The Register has the inside scoop on what goes on in the American gulags:
And talking of asses, that story ends up being self-published on the Asia Times.
Assfinger III: LA Ass
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- Chris Johnson Posts New Article: Says He Was Using 90-Day Tourist Visas | Japan Probe - Pingback on 2012/02/16/ 11:41
@VK: *nod* fair enough. I suppose I should say that I don’t think he has ill intent. I am (fairly) certain he believes what he is saying. That said, it doesn’t excuse the content of some of his more fanciful tweets… I’m still trying to understand what his case has to do with TEPCO, let alone child porn.
@Brenden:
Did you read the tweet some time back where he reveals that his famous report from Shizuoka about him being one of the last people he knew to leave Tokyo was false? (In the same report he quotes numbers from a Sony press statement and then makes up a story about how almost everyone at Sony HQ had left Tokyo, even though the very same press statement (as reported by news agencies) stated clearly that they had simply been asked to stay at home.)
I’m sorry to sound nasty, but I think he knows he makes things up. If he doesn’t, he has some serious issues incompatible with being a journalist. He has been caught directly black and white lying on Debito about his visa.
I mean, lying is a serious issue for a journalist, but an inability to distinguish truth from one’s own fictions is probably even more serious.
@VK:
No.. I didn’t see that! Could you point it out again? That is a major issue. (The story about guards with guns also changed, didn’t it?)
If anything, I would think someone deliberately trying to make things up would be *better* and creating believable fiction.
I mean, in our conversation:
“@cjinasia: @JeremyBlaustein @inchiki_gaijin a big J NGO, with hundreds of doctors, suspects a big corp did me in, they have complained to Diet MP.”
If I was deliberately making things up, I wouldn’t try to spin such a fanciful tale.
I also noted in his recap of events, he states
“Since my previous renewal had taken four months,”
Which again is at odds with his surprise that the visa application would take more than 10 business days.
I mean… if he was deliberately falsifying, wouldn’t he create slightly more believable fiction?
How about where he claimed that Alberta was -40 degrees? That was completely false, at least in any realistic sense.
And to the disgrace of The Economist, their reporter didnt even notice that.
But CJ has been caught lying many, many times. The reason why people are on him, is that instead of admitting his error, apologizing and moving on. He keeps doubling down, threatening his ‘accusers’ and generally being a jackass.
@Brenden: Japanprobe has a copy of the tweets here: http://www.japanprobe.com/2012/01/23/christopher-johnson-discloses-visa-information-work-visa-application-paperwork-but-no-approval/
Basically, Johnson spent three days begging his partner to leave Tokyo, and not a single one of their Japanese friends was leaving. He knew damn well there was no mass exodus, because he’d failed in encouraging one. But hey, if it gets you on TV…
(I should state in fairness that some have suggested “people I know” means his foreign acquaintances, but having listened to the original broadcast, I don’t think this would make sense as an interpretation.)
I think the thing about his bad fabrications is that he doesn’t research things beforehand very well. It’s been people in Japan that have picked up details which are not possible or highly unlikely in Japan, but not so somewhere else. Which is why people outside of Japan on the Economist thread were puzzled by people in Japan confidently doubting a lot of his story.
@VK: Thank you for that. I had forgotten that part of the JP article. That in and of itself is troubling indeed as it seems to show him, in one case or the other, to be simply fabricating truth.
*sigh* I’m starting to feel less sympathetic towards him and even more sympathy to whatever examiner is tasked with evaluating his new application.
I wonder what will happen with regard to his career from now.
I used to live in a country where I was chaining tourist visas. I wasnt working, but I have stuff, an apartment and a life.
I would have been gutted if one of my visa runs had been rumbled. It would definitely, significantly, disrupted my life.
That being said, I was never a moron about it. For all of my visa runs I always dressed neatly, if not in a suit. I was always polite. I always carried a lot of cash and credit cards, as well as the numbers of a bunch of hotels.
I did not roll up to a 9am flight after a long night out drinking and with 3 hours of sleep. I did not slam 3 beers in an hour on my flight ‘home’. I did not ‘fall asleep’ in the immigration area. I did not talk about my work (of course I didnt have any) when talking to the immigration officer. I did not reflect to the immigration officer that I was ENTITLED to a tourist visa because I was white and had donated my time to a local charity.
Christopher Johnson’s (freelance Asia Japan journalist, cjinasia) was not that he was a journalist. His problem was that he expected that he could work in a country, chaining tourist visas, and show up drunk and belligerent at immigration.
