Hi Blog. Here are two articles about a mysterious death of a NJ, found dead in his apartment 3 1/2 years ago, deemed not a product of foul play by Fukuoka police (with no autopsy performed). An autopsy overseas reveals the cause of death to be a blow to the head. The Japan Times took …
Oh well, never mind the DPJ trying to split New Komeito off from the LDP. Seems the Suffrage for Permanent Residents issue has set the DPJ against itself as well, according to Japan Today. This issue is not settled by any means (the DPJ is all over the map ideologically anyway, so this degree of dissent is quite normal, actually), so let’s see where the kerfuffle goes. But for all the people that say that Japan’s NJ demographics and labor issues are politically insignificant, we may in fact be seeing quite a few fault lines between old and new Japan after all…
FURTHER POLICING IN JAPAN
1) Gyaku on upcoming GOJ regulations of the Internet: Online content, keitai, and file sharing
2) Kyodo: MOJ says GOJ to scrap NJ registration system and Gaijin Cards
3) Japan Times: Foreigner registration revision to include ID chip, probably same policing function
4) GOJ floats trial balloon: Japanese language improvement for visas
5) ABC Radio Australia: “Expatriates concerned by plans for Japanese language tests”
6) Yomiuri: GOJ shutting out ‘hooligans’ (i.e. antiglobalization activists) from Hokkaido G-8 summit
7) Mark Mino-Thompson on “updated” Hotel Laws: Refusal OK if “unreasonable/unrational burden”
8) Asahi: NPA Survey: 25% of hotels not following NPA demands to check “foreign guest” passports.
9) FCCJ Photo Journalist Per Bodner’s account of his arrest on fictitious “assault charges”
10) Kandai PR Harassment: Why you don’t let non-Immigration people make Immigration decisions…
11) Jeff on Japanese police documenting neighborhood residents
12) TIME: “Japan thwarts abusive police” by tweaking interrogation rules
13) Permanent Resident protests US Govt’s hypocritical apathy towards NJ Fingerprint policy
14) Patricia Aliperti & Catherine Makino on NJ Sexual Slavery/Human Trafficking in Japan
GOOD NEWS
15) Yomiuri: DPJ pushing bill for NJ voting rights in local elections
16) Economist Leader makes the case why immigration is a good thing
17) Christian Science Monitor: “Japanese youth help compatriots embrace diversity”
ODDITIES AND STUPEFIERS
18) Yomiuri et al: 71% of NJ tourists come for Japan’s food, yet 35% of J don’t want NJ tourism increase
19) KTO on a naturalizer back in 1985
20) Historical artifact: NJ Jobs in 1984 (Tokyo Shinbun)
…and finally…
21) Speech by Arudou Debito at Waseda Jan 22, 5PM, on Japan’s Immigration and Human Rights Record (with links to paper and powerpoint presentation)
Here’s why you don’t let amateurs make decisions involving Immigration. Kansai University is harassing one of its teachers for proof of Re-Entry Permit or else they’ll report him as illegal. Despite the fact he is not leaving the country (and needs no REP) and doesn’t need a visa–because he’s a Permanent Resident! Ill-thought-out policy once again falls on the shoulders of the NJ.
Eating Japanese food is the most commonly stated reason for visiting Japan among overseas tourists, according to a recent survey. Within character have the Yomiuri talk less about the deterrents to entry (fingerprinting and treatment like criminals and terrorists) and accentuate the positives (food, natch). Update indicates that Japan is the 30th most popular nation to travel to, although it’s 8.3 million tourists nationwide in 2007 is even less than New York City’s tourism alone. No wonder–35% of the public surveyed in 2003 don’t want tourists due to fears of foreign crime.
Asahi: A legal division within the Liberal Democratic Party, the “Project Team (PT) on Nationality Issues” (Kouno Taro, Lower House, Chair), decided at a meeting on January 24 to submit to this session of the Diet a bill, entitled “Special Exemption for Special Permanent Residents for Obtaining Japanese Nationality”, which would simplify the procedure for Zainichi North and South Koreans etc. to become Japanese.
Per Bodner, a professional photo journalist from Sweden (8 years resident in Japan, married with a house here), was arrested and charged with a alleged assault on a Tokyo taxicab driver right outside the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on his way home from work November 28. His account of the incarceration and legal treatment (and ignored testimony) as a defendant, presented at the FCCJ December 12, 2007, blogged here.
