Japan Detains SF Academic Ahead of G8

Andrej Grubacic, a sociology professor who teaches Introduction to Globalization at the University of San Francisco, was detained by immigration authorities in Japan without food or water for more than twelve hours upon his recent arrival at Narita airport. He is in Japan attending anti-G8 Summit gatherings that include lectures and demonstrations leading up to the July 7 through 9 conference of eight of the world's leading industrialized nations.

"Welcome to Japan was plastered all over the airport [but] the feeling in the interrogation room was very different," Grubacic told reporters in Tokyo.

Independent media journalists entering Japan to cover the G8 Summit also report being interrogated about their schedules and travel plans.

Japan's security budget for the summit meeting is 30 billion yen ($283 million). That figure makes it more than one and a half times the amount spent on security at the last summit in Germany. Additionally 21,000 police have been mobilized in Tokyo.
Around 1,000 people concerned about G8 collaboration that supports war and encourages human rights abuses demonstrated on Sunday in Tokyo. Japanese sources report 8 demonstrators were arrested.