Here we go again...

[Taro Toporific]

not-again.jpg

Damn, what is it with long-tem gaijin residents (in this case with a Japanese partner and kid here in Japan) and their stetchy visas? I'm beginning to believe CJ.


Michael Q Todd caught overstaying his visa / Friends raising thousands of dollars online to “free” him
Japan Probe | 2012/09/24
Michael Q Todd has been detained by immigration authorities in Japan after he was caught without a valid visa.
Jackie Bigford, who describes herself as a friend of Todd, has created a “Save Michael Q Todd” fundraiser on Indiegogo, claiming that thousands of dollars must be raised so that Todd can hire a lawyer.
According to the friend’s account, Todd was working as an interpreter for the animal rights activists:
Taiji Japan...The campaign hired Michael as the core Japanese interpreter for a Canadian documentary. He was asked to produce his passport. He is in Japan on a Visa and it has run out. He was arrested and has been remanded to a Detention Centre until his case is heard.
More...

Save-MQ-_-Indiegogo.jpg

http://www.indiegogo.com/SaveMQTodd?c=home
https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreeMic ... 929672862/

[GomiGirl]

Michael is in the process of trying to get his visa extended and because the paper work has been misplaced by the Japanese Government and he had no documents, the police arrested him on Sunday Morning,

Bullshit. If you have submitted extension documents then you get a stamp in your passport with a file number.

cue everybody running to their passports to check their visa expiration dates..

He forgot.. silly him. I do hope he gets a fair treatment in detention.

[Coligny]

Bullshit. If you have submitted extension documents then you get a stamp in your passport with a file number.

.

And also a paper telling you the next administrative steps and price for the stamps needed if the renewal is approved...

(btw, Pumpkin, yer avatar is messy...)

[wuchan]

Michael is in the process of trying to get his visa extended and because the paper work has been misplaced by the Japanese Government and he had no documents, the police arrested him on Sunday Morning,

Bullshit. If you have submitted extension documents then you get a stamp in your passport with a file number.

yep.

but "forgetting"? Don't they send reminders like the menkyo center?

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Give him to the Japanese whalers/dolphiners...

[yanpa]

Michael is in the process of trying to get his visa extended and because the paper work has been misplaced by the Japanese Government and he had no documents, the police arrested him on Sunday Morning,

Bullshit. If you have submitted extension documents then you get a stamp in your passport with a file number.

yep.

but "forgetting"? Don't they send reminders like the menkyo center?

I've never received such a reminder, and I don't recall ever hearing about one. I did once get a reminder from the Kuyakusho about renewing my ARC, but never from immigration.

[yanpa]

A deportation order isn't necessarily final - though it helps if you're a real journalist and not a "Twitter Mentor".

twitter-mentor.png

Need a popcorn smiley, this one could be interesting.

[yanpa]

Japanese Gulag For Social Media Activist Michael Q.Todd Spotlights Deportation Practices - mentions our old friend "CJ" for added points.

[GomiGirl]

Michael is in the process of trying to get his visa extended and because the paper work has been misplaced by the Japanese Government and he had no documents, the police arrested him on Sunday Morning,

Bullshit. If you have submitted extension documents then you get a stamp in your passport with a file number.

yep.

but "forgetting"? Don't they send reminders like the menkyo center?

Nope - the responsibility is squarely on you to remember to put in your renewal documents again. If you do forget by a few weeks or so, you can write an apology letter and if you bow deeply enough you should be fine.

But painting a target on your back is never a good idea in a country of non-protruding nails. So you had best have all your ducks in line beforehand.

[wagyl]

A slight tangent, but CJ appears to have got the message/graduated and no longer has the old twitter account. I can't be arsed looking to see if he has a different account, I'm not that obsessed.

Back on track, I agree that I find it hard to understand how people can be so cavalier about maintaining their right to stay. After all, the expiry date is written plain to see on your Alien Registration/Zairyu Card, and that is always to hand. Although I used to dread the trip to Immigration bureaucracy Hell I used to enjoy the excuse to get a half day out of the office.

