Japanese state taken to court over alleged 'racial profiling'

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) — The Japanese government, police, and two provincial administrations have been accused of racial profiling in a case filed on Monday.

The plaintiffs, three foreign-born residents of the island country, have named the Japanese state, as well as the Tokyo Metropolitan and Aichi provincial governments, in a suit filed in a Tokyo district court, the daily Mainichi reported.

The defendants are accused of "frequent police questioning based solely on ethnicity, or racial profiling” and have been asked to pay each plaintiff 3.3 million yen (about $22,000) in compensation.

One of the plaintiffs, Zain Syed, originally from Pakistan and who became a Japanese citizen at age 13, said he faced questioning by police 15 times since moving to Nagoya, capital of the central Aichi province, in 2016.

Their case demands that the governments clarify that it was "illegal for police officers to stop and question a person because of their race or nationality."