The Black Lives Matter movement that started in the United States has spread across the world – and Japan is no exception.
In our recent Unseen Japan Crowdcast, co-host Sachiko Ishikawa and I were joined by Ayana Wyse (Yana), one of the organizers of the Peaceful March in Osaka, who told us how the event came to be, as well as what she hopes changes for Black citizens and residents in Japan going forward. We were also joined by Wakako Fukuda, an original member of the Japanese student activist group SEALDs, who shared her thoughts on the Black Lives Matter march in Tokyo and on activism (or the lack thereof) in Japan in general. And Sachiko shared her thoughts and experiences as a participant in a Black Lives Matter protest in Tokyo.
Panel Participants
Jay Allen – Publisher, Unseen Japan. Japan nerd. White. Bald. Resides in Seattle and (occasionally) Tokyo.
Sachiko Ishikawa – Japanese Feminist and activist. Co-host of the Unseen Japan Crowdcast. Resides in Tokyo. (Read Sachiko’s piece on Japan’s Flower Demos)
Yana – Photographer, event organizer, and American from New York (“NOT the city!”) living in Osaka, Japan for the past nine years. One of the organizers of the Black Lives Matter Peaceful March in Osaka. Co-host of the Kurly in Kansai podcast. Member of the Black Creatives Japan collective.
Wakako Fukuda – Japanese Feminist and activist. Former member of student activist group SEALDs, which led protests against the Secrets Information Protection Act passed by the Abe administration. Resides in Tokyo. (Read a translation of one of Wakako’s recent essays on Unseen Japan)
Notable Quotes
Yana on How It All Came Together
“I had started with the Facebook group and then told [my friend], hey, this is the team I got from my group, Black Creatives Japan, then I was like, maybe this person can join, this person can join…and basically, we ended up with ten people to start doing all this organizing. Her friend, who’s Japanese-Peruvian, went to the police maybe on a Tuesday. So they did a poll June 1st, they went to the police June 2nd, 3rd and 4th just to make sure everything’s okay, and also went to the park to get a permit….So within basically five days, with ten people, we were able to organize a march of over 1,000 to 2,000 people.”
Yana on The Lack of Issues and Harassment
“Two people I know actually approached [a man who’d threatened on Twitter to cause trouble at the march] and were asking, What is your reason for coming here – like, why are you trying to cause trouble? And they were saying some really anti-Semitic stuff as well, so they were like, you know what? We’re just gonna leave you alone. And then they walked away….And that was it, they just walked away after a while. I never saw the person.
“After that, I was like, Oh well, nobody else is causing any trouble. I feel like this is a successful march and nobody’s really giving us issues. And there were people on the side who didn’t know what the march was about, but I guess they see some signs and they put their fist up or, you know, just support it in some way. Some people also looked very confused, and that’s fine too.”
Sachiko on Marching Next to the Police…While Protesting the Police
“I remember walking, like marching, and then there were policemen around us. And they were yelling at each other…Also I was surrounded by foreigners – non-Japanese – and they were saying like, ‘Fuck the police! Fuck the police!’ So…I said ‘Fuck the police’ with them! And because I was surrounded by the police it was like, [quiet voice] “fuck…the…police!”
Wakako on “Who’s Japanese”?
“After the march, I was reading tweets and comments in Japanese, and I’ve seen quite a few of them saying, like, ‘I wish there were more Japanese people at the march.’ And I’m like: How can you tell who’s Japanese and who’s not? You know? Are you saying that because these people that you saw at the march don’t look like you? Or don’t talk like you? So you assume that they’re not Japanese or not from here….That is problematic. The whole mindset needs to be changed. So I think there’s a lot more work to do from here.”
Yana Responds to the Question: “Will a Peaceful March Really Change Systemic Racism in Japan?”
“It’s not necessarily the sole purpose. A peaceful march, really what it is, is to wake people up and to tell people, There are some things going on you might not be aware of. So if more people understand what’s actually going on, then there might be some actions that happen behind the scenes that we might not know of, but people are like, ‘You know, this keeps going on, we see that a thousand or two or three or four people say this is wrong – maybe it’s time to change.’
“But maybe they won’t do anything either. But if we keep doing something continuously and keep making people aware…then, eventually, something will change. But knowing Japan and the government and how systems work here, it will take a lot longer than we hope.”
Further Reading
Yana in the Japan Times on the march
