Save Japan Probe! James is being deported?!
UPDATE: James is free. It was indeed an April Fools joke as many easily guessed. Thank you for your sense of humor throughout the day!
I got an odd phone call this morning from a man with a heavy accent, but not the usual Japanese variety I tend to encounter. Basically, what I gathered is that James, founder of Japan Probe, is in big trouble.
As some of you know or have noticed, James is actually Zhuang, from Beijing. His interest in Japan brought him to this country I don’t know how many years ago, but therein lies the problem: Zhuang has overstayed his visa. The caller was a friend of Zhuang, who was not there at the arrest, but we are trying to get the details. Said details seem to be a bit questionable from what we’ve heard; we may seek out the help of someone like Arudou Debito for advice, because it seems discriminatory practices may have been involved. In any case, this is a huge shame, and if anyone knows a way to help, let us know. I’ll probably be helping to find a lawyer and such.
This may be a sign we’ve been looking for, however. For months we have been trying to find ways to introduce more Chinese content. Zhuang obviously has an interest in it, and most of the writers here agree that “Japan is about out of things to blog about.” So, I can’t say for certain, but this may signal the move to Chinaprobe, which we have been discussing lately. It just makes sense.
Okay, I’ll let you guys know more details as I get them! James had a pre-scheduled post around midnight, but it may be the last we hear of him for a long time I fear. In the meantime, please try to contact Debito and other people that may be able to help!
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This post wouldn’t have anything to do with the calendar, would it? (Or am I ruining things by suggesting that it does?)
Yeah, okay, I was suckered into the bit at the beginning - I was perfectly prepared to accept that “James” was actually Chinese (presumably something like Chinese-American though), but it got more and more suspicious as the article wore on, and by the end it was obvious. Good effort though.
Isn’t James like American or something??
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
E-MAILING DEBITO FOR HELP NOW!
Maybe it’s too early in the morning but i just don’t get this.
If “James” has over stayed his Visa, that is rather stupid! Almost all countries, not just Japan, takes this seriously.
It is also rather sad that at one time this blog vilifying Debito, now seeking his assistance.
Anyway, try these guys, they are very good….
http://www.t-ikeda.com/index.htm
April Fools!!!!!
April Fools!
Happy April 1st?
He’s being discriminated against, in the same sense that the Police discriminate against criminals.
Good luck to Zhuang in his new permanently-outside-Japan home!
Mind you today is the 1st or april…so anything posted up to midday (12:00 in Japan that is) could be just a teeny weeny bit false…!!!!!
ahhh..now you post this…hmmmm…sent it after i sent the first when i realsied what day it is today…..kind of loose track here
If he overstayed his Visa, can’t he renewed it? He has a job in Japan, right? When it comes to Visa, it’s not something you can wait til the last minute to take care of.
How is it discriminatory? Overstaying a visa is against the law, isn’t it?
Anyway, I hope the best for James. I hope the situation will be smoothly taken care of.
I really like Japanprobe. This is one of the main websites I get my news and cool information about Japan. I hope you guys will continue this website.
WAIT, is this an April’s FOOl joke? I just remember tomorrow (WA, USA) is April 1st.
This is bad news…on April 1st no less!
If he overstayed his Visa he broke the law. It’s unfortunate.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t support helping him. There could be some circumstances that we don’t know about. And such is something for the lawyers to put a spin on in court.
I hope everything works out ok though.
Hey Claytonian, keep us in the loop. Let us know whats happening to James. It seems that theres more to this story than simply an overstayed Visa.
Thanks.
I smell an April Fools joke…
the date… dear readers… is… what?
think about it… think about it…..
bingo!
haha, am i the only one thinking that this is just a APRIL FOOLS JOKE?!
april fool’s!
April Fools?
Terrible things always seem to happen at the very beginning of April. I’m sure this will turn out to be all a big misunderstanding by tomorrow.
I can’t help but notice the date on this entry…
I’ll believe it if they said the same thing tomorrow
Seriously, who is the guy in the picture?
April fool right!!!!
Nooooo!! The guy in the photo is not James. James must have three eyes.
April fools!
April 1st, again? Time flies.
It’s April.
April Fool’s Day.
AWWW Damnit!!! I just realized it. Hmmm… Yeah, now that I see that…it probably is.
Oh gosh, I’m so worried. I hope everything goes well for you guys. I’m praying and hoping that this evil Japanese government gets punished for its racist deportation of visa-overstayers.
