There can be no such thing as a developed country without anti-racial discrimination laws. I feel angry about organizations promoting xenophobia using public facilities for their activities.

Thank you Noriko-san!!

And don't forget gender & age discrimination, these are huge!!!

Great to see somebody take a stand. My only worry is that speaking up is equivalent to painting a target on yourself.

Restrictions on speech are almost never OK. The cure for objectionable speech is refutation and counter-argument, not government intervention.

Yeah, you had me on the "anti-racial discrimination laws" part until I read that this was about hate speech. The US protects hate speech and is plenty developed, thank you very much. Developed countries actually require nearly absolute freedom of speech. The only exception being direct threats.

Yeah, there is nothing really in common between discrimination and hate speech. Let haters have their say, then either ignore them or prove them wrong in the court of public opinion. I'd rather know who the haters are than have them skulk about in the dark.

Where is the line drawn? Outside a Korean school that children have had to endure bigotry. Hate speech or racial discrimination?

Passing laws of course are never the total answer. Education is a step closer to understanding what motivates intolerance. I love Japan and aspire to my families genuine conservative values without any personalisation of racial groups or kicking the toys out the pram when neighbouring countries start finger pointing because some politician has decided to shoot there mouth off. Getting a jury to convict a suspect on the grounds of racially motivated crimes are extremely rare and difficult to prove.

Good to know that. My wife is from Sakai.

The rally group is not targeting for the children, but for the school which uses the public park next door as if their own, unlawful occupant.

Judge Hiroshi Mori, summing up.... “The activities related to the rallies using handheld microphones were conducted with the intent of appealing to the general public their discriminatory feelings toward Korean nationals living in Japan, the activities cannot be considered as having the objective of contributing to the public interest. The students at the school suffered major psychological damage through the irrational acts of racial discrimination.”...... The ruling was based around the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. What is interesting about this case was that the compensation was based around "hate speech" targeting a minority group. Although the issue of public order was considered... The principal was fined for violating the law controlling urban parks. The question is how far should the law apply, what constitutes "hate speech" and "racial discrimination"...

Tina - please explain what on earth you're going on about.

Tina:

That's very disgusting of you to say so, but not unexpected. If you want to target the actual school, then speak to the board or headmaster (in a civilized manner) instead of going there and frightening kids who are caught in the middle through no fault of theirs.

Yamaguchi-san, thank you. This is the type of person Japan needs!

speak to the board or headmaster (in a civilized manner)

I don't know if the board or headmaster are acting in a civilized manner to begin with. They are fined too by court.

I don't know if the board or headmaster are acting in a civilized manner to begin with.

oh, you think "you?" Unless you have proof, all you are doing is spreading baseless rumors. Even if the headmasters were not acting in a civilized manner, it certainly does not justify a group of adults terrorizing and harassing little kids...

They are fined too by court.

Really? I read newspapers daily in both Japanese and English. Sources? Links?

@Thomas

Really? I read newspapers daily in both Japanese and English. Sources? Links?

You can easily find it by entering key words, it's well known. Even itsonlyrocknroll above mentions it. The Korean school has been illegally occupying the park next door for 50 years, which the rally group was making speech about because other people could not use the park.