Your topic %TITLE% was interesting when I found it on %DAY% searching for %KEYWORD%. Thanks, %URL%…

In regards to amazon.co.jp and their response, I did a little checking. I did a search for Klu Klux Klan (just for research purposes) and they sell book about that too. THey also sell books on Anti-Japanese and Discrinination in Japan. I guess it is pretty fair and balanced in that aspec. I really wanted to catch them but in fact they are selling all kind of hate material…. how lovely.

It is here.

Also, since other people’ve shared their letters with Amazon, here’s one that I got back this morning:

“Thank you for writing to Amazon.co.jp with your concerns.

As a retailer, our goal is to provide customers with the broadest
selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any item
they might be seeking. That selection includes some items which
many people may find objectionable. Therefore, the items offered
on our web site represent a wide spectrum of opinions on a
variety of topics.

We value all feedback from our customers, and I thank you again
for taking the time to send us your comments about this issue.
We hope you will allow us to continue to serve you.

Best regards,

Y. Washizuka

Amazon.co.jp
Customer Service”

As w/ others, I commend Amazon for sticking to their guns about free speech, but I also plan on sticking to mine and not purchasing anything from them for a while…

But in any case, stop threatening this guy. You do that and he wins.

Publishing date: 8/2/2007 13:40:59
Familymart: “The magazine harms foreigners”
In spite of their withdrawal of the magazine complaints are still arriving to the store
Tokyo – IPCJAPAN/Shiho Kohinata

The magazine Gaijin Hanzai Ura File was withdrawn from Familymart stands because “it contains parts which harm the foreigners”, told ipcdigital.com a spokesperson from that store chain.

“We have just read it and we think there are some parts which harm foreigners”, said Takehiko Kigure, Familymart PR chief, one of the biggest 24 hour-store chains in Japan.

The company had acquired 10,000 issues of Gaijin Hanzai Ura File magazine and started selling them on 1 February. On day 5th, after receiving complaints from the public, it decided to withdraw them.

Kigure acknowledged that Familymart had accepted to distribute the magazine without having checked its content because of lack of time and that they only were guided by the explanation given by Eichi Shuppan, the publishing company responsible for the magazine which has been accused of being xenophobic.

“Eichi Shuppan told us that it was a magazine which warned about what was happening in Japan with foreigners’ crimes”, the spokesman pointed.

He said that was the Department of Strategy and Articles of the company that reported for the first time to have found “expressions which are not adequate because they were racial discrimination” and that on the 6th (of February) the directors read the magazine and corroborated that its content harms immigrants.

Eichi Shuppan’s editorial director, Shigeki Saka, told ipcdigital.com on Tuesday that the magazine had no racist phrases and that he felt sad for Familymart’s decision to withdraw the magazine.

Meanwhile, the store’s spokesman reported that in spite of having withdrawn the magazine, the complaints from foreign residents in Japan continue to arrive to his office.

In spite of this, the magazine is still being distributed through the online bookstore amazon.com and some issues have been found at Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya.

Not to sound all poetic, but to the point: you can’t have the light with the darkness. I know some ignorant people will be blindly influenced by misleading sources like the Gaijin Crime File, but that’s the price you pay in a free society. We can’t make an argument that something is “common sense” when the definition of common sense is constantly changing; by not allowing certain people (even people who are depised at the moment) to voice their opinions, all we’re doing is putting off the inevitable; there will always be a voice of dissent. It’s everyone’s job to make sure those voice are heard.

If you take human trafficking into consideration and the countless crimes in immigration detention centres acroos Japan we would see who the REAL CRIMINALS ARE. not to mention the medias short memory of complete lack of attention to these issues.

Not a problem. I understand where you are coming from. I also agree that outright angry reviews by people who have not even read the book would not be the way to go.

That is why I thought that even just posting the table on contents and some quotes from the text would help put the book in perspective. It is obviously filled with hate speech intended to degrade others and incite violence.

Actually some of the quotes from the book are so full of hatred and profanity that they quite possibly won’t even be allowed in a book review on the site. I do wonder how far bookstores like Amazon really believe in free speech?

I guess I worded things a bit harsh in that comment. I didn’t mean to aim that statement so directly at you, but instead at others who might be reading your comment and getting the idea that they should go ahead and post angry reviews on Amazon. I fully support your idea to write a review, but I don’t want others, who have not read the book, writing reviews. Sorry about that.

I think you misunderstood me. I’m not advocating posting reviews without reading the book at all, nor do I believe I said so.

I am only recommending that people leave reviews so that visitors to online bookstore websites can get a better understanding of what the book contains and make an informed decision if they are thinking about purchasing the item.

At this point in time, Amazon Japan does not even have the table of contents listed for the book on their website.

MIRAI:

I’m afraid I believe in allowing stupid people to hold stupid beliefs, rather than having an all-enlightened group of intellectuals choose what they should or shouldn’t be allowed to print and read. Stupid people can be racist if they want, but once they act on their racism and do illegal and discriminatory things, governments should punish them.