Japan quietly accepting foreign workers — just don't call it immigration

Abstract: Send us your construction workers, your care givers, your store clerks — but for a limited time only. That’s the message from Japan, where the number of foreign workers, though still relatively small, has nearly doubled over the past eight years, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party is considering policies to speed up arrivals. Just don’t call it immigration. Japan will allow more unskilled workers to enter temporarily, as companies struggle to fill positions in a country with the lowest unemployment rate among the Group of Seven nations. Abe has made it clear that opening the nation to permanent immigration by unskilled labor isn’t an option, reflecting a historic fear among the Japanese that foreign nationals would cause social unrest and erode national identity. “In Japan, the word ‘immigrant’ is not used in policymaking,” former economy minister Heizo Takenaka said in an interview. “The prime minister often says it’s not immigration, it’s guest workers.” Masahiko Shibayama, a lawmaker and adviser to Abe, is among those testing the boundaries as policymakers seek to meet the needs of a country with a shrinking population. He has called for a guest-worker program that would give five-year visas for sectors suffering labor shortages. Yet he noted that even the recent tourism boom has raised questions among Japanese about how many foreign residents should be here. “For ordinary people, they see the rapid increase in foreign tourists and they see more foreigners downtown, so it’s not strange that some think, ‘Is it good that it’s increasing this much?’ ” Shibayama said in an interview. “I think it’s important to establish a culture that accepts foreign workers. However, in the case of Japan, it’ll be totally different from the large number of refugees that went to Europe, so I don’t think public opinion will be split on the issue.” The cross-border flow of workers has animated politics across the world, including the U.S. presidential election campaign and the U.K. vote to leave the European Union. In Japan, immigration is widely touted as one of the few obvious solutions to its demographic and economic challenges. Economists point to it as a source of growth as well as labor. The government projects Japan’s population of 127 million will shrink by 19 million people by 2040. BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said in a speech last month in Tokyo that more foreign labor is essential for Japan to achieve sustainable long-term growth. Japan needs the help now. A 2015 Manpower Survey found that 83 percent of Japanese hiring managers had difficulty filling jobs, compared with a global average of 38 percent. The government has taken a more welcoming approach to highly skilled foreign workers who are the objects of a global war for talent. Abe this year vowed to provide them with the world’s fastest path to permanent residency. Currently, a person generally becomes eligible for permanent residency after living in Japan for 10 consecutive years. On the other hand, though it depends on unskilled foreign workers in some sectors, Japan has no visa categories under which they can enter the country to work, never mind become permanent residents or citizens. It instead uses back doors such as a “training” program, ostensibly aimed at training people from developing nations with skills they can use at home, but in practice a guest-worker system that the U.S. State Department has criticized as prone to abuse, including “conditions of forced labor.” Still, the number of foreign workers in Japan has jumped from about 486,000 in 2008 to nearly 908,000 in 2015. About 190,000 work under the training program. Lawmakers in Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party are supporting a bill that will expand the training program to include workers in elder care as well as manufacturing and agriculture. An LDP proposal would allow participants to stay up to five years, compared with three years currently. Japan will also be in need of construction workers as it races to build and renovate facilities for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. To be sure, immigration is no panacea for Japan. Barry Bosworth, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said it would raise growth but cautioned that it was no substitute for the structural reforms needed to overcome the country’s economic stagnation. The influx of workers is already being seen on some streets in Tokyo. In the Ikebukuro district, an emerging Chinatown, the Chinese language is heard frequently and shops advertise favorites such Shanghai’s specialty, fried dumplings. Su Fan, a 27-year-old employee at an auto-sector company, said he moved from China’s Henan province about eight years ago to study. Then he was recruited by a Japanese company. “I never had any worries about a visa. The language was the hardest thing for me,” he said. The Japanese government may see them as a temporary solution, but not all foreign workers will want to leave when their time is up. Lin Zhi Peng and Zhang Shuang Feng, both 25, just moved to Tokyo from Nanjing, China. They both plan to start working as staff at a mobile phone store soon. “It’s wonderful here,” said Feng, in Ikebukuro. “We love the food, the clean environment, the people. Everything.” Asked how long they plan to stay in Japan, Feng quickly answered, “Forever.” Peng nodded. “Probably forever,” he said.

population
immigration
workforce
foreign labor


The dubious cost of sexual assault in Japan

Abstract: Two recent domestic cases involving sexual assault illustrate just how far the land of the rising sun is from dealing with crimes against women. Many Americans expressed outrage when former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner was released from prison after spending three months behind bars for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. In Japan, Turner would most likely have never been arrested. If prosecutors were able to secure a conviction, it’s also highly likely he would not have spent a day behind bars. Rape prosecutions in Japan are fairly rare and even if a suspect is found guilty, many dodge prison by apologizing and paying damages. Earlier this year, 22-year-old actor Yuta Takahata was arrested on charges of allegedly raping a 49-year-old hotel worker. Police said Takahata had asked the woman to bring him a toothbrush and then dragged her into his room around 2 a.m. on Aug. 23. He allegedly pinned her down during the attack. Takahata was released on bail on Sept. 9 after prosecutors decided not to pursue charges over the incident. Takahata reportedly admitted raping the woman, according to police and Japanese media reports. However, Takahata is believed to have subsequently agreed on a settlement with the victim and prosecutors dropped the case. Once he had been freed, Takahata’s lawyers released a statement implying that they would have denied the charges if the case had gone to court. Kunitaka Kasai, a criminal defense lawyer from Rei Law Office in Tokyo, says it’s always difficult to know the exact reasons why prosecutors drop charges in a case. “But if a case has been settled out of court, it would be unprecedented for prosecutors to proceed with the case,” Kasai says. “Most settlements usually have the following text included: ‘I (the victim) do not wish him (the assailant) to face criminal punishment.’ This greatly discourages the authorities from pursuing the case.” In Japan, rape (without injury) is categorized as shinkokuzai , an offence that cannot be prosecuted without a complaint by the victim. If a complaint is not made, or later retracted, the case falls apart. Kazuko Tanaka, a female prosecutor and author of “The Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigation Handbook,” estimates that only 4 percent of victims of sexual assault go so far as to file a complaint with the police. By comparison, the Justice Ministry estimated in 2012 that only 18.5 percent of sexual assaults were reported to the police over a five-year period. In incidents that had featured an arrest, prosecutors dropped charges in more than half of the cases on average. Legal experts note that first-time offenders often walk away with a suspended sentence — even if they are convicted. Take, for example, the case of Kensuke Matsumi, a University of Tokyo student who was convicted of sexually assaulting a classmate with several of his friends in May. The victim rejected his offer of a settlement. On Sept. 20, the Tokyo District Court ruled that Matsumi’s actions were “despicable and caused unbearable suffering.” However, the 22-year-old student received a sentence of two years in prison, suspended for four years, because he had expressed remorse for his actions and had vowed to refrain from ever drinking alcohol again. On Sept. 12, a Justice Ministry advisory panel recommended that sex crime legislation be revised. The panel recommended that prosecutors should be allowed to indict a suspect regardless of whether a complaint had been filed or not. It also concluded that the minimum penalty for rape convictions should be raised from three years in prison to five, and recommended that police also be empowered to acknowledge male victims of rape. Japan appears to have a serious problem with sexual assault it doesn’t want to face. Even if the lower estimated number of unreported cases is accepted — more than 80 percent — it’s still a colossal figure. “We can conduct great criminal investigations but if we don’t create an environment where women can come forward and press charges, what are we doing?” Tanaka asks in her handbook. The government likes to talk about empowering women and creating a society in which women can “shine.” Yet, how powerful can women be in a society where convicted rapists are able to walk away without spending a day behind bars? Is an apology and financial compensation sufficient punishment for sexual assault? Perhaps these are the first questions the government should be asking.

