Japan can be described as a decaying high-tech quasi-corporatist island state, hostile to many of its neighbouring countries. Several Japanese companies which benefited from slave labour in WW2, Mitsubishi etc, still operate. Japan is re-arming itself militarily and has never firmly broke with its fascist & imperialist past, the state attempts to enforce a high level of social control but even so, there does remain tumultuous outbreaks of anarchy that no-one can predict occurring, moments of incredible beauty, like Osaka in 13-21 June 2008, when an incident of police brutality sparked fierce rioting in Kamagasaki, a working class district.
The government is very repressive against the social movements in no small part to the serious revolutionary disturbances of the 60’s & 70’s onwards, with some underground autonomous groups still existing in hiding today. Japan is not the stable, comfortable place that the media tries to portray, and there are many people living a very precarious life of poverty and exclusion.
Not only in violent response to repression was there was a stark difference between the 6 day riot in Osaka and the anti-G8 events which took place almost simultaneously in Hokkaido, northern most island of the Japanese archipelago.

Over the past week and a half, an unprecedented political crackdown has been enacted in advance of a series of economic summits around the country. Despite this, the brave workers of Kamagasaki stood up against the stiff security environment in riots against the brutal beating of a day laborer over the past five days. The twin situations of repression and revolt deserve to be examined in more detail.

This is a solidarity statement from comrades in Tokyo, Japan, who are facing the potential of hosting the 2016 Olympics:

To No Olympic on Stolen Land, NO 2010, Anti 2010 resistance.

December 17th, 2008

We have just found out that in Vancouver there are people who oppose hosting the 2010 Olympic Games. We looked through the information book (Warrior Publications) which explains the reasons of opposition to the winter Olympic events. The stories reminded us of our experiences during the 1998 Nagano winter Olympics, and again we felt strong anger.

The fight in Nagano took us 10 years, starting from the Olympic invitation process, then becoming the host city and then having the actual Olympic event and after. Through out we saw the problems of natural destruction by resort developers. Japan's biggest developers used the Olympics to expand their already existing resort land. One of the developers was the leader of the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC).

SAPPORO (Kyodo) The Sapporo District Court gave a suspended prison term Tuesday to a man who grounded a Tokyo-bound flight with a bomb threat at an airport near the Hokkaido venue of the July Group of Eight summit.

Takanari Deto, 69, a realtor from Sapporo, was given an 18-month sentence, suspended for three years.

A monster from the 1960s cult panic movie THE X FROM OUTER SPACE comes back once again, now attacking the G8 Summit to finish the Earth once and for all!!

Download trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=m95qjUNdsCE

In the summer of 2008, the G8 Summit is being held at the International Conference Center at Lake Toya in Hokkaido, a beautiful resort near the active volcano of Mount Usu. In attendance are the leaders of the United States of America, France, England, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia, and Japan.

The main agenda of the Summit is environmental issues. However, nothing seems to be decided.

Ticker http://japan.indymedia.org/noG8/timeline/?lang=en for resistance and repression at Lake Toya.

See https://ticker.gipfelsoli.org for actions in other countries.

We joined the G-8 protests in Hokkaido, Japan last from July 6-9. We survived four days of gruelling marches in the countryside, continuous surveillance from the police and many other restrictions from the Japan police. There were delegates from the Philippines, United States, Korea and Taiwan. Several Korean delegates were prevented from entering Japan.

Upon arrival in Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, we were already subjected to surveillance by the police. We were trailed across three cities by agents in civilian clothes. Sometimes we even had two cars following us.

Perhaps some of the most important organizing will come as movements seize opportunities that arise in the wake of this mobilization.

July 16
(See below for previous dispatches.)

The G8 delegates may have boarded their planes and flown home, another year’s summit having come to a close. But for many, this is just the beginning. Three anti-G8 organizers spent almost two weeks in jail facing the possibility of years-long sentences, mounting legal fees, and families left to deal with the consequences. Another 23 people were detained as a part of government repression of an Osaka-based homeless and precarious workers’ rights group that has been focusing on anti-G8 organizing. Solidarity actions are taking place around the world. Perhaps some of the most important organizing happens now when we, as a movement, seize opportunities that arise in the wake of this mobilization to build sustainable international movements for justice. It’s not yet time to turn the spotlight away from Japan. There is work to be done, and international support is needed.

Three comrades who had been jailed since July 5th were released at 9:30 this morning!

Their jail time was shorter than 23 days, the common length in the
police state Japan. We believe that it was thanks to your attention
and solidarity from the world over.

From now on, we will demand compensation for the destroyed track and
continue to protest against the unlawful crackdowns before and after
the G8. Please keep an eye on coming events.

Report from this year’s summit protests

The protests that follow the annual G8 summit arrived in Northern Japan this year, as the leaders of the world’s eight wealthiest countries gathered at the Windsor Hotel, Lake Toya.