[GomiGirl]

A slight tangent, but CJ appears to have got the message/graduated and no longer has the old twitter account. I can't be arsed looking to see if he has a different account, I'm not that obsessed.

Same account, new handle name. Just search for his name and you can find him. Seems he hounded some Swiss journo into quitting twitter - she works for Adelstein or something. Was only following it peripherally. Seems he was still trying to draw attention to himself by trolling each one of her twitter posts trying to bring the story back to his own "grievances". Claiming that he was the only true journo that has ever lived and everybody else is a hack. It is a bit of a yawn actually.

Back on track, I agree that I find it hard to understand how people can be so cavalier about maintaining their right to stay.

I think this is the salient point here. The sense of entitlement that people feel after living here for a while. For all our whinging, FG's can get away with lots of stuff here that Japanese nationals don't have to. Like the very rigid social structures and bureaucracy that we just get other people to deal with for us. But when you fuck up with stuff like this, it comes down on you hard.

For Japanese, the rules (written or not) are quite rigid and accepted as the norm but FG's just feel a sense of freedom as these rules don't apply as people don't expect us to follow them. However, break a rule like immigration and you get it a cold dose of reality. Some people don't cope - aka the CJ meltdown which was centered around his sense of outrage at being expected to follow the rules for once in his life.

Whether or not these "rules" are correct or fair, is a topic for another day. You are never going to change them from the wrong side of them. Which is why the whole CJ thing was so ludicrous. He was at fault and instead of admitting that and accepting his responsibility in his situation, tried to shift the focus to the conditions of the detention. Yes this is a valid point but he was not in a position to make it while being on the wrong side of immigration. It is a question of credibility.

[Coligny]

A deportation order isn't necessarily final - though it helps if you're a real journalist and not a "Twitter Mentor".

Need a popcorn smiley, this one could be interesting.

Is it at the same paygrade as "digital lifestyle consultant" ?

[TennoChinko]

WTF is a "Twitter Mentor"?!!

Sounds like this arrest is the best thing to happen to him! (parody below)

[Taro Toporific]

... the responsibility is squarely on you to remember to put in your renewal documents again...
... painting a target on your back is never a good idea in a country of non-protruding nails. So you had best have all your ducks in line beforehand.

WOT? Isn't having green hair a crime worthy of deportation*?



*(Said whistling in the dark since it just a matter of time before the net drops down and off to the Gaijin Gulag for me.)

[matsuki]

Fuuuuuuu I have to go get my new residence card this week. Tis gonna be fun.

[TennoChinko]

Anyone who needs an avatar ought to consider claiming it as their own... green hair and all.

[legion]

The guy speaks Japanese well enough to translate but is here on a tourist visa.

He didn't have his passport with him when he was detained. Sounds like he is a few cards short of a full deck, going to the Cove, where the cops check everyone's ID, without ID.

Maybe they are kicking him out for working on a tourist visa.

[gaijinpunch]

I actually do know of someone that was a victim of "the system" fucking it up... or, one of the ants working for the system. They wrote the date down wrong on the paper, which didn't match the stamp. It was a fist fuck, and took him like 2 years of teeth pulling. Of course, he couldn't leave during this time, and was in a gray-area. I think they told him he was illegal, but he's a stubborn mother fucker. So yeah, he actually won.

Don't think that's the case here. Sounds like a lazy gaijin. I turn in my US taxes late every year (sometimes by 1-2 years) but I always stay up on my immigration papers. If I can, anyone can.

[matsuki]

The guy speaks Japanese well enough to translate but is here on a tourist visa.

Well, the title really isn't much of an indicator of language ability. I've met far too many horrible "interpreters" both FG and Japanese, that are worthless and hell, long long ago, even I was literally pushed in front of J-company presidents as "the translator" after only 6 months of language school. (not that I didn't get the job done but things would flow much much smoother nowadays)

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Anybody that boasts of being a "Twitter mentor" and supports their case by citing that imbecile with an over-inflated sense of entitlement pretty much deserves to be crucified for mine...or cut into little pieces and thrown into the sea to be eaten by dolphins or whales.

[GomiGirl]

Hi twitter feed bot is still churning out tweets while he is locked up in the klink.

