Why This Topic Landed in Japan

In Hokkaido's Ebetsu City, Ryotaro Ishii (37) was charged with setting fire to a mosque and offices run by Pakistani residents using plastic bottles of gasoline. At the September 24 hearing he admitted the charges and testified that he regularly watched videos criticizing Pakistanis and "wanted to drive them out of this country." Prosecutors, citing signs of planning and over 20 million yen in damage, sought a nine-year prison term. The September 24 session was the first hearing and concluded the same day, with the verdict scheduled for October 29. Against a backdrop of overseas migration coverage and domestic reporting on foreign crime, the case drew attention as a domestic act of xenophobic arson. Condemnation of arson as a life-threatening crime ran alongside a distrust of the justice system — a belief that foreigners' thefts or destruction often go unprosecuted or lightly punished, which is asserted without specific cases or statistics.

Key Reaction Themes

  • Distrust of the courts and claims of uneven sentencing (most) — The central response contrasted "if an immigrant did it, no charges; if a Japanese person, prison," voicing frustration at the justice system and at foreign-resident policy.
  • Condemnation of gasoline arson's danger — "It could be indiscriminate mass murder; nine years is lenient, it could be heavier."
  • A split over the ethics of xenophobic violence — A small group cast the arsonist as a "hero" or a "Reiwa-era barbarian-expeller," while others warned that resorting to violence undermines even those who raise legitimate concerns.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

The Ebetsu mosque arson hearing (nine-year sentence sought)

A xenophobic-motive arson set off a mix of distrust in the courts, demands for harsh punishment, and argument over vigilante violence.

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「パキスタン人を追い出してやろうと」モスクなどに放火を認める　北海道江別市の37歳男に拘禁刑9年を求刑 #北海道 #HTB北海道ニュース htb.co.jp/news/archives_…

www.htb.co.jp「パキスタン人を追い出してやろうと」モスクなどに放火を認める　北海道江別市の37歳男に拘禁刑9年を求刑 | HTB北海道ニュース北海道江別市でパキスタン人のモスクや事務所などが相次いで放火された事件の裁判がはじまり、即日結審しました。男は起訴内容を認め、謝罪しました。起訴状などによりますと、石井遼太郎被告（３７）は２月、江別…
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Sources: Yahoo! news, 2ch

Comments:

  • "Huh? Surely this gets dropped without charges!"
  • "Arson is not okay, though."
  • "Meanwhile, foreigners can steal hundreds of millions of yen worth of cars and not be charged."
  • "But if an immigrant did it, it'd be dropped, right?"
  • "Because it's gasoline, it's no joke, so it could even be heavier."
  • "The painful part is that when a Japanese person does the same thing, they get convicted."
  • "Only nine years for arson?"
  • "Do Pakistanis even have enough to do with Japan to stir such feelings? Japanese xenophobia has been aimed at Westerners since the end of the Edo period, though."
  • "The Reiwa-era 'expel the foreigners' movement."
  • "It's easy to imagine that in Japan too, if the friction is left unaddressed, things will radicalize."
  • "Nine years is too heavy, though — it's only the demanded sentence, but even a fatal drunk hit-and-run gets four years at most."
  • "Even though foreigners torch shrines and temples all over and walk free."
  • "Arson really does carry a heavy sentence, huh."
  • "Arson kills people indiscriminately, so the crime is heavy. It reminds me of Aoba, but this can't be defended." [Translator's note: Aoba is the man who committed the 2019 Kyoto Animation arson attack.]