By Lim Hanchun

In regards to the questions, "Has the 9-11 changed the world?" and "Was America's retaliation war right?" the intellectuals in the neo-liberal, the neo-conservative, and the radical left-wing have expressed their ideas ardently to the Mass Media. While these topics were being argued, one trivial incident, which such intellectuals would not have given much thought to, occurred in our daily life. It was an incident in which a Chinese non-native SU graduate, but who was still a special research student at SU, was arrested on suspicion of an offense of the Immigration Control and Refugee-Recognition Law (engaging in activity outside by the scope permitted by the visa), in September, in the midst of summer vacation.

Sapporo University authorities expelled the Chinese non-native student from Sapporo University, and the student was taken into Japanese court. Yet this measure could not dispose of all the problems, and later the SU authorities panicked when the Police came to campus to investigate the studentﾕs academic records. On the day of the investigation, TV cameramen and reporters from NHK and the other commercial broadcasting companies gathered at SU, and this incident was exaggeratedly reported as "the worst scandal in the history of Sapporo University" on the Sapporo University web-site.

The first action the panicked SU authorities took to resolve this incident was to utilize the Mass Media for propaganda. There was no action by SU authorities to try to understand the circumstances of all the non-native students through this incident, and the students became even more powerless politically and socially. In addition, one day after the investigation, "instructions" from SU authorities were sent to all non-native students, and they were compelled to gather. Needless to say, NHK cameras were there for the SU authorities propaganda purposes. The non-native students who had been turned into "bad foreigners" were told to hand in their bankbooks to SU authorities, and as a sort of threat if not accepting the ruling system of SU, the SU authorities said they would not provide meal tickets to those who refused. For Sapporo University authorities, all overseas students are just potential troublemakers because the SU authorities cannot know if or when they will cause a problem, in addition, SU authorities, by making them obey these absurd rules, are just repeating their justification to the Mass Media and society.

What comes to mind by seeing this series of events is the "Moral Panic" theory, written by Stanley Cohen in his book Fork Devils and Moral Panics　(Oxford up, 1987). He says that when some incident or event occurs, it will be identified as a threat to both social values and public welfare by the government, Mass Media, and the intellectuals. This process and countermeasures, in some cases, is called moral panic. This panic has no persuasive grounds, but it is regarded as what the dominant power fabricates as an ideology. Cohen criticizes the representation of race and the younger generation in the Media. Although this theory is British, it is also valid in Japan because the proposal of the revision of the Juvenile Law is always argued whenever some juvenile delinquency incident─thanks to the Mass Media─causes a moral panic. Moreover, we have to argue about the belief that security cameras increase safety in relation to the tragic murder of a child in Nagasaki. This incident also made the Japanese regard any young people as dangerous without special reason.

Danger doesn't occur only in big events or historical incidents such as 9-11. Therefore, we might need to be more sensitive to the dangers we perceive as "incidents" which happen unexpectedly sometimes in our daily lives.

Although I described things about the incident at Sapporo University, I donﾕt think they tell the complete story. This is just "my own" way to respond to the political authority at work in our daily lives. People have different impressions of certain things in regard to class status, race, and gender. Certainly there must those among us who feel differently about this incident. The SU authorities' viewpoint might differ from mine, and contrarily Chinese female non-native students might feel more annoyed and conflicted than me―a Korean male non-native student. I cannot speak for everyone. For instance, the SU authorities and Mass Media's treatment of the non-native students as outsiders is not objective. There is already some framework to conceptualize the non-native students, and we have to consider that the Mass Media and the SU authorities reported this incident under this preconceived framework.

Since the case where a family in Fukuoka was murdered, TV programs like "24-Hour-Criminal-Search―Chasing Thieves from Foreign Countries" have been increasing: this is a typical example of the presentation in Japan feel ashamed. They make non-native students of outsiders in Media. But we rarely hear any comments in support of non-native students. Edward Said, Palestinian Literary critic and philosopher who recently passed away and who has always been on the side of the minority said, "Intellectuals should be the outsiders, the amateurs, the disturbances of the present circumstance." He appeals to us to reconsider unusual situations such as 9-11 or wars as part of our daily occurrences. Through the incident at Sapporo University, I feel I could see the whole image of the world which is becoming a watched and regulated society. We amateur intellectuals must look for solutions to the dangers in our everyday lives.

※ Regarding the incident of the Chinese non-native student arrested on suspicion of an offense of the Immigration Control and Refugee-Recognition Law (engaging in activity outside the scope permitted by the visa), we decided to publish the voices of the current non-native students. They tell us how they feel about this incident, and about the reaction of SU. The opinions expressed are those of the writers, and not the opinion of Youth Forum News.