Who does that? I have brain dead surfer friends who have more common sense then that, let alone an ‘experienced international journalist’
At this point it’s starting to look to me that a visa application was never actually filed. He may have deleted it by now after I pointed it out to him but anyway. His original article on his blog said this:
Emphasis added. We know this is a lie since he now admits he did not have any visa of any sort
This was subsequently changed to:
‘Proper stamps’ – ergo, he claims he was using his old passport – you know, the one that he said in the spring was going to expire soon. Also note he had ‘a few beers’ – an a 2hr flight….at 9am in the morning? There is only one service on such a short flight, since so you’d basically have to slam the beers. And alcohol affects people a lot more while flying than the ground…
Anyway, his current blog says this:
Emphasis added. From the context, it’s clear he is referring to his ‘multiple’ departures/re-entries on tourist waivers. Again, he claims he was using his old passport. Also note that the reference to the ‘few beers’ was deleted.
However, we now have the smoking gun: His 27 Jan tweet to Hiroko Tabuchi:
But wait – why is his -old- passport not with him? That can only mean at some point he did indeed get a new passport, and used -that- hoping to camouflage his previous visits. And if he had filed for a new visa, his new passport would have the ‘visa application filed’ stamp…I don’t think it does, because nowhere in the text does he mention talking about his ‘visa application’ with Immigration, nor can he produce scans of any such stamp.
Even more astounding: His blog now states that he travelled in and out of Japan repeatedly on tourist visas in 2011:
That’s at least six before we count the South Korea trip….all in rapid succession up until September, because he further states that he didn’t leave Japan all of October, November and December…i.e, his 90-day visa was almost up. So…repeated entries in and out of Japan, then another short trip overseas just before his visa ran out? VISA RUN.
He continues to add to his blog, hinting at ‘threats’ made to him for his ‘controversial’ reporting.
My favorite:
Bwahahahahahahahah!
@Scott Urista:
It’s all going back to our earliest theories being the most likely version.
Everyone first thought he was doing visa runs. And it turned out to be true.
I thought his claim that he had “proof” of some sort showing that Immi “had his application” and I read into his wording that he was basing it on his thought he could just mail in an application (until we all pointed out you can’t do that)..might lead to that he was going to initially try to claim he sent it in by registered mail, (a lie anyway) and that the registered mail receipt (a fiction, but he doesn’t care) was the “proof” (he would/could never show anyone) that Immi “had his application”.
It’s pretty sad when one can’t keep track of one’s own lies.
He can’t even be a good fiction writeir, let alone a jounalist.
Just to recap.
He claims his home is in Japan. It is not. He was in Japan (repeatedly) as an illegal economic migrant. The joke of it all is that he attempted to garner sympathy and some measure of credibility by writing about his “experience” – which has turned out to reveal his account as complete fabrication.
He makes allegations about mistreatment and discrimination, all of which have proved to be groundless.
As some commentators have reflected – the only reason there is any air left in this windbag is due to the “trainwreck” phenomenon. Just when we think he cannot possibly come up with any more idiotic claims, he does so.
Amazing stuff CJ – thanks for the entertainment.
This may be just a case of having been in Japan too long, but the ‘few beers on an early am flight’ is one of the less noteworthy parts of his story. Dumb, if one were expecting to have to bluff their way through immigration, however.
Maybe this is limited to ad agencies, or maybe I just work with alcoholics, but when my co-workers (American and Japanese) have morning business flights, they have no problem with arriving at Haneda at 6AM, checking in, then heading straight to the airport lounge to slam beers until their flight is announcing final boarding, and then buying a bunch of cans to take with them in the plane. I’ll join them for a few, but generally take it a lot slower than they do in the mornings, saving the heavier drinking for night trips or when we’re heading back home.
And of course, we’re traveling with our paperwork in order, which makes all the difference.
@sublight: The “a few beers” bit that he added (and swiftly deleted) was included at the stage where he was still trying to offer a pitch for a low-grade thriller. He was a tired, worn out hero-traveller suffering periodic delirium. I think the drinking was added to emphasise that he was one of the boys.
When it was pointed out that all this made him an unreliable witness to unlikely events, he deleted references to delirium and beer, and later insisted he wasn’t drunk in the slightest. It was one of the early clear examples of how he was changing the story according to the reception it was getting.
It’s an exercise in grammar transformations. People use the third conditional “If you had said Y and not X, I would have believed you” and he hears the first conditional “If you say Y and not X, I’ll believe you.”
The ‘few beers’ part is relevant because there are multiple sources that say CJ was extremely belligerent with the officials and tried to harangue them into giving him a visa.
