Paying your taxes in 1-yen coins
Don’t like Japan’s policy of fingerprinting non-citizens upon arrival at airports? Debito has posted an entry today directing people to a “cheeky” site on which one foreigner boasts about paying his local taxes in 1-yen coins as a protest:
I went to City Hall, and to the Tax Section. Three obaasans were behind the counter, and none made an effort to get up and help me. So, I announced that I was “Paying the Sabetsu (discrimination) tax” and that got their attention. First I made a big production out of handing over the protest note as if it were a certificate handed over by the Emperor himself, requesting that it go to the Tax Section Chief. Then I repeated the bow and double-handed presentation with the request that the note go to the Mayor. Then, with a flourish, I poured all my coins into the tray provided. (Luckily, none spilled out.) Three mouths fell over at once, one managing a sub-voce “kyaaah!”
Two more people jumped from their desks and stared at all the coins. They rushed to help the counting process, as if the coins were a hazardous chemical just spilled which needed a rapid response and removal.Whispers rumbled throughout the open office space, “That guy just paid in COINS!”
They printed me up a receipt, and I asked one of the “obaasans” for her fingerprints on the back, to which I received a “Yada! (No way!)” I thanked her nonetheless, and walked the long walk back to the elevator. Just before I turned the corner I glanced back, and about ten or twelve people had come to the counter to find out what was up. They were intently reading the protest sheets against fingerprinting.
So there you have it – a foreigner acting like a complete douchebag towards low-level employees of his local government because he doesn’t like how the national government treats foreigners. It probably gave those old ladies a hard time, but it will most certainly have no influence whatsoever on changing the fingerprinting policy.
A comment at Debito.org by Chris pretty much hit the nail on the head:
What a horrible idea – what does the mayor and/or local tax authority have to do with the fingerprinting? Does that person also spit on gas station attendants to protest rising fuel prices? Or stages demonstrations in front of his local supermarket to protest the butter shortage?
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Doesn’t this make more sense as a protest for the juminhyo problem? I fail to see the link between taxes and fingerprinting, but it makes sense to protest having to pay the jumin-zei despite not being listed on the jumin-hyo (and thus not being a true jumin).
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*sigh*, another anonymous Googlepages promoted by Debito. He’s not slow when it come to slagging people “on the other side” for posting anonymously, nor is he slow to leak personal information (he did it again last week with “LB”), but both these sites are unsigned.
There’s definitely some connection between anger management issues and cries of racism; there’s very few descriptions of problems handled in a calm manner.
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The personal info thing (my first name) did not particularly bother me personally, but yes, he has outed people quite explicitly in the past if he knows something about them they aren’t publicly saying.
I’d post my opinion of this one-yen plan, except Debito has banned me. My fault – walked into it. Posted an opinion he didn’t like (nor did more than a few of the tinfoil hat brigade over there), and was challenged to provide proof to support it.
Which I did, except of course the person who decides if a post ever sees the light of day is… Debito! So I can’t post to support myself, but when I complain about that of course THAT makes it through the Debito filter, with very nasty commentary from him to the effect of “How dare you blame me for your inability to prove your point! Now answer the charges against you or I will ban you!”
Except of course I CAN’T “answer the charges”, not on his site.
*sigh* Can we petition Hatoyama to revoke his citizenship and boot him out?
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It always saddens me to see such potentially-useful desire and motivation for change so misdirected. It truly is a waste.
As for this guy, it would seem he was more interested in the general act of protesting than the issue itself. That post simply reeks of smug self-importance.
(Maybe I’m misinterpreting his tone? Either way, his efforts amount to nothing more than a cheap spectacle.)
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This is the very essence of Debito – Establishing or promoting roucousness which essentially detracts from his own “mission”.
I know Debito had no part in the actual act, but he is not condemning it. Far from it, he’s actually promoting it, and in doing so exacerbating the problem. (Sometimes, it’s what you don’t say that counts) He seems to hate having his toes stepped on, but has no qualms if his shoe is the one on top.
