Major media coverage of the legal standoff between the Japan Teachers Union (Nikkyoso) and the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo had little effect on the standoff itself, mainly because coverage didn't really take off until everything was over.

A long Asahi Shimbun article about the impasse appeared on Feb. 2, the day Nikkyoso's national conference was supposed to begin at the hotel, which was refusing the union permission to enter even though it had signed a contract to use its facilities last May.

The reason for the refusal was that be^te noire of all self-respecting establishments in Japan: Extreme rightwing organizations and their big, loud soundtrucks. Japan's teachers are the preferred nemeses of rightwingers these days now that Russians and Chinese are looking a little less red, and every year they park outside Nikkyoso's national conference blaring away at the union's perceived leftist designs on young minds. Usually, the plenary session of the conference is held at a large public facility, but this year there were none available in Tokyo, where the union had decided to hold it.