WASEDA UNIVERSITY DOCTORAL STUDENT NETWORK PRESENTS A SYMPOSIUM:
“Implications of Japanese domestic human rights record (for foreign residents or Japanese) on Asian Integration”
JANUARY 22, 2008 5PM-7PM,
FEATURED SPEAKERS: Kawakami Sonoko, Amnesty International, Katsuma Yasushi, Associate Professor, Waseda University, and Arudou Debito.
Christian Science Monitor: “Certainly, the self-image of a homogeneous society remains strong. But some say that perception is incorrect. The official count of registered foreign residents is 2 percent of the nation’s total population of 128 million; but that represents an increase of 47 percent in the past 10 years and excludes many non-Japanese residents. While Japan has witnessed more international marriages – 21,000 children are born to these couples every year – its census figures do not show ethnicity. Moreover, the number of registered foreigners does not include naturalized citizens, indigenous people, or those who overstay their visas, argues Debito Arudou, a US-born social activist who became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2000.”
Old historical breakdown of jobs for foreigners a quarter century ago. The number seems a bit low (less than 15,000 accounted for), even for back then. And of course the Zainichi aren’t included as “real foreigners” worth tabulating. Seems bad social science isn’t just the domain of the present day.
GOJ Foreign Minister Komura floated a policy trial balloon to require language testing and improvement before granting NJ long-term visas in future. Problems abound, not the least the GOJ is resorting to sticks, not carrots, to make people learn Nihongo. The term “long term” is vague, and how many laborers would want to spend all this time learning a language which only matter within this archipelago (when they could learn English, French, Spanish, etc. and work in lots more places)? I agree that everyone should learn how to read, write, and speak Japanese if they want to live here. I just think the proposal as it stands is (as usual) half-baked and encouraging of more NJ workplace and visa abuses.
SPECIAL ISSUE: STARING DOWN THE DISCRIMINATORS IN JAPAN
1) STARING DOWN AN EXCLUSIONARY BALLET SCHOOL IN TOKYO
2) STARING DOWN AN EXCLUSIONARY NEWSPAPER OUTLET IN ISHIKAWA PREF
3) STARING DOWN AN EXCLUSIONARY LANDLORD IN YAMAGATA
4) GOING TOO FAR IN THE OTHER DIRECTION: CHEST HAIR AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT!?
…and finally, just for fun…
5) HUMOR: LETTER TO THE EDITOR REGARDING GOJ “UFO INVASION” SCENARIO
Iwate festival produces “offensive” festival poster with exposed chest hair, banned by JR East as “sexual harassment”. Now let’s see if they’ll do the same with broadcasts of Sumo on their premises… The concept of human rights in this society are mechakucha indeed, and it’s situations like these that make it all the more difficult for people to take human rights activists seriously!
Ryan Hagglund on how he successfully dealt with a very common problem in Japan–dealing with exclusionary landlords. Lessons: 1) be as polite as possible while being clear that you will not accept a denial based on being foreign, and 2) audio record everything just in case you have to go to court. (Covert recordings are also admissible in court.)
Mark Mino-Thompson reports below on his discovery of new “amendments” to the Ryokan Gyouhou (Hotel Management Law), created in English and Japanese legalese and in generic format (meaning written by somebody else) for use in hotels nationwide. They are vague enough to make it seem as though a hotel could refuse a NJ lodging if the lodger poses an “unreasonable/unrational burden” (such as speaking a foreign language or offering beds instead of futons?).
Is this happening to you? Cops coming to your door assiduously to find out who’s living there? Asking you to write down very personal details on a special card for keeping at the local police station? Are places with NJ residents being singled out? I open this topic to comments to see if there is any kind of national campaign going on, since this has never happened to me in all my twenty plus years in Japan, either as a Japanese or as a NJ. And if it did, I doubt I am under any legal compulsion to cooperate.
Economist (London) on Immigration: “Above all, perspective is needed. The vast population movements of the past four decades have not brought the social strife the scaremongers predicted. On the contrary, they have offered a better life for millions of migrants and enriched the receiving countries both culturally and materially. But to preserve these great benefits in the future, politicians need the courage not only to speak up against the populist tide in favour of the gains immigration can bring, but also to deal honestly with the problems it can sometimes cause.”