On a completely un-related note, is anyone doing anything fun for April Fools Day?
Come on guys it’s April 1st - what does that tell you?
Good one! Debito was a clue, but the penny dropped completely by “Chinaprobe”.
yeah for real guys, april fools already. i give this a 5/10.
Yeah haha nice try at April Fools.
I’m so stupid. April Fools!
Nice touch.
Good to see some people replying are very KY!
Keep it up Japanprobe!
If this is site gets changed to “chinaprobe” then i am out of here!
ok. . .I started to type that this was a very very “foolish” thing for James to do. . and I realized as I typed that word I realized that today is April Fool’s Day. You almost got me. . .I actually panicked. Happy April Fool’s day to you too.
Uh, people:
Look at your calendar.
Wow, Debito really is like a Japan superhero. If I ever meet him, I expect him to be wearing a cape.
sort of like
http://xkcd.com/239/
Ok, enough of that. Best of luck clearing everything up! You’re in the prayers of all the lurkers too.
I met him once spouting on about fingerprinting and universities- inaccurate, unsupported generalizations. You would have to be really desperate to listen to his drivel.
Wait until they find out Claytonian’s Korean. Don’t let the videos fool you, that’s just an actor he hired…
Ha ha you found me out, Median!
happy holidays
Nice April fools =)
It surprises me that people still fall for April fools jokes despite having experienced them yearly on the internet.
Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
WE LOVE JAPANPROBE !!
Clever, clever - but think how many emails Debito has gotten in the past few hours calling for help.
A lot I hope
Sorry guys, I didn’t get a single one. Good April Fool jape, though!
And now i finally get it …. yep, you got me.
haha. chinaprobe… it just makes sense..
nice.
Whatever it is. if he overstayed his visa. Then he should be deported. Thought he was american smtn smtn but ended up being chinese who claims to be an american? hmmm. Most of the chinese overstayes the visa.
And he is going to take it to the court? just because he runs JapanProbe? that’s silly. His ass should be deported no matter how ppl love JapanProbe.
you are an idiot.
I say we gaijin, especially the “sankokujin” should riot in the streets over this! Burn and plunder! Laugh at the police! Break James out of jail and go to soapland in a rocket car!
BTW, today is a good day to report all of your freinds on the “rat-out-a-gaijin” hotline and website in Tokyo.
CHINAPROBE?
never.
thank goodness for april fools.
Come on!!! Japan Probe rules!!!
Happy April Fools’ Day!!!
My Militia is standing by in case any paramilitary action is called for.
HAHAHA You got me
:D 
I’m sure Debito got a bit of a surprise. That weeaboo deserves it.
Viva la revolucion. Debito must have received some sizzlers
ummmm……YAY!
Haha, at first I thought a lot of the people that didn’t mention April Fools were just playing along, but on later down the page I see that they realized it was a joke. It might’ve gotten me, but I was thinking jokes up all day. After a very brief moment of o.O I checked the date.
Actually, I wonder why the ‘information’ that James is Chinese was needed? Why was it not sufficient to say “James, an American (Anglo) overstayed his visa”? This seems to me to play into the idea that it’s the Chinese who are more likely to be overstayers - that the fact James ‘is Chinese’ was used to make the story more convincing.
Unless of course that photo really is James, full name James Zhuang, of New York (parents from Beijing).
I agree, knowing it was an April Fools joke and reading it, I’d say it’s a very low brow joke if James is indeed not Chinese. I say this because from my stay with other white Westerners, I’ve found them to participate quite often at looking down on Chinese residents, especially at bars with their Japanese buddies.
Ug, guys please don’t over-analyze a joke; it’s not like that and no offense is intended towards any group.
It’s call “subconscious racism”. Yes there might be no conscious intention, but “look down on/prejudice against Chinese” is so ingrain in you that you aren’t even aware of it.
The joke work just as fine with James being as he is (Anglo) anyways. But no you have to play the joke in the expense of a stereotype/bias of a race (which neither of you are part of).
When Claytonian and I were brainstorming for this post, we had two ideas: deportation and switching to China Probe. I was made Chinese in this post so that both ideas could be used. Also, making James an entirely different nationality added some extra shock value to the post, contributing to the progression of ridiculous things that served as hints that this post was a April Fool’s joke.
