End the Abuse of Japanese Tourist Visas by Non-Genuine Tourists!

For almost a decade there have been tourists descending upon Taiji, Japan from all over the world. Considering Taiji is a relatively small town with just several thousand people living there you may wonder why it is a magnet to many foreign tourists. The reason they are going to Taiji is because the fisherman there lawfully hunt a non-endangered animal that some foreigners have arbitrarily decided deserves more rights than other animals. That animal is the dolphin.

The foreigners who flock to Taiji call themselves the "Cove Guardians" and they feel the best way to stop the hunt is through bullying, insulting, and harassing the Taiji people. Most of the "Cove Guardians" belong to a group that has harassed people from many nations all around the world. That group is "Sea Shepherd" which has been cited in reports by the FBI as being an eco-terrorist group with ties to ELF (Earth Liberation Front) and ALF (Animal Liberation Front).

The "Cove Guardians" harass the kind hearted and proud people of Taiji everyday, all day, from September until the end of February when the hunt usually ends. They cowardly hurl insults in English at the fisherman trying to earn money for their families and recently have even assaulted one of them.

After the hunting season is over and the the "Cove Guardians" finish their "campaign" they go back to their countries and write about how barbaric and uncivilized Japan, the Japanese, and the people of Taiji are. All this for simply hunting dolphins. They say this after being accepted as a "guest" of Japan, eating and living in the hotels of Japan, and being allowed to verbally assault people with the police doing nothing because the police are fair and non-partisan. Yet they disgrace Japan and Japanese people by calling them uncivilized. No other nation would permit tourists doing this.

This has to stop. The people of Japan and especially Taiji are sick of this. These people come to Japan on tourist visas when they are NOT genuine tourists.

Everyday they harass and insult in Taiji, the Japanese people are getting more and more sick of it. These bullies and bigots are laughing at Japan sir. Please help the Taiji people, they are crying for your help, they are suffering everyday and there is nothing in the law that can help them from these visa abusing foreigners.

We love tourists and meeting people and guests coming from all over the world. But we want genuine tourists who want to visit Japan, not people who come for no reason other than to bully, harass, and insult us.

This petition is not in favour or against the dolphin hunt as that is a separate issue. It is against exploiting Japanese tourist visas, and to end the Taiji people and fishermen this disgraceful harassment.

Australia and other countries already do this. The rules in Australia for a tourist with a tourist visa are very strict. These "Cove Guardians" would be denied entry if they entered Australia for the purpose of harassing and protesting and we believe it should be the same in Japan.

Please, Mr Yoshihiko Noda and the Immigration Bureau of Japan, put a clause in future tourist visas that forbids social activism while visiting Japan on a tourist visa. Activism should be a right of Japanese citizens, not foreigners who's sole purpose in coming to Japan is to protest and harass. That was not the intention of tourist visas and it is simply a loophole that they exploit.

We the undersigned hope you will take our thoughts into consideration and make the amendments we request, or if it has technicalities in which it would be impossible to do so, something which will have a similar effect.

Thank you for your consideration.