Let's pray for the poor rightists

who were arrested in Yokohama today when they tried to break into a theater showing the dangerous, one-sided, "anti-Japanese" film, The Cove. The rightists hate one-sided movies, news programs, and so on. I pray that none were injured in the attempt to hide something that they haven't the courage to allow people to see.

Michael Moore is damned lucky he ain't making his type of movie about Japan, although he does not know that.

(Cannot find a link yet, the information is from TV news.)

9:16PM: AFP story here, but no information on arrests. Seems that folks want to see it for themselves before making up their minds, something the nutters apparently dread.

July 4, 830pm. I have found no reports on the arrests to link to in either Japanese or English. Makes me wonder if I misunderstood NHK. I listened to the English subchannel, not the Japanese so I hope I can at least still understand English.

The rightwingers may have failed in their attempt to censor what people can see. Imagine how much nuttier this will drive that small, but noisy minority:

The cancellations [of the movie, The Cove in theaters around Japan] prompted a group of Japanese journalists, academics and film directors to sign a letter urging the theaters not to back down, saying the issue "underlines the weakness of freedom of speech in Japan."AP

Thank goodness that not all journalists think like Takeharu Watai. And thank goodness that folks who signed that letter (and those who support them) showed what a fool I was to write: Perhaps foreigners are less easily deterred by the threats of thugs.

Censorship fails a little

Perhaps foreigners are less easily deterred by the threats of thugs.

The Cove will be shown online in Japan, according to Reuters. The first 2,000 viewers will be able to see it free. How will the loony-birds fight that?

I might have given it a pass until the nutjobs got going, but now I wanna see it too.

Japanese university worries about classes!

In a stunning new development in Japanese higher education, a Japanese university---where most go for a four-year vacation before joining the drudgery of the salaryman life---has suddenly become concerned about its classes!

Tokyo's Meiji U. has pulled the plug on an on-campus screening of "The Cove" that was to have been followed by a Q and A with pic advisor and dolphin activist Ric O'Barry.

University officials said they feared Thursday's screening would interfere with classes. Variety

Perhaps students who might go to the screening and the following discussion would compare that to the content of the lecture they face should they for some reason actually attend a class. Or it might cause them to get too stimulated to sleep in said class.