1. (CEDAW and Government)
The Cabinet Office is in charge of the CEDAW. Monitoring the implementation
of the CEDAW by that office has not been very effective. There is little
possibility of Ombsperson's being introduced.
2. (NGO and government support)
There is no NGO here financially supported by the Government.
3. (Comfort Women)
No. The Government has not offered any compensation or rehabilitation
to the victims. The Asian Women's Fund is not a government organization.
4. (Amended Equal Employment Opportunity Law and sexual
harassment)
Art.21 of the 1999 Amended Equal Employment Opportunity Law stipulates
that business proprietors must exercise precautions in their employment
management to prevent sexual harassment, but while this obligates proprietors
to take precautions, it does not prohibit sexual harassment for being
against the law. A 1999 survey showed that only 34.3 % of companies
had created offices for consultation and handling complaints. (For the
details, see the attached document).
5. (Origin of Buraku)
Buraku people or Burakumin are discriminated against on the basis of
their social status or descent. It is said that the feudal class system
was established during late 16th Century to early 17th Century based
on medieval social discrimination. Burakumin were placed at the bottom
of the society as Eta (extreme filth) and Hinin (non-human) classes
(similar to the out caste). Buraku literally means "village"
in Japanese, but at present, this word is mostly referred to as communities
where discriminated-against Buraku people reside.
6. (AINU)
There is no court specific for Ainu. There is no reservation in Japan.
Since the AINU is not ensured indigenous rights by the Japanese Government,
they don't have their judicial courts.
7. (Forced retirement on child birth)
The employers often take advantages of social expectation that women
should stay at home. The employers claim that it is not economically
efficient to continue to employ those who cannot be relocated to elsewhere
or work over time.
8. (Family register)
Discriminatory expressions concerning the child born out of wedlock
are in the family relations column. People can easily recognize them
just at a glance. In the family matters column, there is no discriminatory
expression. The events of each family member, from birth to marriage
to death, are described in sentences, including acknowledgement of child
born out of wedlock by fathers, if the father acknowledges the child
born out of wedlock.
9. (Minority women statistics)
According to a 1993 government survey, there were about 1.2 million
Buraku people at 4442 Buraku communities nationwide. However, actual
figures are estimated by Buraku Liberation Movement is that there are
6,000 Buraku Communities with a population of over 3 million. The population
of migrant workers, immigrants, and refugees is 1,200,000 (1 % of the
total population) as of 2001 governmental survey. (*Except Korean and
Taiwanese who have lived in Japan since before WWII). People of Korean
ethnic origin is approximately 1 million (among them 632, 405 are registered
as aliens.) The government states that the AINU population is approximately
26,000. However, actual figures are estimated to be more than 10 times
as large as this number.
10. (Paternity litigation)
The mother can file a case for paternity on behalf of the child. Even
if the child is recognized by the father, the status of the child as
born out of the wedlock is unchanged.
11. (National Human Rights Commission)
The government proposed bill to found the National Human Rights Commission
neither ensures sufficient independence from the government as overseen
by the Ministry of Justice nor effective remedies for violations by public
authorities. Furthermore, the bill provides poor remedies for violations
of women's rights. It excludes gender discrimination in the field of employment
and labour conditions. The government should immediately and drastically
amend the bill to found a National Human Rights Commission which can provide
remedies for any kind of gender discrimination with adequate independence
from the government and sufficient privileges.
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