An American activist who has collected over 210,000 signatures for a petition calling for the suspension of land reclamation work to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa Prefecture was questioned by authorities for almost two hours shortly after his arrival in Japan on Tuesday.
Robert Kajiwara said he was "detained" at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture and was interrogated by immigration officials regarding his activism in connection to Henoko.
"I think the Japanese government was trying to make me miss my connecting flight to Tokyo in order to make me late for our events. Also, they are probably trying to harass me to discourage me from coming back to Japan," Kajiwara wrote on his Twitter feed. Kajiwara, who has visited Japan numerous times previously and can trace some of his family history to Okinawa, added that it was the first time he had been interrogated at an airport.
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