yuta takahata
kensuke matsumi
kazuko tanaka


Japan's war against medical marijuana

Abstract: Former actress Saya Takagi was arrested in Okinawa on Oct. 25 for possession of marijuana , three months after she unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the Upper House election on a platform to legalize pot for medical purposes. She insists the contraband was not hers. Though Takagi, whose real name is Ikue Masudo, is retired from showbiz, reruns of dramas she appeared in are still shown on TV. When a celebrity is involved in a scandal, broadcasters scour their lineups for any ties to the disgraced person. TV Asahi quickly scrubbed from its afternoon schedule old episodes of the popular detective series “Aibo” that featured Takagi . Nikkan Gendai reported that DVDs containing films or shows featuring Takagi are being recalled, and a TV program is removing a theme song partly written by her. Her demonization has intensified with the implication that she was living with two men, also arrested, as lovers , thus branding her as a woman of loose morals. The purpose is to feed a negative image, even if it’s just hearsay. The only facts that Gendai can corroborate are quotes from the police. Gendai is a tabloid and “attack journalism” comes with the territory, but the rest of the media, even the major dailies, have taken its lead, including those that are nominally liberal. Asahi Shimbun mentioned the arrest without elaboration, but Tokyo Shimbun ran an in-depth story on Oct. 27 that cited Takagi’s claims of the benefits of medical marijuana, which are increasingly accepted in North America and Europe. While the article admits marijuana is “less addictive” than cocaine and heroin, it emphasized that it is still illegal in the eyes of the U.S. government and quotes a Japanese health ministry official as saying there is no “definition for medical use” of marijuana in Japan. A professor told the reporter that marijuana is a gateway drug to harder stuff — a cautionary cliche that is difficult to prove. But Tokyo Shimbun’s most egregious failure is its assertion, per the health ministry, that the World Health Organization “does not acknowledge the medical effectiveness” of marijuana and, in fact, points to its “harmful effects.” The WHO has traditionally maintained that habitual use of marijuana can lead to health problems, but it has also supported the idea that cannabis could have pharmacological benefits. This inconsistency has more to do with politics than clumsy rhetoric: the organization receives funding from parties that have a stake in keeping marijuana illegal, and for Tokyo Shimbun to cover the medical aspects of pot without mentioning these details — including the fact that the health ministry has contradicted itself with regard to the WHO’s medical marijuana stance — indicates a predisposition to denigrate it at all costs. The monolithic media movement in Japan against medical marijuana is mostly one of subtraction: Takagi’s July campaign was ignored by the vernacular press and, with the exception of TV Asahi, coverage of the trial of Masamitsu Yamamoto , a man with terminal liver cancer who grew marijuana to alleviate his suffering, went no further than the tiny courtroom where it took place. Also, there was no coverage of former Shinto Kaikaku (New Renaissance Party) president Hiroyuki Arai’s May speech advocating research into medical marijuana, but there were plenty of reports that the man who murdered dozens of disabled people in Sagamihara last summer had smoked pot . Japan’s anti-narcotic laws are notoriously punitive, but marijuana has its own peculiar status. As explained in Hideo Nagayoshi’s book “ Taima Nyumon ” (“An Introduction to Cannabis”), the Hemp Control Law is separate from the Narcotics Control Law. It was implemented by the GHQ during the American Occupation after World War II. Nagayoshi stresses that marijuana could have been added to the NCL, which was already in place at the time, if they wanted to criminalize its usage, but they wanted more. Hemp production has a long history in Japan, and when cultivated the species does not contain much THC, the substance that provides the high. The plant was commercially vital for making textiles and pulp, which American companies one day hoped to export to Japan, mainly in the form of acrylics and other petroleum products. In order to safeguard its hemp industry, the Japanese government threw the Americans a bone by inculcating prohibitions against the medicinal use of hemp, a practice Japan imported from China, where marijuana had been a traditional cure for centuries. In such a way, marijuana was rendered a narcotic. Consequently, it cannot even be researched in Japan. The law theoretically goes beyond possession to cover contact outside Japan’s borders. When a Japanese snowboarder admitted to smoking pot at a camp in Colorado last year, he and another snowboarder were suspended by relevant sports associations but also investigated by Japanese police. Such publicity creates an atmosphere of paranoia. In a survey of online comments about medical marijuana compiled by Nikkan Sports , everyone who said marijuana has benefits, including noted neuroscientist Kenichiro Mogi, also stressed that they would never, ever use it themselves. Even hemp production is cause for suspicion. Last month a hemp farmer in Tottori Prefecture who became famous when the prime minister’s wife, Akie Abe , promoted his product as ecologically and economically important was arrested for marijuana possession and, as a result, all growing licenses in the prefecture were revoked. He — or perhaps Japan’s first lady — had drifted a little too close to the flame. That may have been what happened to Takagi, who ran under the banner of Arai’s now-dissolved party. Regardless of whether or not she was using it, her vocal support for the herb unnerved the authorities, so they made an example of her. But they couldn’t do so without the help of the press, who seemed only too happy to oblige. In Nikkan Sports, radio personality Morley Robertson remarked that Japanese coverage of marijuana has been “lazy,” except when the media is called upon to launch a witch hunt. “That’s the kind of drama they depend on,” he said.


Huge gold shipment arrives from U.S.; few Americans living in Tokyo; stowaways return; town eats crow to solve bird woes

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Wednesday, NOV. 22 1916 Massive gold shipment arrives from Seattle When the Nippon Yusen Kaisha liner Sado Mura arrived at Yokohama early yesterday morning and was snugly berthed at the Customs Quay, consignees felt relieved. The vessel arrived from Seattle with a large consignment of gold from the United States. The amount of specie is variously estimated from $2 million to $3.6 million. Half the money is consigned to the Yokohama Specie Bank and half to the Mitsui Ginko, but in the first place the entire amount will find its way into the coffers of the Bank of Japan. This is the largest shipment of gold coins that has ever been made to Japan. On Oct. 31 last year, the Yokohama Mura brought ¥2,500,000 in Uncle Sam’s “gold boys.” 75 YEARS AGO Friday Nov. 7, 1941 Few Americans living in Tokyo after U.S. alert American residents in Tokyo number 200 now, a record low since 1912 reveals a survey conducted by the Metropolitan Police Board recently. Most of them are school teachers and college professors who are resolved to remain in this country forever even if worse comes to worst between Japan and America. The survey shows that there were 623 Americans here both in 1932 and 655 in 1934. The figure increased to 736 in 1935, and remained on the 700 mark until 1937. In 1938, however, they totaled 851, and jumped to 1,008 the following year. In June, 1940, the figure reached the record in many years of 1,057 despite the strong anti-Japanese attitude that was assumed by their government at the time. The number declined to 913 in December of the same year. The number of Americans visiting Japan continued to increase steadily since the opening of trade between the two countries in the closing years of the Tokugawa Era. All through the Taisho Period (1912-26) American residents in the capital averaged 400. In October 1940, the United States government notified all American nationals in East Asia of the gravity of the international situation and advised them to come home immediately, but only 140 Americans had left this city for America by December of that year. During the first half of this year, Americans disappeared from this city increased as the diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States drifted from bad to worse. At the end of the first half period there were only 533 Americans here, which dropped further to 200 within four months. 50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Nov. 9, 1966 Teenage stowaways return from Honolulu Three young stowaways, who smuggled out of Japan on a Liberian ship last month, returned Tuesday. They arrived aboard the 12,611-ton Sakura Maru of the Mitsui OSK Lines, and immediately were placed under the custody of immigration authorities. The boys, all third-year students of the Ikebukuro Junior High School, were found aboard the 9,644-ton Oriental Jade Oct. 18. They had boarded the ship at Yokohama on Oct. 15 just before it departed for Honolulu and the United States. The minors were put ashore at Honolulu on Oct. 24. They were held by Honolulu immigration authorities and deported to Japan aboard the Sakura Maru, which left Honolulu Oct. 29. Under the immigration law, the stowaways will each be punishable to a prison term of one year or less or fined ¥100,000 or less. The three boys’ parents will be asked by the Mitsui OSK Lines to pay the passage fare from Honolulu to Yokohama amounting to ¥90,000 each. If the parents are not able to pay the fare within three months, the government will put up the amount, which will be repaid in the future. 25 YEARS AGO Sunday Nov. 17, 1991 Town eats crow to solve bird problems Does crispy crow meat tickle your taste buds? If so, a little town in northern Japan may be worth a gastronomic detour. Residents in Kisakata, Akita Prefecture, have long been plagued by crows, which damage local soybean and rice crops to the tune of about ¥1 million a year. Three years ago they started capturing and killing the birds, sometimes as many as 200 a month. Then the canny countrymen got to thinking about how to make a profit out of them. And so it came to pass that one evening recently, 11 residents got together for a taste test. Faced with a selection of finely sliced fried beef, pork, lamb and crow meat, only four of the 11 could identify the crow, Shigeo Furuta, head of Kisakata’s Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Division, said Friday. So far so good. The problem now is whether the town can convince its residents, and maybe the rest of Japan, to eat lean healthy crow meat — and somehow avoid the distinctive smell. “I myself have eaten crow for a long time now. It was so-so,” Furuta said. “The next step is to see if we can sell crow meat. It would sell best roasted on skewers, I think.” “The first time I heard the story I couldn’t believe it, said professor Shinichi Hayama at Nippon Veterinary and Animal Science University. “I never heard of anyone eating crow meat.” Crows aren’t the only pests causing headaches for the nation’s farmers. Faced with a fast-growing deer population ravaging crops and pastures, a group of farmers said recently they are weighing the merits of venison burgers and sausages.

gold
birds
pests
crows
foreign residents
stowaways


Haute cuisine? Santa serves up sleigh-borne dinner in the sky

Abstract: BRUSSELS - Not waiting at home for Santa Claus, gourmets in Brussels are flying off aboard his sleigh to dine with him above the city’s rooftops and twinkling Christmas lights. Santa in the Sky is a novel twist on the Belgian capital’s Dinner in the Sky venture, where diners and the chefs cooking for them are lifted high in the air on an open platform suspended from a construction crane. This weekend on the city’s chic Sablon square shopping district, a bell-ringing Santa Claus is welcoming people aboard the “restaurant” fitted out as a sleigh decked with lights and drawn through the air by four theater-prop reindeer. Diners, who sit strapped to chairs to eat at a bar running round the open kitchen, can pay up to €250 ($265) for a gastronomic four-course supper with wine, or go for options starting at €55 for tea — of course, it’s “high tea.” Free to marvel at Brussels’ Flemish Renaissance grandeur and medieval churches, customers can savor haute cuisine from distinguished chefs, some with Michelin stars to their name. On Friday evening, Maxime Mazier’s menu included a lobster and artichoke starter, line-caught sea bass with shellfish and coconut marshmallow with mango. The trick, he said, was coping with the gusts of winter night air that whip around the sleigh. “It’s not that warm,” he said. “Just as you’re serving, if the wind gets up, for the fish, which has to be served just right, it’s the timing that’s important.” Michael Chiche, who helps run the Brussels-based firm that over the past 10 years has brought the sky-dining experience to 58 countries, said he was confident the four-day Christmas event that was to wrap up Sunday, would be repeated next year. “To be in the air, first, it’s the view,” he said. “Secondly, you’re blocked. It means that you are with your guests, you are with the chef and all the flavors, everything, you’re going to experience it completely differently.” Helene Ziegler, 19, an art history student, said it had been worth a moment of panic: “As we were on the way up, I got a bit scared. It was moving. But once on top, it became very quiet. “It’s great to see the entire city. The food is very good. The chefs prepare it in front of us. It’s wonderful.” The evening, she said, was a gift to her and her sister from their father — though he found a convenient excuse not to join them 35 metres (100 feet) above the cold cobbles of the Sablon.

restaurants christmas holidays belgium stunts


Fukushima aftershock renews public concern about restarting Kansai's aging nuclear reactors

