NEED LEGAL HELP IN TOKYO? ---- This list might help you. Between May 14 and May 29 2007 I was held in custody at Kitazawa Police Station in Tokyo, Japan, an experience I would not wish on anyone. On one of my first days there, I was visited by the Australian Consul, who provided me with a list of lawyers in the Tokyo area. Since my release I have done my own research with the hope of compiling a database of lawyers and avenues of legal help in the Japanese capital, to help you with any legal woes or issues you might be having. Anderson Mori and Tomotsune: Izumi Garden Tower, 1-6-1 Roppongi, Minato Ward. Phone: 03-6888-1000. Email: info@amt-law.com. Practices civil, corporate, property tax, foreign investment and divorce law. English and Japanese are spoken, and there are some foreign staff. Blakemore and Mitsuki: 4F Nitochi Building, 1-4-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda Ward. Phone: 03-3503-5571. Fax: 03-3503-4707. Practices international contract and general law. English and Japanese are spoken, and there are some foreign staff. Hamayotsu and Hamayotsu: 2F Nagatacho Palaceside Building, 1-11-4 Nagatacho, Chiyoda Ward. Phone: 03-3593-3351. Email: lawfirm.hamayotsu@nifty.ne.jp. Practices civil and criminal law, corporate, banking, antitrust, foreign investment, licensing, entertainment, joint venture, branch establishment, real estate, family law, and domestic and international law including litigation. English and Japanese are spoken, and there are some foreign staff. Ichigo Law Office: 4F Akabishi Building, 4-1-29 Akasaka, Minato Ward. Phone: 03-3589-4905. Fax: 03-3589-1199. Email: info@ichigo_law.com. Practices criminal law, and boasts some English speaking staff. Morgan Lewis Counsellors At Law: 9F Shin Tokyo Building, 3-3-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda Ward. Phone: 03-5219-2500. Fax: 03-5219-2501. Homepage: Click here. The firm's website reads: "Our Tokyo office opened in 1988 to support Japanese investment and trade in and with the United States. The three primary missions of the Tokyo office are: To have experienced and qualified resident lawyers available in Japan to enhance our service to existing Japanese corporate clients. To provide advice and assistance to U.S. and other non-Japanese companies with respect to their business activities in Japan or with Japanese companies, to the extent permitted under the legal practice rules under the Foreign Attorney Law. To offer immediate, effective, local legal assistance to Japanese firms requiring legal representation in connection with their U.S. and European business activities. Additionally the office assists clients with transactions in Korea, China, Taiwan and throughout Southeast Asia. Tanaka Law Office: 3F BIC Akasaka Building, 3-9-18 Akasaka, Minato Ward. Phone: 03-5114-1818. Fax: 03-5114-1855. Practices civil, company, litigation and criminal law. English and Japanese are spoken. Toho International Patents and Law Office: On the 21st floor of the Shinjuku Maynds Tower right near the Shinjuku Line subway station, in the guitar and business schools neighborhood of town. Tokyo Aoyama Aoki Law Office: 11F The Prudential Tower, 2-13-10 Nagatacho, Chiyoda Ward. Phone: 03-5157-2700. Fax: 03-5157-2900. Practices company law, foreign investment and imports and exports. This is a qualified joint venture office with Baker and McKenzie Attorney at Foreign Law Office. English and Japanese spoken. Usami Law Office: Hibiya Mitsui Building Room 955, 1-1-2 Yurakucho, Chiyoda Ward. Phone: 03-3591-4716. Fax: 03-3580-6637. Practices corporate, tax, labour, private and estate law, international and foreign patents, maritime law, trademarks and copyrights, unfair competition practices, international and domestic investment, general practice and international and foreign law. Japanese, English and French spoken. Wakely Foreign Law Office: 24F Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato Ward. Phone: 03-5288-5417. Cellphone: 090-1595-6875. Email: wwakely@attglobal.net. Operates in association with TMI Associates. Specializes in child abduction issues. English and Japanese spoken here. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 2007 ---- Amnesty International Condemns Human Rights Abuses in Japanese Prisons. FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2007 ---- Blogging from Jail. Today is my 12th day inside, and while I thought for an hour or two, during an epic interrogation session at the Public Prosecutor's office at Kasumigaseki, that they might be on the verge of letting Dennis and me go, my hopes crumbled and I was returned to hell. It was a rainy miserable day outside, low clouds obscuring the peaks of Roppongi Hills and all the skyscrapers of Shinjuku, as our prisoner bus sped atop the elevated Tokyo highways. Back in lockup, the mood was similarly bleak. If they had a computer and a connection to the Internet and a couple of girls, the place would be a lot more bearable. Ever since my arrest near Bears Karaoke Box in Shimokitazawa, I have been planning my latest online venture, which I want to call Blogging from Jail. Of course, there is no Internet connection here so I can't go online to see if there are indeed prison blogs out there. I would imagine that many prisons would refuse to let inmates online, for various reasons -- after all, you can't make life too cushy for the criminals. But imagine if there were prisoners out there blogging about daily life in jail -- now that would be kind of interesting. So, one of the first things I did after my release on May 29 2007, was to search out these prison blogs. And I found them. Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely), a lot of them seem to be based in the Arabian Middle East. And strangely, a lot of them seem to be written by political prisoners (although giving a political prisoner a forum on the Internet seems like an exercise in futility from my point of view.) Over in Egypt, you should definitely check out Alaa Blogging From His Prison at www.manalaa.net. Alaa has become a hero in many parts of the world for his stand against the Egyptian Government. Writing just a few days before my own arrival in prison, Alaa perfectly describes the typical bewilderment of every jail newbie: "Today it hit me, I am really in prison. I'm not sure how I feel. I thought I was OK but I took forever to wake up. The way fellow prisoners look at me tells me I do not feel well but I can't really feel it. "I'd say prison is not like I expected, but I had no expectations. No images, not even fears, nothing. Guess it will take time. I expect to spend no less than a month here. I'm sure that's enough time to see all the ugly sides of prison, to be genuinely depressed. "I'm in a good cell I suppose. Only one of us with me, Karim Reda, a young Ghad member with no experience. I would have preferred to be surrounded by friends, or to be with someone with experience like Kamal Khalil who would inspire confidence in me and make sense of everything, but I should not complain. "The cell has 3asaker Geish ("Army Soldiers") written on it. They tell me it is for gara2em nafseya ("Psycho Crimes"). Seems everyone here are facing darb afda ila qatl (execution by beating). Their first time. 3 are only few years older than me, 2 in their early 30s, and two older guys. 2 been here since 2003, the rest less than a year. Their first kill (Only one claims to be innocent. Says he is a petty thief). All are sa3ayda (Upper Egyptians) living in Cairo, two are neighbors, living omrania, etc. "I could go like this, give a list of observations about my cellmates and the prison itself, like the fact that there are hundreds of cats here, but that's all it is. A list of observations, nothing sinking in, no feelings or emotions, no real impressions. Anyways it's a good cell..." Also in the Middle East, Iran is a rising blogging superpower with nearly a million bloggers, around 10% of whom are active, according to Mehdi Boutorabi, manager of the Persianblog free blog hosting service. The blog search engine Technorati now lists Farsi, Iran's native language, among the top 10 languages used online. Scared of the rising influence of Iranian blogs, the Government has cracked down, leading to the possibility that bloggers might one day find themselves in jail for their writing. According to the Guardian newspaper from Britain: "Want to start a blog in Iran? Then you'll have to register it with the government - which has recently begun to require that all bloggers register at samandehi.ir, a site established by the ministry of culture of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government. All you need do is give your personal information, including your blog's username and password - otherwise it will be filtered and blocked so that nobody in Iran, and perhaps outside too, will be able to access it. This has led to an outcry among many Iranian bloggers who consider the net an independent and free forum for expression." The Guardian concludes: "Blogging's influence in Iran is undeniable. Recently, when Seyed Reza Shokrollahi found that his friend Yaghoub Yadali, an Iranian writer, had been held illegally in jail for 40 days, he blogged it (at khabgard.com); he got 5,000 hits. The next day the link had been spread through the Iranian blogosphere and into newspapers' headlines. Finally, the government was forced to release him." An Englishman in the heart of America: In Tuscon, Arizonia, there is a former British rave organizer now holed up with murderers, shemales and homies. He runs a blog called Jon's Jail Journal. The journal is subtitled "The Prison Blog of an Orwellian Unperson". Jon recently posted: "For the past five years my mind has been conditioned to try to make the most of each day and to deal with challenges as they arise. I became more forward focussed when this year began, and now I'm increasingly pondering what my life will be like when I'm free. Fixating on my hopes, I get manic joy sometimes. Regarding my worries, I tell myself that prison has given me a skill set with which I can overcome whatever obstacles present themselves. "I'm chiefly concerned about not being a burden to my parents. Living in their 'garage', I expect I'll be a financial burden. I tell myself that I'm a natural money-maker ? but there's always nagging doubts that arise between my delusions of grandeur. "Then there's the effects of my behaviour on my parents' mental health. My sister recently sent me some printouts of my Mum’s blog, reading them made me feel ill ? and deservedly so ? as I was reminded how the negative effects of my misbehaviour continue to reverberate in Mum's life. Since my arrest, she has been on and off psych meds and is now in therapy. Recently she sent me a letter in which she disclosed she'd had some nightmares about me with drugged-up eyes. That really socked me in the gut. I wrote back saying that incarceration has knocked some common sense into me. It has matured me, and focussed my mind on a new life path that I won't throw away by behaving idiotically. I'm driven to do well for their sakes and my own..." Jon says he wants to be a writer when he gets out and while inside, he has devoted all of his copious time to reading. That makes me feel envious because when I was in lockup in Japan, there were only three English books to read -- and I didn't even get around to reading one of them because my accomplice Dennis was busy with it! Jon concludes his most recent post with: "To those of you who want to know how it feels to be this close to the gate: I feel like a tiny tea-leaf that has been floating in a sink of water undisturbed for an inordinate length of time, and is now suddenly being sucked toward a drain leading to a brand-new existence ? an existence full of the kind of joy only available to those people who have lost and recovered their lives." I was only in lockup for two weeks but I will never forget that overpowering rush of ecstasy which was triggered by my release. It was almost worth going to jail just to feel that rush. Almost!