Re: [tlug] From an enthusiast TLUG follower

[Chris <chris@example.com>]

I was going to let this pass until I read this bit:

On 28 Aug 2020, at 9:31, Stuart Luppescu wrote:

But my objection is the rigid, inhumane
method of enforcing those rules, without exception. (You call it
"honest and consistent"; I call it "inflexible, inhumane and rigid".)

I call it "we told you the rules and you thought they didn't apply to you". Here's why:

You say yourself that you were in Japan until June of this year. "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."

The MOFA announced in March that non-citizens who left Japan after 03 April would not be allowed to return unless their travel was categorized as "special circumstances". They were trying to restrict citizens from returning as well until someone pointed out that it would violate the right-of-return clause in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1948 Fourth Geneva Convention.

My wife and I returned to Japan together; I was turned away, she was
let it (because of her citizenship), effectively breaking us up and
keeping me away from our children as well.

That's really too bad. The airline should not have let you board the plane.

However you managed to get to immigration, you should not have had any reasonable expectation to be allowed to enter. They told you what the rules were, and you left anyway. Selling your house isn't considered "special circumstances". What was your plan? To gaijin-smash your way through immigration because you're special? White privilege must take precedence over emergency health measures?

I admit that our thinking that the immigration officials would not work to break up our family was too much 甘え but still.

No, not "but still". You knew what the rules were and intentionally bypassed them. You're extremely lucky that your wife had connections sufficient to bypass the stated MOFA policy. That's dishonest and unethical.

If it were me, I'd be embarrassed to tell this story -- not indignant.

-- Chris
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