なぜ日本人は、嫌われるのか？

Mr. Koizumi was widely lauded for his compassion after he ordered
the government to issue a formal apology and was seen on television
shaking hands with leprosy patients.

Mr. Koizumi's aides had said the administration planned to challenge
the leprosy ruling because it would leave the government open to
similar lawsuits and because the district court had granted
compensation for rights violations beyond a 20-year statue of
limitations.

Asked to explain the difference in the way the government handled
the two cases, Hideki Hama, director of the Justice Ministry's
administrative litigation division, said: "The leprosy case was an
exceptional one in which the patients had suffered historically,
directly at the government's hands. The victims of the atomic bomb
are also suffering but you can't value one over the other."

Mr. Hama said the government was simply following the strict letter
of the law, which allows for victims to receive compensation for
medical treatment only in Japan. In legal matters, especially those
involving compensation, Japan has traditionally adopted a rigid
stance. Mr. Hama said the appeal was also based on a 1999 case in a
Hiroshima district court that ruled in favor of the central
government in a lawsuit filed by atomic bomb victims living in South
Korea.

Hiroshi Tanaka, a professor of sociology at Ryukoku University who
has written extensively on the rights of non-Japanese living in
Japan, said that behind the government's appeal was a disturbing
trend towards Japanese ethnocentricity. "Mr. Koizumi's
administration clearly views Japanese victims different from non-
Japanese," he said. "It's common sense in the global area for any
country to provide compensation for all people who are eligible, no
matter where they live."

Koizumi administration officials have expressed concern about the
public criticism that is likely to result from the appeal and said
they are seeking measures to assist bomb victims living overseas,
including providing transportation allowances for the victims to
come to Japan for treatment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/16/world/16TOKY.html (REG. REQUIRED)