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.

On to Yasukuni, Children

The government Friday declared null and void a 1949 state-imposed ban on public schools organizing field trips to Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine.

Nothing wrong with that, after all this is a free country. What business does the government have in telling schools and school children what to say, do, or think?

A recent controversy over the shrine focused on a restriction of freedom of expression after some 40 LDP lawmakers held an unprecedented preview of Chinese director Li Ying's award-winning documentary "Yasukuni" in March.

Following the preview, which was widely taken as effective censorship, several cinemas that had initially decided to screen the film canceled it for fear of possible intimidation by rightwingers.

Well, unless one thinks in a way which offends the nutjobs.

Full Japan Times article here.