TOKYO: A Kurdish community leader who resides in Japan says his group is under attack by Japanese extremists and that support is needed to end the attacks.

“During the Turkish presidential election last year, a Japanese far-right group attacked us online, and this was surprising for us. They are fake conservatives, racists, or whatever you might call them,” Vakkas Colak, a Kurd who lives in Tokyo, said in an interview with Arab News Japan.

The Japan Kurdish Cultural Association was established in 2013 to represent the Kurdish community in Japan. Of the Kurds who live in Saitama prefecture, around 90 percent came from Turkey.

There is also the Japan-Kurdish Friendship Association and a parliamentary friendship group in the Japanese parliament led by former Defense Minister NAKATANI Gen.

“We have to support the Kurds, and we have to stop the discrimination and hate speech against us,” Colak says. “So we established this group, ‘Japan-Kurdish Exchange Liaison Committee, ‘ to better understand the Kurds by the local Japanese people and their local government.”

“These Japanese hate groups oppose immigration, foreigners, and refugees. The Japanese government, however, has a policy to accept more immigrants or foreign workers because of the labor shortage in the country. But those groups attack this government policy by targeting us,” Colak explained.

“They portray foreigners as bad, with no manners and don’t follow Japanese customs and social rules. They spread such false accusations. We don’t deny that some minor issues happen and cause misunderstandings, but we have good relations and mutual respect with the local communities.”

The Kurds are active in cultural exchanges, language courses, cooking classes and social activities, Colak said.

Colak expressed hope that the Turkish government would raise the Kurds’ concerns with Japan. “The hate groups don’t dare to attack the huge communities of Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese here, fearing angry reactions from their governments. Our Kurdish community, however, has a population of about 2000 people, so the hate groups think mistakenly we are an easy target.”