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I agree, Alex. By linking to sites such as that one and that “no Olympics for Japan” page, Debito is actually hurting his cause.
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Not really. He’s helping his cause. Thing is, his cause is to get attention. Actually doing something constructive is secondary. He’s desperate to get cross-links to his site working again, after his bought with the bot wars Google dumped him, so he’s struggling to rebuild.
THAT was his biggest whine about the bot wars – not that his site got taken over, but that he lost his Google ranking. Debito is pure ego….
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I don’t think that’s a good way to protest anything, much less fingerprinting. As for Debito, all I can say is -_- to his behavior. He draws attention the wrong way, censors those who even dare to disagree with him even in a civil manner, and misinterprets things. Probably the worst ever was when he and one of his fans made Suntory take a Gatsby commercial off the air because they felt it was offensive. The offensive content of the commercial? Black people in the same room as a monkey. The black people were not acting like monkeys, nor were they depicted as being the same as the monkey, they were simply in the same room as a monkey. Geez…
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Oops, it was a Mandom commercial, rather than Suntory…^^;; still though…
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Not that I support Debito at all, but that Mandom commercial was pretty offensive (or for lack of a better term, lacking taste) – even by my standards. It wasn’t that everyone was acting like monkeys, it was the fact that you had 3 black people and one monkey all dressed in similar rastafarian outfits.
I still remember that commercial very clearly as being one of the more obtuse examples of product advertising. Maybe I’m misinterpreting things, but I still remember seeing that on TV and thinking out loud – “Jeezus.”
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the more i read about him the more a muppet he becomes.he might as well as gone to a policeman and complained about the cost of butter!
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Not that I am against NJ protesting against fingerprinting, but
his tactics is very effective if he is promoting “negative public images of non-Japanese and multi-cultural Japanese”.
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What an idiot
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This one yen guy is a rude bastard all right. What, I wonder, did he do to get himself yelled at by the cop at the licence centre? Japanese cops generally do not yell at non-criminals for no reason. His idea is insane of course, for the reasons pointed out, but more telling is his demand for “correspondence, which is supposed to be important, needs to be brought up to international standards. Anything in Japanese only I will ignore and put into the shredder. For the kind of taxes they’re charging, I want first class services in English. Being “international” as this country always tries to pretend to be means being multilingual” is rude as well. He presumably reads the language. International standards? I wonder just how many other countries provide English translations of tax demands.
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I really wish they would update their English language tax instructions. I filed my own taxes this year and wasn’t able to make heads or tails of the English instructions. It wasn’t until I could get a copy of the Japanese packet that things actually became clear.
But yes, you’re right, I think it’s great that they’re trying.
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You call THAT protest?
The French will laugh in your face, son.
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The one-yen solution has no wit or meaning to it; the protestor is simply being a brat. I see the gentleman didn’t even have the good sense to write his letter in Japanese, either. A visit to his website says that anything sent to his place not written in English is promptly fed to the shredder. Can we just deport this guy now?
Incidentally, cries of racism in this situation are not pertinent. Non-citizens, not non-ethnic-Japanese, are getting fingerprinted here.
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Don’t let one person’s reaction diminish the facts – it is unjust having permanent residents separated from their families and fingerprinted.
That having been said, I can’t really condone this guy (do we have a name?), or Debito for exalting his cause. His write-up makes it sound like a “blind leading the blind” situation… ignoring Japanese correspondence, making local authorities suffer over something they probably weren’t even aware of, and just how he reports on the “protest” itself.
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I just called Immigration Bureau.
http://www.moj.go.jp/NYUKAN/nyukan64-2.pdf
At the airports where you have a gate for PR, families are not separated.
At the small airports where you have no gate for PR but just for foreigners and the Japanese, and if you line up with your children at the gate for the foreigners, the families are not separated. It might or might not take more time, depending on the number of foreign passengers on the flight.
