the same to me.

@Derek Grebe

a 60-year-old Japanese bloke thinks the Japanese are some kind of master race.

He left Japan long enough to not realize that his own country had the worst COVID outbreak in West Pacific.

The WHO (and every other international health authorities) can only make determinations based on data they recieved. 

The WHO is a corporate puppet.

The WHO is a corporate puppet.

Tedros is. His appointment was pushed by China.

Shocking. But then again, just another example of a Japanese "heavenly bureaucrat" misbehavin'.

He might be very surprised by the whole thing since he simply ran the organization just like anyone would have done it back home. Self patting, we're so much better than everyone else, then try to control (silence) any opinions against him.

The WHO is a corporate puppet.

Not really. It is a nation-state puppet of political people. Not the same thing, unless the countries are owned by corporations. That isn't the way most countries work, IME.

He might be very surprised by the whole thing since he simply ran the organization just like anyone would have done it back home. Self patting, we're so much better than everyone else, then try to control (silence) any opinions against him.

exactly and that's exactly what Nakajima the WHO director general did.

Nakajima fired Mohammed Abdelmoumene, an Algerian neurologist and Nakajima's deputy in August 1992 for "disloyalty"

Very normal for people from his generation.

Not a surprise at all, feeling over other asian nations is still in minds of many Japanese dinosaurs as Aso etc...for sure he will just leave to escape of being dismissed....but not without a golden bonus.

The WHO is a proxy for drug companies and American foreign policy. This guy was suited for his job.

This comment is totally unfair towards the Japanese people.

The actions of any government or official organization or military shouldn't be used as a degrading representation of the the entire population.

Remind me again, who elects the politicians?!

Government is a reflection of the people - especially when the same party with the same general principles have held power for generations.

Lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.

Spoken like a true follower of science.

Countdown before he becomes Japan's minister of health started. Give it two-three years.

In a statement, WHO said it was unknown how long Kasai would be away. 

Permanently?

The WHO is sometimes mistakenly thought of as a health authority. It isn't. It is an agency. It has no authority, unlike the CDC in the US, which has actual legal authority.

So, it is not surprising to see this type of behavior from the agency's leader in Asia.

Just another blunder for the WHO since the Covid crisis began--telling people not to wear masks, when the CDC was advising otherwise for example. Incredible as it seems.

Mishandling of malaria, and HPV issues, and of course Tedros having to overrule his committee on the monkey pox matter.

Defund the WHO!

Now THAT is what you call a wake up call. The loss of face on the global stage will be enough to send some serious ripples within the ‘eraisan’ community who think their brand will work overseas. It won’t. The power of underlings punching back!

The J locals should even take note! Like Aly said, if you’ve lived here enough you will have experience some pretty average behavior from the top.

Taking from my Japanese relatives, I'd say that Japanese trend towards anti-Asainism. On whole, they prefer to associate themselves with westerners, be it English or America.

“lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.” Maybe not the best wording there on his part. Not entirely untrue though. But you can also blame the spread of Covid in the US to the disparate socioeconomic structure of the country too. He sounds like a typical Japanese boss who nobody likes.

Good riddance. A scumbag.

Where does this superiority complex come from in Japan? I mean, every time I think about it, I look around me, and can't fathom why anyone would think like that.

Superiority complex manifest from one psychological inferiority complex

If anyone is surprised I think they avoid news and have some way of living in a bubble of ignoring or backflip justification.

Look at Covid, look at Monkey pox read the comments section here and elsewhere.

Despite the Japanese traveling bringing these infections back, we still hear the doctors, government, politicians and people here try pointing to foreigners as the danger.

With a general public view and the establishment view like that, is it surprising that an old Japanese male doctor acts the same?

The WHO is sometimes mistakenly thought of as a health authority. It isn't. It is an agency. It has no authority, unlike the CDC in the US, which has actual legal authority.

You are still confused about what it means to be a health/medical/scientific authority. This means it can validly decide on matters over which its authority is recognized, legal authority is a completely different matter. You have called the CDC a global authority before, but obviously it has absolutely no legal authority all over the world (and it is a federal agency, which would completely contradict your point).

Yes, it’s become nearly impossible to speak out loud about the obvious truth.

Just another blunder for the WHO since the Covid crisis began--telling people not to wear masks, when the CDC was advising otherwise for example. Incredible as it seems.

Mishandling of malaria, and HPV issues, and of course Tedros having to overrule his committee on the monkey pox matter.

Both comments about the WHO are incorrect, all scientific institutions of importance recommended prioritizing masks for hospitals and dealing with symptomatic patients, this is because that is what the scientific evidence could demonstrate at the beginning of the pandemic, in this the CDC and the WHO both coincided in their recommendations. These changed only after new evidence proved a value in mask use by asymptomatic people during daily life.

