Honorary whites, South Africa

Honorary whites - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Honorary Whites is a term that was used by the apartheid regime of South Africa as a designation for the Japanese people, which granted them almost all of the same rights and privileges as Whites (except for the right to vote, as well as being exempt from conscription), after a trade pact was formed between South Africa and Japan in the early 1960's, when Tokyo's Yawata Iron & Steel Co. offered to purchase 5,000,000 tons of South African pig iron, worth more than $250,000,000, over a ten-year period.[1]

With such a huge deal in the works, Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd determined that it would be tactless to subject the Japanese people to the same restrictions as other non-White ethnicities, since trade delegations from Japan would now regularly visit South Africa for business. Thenceforth, Pretoria's Group Areas Board publicly announced that all Japanese people would be considered White, at least for purposes of residence. Johannesburg's city officials even decided that "in view of the trade agreements" the municipal swimming pools would be open to all Japanese guests.[2]


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