Japanese independent documentary filmmaker has been detained without any legitimate reasons more than for a week. This is a serious suppression not only of him, but also of Japanese media activists & independent filmmakers. Please keep your eyes on this affair and sign the petition.
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Petitioners: the NDS and the Association Calling for the Immediate Release of Mr. K (Free K!)

On August 22nd (Sunday), our friend and a member of the NDS (Nakazaki-cho Documentary Space), Mr, K, was taken into custody in a violent manner and arrested by detectives from the 3rd Section of the Security Police, in addition to having his home searched. Additionally, the following morning, the local office of the Kamagasaki Patrol Association and the editorial office of the People's News were subjected to a police search. According to police, the reasons given for the arrest are "the falsification of information on a license (resulting from a discrepancy found in the listed home address on the individual's driver's license)" and "the forgery of a stamped private document related to a rental contract (resulting from a simple mistake whereby the individual mistakenly wrote the name of his former guarantor on a contract at the time of contract renewal)," and the reason given for the search of the second and third aforementioned locations, is the unreasonable explanation that these locations were places that Mr. K had frequented in the past. Although such cases of arrest and detention on the basis of "light criminal charges," carried out by the Security Police are not well known by the general public, for individuals involved in social activism, these types of actions have become all too familiar, and such abuses of state power and political suppression have finally been unleashed on individuals involved in the expression of free thought. Furthermore, the term of this individual's detention has been further extended and he has been deprived of his visitation rights, preventing us from meeting with him in person.

As a documentary film maker and an expressive voice of the people, Mr. K, who is a second generation ethnic Korean and works as a day laborer in Kamagasaki, has gone to great lengths to expose many of the realities that the Japanese government has tried to hide and conceal, by using his video camera to shed light on such subjects. Although Mr. K is an ethnic Korean, who as a result is deprived of suffrage, he went to great lengths to document the struggle of the day laborers of Kamagasaki who had been denied their right to vote because of the unilateral actions of the City of Osaka to revoke these individuals of their certificates of residence, in his documentary film "Give Back the Certificates of Residence of the People of Kama (2010)." Despite this fact however, Mr, K has continued to work closely and to actively document this movement to restore the certificates of residency of these oppressed people.

Additionally, Mr. K has been involved in such activities as the Overwinter Struggle, an event that is held annually in Kamagasaki and the public parks of Osaka City, and he has documented the forced removal of the homeless tent community in Nagai Park in his film "A Large Flower Grows in Nagai Park (2008)," in addition to documenting gatherings held in remembrance of the events of the "April 3rd Incident," which occurred in his ancestral home of Jeju island. Furthermore, he has also worked to document for posterity the Korean Madang rituals that portray the Korean struggle for democracy, as well as capturing the final moments of Ryu-ou-gu Shrine, a location where ethnic Korean women had gathered to pray and share their tradition, and a location where the residents were recently subjected to forced eviction. This arrest is a grave action, which amounts to an attack by the state government on individuals who respect free speech, and it is an action that cannot be forgiven.

　
Furthermore, in July of this year, Mr. K had just recently become the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Japanese government and the Obayashi Corporation, a construction contractor, and we believe the arrest of this individual amounts not only to the suppression of free speech, but to a politically motivated act of suppression as well. The impetus for this lawsuit came after Mr. K protested to his on-site employer's demands that Mr. K use his Japanese name, prompting Mr. K to file suit. This action by his employer exhibits a blatant lack of understanding and lack of repentance for the historical actions of the state of Japan, which forced the Korean people, under colonial and imperial rule, to adopt Japanese names as "subjects of the Japanese empire." In a day and age where deep rooted discrimination of ethnic Koreans still exists, and in a time when the history of the Second World War and colonial rule has continued to fade, we believe that Mr. K's claim raises an important question. If his detention continues to be extended, the court proceedings for this trial, which are scheduled to begin on September 16th, will be carried out with the plaintiff in absentia, and we are adamant in that we cannot forgive the infliction of such a grave injustice.

[A Request to All Who Read This Statement]

We demand that Mr. K immediately be released from detention. At the same time, we demand that all of the video tapes/records of his free expression that have been confiscated be returned to his possession. Through his pure and down to earth personality, Mr. K has been an inspiration to us all, and we sincerely ask that you provide us with your messages of solidarity and we highly appreciate any donations to his defense fund. We humbly ask for everyone's support and continued interest into this matter.

* Please note that we have decided not to disclose this individual's real name, taking into consideration the fact that he has decided to exercise his legal right to silence.

We are currently asking for the vocal support of individuals and organizations (we will relay any messages we receive to Mr. K, and if given permission, we will also upload them to our blog).

Postal transfer account for Mr. K's defense fund: 00940-5-79726 (Account name: Kamagasaki Medical Liaison Conference)

* Please clearly indicate "Free K" in the correspondence column of the money transfer. As these funds will be necessary to pay for such things as Mr. K's legal defense fees, we humbly ask for your support.

Contact information:

Kamagasaki Medical Liaison Conference, Taishi 2-1-2, Nishinari Ward, Osaka City　

Phone number: 06-6647-8278 (Takao Ootani)

090-9166-7294 (NDS Sora)

e-mail address: nds-2010osaka @ hotmail.co.jp (please delete the whitespace between the @ mark and the rest of the address before sending your e-mail)

The Blog for the Association Calling for the Immediate Release of Mr. K (Free K!) - August 22nd Suppression Relief Blog

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/FreeK/

Organizations leading the call: the Kamagasaki Medical Liaison Conference, the Kamagasaki Patrol Association, the Free Laborer's Alliance, the Kamagasaki Summer Festival Planning Committee, the Kamagasaki Day Laborer's Union, and the KDML Film Society