Japan spent a record breaking $280 million on maintaining security at this year’s summit, over double the $130 million spent by German authorities last year. Police were shipped in from all over the country, as a total of 21,000 law enforcers descended on Japan’s most sparsely populated island. With an estimated total of 1,000 protesters attending the demonstrations at this year’s summit, the police presence was described by one demonstrator as “overkill and a waste of public money.”

Thousands of Japanese rallied against the permanent basing of a nuclear-powered U.S. warship near Tokyo, saying a recent onboard fire made it unsafe.

About 13,000 protesters gathered at a park near the port of Yokosuka, just south of the capital, where the USS George Washington aircraft carrier will be based, media reports and organizers said.

July 9, 2008

Network of Lawyers Observing Human Rights Around the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit (WATCH)

The "7-5 Challenge the G8 Summit Peace Walk for 10,000" was held on July 5 in the city of Sapporo, and in sharp contrast with the peaceful demonstration itself, a markedly excessive and aggressive police presence constituted a flagrant violation of human rights. All along the walk's route, plainclothes police security officers recorded and took pictures of demonstrators with cameras, and fully armed riot units stood in formation along both sides of the march to prevent average citizens from being able to view the demonstration.

Extraordinary Force Used to Silence Protesters Critical of G8 and United States Policies

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is monitoring an escalation of repression by Japanese police against protestors of the Group of 8 Summit (G8 Summit) in the Japanese island of Hokkaido, as well as in Sapporo, Tokyo and other parts of Japan.

[Media G8way | Gipfelsoli Infogroup]

Press Release July 12th 2008

• “G8 are the problem, not the solution”
• Solidarity with the prisoners

On Saturday July 12th, there will be global action day “J12” in solidarity with the anti-G8-resistance in Japan. Rallies are planned at Japanese embassies worldwide to strengthen the dissent against neoliberal politics.

Groups and individuals in Japan held conferences, camps, action days and demonstrations to express their dissent against neoliberal globalization which creates war, discrimination, poverty, surveillance and control. “Faced with heavy obstacles we came to Japan to protest against the G8”, says Mary Brookes, one of the international activists. “The G8 are the problem, not the solution”. Demonstrations were held in many other countries worldwide in support of protests in northern Japan.

DATE, Japan: They descended on this sleepy fishing town, some with faces wrapped in white bandannas, carrying red banners and shouting slogans.

But the 200 anti-globalization marchers, protesting Tuesday against world leaders meeting at a lake resort a half-hour away, quickly found themselves outnumbered by the police, who formed a moving cordon around them, and followed in half a dozen blue buses and vans.

"This security is really overkill," said one marcher, Bill Hackwell, an antiwar activist who arrived last week from San Francisco. "We're not trying to crash the summit's gates."

The following information was released by the White House:

We, the leaders of the G8, condemn in the strongest terms all acts of terrorism, and commit ourselves to take every possible measure to counter this threat to the international community. We have taken cooperative actions against terrorism, particularly in successive G8 Summits since 2001, including strengthening the role of the United Nations, improving information sharing, and combating the financing of terrorism, strengthening the security of land, sea, and air transport, undertaking measures for better control of Man-Portable Air Defense Systems, and launching the Secure and Facilitated International Travel Initiative.

Free Arrests! Protest against police state & capitalist summit!
Take simultaneous actions on Saturday 12th July.

watch a video record: http://rootless.org/noG8/Declare_Independence.m4v

3 of our friends unjustly arrested at the demonstration against G8 summit on 5th July. One of the arrested is actually an indymedia activist who is organizing sound actions and a member of G8 Media Network which is organized by non-profit and non-govermental various grassroots media. The exerciser of overwhelming violence was the police. For instance, they stopped the track forcely, broke the window with policeman’s club etc, and dragged out the driver while hanging him. This situation was exposed as Japanese police brutality again, reported by independent media.

TOYAKO, Japan, July 9 (Kyodo) - A forum of nongovernmental organizations on Wednesday protested over Japan's refusal to allow entry to 20-30 NGO members on the occasion of the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido, northern Japan.

The 2008 Japan G8 Summit NGO Forum, which was in charge of coordinating NGOs during the just-concluded summit, issued a statement expressing concern over Japan's immigration controls which it described as "excessive."

Summary extracted from http://www.anticapitalistas.net

Just released information about the detainees at the Sapporo demonstration

4 people were detained during the anti-G8 demo on 5 July in Saporro, even though the demonstration was authorized, peaceful. The only property destruction was carried out by the police.

A Reuters camera operator was detained and charged with kicking a police officer

[…]

while a line of riot cops was preventing jouirnalists from getting close to the demonstrations. The second arrested was an activist who was djing from a loudspeaker wagon

[Media G8way]

Press Release July 9th 2008

• Hundreds join Ainu march
• International Activists Call for Support for Japanese Prisoners

Today, in the concluding event of ten days of G8 protests, hundreds of activists
from three protest camps marched in a demonstration organized by the Ainu, a
disenfranchised indigenous population of Hokkaido, the island where the G8
summit is being held. The march was surrounded by several rows of police the
entire time. Protesters were holding signs in English and Japanese saying “No
G8”, and “Japan is a police state”.