Reposted.... gray media & gray matter: CIA and MI6 Media Opertations in Japan

Gray Media White Collar Crime in Japan???

I’ve already pointed out the front company functioning as a so-called “gray media” publisher that put out the disinformation penned by John Dougill et al, as well as the recent, apparently MI6 sponsored blog “DeepKyoto” nominally operated by Michael Lambe, which basically took over for the now defunct local foreigner oriented magazine, apparently MI6 sponsored as well that was called Kansai Timeout, which had also published pieces by Dougill and every other pseudo-intellectual intelligence officer plying their trade as a white collar criminal in the area.

There is another one, nation-wide in scale, and of a technologically more advanced variety, also claiming to be a discussion group. The problem is that they censor discussions, delete material from their website after a very short time, and would seem to be acting as a cover for numerous other individuals outputting propaganda directly into the news discussion pages.

I am talking about “JapanToday” run by a company called GPlus Media, which was formed by two Americans and one other individual with a UK/Commonwealth accent.

GPlus Media “Building International Japan”

http://www.gplusmedia.com/CMS/wp-content/themes/gplusmedia/pdf/companyprofile.pdf

JapanToday Japan News and Discussion

http://www.japantoday.com/

As you can tell from the emails below, at one point in the not-too-distant past, JapanToday used to post national news articles addressing matters of concern relating to the political and socio-economic situation in Japan.　They cancelled their subscription to that service (Kyodo News), and immediately deleted, selectively, many but not all of the articles, as well as all of the comments posted by JapanToday users' in association with those articles. Even if they insisted on deleting the articles, the posts are not the subject of any intellectual property rights connected to Kyodo (I don't know about terms of the license for the articles they had posted), and the Terms of Use in effect at the time would have seemed to contramand such an act. 

Furthermore, they did not provided me with any advance notice relating to changes, particularly to the Terms of Service or their intentions with regard to deleting user posts along with the Kyodo News articles, which they didn't provide notification of either. At any rate, I complained and was rebuffed, and I did threaten legal action.

Now that I have a little more time to deal with this injustice, I am posting this blog and building the case, which will probably find its was to the small claims court first, in regard to their refusal to provide a Japanese version of the Terms of Service (they are incorporated in Japan) and if I drum up enough interest, maybe I’ll escalate it to the regular court level (regarding the freedom of expression right under the constitution). 

After they cut out the newsworthy Kyodo articles, they upped the amount of Murdoch-esque type local content of a sort oriented at evoking an emotional or sentimental response, making the user feel more domestically inclined, let’s say, more like reclined in front of the tube as the news is so trivial. 

That is in stark contrast to the situation adhering on the “forum” when the Kyodo News articles of substantial news content were up, and when user’s were not only acquiring information that would help the user stay well-informed, but were thereby participating in Japanese society at large. That is to say, the JapanToday site was a meeting place where users could freely associate and actually participate in meaningful discussions in the public sphere by commenting on the articles and discussing the issues among each other. It was a good site. 

WAS, as in past tense.

However, there were obviously a lot of Freemason type secret society plants trying to put out banal comments to undermine substantial discussion of the issues, and a lot of right wing political positions, as well as an inordinate and incongruous amount of support among foreigners for the Japanese organized crime groups, the yakuza. Maybe there were a lot of yakuza members with decent English language skills accessing the site as well.

Moreover, I only discovered today that they have many other websites, and on one of their websites I found an article penned by the abovementioned Michael Lambe, whom it would appear some of the intelligence operatives are attempting to catapult to the status of progressive community activist or the like. This piece was publish under the category of “legal issues”, no less.

Fury at Kyoto Aquarium Plan

OCTOBER 12TH, 2010                                     

BY MICHAEL LAMBE                         

 CATEGORY: LEGAL ISSUES

http://injapan.gaijinpot.com/live/legal-issues/2010/10/12/fury-at-kyoto-aquarium-plan/

Information on the three executives of GPlus Media follows the emails. Two of these people are now in Shanghai, apparently, and the other maybe in San Francisco, or maybe the Philippines, hard to say from the description of his other company. 

At any rate, are these individuals simply hard work success stories? Or do they owe their success to their association with nepotistic secret societies, perhaps with intelligence networks working to undermine civil society here in Japan? 

Seeing that these people are probably not even in the country and are well-insulated from the type of operational considerations that have resulted in my complaining to the editor's in the following emails, as recent scandals show, executives are responsible for the deeds of their underlings.

Another of the websites (Ecentral.jp) operated by this group is the “Official Job Site of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ)”. They certainly are well-connected to the business community.

