"Curiouser and curiouser," as Alice might say. Kirk here with an update to my series on how far-right anti-immigration activists got coverage in Kumamoto Keizai with the respectable-sounding headline "Kumamoto Wasamon-kai Tackles Three Topics, Including Multicultural Coexistence" (多文化共生など3テーマを議論・・・熊本わさもん会; http://www.kumamoto-keizai.co.jp/content/asp/dejikame/dejikame_detail.asp?PageID=20&Knum=24726&PageType=top1 ). It turns out that the author of this rather sugar-coated article is the same person who covered the public anti-immigration protests of the same group last fall and earlier this spring: 宮崎泰樹 (Miyazaki Taiki).
Mr. Miyazaki is clearly not anti-foreigner. He has published many articles on positive activities in support of foreigners in Kumamoto and is friends with several people who are active on this page. In his defense, he is very, very prolific and it may be that he works so quickly that it's hard for him to keep track of all of the people he talks to. Nonetheless, it is also true that in both articles he published about anti-immigration demonstrations in Kumamoto he interviewed Bani (ばに, a pseudonym), the organizer of those protests, and that the very same Bani is listed as a co-sponsor of the event in the poster I shared yesterday.
November 30 (2025) article about demonstrations featuring comment from Bani:
移民政策反対デモに60人・・・全国一斉行動
http://www.kumamoto-keizai.co.jp/content/asp/dejikame/dejikame_detail.asp?PageID=20&Knum=24488&PageType=top1
March 23 (2026) article about demonstrations featuring comment from Bani:
移民政策反対デモに50人・・・全国一斉行動
http://www.kumamoto-keizai.co.jp/content/asp/dejikame/dejikame_detail.asp?PageID=20&Knum=24657&PageType=top1
Oh my, I just found this and it's the worst bit of evidence for Mr. Miyazaki. On Mr. Miyazaki's own twitter account he shared the pink-colored poster announcing the April 29 event at the International Center and it features Bani as a co-sponsor.
https://x.com/TaikiMiyazaki/status/2046876801281171827
So, there you have it. It seems quite unlikely that Mr. Miyazaki was duped; rather, he seems to have known who he was dealing with and, for whatever reason, cooperated. :(
Previous posts in this series:
and