Honesty is the best policy for lost property

Abstract: Last month, I withdrew some money — ¥100,000 to be precise — from an ATM near Tokyo’s Shibuya Station. I was on my way to a meeting and was in such a hurry that, while remembering to grab my bank card and receipt, I completely forgot to collect the cash from the machine — 10 crisp ¥10,000 notes. It wasn’t until I was paying for some pancakes after lunch that I realized my wallet was considerably lighter than it should have been and retraced my steps. A telephone operator on the other end of the help line at the ATM informed me that no money had been handed in and advised me to go to the police. I filled out an incident report at the Shibuya Police Box and recalled the sequence of events to an officer, who then made a few futile telephone calls. He handed me a case number and told me not to lose it. At this point, I was resigned to the fact that I’d just lost about $1,000. At 10 a.m. the next day, I received a call from the Shibuya Police Station. “Did you lose anything yesterday?” a voice at the other end of the line asked me. “Yes,” I replied, somewhat surprised. “I did.” “What did you lose?” the officer asked. “One hundred thousand yen in cash,” I replied. “At an ATM.” I went over the sequence of events again at the officer’s request before he said: “Money doesn’t usually have a name attached to it, so do you have anything to prove it’s your cash?” I informed the officer that I had a receipt that showed I had withdrawn ¥100,000 from the ATM at 9:49 a.m. “OK, please come to the station before 5:15 p.m., go to the Accounting Division, ask for me, and bring some identification and your receipt.” I went to the station around noon and after filling out one more piece of paper, they handed me back the cash. “I’d like to leave a reward for the person who handed it in,” I told the officer. The officer replied that the person who found the money declined any claim on a reward and asked to remain anonymous. And that was that. So before I go any further: Dear do-gooder with no name — thanks! People often say how honest Japanese people tend to be and how often lost items are returned (umbrellas, of course, being the only exception — I think we can safely say they’re communal property). I’ve heard stories of shop staff chasing customers who forget to take their change down the street. Mark Karpeles, founder of Mt. Gox Co., once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange until it collapsed in 2014, also marveled at the honesty of many people in Japan. “When I first arrived (in Japan), sometimes I’d absentmindedly leave my laptop on a park bench and I was amazed that it would still be there when I came back. Or people would run after me with the laptop and give it back.” (From a cybersecurity perspective, a CEO who leaves his laptop on a park bench may not in fact be the best guy to handle millions of dollars’ worth of crypto-currency transactions but that’s another story altogether.) So why are Japanese people so good about turning in lost items? According to the Kyoto Police Department, people who find lost items can either return it directly to the owner or take it to the nearest police station. If you wait more than a week before doing either of these things, you lose your right to collect a reward. This encourages people to turn lost items in quickly. Anyone who finds an item of lost property is entitled to three things by law. First, they earn a right to a reward. Moreover, if no one claims the item after three months, the person who hands in an item of lost property becomes its owner (except when mobile phones, credit cards and other items containing personal information are involved). Finally, if for some reason costs were incurred in taking care of the item, the finder is also entitled to be reimbursed. In fact, Article 28 of the Lost Property Act states that a person who has lost an item must pay a reward to the finder of between 5 percent and 20 percent of the value of the object. People who find lost property must request a reward within one month. In my case, I would have gladly paid a reward. There is no penalty for not honoring the legal obligation, but who would be such an ungrateful cad? Some argue that honesty is its own reward, but people who hand in lost property in Japan could potentially receive a little bit extra for their trouble. If you find a wallet on the subway, therefore, be sure to do the right thing — the pay-off is usually worth it.


Japan Times 1942: 'Roosevelt orders aliens to abandon homes'