Abstract: KYOTO - The magnitude-7.4 aftershock that rocked Fukushima Prefecture and its vicinity last week, more than five years after the mega-quake and tsunami of March 2011, triggered fresh nuclear concerns in the Kansai region, which hosts Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Mihama plant in Fukui Prefecture. The aftershock came as the Nuclear Regulation Authority approved a two-decade extension for Mihama’s No. 3 reactor on Nov. 16, allowing it and two others that have already been approved to run for as long as 60 years to provide electricity to the Kansai region. Residents need to live with the fact that they are close to the Fukui reactors, which are at least 40 years old. Despite reassurances by Kepco, its operator, and the nuclear watchdog, worries remain over what would happen if an earthquake similar to the one in 2011, or even last week, hit the Kansai region. Kyoto lies about 60 km and Osaka about 110 km from the old Fukui plants. Lake Biwa, which provides water to about 13 million people, is less than 60 km away. In addition to Kepco’s 40-year-old Mihama No. 3, reactors 1 and 2 at the Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui are 42 and 41 years old, respectively. In the event of an accident, evacuation procedures for about 253,000 residents of Fukui, Shiga, and Kyoto prefectures who are within 30 km of the plants would go into effect. But how effective might they be? The majority does not live in Fukui. Just over half, or 128,500, live in neighboring Kyoto, especially in and around the port city of Maizuru, home to a Self-Defense Forces base. Another 67,000 live in four towns in Fukui and about 58,000 live in northern Shiga Prefecture. Plans call for Fukui and Kyoto prefecture residents to evacuate to 29 cities and 12 towns in Hyogo Prefecture and, if facilities there are overwhelmed, to Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku. Those in Shiga are supposed to evacuate to cities and towns in Osaka Prefecture. In a scenario put together by Kyoto Prefecture three years ago, it was predicted that tens of thousands of people would take to available roads in the event of an nuclear accident. A 100 percent evacuation of everyone within 30 km of a stricken Fukui plant was estimated to take between 15 and 29 hours, depending on how much damage there was to the transportation infrastructure. But Kansai-based anti-nuclear activists have criticized local evacuation plans as being unrealistic for several reasons. First, they note that the region around the plants gets a lot of snow in the winter, which could render roads, even if still intact after a quake or other disaster, much more difficult to navigate, slowing evacuations even further. Second is the radiation screening process that has been announced in official local plans drawn up by Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures. While automobiles would be stopped at various checkpoints along the roads leading out of Fukui and given radiation tests, those inside would not be tested if the vehicle itself has radiation levels below the standard. If the radiation is above standard, one person, a “representative” of everyone in the car, would be checked and, if approved, the car would be allowed to continue on its way under the assumption that the others had also been exposed to levels below standard. This policy stands even if those levels might be more dangerous to children than adults. Finally, there is the question of whether bus drivers would cooperate by going in and out of radioactive zones to help those who lack quick access to a car, especially senior citizens in need of assistance. None of the concerns about the evacuation plans is new, and most have been pointed out by safety experts, medical professionals and anti-nuclear groups. But with the NRA having approved restarts for three Kansai-area reactors that are over 40 years old, Kansai leaders are responding more cautiously to efforts to restart Mihama No. 3 in particular. “It is absolutely crucial that local understanding for Mihama’s restart be obtained,” said pro-nuclear Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa in July, after a local newspaper survey showed that only about 37 percent of Fukui residents agree with the decision to restart old reactors. Shiga Gov. Taizo Mikazuki, who is generally against nuclear power, was even more critical of the NRA’s decision to restart Mihama. “There are major doubts about the law that regulates the use of nuclear reactors more than 40 years old. The central government and Kepco need to explain safety countermeasures to residents who are uneasy. People are extremely uneasy about continuing to run old reactors,” the governor said earlier this month.

nra
evacuation
safety
fukui
mihama nuclear power plant


Kansai firms more concerned with Asian markets than Trump's TPP pullout

Abstract: OSAKA - For Kansai business leaders, Asia, particularly East Asia, has long been far more important economically than the United States. So it was understandable when they reacted coolly to Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, with some suggesting it was time to start entertaining the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement without the U.S. Yet while senior executives at major corporations who stand to hugely benefit from the trade deal are unhappy, most small and midsize firms who either do business domestically or primarily in non-American markets, remain ambivalent. Many say they expect Trump’s election to have little, if any, impact on the Kansai region, at least in the short term. Still, at a news conference earlier this month, the Osaka branch manager of the Bank of Japan, Atsushi Miyanoya, sounded hopeful, saying that Trump as U.S. president could be a plus for Japan because of his promise to rebuild America’s infrastructure and reduce taxes. “If the U.S. economy is revitalized, this will lead to a positive effect on those Kansai firms that export to the U.S. or have production facilities there,” Miyanoya said. In the immediate aftermath of the election, Kansai’s top business leaders all expressed concern over Trump’s fierce opposition to the TPP. He even said last week that he would cancel it on his first day in office. “Trump should aim for economic development under open markets by participating in the TPP and revise his closed economic policy,” said Hiroyuki Suzuki, head of the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives (Kansai Keizai Doyukai), in a statement after the election. But a week later, when it became clear TPP would not be voted on by the U.S. Congress due to Trump’s victory and opposition in both the Republican and Democratic parties over its final wording, Suzuki suggested it was time to pursue the TPP without its leader. “First, let’s discuss an agreement without the U.S. It’s fine if they want to join later,” Suzuki told the Kansai Press Club on Nov. 16. Trump announced last week the U.S. would withdraw from the TPP when he assumes office. Trump’s victory comes at a time when exports from the Kansai region to the U.S. are down nearly 13 percent over the past year, according to data released by the trade ministry’s regional bureau last week. But smaller firms that deal with either the domestic market or other markets in Asia were more concerned with economic conditions closer to home. “Those in the local retail and service industries in particular are probably more worried about an economic downturn in, or political problems with, Asian countries that could mean fewer tourists coming to Kansai,” said Tatsuya Uchida, who works for a tour company in Osaka.

osaka
tpp
donald trump
2016 u.s. presidential election


Half a million societal drop-outs drag on Abe's economic dreams

Abstract: Nagisa Hirai was an active child who loved playing soccer with the boys. But that early happiness dissipated on her first day at elementary school when she became frightened after being unable to find her classroom. Over time, she became a hikikomori , a Japanese term used to describe the more than half a million young people in the country who stay at home and shun interaction with people outside their family. She would suffer anxiety attacks over anything unfamiliar — even forgetting stuff for school could cause her to panic. She became increasingly uncomfortable going to school, pushing her strict parents to force her to attend. The 30-year-old now says she’s recovering, but there are still days when she can’t drag herself out of bed for her part-time job at a university. While the hikikomori issue isn’t new, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s now plans to mobilize them as part of a broader drive to bolster the aging workforce. The prime minister has vowed to stop the population from falling below 100 million from the current 127 million, and have all members of society make an active contribution to the world’s third-biggest economy. There is no single cause for the phenomenon. Hikikomori can stem from factors such bullying at school or work, or pressure from parents or other family members to succeed in entrance examinations or job interviews. In Hirai’s case, she was both scared of people and felt bad about not being able to go to school. She became anorexic during her time at a part-time high school as she struggled to find a solution — her weight dropping to around 30 kg (66 pounds). “I could suppress my emotions by restraining my appetite,” Hirai says. While it allowed her to go out and meet people, she was never able to attend classes and dropped out when her classmates graduated. Hirai received support from Shure University, a nonprofit that provides pressure-free space for people like her that want to continue their education. She’s now been living by herself for nearly 10 years and says that although she’s getting better she still gets tense around some people. “I’m afraid of shutting myself off again from society,” she says of her career plans. “What’s more important to me is the kind of people I’m with rather than what I want to do. My parents are already old and I’m only a junior high school graduate. I’m always anxious about how I can live my life.” Kageki Asakura, a member of the Shure University, says a lack of self respect is a reason why many people become hikikomori. Negative perceptions toward those who drop out of society make the situation worse, he says. In a government survey published in 2014 of young people in seven countries including Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, Japanese were ranked lowest in terms of self satisfaction. Only 7.5 percent said they were content. About 541,000 people aged between 15 and 39 — or 1.6 percent of the population in that age group — were estimated to be hikikomori in a Cabinet Office report published in September. The government defines them as people who have stayed at home and avoided interaction with nonfamily members for at least six months. As society ages, hikikomori are also getting older. About 53 percent of them in Shimane Prefecture were aged 40 or older, with the figure at 44 percent in Yamagata Prefecture. This in turn raises questions about how the older dropouts will support themselves when their aging parents die. Appropriate policies such as financial assistance and counseling could help transform hikikomori into members of the labor force, says Eriko Ito, a consultant at Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo. This would boost overall economic output as well as help reduce spending on social welfare. “We should change our thinking about supporting then,” Ito says. “It’s an investment, not a cost.” Each welfare recipient turned into a taxpayer would add between ¥78 million ($702,000) and ¥98 million to the nation’s finances over their lifetime, according to calculations based on the latest available data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The government’s plan is to support hikikomori and other young people with difficulties by making them more “independent.” It has set up counseling centers nationwide, and has support workers visiting those reluctant to leave home. But reaching out may prove tricky. More than 65 percent of the hikikomori surveyed said they weren’t keen on these services as they were concerned about not being able to communicate or reluctant to have other people notice them. “Abe’s labor policy is putting pressure on hikikomori,” the NPO’s Asakura says. “Abe wants them to be great and achieve great results. Why can’t they just pursue happiness instead?”

shinzo abe
depopulation
workforce
nagisa hirai


Aska arrested for alleged stimulant use during parole

Abstract: Pop singer-songwriter Aska was arrested Monday for allegedly using illegal stimulants, which would violate the parole terms of his suspended 2014 prison sentence. The 58-year-old Aska, whose real name is Shigeaki Miyazaki, had posted a number of comments on his blog on Monday afternoon before he was arrested, saying media reports on his looming arrest were wrong and that he was very surprised by them. His fans had mixed reactions to the denials. Some fans wrote, “That is a lie, isn’t it?” and “We believe in you,” while another wrote, “You betrayed us again.” Miyazaki called the police at around 7 p.m. Friday and was incoherent when officers arrived at his house in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward, the police said . He was with his wife when they arrived, and asked the officers to check whether he was being secretly monitored. The singer then voluntarily submitted a urine sample that tested positive for stimulants, the police said. The police allege that Miyazaki abused methamphetamines in Tokyo or a surrounding area between the middle of this month and Friday. In September 2014, Aska received a three-year prison sentence, suspended for four years, for drug possession and use after being arrested in May that year.


