SAPPORO (Kyodo) The Sapporo District Court gave a suspended prison term Tuesday to a man who grounded a Tokyo-bound flight with a bomb threat at an airport near the Hokkaido venue of the July Group of Eight summit.

Takanari Deto, 69, a realtor from Sapporo, was given an 18-month sentence, suspended for three years.

A monster from the 1960s cult panic movie THE X FROM OUTER SPACE comes back once again, now attacking the G8 Summit to finish the Earth once and for all!!

Download trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=m95qjUNdsCE

In the summer of 2008, the G8 Summit is being held at the International Conference Center at Lake Toya in Hokkaido, a beautiful resort near the active volcano of Mount Usu. In attendance are the leaders of the United States of America, France, England, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia, and Japan.

The main agenda of the Summit is environmental issues. However, nothing seems to be decided.

Ticker http://japan.indymedia.org/noG8/timeline/?lang=en for resistance and repression at Lake Toya.

See https://ticker.gipfelsoli.org for actions in other countries.

We joined the G-8 protests in Hokkaido, Japan last from July 6-9. We survived four days of gruelling marches in the countryside, continuous surveillance from the police and many other restrictions from the Japan police. There were delegates from the Philippines, United States, Korea and Taiwan. Several Korean delegates were prevented from entering Japan.

Upon arrival in Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, we were already subjected to surveillance by the police. We were trailed across three cities by agents in civilian clothes. Sometimes we even had two cars following us.

Perhaps some of the most important organizing will come as movements seize opportunities that arise in the wake of this mobilization.

July 16
(See below for previous dispatches.)

The G8 delegates may have boarded their planes and flown home, another year’s summit having come to a close. But for many, this is just the beginning. Three anti-G8 organizers spent almost two weeks in jail facing the possibility of years-long sentences, mounting legal fees, and families left to deal with the consequences. Another 23 people were detained as a part of government repression of an Osaka-based homeless and precarious workers’ rights group that has been focusing on anti-G8 organizing. Solidarity actions are taking place around the world. Perhaps some of the most important organizing happens now when we, as a movement, seize opportunities that arise in the wake of this mobilization to build sustainable international movements for justice. It’s not yet time to turn the spotlight away from Japan. There is work to be done, and international support is needed.

Three comrades who had been jailed since July 5th were released at 9:30 this morning!

Their jail time was shorter than 23 days, the common length in the
police state Japan. We believe that it was thanks to your attention
and solidarity from the world over.

From now on, we will demand compensation for the destroyed track and
continue to protest against the unlawful crackdowns before and after
the G8. Please keep an eye on coming events.

Thousands of Japanese rallied against the permanent basing of a nuclear-powered U.S. warship near Tokyo, saying a recent onboard fire made it unsafe.

About 13,000 protesters gathered at a park near the port of Yokosuka, just south of the capital, where the USS George Washington aircraft carrier will be based, media reports and organizers said.

Report from this year’s summit protests

The protests that follow the annual G8 summit arrived in Northern Japan this year, as the leaders of the world’s eight wealthiest countries gathered at the Windsor Hotel, Lake Toya.

Japan spent a record breaking $280 million on maintaining security at this year’s summit, over double the $130 million spent by German authorities last year. Police were shipped in from all over the country, as a total of 21,000 law enforcers descended on Japan’s most sparsely populated island. With an estimated total of 1,000 protesters attending the demonstrations at this year’s summit, the police presence was described by one demonstrator as “overkill and a waste of public money.”

July 9, 2008

Network of Lawyers Observing Human Rights Around the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit (WATCH)

The "7-5 Challenge the G8 Summit Peace Walk for 10,000" was held on July 5 in the city of Sapporo, and in sharp contrast with the peaceful demonstration itself, a markedly excessive and aggressive police presence constituted a flagrant violation of human rights. All along the walk's route, plainclothes police security officers recorded and took pictures of demonstrators with cameras, and fully armed riot units stood in formation along both sides of the march to prevent average citizens from being able to view the demonstration.

Extraordinary Force Used to Silence Protesters Critical of G8 and United States Policies

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is monitoring an escalation of repression by Japanese police against protestors of the Group of 8 Summit (G8 Summit) in the Japanese island of Hokkaido, as well as in Sapporo, Tokyo and other parts of Japan.