From his blog:
Now, this wasn’t the 13-hour red-eye from New York. This was a quick ‘n’ easy 2-hour or so flight from Seoul…where he insists he was on a ‘reporting trip’. And yet he arrives at the 9am flight on just 3 hours’ sleep, unshaven, hair uncombed, and with tired red eyes.
One thing about alcohol and flying: not only does it often have as stronger effect compared to drinking at a bar on the ground, it exacerbates the hangover .
CJ had to be already in a pretty disheveled shape when he got to the airport in Seoul – he didn’t get that way on a short flight. And he says he had ‘a few’ beers. That’s what, 3 or 4 beers? That could be equivalent to 5 or 6 beers…in less than 2 hours! (There is no beverage service for the first and last 30 minutes or so of any flight).
So an apparently late night on the town in Seoul (‘only 3 hours sleep’), plus the exacerbated effects of alcohol while flying….it sure sounds consistent with someone arriving in Narita not in the best of shape to begin with. Incidentally, it also explains why he would delete the ‘few beers’ part, when he realized it bolstered the ‘you were drunk and belligerent’ claim.
Now add on top of that the realization that he wasn’t going to be able to play his ‘white English speaking guy able to B.S. his way through things when he screws up’. I’m sure it was a mind-blowing experience: the realization that you were about to go through a life-altering event? Hey, I’m sure anyone would get a bit upset. But a real adult and working professional would quickly realize they were responsible for their troubles and would go about trying to work things through in a calm, reasonable, professional manner. If you have the emotional maturity and impulse control of a 2-yr old, you of course blame the entire world for your problems, lash out and threaten to sue anyone that finds your story unconvincing, and burn down any and all bridges to even the last possible vestiges of support.
You see CJ? This is what journalists are supposed to be doing: Critical reading to compare and contrast different versions of events (of course, in this instance, the different versions all have one single source – you). Utilizing working knowledge of a wide range of subjects, researching and confirming where needed. Then using the mighty powers of deductive reasoning to arrive at logical conclusions.
Interestingly, he has deleted his ‘please let me post to NBR’ article from his blog. Unlike NBR, however, anyone can post a comment here, you know. You seem to be tweeting a lot, why don’t you comment here on the specific conclusions & questions that have been asked of you? We don’t want any spurious claims of ‘bigwigs making claims to Immigration’ (which makes no sense at all when you think about it, but anyway).
@Scott Urista:
It’s almost certain he was going through this in some sort of incapacitated state, be it delerium, intoxication, hangover, etc. Really do wonder what he had been doing that previous night in Seoul that left him only 3 hours sleep?
“Journalism” until 4AM? Very dedicated journalism!
(In the hotel bar?)
If we take his claim that a guard told CJ that he has a gun so he can shoot people who act out… well, how did it come to that? Surely armed officers don’t start making threats to shoot people unless someone is being a uncooperative beligerent prick who is not respecting the guy in uniform already openly wearing a firearm.
CJ was very likely yelling (as one poster at NBR seems to have confirmed via contacts in Immi), not following instructions, probably refusing to go into a room or cell (or “dungeon”) and then the officer reminded him who is in charge.
The only shocking claim in his entire story is this claim of being threatened “at gunpoint”
Yet it’s most likely he provoked the officer into this. I find it very hard to believe an officer would threaten to shoot an innocent person who was calm and acting rationally. (This is Japan, not America
)
And so, every single event in the story (getting deported, charged an ultimately very fair ticket price, getting asked to pay for the more comfy hotel room vs. dungeon cell [he never makes this point clear], the gun incident, and even not having suitablecold-weather clothing
etc.) is ultimately CJ’s fault.
Yet he still spins new stories that leave him completely blameless for everything. Everything!
Why should we even assume his story of the 4-month-ish pending application is true?
My theory is he tried to change his visa, and IT WAS DENIED, because he had no proof of full-time work. Since none of us have experience with a denied application while still in-country, we have no way of knowing how to figure out if his story could align with that possibility. What is the procedure for being denied a visa renewal or change while in-country? Instant deportation? A grace period?
For all we know, he was already ordered out of the country months earlier. Or maybe Immmi said, “You can’t get approved, you should leave before we officially deport you.” He figured he could just try coming back as a tourist and continue forever on popping in-and-out of country for 90-day periods, basically flaunting the fact he was continuing to work in Japan illegally.
Maybe he just thought he could try a Gaijin Smash at Immi Since since “educated” white, rich guys don’t get deported! (that’s for brown people! his foot-in-mouth posts touching on this point were very revealing, and a bit sickening) Maybe he was downing servings of liquid courage almost continuously from the previous evening to calm his nerves on what he knew was a gamble where the risk of failure increases each time… and this time he wasn’t lucky.