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Feb. 7 1917 ‘Moshi moshi’ girls in Tokyo to be increased The telephone service was inaugurated in Japan in 1890 and at first the general public little appreciated this convenient medium of communication. Strange to say, there prevailed at that time a queer superstition among people that a man who should have a telephone installed would fall a victim to an epidemic and despite the efforts of the authorities to invite subscribers, it is on record how only 155 persons applied for telephone connections. Time has changed all this, for the number of installed telephones totals some 43,000 now, and the number of applications for connection is far in excess of the number of installations that the authorities can undertake. There are nine exchanges in Tokyo at present where about 2,600 telephone girls are at work, and the number of conversations on the telephone in Tokyo averages some 1 million per day. In this connection it is said that geisha houses make the best use of telephones of all subscribers of the different professions. It is understood that the Department of Communications proposes to start soon the training of telephone operatives at the rate of 230 girls every month for the ensuing year, “as the result of which the number of telephone girls in Tokyo exchanges will be increased to 3,000 within this year. The authorities also plan to considerably increase the number of instruments at work to meet the increasing requirements and altogether ¥180,000 will be spent for the improvement of the telephone system. 75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1942 Roosevelt orders aliens to abandon homes President Franklin Roosevelt’s high-handed action ordering 10,000 aliens residing chiefly in the West Coast of the United States to abandon their homes has deeply shocked Christian circles in Japan, according to Domei. “This is one of the cruelest acts ever inflicted upon a helpless minority and it is one of the most dastardly acts ever carried out by a so-called Christian nation,” Domei said. Pointing out that Roosevelt’s action has brought a vehement protest from his own people, with the American Civil Liberties Union protesting against the executive order as “unprecedented and founded on no specific evidence of need,” Domei maintains that this is definite proof Roosevelt has at last seen fit to disregard all canons of decent humanitarian behavior and has decided to ignore the people’s guaranteed constitutional rights and ruthlessly carry out his policies regardless of protests. Christian quarters here, moreover, pointed out that many of those aliens, who were ordered to move, will lose all means of learning livelihood, while many will lose fruits of honest hard work. 50 YEARS AGO Friday, Feb. 17 1967 Police seek suspect for Tokyo airport bombing A warrant of arrest issued Thursday for Atsushi Aono, 22, charging him with attempted murder in the explosion that injured two man Wednesday evening at Tokyo International Airport terminal. The motive remained a mystery but police believed he had attempted to destroy an All Nippon Airways plane and kill a friend whose seat was booked under Aono’s name. There were no clues as to the whereabouts of Aono who disappeared from the airport shortly before the explosion. The explosion, which occurred in the men’s rest room adjacent to the Sky Room Restaurant shortly after 7 p.m., ripped a hole in the floor, smashed the ceiling, tiled walls and stools and damaged mirrors and the ceiling of the women’s rest room. Investigation revealed that the suspect and his unidentified girlfriend took Honda into the rest room. Aono left the rest room before Honda, leaving his briefcase behind. The blast occurred soon after Aono came out of the rest room, police said. The three appeared in the airport lobby an hour before the explosion and Aono reserved a seat in an All Nippon Airways 8:30 p.m. flight to Osaka after finding that no seats were available for Nagoya. Aono disappeared from the lobby when the blast occurred and the flight left for Osaka without Aono, police said. Police were certain the explosive had been dynamite. Honda told police Aono had asked him to fly to Osaka with the briefcase with the promise that he would be paid ¥200,000 later for the trouble. He said he refused the trip when he was told the briefcase contained a time bomb. It was then that Aono took him to the rest room. 25 YEARS AGO Saturday, Feb. 15, 1992 Four executives seized in Tokyo Sagawa case Four executives were arrested Friday on suspicion of aggravated breach of trust resulting in huge losses for the trucking firm Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin. Sources close to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office identified those arrested as former Tokyo Sagawa President, Hiroyasu Watanabe, 57; a former company director, Jun Saotome, 53; Heiwado Realty President Yasuo Matsuzawa; and Michio Ouchi, a chief accountant of golf course developer Ichihara Kanko Co. Watanabe and Saotome are accused of extending up to ¥500 billion in interest-free and collateral-free loans and loan guarantees to Heiwado and Ichihara Kanko group companies in full knowledge that the money would not be repaid, the sources said. The investigation is also expected to focus on alleged flow of the parcel delivery firm’s money to the underworld and to numerous politicians. Watanabe and Saotome are believed to have been interrogated at the start of the probe, which has involved raids since Thursday on over a dozen locations, including those linked to the Inagawa-kai underworld syndicate. In loans and loan guarantees, about ¥100 billion was allegedly provided to companies affiliated with Susume Ishii, the late head of Inagawa-kai, who allegedly used some of the money on stock speculation and development of golf courses and resorts.

wwii
history
terrorism
phones
franklin roosevelt
internment
japanese-americans
communications
atsushi aono
tokyo sagawa


Art of the drug deal? Seized heroin bore Trump's image

Abstract: BROOKSVILLE, FLORIDA - It might be called the art of the drug deal: Florida authorities seized scores of individually wrapped heroin packets stamped with the image of President Donald Trump. The Tampa Bay Times reports law enforcement officers seized the heroin Jan. 27 in Hernando County. Some of the packets bore the names or likenesses of other notorious figures, such as Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar. Authorities couldn’t explain the markings’ purpose. Dealers often stamp heroin bags with street “brand names.” The bust netted about 5,550 heroin doses altogether. Police arrested 46-year-old Kelvin Scott Johnson on suspicion of heroin trafficking and other charges. His bail is set at $75,000. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said the dealer “made a big mistake” using Trump’s picture.


