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“There Will Be No Stopping the Okinawan Resistance,” an Interview with Yamashiro Hiroji

Asia-Pacific Journal Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Gavan McCormack
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Extract

The erosion of civil liberties proceeds apace in Okinawa, the most conspicuous case being the imprisonment for five months (17 October 2016 to 19 March 2017) of Yamashiro Hiroji, head of the Okinawa Peace Movement Center and a prominent activist opposing base activist. In most developed democratic countries, a suspect may be held in police custody for up to four days before she or he is either indicted or released, but in Japan the limit is 23 days, and in Yamashiro's case it was arbitrarily extended by serial arrests on unrelated charges.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 15 , Issue 15 , August 2017 , e2
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2017

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References

Notes

1 Silvia Croydon, The Politics of Police Detention in Japan: Consensus of Convenience, Oxford, Clarendon Studies in Criminology, 2016.

2 “Heiwa senta Yamashiro-shi shakuho o,” Ryukyu shimpo, 17 December 2016, and “Yamashiro-shi no soki shakuho yokyu,” Okinawa Taimusu, 17 December 2016

3 “The silencing of an anti-base protester in Okinawa”

4 Gavan McCormack and Sandi Aritza, “The Japanese State versus the People of Okinawa: Rolling Arrests and Prolonged and Punitive Detention,” The Asia-Pacific Journal – Japan Focus, 15 January 2017

5 Amnesty International, UA: 23/17 Index: ASA 22/5552/2017 Japan.

6 Jon Mitchell, “Okinawa's ‘prisoner of conscience’ to address UN about human rights abuses,” Japan Times, 10 June 2017

7 See here.

8 The term hitojichi shiho (“hostage justice”) is used to describe the impossible situation faced by many people arrested in Japan, that has little to do with the law. You can resist police demands for a false confession, deny the charges, and be in jail for an extended period of time; or you can confess, get out right away, and get on with your life.