Paper short abstract:

By analyzing hunger strike by undocumented migrants in immigration detention centers in Japan, I will show that the bloated judicial power which is characteristic of colonialist states has resulted in the violation of the human rights of detainees.

Paper long abstract:

Former subjects of the empire became unwanted foreign migrants with the independence of the colonies. Immigration controls excluded them from the "nationals". This presentation will examine the relationship between the historical colonial logic underlying the operation of immigration detention centers and the denial of "human rights" of detainees, using Japan as a case study. Hannah Arendt argues that the principle of governance is fundamentally different between a colonialist state and a modern constitutional state. The executive power is bloated, which makes arbitrary rule possible. Arendt was envisioning Nazi extermination camps, and this logic can be applied to modern detention facilities in general. I am interviewing undocumented migrants who were detained in immigration detention centers in Japan. What they consistently mention about their experience in the detention centers is that they were not treated as human beings. According to Charles Tilly, the repertoire of resistance of the dominated people is determined by the modes of domination of the particular era. If so, what repertoire of resistance does the immigration detention center based on colonialist principles of domination evoke? Different repertoires of resistance have been developed by the detainees, the most major among them is the hunger strike. Based on interviews with 30 undocumented migrants with experience of detention who appealed for their release by means of hunger strikes, I will show the relationship between the current treatment of foreigners in immigration detention centers and colonialist domination. The hunger strikes of undocumented migrants could be interpreted as a repertoire of resistance to the Biopower discussed by Foucault.