Sent:	Wed 11/23/11 6:30 PM
To:	editor@japantoday.com

hello,
why have recent articles on the osaka mayoral election been removed from the site?
is it censorship?
regards

The above email was sent several months after the following complaints. I never received a response to the above email.

From:	Chris Betros (chris@japantoday.com)
Sent:	Wed 8/24/11 7:36 AM

As I explained to you before, Kyodo stories no longer exist on our site. When they were removed, any comments attached tostories were also removed.
This is a contractual matter. I can assure you that we do not have a political ideology.
As far as removal of posts are concerned, we have not violated our Terms of Service or any readers' rights.
Editor

Sent:	Wed 8/24/11 7:29 AM
To:	support@gplusmedia.com
Cc:	chris@japantoday.com

I'm going to resend the following email once before I look into taking legal action against your company.

A non response from the site supervisor does not qualify as communication, and the reasoning given by the person claiming to be an editor doesn't stand up under mild scrutiny. That leaves little reasoning other than political ideology, and perhaps a shallow marketing approach.

You will justify your removal of the posts in logical and reasonable terms, or I may seek legal advise as to whether you have violated your own Terms of Service Agreement in doing so. If there are any violation of my rights as an individual, such as freedom of speech, failure to uphold a contractual agreement in good faith, etc., ensuing therefrom, and there is a possibility of receiving monetary damages from you, I'm sure that there will be an attorney willing to assist me in pursuing the case.

Sent:	Mon 8/22/11 2:33 PM
To:	support@gplusmedia.com

To Whom This May Concern,

After noticing a number of my posts deleted without notice, I contacted you editorial staff to learn that the post were associated with articles from Kyodo News Service.

At any rate, the editors last comment stated that there was no basis to keep the posts up because there was no article to serve as a reference, but I pointed out that the case is the same for all articles over two weeks old. The exchange with the editor is attached below for your reference.

I want the all of the posts associated with the Kyodo News Articles restored, and I believe that deleting them contravenes both the Terms of Service and Moderation Policy.

Please respond and let me know the proper channel to escalate this issue, if necessary.

Regards,

*****

Sent:	Sat 8/20/11 5:42 AM
To:	chris@japantoday.com

All of the comments for articles older than two weeks don't have the story, so why is it different for the Kyodo stories? Otherwise it wuold seem that all comments should have no more than a 2-week life span. Frankly, the Kyodo stories would seem to represent the more serious type of news related to Japan.

From:	Chris Betros (chris@japantoday.com)
Sent:	Sat 8/20/11 5:19 AM

For most readers, having the comments without the stories doesn't make much sense, as there is no point of reference.
CB

Sent:	Sat 8/20/11 5:12 AM
To:	chris@japantoday.com

Once again, thanks for the quick response. It is somewhat reassuring to learn that there is a contractural relationship involved in removing the articles.

On the other hand, with regard to the comments, what is the reasoning for removing them as well? There would not seem to be any copyright issues vis-a-vis the articles, for example, and the comments remain the property of those who posted them, right?
*****

From:	Chris Betros (chris@japantoday.com)
Sent:	Sat 8/20/11 4:52 AM

The stories you posted below are from Kyodo News Service. Our contract with Kyodo ended on July 31 and as per the terms of our contract, all Kyodo stories had to be removed from our system at that time. Comments attached to stories would also be removed.

I can assure you that there is no censorship policy on Japan Today, nor do we have any ideologues on the moderating team.

If you have had comments removed from non-Kyodo stories, then please tell me your user name and I'll ask the moderators to look into it for you.

C Betros
Editor

Sent:	Sat 8/20/11 3:19 AM
To:	chris@japantoday.com

Hello C Betros,
Thanks you for the prompt response.

Below is a list of some (related) articles that are at issue, which have been deleted along with my (and all other members that posted comments) comments. Note that this would appear to be blatant censorship, and a contradiction of your own Terms.

I enjoy contributing to enhancing the level of discourse through Japan Today news comments, and do not take the affront lightly that you apparently have some right wing ideologues on your moderation staff who have chosen to obliterate content I have contributed that was in conformance with the Terms and Purpose. The comments from all other news articles on which I have commented remain available for reference on your site.

I would hope that you can gather from the level of some of the comments I've submitted that I will not tolerate this nonsense. I would recommend that the persons responsible for this censorship be disciplined, and the matter placed on record.

Osaka passes ordinance obliging teachers to stand, sing 'Kimigayo'

Saturday 04th June, 07:15 AM JST

Making teachers stand, sing 'Kimigayo' constitutional: Supreme Court

Tuesday 31st May, 06:30 AM JST
Making teachers stand, sing 'Kimigayo' constitutional: court
Saturday 29th January, 06:08 AM JST

Top court again OKs punishing teachers for snubbing Japan flag, anthem
NATIONAL JUL. 15, 2011 - 06:34AM JST
Regards,

From:	Chris Betros (chris@japantoday.com)
Sent:	Fri 8/19/11 10:47 PM

Most articles from news providers have an expiry date of two weeks. After that time, the articles are no longer available. However, the comments remain.

As for your posts, could you please tell me your user name and what topics you are referring to? I'll ask the moderators to have a look for you.
C Betros
Editor

Sent:	Fri 8/19/11 1:36 PM
To:	editor@japantoday.com

to whom this may concern,
i would like to know why certain articles regarding the court decisions related to the national anthem and the actions of the governor of osaka have been removed. furthermore, even when articles are made unavailable, generally because they are frivolous or the like, the posts that have been made remain accessible on the posters history. i want to know why my posts on these articles have been removed, and why i was not informed that they were being removed.

i take this matter seriously, and expect a prompt and detailed response. if there are clauses in the user's agreement related to these actions, please indicate the relevant clauses.

note that i do some writing on these topics, and your removal of serious and sensitive content of this degree of political importance is disturbing, as it would seem to betray a political agenda on the part of your so-called news site / open forum. perhaps it is not so open after all?
regards,

Executives of GPlus Media

Erik Gain

Interview on Shanghai television

http://www.itv-asia.com/interview/erik-gain-0

He is an American that makes the claim in this interview that, “JapanToday is Japan’s best known English new site”. I’m afraid that it may be cumbersome to disprove such a spurious assertion, but the smug confidence with which he delivers it is indeed impressive. Incidentally, apparently he first arrived in Japan in 1990, but no indication as to what he was doing.

Peter Wilson

Interview on Shanghai television

http://www.itv-asia.com/interview/peter-wilson

There is no other information on this individual, but he speaks with what may be an Australian accent.

Derek Schneiderman

Article in Japan Inc.

http://www.japaninc.com/node/2951

He is also an American and the Chairman and CEO of IA Global Inc, and apparently worked as a recruiter before becoming an entrepreneur.

IA Global Company Information

IA Global, Inc. is a global services and outsourcing company focused on growing existing businesses and expansion through global mergers and acquisitions. In the Philippines, the Company had a 100% interest in Shift Resources Inc. and Asia Premier Executive Suites, Inc., multi-service call center operations that has been merged into a single company operating as Global Hotline Philippines. In addition, the Company signed a business processing and marketing services agreement with HTMT Global Solutions Limited (HTMT) on January 9, 2009. Effective July 1, 2009, the Company deconsolidate the operations of Global Hotline, Inc. On June 14, 2010, the Company outsourced its call center operations. On May 20, 2010, the Company acquired JSK Fund Co Ltd., which owns 100% of Car Planner Co Ltd (Car Planner). On June 4, 2010, the Company acquired a 60% interest in Johnny Co Ltd. (Johnny) from Hynox Corporation.
101 California Street Suite 2450 San Francisco CA 94111

Toru Hashimoto and the Ishin-no-Kai

Let's do a little philology, for the benefit of my overseas reading public.

The term "Ishin-no-Kai" has not been adequately discussed in the English language press in Japan. 

Ishin-no-Kai is formed of the two words "Ishin" and "kai" (literally, "restoration" and "group") linked by the preposition "no", meaning "of", yielding something akin to "Restoration Party". 

The incorporation of the term Ishin in such a title resonates with the best known (almost only occurrence of the term) found in the Meiji Ishin (i.e., the Meiji Restoration in English), and imparts vague religious overtones associated with the Emperor, as the Meiji Restoration refers to the historical event of the so-called restoration of the Emperor as the sovereign of Japan in 1868. 

I say "so-called" because the history of Japan is not so simple, and to state flatly that the event represents what the naming of the event implies would be misleading at best, and grossly inaccurate at worst. I've provided a reference at the end of this entry to an important study that relates to this topic directly, accessibly written by a scholar who was a leading historian in this field. 

In brief, Hashimoto's somewhat spurious appropriation of the term "Ishin" holds meaning on various levels, and is therefore subject to varying interpretation. The place of the Meiji Ishin in the overall flow of the history of Japan is a very complex issue, and bears directly on what followed, militarism, etc. 

The forces in society that have exerted influence over the political system at different points in time have a stake in the matter of interpretation. Moreover, it relates to Japan's emergence into the international community, and embarkation into the horizon of modernity.

Hashimoto has also recently presented an eight-point policy strategy, mimicking the eight-point policy set out by Samkamoto Ryoma, an individual who has folk-hero status in the minds of many Japanese in connection with his exploits as a low ranking samurai who achieved great fame in the Restorationist movement.

Hashimoto has tried to draw an association between the politcal party Ishin-no-Kai and the 19th century Restorationist movement, and is know apparently trying to cast himself in the role of folk hero rebel through drawing an association between himself and Sakamoto Ryoma.    

For an account of the history that goes a long way in making its significance to the present day readily understandable, see 
Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration, 
by Marius Jansen, 
which is basically essential reading in relation to this matter.

to be continued...

cretins at JapanToday won't provide information!

Here's an exchange of emails culminating with my follow-up to today's response from the JapanToday staff, which was only forthcoming after a follow-up telephone call. It was the advertising salesman who got back to me, for the first time. he's initially stated that he wasn't the person who handled these matters--which is reasonable--so why have they left it to him?

Sent:	Mon 2/13/12 10:16 AM
To:	lackner@gplusmedia.com

Hello Peter,

Thanks for the information.

If possible, I'd like to know how many times the Terms of Service have changed in the past year, and have copies of each revision.

I would also like the Japanese equivalents.

Thank you,

*****

From:	Peter Lackner (lackner@gplusmedia.com)
Sent:	Fri 2/17/12 7:26 AM

Hello *****,

Thank you for your message and call earlier today.

The best that I can do is refer you to our current Terms of Service and Moderation Policy which can be found on our website. I hope that is sufficient.

Kind regards,

Peter

2/13/12

Sent:	Fri 2/17/12 8:48 AM
To:	lackner@gplusmedia.com
Cc:	aok@state.gov

Hello Peter,

That is not suffient.

Under Japanese law the Terms of Service should represent a contract and there should be a Japanese version.

Also, what is the basis for your refusal to provide the changes made over the past year?

Even according to the current version, you are supposed to provide notification.

There was not even any notification regarding the Kyodo News deletions.

Note that I have reported your company to the US Consoluate with respect to the deletion of the articles related to the recent mayoral election in Osaka, and will be consulting my attorney next week on this case, as I will be suing your company for breach of contract and violation of Article 21 of the Japanese Constitution.

If it so happens that JPlus Media is being managed and operated as a front company by the CIA or officers thereof, I will be pursuing a civil rights case with the Department of Justice of the United States as well.

Note that a copy of this email is being been cc'd to the Consulate in Osaka.

So, I'm going to ask you once more to provide the information, which I believe you are obliged to do.


Regards,
*****

gray media ops methodology 101

wikipedia has a page with an overview of this very topic!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_influence_on_public_opinion

Many of the strategies I’ve seen employed against me in the Starbucks are replicated on the microcosm of the website of JapanToday.

For starters, there are the members using sexual images as their member icons shown in the news forum discussions. This is a strategy related to effacing the line between public and private by distracting attention from the issues relating to collective concerns of society being aired in the public sphere to the private desire for sexual pleasure.

They often make cheerleading type comments, expressing how much a fan they are of some insipid would be pundit or another that apparently may be on the CIA's payroll. It’s such a wonderful network they’re building there on that site.

With such sex-pot babes with an exhibitionist streak beckoning to me from the discussion group, who cares about the news! 

There sure are a lot of pretty girls in the CIA!!! That’s the place for me! etc...

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but many persona in the discussion forum would seem to be modeled on some Jungian or otherwise psychologically derived archetype and aimed at evoking emotional associations to spur participation in a group mentality manner, with individuals lining up behind one such archetype or another in a grand ensemble ready to march on civil society. 

It is sort of easy to tell who is overly caricatured and putting out an ideological diatribe from those participating of their own free will with no paycheck from the CIA or MI6, etc.

Since they are all hiding their identities behind a so-called “avatar” icon-like representation of their fantasy feudalistic alter ego, I can talk about the CIA and not be subject to persecution—er, I mean prosecution—under the so-called 
Intelligence Identities Protection Act 
that I’ve mentioned before on this blog. 

The United States sure has a lot of taxpayer money at its disposal, to dispose of in the form of sociopathic waste products on the Internet in Japan, in the case at hand.

Once again this represents an attempt to subordinate reason to emotion in a group activity related to the public sphere.

I can hear my attorney salivating over the fact that these cretins have probably managed to violate m civil rights in two constitutional democracies at the same time, that is to say, in m country of residence and country of citizenship. They really are a talented bunch.

JapanToday and Japan Tomorrow!

Yesterday I phoned office of JapanToday and spoke with an advertising salesman named Peter Lacker.

I requested information on the number of times they had changed the User Terms of Service over the past year, and requested copies of the revisions  as well as the Japanese equivalents.

I have yet to hear anything back, which doesn't surprise me.