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it makes me cringe that there are 56 people (at the time i voted anyway) that actually think this is a good idea…
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“people” might be being too kind…
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What an asshole… To protest against the national goverment giving extra-work to some obaasans in his local office. Does he thinks he did something “cool” or what? (probably he thinks, if he’s writing about it in the internet)
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Another thought struck me. In his litany of things he puts up with while living in Japan, he includes driving on the left. Wow, he’s a real hero….
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You have to drive on the left?
When did that happen?
Could that be the reason I get so much attention and people waving at me.
I just thought I was popular with the locals.
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In my case, I just figured so many of the roads were so narrow it didn’t really matter….
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You don’t HAVe to drive on the left, it’s just highly recommended :0]
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The poll needs a third option:
A stupid way to protest fingerprinting.
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I was thinking that exact same thing to pay the NHK fee. Blasted NHK guy harasses me for something I don’t even use and if I ever had to pay him (since I recognise the guy and not open the door, I am avoiding this situation for now), it would be 2700 1-yen coins. Yes, I am being an anal bastard, but thats what you get for the incessant harassment you get from this guy which is on a commission based renumeration package.
If it really comes down to it, he can have my TV. Good riddance!
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don’t like how the goverment is treating you in a forgein country?
heres a tip, buy a planeticket and go back to your home country.
also, hello admin. either you’re taking the time to read this before deleting it – yay freespeach for everyone except those who don’t agree with admin!
or it gets stuck in your spamfilter under, “people who don’t agree with me” ..
eitherway, here’s a japanese word that you might come across : SAITEI
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I think James is pretty open to allowing comments from people who disagree with him. Sometimes it might take a little while but the comments do get through. Compare that with LB’s experience on Debito’s blog, where he provided proof for his opinion but the post containing it was not let through despite the fact that Debito asked for it! You won’t see that sort of stuff from the admins here, fortunately.
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What is weird is that his men do not come out here and try to discuss openly but instead crying out “Goddamn Japan” in the closed society ,protected by the notorious moderation.
If they want to appeal to Japanese society, if they really want to settle the issue they feel they are facing , I for one think they should have open discussions in Japanese and talk to the Japanese people
E.P Lowe, Mark in Yayoi, or whoever, in English or in Japanese, I will be waiting on my blog. You will be welcomed, and probably you are being welcomed by most of the Japanese, Hikikomori will not do. Let’s start discussions between J and NJ.
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Perhaps he understands that:
http://www.howtonotsuck.com/assets/images/arguing_on_the_internet.jpg
It’s an old one, couldn’t resist
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If you couldn’t regist, then argue.
Don’t insult the disabled; you look much better.
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swedish!asuka:
There is no freedom of speech on this site. If one of the admins notices a comment that violates the discussion policy, it is deleted.
Many of your past comments had been deleted because they were hate comments against an entire nationality. Perhaps if you’d learn to read the discussion rules on this site before spewing hate at all Americans because of a rape committed by one soldier, your comments might have been able to see the light of day.
I’ve heard of this Debito guy and after this story came out, he just seems to be the classic “hard to deal with” gaijin in Japan. I can understand that because he’s not Japanese he gets treated differently, but in the US, where he was born and used to live, discrimination is alive and well. It may not be as overt as Japanese discrimination, but, being Japanese myself I experienced racism in the form of insults at school and racially motivated scuffles. He should very well know about this. Its not like he’s the only one suffering from racism in the world. And whats the worst thats happened to this guy? Oh fingerprinting…how heinous.
Hes also a naturalized citizen in Japan so in the numerous years he spent living in Japan, of course he must have experienced discrimination to be so disgruntled about Japanese society. Why didn’t he leave then? If you can’t take it here, then leave. Anywhere in the world, you’re gonna experience some kind of discrimination. Japan is no different.