But he can’t admit that to others (Shameless?)
or he can’t even admit it to himself (delusional?)
Or is this all just an elaborate excuse for his girlfriend?
Going back to my other old theory; admitting fault and terminating a relationship with a “Honey, I fucked up my visa. Can never see you again. Rent due on the 1st. Plz, feed the dogs. See ya.” is much harder than a heroic version, “I’m being persecuted by the government because I’m so awesome!”
@Level3: Though I believe a lot of discretion is left to the immigration bureau, I believe the standard thing to happen when your application is denied (and after your current visa has expired) is that you are issued a 1-month “special activities” visa for the purpose of “preparations to leave the country” （特定活動・出国準備）. Whether you are allowed to reapply for a different visa during this time depends on your individual situation.
When your renewal or application has been denied or unsuccessful, but immigration feels there is a pertinent reason (i.e.: mistake on the part of the company, misunderstanding, company went bankrupt), it appears that immigration can grant you a 90-day special activities visa for the purpose of engaging in job hunting.
@Brenden:
Thanks Brenden,
Is that buried in the Immi law somewhere?
@Level3:
From a few conversations with friends and a a bit of googling. This site has a good overview of 特定活動/Special activities.
http://www.officekan.com/category/1247478.html
Though it does seem as if the exact system is not specifically laid out on the immigration HP.
Funny. Christopher Johnson (Gulag for a Gaijin!) is now tweeting how another reporter has a misleading headline and blurb in one of her articles.
In a later tweet he complains about how the Japanese government ‘expelled’ him.
The irony.
Holy shit the guy’s 46 (learned from his own tweeter page, not stalking thanks Hoofin et al) — you’d think he’s learned a bit on how to play the game and everything by now!
Most kids I know gave up on the “But muuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm I wannaaaaaaaaaaa” well before they hit their teens.
@Brenden:
I think I’m on the same side as CJ (and almost anybody) when it comes to Immigration policies being deliberately vague. The law itself is full of gaping holes, making any but the most basic cases up to the judgment of the Immigration official who happens to be at the desk that day.
But it works both ways, often they’ll help you, sometimes they will throw up BS roadblocks.
That being said, it doesn’t mean you can repeatedly violate very clearly spelled out rule/rules (you can’t work on a tourist visa, you need a proper job to get a work visa, you need to do the type of work spelled out in your visa .. ah fuck it, here’s a hint CJ, 資格外活動許可書[permission to work outside visa status]…something you have never, ever mentioned, but I’m sure you will soon. You’re welcome. Note time and date, everyone. There’s more hints where that came from.
) .
You can’t break the rules and then run crying to Amnesty International about it when the Immi officers decide to stop ignoring it after the 3rd or 6th time.
Heck, you should be thankful they let you get away with it so many times previously.
99% of people who play that game know the risks, and prepare accordingly; have a return ticket, don’t admit to working, don’t show up with beer breath, don’t scream at the officials, leave their ego in their checked luggage, do their best to have a proper visa by the second time they enter Japan, and have a backup plan that usually involves a beach in Thailand rather than making up stories and trying to silence free expression on the internet.
Just realized how he’s keeping the advertisements for his books at the top of his site: He set the published date at 30 Jan, 2013
Really hard to take his story seriously when he seems more interested in selling books than getting the message out.
Anyway, as noted above he deleted his ‘pls let me post to the NBR forums post, so I have asked him a couple of times on Twitter to post his rebuttals etc. here. His response was, paraphrasing slightly, ‘you’re not my boss. when, where, and for how long have you been in Japan since 3/11?’
Right, because clearly time spent in Japan is critical in being able to determine that someone’s visa status story doesn’t make sense
CJ’s going to find that until he fully comes clean, he’s going to find people poking holes in his story, particularly as long as he keeps saying thinks like this tweet:
Regarding the beer. You guys are all right about that. To be honest, CJ’s story has changed so many times and had so many holes, I’d stopped even trying to approach it as though he had any credibility. It’s simply become a work of poorly written fiction.
The tweet where he calls another journalist ‘misleading’ and also where he says he was ‘expelled’ from Japan have both been deleted.
Combined with his deletion of the tweet about how his case was similar to Japan being soft on child porn, Im now 3 for 3 in posting here about his ridiculous tweets, then having him delete them shortly thereafter.
