{"id":13316,"date":"2015-05-17T17:30:47","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T03:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13316"},"modified":"2020-12-08T07:41:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T15:41:33","slug":"j-times-kingston-on-abes-intimidation-of-media-you-know-its-getting-bad-when-even-apologist-bigot-gregory-clark-complains-about-rightists-targeting-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13316","title":{"rendered":"J Times Kingston on Abe’s intimidation of media: You know it’s getting bad when even apologist bigot Gregory Clark complains about Rightists targeting him"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Now here’s a wonderful turn of events that I can’t help feeling a bit karmic about.<\/p>\n

Gregory Clark, columnist for the Japan Times and xenophobic perpetual denier of racism in Japan<\/a> (he’s even had a JT column entitled “Antiforeigner discrimination is a right for Japanese people<\/a>“!), has gone beyond petty whines\u00a0about, say, how he couldn’t enforce his White Privilege and make\u00a0Roppongi police arrest some “African touts” because they were “hecklers”<\/a>. \u00a0Now he’s complaining about something far more serious — about being targeted by Japan’s right wing. Check out this excerpt from Jeff Kingston’s most recent commentary in the Japan Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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From\u00a0“Are forces of darkness gathering in Japan”, by Jeff Kingston, Japan Times, May 16, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

JT: \u201c[Government officials] have become more numerous, blatant and unapologetic,\u201d [US-based journalist Ayako Doi] says, adding that the government is targeting both Japanese and non-Japanese critics alike.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan Times columnist Gregory Clark says the atmosphere of intimidation has become exceptionally \u201cugly,\u201d attributing it to a \u201cright-wing rebound and revenge.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSomething strange is going on,\u201d he says, citing recent attacks on progressive media. \u201cParticularly given that Tokyo keeps talking about its value identification with the West.\u201d […]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Clark himself was publicly defamed for his alleged anti-Japanese views because he raised some questions about government and media representations concerning the North Korean abductions of Japanese nationals. Following that, he says his university employer received a cascade of threatening letters demanding he be sacked.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cRequests to write articles for the magazines and newspapers I had long known dried up,\u201d Clark says. \u201cInvitations to give talks on Japan\u2019s lively lecture circuit died overnight. One of Japan\u2019s largest trading companies abruptly canceled my already-announced appointment as outside board director with the vague excuse of wanting to avoid controversy.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lamentably, he added, \u201cYou cannot expect anyone to come to your aid once the nationalistic right-wing mood creators, now on the rise, decide to attack you. Freedom of speech and opinion is being whittled away relentlessly.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nFull article at http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/opinion\/2015\/05\/16\/commentary\/forces-darkness-gathering-japan\/<\/a><\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>: That’s how bad it’s getting for NJ in Japan —\u00a0even the worm has turned. But it’s pretty rich for Clark to say this given the past fabrications<\/a> and intimidations<\/a>,\u00a0not to mention decades of profiteering from pandering to those forces<\/a> that have now turned against him. As for claims of\u00a0“defamation”, how about the long-standing vituperative<\/a> (okay, I’ll use his favorite word: “ugly”)\u00a0criticism doled out towards anyone who questioned the system and its unfairness to anyone else in a similar position<\/a> as a long-term resident (and in my case, a citizen) of Japan?<\/p>\n

I’m not sure you have a leg to stand on here,\u00a0Greg. \u00a0After all, isn’t discriminating against you a\u00a0right for\u00a0Japanese people?discriminating against you a\u00a0right for\u00a0Japanese people?<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ll let Debito.org Reader JDG conclude this blog entry:<\/p>\n

======================================<\/p>\n

JDG:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Please spare a moment’s thought for the plight of Gregory Clark.\u00a0Even though this has happened to\u00a0him\u00a0(and seriously, see how low an opinion of him is held in the article \u2018Our Other Man in Japan<\/a>\u2019), I have to say that such intimidation and discrimination, EVEN against Gregory Clark, is deplorable (in fact, when you or I are discriminated, we get the whole apologist slapdown. When it happens to Clark, suddenly it\u2019s \u2018The Forces of Darkness\u2019! I mean what is this? Lord of the Rings?). I just wish that he\u2019d used all his years of access to policy makers to work to improve the lot of NJ in Japan, rather than for his own personal gain, and IMHO, vain pride and sense of self-entitlement.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyhow, starting with that time he got annoyed with the police because they didn\u2019t care who he was, and therefore didn\u2019t arrest some black guys for him, he seems to have just gone downhill. What\u2019s next? Black vans outside his house, and bullets from the uyoku in the post?<\/em><\/p>\n

Since I read in previous articles about Gregory that he was loaded and flush with cash from property deals and public speaking, I won\u2019t be asking Debito.org readers to donate any money to get Gregory off the street, nor will I be asking any of you to \u2018adopt an Australian\u2019 for $5 a month (or anything like that).<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear Greg,<\/strong><\/em>
\nIf you\u2019re reading this, you always have a home here with us (maybe. I dunno, after all, it\u2019s Dr. Debito\u2019s page, and you\u2019ve been kind of critical of him in the past. Just sayin\u2019.). What I mean is, now that you\u2019ve seen Japan \u2018through the looking glass\u2019 as it were, had your bubble burst, and have experienced the kind of discrimination that you always said didn\u2019t exist for NJ in Japan, anytime you want to pitch in and lend a weighty hand in this struggle for human rights, we (well, I guess \u2018I\u2019, after all, I can\u2019t speak for the others) would welcome you, and your past sins would be forgiven, as it were (again, that\u2019s an \u2018I\u2019 statement).<\/em><\/p>\n

Yours sincerely,\u00a0JDG<\/strong>\u00a0(the kind of NJ you wouldn\u2019t have given the time of day to).<\/em><\/p>\n

======================================<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JT: \u201c[Government officials] have become more numerous, blatant and unapologetic,\u201d [US-based journalist Ayako Doi] says, adding that the government is targeting both Japanese and non-Japanese critics alike. Japan Times columnist Gregory Clark says the atmosphere of intimidation has become exceptionally \u201cugly,\u201d attributing it to a \u201cright-wing rebound and revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething strange is going on,\u201d he says, citing recent attacks on progressive media. \u201cParticularly given that Tokyo keeps talking about its value identification with the West.\u201d […] Clark himself was publicly defamed for his alleged anti-Japanese views because he raised some questions about government and media representations concerning the North Korean abductions of Japanese nationals. Following that, he says his university employer received a cascade of threatening letters demanding he be sacked. \u201cRequests to write articles for the magazines and newspapers I had long known dried up,\u201d Clark says. \u201cInvitations to give talks on Japan\u2019s lively lecture circuit died overnight. One of Japan\u2019s largest trading companies abruptly canceled my already-announced appointment as outside board director with the vague excuse of wanting to avoid controversy.\u201d<\/p>\n

COMMENT: That’s how bad it’s getting for NJ in Japan — even the worm has turned. But given the history of fabrications, profiteering from pandering, and columns so bigoted and xenophobic (one entitled “Antiforeigner discrimination is a right for Japanese people”, and another essentially denying racism in Japan) that one had to be deleted from the Japan Times archives), I’m not sure you have a leg to stand on here, Greg. After all, isn’t discriminating against you a right for Japanese people? You made your bed, now sleep in it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,36,35,26,14,13,60,48,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pinprick-protests","category-bad-social-science","category-good-news","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-politics","category-media","category-nj-voices-ignored","category-shoe-on-the-other-foot-dept","category-sitys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16336,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13316\/revisions\/16336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}