Slew of redevelopment projects give Ginza a face-lift

Abstract: Tokyo’s Ginza district has established itself as Japan’s shopping mecca, drawing in people from all over the world. Yet the bustling area is further evolving, with several major redevelopment projects taking place this year and beyond. But how exactly is Ginza being transformed? In this week’s FYI, we look at Ginza’s redevelopment projects. What projects were recently completed and what is coming up? Two major shopping complexes have opened in Ginza this year. Tokyu Land Corp. opened the Tokyu Plaza shopping facility with 125 shops in March, while Sapporo Breweries unveiled its Ginza Place complex, which has a Nissan Motor Corp. showroom and official store in September. Next April, the Ginza Six mall will debut where the Matsuzakaya department store, which was Ginza’s oldest emporium, formerly stood. The 147,900-sq.-meter shopping facility will be the biggest of its kind in Ginza, featuring 241 stores, a rooftop garden and traditional noh performance theater. The Sony Building, another landmark of Ginza, will be demolished next year, with the site to become a temporary park. Sony eventually plans to open a new building on the site, sometime around 2022. Major newspaper company Asahi Shimbun Co. also plans to open a 12-story building that will house the Hyatt Centric Hotel in 2018. Why are the redevelopments happening now? While some big projects have been in the planning for up to a decade, aging structures are one major factor for the flurry of development, said Eriko Takezawa, secretary-general of Ginza Machidukuri Council, which consists of dozens of store representatives and discusses the district’s development. She said many buildings in Ginza date back to the 1960s, so they need to be rebuilt, especially to improve their earthquake resistance. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics and rapidly increasing numbers of international visitors may be stimulating investment in Ginza as well, Takezawa said. Are there any similarities in the new redevelopment projects? Some of the new shopping complex designs are quite new to Ginza. While Ginza is famous for traditional department stores, such as Mitsukoshi and Matsuya, as well as fast fashion brands like Uniqlo and luxury overseas brands, it did not have a huge modern shopping mall. The new Tokyu Plaza building boasts a modern exterior and interior design, while the under-construction Ginza Six has a similar concept. “People from various generations have different needs for where they want to go and how they want to spend time,” so Ginza welcomes these new shopping malls since they can attract new customers, said Keisuke Okamoto, an executive of the Ginza Machidukuri Council. Launching something new is important for developers to pull more shoppers back from online stores, as well as to appeal to the growing ranks of overseas travelers. “We think now is the time for Ginza to meet the changing environment and evolve. We want to be a front-runner in global trends and attract people from around the world by providing new types of commercial complexes,” Ginza Six Retail Management, which is overseeing the Ginza Six project, said. Another characteristic of the new projects is that they involve players not traditionally involved with the district. For example, Mori Building Co., which is involved with the Ginza Six project, may be best known as the developer around the Roppongi district, including the Roppongi Hills complex. Tokyu group’s home territory, meanwhile, is Shibuya. Okamoto said that unlike other areas of Tokyo where major builders lead urban development projects, Ginza has many stakeholders involved in small to large shopping projects, making its diversity one of the district’s strengths. Does Ginza have special rules that developers must follow? Okamoto said his council asks new developers to respect the district’s harmony. Initially, the Ginza Six shopping complex was planned to be a nearly 200-meter-tall skyscraper, but the idea was not welcomed by other merchants in the area. “It would be awkward” to have such a high-rise building in Ginza, said Okamoto, adding that Ginza values the ginbura concept, in which shoppers can walk around the district and visit a variety of stores. Existing stores worried that if such a tall complex was built, visitors would be tempted to stay there and not experience other options on offer, he said. As a result, Ginza Six followed the local guidelines of keeping the building’s height to 66 meters or less. What does Ginza want to improve? Although Ginza’s image as a shopping district is already well-established, Okamoto said there is still a lot more to do to improve the district. “We are hoping to do something with traffic to make it safer for pedestrians,” since the area has many narrow streets open to cars, he said. While the Ginza Six building will have office space to accommodate 3,000 workers, Okamoto said Ginza overall still lacks office space. If more companies come to Ginza, it would further stimulate shopping demand, he said. Ginza Six Retail Management also pointed out that more offices will improve the Ginza brand. “By actively inviting international major companies, Ginza could add more value to its brand as an area for creative workers, on top of its cultural and commercial value,” the company said.

tourism
property
real estate
ginza
ginza six
hyatt centric hotel
tokyu plaza


Pheasant-elect: Bird with Trump's quiff draws crowds in China

Abstract: HANGZHOU, CHINA - A pheasant has become a star attraction at a Chinese safari park after visitors said its golden head feathers resembled U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s famous blond quiff. A picture of a 5-year-old golden pheasant called “Little Red” went viral this week after a journalist from the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou pointed out the “striking similarity” between the male bird and Trump, China’s ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily reported. The resemblance doesn’t stop at the feathers, said Gao Hongqiang, the park’s head bird feeder. “After comparing it with the photos … we’ve found that not only are their hairstyles alike, their eyes’ expressions are pretty similar,” Gao said. Visitors at the park said they saw the similarity. “I think this pheasant is very beautiful and Trump’s hairstyle in the U.S. presidential election sprang to mind when I first saw the bird,” Jin Huofeng, 34, said. “I was wondering whether Trump’s hairstylists got inspired by the golden pheasant.”

animals
elections
republicans
offbeat
donald trump
2016 u.s. presidential election


Don't rule out a Trump-style revolt against Tokyo

Abstract: The shock of Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election has people both in that country and overseas trying to figure out what happened. Plenty of praise — and blame — is being directed at individuals in both the Republican and Democratic campaigns, as experts point to a host of social and economic trends inside the United States as the factors for Trump’s triumph — or Hillary Clinton’s loss. Like most of the world, Japan’s political, corporate and media establishments were totally unprepared for Trump’s win. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made sure to grab a photo with Clinton on his trip to New York before the election. But Abe and his advisers spent too much time listening to all of those in Japanese government, business and media circles who, after consulting their American sources (who were more often than not wealthy residents of New York or Washington, D.C.) assured them there was no need for a photo op with Trump. He wouldn’t win, so why bother meeting him? There is one influential figure in Japan, however, whose instincts seemed to be far better than Abe’s: former Osaka Mayor, Gov. and Osaka Ishin no Kai co-leader Toru Hashimoto. Throughout the presidential campaign, Hashimoto repeatedly tried to explain, and sometimes defend, Trump’s policies and his message of change via social media and on various TV programs. Trump’s calculated populist appeal was something Hashimoto, himself a calculating populist, understood well. Birds of a feather and all that. Prior to the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote in June, Hashimoto traveled to London for a TV program to report what was going on. In the days before the U.S. election, he spoke to a number of Americans about their votes and the Republican candidate’s inflammatory rhetoric. The responses he got from those he interviewed were often more candid than the watered-down exchanges that appeared on mainstream TV news. While it looked like he was enjoying the drama and public spectacle of American politics, it was also clear Hashimoto recognized among Trump supporters the same kind of emotions, hopes and prejudices that many of his supporters in Osaka had expressed. Those who back Hashimoto and the Nippon Ishin movement have no love for the bureaucrats and politicians in Tokyo, and the centralized power they enjoy. They feel like the government no longer works for them, that they’re disdained and ignored by Tokyo. Sound familiar? Trump supporters have voiced a visceral hatred for those same figures in Washington, D.C. They feel like they are the “forgotten men and women” of America (a term Trump used in his victory speech), disregarded by elites who label them “deplorable” (a word Clinton used in one regrettable campaign speech). In New York last week, Abe and Trump spoke about maintaining trust in the U.S.-Japan relationship, and Abe said he had “great confidence” in the president-elect. But one gets the impression that, if they were to ever meet, Trump may prefer the company of Hashimoto. Trump admires toughness and plain-speaking, and may quickly grow bored and irritated with the way Japan’s politicians operate. If he were to find a soul mate in Hashimoto — two giant egos who never met a television camera they didn’t love, and like to think of themselves as brash populists who can get things done — the Osakan might find himself asked by somebody connected to Abe to serve as a liaison between Trump and the Prime Minister’s Office. That carries its own risks, of course. It assumes Hashimoto would accept such a role (which is uncertain), and that he could be an effective liaison (which is even more uncertain). The last thing anybody in the LDP or those who deal with U.S.-Japan relations wants is for Hashimoto to go on TV and veer from whatever carefully scripted talking points he was supposed to say about either leader. There are currently many unknowns about the future of the bilateral relationship. And some sort of a Hashimoto-Trump alliance, however unlikely and frightening it might appear, no longer seems impossible in these unlikely, and frightening, times.