Hi Christopher Johnson! (Japan Asia Freelance Journalist, Gulag for Gaijin, Nightmare at Narita) Good to know even if you wont post here to answer Scott’s (and others) points, that you are still following this thread closely!
BTW, did anyone ever read any piece he wrote about his time in Korea when apparently he was covering the death of Kim Jong Il? Its always seemed a bit odd to me that he flew to South Korea to cover the story, when Kim as it turns out was Supreme Leader of North Korea. But then again, Im not a professional journalist.
I tweeted him directly about his ‘misleading’ tweet, because it was so ridiculous. So not sure if he deleted the tweets because of this thread or my tweet…..but he responded back directly to me, so no matter how hard he tries to erase evidence, the internet has a loooong memory.
The article in question is here: http://tinyurl.com/824wvh4
I think it’s OK – seems to meander a bit, it massively over-uses the ‘three-word sentences as a stand-alone paragraph’ technique, and it could use a bit of editing. For example, when the article talks about radiation exposure, the reporter could have tried to keep units consistent: going back and forth between ‘microsieverts per hour’ vs ‘millisieverts per year’ is pretty much impossible for a layman to follow.
Anyway the title says, ‘Life inside Japan’s dead zone’. The page 1 blurb, according to CJ, said ‘Some people living inside the no-entry zone near damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor have refused to leave’.
CJ’s claim was that the title & blurb were ‘misleading’ because ‘not all of the sources in the article actually live inside the no-go zone’. He then said that the accuracy was ‘important to journalists living in Japan’, which is of course ironic given CJ’s current country of residence. And of course it completely ignores the fact that the article clearly notes where people in the article live/work in relation to the plant and the 20-km no entry zone.
Remember, he tweeted this -directly- to the Toronto Star and one of the Toronto Star reporters. And he even had the gall to link to his article in the Japan Times on the ‘lone holdout’ in the evac zone….which is doubly ironic: if you read CJ’s article, it’s clear that the person isn’t actually the lone holdout, only that he ‘reckons’ he’s the lone holdout.
Remember, this is coming from someone that doesn’t seem to understand the difference between ‘expelled’ and ‘denied entry’, nor the difference between ‘assets frozen’ and ‘assets I can’t convince my partner to send me’, nor the difference between ‘bank account frozen’ vs ‘not being able to access my bank account because I didn’t bother getting a card from my Japanese bank that would allow for overseas cash withdrawals, which is pretty stupid for someone that apparently has to travel so much for work’.
JT, I also wondered about his ‘reporting’ trip to South Korea, since it’s not like he published anything from the trip. And of course ‘I can’t publish anything because all my tools are in Japan’ doesn’t make any sense.
@Scott Urista:
It’s not a big leap to assume CJ is attacking this article because it disproves yet another of his story claims.
He wants to be the reporter with the exclusive story of the lone holdout in the no-go zone. This article shows it isn’t so.
Thus CJ attacks it.
Simple.
This is making for a very bad accuracy average: his gulag story, his flyjin TV reporting, his hit job against J volleyball for not rehiring him, and now this claim of exclusivity to Fukushima holdouts. All shown to be exaggerations or lies.
His journalism really is all a house of cards.
No wonder he’s in constant damage control.
I also thought that ‘I cant publish because my tools are in Japan’ was pretty ridiculous. First of all, he has published. The Gulag for Gaijin piece. But more importantly, if you were really going to be working while out of the country, shouldnt you have those tools with you already? And after you were denied entry, couldnt you get your partner to send them to you? For the last, he makes an excuse that his partner is currently touring. But has she been touring since you got denied entry on December 24th, 2 months ago? And even then, if these tools are so important that you cant do your six figure job without them, is Japan so big and Tokyo such a minor part of it she cant swing by and send them off to you? Is Tokyo some irrelevant backwater that there arent good transportation links to the rest of Japan?
I didnt pick up on that bit about the bank card until I read your post. How can anyone who travels a lot not have a bank card that allows them to withdraw money overseas?
And really, I dont think there should be an expectation on the Japanese government that people denied a tourist visa will have bank accounts and property in Japan.
@Level3:
Definitely, and I didn’t mean to imply that I thought that immigration followed a strict set of published rules… I suspect that there probably *is* a strict set of guidelines, but that it is something we shall never see.
But, as you say, that can often work to a person’s advantage, especially if you take the appropriate approach and have all your ducks in an order. Of course, it seems pretty clear that CJ didn’t do that. I can (vaguely) believe that a immigration officer might mistakenly recommend a humanities visa… but it seems clear from his attitude (and lack of understanding regarding 資格外活動許可 and other procedures) that he wasn’t particularly concerned with understanding — let alone following — the rules.