Japan wins cost cuts from U.S. on F-35 fighter jet package

Abstract: Tokyo has secured cost cuts on support equipment for its next batch of six U.S. F-35 stealth fighter aircraft of around $100 million, according to sources and Japanese budget papers, on top of savings being finalized for all buyers of the high-tech jets. The deal represents a rare case of Tokyo talking down the price of military hardware from its U.S. ally and underscores progress for the Lockheed Martin Corp.-run F-35 program, which has faced criticism for cost overruns and other problems. U.S. President Donald Trump, who called the program as “out of control” in December, said on Monday he had been able to shave some $600 million from the latest U.S. deal to buy about 90 F-35s from Lockheed. But defense analysts and sources downplayed news of the cuts, saying the discount hailed by Trump was in line with what had been flagged by Lockheed for months and would apply to other countries committed to the program. Lockheed and the Pentagon did not directly respond to questions regarding the Japanese deal. A representative for the U.S. Defense Department office that runs the F-35 program said negotiations over the current batch of fighters, known in the industry as the LRIP 10, were continuing. “For every nation that buys an F-35 in LRIP 10, the base price of the F-35 will be the lowest in F-35 history,” Lockheed spokesman Michael Rein said. The price of the F-35 has been dropping with each new batch as Lockheed and the U.S. government ramp up production, helping to lower overall costs. Four sources told Reuters that Japan had further trimmed the price for its latest order, largely on ground support costs such as parts, logistics and technical assistance. “We went through each item in detail and negotiated with the U.S.,” said one of the sources in Japan with knowledge of talks. In a budget request last year, the Defense Ministry pegged the price of the six F-35s at ¥15.7 billion ($136.81 million) each. That had been cut to ¥14.6 billion when the budget was approved in December, in line with the 6 to 7 percent per plane reduction flagged by the Pentagon late last year. The cost of support equipment dropped significantly, to ¥30.9 billion from ¥42.3 billion, according to the publicly available documents. Cost cuts on such deals are typically done by removing some equipment or swapping out expensive components for cheaper ones. Officials from a new Japanese defense procurement agency and Pentagon personnel met several times in Tokyo between August and December before agreeing on the lower price, said one of the sources, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the deal. The total cost for the Japanese deal was just over $1 billion, around 12 percent lower than budgeted in August. The cost to the United States for its latest F-35 contract is expected to be around $9 billion, with the price per plane falling below $100 million. Japan’s higher budgeted per aircraft costs of around $128 million include the engines and additional funds to have 38 of the 42 F-35s it plans to buy assembled in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Japan does not buy the fighters directly from Lockheed but from the U.S. government through its Foreign Military Sales system, which Washington uses to keep tight control on sensitive military equipment. The U.S. government typically charges a 3.8 percent sales fee for those transactions. Until now Japan has rarely questioned the price of equipment purchased from its U.S. ally, making it a lucrative market for the likes of Lockheed, Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Co. Japan is equipping its military with American equipment to help reinforce maritime holdings along the southern edge of the East China Sea where it is locked in a dispute over territory with Beijing. In addition to the F-35s, Japan is buying the Bell Boeing Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk drone. Japan’s splurge on U.S. equipment has put a strain on its finances. In 2016 procurement through the Foreign Military Sales system totaled ¥485.8 billion, compared with ¥117.9 billion three years earlier. Tokyo will begin deploying the first of its stealth fighters around the end of this year.

u.s .
f-35
lockheed martin
japan
mhi
donald trump


Redefining Japan's 'seniors' to older age may free up still agile workforce

Abstract: When do you become a senior citizen? That’s an increasingly important question in Japan, demographically the world’s oldest nation, where the challenge is to keep people healthy and productive as they live longer. The answer should be 75, 10 years older than many people think now, according to two groups of medical experts who specialize in aging. People aged 65-74 ought to be thought of as “pre-old,” the Japan Gerontological Society and the Japan Geriatrics Society said in a report last month. “Old” would be better defined as 75-89, and a special label of “super-old” could be adopted for people 90 and above, they said. While these experts approached the subject chiefly from a medical viewpoint, applying these definitions to the labor force could have profound economic implications, boosting the number of potential workers by more than 10 million. Thanks to better nutrition, health care and sanitation, today’s senior citizens are much fitter than past generations, and labeling them as retirees is a waste, said Yasuyoshi Ouchi, one of the architects of the report. “There are many people who are older than 65 and are healthy and energetic,” said Ouchi, who himself is active at 68. “They are willing to contribute to the society by working, whether paid or unpaid.” A government survey of nearly 4,000 people age 60 and over found that 51 percent didn’t consider themselves senior citizens. Most said that the label should be for people 70 and older. Faced with a shrinking labor force and rising welfare costs, the government is gradually raising the starting age for receiving pension payments from 60 to 65. Ouchi, a medical doctor who is president of Toranomon Hospital in Tokyo, said it wasn’t his intention to provide political cover for delaying pensions. The aim of working longer is to stay active and healthy, and to contain soaring medical costs while lightening the burden on younger generations, he said.


