A few people have been talking about this one. A freelance reporter named Chris Johnson was not allowed back into Japan sometime late last year. A blogger associated with the Economist magazine (Banyan) ran some of his story, and the internet sleuths have been on the case since.
It sounds like Mr. Johnson was doing what is known as a “visa run”, whereby someone whose visa is about to expire flies out of Japan, only to turn around and fly back in. This is in order to obtain another 90-day stamp from the immigration officials. For most countries, a citizen of that country can get permission to visit Japan for 90 days. Mr. Johnson is a Canadian, so he would be entitled to this.
The trouble comes from the fact that Mr. Johnson was working as a reporter in Japan. This would require permission to work, and the 90-day stamp does not grant that. (It’s a tourist visa.)
So it seems to me, as someone who had held a work visa for five years, is that Mr. Johnson either let his paperwork slip, or he never held a work visa to begin with. I have a feeling it’s the former.
Johnson gave an account of his troubles in detention, which is what you read on that link above to Banyan. People are skeptical, though, because, after first apparently repeating and promoting his story on Debito, he became very defensive when the same story began to be challenged. James at Japan Probe also got into the particulars, and I think some of the Tepido crowd were on hand to do the armchair sleuthing.
When you blog for the Japan-side expat community, this is one of the pitfalls or dangers—more so than outside a close community. People will come and try and use your site to promote their agenda, because they can honestly reach a couple hundred people. You sit there, and say, “well, is this really a point I want passing through here, or am I being asked to tacitly sign on to some idea or opinion that someone is looking to put out to the readership?”
Sometimes, you know, I am very happy to get the word out about something. For example, the origin of “flyjin”. Or Moises Garcia’s big success with getting his daughter back from Japan. Back a few years ago, the hoax surrounding Ron Kessler’s “Free Choice Japan” health insurance dodge.
Other times I really just get the strong feeling that I’m being played.
I don’t know what the situation was on Debito, because since he left Japan and entered a new phase in life, the theme of that blog has been more of emphasizing the ways in which Japan does not measure up to a “multicultural” standard, the kind you might find described in Ivy League universities of the 1980′s in America. So an encounter like Chris Johnson’s fits the storyline, and he gets some play. A few people get really offended by that, but it’s really an opinion site, so I still don’t get why there’s always so much hullabaloo. If someone is a reporter, then I can see. But a reporter going to a blogger and complaining, really just says something about the reporter, doesn’t it? I mean, you lay an egg, and then head over to the blogging community to defend it?
If Chris Johnson was trying to pull a fast one with immigration, how does that make immigration “bad”?
Yeah, Debito is certainly one of those with an agenda. His goal in “becoming a Japanese national” was to then be able to claim the moral high ground — as a “citizen” — whenever he wanted to criticize the Japanese government, systems, society, or whatever.
And let’s never forget that he is a guy who turned a case of discrimination at some obscure onsen in Hokkaido into a career move.Guess he’s on to Canadaand citizenship in a third country so he can criticize the government there for exploitation of tar sands, its treatment of indigenous cultures, and the plight of the independence-seeking Québécois.Yeah, this Johnson story reeks to high heaven. I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a valid work visa, as he claims at one point something about “the paperwork was in the works” or something to that effect. He was probably bopping in and out on a three-month tourist visa and just got flagged. And then he turned his brief detention into a tale of torture and brutality ala Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Look, I’m all for bashing the Japanese government when they do commit human rights violations, as they clearly have with respect to international parental child abduction and loss of custody rights pursuant to divorce. But when embellished/partially-true/fabricated stories like Johnson’s come out they take the focus away from the real tragedies brought about by the Japanese government and its justice system.
I was one who after reading Chris Johnson’s story became concerned about the treatment ‘Detainees’ at Narita Airport receive. Many have criticized Mr. Johnson in regards to the murky status of his visa. All well and good but what about the conditions he described during his detainment? Did Mr. Johnson or others deserve the described abuse at the hands of Japanese immigration and this “G4S” entity which apparently has custody of the detainees? I am waiting for the ‘rest of the story’ to be validated or debunked.
John, the problem is that if Chris was not giving the full account, why should a readership buy whatever he is reporting about his treatment while under detention?
Is it a lot to ask of reporting that the facts be presented, and whatever is presented as facts actually be facts?
Came here from Tepido and just wanted to say I like what you wrote in this blog.
This is a(nother) story that has led people to be nasty to each other over the side they take, and it’s refreshing to see you not do it.
The most interesting thing to me is how CJ has seemed to have no problem ruining any credibility or professionalism he may have had. Who would want to hire him to write a story after this public calling out?
I agree with you.
As a regular debito reader, I was alarmed by CJ’s story, but needed more facts in order to understand what happened. What turned me off from CJ is that anyone who asked sensible questions in order to clarify the events was attacked by him as a ‘hater’, or an NHK stooge (god knows why), or even as a schill working for the Japanese government. As CJ daily edited his story over the course of 2 weeks, I only had more questions, none of which he would answer. I don’t believe that japanese immigration policies are great, nor is their implementation, but I was (and still am) shocked to see many comments on other blogs in his support that appear to show very little critical thinking, and even out-right anti-Japan racism. CJ appears very much to me like a kind of Japan ex-pat version of a conspiracy nut that thinks the whole world is run by a secret illuminati, or something. They refuse to enter into rational debate.
Re: NHK, why doesn’t CJ come clean about the story that NHK [accusation redacted]. THAT’S the real story, beyond Narita, beyond his obfuscation and [deleted character attack]. CJ’s just counting on the fact that Japan is all compartmentalised (so the inconvenient truths can as largely assured of being swept under the rug in an out-of-sight, out-of-mind fashion) and he’s forever gaming the system there. He’s got no credibility, full-stop.
Given that you are posting through Bangladesh (probably out of Japan, and then through Bangladesh to me), I don’t think your accusations against CJ have the kind of credibility backing them that you would expect someone making those sorts of accusations to bring with the comment.
I think if what you say is even somewhat true, that story comes out in due time. Right now, it just sounds like a shot.
The other problem is that many of us understand that Japan is NOT compartmentalized. When it comes to foreigners in Japan, those functionaries are talking to each other all the time.
Pingback: Chris Johnson Feedback | Hoofin to You!
Pingback: More Chris Johnson story woes. | Hoofin to You!
Pingback: Chris Johnson update: it was the visa problem. | Hoofin to You!