I'm lost on how that could work. How could some secret military organization go into Japan and kidnap a Japanese native? That is crossing so many lines, how could someone just walk in there and take him in another country?

Or do I have it all wrong, are they not in Japan?

Lol, I never of thought of that. They were definitely in Japan. Ando went to a Japanese strip club.

They were in Japan, but i guess if they wanted to sneak in undetected to secure someone they could if it was a small group

Or they have permission from the Japanese government, using who knows what cover-story.

I tend to think that you answered your own question... "secret military organization". It seems like a black op to me, it's all covert, hush-hush, under-the-radar, etc.

Kidnapping one of the richest men in Japan? Yeah right.

May I remind eveyone the US isn't above kidnapping. They just call it Rendition.

Given their history with North Korea the Japanese government wouldn't be pleased if they knew.

Likely passing the blame on somebody else via false intel.

Since when does a secret elite task force need jurisdiction? They either snuck in, or they were a special Japanese-recruited section of the squad who were talented and could be trusted to keep a secret for one mission. Either way, it doesn't really matter - short answer is that they make their own rules.

The same damn way Batman did it in the Dark Knight.

lol

It happens all the time IRL... or so the conspiracy theorists say.

Exactly what I thought when I read post #6

And yeah, it's a black op, OR the US is sharing the details with the Japanese government.

Doubt it. Japanese have enough fiction that Americans can't be trusted with their espers.

If they knew it Hiro is their ultimate do over if China or North Korea does something rash.

It still doesn't explain how they made it from japan to the us THAT fast and why they first brought hiro to this airport only to fly him away with the others again instead of bringing him in that special base immediately.

Stupidity on their part or an Airforce pilot from one of the US bases there isn't privy to the special prison facility's location.

Only that he is ordered to fly them fast back to the US.

If nothing else just put that in the "Plot Device" category.

I think the concern for the US govt is that he can zip in and out of their borders. I mean, we didn't see any other examples of international nabbings (though that isn't a guarantee that there weren't)

Hiro is a teleporter. And a timetraveller. Hence very dangerous in the eyes of Nathan and his mission. Nathan has seen the grandeur in Hiro's heart. Hiro would not sit idly by and allow this to happen. Nathan knows that eventually, Hiro would get involved, while also being unaware that he is powerless.

Did they show a time stamp or anything to indicate the amount of time that passed or are you just assuming how long it took?

Either it was a black op which wouldn't be strange at all or Nathan is working with foreign govt's to do the same round-up as they are doing in the US, we haven't seen the reach of Nathan's plans, nationally only or global.

How long does a flight from Japan to the US take?
Just curious! It rather looked as if the happenings were happen parallel.
They obviously started with Tracy and the hunter even confirmed it on the phone saying "we got the first one" and that was around 7:12am in the US when they got tracy.

Since the hunter was at tracys and later with mohinder as well it must have been around lunchtime when they went for mohinder or even earlier?

Then we see hiro and matt getting captured at almost at the same time (scenewise) while in the US is still day but in Japan already night.

I can't rewatch at the moment since I'm at work so I might be mistaken on this one but I think peter was the last one of the bunch they got and there were additionaly 3 more unindentified persons there(the darkhaired woman, the blond guy and the blonde female that still had the mask on when she fall out of the plane in the crash).

I think that they might also been making a commentary that the "WAR ON TERROR" is not confined by preemptive strikes across boundaries. I know ... I know ... that political commentary is SO 2005, but it would be congruent with the orange jumpsuites and sensory deprivation.

They grabbed Hiro when it was night in Japan. The jet took off when it was night in the US.
That's up to a 12 hour difference. More than enough time to get Hiro from Japan to the US.

And it was clearly a black op. That's all you need for it to work. In fiction, and in conspiracy theories world-wide, that makes it work. Japan doesn't need to know about it at all.

This is why if Nathan ran for president, "I guess I'm voting for the other guy."

I couldn't agree more. Everything is outside / under / etc. any foreign jurisdiction.

Thanks for clearing up!
I didn't quite knew the time difference and also didn't knew how long it takes from japan to US.