Environmentalists pursue Japan's whalers

[dimwit]

I think they should let him in but plenty of countries do this kind of thing to keep out people they don't like. The UK has banned right-wing American radio host Michael Savage and Australia canceled the visa of FG's favorite pick up artist Julien Blanc. This is not to defend Japan's actions but I do wonder what everyone thinks is a good reason for a government to ban someone from entry.

I think your right, and that many western governments have been guilty of using rather spotty justications for banning people. To me, unless a person is involved in an internationally recognized criminal organization, I think they should be allowed entry.

[wagyl]

Thank God I'm a lone wolf criminal. I never really liked organisational bullshit and middle management crap anyway. I don't have international recognition, either.

[dimwit]

Well don't despair son, you'll always be an international criminal to us.

[Yokohammer]

What bothers me is all the circuitous reasoning and piddling excuses. Just declare the guy persona non grata for disrupting Japanese business on Japanese territory and be done with it. "Close relations with Sea Shepard" ... oh fer fuck's sake.


~ Tapatalking ~

[wagyl]

Quite probably some allusions were made, but be aware that we are getting only what his lawyer says he told him. It seems to be an unnecessarily roundabout way to put the report in your own organisation's press release. I somehow doubt that those exact words were used by the Immigration officer. In fact, the press release uses "being related to" which seems more likely. https://dolphinproject.net/blog/post/br ... -in-tokyo/

Basically, they weren't convinced that he was here as a tourist. That has always been the risk.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I guess that the Japanese government considers Sea Shepherd to be a criminal organization so banning someone with ties to them would be pretty normal.

[Wage Slave]

This is not to defend Japan's actions but I do wonder what everyone thinks is a good reason for a government to ban someone from entry.

As far as I am concerned it is sufficient to say that the presence of someone is not conducive to the public good. We have plenty of dickheads of our own - we don't need to start importing them.

[matsuki]

This is not to defend Japan's actions but I do wonder what everyone thinks is a good reason for a government to ban someone from entry.

As far as I am concerned it is sufficient to say that the presence of someone is not conducive to the public good. We have plenty of dickheads of our own - we don't need to start importing them.

Problem is, when you hide that behind the "not tourist" or whatever procedural excuse they are, it not being applied the same way in most other cases. (which is basic pillar of rules/laws....predictability, a concept Japan is very familiar with) If he has been convicted of anything here at all, you'd think that would be an easy way to just deny him entry.

[Takechanpoo]

it has reached the limit to keep hunting whales based on the current framework of scientific research. japan should temporarily stop whaling.
and then should cooperate with other whaling countries and build a new framework to hunt whale commercially, in which limit the hunting to unendangerded ones and sharing whale meat among whaling countries and its not until even sharing doesn't cover the demand that they should go hunting whale. if there are some ppl even opposing to hunting whales based the new framework, they are undeniably cultists.
still there is NO decisive reason to stop hunting whale itself and eating whale itself. hell yeah

[kurogane]

I'm lost here: a known agitator has come to Japan again and claimed he is a tourist despite published evidence from previous visits of political activity and agitation showing that he wasn't a tourist before and likely won't be a tourist this time, which is flatly contrary to the letter of the visa waiver programme on which he seeks to enter. He is claimed to have ties to a pirate gang and was arrested or detained by police in Japan under supsicion of drunk driving and failing to produce proper identification. According to the latest reports from the Ministry of the Fucking Obvious the Japanese authorities rather presumptuously claim the right to restrict the entry into Japan of people deemed undesirable. And people are worried that this refusal of entry is somehow arbitrary or based on insufficient grounds? And yes, I understand most don't actually care if the dotty old simp is sent home or not and nobody here is fucking retarded enough to claim entry on a tourist visa is a natural right.

I dunno. The way I read it, calling it a tourist visa is a misnomer. You can engage in business as long as you aren't earning any money. Indeed, a number of people I know have visited customers and clients in Japan using the visa exemption. So, to me if him not being a tourist is the pretext for their denial it is bogus, and they clearly they are not following their own rules.

Agreed it is a misnomer, but it's not technically called a tourist visa anyways is it? I don't follow your logic after that, though: the activities allowed under a so-called tourist visa (a 90 day visa waiver??) are clearly listed and explained: business, sales, scientific research exchange and activities, visits to Japanese chapters of the Kumbaya Choir, etc. Like you say, almost anything as long as you don't get paid. Political activity is specifically prohibited. He is a political activist that claims to be a tourist here for sightseeing (wink wink). They don't believe that is the real purpose of his visit. That would mean he has lied to the immigration authorities at entry. Lying to the authorities is not allowed, and under their own rules is a sufficient reason to deny entry, which is what has happened. WTF do the Japanese have to do to please some expats?

Nothing personal, btw, there, Dimmy, it's just that you clearly outlined why you disagree with their reasoning. Nothing against anybody else either, FTM.

[matsuki]

Kuro, I don't think anyone here is claiming he has a "right" to come to Japan and they immigration is wrong for not letting him in...it's the lack of clarity on the reasons for denying him entry that gets all the theories and speculation going. As Wags pointed out, that lack of reporting is likely intentional, from dolphin hugger's camp. If the media said what I quoted from you below, it's a non-issue.

Political activity is specifically prohibited. He is a political activist that claims to be a tourist here for sightseeing (wink wink). They don't believe that is the real purpose of his visit. That would mean he has lied to the immigration authorities at entry. Lying to the authorities is not allowed, and under their own rules is a sufficient reason to deny entry, which is what has happened.

[kurogane]

Cool, gotcha, thanks. I thought the accusation of ties with Sea Shitbirds was plain enough:

You associate with pirates that attack Japanese vessels on the high seas. Goodbye.

Why go the Bible Camp honesty route and make him a hero to his veggy headed supporters when you can refuse his entry based on his disreputable aspects and associations? I really, really hope his rather bogus seeming arrest for drunk driving last year comes into play against him this time. Whether that was a strategic setup or not that should give the senile old fart a serious lesson in Japanese Hospitality.

Another thing I am quite surprised at is that he has recourse to an appeal of the decision. They are way too accommodating.

[matsuki]

Cool, gotcha, thanks. I thought the accusation of ties with Sea Shitbirds was plain enough:

You associate with pirates that attack Japanese vessels on the high seas. Goodbye.

Why go the Bible Camp honesty route and make him a hero to his veggy headed supporters when you can refuse his entry based on his disreputable aspects and associations? I really, really hope his rather bogus arrest for drunk driving last year comes into play. Whether that was intentional or not that should give the senile old fart a serious lesson in Japanese Hospitality.

I wonder if he has any tattoos

The drunk driving stop and subsequent arrest is pretty ridiculous harassment though...called in tip and then he either has the passport on him or it's at his hotel. Finding it in a subsequent search of his car the next day AFTER he had to be hospitalized while in detention...I could care less about the dude but that is pretty obvious police assery.

[kurogane]

Oh, okay. I condemn him for not knowing where his passport was. I don't believe he doesn't know fully well he has to carry it (reminder to self!). I do find it hard to believe he produced it and they resorted to subterfuge. He would have spoken about that subsequently. I fully agree the whole affair was probably the result of a prank tipoff to the police; that's why it would be funny if they then brought it up as evidence of bad character at his hearing. And again, why even bother allowing a visitor denied entry a hearing? Nobody gives them any credit and they still do things by the book and by the rule. And like Wagyl noted above, he, a tourist visiting Japan, has an immigration lawyer.

I really do enjoy the internet outrage at him being denied his "natural born right" to enter a foreign country for political agitation specifically disallowed under the terms of any permission to enter. Preachy white people are so fucking stupid.

[kurogane]

I really do enjoy the internet outrage at him being denied his "natural born right" to enter a foreign country for political agitation specifically disallowed under the terms of any permission to enter. Preachy white people are so fucking stupid.

O'Barry ordered deported from Japan
http://www.japantoday.com/category/nati ... from-japan

TOKYO - Japan has ordered the deportation of Ric O’Barry, the star of the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,” about a Japanese village that hunts dolphins. But he has refused to leave, insisting he came as a tourist to look at dolphins.

Supporters will be happy to hear he has refused the deportation order.

[Mike Oxlong]

That Ghanian presented as a much more sympathetic character, yet got the full USP Florence ADX treatment. This douchebag, OTOH, is being treated with kid gloves.

[kurogane]

Oh, completely. Fighting with the police is so stupid I have no sympathy for his choice to do so, but he should have been grandfathered in and allowed to stay. Fortunately for Tricky Ricky and his supporters he has decided not to obey the order to leave, so things are bound to turn out for the better ..............Ooook.

[Yokohammer]

He's refusing to leave?

So he really does want to be physically deported so he can raise a stink about that.

I'd say that's being a manipulative asshole.

[kurogane]

Yup. Allowing for previous concerns about the wording of the Japanese decision to refuse entry this is obviously a Paul Watson media whore maneuver, or he has turned it into one. They have declared that he has not come as a tourist and has lied on previous visits about his activities: that is more than enough in any country. And now he is Refusing to leave........????? That makes him sound mentally incompetent; he sounds more like a pissypants child than an International Activist. Sadly, his supporters are retards too, so this should turn into a major Moral Victory. On a brighter note, this will be his last visit for some years to come.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Japan should call his bluff, let him stay in detention, and be sure he's well fed with popular local delicacies like shiokara, natto, and tamago kake gohan.

[wagyl]

The drunk driving stop and subsequent arrest is pretty ridiculous harassment though...called in tip and then he either has the passport on him or it's at his hotel. Finding it in a subsequent search of his car the next day AFTER he had to be hospitalized while in detention...I could care less about the dude but that is pretty obvious police assery.

I actually have a whole bundle of questions about all that, and in light of his current grandstanding behaviour, my doubts are firming up. I wonder if it was orchestrated to look like obvious police assery, and the regional police force fell into that trap.

Assuming a tip was in fact called in about the drunk driving, might that be a tip-off from within his own office to get the ball rolling? Did he forget that he had the passport in the car or did he deliberately neglect to produce it or mention that it was in the car? Did the police search the car after he told them it was in the car the following day? What was the hospitalisation about and was it an exaggerated event to get further publicity? We only have his office's account of these events anyway.

[Yokohammer]

You didn't see this?

He's a "political prisoner of Japan" now.

Dolphin activist Ric O’Barry says he’s a political prisoner of Japan

[matsuki]

Wags could be right but he comes across like an idiot when he "forgets" where his passport is. Either way, not so sure that event, orchestrated or not, helps his effort.

“Throwing a person like this out of the country gives the world the impression that Japan is not a free country,” he said

More like the very black & white laws suddenly become gray "case by case" but if they are claiming he engaged in paid work on a previous visit, the next step would be to apply for a work visa that fit their claims, no?

[dimwit]

Some of you urbanites don't seem to understand how things work in the countryside. I've lived in Ehime for more than 20 years and have never been stopped for an ID check in all that time. There is a reason for this. The police don't do ID checks. I know this because I teach the police and have asked specifically about it, and was told that in small towns there really isn't any point in doing so as they are familar with any gaijin in the area, and pestering tourists is not good for business. The result is that poeple often go out of the house without ID. So if they were doing a ID check it was a fishing or should I say dolphin hunting trip most likely ordered on high. as the local cops are far too dull to take any kind of initiative.

As for Wagyl assumuption that this was all some cunning plan by Flipper and friends, I think you are giving way too much credit for their mental lifting abilities. Between the local cops and the Man-Dolphin Love Association, we ain't dealing with Sherlock and Moriarty.

[matsuki]

Some of you urbanites don't seem to understand how things work in the countryside. I've lived in Ehime for more than 20 years and have never been stopped for an ID check in all that time. There is a reason for this. The police don't do ID checks. I know this because I teach the police and have asked specifically about it, and was told that in small towns there really isn't any point in doing so as they are familar with any gaijin in the area, and pestering tourists is not good for business. The result is that poeple often go out of the house without ID. So if they were doing a ID check it was a fishing or should I say dolphin hunting trip most likely ordered on high. as the local cops are far too dull to take any kind of initiative.

As high profile as he is, I'm pretty sure all the local cops are aware of him....and with the cops being reactive, rather than proactive, it makes sense someone called him in...be it one a local fisherman or one of his camp.

As for Wagyl assumuption that this was all some cunning plan by Flipper and friends, I think you are giving way too much credit for their mental lifting abilities. Between the local cops and the Man-Dolphin Love Association, we ain't dealing with Sherlock and Moriarty.

I agree but I wouldn't put it pass this dude to try and drum up some BS drama either.

[kurogane]

Those are good points but Taiji is hardly Ehime. It's full of short stay Sea Shitbirds and PETA-philes so regular official harassment style ID checks might not be uncommon, and a good way to cull the herd; lots of those fucktards seem plenty stupid enough to walk around without ID or to contravene the terms of their stay in Japan. Besides, Ricky O'tothe'B (Yo! Pimpin be hard, yo) was stopped for drunk driving following an anonymous tip, not an ID check per se, and then either faked not having his passport or had a senior moment and lost track of it.

Or, I'm just quibbling.

[kurogane]

It seems that harmony has finally been restored, and the whiney ingrate has been shipped home: 3 free meals a day and a bed and he was complaining that "the food didn't agree with him". Whadda Nancy. Hopefully they can establish a preemptive flight ban so he doesn't waste anymore tax money.

[matsuki]

Have any regular FG ever been harassed in Taji? A Anglo-tour down there would seem to be the ultimate troll. Whales and dolphins? We're just here on a tour?

[wagyl]

Maybe it is just me being sensitive to it, but I could detect the weight of tension in the air.

It is no longer a place to enjoy scenery of isolated coves in the cliffy coast.

There are nicer coastal communities to visit.

[Takechanpoo]

someone can explain why pulling out and eating plants is not cruel? thank you.