According to official statistics by the respective governments of the two countries, Japan’s human rights record is much worse than China’s.

Actually, the official website of the government-sanctioned Chinese Society for Human Rights Studies doesn’t really keep official statistics on human rights abuses in China. It does have some glowing reports on how quality of life is improving in China, and several reports noting human rights abuses in the United States. AsiaPundit will assume that the lack of a need to measure means there isn’t any real problem.

In Japan, however, the Justice Ministry has noted a four percent increase in human rights violations in 2005.:

TOKYO — The number of human rights violations reported to the Justice Ministry’s regional legal affairs bureaus across Japan reached a record high 23,800 in 2005, up 4% from the previous year, a ministry tally showed Thursday. Such violations using the Internet climbed nearly 40% to 272 cases, according to the ministry’s Civil Liberties Bureau.

Of the total violations, about 10% were by public servants and teachers. By type, cases of sexual harassment and other forcible action reached 7,144, assault and abuse 5,040, and noise and other action affecting community safety 4,790, the ministry said. Human rights violations using the Internet involved posting the faces of suspects in juvenile crime cases and discriminatory messages on websites.

To be fair to the Japanese, the ministry does consider noise pollution a human rights violation. Were that to apply in China, the ubiquitous car horns and late-night construction noise would mean that the human rights of AsiaPundit and all other Shanghai residents are violated on a daily basis.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, human rights, japan, northeast asia

Oh dear, and this in a country that ordered the domestic press not to cover riots related to cartoons depicting Mohammad.:

Chinese models wear bikinis with the World Cup soccer designs on during a swimsuit design contest as part of the China Fashion Week in Beijing, China, Saturday, April 1, 2006. A week long fashion extravaganza to showcase local and foreign talents ends Sunday. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

AsiaPundit does not find the above image offensive in the slightest. However, as Glenzo points out, the model to the immediate left of the German-flag wearing model in the center is wearing an Iranian flag. That could cause offense to some of Islam’s more puritanical followers.

The CIA World Factbook describes the flag as follows..:

…three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red; the national emblem (a stylized representation of the word Allah in the shape of a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom) in red is centered in the white band; ALLAH AKBAR (God is Great) in white Arabic script is repeated 11 times along the bottom edge of the green band and 11 times along the top edge of the red band.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia