Re: [tlug] From an enthusiast TLUG follower

[Stuart Luppescu <lupp@example.com>]

On Wed, 2020-08-26 at 02:50 +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
>  > I was flipping through the on-line Japan Times recently and 
>  > there was some editorial about how awful Japan is for not 
>  > letting foreigners in.
> 
> Not just "foreigners".  Permanent residents with spouse and kids
> already in Japan.  Many countries allow permanent residents to
> reenter.  Japan's being pigheaded about it, given that it's
> subsidizing vacations for superspreaders as long as they don't start
> or end in Tokyo.  Fracking politicians.

I would say, "fracking bureaucrats". After spending the 1980s in Japan,
my wife and I moved to the US, and stayed there 30 years. Then, after
some personal sh*t, and our children moving to Japan to work, we
decided to move back to Japan ourselves. We spent the first 6 months of
this year here, and then in June had to go back to the US to finalize
the sale of our house and ship all our belongings to Japan. On July 20
we flew back to Japan, intending to stay here forever. My wife, a
Japanese national, was let in, but I was denied entry (despite having a
在留カード) supposedly because of COVID-19 concerns, and put right back on
the plane we arrived in. So, I found myself back in the US, a homeless,
alone, old man.

I tried all kinds of ways to get back to Japan. I was told by the
Consulate that I could obtain either a re-entry permit or a new spouse
visa. I submitted all the paperwork, which was forwarded to the
Ministry of Justice in Tokyo, and was rejected. With no other recourse,
I was resigned to staying in the US indefinitely. Then my wife spoke to
local fracking politician, who spoke to a higher-up politician, who
appealed to the Ministry of Justice that I be let in on humanitarian
grounds. Last Thursday I was finally let in, thanks to the efforts of
that very kind-hearted politician. In contrast, the bureaucrats with
the Immigration department were heartless, cruel, unforgiving SOBs. 

-- 
Stuart Luppescu
Chief Psychometrician (ret.)
UChicago Consortium on School Research
http://consortium.uchicago.edu