Manipulating the brain to hasten learning

Abstract: For some athletes, success has come from a dedication to practice and the repetition of a particular routine. Baseball icon Ichiro Suzuki or English soccer star David Beckham are two examples that immediately spring to mind. Ichiro, for example, recalls hitting around 500 pitches per day as a child practicing with his father. These days, his daily routine includes weight training to maintain strength and flexibility. Beckham, meanwhile, says he must have practiced taking tens of thousands of free kicks as a child. Author Malcom Gladwell popularized the idea that a person can perfect a technique if they practice a particular task for 10,000 hours. Others, however, argue that such practice needs to be concentrated on a particular task in order to improve. What’s more, they say, 10,000 hours is the average amount of time that people spend perfecting a technique. University of Tokyo neuroscientist Daichi Nozaki has been attempting to discover how the brain learns new skills. His research shows that “motor memories” — also called “muscle memories” — are associated with specific skills and formed according to the state of the brain at the time of learning. Nozaki can also show that such muscle memories can be manipulated. “I guess the reason why a lot of athletes try to perform a routine is to put the brain into a particular state,” Nozaki says. His latest work could point to a method of training motor skills by manipulating the brain state and, therefore, improving performance. Motor memories are almost impossible for the human body to forget. Riding a bicycle is the most obvious example of this at work — but once you’ve learned how to ride a bike, you never forget. The other kind of memories — details such as people’s names, historical events or even the facts in this story — are called “episodic memories.” They can be emotionally important to us, but are ultimately forgettable. It wasn’t so long ago that we didn’t know there was a difference in the brain between these two kinds of memory. The breakthrough was made in 1962 when a Canadian psychologist from McGill University in Montreal published one of the 20th century’s most important papers on the human brain. Brenda Milner had been working with a man called Henry Molaison, known in the scientific literature as “patient HM.” Molaison suffered from severe epilepsy and, as a last-resort, a surgeon removed part of the temporal lobe of Molaison’s brain in 1953. The epilepsy disappeared, but so did Henry’s ability to form new memories. Each day, he said, “was like waking from a dream … every day is alone in itself.” Milner had Molaison draw a line between two outlines of a star while watching his hand and the page in a mirror. She had him do this several times over different days but since he couldn’t form any new memories, he had no memory of being asked to do this test. Molaison wasn’t consciously aware of having performed the drawing task for Milner, but his ability at completing the task improved each time. His body was learning and he was acquiring some kind of muscle memory. Milner concluded that muscle memory could be formed independently from a person’s regular memory. Molaison had lost the ability to store specific details, but the part of his brain where muscle memory was kept remained intact. Nozaki hypothesized that if the state of the brain varies according to the specific motor skills being learned, then different motor memories would be created. To test this, he used a technique called tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation), in which electrodes are placed on the scalp and a mild current is passed through the brain that triggers muscle movement. I’ve experienced this myself and it’s an odd sensation. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s strange to feel your brain do something you didn’t authorize. The tDCS was used to create two different brain states. Volunteers in Nozaki’s lab performed a movement-based task while a different stimulation was applied to the brain. It was a simple task: They had to push a lever forward while simultaneously applying a left- or right-side force to the handle. Once they had learned the task, the volunteers performed it again without interference, but re-created the same brain state using tDCS. The test subjects moved the lever in a direction to counteract the force they experienced during their training, even if no actual force was being applied. This indicates that they were automatically recalling the motor memory linked to that brain state. Nozaki’s work shows that motor memories are “tagged” to specific episodes. Performing a motor-learning task under different brain states could make motor memory stronger, he says. “The technique cannot be used to create motor memory itself,” he says. “However, it can be used to make the memory more reliable or robust.” Nozaki’s team is now examining this question, testing, among other things, whether applying tDCS and learning during sleep enhances motor memories. Practicing while asleep? That’s great news for those of us who don’t have the dedication to practice as often as either Ichiro or Beckham.


Is Japanese pop music losing its relevance?

Abstract: Shukan Bunshun recently ran some articles describing how last year the talent management company LDH allegedly paid entertainment behemoth Burning Productions to ensure that one of LDH’s acts would win the top prize at the 2015 Japan Record Awards (JRA). Accompanying one of the articles was a photo of an invoice on Burning stationery showing that LDH owed it ¥108 million for “end-of-year business promotion expenses.” LDH manages the all-male R&B collective Exile and its side projects, one of which, Sandaime J Soul Brothers, was the subject of LDH’s under-the-radar largesse and won the JRA last year. They also won it the year before, and their senpai (senior) group, Exile, won it in 2008, 2010 and 2013. Though Burning does not run the JRA — that’s done by the Japan Composers Association (JCA) — it plays a central role, in selecting the winners along with two other major entertainment companies: Avex Holdings, which owns Avex Records; and TBS, the television network that sponsors and broadcasts the JRA ceremony. The jury is made up of employees of these three companies, as well as journalists and industry insiders. Following its investigation, Bunshun contacted the related organizations. Gendai Kano, the 78-year-old chairman of JCA, apologized and told the magazine the payment was “unacceptable” without admitting that it actually occurred. Ryotaro Konishi, the chairman of the jury and a former executive of tabloid Sports Nippon, said he would have to “scrutinize what really happened.” The TBS producer in charge of JRA, Yoji Ochiai, said his company had nothing to do with the award selection, only the broadcast, but there were seven TBS staff on the jury. This confluence of denial in the face of arguably strong evidence would normally spark its own media circus, but as entertainment writer Takashi Odajima wrote in a Nov. 4 blog post for Nikkei Business Online , there has been no secondary coverage of the scandal. Odajima explains that rumors of JRA bribery have been circulating for years, “but this was the first time a related article was published with evidence, and I expected a lot of noise.” In the end, Bunshun’s bombshell “turned out to be a dud,” says Odajima. TV ignored the story completely. Odajima says that’s because broadcasters are beholden to a handful of “dons” who head the country’s major talent agencies and control which stars are available for TV appearances. What perplexes Odajima is that this corporate dynamic remains unchanged as the JRA declines in significance. Since the 1990s, an increasing number of popular artists have shown less interest in the award, and every year “the ceremony itself becomes increasingly insular, more irrelevant to viewers.” He predicts the award will not last “10 more years, after all the dons are dead.” Odajima hears the organizers are “struggling” just to find a winner this year, partly due to the scandal but also because one of the unmentioned conditions for receiving the award is that the recipient show up at the ceremony, which is broadcast live. That’s why it was moved a decade ago from Dec. 31 to Dec. 30. Formerly, the JRA acted as a prelude to NHK’s much more prestigious New Year’s Eve song contest, “Kohaku Uta Gassen,” but when NHK started airing the show an hour earlier, it overlapped with the JRA, and traditionally the victors at JRA also appeared on “Kohaku.” Consequently, JRA winners opted to forego the ceremony to sing on NHK. Also, some best-selling artists are disinclined to appear on TV at all. Three of the biggest songs this year have been by Hikaru Utada, Namie Amuro and Radwimps, none of whom have shown much interest in TV lately, so they probably won’t make the JRA’s shortlist. The JRA was launched in 1959 as the Japanese answer to the Grammys and used sales as the main selection criterion. Ratings peaked in 1977 at 51 percent, but by 2005 audience share had dropped to 10 percent. It rose a little after the live broadcast moved to Dec. 30, but last year it was still only 13 percent. Music consumption in Japan has become atomized. There is no national consensus on the year’s “best song” as there was when everyone watched the same TV shows and adored the same singing stars. The late songwriter Eiichi Otaki once told the Asahi Shimbun that in the golden age of pop “certain songs really represented entire years to the Japanese public.” Those days are long gone. According to web magazine Litera , Burning has exploited its considerable power to dominate the JRA since the early 1990s, when the award was no longer a big deal to the public and had merely become a promotional tool. At that time, TV was still the main means for selling records, and every TV network had its own music publishing subsidiary. As advertising dried up, TV stations relied more on publishing for revenue. They have been known to give money to record companies to cover the high costs of recording and promoting their artists in exchange for rights to those artists’ songs, which they would then use on their programs. The songs became hits due to TV exposure and, in turn, generated more money through ancillary products such as ringtones and karaoke tracks. The TV stations would share in the profits. Burning and Avex are major beneficiaries of this system, since Avex controls many top artists and Burning has the nation’s best PR resources. In addition, both companies administer the song rights of their charges, such as top ’90s dance music producer Tetsuya Komuro, who was eventually arrested for fraud because he tried to sell rights he didn’t own. In order to increase sales, LDH sought Burning’s help in winning the JRA. Burning was simply providing a professional service, though one that isn’t known to the general public, since that would demean whatever cachet of prestige the JRA enjoys. At this point perhaps no one genuinely thinks the JRA acknowledges quality — maybe no one ever did — so to most people the LDH payment doesn’t count as a scandal. It’s just business as usual, and as such helps explain why the state of Japanese pop music, not to mention Japanese TV, is as bad as it is.