I was a follower of his twitter feed but it was too much crap so I stopped following ages ago.
I loathe and despise people who twitter flood.

Any updates on this though?

[gaijinpunch]

Any updates on this though?

Just advice!

[GomiGirl]

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Just FYI, this wanker is not in jail. He is in a detention cell. There's a big difference.

Japanese jails have one big advantage over jails in the West...you don't get fucked up your arse.


....Here, they fuck you in your mind.

[Taro Toporific]

...Japanese jails have one big advantage over jails in the West...you don't get fucked up your arse.

Not exactly true. If prisoner is "lucky" they get put in a single cell. In the older-style o-beya style set-up with six prisoners to a cell means there's always a bottom bitch.

Disclaimer: Mrs. Taro is moving into interpreting for Japanese Courts. The J-prison abuses are much worse than officials want us to believe (of course American prisons are much worse).

[Samurai_Jerk]

...Japanese jails have one big advantage over jails in the West...you don't get fucked up your arse.

Not exactly true. If prisoner is "lucky" they get put in a single cell. In the older-style o-beya style set-up with six prisoners to a cell means there's always a bottom bitch.

Disclaimer: Mrs. Taro is moving into interpreting for Japanese Courts. The J-prison abuses are much worse than officials want us to believe (of course American prisons are much worse).

Are you talking about abuse from fellow inmates or abuse from prison guards?

[Taro Toporific]

The J-prison abuses are much worse than officials want us to believe (of course American prisons are much worse).

Are you talking about abuse from fellow inmates or abuse from prison guards?

Both.
Prison guards in Japan are encouraged to beat the prisoners to instil "discipline."
If a prisoner is unfortunate enough to get put in the 5-mat, o-beiya cell with 6 prisoners, somebody is going to be "close." The prisoners all share one smallish tub of water---really nasty and many "top" prisoners don't let "bottom" prisoners bath at all.

_____
Back on topic:
Japanprobe commenters digging up the dirt on Michael Q Todd that sounds more like libel: "the guy has had two children from two different Japanese women, who he admits living off as well as surviving in Japan for three years on no money by freeloading at events etc. Now he is onto his third victim, sorry 'fiance'."
http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/09/24/mi ... -663758312

[yanpa]

From the dolphin's mouth (emphasis added):

Further Update to Keep You in The Loop:
BACKGROUND/HOW HE GOT THERE:
THE VISA

Michael is in Japan on a tourist visa. Michael speaks Japanese and has two Japanese children from former marriage living in Japan. Michael lives with his fiancee, Yoriko.

Michael knew his Japanese visitor’s visa was going to expire and Yoriko reports that he had applied for an extension.

From this page: http://www.indiegogo.com/SaveMQTodd?c=activity (note: it's impossible to link directly to the section in question, scroll down/search for it).

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

From the dolphin's mouth (emphasis added):

Further Update to Keep You in The Loop:
BACKGROUND/HOW HE GOT THERE:
THE VISA

Michael is in Japan on a tourist visa. Michael speaks Japanese and has two Japanese children from former marriage living in Japan. Michael lives with his fiancee, Yoriko.

Michael knew his Japanese visitor’s visa was going to expire and Yoriko reports that he had applied for an extension.

From this page: http://www.indiegogo.com/SaveMQTodd?c=activity (note: it's impossible to link directly to the section in question, scroll down/search for it).

Alas, poor Yoriko...

[yanpa]

From the same page:

WHAT THIS ALL HAS TO DO WITH DOLPHINS AND THE COVE

On the surface, nothing. Michael was arrested because he could not produce his passport. He is being held for deportation because his visa has expired.

However, there is good reason to believe Michael was asked for his passport because he was speaking to activists in the cove. The documentary director reports that the police have set up some kind of station there and that they interview everyone. This is why many of Michael’s supporters believe that his commitment to helping the dolphins contributed to the chain of events that led to his arrest.

Let's rephrase that: "his commitment to helping the dolphins while failing to be in possession of a passport with a valid visa in a heavily-policed area contributed to the chain of events that led to his arrest."