Here’s something weird. A newspaper refusing a NJ a subscription (paid in advance), even though reps from the paper came to his door and sold him a contract! What are they afraid of, that the foreigner might be able to read? It’s not the threat of nonpayment, or cultural misunderstandings, or anything that could be stretchably plausable in any other situation I’ve ever encountered. Scans of the contract and the notice of refusal blogged here. Update with responses from Hokkoku Shinbun et al. now also included.
Yomiuri: “Lawmakers in the Democratic Party of Japan are stepping up efforts to resubmit a bill that would grant permanent foreign residents the right to vote in local elections, according to sources. With New Komeito also strongly demanding local suffrage for permanent foreign residents, DPJ lawmakers hope in the upcoming Diet session “to split the ruling camp by submitting the bill to the House of Councillors and call on New Komeito to endorse it,” according to one of the sources…” Wouldn’t it be interesting if what finally toppled the LDP from power was issues of immigration and assimilation?
This is so good I couldn’t just let it languish within the comments section of this blog. It deserves an entry all its own. Charles Kowalski sent this letter to the Yomiuri when Defense Minister Hashiba (inter alia) was getting all nerdy about defenses against a theoretical UFO invasion late last year. Charles takes the issue and runs with it. The Yomiuri, predictably, wouldn’t publish it. So I will.
Hi Blog. Ironic article, given many eikaiwa won’t hire Subcontinental Indians because they don’t look the part or speak “gaijin” English… Then again, as the author admits, the following is just one of those fads, and fads fade. And when I sent this to an education list I’m a member of, they doubted many of …
A survey reported in the Asahi indicates that a quarter of all hotels nationwide sampled have qualms about asking NJ for their passports, and a third of them refused to copy them. (No wonder–they can’t. By law they can only ask NJ who have no addresses in Japan–meaning foreign tourists.) But you wouldn’t know that if you read the English translation of the article, which renders the targets of this anti-terrorist move as “foreign guests”. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Meanwhile, after a month, no reply from Toyoko Inn regarding their racial profiling last November. Recommend you take your business to hotels that are more concerned about customer relations for NJ and handicapped guests.
More on the Sasebo Sports Club Shooting (where the media rampantly speculated a gaijin dunnit just because the shooter was tall). Seems according to Philip Brasor of the Japan Times, the willful exceptionalism that Japan practices as part of its national narrative (“Gun crimes are a foreign problem, not something that happens in our peaceful society”–alluded to by PM Fukuda shortly afterwards) has made it quite blind to just how deep gun control problems go here. Excellent investigative journalism sorely lacking in the vernacular media, and the media treatment of the issues proves it.
Happy New Year, everyone. Let’s kick off the new year with a post on our future as bloggers here: Internet info site Gyaku on Japan’s future regulation of the Internet. If enacted, we’re going to see widespread regulation of online content, cellphone use, and file sharing in Japan. Have to admit–places like 2-Channel (with whom I have an unrequited libel lawsuit victory against) have brought this down upon all of us.
Holiday special on twelve things which changed my life in 2007, now becoming an annual tradition.
ARCHIVING A HOLIDAY NEWSLETTER FROM LAST YEAR WHICH SOMEHOW NEVER GOT BLOGGED: 1) INTERVIEW WITH J-SELECT MAGAZINE
2) BECOMING A LAWYER IN JAPAN: THE BIFURCATED J BAR EXAM
3) JOEL DECHANT AND HIS GUIDED TOURS OF BEPPU
4) TEN THINGS WHICH CHANGED MY LIFE IN 2006
and finally… DEBITO.ORG A DECADE ON…
Hi Blog. News is piling up, but I promised more holiday tangent: Turning the keyboard to comedian Dave M G, with news about a comedy show he’s doing as a non-native speaker on domestic events. I’ve seen Dave in action many times before (he’s an amazingly funny guy, and I’ve spent a lot of time …
Hi Blog. Debito.org is following the template set by The Economist Newsmagazine, where the journalists digress from the usual serious stuff and put out a holiday issue of tangents. In this year’s Economist holiday issue, we have a three-pager on how people (particularly whalers and other merchant marines) were trying to open up Japan before …
Gregory Hadley in the Japan Times: “I became fascinated by that legendary B-29 [which crashed in Niigata during WWII]. Had it existed? If so, where had it come down? And what had happened to the crew? Fifty years had passed. Given the taboo of Japan not liking to talk about those dark days, would it be possible for me, a foreigner, to learn anything?” So began a three-year quest — a search that took him into small Japanese farming communities, dusty archives and mid-American townships, and to meet what he describes as “the quite exceptional members” of a POW support group in Japan…
Hi Blog, and Merry Christmas. I’m going to talk about something completely unrelated to Japan for a change. Duran Duran. Yes, the 80’s rock band. And give you a line up of both songs and reasons why you shouldn’t dismiss them too quickly.