＠JT:
To be fair a lot of J banks now don’t offer international cards for bank accounts. I might guess he was using a credit card with international cash withdrawal services.
Anyone that lives in Japan, travels a lot in internationally, and claims a bit of fluency in the language would be well aware that Citibank and Shinsei Bank are pretty much the only options for accounts with overseas withdrawal. How a journalist traveling at the drop of a hat could not know this is beyond me.
@Scott Urista:
The same way that someone could be “unaware” that:
a) working on a tourist visa is illegal
b) doing journalism work on a humanities visa is illegal
c) they would need a valid re-entry permit in order to smoothly re-enter Japan during visa processing periods
But, you know…
Though, to be fair, if his life had been in Japan for a long time he probably chose his bank less on international travel need and just felt he could rely on cards.
But I’m being generous there I suppose.
This is why I have more than 1 bank account in Japan, 1 being Shinsei, which I opened (and many do) after soon realizing that my major J bank cash card can’t be used abroad. WTF is up with that anyway? What’s the point of a cash card if you can’t use it when you’re traveling?!
Now, to be fair, my cash is divided up between my 2 accounts, and I’m lazy about transferring into the Shinsei account. If I were stuck abroad, I’d need my wife to transfer cash for me, just like CJ. Though it would be easier for her. Just physically move a few-man from one ATM to another once in a while. I’m sure if I asked her to do it all at once, by inconvenient bank transfer, and pack and send all my possessions, and we weren’t married, she would be making excuses, too.
But then, I’m not living here illegally. And I have no flyjin tendencies. Less motive to be diligent about such stuff.
@Level3:
“This is making for a very bad accuracy average: his gulag story, his flyjin TV reporting, his hit job against J volleyball for not rehiring him, and now this claim of exclusivity to Fukushima holdouts. All shown to be exaggerations or lies.”
And the sad thing is that some of these exaggerations and lies have extremely far-reaching consequences, creating a lot of extra and uneccessary work for a lot of people (including myself) who haven’t done anything to deserve getting sucked into CJ’s vortex of conspiracy and paranoia.
@Taurus:
Though I suppose this won’t do wonders for his future career prospects. Maybe he can get a job at Nova
?
Here’s another theory. CJ begged his partner to evacuate Tokyo for days not because he was afraid of radiation, but because he wanted to generate a story, with him at the center, being able to make a dramatic call in to TV news.
Just to get attention.
Because, “Well, I’m just going to sit home and wait like everyone else.” is so boring. He could never get/create a chance to get on TV that way.
@Scott Urista:
Missed (at least) one. I have a Mitsui-Sumitomo ATM cash cards for my accounts, and it withdraws from my yen based account internationally, which I use all the time.
* You do have to specifically request the “international” version, which is not compatible with the newst biometric ATM cards.
Not that I’m defending CJ’s journalism (I think Gajin Gulag is mostly a work of fiction based on one true event: getting an exclusion order trying to enter Japan for the purpose of residency & working on a 90 day temp landing permit), but I do have a theory regarding the drinkng on the plane:
I do know a lot of nervous flyers that out-of-character over-drink either prior to boarding or during the flight. Now that airlines seem to be stricter about denying boarding to those that appear drunk, loading up in the airport bar isn’t the option it once was.
True story: my own mother, who is afraid to fly and drinks perhaps two glasses of wine tops per MONTH, slammed a few cocktails one after another during the very long U.S. east coast to Kansai flight. She threw up in the airplane toilet.
Anyway, I’m just stretching for a longshot explanation.
@Eido Inoue: If that were the case…CJ would have a pretty sucky job, given all that travel involved…
I’ve heard that SMBC does have international travel-friendly cards if you ask for one. Mizuho might as well, actually, although I haven’t had the best customer service experiences with ‘em.
Shinsei Bank is da bomb. I’ve used ‘em for years and years with no problems, great service….and I’ve never actually set foot in a branch. Did everything online/mail, including opening the original account.
The friend of a family friend here in the UK tried the ‘visa run’ once too many times, and UK immigration basically did a CJ on her – made her buy a ticket back to Japan. Didn’t let her pick up her belongings, etc. Our friend was just her roommate – not even a close friend or relative (or spouse) – but she spent a weekend packing up her belongings and shipped everything back to her former roommate in Japan. Amazing to think that after two months, CJ’s partner hasn’t been able to ship anything back. Either that’s a LOT of touring, or someone is seriously in her permanent dog house
I am having doubts that she is even his partner. As I have mentioned previously, she doesn’t appear to have taken to twitter/myspace to complain how CJ has been “unfairly” treated by immigration and how she has struggle to look after the dogs now.