Overworked Japan slowly adopting fixed rest hours to put an end to 'karoshi'

Abstract: Amid intense pressure to reform the country’s work culture, the government and businesses are looking at mandating a “rest” period between the end of one workday and the start of the next. Some companies have begun testing a rest interval system, while the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to subsidize firms that adopt the system starting in April. The following are questions and answers about the concept. What is the interval system? Essentially it is a system whereby workers must take a minimum number of hours rest between when they finish work one day and start back at work the next day. Member nations of the European Union, for example, require that workers have at least 11 hours of rest. Japan currently has no law requiring workers to take a certain number of hours’ rest between shifts. Are many companies using the interval system now? No. According to a survey conducted by Mizuho Information and Research Institute between December 2015 and January 2016, only 2.2 percent of the 1,743 firms canvassed had a fixed-time rest rule. Does the government plan to make it a regulation like the EU? Not at this point. Katsunobu Kato, minister in charge of labor reform, told a Diet session last Friday that Japan “does not have an environment where punitive measures for breaking the rule can be introduced,” citing the low percentage of firms that require fixed hours of rest. But it is encouraging companies to voluntarily pursue the initiative from fiscal 2017, which starts April 1. The health ministry has a ¥2 billion budget to provide subsidies of up to ¥500,000 to small and midsize firms that try out the fixed-time rest rule. According to the ministry’s website, companies looking to apply for the subsidies need to implement at least a nine-hour rest. Why is Japan now pursuing fixed rest hours? Traditionally, Japanese culture had viewed long working hours as virtuous and proof of job dedication. But such views are becoming obsolete. Long working hours have recently drawn intense scrutiny following the high-profile 2015 suicide of Matsuri Takahashi, a 24-year-old first-year worker at advertising giant Dentsu Inc. Last September, the labor standard inspection office in Tokyo recognized her death as karoshi (death by overwork). The death threw the issue of overwork into the public spotlight. “We must correct the culture of working too much through labor reform. By doing that, people can enjoy their lives and we can prevent cases of karoshi,” Prime Minister Abe said on Jan. 30 during a Diet session. What are the views of companies with the interval system? Tokyo-based major mobile phone carrier KDDI Corp. introduced the rule covering some employees in 2012 and expanded it to everyone except managers in 2015. The firm requires employees to take at least eight hours — and ideally 11 — of rest between shifts in order to have a healthy life. The system is among measures meant to change the work mindset of employees, a goal considered “the biggest priority,” said Tatsuo Moteki, payroll manager at KDDI Corp.’s human resources department. “The mindset needs to shift to how to produce value within a limited time. Otherwise, there will be various demerits, such as not being able to attract quality personnel from overseas,” said Moteki. Unicharm Corp., a Tokyo-based manufacturer of child care and household products, introduced a rest interval of at least eight hours in January. Like KDDI, Unicharm introduced the system to increase productivity within a limited time, said Yukinari Watanabe, senior manager at Unicharm’s global HR and administration division. By having more leisure time, they can live healthier lives and engage in self-enriching activities — a plus for the company, said Watanabe. Both KDDI and Unicharm said there were concerns the interval system could disrupt business because the rule might lead to lost opportunities during busy seasons. “Some people said that long work hours are sometimes essential when pursuing the best outcome,” said Watanabe. “It’s a valid point that people need to work long hours to produce results, but such working styles won’t last forever. The company and employees both have to try to seek ways to get their jobs done within the rules.” Asked if the eight-hour rest that includes commuting time is enough, the two firms said it was a minimum requirement. Unicharm’s Watanabe said the firm hoped to increase the eight-hour minimum in the future. What impact has the rule had on these firms? KDDI said the carrier didn’t have that many workers putting in long overtime hours before it adopted the system. The system has, however, allowed KDDI to manage its personnel differently — from how much they are working to how much they are resting. Moteki said the firm had been aware of how many hours a month employees were working before fixed-time rest was introduced. Their overtime levels had not exceeded the legal limit, but when the company looked into how much rest employees were taking, it realized that about 20 employees per month didn’t meet the interval rule on about 15 days. “We now see people in ways we didn’t see before,” so the company can offer them help before they start to have health trouble, said Moteki. Unicharm and KDDI admitted that while the cultural norm of long working hours is changing, some employees still have that mindset. Watanabe said that it’s still too early to see visible effects from the new policy, adding the firm needed to make employees more aware of why the rules to get enough rest were necessary.


