Is this poster urging Japanese to report foreign visitors to police racist?

A campaign by police in Tokyo for owners of Airbnb-style accommodation to report any foreign guests in order “to prevent terrorism” has provoked an angry backlash.

The poster, distributed by the crime prevention division of police in the Shibuya district of the city, says, “we need information from everyone, to prevent terrorism and for the success of the Olympic Games”.

Along with a phone number for informants to call, the poster is illustrated with cartoon-style images of 10 foreigners, including some who appear to be representations of Africans and others that apparently depict people from the Middle East. Campaigners for foreign residents’ rights have pointed out that there are no representations of foreigners from other Asian countries, even though they make up the vast majority of tourists coming to Japan.

“Once again, Japan’s police are using racial profiling to determine who is a foreigner as well as a terrorist,” wrote Debito Arudou, a naturalised Japanese who was born in the United States and has become a leading rights activist here, on his web site. Arudou accused the police of “rallying the public to do their bidding” by scaring them with the threat of terrorism into reporting foreign lodgers, which operators of minpaku lodgings and hotels are not legally required to do.

“The use and proliferation of racialised caricature seems to be the normalised standard procedure with Japan’s police,” he posted. “Why not? Nobody’s going to stop them when they keep Japan’s public constantly afraid of foreigners.”