With his penchant for exaggeration, hyperbole, and flat out lying, Occam’s razor seems to be indicating that his “relationship” might have been something he dreamed up in his head and is playing for sympathy. I wonder if his “partner” even knows who he is?
can’t help thinking it might be time to stick a fork in this one and move on…
@chuckers:
Then I hope the dogs aren’t really his.
It is sad when we aren’t wondering if he is lying, but just to what degree he is lying. Is it exaggeration or complete fabrication? I don’t think he would invent a girlfriend. But exaggerate a long-term girlfriend into a “partner”?
Of course. That’s how he operates. What other word could he use to imply how strong the non-marriage is, and therefore Immi should have given him a pass as if he had a marriage visa? But just as likely she IS a real partner, it’s just that we can’t take anything he claims at face value. Sad.
Well, hell hath no fury like a woman whose partner is so basically irresponsible to get deported (deported while white and middle-aged! no small feat!) and then asks her to pack up all his stuff and send it to him abroad while leaving her stuck paying rent and taking care of a dying dog as he brags about how rich he is.
Just a possibility.
She is the real victim here. Assuming she is real.
Heck, if they’ve been together so long, is there any sort of common law marriage which she could retroactively confirm and use to claim his accounts? [and tax liabilities... oops! did I type that?]
Bah, I don’t really want to speculate about her anymore. I feel sorry for her.
@iago: Don’t bother, you know by now its a bit more complicated than the topic being discussed.
Here’s some much needed comic relief for you, the very talented Tim Minchin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1yxDWxUIM0
Level 3-
In one of his tweets, which has since been deleted, he claimed she was his ‘common law partner’. He deleted it shortly after it was pointed out that she might be entitled to a bunch of his assets in that case.
Oops. And Johnson should stop pretending he doesnt avidly read this thread.
I thought it strange all along that he seemed to talk more about his dogs then his ‘partner’, and that she barely figures into the narrative. Didnt even come to the airport to help, if I remember version 1.5.4.3 correctly. Couldnt get a hold of her at 5 am because she was drinking in a bar etc.
Most likely the reason his common law partner hasn’t sent him his gear is because she’s traded his gear and possessions for a new guitar and mixer and a little cash at the local pawn shop. I’m sure she thinks that’s fair. After all, why should she have to pay money for sodaigomi stamps to get her space back? When he comes back he can pay to get his stuff back.
The dogs? Hard for a busy musician to take care of. I’m sure she sent them to the countryside, to a nice family with a picturesque farm with lots of room to run around and play, where they will have so much fun outdoors in the bright sunshine with their doggy friends, getting healthier and healthier, living out their days romping happily in the fresh air.
What are the fees on that Shinsei bank account? I’ve been here a while and didn’t know about that route for transferring yen to the local currency. Is that any better or cheaper than just sending a direct money transfer through the post office?
George: Probably best to get it straight from the horses’ mouth, so to speak: http://www.shinseibank.com/english/
I do think this story is probably done, since CJ appears to have essentially waved the white flag. He isn’t even bothering to try and make any sort of rebuttal. He just continues to add to his blog posts, making it even more rambling and hard-to-follow than it already was. The ‘Narita’ post is tucked below his book advertisements, so casual visitors won’t see it, and the rambling text is so long and meandering it’s not even clear what point he’s trying to make.
The shame of it is – there *might* be an interesting story to ‘detainees’ being shaken down. I say ‘might’ because until he comes fully clean, CJ simply has no credibility on any part of his story. But there have been reports in the past, so there would at least be some story worth investigating.
So what do we know? Well, we know that Japanese Immigration makes it quite clear that detainees will need to settle any expenses with the airline company they came in on. We know this because CJ helpfully put up a scan of the document he gets from the Ministry of Justice when he was denied entry.
This is actually an interesting point: I mean, it’s not Asiana’s fault that CJ didn’t have his papers in order. He was from a visa waiver country, so how would they be expected to know that he was trying to enter the country illegally? What happens if the airline company says, ‘hey, not our fault you didn’t let him in’ and basically try to push the expenses on the Japanese government?
I’d be really interested in knowing what happens in other countries, like, say…Canada. I mean, if only we had a journalist in Canada with experience in international travel that could investigate this stuff. Oh, wait…..
