On Sunday, demonstrators marched in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, to condemn the right-wing hate campaign aimed at the city’s local Kurdish population and to support peaceful co-existence with foreigners. According to organizers, approximately 1,200 people walked 5 kilometers from JR Kawaguchi Station to JR Nishi-Kawaguchi Station. Some online, however, have questioned that figure, claiming the actual number was lower.
The event, organized by the citizens’ group “Gochamaze Kawaguchi,” came after a series of anti-Kurdish protests in the city. While walking, protesters chanted “stop the hate” and “let’s live together.” They marched with flags and placards as Kurdish folk songs and rock music played. A 56-year-old female musician from Yokohama who participated said, “Xenophobia is rampant, and it’s scary that it’s being celebrated.”
While figures vary, it is believed that there are between 2,000 and 3,000 Kurds living in Saitama Prefecture, primarily concentrated in the cities of Kawaguchi and Warabi. The latter has been referred to by the derogatory name of “Warabistan.” Kurdish men in the region often perform casual work in construction and demolition, while a smaller number work in the food service sector.
Anti-Kurdish Sentiment Rises in Saitama Following Brawl
Kurds have been living in Saitama since at least the early 1990s, receiving little national attention until 2023. However, anti-Kurdish sentiment has been rising significantly in the prefecture since then. Tensions erupted following a street brawl in July of that year involving over 100 Kurds outside Kawaguchi Medical Center. Riot police intervened, and the hospital was forced to halt ambulance dispatches for several hours. Knives were reportedly used during the fight.
A few months later, a Kurdish man was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, leading to far-right protests, nationalist sound trucks and inflammatory online rhetoric. Some of the anti-Kurd messages that go viral, though, come from overseas. A man describing himself as a “Turk who has never been to Japan” told the Asahi Shimbun last year that he pretended to be a Kurdish resident in Japan on X.
The man, who called himself Tayfun, used Google Translate to write at least 180 posts in Japanese in the hope of provoking antipathy among the citizens of Kawaguchi and Warabi. Some of his messages, such as “Kurds will exert force on Japan,” received hostile replies, telling him to go back to his country. He later wrote in Turkish, “Japanese are so naive that they believe everything.”
