The Japanese Diet is presently working on legislation to outlaw “hate speech,” which is defined as the use of hateful expressions or speech designed to incite discrimination. In 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination both issued a recommendation to Japan to make hate speech and other discriminatory practices illegal. This has increased the demands from both inside and outside Japan to expedite efforts to pass such legislation, which would be in line with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and on par with legislation on the status of foreign residents of Japan. Representative of this effort is the International Conference held in the fall of 2015 by The Korean Christian Church in Japan.

The Kyodan relocated its headquarters to a temporary site from June 2014 until March 2016 while the Japan Christian Center in Nishi Waseda was being retrofitted for earthquake safety, and the location of those temporary offices was in a building in Okubo Dori 1-Chome in Shinjuku, exactly where the largest demonstrations concerning hate speech have taken place. It was also right at this time that the district court in Kyoto issued a ruling against a group that calls itself “The Citizen’s Group to Deny Special Privileges to Koreans in Japan,” which had held an inflammatory demonstration in front of the Kyoto Korean Elementary School in 2010. The final verdict against this group took place in October 2014, when they were ordered to pay compensation of 12,260,000 yen (about $110,000). Thus, fortunately, we did not have to witness such hate speech ourselves. The part of Tokyo where we were temporarily located had been referred to as “Korea Town,” since so many Korean restaurants and other businesses are there. However, it has now become very multicultural, with some 30 languages being used by people in the area.

Our country has been calling for internationalization, so we need to ensure that our actions match our words by quickly passing this legislation. It will be a disgrace if we do not. (Tr. TB)

—Nagasaki Tetsuo, general secretary

今、「ヘイトスピ－チ（差別煽動或いは憎悪表現）の法規制」をめぐり国会の議論は山場である。2014年には国連自由権規約委員会及び人種差別撤廃委員会から勧告がなされ、国内 外から、「人種差別撤廃基本法」「外国人住民基本法」と同等の効力をもってヘ イトスピ－チ等の差別行為を違法化する、国内法の整備を急ぐべきという強い要請が沸き起こった。2015年秋の在日大韓基督教会国際会 議は、その代表である。日本基督教団は2014年6月から2016年3月まで、西早稲田の日本キリスト教会館の耐震・補修工事で 、一時このヘイトスピ－チ・デモの国内最大地点であった、新宿区大久保通り一丁目に仮事務所を設けていた。

　丁度この期間、在特会（在日特権を許さない市民の会）主催のデモ が京都朝鮮第一初級学校を襲撃した件で、京都地裁が在特会に1226万円の賠償 金支払いを命じ、最高裁も2014年10月に最終判 決したこともあり、直接的なヘイトスピーチ等に出くわす機会はなかった。もとよりこの地域は通常「韓国人通り」と言われ、韓国系の店 舗・食堂が並ぶ街であるが、交わされる言語は30ケ国語以上にも達し、居住者は韓国系の方々のみならず、実に多国籍である。我が国はこれだけ国 際化を叫んでいるのだから、他国に恥じないよう、早急に法案可決をすべきである。　 長崎哲夫