For the first time in the 400 year history of the geisha, a Westerner has been accepted, and on December 19, will formally debut under the name Sayuki.
Sayuki is specialized in social anthropology, a subject which requires anthropologists to actually experience the subject they are studying by participating in the society themselves.
Sayuki has been doing anthropological fieldwork in Asakusa – one of the oldest of Tokyo’s six remaining geisha districts – for the past year, living in a geisha house (okiya), and participating in banquets as a trainee. She has been training in several arts, and will specialize in yokobue (Japanese flute)…
GOJ engaging in serious discussion of alien attack. No, not foreigners. Real space aliens. And this is the world’s second biggest economy still wanting to be taken seriously? I told you the legislative peerage was out of touch with reality. Somebody call a snap election and get these fools out.
Yomiuri provides a public service for the youth of this nation–telling them in their “Kodomo News” that the new Gaijin Fingerprint Policy is for controlling crime and terrorism. The only drawback is they say you’d better manage the information properly. It’s not a matter of managing the information. It’s a matter of how you manage this policy so that you achieve your goals without imaging-down an entire segment of the population. As usual, the Yomiuri has no qualms about selling the policy as a crime-prevention measure against “foreign guests” even to impressionable children, carrying the bias down to the next generation.
For those travelling over the holiday season, here are some helpful letters for those going through Kansai International Airport (Kankuu, or KIX). It turns out NJ residents can go through the APEC Immigration Channel (business line). Print up these letters if the terms apply to you, show them at the border, and decriminalize yourself more efficiently.
We all notice it eventually: how nice individual Japanese people are, yet how cold — even discriminatory — officialdom is toward non-Japanese (NJ). This dichotomy is often passed off as something “cultural” (a category people tend to assign anything they can’t understand), but recent events have demonstrated there is in fact a grand design. This design is visible in government policies and public rhetoric, hard-wiring the public into fearing and blaming foreigners.
Start with the “us” and “them” binary language of official government pronouncements: how “our country” (“wagakuni”) must develop policy for the sake of our “citizens” (“kokumin”) toward foreign “visitors” (rarely “residents”); how foreigners bring discrimination upon themselves, what with their “different languages, religions, and lifestyle customs” an’ all; and how everyone has inalienable human rights in Japan — except the aliens…
Feeling down this holiday season? Consult if necessary with International Mental Health Professionals Japan–a volunteer group of certified professionals offering a range of recognized theraputic approaches, for the treatment of relationship issues, stress, anxiety, depression, abuse, cross-cultural issues, children’s emotional and educational problems, and many other issues. Many members also offer phone counseling. Given the state of mental health services in this country (generally pretty lousy; most Japanese quasi-“counselors” will probably unhelpfully attribute any mental issue involving a NJ to a matter of “cultural differences”, and Japan doesn’t even have certifications for clinical psychologists), this group is a boon. Check it out if you or one of your friends needs help.
After much trouble with employers confiscating NJ worker passports (held as a Sword of Damocles to abuse workers), the GOJ is finally making it expressly illegal. About time–the passport is the property of the issuing government, and not something a foreign government (or another person) can impound indefinitely. The fact that it’s been used as a weapon to keep the foreign laborer in line for so long speaks volumes about the GOJ’s will to protect the imported laborer’s rights after he or she got here. Glad this is finally coming on the books. Now let’s hope it gets enforced.
1) Debito’s latest Japan Times Column, which came out on December 18, 2007, on the beginning of the end: How Japan’s xenophobia and closed-mindedness towards the outside world is now clearly not only hurting non-Japanese residents, but also destroying Japan for everyone–putting its very position as Asia’s leader and representative in jeopardy.
2) James Fallows of the Atlantic Monthly writes more poignantly and succinctly on what’s wrong with fingerprinting at Japan’s border than Debito could ever hope to.