Also, "overruling" can't be used when there was no decision to overrule in the first place, by definition it requires a previous decision to be contradicted by a new one, in the case of monkey pox the specific committee did not reach a decision whether to decide a public health emergency or not, and left that to the head of the organization to decide.

Laguna

Today 11:01 am JST

Taking from my Japanese relatives, I'd say that Japanese trend towards anti-Asainism. On whole, they prefer to associate themselves with westerners, be it English or America

I first really notice this attitude when my children started school.

Mixed Caucasian/Japanese they would come home and tell me how the mixed Filipino/Japanese, Mixed black/Japanese friends and classmates were treated.

Listening to teachers, parents use the word "Hafu" in a very different tone and meaning then when using it towards Caucasian mixed.

My children are in their mid 20s and nothing has changed, their non western mixed friends still face regular discrimination that my children don't face as much.

This problem is a top down problem.

The government makes a big deal about foreigners being the danger for Covid and monkey pox, the government leaders at one point claimed genetics/hygiene etc.. being special to the Japanese.

So with this display at the top of the government and people like Kasai, is it surprising that the society in general has this same attitude?

Might make a great Minister of Health here. Or better even, Foreign Minister?

The WHO is sometimes mistakenly thought of as a health authority. It isn't. It is an agency. It has no authority, unlike the CDC in the US, which has actual legal authority.

You are still confused about what it means to be a health/medical/scientific authority. This means it can validly decide on matters over which its authority is recognized, legal authority is a completely different matter. You have called the CDC a global authority before, but obviously it has absolutely no legal authority all over the world (and it is a federal agency, which would completely contradict your point).

Ohhh-you do not understand that the WHO has no legal authority anywhere? Obvious, as you provide no source to the contrary. So, for us laymen, we need to look at sources to substantiate our claims, don't we?

Let's look at the CDC's legal authority:

Legal Authorities for Isolation and Quarantine

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantineisolation.html

And you claim, again with no source, that the CDC is not a global authority?

Let's look at the countries where the CDC works, establishing it as a global authority:

Countries Where CDC Works

https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/countries/default.htm

Japan's superiority complex and workplace bullying strikes again. Maybe this will make them realize that such notions will not fly outside of Japan and employees will stand up for themselves. I hope this PoS is put on leave without pay, though he should have been dismissed from WHO already in my opinion.

So when will Kasai be fired? I assume it is a matter of time (the sooner the better). When Kasai is fired from the WHO he likely to find a comfortable place in the LDP where his bigoted views would be welcomed by the party's ultra-rightwing.

@divindaToday 07:38 am JST

Sad it was uncovered by AP, and not the J-media.

In this instance, one reason is that even if they noticed it, they probably didn't even think it was a big deal. Based on the accusations:

Documents and recordings showed Kasai made racist remarks to his staff and blamed the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.”

Let's dig into this. What's the complaint? Obviously, there are some jurisdictions that did better than Japan: Taiwan, Korea, New Zealand. But are there ones that did worse? And if there are, is it really that unthinkable that it might be caused by "inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level"?

Of course, committing to such a course would mean you have to eat egg when the statistics turn against you.

But is it wrong in principle to recognize that the averages are not the same in all countries, that for example a country with poorer hygiene practices (taking the average) might be a more likely spreader? We can certainly argue had Japanese been more self-disciplined as a whole, numbers in Japan would be lower.

If you are willing to take the lumps when the numbers are against you, I don't see a problem when the numbers are on your side.

Several WHO staffers working under Kasai said he improperly shared sensitive coronavirus vaccine information to help Japan, his home country, score political points with its donations.

To be blunt, I call this one of the expected perks of winning an office like this. Why should I even donate one of my best people if I can't even take home a connection?

In essence, supposedly Kasai found out which countries needed vaccines most desperately and slipped a word to Japan, who donated vaccines to buy itself a few political points. We may also infer that had he not done so, Japan would either not have sent vaccines or it would have sent them to a less needy country. How is THAT a better outcome?

Superiority complex manifest from one psychological inferiority complex

VERY true

Kazuaki Shimazaki

So what you are saying is that we should pad him on the back and say good job? And ignore racist, abusive and unethical behavior that undermined the U.N. agency’s efforts to stop the coronavirus pandemic in Asia, just like it is done in Japan?!? Other countries do not accept all the BS that is so prevalent in Japan!

"who" should look at their wrong doing first, let china manipulated them regards to first exposure of covid.

who" should look at their wrong doing first, let china manipulated them regards to first exposure of covid.

