MANILA, Philippines—Lamenting the “culture of silence” that has made Japan ignore its “stigmatized communities” and keep a stony silence about the atrocities it committed in East Asia during the Second World War, Japanese book publisher Akio Ishii, the 2008 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, wants to compel his countrymen to face “the truth of history.”

In fact, he is looking for a “good and respected Philippine history book” that his Akashi Shoten publishing house could translate into Nippongo and publish “to convey the truth of World War II.”

“The Japanese people should learn from the Asian viewpoint. They should read books that clarify the truth of history,” said Ishii who was interviewed through his interpreter and editorial executive, Jinno Hitoshi.

Akashi Shoten has already published books on the “comfort women,” women in Japanese-occupied territories like the Philippines and Korea who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during the war.

It has also published a guide to the Philippines under its Area Studies imprint, “Understand Contemporary Philippines in 60 Chapters,” edited by Manila-based journalist Takushi Ono with Takefumi Terada.

Façade

In its citation of Ishii, the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation said that in publishing books about Japanese discrimination against minorities and other rights abuses, particularly during the war, Ishii has brought to light “complicated realities” that lie “behind Japan’s famous façade of social harmony and homogeneity.”

“Often hidden from view are troubling elements of the country’s social life involving stigmatized communities such as the burakumin and the minority ethnic groups like the Ainu or the many Koreans, Filipinos and other foreigners living in Japan today,” it said.

An institution in feudal Japan, the buraku system was a form of “social hamletting,” or segregation.

“Also hidden, and often denied, are troubling accounts of Japan’s past role as an imperial power,” the RMAF said.

The Magsaysay Award for Ishii is a recognition of “his principled career as a publisher, placing discrimination, human rights, and other difficult subjects squarely in Japan’s public discourse,” the RMAF said.

Ishii will join the six other Magsasay awardees this year in ceremonies at the Cultural Center of the Philippines today, Aug. 31 with President Macapagal-Arroyo as guest of honor.

Maverick and minority

In his public lecture (Sept. 1 at 3 p.m. at the Ramon Magsaysay Center), Ishii said he will tackle the “rightist drift” in the last 20 years among members of Japan’s younger generations, exemplified by the immediate former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, which has resulted in Japan glossing over its record during the Second World War in its history textbooks.

Ishii is considered a maverick in the Tokyo publishing world. Although Akashi Shoten pales in size when compared with Japan’s big-time publishing houses, it is big in heart with its dedication to publishing about human rights and social issues.

Ishii said there’s a “propensity of the Japanese publishing world to view issues surrounding discrimination as taboo.”

“To create a discrimination-free society, the important role taken by the publishing business cannot be underestimated,” he said.

“The publishing business must become a bastion for the movement to eliminate discrimination in thought and culture,” he said.

Thus was born 30 years ago the Akashi Shoten, which publishes books on human rights and the marginalized, such as the burakumin, Korean minorities, the elderly and the disabled, women and children, and people from developing countries like the Philippines who go to work in Japan.

Ishii knows what he’s talking about—or what he’s publishing—since he himself descended from a burakumin family.

Glossing over the unsavory

The burakumin is a largely unknown social issue to Filipinos and the rest of the world, a measure of how the Japanese establishment has been successful in glossing over some of Japan’s more unsavory social realities and rendering them invisible before the world.

To borrow from the American novelist Ralph Ellison who wrote about “niggers,” the burakumin are Japan’s “invisible men.” They are the Japanese version of India’s untouchables.

Buraku in fact is the Japanese word for village or hamlet. When the social status system was established during the Edo era in the 17th century, the burakumin were considered lower than the three main classes—warrior, peasant and townsfolk.

Non-human classes

They were considered as belonging to the “eta” (extreme filth) and “hinhin” (non-human) classes. These “filthy subhumans” were relegated to the buraku, or hamlets, outside of the establishment (“min” means people).

Although the Meiji government in 1871 issued an edict emancipating the burakumin, it failed to undertake measures to check prejudice against them. As Japan moved toward militarism in the period just before the Second World War, authorities suppressed a movement against burakumin discrimination.

