“Election hate” intensifies again with street demonstrations and anti-election protests in Saitama’s Kawaguchi mayoral election

https://www.47news.jp/13744021.html

　Hate speech using political activism as a pretext is once again intensifying. In Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture , where discrimination against Kurdish residents in Japan has become a problem, candidates for the mayoral election, which is due to be announced on the 25th, have repeatedly staged xenophobic street campaigns, drawing crowds of citizens who oppose discrimination.

　On Sunday afternoon, the 18th, in front of JR Kawaguchi Station, members of a political group led by Kawai Yusuke, a Toda City council member in the prefecture, took to the microphone and unleashed a barrage of hate speech. Kawai made an unsubstantiated claim that "Kurdish crime rates are 20 times higher than Japanese crimes," and emphasized that he would make this an issue in the House of Representatives election. A man who is an officially endorsed candidate for Kawaguchi mayor made the unsubstantiated claim that "foreigners are receiving preferential treatment."

　Around the supporters waving the Japanese flag, citizens opposed to discrimination tried to drown out the speeches, shouting "Stop discrimination" and "Racists go home." A 56-year-old Pakistani man passing by was astonished, saying, "There are bad foreigners, but not all of them. There are bad Japanese, too. Can you win by badmouthing foreigners? Why don't you mention the crimes committed by U.S. soldiers in Okinawa?"

　Tatsuo Nukui, representative director of a Kurdish support group, pointed out that "it is strange that the 'issue of foreigners' has become a point of contention."