Resistance Against G8: Arrests and Detentions in Japan

Police confronted demonstrators Sunday during protests of over 1,000 people in Tokyo. The Yomiuri Shinbun, a widely-read mainstream newspaper, reported that in the Shibuya district of the capital "demonstrators pushed into police lines" and that several were arrested. Local television showed one man looking dazed as he was hauled off by police in riot gear.

Alternate internet site video showed orderly Japanese marching through Kabuki-cho, a famous drinking and dining district in Tokyo. In a light drizzle typical this time of year in Japan, demonstrators played a balancing act between carrying umbrellas and holding aloft skeleton puppets made in workshops organized by anti G8 groups.

The G8 Summit will be held in the resort area of Toyako on the northern island of Hokkaido from July 7 through July 9. Japanese activists opposing the summit call it an "arbitrary meeting of governments dominating the global financial market with the World Trade Organization and Free Trade Agreeements". They object to the fact that developing nations are forced to accept agreements like NAFTA in exchange for ODA (Official Developmental Assistance).

At the local level, they are concerned that in recent years Japanese social welfare has been reduced and the working poor have suffered. Agribusiness, a favorite topic of G8 discussion, runs counter to Japanese tradition of respect for individual farmers. At the same time, the US is urging Japan to re-arm despite having a constitution imposed by US Occupation Forces that calls for Japan to forever remain a peaceful nation.

The US led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are also targets of the G8 protests, and caricatures of President Bush with the theme "Wanted for Murder" were also seen in internet video of the demonstrations.

To support visiting journalists from non-mainstream media covering the Summit, anti G8 group members are posting recommendations on the internet for visitors, including reminders to carry their passports at all times along with the names and addresses of local contacts. Activists are supplying visiting independent media journalists with registration credentials and accommodations in "alternative camps" near the Summit.

Despite such support, reports of alternative media journalists being detained at Narita airport are surfacing. On June 27 three Hong Kong citizen journalists registered with the Citizen's Media Center in Japan were detained by immigration officials. Citing potential terrorist acts, authorities have reportedly stepped up their surveillance of non-Japanese in the country and union activists from the Republic of Korea have been denied entry visas. Authorities have instructed hotels across Japan to send photocopies of all passports to police, and posters warning the general public to be on the lookout for suspicious foreigners, with reference made to terrorist bombings in London, are prominent at the famous Japanese police boxes that dot the landscape.