4 ms·

That's not how Japanese immigration or prosecution work. What law or immigration requirement would he be breaking? Also, tons of people have been saying that f

That's not how Japanese immigration or prosecution work. What law or immigration requirement would he be breaking? Also, tons of people have been saying that for months, both native and foreign.

fastball 7y ago
Japan has a conviction rate of 99.9%. There is a difference between someone with a big internet presence and someone without one saying something.
- aikinai 7y ago
  The "big internet presence" is among readers of Hacker News. He's nowhere near the prominence of plenty of people in Japan making public, pessimistic predictions about the pandemic without acting like they're going to get persecuted for it.
  - knolax 7y ago
    Never heard of this guy before. Seems like the typical exaggerating expat to me.
vkou 7y ago
He may be afraid of non-official censure. He may be afraid of his employer getting publically crapped on for the bad behaviour of it's employee. (In this case, the bad behaviour is causing waves.)
tptacek 7y ago
If you have direct knowledge of how Japanese official process works in practice, could you relate it along with this observation? Because a thing not in much doubt on HN is that Patrick does have some significant experience with it.
- aikinai 7y ago
  Sure happy to share. I guess most people would be surprised, but Japan has very straightforward and easy immigration if you meet the right conditions, of which Patrick is a shoe-in. He probably already has permanent residency, but if not, he could either be on a work visa or a spousal visa. None of those are going to get rejected because he did some amateur pandemic modeling. Assuming someone at immigration would take the time to look into his background (not just his paperwork), find out that he wrote a Covid-19 white paper with higher projections than the government at the time and then blacklist him for it is such a mischaracterization of Japanese process, I don't know where to start. It's not like there's a source I can reference, but I also have a lot of knowledge of Japanese immigration through knowing plenty of foreigners on different visas in Japan and have never heard of anyone getting rejected if they meet the conditions. I can share one interesting anecdotal counter-example to show how easygoing Japanese immigration is. Someone I knew was on a fraudulent work visa "working" for a friend. He was actually creating a startup. By the time immigration found out, he had the necessary scale to sponsor his own work visa, so he wrote an apology letter and then switched to his own work visa even though the foundation of the company was built on a fraudulent visa.
  - tptacek 7y ago
    I cofounded a company with Patrick several years ago and have known him for a long time, and in that entire time he has lived full time in Japan. I don't know the particulars of his immigration situation, but if I had to hazard a guess, yes, he's a PR. I don't know anything in particular about his concerns about his own status. I have, on the other hand, known many LPRs in the US who were extraordinarily careful about their engagement in public matters out of concern about their status. If your argument is that protection for PRs in Japan is stronger than that of US LPRs, I'm going to go ahead and call that an extraordinary claim. At some point, though, probably rapidly approaching, litigating this point becomes ghoulish. I haven't heard Patrick say he's specifically concerned about his own status, but he's clearly concerned about some of the people he worked with.
    - pvg 7y ago
jldugger 7y ago
> That's not how Japanese immigration or prosecution work Please enlighten us. How does public defamation work in Japan then? I don't know much but I did just google it right now[0] and to my layman eyes it looks bad: > “(1) A person who defames another by alleging facts in public shall, regardless of whether such facts are true or false, be punished by imprisonment with or without work for not more than three (3) years or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen.” [0]: https://kellywarnerlaw.com/japan-defamation-laws/ https://kellywarnerlaw.com/japan-defamation-laws/

That's not how Japanese immigration or prosecution work. What law or immigration requirement would he be breaking? Also, tons of people have been saying that for months, both native and foreign.

fastball 7y ago

Japan has a conviction rate of 99.9%. There is a difference between someone with a big internet presence and someone without one saying something.

aikinai 7y ago
The "big internet presence" is among readers of Hacker News. He's nowhere near the prominence of plenty of people in Japan making public, pessimistic predictions about the pandemic without acting like they're going to get persecuted for it.
- knolax 7y ago
  Never heard of this guy before. Seems like the typical exaggerating expat to me.

vkou 7y ago

He may be afraid of non-official censure. He may be afraid of his employer getting publically crapped on for the bad behaviour of it's employee. (In this case, the bad behaviour is causing waves.)

tptacek 7y ago

If you have direct knowledge of how Japanese official process works in practice, could you relate it along with this observation? Because a thing not in much doubt on HN is that Patrick does have some significant experience with it.

aikinai 7y ago
Sure happy to share. I guess most people would be surprised, but Japan has very straightforward and easy immigration if you meet the right conditions, of which Patrick is a shoe-in. He probably already has permanent residency, but if not, he could either be on a work visa or a spousal visa. None of those are going to get rejected because he did some amateur pandemic modeling. Assuming someone at immigration would take the time to look into his background (not just his paperwork), find out that he wrote a Covid-19 white paper with higher projections than the government at the time and then blacklist him for it is such a mischaracterization of Japanese process, I don't know where to start. It's not like there's a source I can reference, but I also have a lot of knowledge of Japanese immigration through knowing plenty of foreigners on different visas in Japan and have never heard of anyone getting rejected if they meet the conditions. I can share one interesting anecdotal counter-example to show how easygoing Japanese immigration is. Someone I knew was on a fraudulent work visa "working" for a friend. He was actually creating a startup. By the time immigration found out, he had the necessary scale to sponsor his own work visa, so he wrote an apology letter and then switched to his own work visa even though the foundation of the company was built on a fraudulent visa.
- tptacek 7y ago
  I cofounded a company with Patrick several years ago and have known him for a long time, and in that entire time he has lived full time in Japan. I don't know the particulars of his immigration situation, but if I had to hazard a guess, yes, he's a PR. I don't know anything in particular about his concerns about his own status. I have, on the other hand, known many LPRs in the US who were extraordinarily careful about their engagement in public matters out of concern about their status. If your argument is that protection for PRs in Japan is stronger than that of US LPRs, I'm going to go ahead and call that an extraordinary claim. At some point, though, probably rapidly approaching, litigating this point becomes ghoulish. I haven't heard Patrick say he's specifically concerned about his own status, but he's clearly concerned about some of the people he worked with.
  - pvg 7y ago

jldugger 7y ago

> That's not how Japanese immigration or prosecution work Please enlighten us. How does public defamation work in Japan then? I don't know much but I did just google it right now[0] and to my layman eyes it looks bad: > “(1) A person who defames another by alleging facts in public shall, regardless of whether such facts are true or false, be punished by imprisonment with or without work for not more than three (3) years or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen.” [0]: https://kellywarnerlaw.com/japan-defamation-laws/ https://kellywarnerlaw.com/japan-defamation-laws/