'Moving Zen' and the modern samurai

Abstract: “Be true to the thought of the moment and avoid distraction. Other than continuing to exert yourself, enter into nothing else, but go to the extent of living single thought by single thought.” — Tsunetomo Yamamoto, “Hagakure” (circa 1710) Hyogo resident Isao Machii is an iaido master — a specialist in the art of drawing a blade from its scabbard. In feudal Japan, dueling was ritualized and two samurai would typically face each other with their swords sheathed at their sides and bow before fighting. Think of Clint Eastwood facing off against some adversary in a spaghetti Western, except with a little more refinement. Just as a gunslinger’s ability to draw a pistol quickly was key to determining the outcome of a duel, so it was with swords. The samurai elevated the practice of dueling to an art form. Iaido is about being supremely aware of your surroundings, psychologically primed for action, and inhabiting the “now.” It is about purity of motion, precision and fluidity. In a nutshell, it is “moving Zen.” Machii can move with incredible speed. I first saw him on YouTube facing a pitching machine that was cranked up faster than usual. He stands, hand on the hilt of his sword, as a baseball is pitched at him at more than 160 kilometers per hour. Before you know it, Machii has drawn his blade and sliced the ball in two. There’s another video of Machii facing someone firing a BB gun at him. The pellet is moving toward him at 350 kilometers per hour, but he is still able to draw his sword and strike it. Machii has been hailed as a samurai legend and a real-life manga superhero. He seems to have what amounts to a sixth sense for divining the path of a moving object and can react much faster than a normal person. In cognitive psychology, reaction time is used to measure mental chronometry. In its simplest form this refers to the processing time of cognitive operations, or, in other words, the time between a signal (eg. the firing of a gun) and the reaction elicited in response to the signal. Different kinds of stimuli will elicit different reaction times. Despite the fact that light travels faster than sound, people typically react faster to sound than they do to light because the brain takes longer to process the complexities of visual stimuli. People vary in their reaction times, although young people typcially react faster than the elderly. Interestingly, a person’s reaction time also correlates with their IQ. There’s a piece of equipment in psychology called the Jenson box that is used to measure reactions and intelligence. The box features eight buttons and eight associated lights. Lights come on and you have to press the appropriate button next to the light. Experiments with the Jenson box have shown that smarter people appear to react faster. Although researchers don’t know exactly why this is the case, people with faster reaction times might be able to process information more quickly. However, physical limitations put a cap on the speed at which neurotransmitters can relay information to the brain. Has Machii, through iaido training, reached this limit? The key neurotransmitter that mediates reaction time is dopamine, which may seem odd to those who know it as the so-called cuddle chemical that controls reward and pleasure in the brain. Krystal Parker at the University of Iowa’s Department of Neurology studies the brain pathway that dopamine uses. The key region is the ventral tegmental area, a place rich in dopamine neurons, and Parker has found that improvements in reaction time in people with Parkinson’s disease is correlated with greater activity in this region. Researchers know that drugs such as amphetamine can reduce reaction time, while drugs that block dopamine have the opposite effect. This suggests that people such as Machii perhaps possess genes that optimize the pathways in the ventral tegmental region. Researchers know that the speed a person can process information declines rather sharply from their mid-20s. At 43 years old, Machii currently holds several Guinness World Records for his swordsmanship but I wonder if he’ll ever be able to win anymore. I, for one, certainly hope so.

