Text: Zac CRAVEN (U.K.)

Today I read a headline in the Mainichi Shinbun Online that stated ‘Shoplifting foreigner struck dead by train while escaping.' Why did they specify it was a foreigner?

The point of the article is that a thief was hit by a train, in some rare kind of divine justice. The fact that he is a foreigner is totally irrelevant. In fact, by saying "he was a foreigner," the newspaper is just reinforcing the stereotype Japanese have that foreigners cause most of the crime in Japan. I am tired of seeing this kind of unnecessary racist writing.

In the UK thirty or more years ago, newspapers often wrote in this style. But these days, newspapers understand that it is racist, so they do not specify the skin color or nationality unless it is relevant. So in a UK newspaper, the headline above would be "Shoplifter struck dead by train while escaping." Of course, they also understand that if a dangerous and violent criminal is "on the loose" in some small community, then it is relevant to describe their skin color and general appearance. I wish the Japanese newspapers would catch up with this way of thinking.

But of course it is not only newspapers that do this. When regular people say things like "my friend Adam, from France ..." or "I saw this black guy on the train ..." they are also subconsciously perpetrating stereotypes. Let's just keep to the point of the story, instead of dwelling on what nationality or race people are.

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