j-pop
boy band
exile
tetsuya komuro
sandaime j soul brothers
jca


Vileness is a quality more repugnant than evil

Abstract: There is a kind of moral ugliness that, without being quite evil, may be even more repellant than evil because evil — genuine evil — has, sometimes, a certain romantic appeal. You can admire the villain’s strength, or courage, or dash, or reckless defiance of that which we all, sometimes, wish we could defy — the smug, complacent society that bears down on the individual with all its stifling weight and ruthless indifference. More repugnant than evil is a quality aptly named vileness. Individuals who embody its most insidious form are guilty of no crime, are respectable and respected members of society, support their families, work diligently for their employers, are promoted, honored, esteemed — and hateful. Novelist Futabatei Shimei (1864-1909) captures their essence in the opening paragraph of “Ukigumo” (“Drifting Cloud”). Published in 1889, it is considered Japan’s first “modern” novel. “A swirling mass of men,” the narrator observes, “stream out of (Tokyo’s) Kanda gate, marching first in ant-like formation, then scuttling busily off in every direction. Each and every one of these fine gentlemen is primarily interested in getting enough to eat.” The vile character, the vile demeanor, the vile act, are staples of modern literature. Earlier literature shied away from them. “The Tale of Genji,” for example — the world’s first, quite possibly longest, arguably greatest novel, written a millennium ago by court lady Murasaki Shikibu — portrays 430-odd characters, not one of whom is vile. The worst you can say about the worst of them is that they are “insensitive.” They are not poets, they know nothing of the poignant beauty and sadness of things. Too bad for them, and certainly the world would be the better for their absence, but a little laughter at their expense blunts whatever small sting they wield. Murasaki Shikibu, and pre-modern authors in general, preferred to focus on the good in people, idealizing it with little regard for humdrum, unideal reality. When her peaceful, refined, aristocratic era faded in the late 12th century, the warrior society that replaced it, for all its bellicose crudity, inherited that tendency at least, and one of its most famous war tales is of a hard-bitten old soldier shedding tears of remorse over having to kill a beautiful enemy youth — a curious variation, in this most un-Christian time and place, on the Christian injunction to “love your enemy.” Vileness — cringing, unctuous sycophancy to those above in the hope of career advancement; shrill, merciless bullying of those below as a sign that one’s career has advanced — is an unfortunate concomitant of social mobility, of which ancient society knew little. What ancient society did know was absolute fear of absolute power. It hardly brought out the best in people. Historian Donald Keene, in “Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion,” describes a reign of terror under Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori (ruled 1429-41): “(Yoshinori’s) first response to any act that seemed disloyal was an order to kill. When the heads of his enemies were sent to the capital, he personally inspected them. … Although they had been pickled in sake, in the intense heat of the Kyoto summer their features had decomposed … The nobles had little desire to participate in the head inspection or even to get a glimpse of the unspeakably horrible sight, but they hurried to the spot … each trying to be among the first to offer congratulations and fearful of incurring the shogun’s wrath if he arrived late.” In the warrior culture that dominated Japan for 600 years until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, no quality was more esteemed than sincerity — not even loyalty. Saigo Takamori (1828-77) characterized the sincere man as “he who cares nothing about his life, nor about his fame, nor about rank or money.” Only such a man, he said, “will undergo every hardship with his companions in order to carry out great work for the country.” Saigo himself, leader of a high-minded but doomed rebellion against the infant Meiji government, proved his sincerity on the battlefield, ritually disemboweling himself as defeat closed in. The scene Futabatei describes in “Ukigumo” with such loathing would have occurred barely a decade after Saigo’s death. The Meiji Restoration flung Japan headlong out of its traditional culture into modern times. Sincerity and the other samurai virtues had no place here. Among Futabatei’s “swirling mass of men” — bureaucrats at quitting time, heroes of the new age — is young Noboru, whose name defines him — it means “to climb.” He’ll do anything to advance his career — toady, flatter, obey stupid orders, laugh at stupid jokes — anything. Far from being ashamed, he boasts of it, knowing the ambition it reflects will boost his chances with a certain young lady who would make a good match. Saigo personifies the pre-modern spirit, Noboru the modern. Imagine Noboru 20 years later. Futabatei’s successor as a chronicler of (among other things) smiling hatefulness is Shimazaki Toson (1872-1943). His novel “Hakai” (“The Broken Commandment,” 1906) is set in rural, mountainous Shinshu (present-day Nagano Prefecture). A subplot involves a genial little conspiracy by school administrators to get rid of a young teacher whose crime, in their eyes, is his dedication and popularity. They are jealous. Their surgery is successful; the young man is driven out. The children troop into the principal’s office to protest. The principal is the Noboru type grown middle-aged. His education philosophy is: “Rules are rules.” “In recognition of meritorious service,” reads the gold medal he has just won. “Now listen, all of you,” he tells the children. “However much I myself may want to keep Segawa- sensei on” — this after having played the leading role in axing him — “I can do nothing … I understand how you feel. Go home, all of you, and be sure you don’t neglect your studies. The most important thing for you is (to) study” — and grow up to be worthy servants of a new and rising nation, like himself, and like Noboru.

donald keene
murasaki shikibu
evil
futabatei shimei
saigo takamori
vileness


Hand over the keys: getting Japan's elderly drivers off the road

Abstract: On Nov. 12, in the city of Tachikawa in western Tokyo, an 83-year-old female driver — while reaching out her car window to insert a parking ticket into the toll gate machine in a hospital parking lot — accidentally pushed down on the accelerator and lost control of her vehicle. It crossed the road and ran down a man and woman, killing them both. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, four days later Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presided over an emergency conference to discuss accidents by elderly drivers, which were described as an “urgent issue.” There was a time when the elderly made up a preponderant share of Japan’s traffic accident victims . They crossed streets too slowly, veered their bicycles into moving traffic or wore dark clothing that made them hard to see at night, and so on. However, now the number of drivers aged 65 or older is estimated to be more than 17 million, and license holders aged 75 or older doubled from 2.36 million in 2005 to 4.77 million last year. While overall traffic fatalities have been on the decline, the National Police Agency has noted with alarm that, over the previous decade, the proportion of fatalities involving drivers in the latter age group rose from 7.4 to 12.8 percent. One type of accident that seems particularly common among elderly drivers is so-called gyakusou (wrong-way driving), such as mistakenly entering an expressway via an exit ramp and driving into the oncoming traffic. Elderly drivers are said to be responsible for around 70 percent of such mishaps, of which about 200 reportedly occur each year. In one of the more extreme cases, a 77-year-old man on Nov. 20 drove some 20 kilometers in the wrong direction on the Chugoku Expressway. On Nov. 14 a rash of accidents occured: in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, a 77-year-old driver collided head-on with a light truck, killing one; in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, a 72-year-old driver was arrested fleeing the scene after running down a female pedestrian, who remains hospitalized with serious injuries; and in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, an 82-year-old man rammed a local post office building — fortunately no one was hurt. “In principle, if an elderly person causes an accident, he or she is considered responsible,” attorney Hisato Fujiwara is quoted as saying in Friday magazine (Dec. 2). “But should the person involved be suffering from a cognitive disorder such as senile dementia, then the responsibility falls on a family member or appointed guardian. In the event of a fatality, the liability can run from several tens of million yen upwards to ¥100 million,” he adds. “If found guilty of negligent driving resulting in death, a sentence of seven years imprisonment or a shorter sentence plus a fine of up to ¥1 million is possible.” The license issuing authorities have not exactly been standing still. From June 2009 the requirements for elderly drivers were further heightened, requiring a test for cognitive functions (e.g., naming the date, day of week and time; drawing the image of a clock; and a short-term memory test). An English-language example of the Cognitive Impairment Screening Test can be found here: www.npa.go.jp/annai/license_renewal/ninti/index2.htm . The recent spate of accidents has given new impetus to encourage the elderly to voluntarily surrender their licenses. In 2015 some 270,000 did so, but that, however, only amounted to an estimated 2 percent of the total number of license holders in that demographic. For the reasonable outlay of ¥1,000, a person who decides to relinquish his or her license can be issued a nondriver ID card, called unten keireki shomeisho (driving history certificate), which can be utilized as a photo ID. In some localities, showing the card also entitles a bearer to certain services, ranging from senior discounts to taxi vouchers and free delivery of goods purchased at department stores. In the meantime, more ideas to reduce accidents are being proposed. “As the driving capabilities of elderly people can decline rapidly, it might be a good idea to require them to undergo a test every month,” Dr. Kaechang Park, professor at Kochi University of Technology and an authority on the problems of elderly drivers, tells Shukan Taishu magazine (Dec. 5). Park conducted experiments in which elderly subjects underwent MRI brain scans. The findings indicated those involved in accidents had decreased density in their cerebral white matter, a condition known as Leukoaraiosis, six times greater than those who did not. It goes without saying that if everyone above age 65 were to abruptly give up their vehicles, the impact on the economy would be profound. The Japanese Automobile Manufacturers’ Association calculates that at least 8.3 percent of the total Japanese workforce is involved in some aspect of motor vehicle production, sales, servicing or operation. In the short term, more elderly drivers may be persuaded to give up driving if they can be convinced it’s economically practical to use alternative means of transportation. “Due to the characteristics of their locales and their customary practices, some people may feel that driving a car is ‘an absolute necessity,’ ” an unnamed automotive journalist is quoted as saying in Shukan Taishu. “But if they cause an accident, they risk losing everything. And what’s more, if they use what they would otherwise pay for car maintenance and upkeep and ride in taxis instead, there’s a good chance the financial disadvantages would be minimal.” The best option of all might be to just let the cars have their own way: Once models with automated driving functions arrive on the market, they will almost certainly find strong demand among Japan’s elderly.

