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Suzuko Hirano, 25, stands in front of protesters at a demonstration she organized at Tokyo's Shinbashi Station in July to support protesters in Hong Kong fighting a bill that would allow Hong Kongers to be extradited to mainland China. | RYUSEI TAKAHASHI
NATIONAL
Japan conspicuously silent as protests and violent crackdown roil Hong Kong
BY RYUSEI TAKAHASHI
STAFF WRITER
In Hong Kong, what began as a peaceful demonstration against a contentious extradition law has descended into a violent police crackdown and engulfed the former British colony in a symbolic fight against China’s authoritarian rule.
Protesters show no sign of backing down after more than 12 consecutive weeks of marches, sit-ins and disruptions. And China — which refers to the protesters as “terrorists” — has reportedly mobilized forces along its southern border in what many speculate is preparation for military intervention.
With no end in sight, a bloody climax seems to be looming on the horizon.
But while Western countries have been forthright in their opposition — both toward the controversial bill that sparked the first wave of protests in June and the way Beijing is handling the situation — Japan’s response has been “characteristically low-key,” said Toru Kurata, a political science professor at Rikkyo University.
“Compared with Western countries, Japan has never been outspoken against human rights issues,” Kurata said. “At the moment there’s no compelling reason for Japan to respond.”
More than 1.7 million people took part in a pro-democracy march on Aug. 18 to speak out against the Hong Kong police’s use of force in recent protests, according to organizers. That brought the number of participants in the roughly 60 demonstrations to an estimated 7.5 million over 12 weeks.
In Tokyo, however, turnout for similar demonstrations remains low.
“The concern that Japanese people have for problems in foreign countries is despairingly weak,” said Suzuko Hirano, 25, who has been organizing weekly demonstrations in Tokyo since June to show solidarity with the protesters in Hong Kong. “I’m not sure if it’s because Japan is an island country or because of our education, but Japanese people don’t pay much attention to things happening beyond our borders.”
About 40 people — most of them Hong Kongers in their 20s — have shown up at each of the protests, she said.
Political participation, much less activism, is a rare sight among Japanese youth, but Hirano took it upon herself to do what she can to support the protesters. She said her concern for issues abroad was influenced by the mass genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar in 2015 and, more recently, the internment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, China. She has been donating ¥5,000 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees every month for about two years.
Hirano had already organized four demonstrations in Tokyo by the time of this interview, and said more are in the works. She said many of the Hong Kongers who showed up were afraid to show their faces for fear of persecution.
To Hirano, the Japanese public seems unaware or unconcerned with what’s happening in Hong Kong. In other cases they can be hesitant to speak out publicly, said Mandy Tang, 19, an exchange student from Hong Kong studying in Tokyo.