samurai
swords
reaction time
isao machii


Abe walks a fine line between Trump and Asia

Abstract: OSAKA - In defending his attempts to bond with U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Diet members last week that however critical other countries, and much of America, might be of Trump, he, and by extension Japan, has no other choice but to forge close relations with the president. Abe was speaking in the context of regional security and Japan’s reliance on U.S. military protection under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. But in Kansai, photos of Abe and Trump holding hands, patting each other’s shoulders and gazing into each other’s eyes only reinforced worries that the prime minister’s eager desire for a “bromance” with the mercurial Trump could alienate Japan, economically and otherwise, from its East Asian neighbors. Such thinking, according to two media polls conducted after the Feb. 10 summit, appears to be in the minority. An NHK nationwide poll showed 68 percent of respondents at least partially praised the meeting while a separate Kyodo News poll showed 70.2 percent were satisfied with it. But Kansai’s savvy business leaders wonder if Abe might be tying Japan too close to Trump by making, or hinting at, promises and concessions to his demands that end up reducing Japan’s ability to cooperate and compete, economically and otherwise, with Asia. At the recent Kansai Economic Seminar, a yearly gathering of regional business leaders, it was hard to find anyone visibly excited about the possibility of a Japan-U.S. trade agreement, which Trump has indicated he prefers. A glance at the most recent trade statistics shows why. Total exports to the Asian region in 2016 from six Kansai prefectures amounted to over ¥10.4 trillion, while total Asian imports came to about ¥7.7 trillion. By contrast, the value of U.S. exports was about ¥2 trillion and imports about ¥1.1 trillion. Such figures create a more general sense that, unlike Tokyo or the Nagoya region — where Japanese automakers with heavy U.S. investments as well as American and Japanese firms involved in military technologies are based — the Kansai region has less need to concern itself with how statements the U.S. president or his administration might make directly impact Japan’s relations, especially political and economic relations, with its American ally. With Trump’s announcement that America would not participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, there were the expected howls of indignation from Kansai’s top corporations. But they seemed more muted than similar cries of anger heard from Tokyo among politicians, corporate groups and business-oriented news organizations. A few even suggested that with Kobe due to host the next round of negotiations later this month of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, which the U.S. is not participating in, there was an opportunity to demonstrate to Washington, as well as reassure Asia, that Japan — and particularly the Abe administration — is a committed regional player regardless of what the Americans do. At the moment, Abe is winning acclaim from U.S. commentators for his “international statesman-like abilities.” A more accurate reading is that his efforts are less “international” and more a reflection of his desire to forge Japan’s own “America First” policy. The failure of Abe’s December summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to produce a major diplomatic breakthrough, continued frosty relations with China and the ongoing row with South Korea over the “comfort women” issue suggest it’s premature to sing his praises as an international statesman. Rather, it’s time to ask, as Kansai’s more thoughtful leaders are doing, if Abe can at least be a good “regional statesman” by not only strengthening relations with the U.S. beyond a personal relationship with Trump but also repairing relations with Japan’s Asian neighbors who will still be there long after Trump has faded into history.