Manipulated how? the WHO was simply left in the dark without the information that China had that would have made the control of the pandemic easier, but that is something shared with every other scientific and medical authority of the world, the one that have to assume responsibility for that is China, not the WHO, which by the way has no mechanism to force any country in the world to cooperate if they don't want to, after the 2009 swine influenza pandemic countries of the world made sure to leave the organization without any power even if now they complain precisely about this lack of leverage.

Ohhh-you do not understand that the WHO has no legal authority anywhere?

The important thing and that you have not refuted anytime is that being a scientific authority, medical authority, etc. do not have the requirement of having legal authority either. That is why you are mistaked thinking a doctor have no medical authority just because he is not a policeman at the same time.

And you claim, again with no source, that the CDC is not a global authority

If it was a global authority then it could impose whatever measures it gives globally, which obviously is not the case, it has absolutely no legal authority outside of the US, "works with" do not mean "subjected to their authority", if that were the case how come China has not been forced to follow every CDC recommendation?

Burning Bush

Today 12:49 pm JST

“There have been a lot of bad regional directors at WHO, but I’ve never heard of action like this,” Gostin said.

> I wonder why he got the grief but the others didn't.

Well the only difference is the others as far as I could find were corruption, abuse of power, inappropriate behaviour, all or a combination of some.

The unique one here seems the Racism complaints.

I suspect corruption, etc...are things most have already encountered and didn't take to personally.

Racism is often taken more personally and elicits stronger feelings.

If someone calls people names is abusive in the office and just does it to everyone, people tend to be more willing to tolerate it especially if it is a good job.

But if that abuse is based on race and more towards certain races, then people tend to be far more ready to fight back.

If a boss calls everyone stupid regularly, vs only calling the black employees stupid you can expect a very different reaction.

Pure speculation on my part regarding this particular case.

LagunaToday  11:01 am JST

Taking from my Japanese relatives, I'd say that Japanese trend towards anti-Asainism. On whole, they prefer to associate themselves with westerners, be it English or America.

Put up their feet on tables in Asia but too afraid to order a cup of coffee in the US.

Yeah unfortunately his views and way of thinking is quite rife throughout the country lead by a large number of politicians who basically spout this rubbish and still remain in their positions.

@

Aly RustomToday  12:47 pm JST

Superiority complex manifest from one psychological inferiority complex

VERY true

Yup it a form of projection.

"lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level."

Giving orders to his staff to protect himself.

Redirecting vaccines for his own personal interest

Total denial while proof have been showed.

Yep, he´s fit to become a good ranking LDP politician.

He'll be welcomed home as a hero, his dismissal seen as "foreign interference", and his abuse not at all mentioned or discussed, just ignored.

The same thing happens with directors of Japanese organizations overseas, except without the scandals. People working with agencies like JICA will have infinite examples to share about racist, misogynists, creepy things important people love to say that would cause headlines if repeated elsewhere.

Everyone is happy to gather here.

Not a fan of the WHO in light of their initial handling of the pandemic, however good he has been stood down.

I mean seriously, the man works for the ‘United Nations’ so he should be mindful of how he deals with other cultures/races. Was there no such code of conduct or the like?

As for his belief that the Japanese approach to corona was superior, that was shared by pretty much everyone in the country, from the average guy on the street, to the man at the very top:

It's absolutely abysmal. What a way to live.

Having the highest number of Coronavirus infections in the world must have been heartbreaking for the Japanese.

No sympathy here, and throughout the whole pandemic I've found the Japanese to be the least empathetic of all nations.l regarding COVID.

The epitome of the average Japanese oyaji and the society in general. Won't get much coverage in Japan but it really feels good to see one of them get taken down a few notches. He'll still be blaming foreigners because his arrogance and upbringing won't let him think he did anything wrong. Good riddance!

I don't know where to stand on this one, however looking at the following quoted statement:

"lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.”

I don't see anything wrong with this, perhaps the use of "race" is a trigger point for most to get upset at... though, when you consider that the Far East probably has the most Diversity amongst peoples within the World - ignoring the "traditional" definition of major races .. Island races have a large variation - consider the "Bajau" as an example, where they actually do, have an evolved Physical difference from the rest of us, and so on. I guess more research needs doing to properly categorize all the various differences and classify these as "racial differences", but ... differences they are - and something not to be ashamed of - though Medically, such differences may pose challenges to the "one shoe fits all" approach.

Inferior Culture - I could use that term to describe the differences between the UK and France, and flip it eitherways depending upon what I was wishing to explain.

Socioeconomics level - poorer nations, do not have the resources as Richer ones... that's common sense.

Now, I am not defending him. I'm just simply making a statement of fact. There's probably a lot more to this Story, perhaps even resentment for his being "Japanese" within the region even down to Historical reasons... who knows (CHINA is well known as having influence upon the WHO...)

