Business travel
Japan
Gulag for gaijin
Jan 18th 2012, 14:11 by A.B.
A COLLEAGUE writing on the Banyan blog has put up an interesting story about a Canadian living in Japan who was deported as he tried to re-enter Japan after a short trip abroad. The circumstances of his deportation sound horrendous:
Officials falsified statements that he gave them and then insisted that he sign the erroneous testimony, he says. Guards tried to extort money from him and at one point even threatened to shoot him, he says—unless he purchased a wildly expensive ticket for his own deportation, including an overt kick-back for his tormentors. Once he was separated from his belongings, money was stolen from his wallet and other items removed from his baggage (as he has reported to the Tokyo police).
In this blog, our correspondents inform and entertain business travellers with news, views and reviews that help them make the most of life on the road. Sign up for our weekly "Gulliver's best" newsletter to have the blog's highlights delivered to your inbox »
Advertisement
Doing business in audio
- Analects | China
- Americas view | The Americas
- Babbage | Science and technology
- Bagehot's notebook | British politics
- Banyan | Asia
- Baobab | Africa
- Blighty | Britain
- Buttonwood's notebook | Financial markets
- Charlemagne's notebook | European politics
- Clausewitz | Defence, security and diplomacy
- Democracy in America | American politics
- Eastern approaches | Ex-communist Europe
- Elysée | France’s presidential election
- Free exchange | Economics
- Game theory | Sports
- Graphic detail | Charts, maps and infographics
- Gulliver | Business travel
- Johnson | Language
- Leviathan | Public policy
- Lexington's notebook | American politics
- Newsbook | News analysis
- Prospero | Books, arts and culture
- Schumpeter | Business and management
Most commented
- The euro crisis: The Greek run
- Foreigners in China: Barbarians at the gate, again
- Brazil’s economy: A bull diminished
- Russia and NATO: Rethink the reset
- Gay marriage: North Carolina begs the question too
- Nationalism online: Backfired
- Turkey’s cultural ambitions: Of marbles and men
- Politics and private equity: Bringing the Bain
- Greece and the euro: Exodus, chapter 1
- India-China relations and the media: Blame the messenger
Over the past five days
Most recommended
- The euro crisis: The Greek run
- Greek politics: Slouching towards the drachma
- Foreigners in China: Barbarians at the gate, again
- Brazil’s economy: A bull diminished
- The euro crisis: Going, going, gone?
- Jacob Zuma: Portrait of a president
- Rival versions of capitalism: The endangered public company
- Bo Xilai v Chen Guangcheng: Who is the mightier?
- Facebook goes public: Not top of the pops
- Global Zero: Fewer nukes, more security
Over the past seven days
Advertisement
Readers' comments
The Economist welcomes your views. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers. Review our comments policy.
Sort:
Europe (countries bound by the Eruopean Convention of Human Rights) in comparison with other regions safeguards at least theoretically the rights of the people likely to be expulsed - Article 13 of the ECHR provides for an effective remedy. Also Article 1 of Protocol No. 7 on procedural safeguards relating to expulsion of aliens.
If Mr.Johnson has nothing to hide, he would do well to that his visas were in order by scanning and publishing all his Japanese entry/exit stamps on his passport. If he can't, then his story is worth nothing.
Sorry, I left one word out in the First sentence; the correct phrase was;
"...he would do well to SHOW that his visas were in order... "
OK, sounds like the guy was had been using 90 day tourist visas for years (by exiting & returning each 90 days): ie he had NO resident's visa.
And of course tourist visas do NOT allow you to earn money in the country (which, by writing, he was doing). Also, by earning and/or physically being in a country over their threshold of days for residence you become obliged to pay their taxes & observe their laws (eg re registration).
Thus reasonable & correct for him to be refused re-admission - & he should think himself lucky he didn't get done for unpaid taxes, tax evasion, abuse of residency & other criminal offences.
Still, he has a good future writing fiction, if his "account" is anything to go by!
this is a very far-fetched story, to have occurred in Japan.
The text in Banyan: ".. visa status is unclear . . lawyer says do not discuss it" probably sheds a clearer (unbiased) light on the deportation!
Unlike in Britain, Japan (like most countries) has low tolerance of visa crime.
This sounds very un-Japanese.
I'm not claiming that it didn't happen. But I am saying that this is far from the norm in Japan. In Japan, strangers chase you down on the street if you forget your umbrella when you leave a restaurant.