When they removed the entire article and all posts for a piece relating to the Osaka mayoral election shortly before the election, the editorial staff didn't respond to my inquiry as to why they had removed that article and all of the posts, which they did even before the 2-week half life they have assigned to the news on their site.

Not only are their Terms of Service not drafted in a manner such as to be in conformance with Japanese law, they don't even follow those!

High and mighty they are, but I have the wherewithal to lay them low in small claims court.

a photo!

i am not happy about having to dwell on the sociopaths recent posts address here, and someday this blog may include more alpha-wave oriented material...

a little more on the folks over at japatoday

it just so happens that the editor of the japantoday news forum that responded to the exchange of emails posted in the preceding blog entry, chris betros, has also published an interview with mr. gain, his (current) boss, in another foreign media outlet in tokyo, 2007.

the article can be found here:
http://metropolis.co.jp/features/upfront2/q-a/erik-gain/

mr. gain describes his background in computers and engineering, but says he started working as a translator in japan.

it takes a god deal of study to achieve the linguistic competence to translate, so mr. gain's story in this interview rasises questions from the early going.
such a small, networked world among the foreigners here...

Continued examination of Starbucks Japan and Starbucks Kyoto

Since this blog may serve as documentary proof, if I am able to figure out how to present this as a "small claims" issue, I'm going to make period entries relating to things I find out.

I'll start by pointing out that until 4-5 ears ago, Starbucks used the Freemason all-seeing eye symbol on many of the mugs marketed at the different shops I visited. The Freemason connection is not a trivial matter, and I will describe observations I've made on that connection at some point. The connection between the Freemasons and the yakuza is another problem, some aspects of which are fairly easy to trace.

As for the relationship between Starbucks and the yakuza, I don't think that Starbucks is paying the yakuza protection money, at any rate. And they would be pretty stupid to have a direct connection, but maybe there are large shares of Starbucks Japan held by people affiliated with yakuza groups. On the flip side, considering that they don't pay protection money, what type of view would the yakuza take on their invading what they have tried to commandeer through violence and intimidation as their territory? What strategies might they adopt to coopt or undermine Starbucks? What might Starbucks find to be in their interest as far as accommodating the local criminal element in districts that are trying to promote nightlife entertainment.

Starbucks could try to keep the students away, which they certainly are doing, and the yakuza have enough people of all age groups on the ground to keep the Starbucks looking like a thriving enterprise almost all of the time, which bolsters the image of the business environment, maybe feeding back into other businesses in the vicinity.

At any rate, yesterday, February the 7, I spoke with a woman at Starbucks Customer Service who identified herself as Ms. Abe, and she confirmed for me that the Starbucks stores in question are in fact directly operated by Starbucks Japan, and that all Starbucks has adopted the same policy regarding reading, studying and using a notebook computer or the like at your table policy for application at all Starbucks stores across Kyoto Prefecture.

Kyoto is the only prefecture in Japan against which Starbucks has implemented such a policy.

Considering that I first called the HQ Customer Service to complain about 5-6 years ago, specifically mentioning Freemasons and yakuza, I wouldn't be surprised if they've adopted that policy as a tactic aimed at masking the situation in Kyoto city, and in particular at the two stores I frequent. Ms. Abe could only say that the policy was implemented in the name of business interests.

For those of you not familiar with Kyoto, the business strategy of Starbucks here is somewhat different from what I recall it being in the USA. Starbucks tries to target more of an entertainment experience market than a normal cafe experience. For example, though it seemed to me that there were generally Starbucks located in the vicinity near large colleges in the USA, despite the fact that Kyoto probably has the highest concentration of institutes of higher education in Japan than any other city, the Starbucks seems to avoid the areas in which the larger colleges are located. All of the Starbucks here are in downtown areas or shopping malls. There is no Starbucks near Kyoto University, Ritsumeikan University, Doshisha University, etc.

According to this page:
http://www.starbucks.co.jp/en/company.html
This company is a major shareholder:
http://www.sazaby-league.co.jp/english/brand/index.html

Since the stores in Kyoto are directly owned and operated by Starbucks, the idea of yakuza being directly involved in the upper echelon of management is not viable. However, in light of the recently enacted laws making it illegal to do business with the yakuza, the stock market becomes an interesting topic.

The yakuza have a large network here in Kyoto. I seem to recall reading that just one group had 9,500 members and affiliates as of 1995. They can easily account for

How does law enforcement monitor investment in the stock market by organized crime or member and affiliates thereof? In light of disclosures pointing to yakuza connections to the investments in front companies owned by yakuza and affiliates thereof and other connections to financiers helping Olympus hide losses, this would seem to be a ripe area for the new law to be applied with vigor. Several years back Citibank Japan took just such a hit in their so-called private banking, catering to wealthy individuals with funds of dubious--if not outright criminal--origins.  