Japan has since enacted laws to protect the burakumin, but incidents of discrimination persist, such as in marriage and employment and in discriminatory remarks or inquiries made by public officials and non-burakumins.

According to the Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute, estimates of burakumin range from 1.2 million to 3 million.

Ishii wears the badge of the burakumin proudly since he has named his publishing house after his hometown or hamlet, Akashi, in Hyogo-ken near Osaka, south of Tokyo. (Shoten means publishing house.)

And by operating a maverick publishing house in Japan’s capital, he has made the burakumin and other discriminated minorities of the world a central issue in Japan and a fly in the ointment as the country rose as a world economic superpower and a global financial capital.

Asian minorities

His campaign against discrimination of burakumin and other minorities dovetails with his largely pacifist social activism. While studying politics and economics at Waseda University in the 1960s, Ishii became involved in student activism and opposed the renewal of the Japan-United States treaty, which he felt was dangerous for Japan as it would suck the country into the whirlpool of East-West confrontation.

At 30, Ishii joined the burakumin liberation movement and became secretary general of the Tokyo Buraku Liberation Study Group chaired by the late respected novelist, Hiroshi Noma. It was when the group published its findings and studies that Ishi thought of becoming a publisher.

In 1978, he formed Akashi Shoten.

Publishing activism

Just as his publishing activism exposed the continued discrimination of burakumin, Ishii has turned to other minorities who have been similarly rendered “invisible” by Japan’s xenophobic establishment.

Ishii explained that while Japan’s population ages, more and more foreign workers will have to be recruited to work in the economy.

The entry of more foreign workers to Japan poses more possibilities of discriminatory practices. This issue was tackled in a book that Ishii published concerning the struggle of a married couple, a Japanese and a Bangladeshi, for the latter to get a special work permit from the justice ministry so he could remain in the country.

Rights handbook in 18 languages

Ishii said more and more migrant workers will come to Japan and they will be prone to abuse. To help check the potential for discrimination, Akashi has published the “Human Rights Handbook for Foreigners in Japan” in 18 languages, including Urdu, Vietnamese and Iranian.

Akashi has also published the Japanese translation of the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families.

Because Japan continues to refuse to ratify the convention, there was no official Japanese translation until four high school students from Kanagawa-ken in Honshu translated it. Their translation was published by Ishii.

More recently, Akashi has published what it calls “Area Studies,” which seem to take after the travel books genre but which are really surveys of the history, politics, culture and lifestyle of different nations.

The series obviously targets the ubiquitous big-spending Japanese tourist, something like a Lonely Planet in Nippongo but with intellectual weight, political activism and cultural enlightenment.

“In this acclaimed series compiled by leading regional scholars and complete with rich photographs and illustrations, you are guided through the beauty of every country and region of the world, learning both things you always wanted to know and things you never knew,” reads the series’ blurb.

The series includes surveys of South Korea, China, Taiwan, Tibet, Vietnam, Mongolia, Nepal, Thailand, India, Central Asia, the Philippines, and several other Asian countries. It also covers Russia, France, Spain, Portugal, England, and other European countries. There are even guidebooks on Brazil and Malawi.

Obviously, the series doesn’t pander to the stereotype of the Minolta-camera-carrying Japanese tourist who cannot really know and appreciate the place he is visiting beyond the obligatory snapshots. The series is trained at checking Japanese xenophobia.

Foster father

Akashi has lately published books on the rights of the disabled, of women and children.

Ishii said single parents have been discriminated against, along with their children, and he seems to have taken his new advocacy to heart. Eighteen years ago, he became a foster parent to an abandoned boy. He has since adopted the child, who is now 22 years old and a university student.

Ishii said abandoned children and those born of single parents face discrimination in society. “It is an injustice because children couldn’t choose their parents. So why should they be punished?” said Ishii.

Balancing romance, realism

Aside from publishing books about children’s rights, Ishii supports homes for abused and abandoned children.

In fact, he intends to donate the $50,000 that comes with his Magsaysay Award to a children’s facility.

A businessman and an idealist, Ishii said he is happy that he has been able to put into practice his burning idealism, but without losing his shirt.

“Publishing is very exciting,” he said. “It is very romantic. The trick lies in balancing romance with realism.”