national police agency
aging society
car accidents
elderly drivers


Hopes of stopping Tokyo 2020 are fading

Abstract: NHK has announced that its yearlong historical drama series for 2019 will be about Japan’s involvement in the Olympic movement, focusing on the nation’s first foray to the games in 1912 and its first time hosting them in 1964. The story will also, according to Kyodo News , cover “events that took place in-between.” It will be interesting to see how the show handles the 1940 Summer Games , which were to be held in Tokyo. The city was announced as the winner in 1936, but by the following year Japan was fighting in China: it forfeited hosting the event in 1938 as the government decided the country’s resources should go toward the war effort. For their part, the games’ organizers in Japan had wanted to celebrate the 2,600th anniversary of the birth of the Imperial line in 1940 and thought the Olympics were the perfect opportunity to promote the celebration internationally and also fortify nationalistic pride to help Japan in its Asian crusade. The government, apparently, felt it could accomplish that mission without the Olympics. That was 76 years ago. At this juncture, it’s useless to point out that encouraging patriotism contradicts the International Olympic Committee’s goal of celebrating individual athletic achievement; every country that participates has always gotten into the jingoistic swing of things, even when they’re not the host. When former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara proposed bringing the Olympics back to Tokyo for 2016, his ostensible reason was similar to that of the 1940 organizers: Japan needed a morale booster. The people behind the 2020 Games are saying they want to revive the spirit that made the 1964 Tokyo Olympics a success. As sociologist Kiyoshi Abe said recently on a TBS radio talk show hosted by former TV Asahi news anchor Hiroshi Kume — who is notorious for his opposition to the Tokyo Games — Abe’s students, born in the mid-1990s, “have no optimism for the future because they were never told that things will get better.” But the Olympics gives them something to look forward to, at least in the short run. Abe contributed to a book of essays whose theme is the cancellation of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It’s a movement that seems quaint at best. He told Kume that it was difficult to find a publisher for the book because “once the matter (of hosting the Olympics) is decided, it’s assumed everyone will work together” to make it the best it can be. Kume responded, “Then, as long as we discuss (canceling the Olympics) in that context, it’s OK, right?” Everybody in the studio laughed. Abe and Kume are not opposed to the games because of its nationalistic bent. They have other reasons — including cost, inconvenience, earthquakes — as do many people who would prefer the event does not take place in Tokyo. But hosting the Olympics is a foregone conclusion. Still, some media haven’t reached that conclusion. In a recent issue, Shukan Gendai says that new Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike has “the authority and the precedent” to stop the games, and might even do so under certain circumstances. The precedent is Denver, which won the right to host the Winter Olympics in 1976, a year that was the centennial of Colorado’s statehood and the bicentennial of America’s founding. Denver’s situation at the time is similar to Tokyo’s now. In order to win the bid, the organizers submitted a plan that emphasized conservation and a streamlined budget, but eventually they realized that the amount of money they proposed was too small, and construction of some venues would necessitate destroying mountains. Once these facts became known to residents, a referendum was called and voters chose to reject the games, which ended up going to Innsbruck, Austria, for the second time. Tokyo’s winning bid was also low. It’s one of the reasons the city won, along with the pledge to keep the games “compact.” The current estimate of “team Koike,” as Gendai calls the people addressing the ongoing budget crisis, is that the Olympics will cost ¥3 trillion — more than three times the bid estimate. The “compact” feature was abandoned as soon as the victory cheers died down. Koike is currently riding a wave of public approval due to her decisive handling of the botched Tsukiji fish market move . The public expects her to cut the Olympic budget by a third, and other interested parties have agreed to meet this target , but in order to do that she must convince various sports associations to hold their events at existing venues outside of Tokyo. Gendai says that even if she wins that battle, she’ll only save about ¥40 billion, which won’t be enough as far as the public is concerned. Right now the media loves Koike because whenever TV news programs cover her, ratings go up, but if she loses in her standoff with the forces of the Olympics, her support numbers will drop. In such a situation, Gendai thinks she could cancel the Olympics, which would shock and humiliate many people but also make her “the most powerful politician in Japan.” As one Tokyo government official told the magazine — likening the situation to that of Americans who supported Donald Trump during the recent presidential campaign — there are many Tokyo citizens who want to see arrogant Olympic stakeholders such as Ishihara and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori “lose face.” By giving up the games, Koike would be gambling with her career, but it’s a risk with enormous potential benefits for her politically. Gendai understands how unlikely this scenario is, but as a magazine whose aim is to be provocative, it purposely ignores the received wisdom that says the Olympics is a foregone conclusion, since that prevents them from saying anything negative about the games at all. In his column for Nikkei Business Online , Takashi Odajima writes that he will no longer say anything against the games because he doesn’t have the stomach to counter the backlash. And the nearer we get to 2020, the harsher that backlash becomes. “Four years from now,” said Kume on his show, “we’ll look back on this time nostalgically, because we could still talk about it.”

tokyo 2020
tokyo metropolitan government
yuriko koike


VR wave to leave Japan awash in business opportunities

Abstract: New technological innovations have a tendency to create new business opportunities, and the latest craze, virtual reality, is no exception. With the debut of cutting-edge VR headsets this year, many firms from video game makers, 360-degree-video distributors , arcade operators and cellphone carriers are gearing up to position themselves ahead of the curve so they can grab their slice of the VR pie. One of the pioneering firms in Japan is Tokyo-based Gree Inc., originally a maker of cellphone games. “When the wave of a platform shift is building, it will be too late to prepare once the wave has come,” said Eiji Araki, a vice president at Gree, which missed the arrival of the smartphone wave in Japan several years ago. Founded in 2004, Gree grew rapidly thanks to the popularity of its social network and gaming platform based on conventional cellphones. But it was slow to enter the market for smartphone apps. “The VR market is still in a very early stage, but we are already preparing to accumulate the know-how,” said Araki, who spearheaded a VR project at Gree in April 2015. The purpose was to showcase its new maze game at the Tokyo Game Show that September. “The reaction from people who tried the game was very positive, with media outlets praising our display,” he said. “The experience made me realize VR could really become a viable business and that we should get on with it.” Gree is making VR games for both smartphones and high-end video game consoles. Among the few finished titles are “Tomb of the Golems,” a game where players explore the ruins of an ancient temple. Since the VR video game market is in its infancy, it will probably take two to three years for game makers to earn sizable profits, Araki said. Gree also sees the potential for using VR in arcades. “It will still take another year or two for the headsets to spread throughout the general public. Until then, facilities that provide VR attractions will be the most likely venues to provide the first opportunity for many to enjoy and experience the new medium,” he said, adding that arcades are perfect for that. Gree is teaming up with Adores Inc., a Tokyo-based arcade operator, to open a Tokyo VR Park in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. Others are jumping on the bandwagon. Capcom Co. is about to launch the latest in its popular “Resident Evil” series, which will be VR-ready, and Square Enix Co., maker of “Final Fantasy,” will release the latest iteration of the series this month that will include a version in VR. According to a report by Goldman Sachs, the VR software market is expected to be worth $45.4 billion by 2025, with 46 percent of the sales coming from video games. VR, however, won’t be limited to gamers. To take advantage of VR’s immersive features, mobile carrier KDDI Corp. launched a live experiment this month to simulate overseas travel using the technology. The carrier dispatched tour guides in Bangkok, London and Sydney who, through the use of 360-degree video cameras, live-streamed their experiences to headset wearers back in Tokyo. The guides walked around various spots while the viewers in Tokyo spoke with them, even asking them to buy things to ship back to Japan. “If we were to choose between being just a communication infrastructure firm or make the best of our infrastructure to provide something valuable, we choose the latter,” said Yoichi Tsukamoto, general manager of KDDI’s digital marketing department. While KDDI has yet to decide if it will actually launch a VR travel service, Tsukamoto said a real-time VR system could become a key communication platform in the future that his company would be in position to take advantage of. VR video, a new medium that provides 360-degree views, is another field that has emerged from the technology. Sony Music Entertainment Inc. announced in August that it had invested in Little Star Media Inc., a U.S.-based 360-degree video platform, with the aim of starting a VR video service in Japan. It did not disclose the size of its investment. Little Star has more than 7,000 360-degree video titles, with many made by ABC News, Disney and National Geographic. Tony Mugavero, founder and CEO of Little Star, said 360-degree videos are already taking off in fields such as journalism and education. The company expects VR content to surge next year and hopes it will be able to run a subscription-based business model in the coming years, Mugavero said. The VR market is a big opportunity for startups, too. But while newcomers in the field are flourishing in the United States, Japanese startups have been so slow to catch on, according to some investors. “This is a problem,” said Yoshihiko Kinoshita, head of Skyland Ventures, a Tokyo-based venture capital firm. “The VR market is only going to grow and it’s really important for startups to enter and compete in the growing market.” Developing VR games requires a know-how and experience, so it may be difficult for startups to just jump in, he said. “There is a clear need for 360-degree or VR video production from now on, and startups might have a better chance in this field,” Kinoshita added.

virtual reality
kddi
capcom
video game
gree inc .


Porn makers want sexual fantasies to become virtual realities

Abstract: In June, hundreds of people thronged a small virtual reality event in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, forcing the organizer to cancel it halfway through. What drew such a big crowd so quickly? A VR-based porn demonstration. “It was unexpected,” said Kento Yoshida, head of the group that organized the event. “But it proved that many people have expectations for VR adult content.” Industry insiders claim that adult VR content may be the key to spreading the technology to the general public, just as it did with videotapes and the internet. They said VR’s potential is huge because it could eventually lead to virtual sex, either with a digital character or a real person in a different location. The technology can also be used to fulfill one’s secret fantasies more easily. While admitting that the erotic possibilities made possible by VR will provoke critics of adult content, they said it will still be meaningful to have a new option for sex. Yoshida, who is also president of Tokyo-based adult video maker VRG, said most people remain unaware of VR’s potential, which is why he held the Akihabara event. “At that time, people didn’t really know what VR was . . . so I thought that adult content would be the most catchy topic to use to get people more familiarized with VR,” he said. The technology opens up a whole new horizon for people with sexual fantasies, he said. For instance, if people harbor a desire for abnormal or illicit sex, fulfilling that desire may be difficult or risky in real life, to say the least. But VR can make it all possible, Yoshida said. It can also help others who are too shy to express their feelings or start a relationship. “VR is the best way to satisfy their sexual needs,” he said. VR headsets allow people to effectively jump into whatever they see, so this kind of immersive experience could lead to virtual sex with digital characters or other people, Yoshida said. But achieving high-quality virtual sex means conquering several technological barriers, including the lack of physical sensation, he said. Other Japanese firms are already cashing in on the trend. The DMM.com Group, which runs a major video streaming and downloading service, started offering VR and 360-degree porn videos on Nov. 10. As of Monday, the website had 146 VR-ready porn titles available for download. They can be viewed by smartphone simply by putting the handsets into VR goggles. Several other firms provide VR porn videos as well. Game maker Illusion, based in Kanagawa Prefecture, is developing a VR title for next year. General Producer Naoyuki Otsuru acknowledges that the adult entertainment industry will help spread VR but fears that the content has been getting a little too much media coverage recently. “There’s a certain degree of adverse reaction to adult content. I’m concerned that it might damage the image of VR,” he said. Illusion plans to release a game called “VR Kanojo” (“VR Girlfriend”) that lets players virtually enter an imaginary girlfriend’s room to have sex. The producers say they are focused on making players feel the girlfriend is really there. Otsuru also said that VR has the potential to expand the human sexual experience but that the content must be tightly controlled. “I’m concerned that when it spreads more widely, it might end up in the hands of those who aren’t supposed to have it, or won’t like to see it,” Otsuru said. In the future, some say we might see people giving up on real-life relationships in favor of virtual romance — a possibility that could emerge as the technology becomes more immersive, which is likely to raise a moral question. “It’s impossible to eliminate adult content forever, so we need to think about how we should use it,” Otsuru said. Yoshida of VRG said the decision on whether to engage in virtual romance or real romance should be left to each individual. “It will give us a new option in our sexual life,” he said. “Getting a new option itself is great.”