shinzo abe
foreign policy
japan-u.s. relations
donald trump


Japan's 'Undercover Boss' reinforces stereotypes at work

Abstract: The government proposal to limit overtime for salaried workers is supposed to reduce the incidence of karōshi (death from overwork), which often takes the form of suicide, and yet the authorities seems squeamish about making demands on employers. In Japan, the good of the company would seem to supersede the well-being of individual employees, but excessive overtime is also a problem in the U.S., where personal agency is valued. The romance of the “hardly working” mentality is the theme of countless Hollywood movies and American standup comedy routines, but Japan has its own pop culture version of the trope, exemplified by the 1960s feature film series starring Hitoshi Ueki as “ Japan’s most irresponsible man ,” a white-collar factotum whose being was focused on doing as little work as possible. In the United States, this attitude has a sentimental, almost political connotation, while in Japan it’s only played for laughs, but in either workplace culture it’s a fantasy. Most people want to keep their jobs. So it’s interesting to see how NHK has adopted the popular, long-running reality show, “ Undercover Boss ,” which originated in the U.K. and has become a hit in its American incarnation. The premise is irresistible: An executive of a company pretends to be a trainee and works alongside the rank and file, doing what they do, while a video crew records it all, ostensibly for some kind of news documentary. Ideally, these bosses learn to empathize with their charges and then make changes that benefit specific employees but also the company as a whole. Certain American critics have noted that the show is something of a con , especially in an economic environment that is increasingly anti-stakeholder and pro-shareholder, and while realists will say the series is simply escapist entertainment, it’s escapist entertainment built on frustrations that everyone understands through experience. That’s why the U.S. version is in its eighth season. The Japanese edition, called “ Fukumen Resachi: Bosu Sennyu ” (“Incognito Research: Boss Infiltration”), currently into its second season, is broadcast on NHK’s entertainment-oriented BS Premium channel. The format is exactly the same as that of the American version, which has been shown on the satellite subscription channel WOWOW , but the tone is different. The worker-employer dynamic in the U.S. is based, at least in part, on mutual distrust, the feeling that the other party will take advantage of you if given the chance. In Japan, workers are grateful to employers for giving them the opportunity to work, and while this image is a stereotype it’s one the media has always played up. The producers of the American version insist they won’t air anything damaging to the company depicted, but they do occasionally reveal problems tied to worker temperament, including laziness or envy. Such behaviors are not unknown in the Japanese workplace, but no Japanese person would willingly allow themselves to be exposed in that way on camera. The conscientious worker is a very powerful symbol in Japan and one NHK is careful to preserve. Another difference is the status of the bosses working undercover. On the U.S. show some are CEOs. In Japan, they are usually senmu , managing directors more involved with everyday decision-making. Unless the company is relatively small, it’s hard to imagine a Japanese president taking part in such a subterfuge since one of the format’s schemes is to embarrass the boss. It starts with the disguises. One official for a famous futon maker was passed off as the Japanese owner of a company based in Southeast Asia and made to look like an aged hipster permanently stuck in 1978. A director of a Yokohama-based prepared foods manufacturer, whose family started the business, was given a fright wig and huge, thick-lensed glasses. For some reason, all these spies sport fake goatees or soul patches, which would seem to be a dead giveaway considering that most are over 50. The getups, in fact, are designed to be ridiculous, since the employees the bosses work with immediately size them up as being less than serious, and with cameras watching they thus feel free to correct and even scold them when they do something wrong. This is especially true when it comes to service tasks. As the futon executive was working the floor at the company’s head store in Tokyo, a young salesman quietly but forcefully reprimanded him for giving incorrect information to a potential customer, saying that such a mistake could undermine “450 years of trust” the company had established with the public. In another show about a high-end supermarket, the store manager kept rebagging items the undercover deputy president had packed at the cashier. Another mission of the show is to extract sentimental stories that give the boss a chance to correct an occupational drawback or otherwise show off his humanity as an employer. A common theme is overwork, though it’s always framed in the context of thoroughness. Employees never say they are being pressured, and are rewarded during the climactic shock revelation of the infiltrator’s identity with a one-off, all-expenses-paid excursion to a hot spring resort. Employment status is also a recurring subject of anxiety. Many employees are contract workers with no job security. One 66-year-old “customer service” manager of a venue owned by a large entertainment concern openly wept on camera describing how grateful he was when the company made him a “regular employee” at the age of 57. In such a way, the series reinforces another stereotype that says being part of the group is its own reward and unrelated to monetary compensation, which is rarely discussed on the Japanese version but often the main point of contention on the American one. Whether or not this dynamic accurately describes Japan’s work situation as a whole, the show won’t say. After all, it’s just entertainment.


The evolution of the Japanese ego: 'The Gossamer Years'