3) TV personality and music aficionado Peter Barakan is attacked by an unknown assailant in public–he and his hosts at a speech are pepper-sprayed, in a clearly-planned assault with even a rented getaway car. Even though the police track down the car, the spray, and even a person inside, no arrests are made!
Some good news for a change: A Bangladeshi by the name of Islam Himu was accused during the al-Qaeda Scare of 2005 of being part of a terrorist cell. And the media, particularly the Sankei, reported him by name as such. Detained for more than a month by the cops, he emerged to find his reputation in tatters, his business rent asunder, and his life irrevocably changed. This is why you don’t report rumor as fact in the established media. And as we saw in the Sasebo Shootings a few days ago, the papers and the powers that be won’t take reponsibility even when they get it wrong and destroy somebody’s life. So Mr Himu sued the Sankei. And won. Congratulations. A good precedent. Now if only could get the Japanese police to take responsibility when they overdo things. Well, we can dream. News article, referential Japan Times piece, and other background on Debito.org follows.
Here’s a great little report from friend Steve King, on how he dealt with gaijin-carding police (and very well, too, to my mind). Great story, and questions asked properly and to the letter. Don’t make a racially-profiling J cop’s job easier. Make sure you let them know you know your rights. Interestingly enough, Steve’s cop indicated that he would be carding Japanese citizens too. This is actually illegal under Japanese Law for citizens unless there is probable cause, so it’s probably a lie. But if a representative of the almighty police in this country are becoming that insistent, I guess when it happens to me (and you just know it’s going to, again), it’s going be worked out down at the Cop Shop… Ulp. Anyway, Steve’s report, and protest letter to the JNTO follows.
Article from the Japan Times on how the NJ grassroots are trying to do what the J cops couldn’t do themselves–catch suspected killer Ichihashi Tatsuya (on the lam since March 2007) through leafletting and awareness-raising campaigns. Bravo. And if you’d like to buy a T-shirt publicizing Ichihashi’s face, see link from Debito.org here.
1) MY NEXT COLUMN IN THE JAPAN TIMES DEC 18 2007
ON HOW XENOPHOBIA AND SHORT-SIGHTED POLICYMAKING IS DESTROYING JAPAN
2) SASEBO GYM SHOOTING: SOME MEDIA SPECULATES THAT A NJ DID IT.
WRONGLY. YET NO RETRACTION.
3) TV TARENTO PETER BARAKAN ATTACKED, PREMEDITATED TEARGASSING–
WITH RESPONSE FROM PETER HIMSELF
4) THE AUSTRALIAN/JAPAN TODAY ON KANAGAWA POLICE RAPE CASE LAWSUIT LOSS
5) MEDIOCRE ECONOMIST SURVEY ON JAPAN BUSINESS DEC 1 2007
6) MAINICHI WAIWAI: HOMI DANCHI AND JAPANESE-BRAZILIAN FRICTIONS IN AICHI
7) ALBERTO FUJIMORI REALLY GETS HIS–6 YEARS’ PRISON; AND THAT’S NOT ALL
8) UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS 60TH ANNIVERSARY DEC 10, 2007
…and finally…
9) DEBITO.ORG PODCAST DEC 8, 2007
with links to more than two months’ of previous podcasts…
The media this time was very good about the recent shootings in Sasebo, Kyushu, where a tall perp entered a gym and shot several people. But some media were quick to speculate that a gaijin or a black person dunnit, based upon how tall the perp was (and the fact that Sasebo has a US military base)–with information about an alleged stalking and a personality profile from a Sophia U prof that he was being influenced all the recent shootings in the USA! Don’t hold your breath for any retractions. The Mainichi certainly hasn’t in its follow-up reporting…
Hi Blog. Report from Ms Amira Rahman, the wife of a foreign diplomat, Mr Rahman Hamid, Commerce Section, Embassy of Pakistan in Tokyo, who received a terrible shock when trying to enroll their 3-year-old daughter in a Tokyo ballet school. Letter of protest from the Pakistani Embassy (click on image to expand in browser): Report …
The Economist Newsmagazine had a 14-page Survey on Japanese Business in their Dec 1, 2007 issue. It’s pretty crappy. Not only does the author overstretch a “hybrid car” metaphor to describe Japan’s economy, he even contrasts it with some kind of “Anglo-Saxon capitalism” (as if there is such a clear contrast or even such a concrete economic model). He winds up making what could have been an interesting survey into a graduate-school term paper. Feels like he swallowed the lines fed him by the GOJ Gaijin Handlers, that Japan’s economics and business practices are that transparent and quantifiable. He also seems to have answered my past complaint that The Economist ignores foreign workers whenever they talk about Japan’s demographics. One line–only one–is included in the 14-page Survey saying immigration “is not culturally acceptable in Japan”. Relegating things beyond one’s own ability to understand as a matter of “culture” is the lazy person’s analytical approach. Critique and links to the Survey articles included.
