KOBE -- Hyogo Prefecture has become the first local government to call on the Justice Ministry to abolish a contentious Web site that asks Japanese to report via e-mail any foreigners they suspect to be illegal aliens.
On Wednesday, Hyogo Gov. Toshizo Ido submitted a petition to the Justice Ministry, demanding the Web site be abolished. "We realize that the site was designed as a policy to crack down on illegal immigrants. But from the point of view of fairness to all, and of the human rights of non-Japanese, we ask the ministry to stop this site," Ido said in the petition.
The decision to officially protest the Web site came after Ido discussed the issue in late March in a meeting between prefectural officials and representatives of foreign resident groups in Hyogo.