Dealing with the Starbucks Kyoto Problem

I first had to make a phone call to the Starbucks HQ in Tokyo about 5-6 years ago to report the fact that there were hostesses and their minders or would-be pimps making for an unsavory experience at the cafe.

Today I called again and this time I will have to document it, as the Starbucks HQ does not have an email interface with customers, so there is no evidence or record of a complaint once it has been made. That is perhaps a way for them to avoid corporate responsibility, like almost all so-called "corporate citizens".

A woman who identified herself as Ms. Akizuki took my call today, and I ran down the fact that I had called in the past, and even confirmed that there was no problem with my taking photos in the cafe of the people attempting to distract or otherwise divert my attention from using the cafe as a place for reading and working on documents or a laptop.

Socializing in a cafe crawling with sociopaths is rather tricky business!

Basically, Ms. Akizuki responded today that taking photos of customers that didn't want their photos taken was an unpleasant experience to such people, and that they would like me to refrain from photographing such people.

To date I have photographed maybe 100 such people in the Starbucks, only once having been asked to delete the photo. That guy was a young doctor associated with Kyoto University who didn't want it to be known that he was a member of the Freemasons, or worse, working for the CIA as a spy, basically.

The point is that the reason I take photos of these people is because it is the only recourse to letting them know that I know who they are, and for some of them, concealing their identity is still an issue.

Ms. Akizuki also basically informed me that Starbucks Japan does not set a national policy for all stores in Japan, and she insinuated that only the Japanese corporation that has control of the Starbucks in Kyoto have implemented such a no reading/studying or computer use policy.

So, it is highly likely that the yakuza have infiltrated or perhaps even invested in Starbucks Japan or taken control of the corporation that owns the stores here in Kyoto. That would certainly enable them to influence the operation of the stores here in Kyoto in neighborhoods  where the yakuza have a commercial interests in the restaurant/bar and sex industry.

At any rate, there is a very high probability that I will have the issue of their no reading/studying computer use policy addressed in court.

The reason being is that the small claims court is a viable and expedient path to have that corporation's business practices redressed, as those business practices undermine the cafe atmosphere, in my opinion, and essentially would seem to be geared toward creating an environment in the cafe that is conducive to feeding customers into the bars and sex shops that are controlled by the yakuza in the areas where the Starbucks in question are located.

I have spent too much time on this entry already as I am behind on work due in part to this altercation.

However, I will at some point in the not-too-distant future share some of my perceptions on Starbucks as being part and parcel of a debased American neo-colonial dream tinged with medieval corporatism.
  

Hard Study at the Starbucks in Kyoto

A busy workload keeps me from going into depth on this matter, but it may become something that should be addressed in the small claims court here.

I've called the Tokyo HQ of Starbucks several times to inform them of activity of people who appeared to be connected to the local "mizushobai" business (such as Hostess bars and other shops bordering on prostitution).

Particularly the Starbucks at Sanjo-Ohashi, which is very near a large area that has a lot of Hostess bars and the like, and is a mere couple of kilometers from the headquaters of a large crime syndicate based in Kyoto.

These signs list hours when they don't want you to read or use our computer for long periods of time. But basically, recently they have been asking people to close their books and computers that have just sat down with their drinks.

The dark sign is from the Starbucks at Sanjo-Ohashi, and the light sign from the Starbucks at Sanjo-Karasuma.

While it is understandable that with a lot of foot traffic during the day and a good view overlooking the river, the business would certainly benefit from being able to accommodate as many passersby as possible. On the other hand, tourist don't generally come to the ancient capital of Kyoto to spend their visit at a Starbucks.

And though the Starbucks at Sanjo-Ohashi makes an exception to this policy for two long tables that sit 6-people each, there would appear to be no business based rationale for the 20:00-23:00 restriction that comes to mind, as that is generally a time when people are either having dinner or out drinking. I suppose it is open to debate, but I would have thought that the business of the student population during that time frame would be welcome.

Perhaps the management of the Starbucks has been subjected to pressured by extortionist yakuza groups to discourage studying and other such activities in the neighborhood that they are trying to denigrate and dumb down. One would imagine, however, that a multi-national corporation would have the clout to stand up to such groups.

Hhmmm...

I have on occasion noticed some foreigners that seem to be in the game with the seedy entertainment set, which generally strikes the Kyoto resident as a fairly curious and somewhat incongruous sight.

And they certainly aren't tourists...