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While I agree with the gist of what you are saying, I do not agree with the “if you don’t like it, leave” attitude. Debito obviously does like it in Japan, enough to stay. That doesn’t mean he finds it perfect, and it should not mean that he has to shut up. Especially as a citizen.
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Perhaps. But even as a citizen, putting out libel (as he has done by ‘naming and shaming’ innocent businesses without bothering to check facts), breaking the law (as he has done by publishing the name of a rape victim on his site) and being a racist (“Chibi Ki-iro Jap”) should not be protected. As a matter of fact, he himself has so argued that hate speech should be illegal – except apparently if he is the one saying it. He sued 2ch for essentially the same thing as he himself does on a nearly daily basis, and uses essentially the same defense (It wasn’t me who said that, someone else said it and I just put it on my blog. I’m not responsible! Talk to the person who said that!) that he himself rejects. One of these days, he’s going to get himself and probably others in huge legal trouble.
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No, I do not agree with his methods. I think he’s an ass. And he should definitely remain within the law. But I do not agree that he or others like him have to shut up about everything they don’t like.
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I agree. Debito’s fans have every right to protest, criticize.
And I don’t claim that they should leave nor should they shut up.
But when they cry out, Japan is a fascist, brainwashed, lawless backward country with legal system that enable torture, the Japanese think the same way to the extent you know one Japanese you know all of them, they blame the alleged Japanese rape victim a liar, while oppressing the opposing opinions in a nasty way, covering up the important facts, blocking the comments that reveal lies, one can not help but wonder why they don’t leave Japan though they have another proud country to live in.
(slightly off topic)
Surprisingly enough they want to promote positive image of NJ?
Tony Laszlo and his wife are doing a good job in promoting positive image of NJ. For some reason Debito attacks him though.
Anthony Bianchi is promoting positive image of multi-cultural Japanese.
But Debito and his fans?
I predict if his blog is entirely translated into Japanese, there will be
huge negative repercussions among the Japanese people against them and ultimately against NJ.
I still hope his group will be self-corrective.
To Debito’s fans I sincerely invite you to come to my blog and discuss.
And I recommend the readers of his blog to check the facts on their own;the information on his blog is often misleading.
A long time ago I was asked if Americans made love outside of the house.
What????? -What-make-you-think-so? was my reaction. Sometimes, I get the same reactions when reading g English articles on Japan. (I appreciate Japan Probe for doing a good job giving vairous perspectives )
Read laws and reliable books related to it. There are many useful books available even in English. And compare Japan’s case with your own country’s case. Then criticize with reasons as much as you want.
If possible, talk to Japanese people in Japanese, and ask what they think. Don’t be Japanophobia. I believe there are always Japanese people around you who will help you. Just a smile and a bow will do a trick.
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I agree that that stunt was pretty brainless. How, exactly, was that supposed to change the state of affairs? Oh, and incidentally, as a foreigner who regularly visits Japan, I have absolutely no problem supplying my fingerprints. I have no intention of committing any crimes, so what do I care if my fingerprints are on file? My rights and privacy are, in my opinion, subjected to zero abuse. Out of a 15min to 2hr wait in customs at Narita Airport (depending on the time of day), having my fingerprints taken uses up all of five minutes. What a trial! Boo-hoo!
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That’s a terrible way to protest fingerprinting, but a GREAT way to protest those way-too-high-payy-all-your-savings-immediately city taxes. I think that I will do the same thing because those taxes are ridiculous. Who has $500 extra a monthto pay taxes without notice, when you generally don’t have enough money as it is?
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Or you could plan in advance… talk to your local city office and ask roughly what the coming taxes will be so you can have that much on hand… keep track of what you paid last year and have that handy this year… you know, act like an adult and take responsibility for your life….
Oh, why do I bother sometimes….
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I also think it’s a good protest in regards to protesting TAX in general. I really hate the “your tax is based on your salary of 1 year ago, even if you are now unemployed” BS is pretty lame. I WAS planning on still being fully employed and being able to pay the tax without blinking, but last year I was using my savings to pay rent, AND taxes AND pension AND national health.