Ideally we need to know more details in order to draw our own conclusions, and I doubt that we will ever find out the finer details, so I will elect to sit on the fence here.

I don't see anything wrong with this

And that speaks much more about you than the situation, qualifying other races and cultures as inferior is too obviously an invalid personal judgment that clearly indicates inappropriate discrimination.

Your excuse would work finely if he said "different" culture, race and socioeconomic levels, but he said inferior, that you would also use this to describe other cultures do not exculpate him, it just include you in the group of people that think some cultures are better than others based completely in your personal opinion.

Your statement of fact is reduced then to say you would have said the same. And that some unknown fact could excuse an official in charge of or something made for international cooperation expressing deeply inappropriate things that go against everything he should be working for.

@virusrexToday 07:42 am JST

As a person who previously made a broadly similar statement on this point, I think this goes to me too, so:

Your excuse would work finely if he said "different" culture, race and socioeconomic levels, but he said inferior

I must admit that the value of this distinction is lost on me. Once you acknowledge that there are such things as different cultures, that without denying there is overlap each country's average or spread is different, it's hard to deny that some cultures are better placed to resolve certain problems than others, and some cultures may really just be inferior (or superior) in most things.

To use a COVID example, it's not hard to understand that a culture that encourages the firing of lawsuits to resist collective measures to prevent spread of disease shouldn't be shocked if his country is doing poorly in stopping said disease spread. In that respect at least, it is inferior.

There's only so much you can do to put a wrapper on it, and perhaps you shouldn't, because only by coldly identifying problems with candor can you hope to solve them. If you can't even admit that you are a particularly lawsuit loving people and that it may be interfering with your ability to control disease, you can't make an intelligent decision on whether you as a people want to keep your lawsuit loving habit.

I must admit that the value of this distinction is lost on me

So if someone says you are an inferior person you would take it the same as if he was saying you were a different person? That makes no sense.

it's hard to deny that some cultures are better placed to resolve certain problems than others

Which of course is a completely different thing than just qualify those cultures as "inferior". Which would mean a general statement about the whole culture. Including obviously things that are just subjective.

It makes as much sense as saying one color is "inferior" than another, you can say you like more one, or that is better suited for one specific purpose, but calling it inferior has no logical value.

I'd feel better, but only b/c I'm in denial that he might well have been using an euphemism to avoid the I-word. I can keep my happiness by effectively pretending he said nothing, even though he might well have.

Which of course is a completely different thing than just qualify those cultures as "inferior".

If Culture B is indeed weaker in some things, and has no countervailing advantages in sight, insisting on not saying it is inferior is just delaying the inevitable.

It makes as much sense as saying one color is "inferior" than another

Even with colors, while not every color can be said to be inferior to another color, there are some real candidates for "inferior" color. Consider the color 204,204,0 on the RGB scale. It's not bright, it's not dark. Not cheery, not sharp. I doubt it is anyone's favorite color. At least I can't think of how I might defend it if someone called it Inferior.

If Culture B is indeed weaker in some things, and has no countervailing advantages in sight, insisting on not saying it is inferior is just delaying the inevitable.

You could try and prove that is the case objectively, but nobody has done such a thing this means it is still a completely invalid statement. Again with the example of the colors, it is trivially easy to find something of value on any, specially when you begin to deal with unmeasurable or subjective things. This is what makes the use of "inferior" an invalid judgment to make, even if the person was not in the position of Kasai.

Even with colors, while not every color can be said to be inferior to another color, there are some real candidates for "inferior" color. 

No, there are no such things, your personal feelings about what makes this color inferior can be easily countered by the personal opinion of someone that consider that color superior precisely because it is "not bright, it's not dark. Not cheery, not sharp." you doubting something do not make it so.

So at the end you are only trying to pass a personal subjective judgment as if it was something that everybody should agree with, giving importance to some arbitrary factor to compare things and decide if one is inferior to another, that is obviously a terribly irrational position to take.

Maybe Dr Kasai can explain why Covid is so prevalent in Japan where I was infected instead of several other countries that I have visited recently?

This dude isn't the only one to say this. The director at the beginning was accused but the WHO loed and ran cover for him even though he had actively allowed villages of infected people to die because it benefited a local warlord. They also buried the first SARS outbreak in 2002 per CBC investigation that is still posted online saying they couldn't tell the CCP how to run their own country. The documents are still on the WHO website sitting a refusal by the doctor working with the bats to provide samples from the beginning of the outbreak. This was intentional. The release was in February stating that all counties were having a hard time growing samples but no mention of the WHO having issues via twitter only a lone PDF posted on their site.