Aside from the seediness of hostesses and other cretins associated with what amounts to the sex-industry frequenting the cafe trolling for would be, er, clients, there is a fundamental legal question as to the scope of activity of a customer that the store can control once the customer has bought and purchased a beverage and taken a seat at a table.

That is to say, can the Starbucks tell a customer that they can't read a book at their table, or even limit the amount of time they stay at their table.

I seriously am considering bringing this matter before a small claims court here to here what the legal system holds in this regard.

Christianity and the intelligence networks in Kyoto

Kyoto is the world’s foremost center of Mahayana Buddhism. It is also a traditional focal point for Shintoists, having long served as the nominal capital of Japan, due to the fact that it was where the Emperor resided from the beginning of the Heian Period through the third year of the Meiji Period. It was the rallying point for the nativists prior to the Meiji Restoration, as they sought to appropriate its symbolic status as the seat of the Emperor as an ideological tool against the Edo Bakufu government.

Thus Kyoto is also a rallying point for those attempting to promote a would-be Shinto theocracy along the lines of a Meiji Period State Shinto polity. Such people include, in my opinion, the former Prime Minister Mori (documented connections to crime syndicates), as well as eminent priests in the Shinto establishment, such as Kuroiwa Akihito, the former head of the national umbrella organization of Shinto Shrines (John Breen, A New History of Shinto, p. 205).

As an expatriate American resident of Kyoto with more than ten years in the city, I take the actions of such sociopaths in the public sphere very seriously, and basically consider them to represent a direct threat to my person and family.

Moreover, I also discovered that there are foreigners collaborating to promote the same agenda as such people, and then realized that those foreigners are officers in the intelligence agencies of their respective countries.

Part of the reason for addressing Christianity on this blog is that the foreign intelligence operatives here in Kyoto try to make the most of religion as a tool for creating divisions in Japanese civil society, and for establishing exclusionary networks, with Christianity serving as one mechanism facilitating infiltration of civil society. Since Kyoto is a religious center, it makes them appear as pious individuals, on the one hand, and provides a modicum of cover, on the other hand, as Kyoto does not have a bustling economy, being a thousand-year old center of religion, culture, and traditional arts.

The overwhelming majority of the individuals deployed by the intelligence agencies of their respective governments here in Kyoto don’t even have a conversational ability in Japanese, let alone literacy. One of the reasons that they are here to dumb down Kyoto, basically, in parallel with the secret society cretins promotion of religion and denigration of education and intellectuals in the USA and the UK.

I already mentioned fallacious and ludicrous writings on Kyoto by Mr. Dougill’s published by what us apparently an MI6 front company operating out of offices in New York City under the guise of an affiliate of Oxford University Press America. I have also mentioned that he is purported to be working on a book about the Hidden Christians in Japan. He is one of a number of Westerners being fraudulently presented as a legitimate intellectual authority on subject matter with which he is not only scantly familiar, but has a government enacted agenda that has nothing to do with the intellectual pursuit of truth and dissemination of knowledge into the public sphere.

Rather, the objectives of such individuals are bigoted and aim to deceive, inculcating false understandings of matters addressed for individuals unfortunate enough to have come into contact with the disinformation disseminated through the front companies operated by what can only be described as sociopaths in the “intelligence community”.

The foreigners operating in Kyoto collaborate not only with the Japanese crime syndicates (for a historical treatment of the post WWII development of these organizations in conjunction with the black market under the administration of Harry Truman see Robert Whiting, Tokyo Underworld…), they collaborate with each other.

While I’m fairly sure that there is a good deal of collaboration between intelligence agencies—especially those of the USA and the UK—it seems to me that these people were not collaborating on an official basis, but as members of a network that was not directly connected to their positions as intelligence officers. These people were all Freemasons.

As far as I can tell, they have a parallel Freemason agenda that they are intent on implementing as they carry on as intelligence officers. In other words, they have basically infiltrated the intelligence agencies of their respective governments and are in effect misappropriating public resources in their capacity as intelligence officers to implement their secret society agenda, which is for all intents and purposes the agenda of a criminal, anti-democratic organization.

Such individuals have made contact with me, generally at the Starbucks, initially—their corporate HQ of choice—and then attempt to infiltrate, attempting to cause a targeted individual such as myself to waste time, be unable to lead a productive life. When they fail at such attempts, they undertake more conspiratorial plans on a grander scale, with several individuals gathering information about a separate area of the targeted individual’s life and attempting to undermine that individuals daily life and goal oriented long term activities in a coordinated manner.

One such individual dispatched to infiltrate an aspect of my life related to cultural pursuit and religious study here goes by the name of Brian Schultz, as well as Brian Uneme, and claims to be from South Africa.