And where does my tax money go? more fat contracts for construction companies to make unused public buildings, bridges nobody uses, and turing every riverbank in Japan into concrete? Paying for the state to re-try on appeal and imprison people who were found innocent? NOT to fund, say, 24-hour emergency rooms?
It’s a great tax protest. Don’t see what is has to do with fingerprints. A good fingerprint protest would be to demand an alcohol wipe be used on the pads before you touch the grubby thing. Everyone should.
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Do you know of anyplace where you pay taxes based on your current and projected earnings for the year you are paying taxes in? I’ve never heard of such a place. Income-based taxes are always based on the previous calendar year, so that the taxee can provide complete records of exactly how much they earned and all their tax-deductable expenses (such as payments into the pension plan and health-insurance).
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“And I’ve also mentioned that correspondence, which is supposed to be important, needs to be brought up to international standards. Anything in Japanese only I will ignore and put into the shredder. For the kind of taxes they’re charging, I want first class services in English. Being “international” as this country always tries to pretend to be means being multilingual”
Kind of sums up this douchebag and those that are alike (Debitoons). And as if these city workers are going to read his “English text written letters”. Sorry douchebag. It’s your letter that should be placed in the shredder.
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I prefer to refer to them as Debitards. No need to slander good cartoon characters.
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My favourite is Deadbitos.
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Except that they are working too hard at being asswipes to be accused of being “deadbeats”.
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After reading the 1 yen coin guy’s letter to the Mayor it is obvious that he has mental health problems.
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Has anyone actually read the article ? He paid in 500 yen coins.
I don’t think he chose the best way to protest. I suppose he is just angry and frustrated and not very good at expressing himself.
You guys are wasting your time bashing him, you should be asking “how can you effectively protest against practices that you find discriminatory ?”
I find it hard to believe giving a flyer to the guy on the immigration desk is going to work.
And did anyone read Debito’s post ? The one where he is basically saying “here’s an idea, what do you think ?” NOT “here’s an idea I condone and recommend”.
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You mean where he said “it’s cheeky enough that I decided to blog it here too” and “Because I like it when people try to get creative when thinking in terms of civil disobedience”?
Reads to me like he likes the idea, even if he isn’t saying “everyone go and do this”. He is promoting this moron, which is to say, he is condoning the idea.
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LB, or may I call you L______ (self-censored), thanks to Debito violating your fundamental human right to privacy in one of his replies,
It’s the same with the No to Olympics (which had turned into a 9/11 Truther anti-Semitic loon site last time I looked at it), he does not come out and support it directly so he always has an out. There’s actually very few times he actually takes a stance on something that doesn’t relate directly to him, which does annoy me somewhat.
Oh, and his Tony Lazlo insult was so, so, childish.
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I don’t give a shit about Olympic. I just hate Ishiahara to spend tax on inviting it.
What is important to note is that NO to Olympics was essentially the counterpart of gaijin crime ura file. I was against convenient
stores selling gaijin crime ura file. Debito was against it but when it comes to Japanese crime ura file, Debito approves of “selling” it. I think that is the problem.
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You don’t think that when he says “A more effective, polished idea may come of it in the end” this might imply that
1. the idea in the linked article is ineffective
2. “let’s get our thinking caps on and come up with some effective ways to protest” ?
I don’t agree he is promoting the original idea at all.
(Trying) to withhold taxes has been the centuries old method of protest. In this day and age in Japan, it’s the least effective. The modern way is a viral clip on YouTube. Would that work in Japan ? How would you engage the Japanese population ? How do you fight the “it can’t be helped” attitude ? How about if you used such a clip to encourage tourists to not come to Japan because of fingerprinting ?
Well, I guess the first thing that would happen would be the posting of many threads on various forums where people like yourself declare the instigator to be a moron.
I notice you have posted several times in this thread without making any suggestions of your own and all but one post is bashing Debito.