A joke, or humour, is always at the expense of someone else, get over it. Whether they be fat, stupid, black, chinese, japanese, old, deviant, slow etc etc….either you accept that the world is made of different poeple and can have a laugh at it, or you view it as persecution.
In the psyco babble world , what you have done is subconscious “projection” of your own predjudices.
It must be a very santitised world you live in, without humour.
John - jokes aren’t always at the expense of another. Now you’re the one who is over-analysing.
James: the problem with suddenly coming out and saying you’re Chinese is fine except that we don’t know you’re not - at least not something like Chinese-American.
Actually, it would have been great if the banner title page thing could have read “China Probe” - I wonder how many would have picked up on that?
@overthinker
You don’t know what Anglo means but whatever meaning you thought it had you’re trying to replace “Chinese” with another racial division.
I guess you didn’t realise this was all a joke anyway, but it’s no excuse.
I’m not sure how else to take the meaning of Anglo but this is what is written on Wikipedia:
I assure you, I know very well what an “Anglo” is. I am one. And it was obvious it was a joke.
You had me but I realised what date it was just as I was about to comment and make a fool of myself *phew*
Another good joke. I actually got pretty fooled by this one but thank god that it’s a joke.
Hahahaha! Almost tricked me, till I read the “James had a pre-scheduled post around midnight, but it may be the last we hear of him for a long time I fear” part, then checked the date. Happy April Fools!
Damn, you got me. I was totally fooled. I guess having lived in Japan and knowing how often this kind of thing *really does happen*, I took it hook, line and sinker - Zhuang even seems like the kind of Chinese name that would get anglicized to “James”. Well played boys!
Great April Fools guys
Honestly had me going for awhile!
Nice april folks’ guys, I almost believed it =p
I am writing in regards to the arrest and impending deportment of a Chinese national who owns the blog, Japan Probe. I am not only apoplectic, I have several sypmtoms of spasmasticism brought on by the terror of this unjust action by the authorities. I looked forward daily to the odds and ends, youtube clips, minutae, bricabrac, memorandi in addition to cornicopious whatnots offered generously on the website. Now, shattered, violated…James Zhuang, an upright contributor to society has been more than likely caged in a kennel-like cell. Is he abused? Will mitt-like coarse, callous and callused hands grab at him, hold him in humiliating positions for hours, no, days on end? Will the baths he took as a young man, full of soap, mystery and self discovery, be transfigured into showers of dread, something like the fantasies of a hunchback? Or that lady from Throw Momma From The Train? Today I am a flabby, flacid gelatinous heap, a babbling brook of teardrops…the borders of dementia have no gates, no barbed wire, and no German shepherds or guards with bayonets or mace or even shivs fashioned with dried chicken bones, Nay, the hordes of the lost beckon to me like smug smiling smirking presumptuous gingerbread men…they say, come over here, to Dementia, we have issued your visa, your permanent residence status is Permanent, come hither…as I drift into the fog, the tinkle warm down my pantleg…frogs giggle. Japan Probe- Website has been removed by Japan Government, SORRY! Have nice day!
Classic.
hahaha! you guys!!
you almost got me too…. after a long day at work that was the last thing i wanted to read! thank goodness i’m smiling now and not writing my deepest, most heartfelt condolences…. BIG UP JAPAN PROBE!!
He don’t look Chinese to me. April fool.
I thought that latinos were the only ones who were deported from foreing countries xD
How could all this have happened? Was James implicated with Falun Gong? Or Culture Club? If James is in the general population inside prison, maybe someday he will call us. But if he is in solitaire confinement, they may be subjecting him tonight to shaving the head, to amputate and deflower his sense of self. Creatures all in the dark cell, rodents scramble over his breakfast eggs. His loins cleansed with hyper pulsate hoses. His screams echoing in the chamber. I am on tenterhooks just considering the fate of him. Where is Debit? Why does everyone dismiss the peril James is in as April Fools? James was no fool! A charlatan, a buffoon, a man boy who cries out during a tender interlude I CAN’T HOLD IT! Maybe. My tensions are at the boiling point! Like Willy Wonka when Grandpa goes grovelling to get Charlie’s prize. This is just like another famous James, Pufnstuf. When they took me to the center, they removed one of his eyes. Like a daruma. Look at kind James in the photo. Congenial James. Please stop James from being plucked too! Let the happy people be happy! Will they sew it closed considerately? Or, leave it gaping like the woman at the Grits and Gas truck stop in Appalachicola?