Debito.org Podcast for December 8, 2007: 1) ”JINKEN SHUUKAN”: DEC 4-10 HUMAN RIGHTS WEEK IN JAPAN–WHAT THE OFFICIAL GOALS ARE FOR THIS GOJ-SPONSORED EVENT, AND HOW THEY’RE FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED. 2) RACIAL PROFILING AT TOYOKO INN HIROSAKI, PART AND PARCEL OF TOYOKO INN’S NASTINESS TOWARDS NON-JAPANESE AND WHEELCHAIR CUSTOMERS. SUGGEST A BOYCOTT.
Several news articles on former Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori, who took refuge in Japan as a “citizen” for five years before buggering off to Chile, on his eventual sentencing to 6 years’ prison on some charges (more charges to come)–with a little something on what this means for the world’s dictators on the lam. A good precedent.
The freedoms upheld in the historic United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights must be enjoyed by everyone, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Dec 10, 2007 on the occasion of Human Rights Day… The UN’s independent rights experts marked the Day with a call for the elimination of the twin scourges of discrimination and exclusion. “Discrimination continues to distort the economic, social and political contours of societies,” the UN special procedures mandate holders – ranging from rapporteurs and experts to working groups – said in a joint statement. “Individuals and communities face discrimination and exclusion on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, language, sex or sexual orientation amongst many other grounds.” The group emphasized that if left unchecked, the consequences of discrimination and exclusion “can begin to create fault lines within society between those who have full rights, justice and dignity respected, and those who do not.”
On Dec 8, 2007, famous TV NJ Peter Barakan was attacked with four others by an unknown assailant, who sprayed them with mace shortly before he was to give a speech. The assailant got away in a rental car, meaning the crime was quite premeditated. Is this the next rung on the ladder regarding treatment of NJ in Japan? Peter Barakan himself answers Debito.org, and notes that even though they tracked down the car (with the mace and a driver inside), nobody was arrested. Try doing that to a Japanese public figure and see what happens…
1) TOWARDS FOUNDING A NPO FOR PERMANENT RESIDENTS, NATURALIZED CITIZENS, AND IMMIGRANTS
2) GOJ “JINKEN SHUUKAN” HUMAN RIGHTS WEEK AND ITS FLAWS
3) UNHCR DISMAYED BY SECRET DEATH PENALTY OF CONVICTS
ALSO TRYING TO PUT A BRAVE FACE ON JAPAN’S REJECTION OF REFUGEES
4) LITTLE BLACK SAMBO & GOLLIWOG DOLLS ON SALE AT RAINFOREST CAFE, NEAR DISNEYLAND
5) TOYOKO INN’S RACIAL PROFILING, PROTEST LETTER, AND SUGGESTED BOYCOTT
6) FUN FACTS: DIVORCE RISING, WORKFORCE TO PLUMMET, JAPAN’S MINUS GDP GROWTH,
AND 39% OF DIETMEMBER SEATS INHERITED
7) MORE ON NJ FINGERPRINTING:
CHUUGOKU SHINBUN, HOKKAIDO SHINBUN, DER SPIEGEL, NEWSWEEK, THE ECONOMIST,
THE JAPAN TIMES, THE MANITOBAN, AND JAMES FALLOWS OF THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
PLULS ANONYMOUS ON SHINAGAWA FINGERPRINT PREREGISTRATION: A FARCE
8) IRONY: JAPAN POST CREATING “YOKOSO JAPAN” STAMPS. WITH DOMESTIC POST VALUE ONLY!
9) JAPAN TIMES PREZ OGASAWARA INTERVIEWED ON FUTURE OF PRINT MEDIA IN JAPAN
and finally…
10) ARUDOU DEBITO DOING NEW BOOK TOUR IN MARCH 2008. DROP BY AND SPEAK?