While browsing debito.org at the weekend (first time in months) I caught the thread you are complaining about. Seems to me you walked into it by posting on the site in the first place.
I think you should get over the fact that it’s his site, he can post what he likes and ban whoever he chooses and if you go there you are going to read a certain amount of outrage, protest and contentious opinion because that’s what it’s about and he admits to it himself “But I reckon the Debito.org blog will inevitably wind up as a bit of an outlet for people who feel they’re having a raw time”
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Of course Debito can do what he likes with his site. No one is saying otherwise. What they are saying is that for a man who loves to push improving racist issues he has some funny ways of going about it.
Holding taxes as protest is fine. Even if its the wrong sort of taxes. But creating a massive hassle for people who did not cause the issue and cannot fix the issue simply as they’re both “government” is stupid.
———
You don’t think that when he says “A more effective, polished idea may come of it in the end” this might imply that
1. the idea in the linked article is ineffective
———
No, as he says “more” effective. He does not say “well, this guy’s idea is really stupid and is attacking the wrong people, so let’s think of a good way.”
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Koan,
Yes, I “bashed” Debito. I also tried to post what I consider to be “balanced”, or at least “grounded in fact and reality” opinions to offset his space-loon “They’re out to get foreigners!” diatribes. He posts lies and distortions, and I called him on that. Was I confrontational? Yes, but you’ll just have to excuse me, I take his hatemongering racist attacks on my home and family seriously. People like Debito do not rate a raised hand from the back of the room and a “Pardon me sir, but have you thought of this?” They need to be confronted head-on, shouted down, and shown for the scum they are. That may be unpopular with the folks that like to hold hands in circles and sing Kumbayah, but then again, when was the last time they accomplished anything?
Presenting good ideas is wonderful, but I don’t see as doing so is a prerequisite for trying to demolish bad ones.
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“But I reckon the Debito.org blog will inevitably wind up as a bit of an outlet for people who feel they’re having a raw time”
I’m sorry koan but that’s what it is and always have been, which is an outlet for English-Only speaking NJ who can’t adapt to Japan because of their arrogance and ignorance.
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Nigelboy,
I thought it was the outlet of a frustrated Charisma Man AET who naturalized but still can’t adapt to Japan because of his arrogance and ignorance (and apparent inability to learn how to read the language of his new home).
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Koan
I agree with overthinker and others but I commend you for your courage to come out of Debito’s world and speak out for him;Debito and his men rarely come out of his blog where half-truth and lies are protected but a fair discussion is prohibited.
Let’s start fair discussions between J and NJ. Keep in mind, that is what people outside of Debito’s world is encouraging but that is what Debito’s fans are afraid to do.
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“I don’t agree he is promoting the original idea at all.”
My dear Koan. Here is David’s comments right after the post.
“Now maybe I’m out in left field on this. My hope is that EVERY member of the international resident community all across Japan could do this kind of thing every time tax is due. Await receipt of the third “Final Notice” for the residential “Poll Tax” each and every time, and then go and pay in One Yen coins, even rolled up in 100 Yen sleeves. Hand in a copy of the document above each time, one to the tax office, and one to the Mayor’s office. Sooner or later they might just begin to see a pattern which never existed before this fiasco. Hopefully municipalities will put two and two together, and might plead with on our behalf for an exemption from the criminal fingerprinting and photographing at the airport each time.
”
And don’t bother tracking his subsequent response because it’s clearly obvious that he was suprised by the negative reactions from his fellow Debitards (thanks LB).
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Nigelboy,
Actually, in the interests of fairness, that quote was from Mr. Oneyen himself, not from Debito. The original is on that page, Debito just pasted it verbatim onto his blog. I don’t doubt Debito agreed with the idea, he is promoting it after all, but we shouldn’t stoop to his level by putting words into his mouth (or selectively deleting words, which is actually more his style).
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My badd. Apologies to David.
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