So anyway, regardless of who pays – Asiana clearly shouldn’t have to foot the bill for lodging, guards, food & airfare etc. for people that tried to enter the country illegally. So being reimbursed seems reasonable. Here’s where things get interesting: Let’s face it, someone being denied entry is going to be in a state of shock, particularly if that person has been living (illegally or otherwise) in Japan for any length of time. So they are hardly going to be in a rational frame of mind…then they get hit up for a couple of hundred bucks? I wouldn’t be surprised if even a reasonable request for reimbursement of costs for services rendered was met with cries of ‘extortion’. If they don’t speak Japanese, they may not completely understand what they are paying for.
There’s another interesting point. CJ claims the guards tried to get him to pay 30,000 yen, and that another detainee named ‘Jim’ was also forced to pay 30,000 yen.
First of all – how many westerners do you know that walk around with hundreds of dollars in their pockets? Secondly – someone just visiting Japan more than likely isn’t going to have any yen on them at all! They’ll do what everyone does now – they use their debit/credit card at an ATM at the destination. So the idea of guards hitting up foreigners just visiting Japan for 30,000 yen seems bizarre.
But here’s where CJ’s story actually seems plausible: CJ says that he wasn’t actually forced to pay. If these were legitimate expenses, surely they’d make him pay, either in cash or credit card etc. If this was pure extortion, it’s very hard to believe that the guards would make him pay by credit card, helpfully leaving a paper trail
When you have a hammer in your hand, everything looks like a nail. I’m an investment banker; to me, everything boils down to cash flow. What expenses are involved in running the detention center? According to the MoJ, costs are handled by the airline. Ergo, all the airlines that use Narita should be sharing the expenses – which would be awkward, since some airlines will be more prone to have people illegally detained than others, either because of the destinations they fly to/from, or because they only have one flight a week, vs an airline like JAL that might have dozens of international flights a day.
So one would reasonably expect that JAL and ANA would bear the brunt of the costs….are those expenses posted in financial statements anywhere? Revenue recovered from detainees to cover these expenses – are they recognized anywhere? Are receipts issued?
CJ says he eventually talked the price of his airfare down from 400,000 yen to 100,000. It’s not clear how he paid for this, by the way – according to him he had nothing with him (“The KBs led me out of the room and through the airport. They still had my bag, my passport, my wallet, credit cards, everything. I had no choice”.) He talks about how his partner was upset at having to pay 170,000 for his airline ticket; gist seems to be that she refused to pay, because it’s later in the story that he says the price came down to 100,000. I guess we can assume that he paid by credit card – since he didn’t have that much cash on him – so he must have a receipt. He also says that an Asiana employee was involved in the negotiations.
This, I think, is the crux of the story: If the detention center & guards are being paid for by the airlines, it’s the *airlines* that need investigating, not the Ministry of Japan. If only there was a journalist involved in this story…oh, wait….
Like I said, there might actually be a story in there somewhere that a professional journalist could investigate. Instead, CJ has made this story be about ‘me me me’. He needs to drastically cut down his rambling 20,000 word article on ‘evil Japan unfairly denying entry to hard-working journalist because of his hard-hitting anti-TEPCO & gangster articles’. He really needs to go back, re-write his story in a truthful, factual account without the one-sided swipes that really are unprofessional coming from someone claiming to be a journalist. In fact, he pretty much needs to leave himself entirely out of the story. He needs to talk to the airlines. He needs to talk to Canada immigration about how they handle detainees. He needs to talk to other detainees in Narita and relate their tales in a factual, non-emotional way.
And he needs to follow the money, because (with apologies to Friedman), scandals are always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.
@Scott Urista:
Agreed.
And if he hadn’t sent that C&D letter to try and intimidate Japan Probe into silence, among other intimidation tactics and silliness, this whole saga could almost be forgiven as the very human reaction to a major shock. You’d think his “war” experience would have thickened his hide though, helped him remain calm that day in Narita, and later…
Thanks to his behaviour, the best CJ can hope for is his whole career in Japan being forgotten. Which is not a good position for someone in his line of work.
Most people handle far worse situations, and not of their own making, without resorting to lies (let alone broadcasting them) and lashing out.
It’s these mistakes and hardships in life that are our most valuable lessons. Unfortunately, it’s looking like CJ is going to be facing another huge letdown very soon.
CJ may be 46, but it’s never too late to choose to grow up.
And that’s how you earn the right to drink hard every now and then.
Scott, Level 3, I agree, we are about done, and with recent comments speculating just a bit too much about his personal life, I’ll close down this thread tonight, once I get a new post up – one with nothing to do with either Debito.org or CJ!
Hopefully, CJ will shut up too, and in a few weeks we (and Google…) will probably have forgotten all about him.