Human rights in Japan

Japan is a constitutional monarchy. The Human Rights Scores Dataverse ranked Japan somewhere in the middle among G7 countries on its human rights performance, below Germany and Canada and above the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and the United States.[1] The Fragile States Index ranked Japan second last in the G7 after the United States on its "Human Rights and Rule of Law" sub-indicator.[2]

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) for 2022, the MOJ human rights organs received 159,864 consultations on human rights violations, completed 7,627 cases of remedial measures for victims, and initiated 7,859 cases of remedial measures.[3] Of the cases in which the MOJ completed redress for victims, the largest number of cases related to discriminatory treatment were for discriminated burakumin (406 cases), followed by the physically disabled, the sick, foreign residents, women, the elderly, and gender identity.[3] Of the cases in which the MOJ initiated redress for victims, 18.6% involved privacy violations, 14.5% involved labor rights, 13.3% involved school bullying, 12.8% involved assault and abuse, and 10.2% involved extortion and coercion. According to the MOJ, the number of human rights violations has decreased from year to year, but the number of cases of school bullying and human rights violations on the Internet remained high.[3]

Foreigners in Japan may face human rights violations that Japanese citizens do not. In recent years, Western media has reported that Japanese firms frequently confiscate the passports of guest workers in Japan, particularly unskilled laborers from the Philippines and other poorer Asian countries.[4][5]

  1. ^ Fariss, Christopher (May 27, 2019). "Latent Human Rights Protection Scores Version 3". Harvard Dataverse. doi:10.7910/DVN/TADPGE. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ "Global Data | Fragile States Index". fragilestatesindex.org. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "令和4年における「人権侵犯事件」の状況について(概要)" (PDF). Ministry of Justice (Japan). p. 3-5, 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 15, 2023. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
  4. ^ "Ghosn wasn't the only one trapped in Japan — many foreign workers also want to escape". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
  5. ^ Murakami, Sakura (January 23, 2020). "Japan should ban confiscation of foreign employees' passports, lawyer says". Reuters. Retrieved June 10, 2021.