games
sex
virtual reality
technology
porn


Clinton tailwind seen as Latinos in large numbers vote early in Florida, Nevada

Abstract: MIAMI - The man answering a volunteer’s knock on the door in the Kendall section of Miami-Dade County on Saturday was emphatic: Not only would he vote but “esperamos que la presidenta gane” — Spanish for “we hope Madam President wins.” Volunteers across Florida made a last-minute push to get voters to the polls this weekend with early voting ending on Sunday ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, pitting Republican Donald Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton, or “la presidenta,” as the man at the door called her. Latino voters like the man in Kendall and elsewhere could have an outsized influence in Tuesday’s election. Early voting data may portend a jump in the number of Hispanic voters this year, especially in the key swing states of Florida and Nevada. Clinton has polled much stronger among Latino voters nationwide, suggesting she would benefit more from a surge in early voting in those two states, voting experts say. Trump has fared poorly in that demographic, having repeatedly angered Hispanics with disparaging comments about their communities. A recent poll conducted by the firms The Tarrance Group and Bendixen and Amandi found that Hispanic registered voters in Florida favor Clinton 60 percent to 30 percent. In Nevada the gap was even wider — 72 percent for Clinton and 19 percent for Trump. In Florida, the Clinton campaign estimates early Latino voting is up 139 percent, or more than twice as much, compared to 2012, according to a field report dated Wednesday. Democratic strategist Steve Schale, a Florida expert, estimated that 170,000 more Hispanics had voted early or by mail as of Wednesday than had voted early or by mail in the entire 2012 election, according to a post on his blog. “And keep in mind, because Hispanic is a self-identifying marker, studies have found that the real Hispanic vote is larger than the registration. So while Hispanics might make up 14.2 percent of the voters who have voted so far, in reality, the number is larger,” he wrote. But the raw data leave a number of questions. Will Latinos keep up the higher turnout rates on Election Day? For which candidate did they vote? Will turnout from Latinos and other minorities make enough of a difference to swing Florida and other states? Trump kicked off his maverick campaign last year by calling many Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, and his relationship with Latinos hardly improved from there. From his calls to build a wall on the border and have Mexico pay for it, to comments that an American-born judge could not do his job because of his Mexican heritage, Trump has consistently had low polling figures with Latinos across the country. Nevada does not note race or ethnicity on its voter registration but other data there suggest Latinos also are turning out in force. For one thing, Clark County has seen a surge in early voting. Between in-person and absentee voting, registered Democrats have now returned over 72,000 more ballots than registered Republicans there. Those figures do not indicate which candidate voters picked, only the party with which the voters are registered. Friday alone saw 57,172 votes in person in Clark County. Photos making the rounds on social media showed especially long lines at a Cardenas market voting site, which stayed open late to accommodate the surge of voters. Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, has a large Latino population — 30.6 percent, compared to 28.1 percent for Nevada as a whole, according to the U.S. Census. Even more Republican votes elsewhere in the state are so far not enough to counterbalance that Democratic lead in Clark County. Overall, the Democrats have cast around 46,000 more ballots in Nevada than Republicans. That’s not an accident, said Artie Blanco, the Nevada state coordinator for the progressive group For Our Future. Her organization and others banded together in a major get-out-the-vote push, especially among voters of color, and the coalition’s data suggest that the effort paid off. Twenty-two percent of Democrats who voted on Friday had a conversation with someone from that progressive coalition at some point after Oct. 15, Blanco said. Among Latino voters on the last three voting days, the coalition had conversations with 14 percent of them after Oct. 15, according to the group’s data. Trump on Saturday hit out at the early voters in Nevada, looking to undermine the state’s results before Election Day. “They didn’t get the kind of vote that they needed to stop us on Tuesday,” Trump said in Reno. “Tuesday is our day in this state.” He said Reno and northern Nevada could “carry us all the way to Washington.” But Blanco said the votes were instead the result of major work to bring out voters, especially people of color and that progressive organizations were not done yet. “We have all these voters that we need to now go back and say, ‘You’ve got one day,'” she said of those who had not yet cast ballots.

hillary clinton
florida
nevada
latinos
donald trump
2016 u.s. presidential election
hispanic voters


From Operation Tomodachi to Hiroshima visit, exiting Obama viewed favorably in Japan

Abstract: On Tuesday, the whole world will be watching as Americans choose their next president. This year’s election has been one of the most bitter and controversial ever, with opinion polls showing that a majority of voters strongly dislike both Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican Party nominee Donald Trump. But while many Americans will also not miss departing President Barack Obama, he will leave office as a fairly popular leader in many parts of the world, including Japan. How do Japanese today generally view Barack Obama? When Obama was elected in 2008, there was great excitement in Japan, especially in the town of Obama, Fukui Prefecture, which shares his name. There, the election was broadcast live and local merchants created T-shirts and other goods emblazoned with the face of their town’s namesake. Despite a number of ups and downs over the past eight years, public opinion polls consistently show Obama remains liked in Japan. A survey of 1,000 Japanese conducted in April and May by the Washington-based Pew Research Center and released last week said 17 percent of the respondents had high confidence in Obama to do the right thing regarding world affairs, and that 61 percent had at least some confidence. Only 2 percent said they had no confidence at all in the president. The Pew poll is conducted annually, and since 2009, between 60 and 85 percent of the respondents have expressed confidence in Obama. His least popular period in Japan, according to the survey, was in spring 2014, when 36 percent of the respondents said they had little or no, if any, confidence he would do the right thing. That was when Sino-Japanese tensions over the disputed Senkaku Islands had many Japanese wondering if the United States would back Japan. Obama visited Tokyo in April 2014 and said for the first time that the U.S. would defend Japan if the isles, long administered by Japan but claimed by Taiwan and China, come under attack. By the spring of 2015, however, the Pew Center found that two-thirds of those surveyed had confidence in Obama and that 29 percent had little or none. While those numbers were not as impressive as when the president first entered office in 2009, when 85 percent of the respondents express confidence in his abilities, it indicates a majority of Japan approves of what he has done regarding U.S.-Japan relations. What is likely to be remembered in Japan as Obama’s most significant accomplishment? Without doubt, it will be his trip to Hiroshima in May, the first ever made to that city by a sitting U.S. president. Japanese media polls held after the visit showed that anywhere between 80 and 90 percent of the public approved of what they saw as a historic moment in Japan’s relations with the U.S. The assistance the U.S. provided during Operation Tomodachi after the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was considered a high point in U.S.-Japan relations under Obama’s presidency, especially in the Tohoku region. What are some of the controversial issues regarding Obama’s legacy in Japan? While the Hiroshima visit was appreciated for its historical value, the fact that Obama did not formally apologize for the atomic bombing disappointed some. In addition, the fact the U.S. continues to deploy nuclear weapons and, along with Japan, voted late last month against the United Nations starting negotiations on a new treaty to ban nuclear weapons angered and disappointed those who have long campaigned against them. In late October, a U.N. General Assembly committee voted to launch negotiations on a new treaty next March to ban atomic weapons, one that would supersede the nearly half-century-old Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Japan was pressured by the U.S. to vote against the proposal. Many Japanese felt that Obama, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for advocating a world without the nuclear weapons, should have worked harder to realize that goal. Another area where Obama raised expectations in parts of Japan but failed to deliver was in trade, via the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. Making the free trade pact a pillar of his Asian policy, it was part of an effort by the U.S. to concentrate more military and commercial power in Asia. Obama has spent the last few years lobbying hard for the TPP and still hopes for its passage by Congress before the end of his term. But with both Clinton and Trump opposed to the agreement, at least in its current form, and with U.S. polls showing that pro-TPP senators are losing to anti-TPP challengers in several key states, the TPP appears unlikely to be completed before Obama leaves office in January, and its future under a new president, and new Congress, is uncertain. Obama will also be remembered for his jerky relationship with Yukio Hatoyama regarding the relocation of U.S. bases in Okinawa. Hatoyama said during the 2009 Lower House election campaign that the operations of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma should be moved off Okinawa. Hatoyama became prime minister after the former Democratic Party of Japan took power. Although he urged Obama to trust him, in the end Hatoyama’s idea went nowhere, prompting an unnamed White House official to describe him as “loopy.” Obama is the third U.S. president to be stymied by the long-stalled Futenma relocation plan. Compared with past presidents, how does Obama fare? While Obama may not have had the kind of personal rapport with prime ministers that Ronald Reagan enjoyed in the 1980s with Yasuhiro Nakasone, or that George W. Bush had with Junichiro Koizumi a decade ago, his efforts to forge a closer military and trade relationship with Japan won him applause from Japan’s leadership. As to his legacy in Japan, that is likely to depend at least partially on who Americans choose on Tuesday to be his successor.

barack obama
hiroshima
elections
hillary clinton
republicans
fukui
democrats
donald trump
2016 u.s. presidential election