午夜剧场

On the morning after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, I got off the subway passing through an immigrant neighborhood in Berlin and hurried toward the exit. Less than 24 hours had passed since the incident was discovered. In Germany, along with information that the hijackers were Arab students from the Hamburg University of Technology, a sense of paranoia was spreading that the perpetrator group might be hiding in Germany.

This is the scene I encountered: a German citizen was shouting at an Islamic immigrant, "Terrorists get out of Germany!" and glared at me, saying, "This is what happens because immigrants are increasing." That incident made me realize that I was on the "hated side," and I began to follow the trail of the terrorist leader, Mohamed Atta. Chapter 6, "Hijack Terrorist Mohamed Atta and His Era," serves as the highlight of that journey.

Of Germany's total population of approximately 83 million (2018 Federal Statistical Office of Germany), 20.8 million—or one-quarter—have a migration background. These are individuals who were born without German citizenship themselves, or whose parents were. The core consists of migrant workers and their families who supported the economic growth of East and West Germany after the war. Germans are now diversifying. In economically distressed areas and among impoverished people, the number of those who cannot withstand diversification and support exclusionary nationalism is increasing. This is the future of Japan. Such thoughts were the direct motivation for writing this book. I wrote about the background of the immigrants who are hated in Germany and their various joys and sorrows.

In 2018, Japan approved the amendment to the Immigration Control Act in a cabinet meeting. A large number of migrant workers will arrive. The flip side of a society with few births and many deaths is an immigrant society. From now on, the vague understanding that "Japanese people are those with the same blood flowing through them" will no longer hold true. Japanese people with different skin colors will appear, and we will be forced to ask who a Japanese person is. If someone has a different skin color but is an "active and useful" Japanese person, we may accept them, but can we accept a "troubled and useless" Japanese person? While writing this book, I thought that living with the mindset that "everyone is different, and everyone is good" is the temporary solution for now.

Jun Kato

Sairyusha

270 pages, 2,200 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.