Brian was in Kyoto ostensibly to study shakuhachi with a Kyoto teacher well-known among foreigners, and introduced himself to me while I was practicing by the river one day, which is something I’ve been doing continuously for about nine years. He then bumped into me at the Starbucks, and I invited him over to look at some shakuhachi and have a drink.

We became drinking buddies of a sort, though he sometimes interjected malignant thoughts regarding Daoism or some other lofty topic, which immediately called his credibility and motives into question.

We were Facebook friends for a time, but after he’d invited me to a barbeque (technically not allowed at the pleasant banks of the Kamogawa—bento should be the order of the day!), which was sponsored by an Englishman whom shall remain unnamed for the time being, he abruptly cut off communications and closed his Facebook account (changed his last name to Uneme and defriended me!).

The reason he did that is apparently because there were numerous intelligence operatives at that barbeque, mostly British, including a couple that were doing graduate work in the sciences at Kyoto University, and their photos were on his Facebook page from the barbeque.

One thing that I’ve noticed and found extremely disturbing is the infiltration of academia by the intelligence agencies. They apparently infiltrate academia to recruit students (and teachers?) to act against their own country as an agent of the CIA, by Lisa Moran. Lisa Moran is a former CIA officer who has detailed aspects of the basically anti-social activities that the CIA is apparently engaged in even in friendly countries in a series of videos, including the following, related to a book she has published.
http://www.videojug.com/interview/the-mind-of-a-cia-spy-2

http://www.videojug.com/interview/cia-personnel-2

In the case of an allied country like Japan, this amounts to subverting the education system, and inculcating a criminal mentality in the students (and teachers) that the sociopaths in such intelligence agencies manage to recruit.

In other words, instead of spending money on study abroad programs to help student of the UK interact in an academic environment and civil society in a context free from interference by the state, the UK and other countries are apparently more interested in expending tax payer funds to send spies to infiltrate academic institutions in allied countries.

This basically amounts to a blatant attempt by the state to subvert and colonize civil society.

In all fairness, in the case of Japan, the policy of the Japanese government not to offer Monbusho (Ministry of Education) scholarships to potential graduate students that aree over 35 years of age is rather open to question with regard to the reasoning for such a policy. Why wouldn’t the decision to award a scholarship be based on anything other than merit at the graduate level? Especially in the case of the field of humanities, learning enough about the long and complicated history of Japan takes many years of study, so it is almost as though the Japanese government itself were trying to exclude aspiring Western scholars of Japanese history, culture, religion and the like from participating in high-level academic pursuits within Japan.

Back to the issue of Christianity, Brian Schultz/Uneme is one of several foreigners I suspect of being intelligence officers here that have become rent-a-priests who perform Christian wedding ceremonies on the weekends. Now I have nothing against the ceremonies, per se, just the fact that these people are not the types that would become priests, generally speaking. I don’t know whether the Church (any denomination) would approve of such activity. Then again, judging on the missionaries of the pre-modern period, maybe that is open to question! I would imagine that Jesus himself would consider them to be similar to the Herodians, false priests with a conspiratorial bend and suspect intentions and dispositions with regard to religion per se.

Finally, further mapping out and bringing to a circle the Dougill Schultz/Uneme connection, Brian once invited me out to a Butoh dance/music performance at a local club. I went along and was socializing and trying to have a good time, and Brian suddenly disappeared, making an early exit seeing that I was apparently having a good time. However, then I got into a conversation with a guy from Ireland who was among the folks at the bar, and the conversation somehow turned to the shakuhachi and Japanese music. He became somewhat curt with me as I tried to give him some background information, telling me that his Japanese friend knew all about it. That would have been fine except for the fact of the guys attitude, and the fact that the shakuhachi friend he was talking about was a total novice who was a friend of Brian’s that I had noticed recently sort of practicing at the river. He was so uninspiring a player that I could only imagine he was a yakuza plant or something trying to reclaim the river from me or something with respect to the shakuhachi.

This may sound trivial and juvenile, but the further point is that the Irish guy, whose name is Michael Lambe, runs an over overproduced blog 

http://www.deepkyoto.com/

doing a lot of suspect marketing and the like, and features none other than John Dougill as one of his resident experts.

The point is that these people try to mutually support the activity that each of them is engaged in as an intelligence officer, creating an exclusionary, nepotistic network that in my opinion amounts to a criminal infiltration of Japanese civil society.

Not only do they not facilitate interaction between private citizens of respective countries, but attempts to propagate a false cultural model that is apparently aimed at subverting the indigenous models, on the one hand, and stimulating demand for consumption related to entities affiliated with the model that the intelligence agencies are trying to covertly introduce in what can only be characterized as a neo-colonial activity, a type of societal espionage.