Thursday, June 17, 2004

Top court endorses sports festival's ban on foreigners

This is an article about an American national, Tohoku University teacher, who sued Miyagi Prefecture for keeping him from playing hockey at the 2001 national sports festival.
Japan Today - News - Top court endorses sports festival's ban on foreigners - Japan's Leading International News Network

A quote from the article:

In supporting earlier rulings by the district and high courts, Presiding Justice Hiroshi Fukuda said the constitution's Article 14 that guarantees equal treatment under law does not deny reasonable discrimination such as the ban in question.

"Reasonable discrimination," isn't that an oximoron? Is there such a thing as reasonable discrimination? One might say that we discriminate everyday, that we choose the best person for a job, or which students get B's on tests. The difference is that the government gladly accepts our tax money for these boondoggles (and they are extraordinary tax wasters. I've seen it, and it's a story in itself.) , but prohibits us from participating. This isn't reasonable discrimination based on the merits of individual athletes' physical prowess. This is simply flouting the Japanese constitution and international treaties.

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