Abstract: There is something morbid about selfhood in Japan. It is not native to the culture. In the West, Judaism, Christianity, philosophy, language itself all teach us to say “I.” It is otherwise in Japan. The Japanese “I” was born in pain — the wrenching of a part from the whole, a limb from the social body. A 10th-century diary known as the “Kagero Nikki” (“The Gossamer Years”) is the source to turn to for what it felt like. The author’s name is unknown, but her predicament is famous. Not that it’s any big deal. One can hardly say she was wounded in love, for there is no indication that she did love. Pressed by her family into an advantageous marriage, she joined, without enthusiasm but also without repugnance, the small harem of a leading member of the most powerful family of the time. She herself belonged to a lesser branch of the same Fujiwara clan. Polygamy among the aristocracy was the norm. Fujiwara Kaneie had eight wives and numerous concubines and mistresses. What kind of husband can a man so distracted be? Exclusive possession is what she wanted, what she felt her high birth entitled her to. But would it have satisfied her, if she’d had it? Would satisfaction have satisfied her? Some people wallow in suffering. The author seems to have wallowed in hers. Few societies are kind to women. The Heian Period (794-1185) was in many ways, by any but modern standards, remarkably considerate of them. It accorded them more human dignity than later ages were to. But women’s rights are not the author’s concern. She is grieved not by the system but by her husband — by his absence when he’s absent, by his presence when he’s present, by his behavior absent or present. His behavior is at times loutish but as often, on her own evidence, solicitous and sympathetic. She demands the impossible, he protests. She admits it’s true — without, however, moderating her demands. Blame who or what you will — her suffering is real, gnawing, bitter. It makes a “self” out of her — the first, it would seem, in Japanese literature. She would just as soon have declined the honor. Or would she have? Selfhood is complicated — not without its masochistic element. The marriage began badly: “The place he called home was obviously not here, and our relationship was far from what I would have had it”; “My life was rich only in loneliness and sorrow”; “I spent my nights alone and my days in trivialities.” Distractions might have helped, but one among many peculiarities of Heian society is its numbing inactivity. Women in particular, screened, cloistered, encumbered by layer upon layer of clothing and streaming masses of hair, spent their lives waiting, waiting, waiting for something to happen to them — “something” being a visit from a lover or husband, and when the visit does not materialize, the melancholy can be overwhelming: “I had nothing to do but sit and brood.” The author sat and sat, brooded and brooded: “I was more than ever conscious of my own unhappiness”; “I thought of how I should like to die, and only this one bond with the world” — her son — “restrained me.” Unexpressed, inexpressible rage takes its toll: “I dreamed that a viper was crawling among my entrails and gnawing at my liver.” The “lady in the alley” episode goads the author to vindictive fury. One of Kaneie’s lesser ladies — “of frightfully bad birth” — had a child: “It began to appear that the lady in the alley had fallen from favor since the birth of her child. I had prayed, at the height of my unhappiness, that she would live to know what I was then suffering, and it seemed my prayers were being answered. She was alone, and now her child was dead, the child that had been the cause of that unseemly racket. … (Her) pain must be even sharper than mine had been. I was satisfied.” The “unseemly racket” shows Kaneie at his caddish worst: “Loading the lady (in the alley) into his carriage and raising a commotion that could be heard through the whole city, he came hurrying past my gate. … And why, my women loudly asked one another, had he so pointedly passed our gate when he had all the streets in the city to choose from? I myself was quite speechless and thought only that I would like to die on the spot.” The author — and Heian ladies in general — have one vent, short of madness, for repressed emotions that grow too much for them. They go on pilgrimages. The author embarks on several. A pilgrimage means, first of all, travel, a change of scene. Secondly, presumably more importantly, a pilgrimage means prayer — if one can pray. Sometimes the author cannot: “I could not control my sobs long enough to tell my story to the Buddha.” Other times she gains a measure of peace, to the point of feeling ready to “leave the world” — meaning to become a nun. Kaneie is rarely permitted to speak for himself in the diary, but when he is, he shows himself to be rather less of a boor than the author deems him. “Perhaps you really have grown tired of the world and decided to cut yourself off from it,” he writes her, “but if you should decide to come back, let me know and I shall come for you. In the meantime, since you seem to dread my visits so, I shall keep my distance.” The author does not, it is pleasant to report, go mad: “Although I could hardly have been called content, I had reached a certain resignation, and I no longer had the strength of spirit to worry about his coolness.” It’s not a big victory, perhaps, but it is, at least, a little one.

the gossamer years
kagero nikki
fujiwara kaneie


Tax break for OTC drugs seeks to get Japanese managing their health, not swarming clinics

Abstract: Buying medicine at a drugstore can now save you taxes. On Jan. 1, the “self-medication tax deduction” system kicked off, allowing people who buy designated over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to apply for a tax refund. The move, intended to promote use of OTC drugs and discourage people from clogging up hospitals and clinics for minor ailments, will be in place for the next five years. Following are questions and answers about the new system: How does it work? To qualify for a refund, an applicant needs to spend more than ¥12,000 per year on designated OTC drugs. Purchases by the applicant’s family members can be included. The amount exceeding ¥12,000 — up to the ceiling of ¥88,000 — can be deducted from the applicant’s taxable income. The government has designated some 1,600 OTC products containing any of 83 designated ingredients as eligible. Tax refunds will be made only to those who actually apply for them. Japan already has a system for reimbursing a certain amount of taxes paid by people who spend more than ¥100,000 per year on medical bills, including hospital fees and prescriptions, dental care and OTC drugs. For that, the amount of medical expenses exceeding ¥100,000, including those of family members, can be deducted. Taxpayers must choose between the two — the older medical bill deduction or the self-medication tax refund; they can’t use both at the same time. Is there anything else one needs to prepare when filing for a refund? Yes. The program requires that applicants are engaged in efforts to maintain or boost their health or to avoid becoming sick. Applicants need to show proof that they have participated in one of the following: A health checkup organized by a health insurance union or a municipal government. A company health checkup. A vaccine shot (routine shot or flu shot). A screening for metabolic syndrome. A cancer screening organized by a municipal government. The applicants can turn in a receipt for a vaccination fee or a copy of their health checkup report. The part showing the actual result of the checkup can be blacked out. Family members of applicants are not required to hand in such documents. Why is the government introducing this tax refund? The health ministry has been calling for creation of such tax breaks for years, saying it needs to give people incentives to use more OTC products as opposed to prescription drugs. The ministry claims self-medication, or using drugs to treat self-diagnosed disorders or symptoms, will encourage people to be more proactive about managing their health. The government’s less advertised, but potentially huge, motive for introducing the tax incentive is the need to steer people away from seeking care at hospitals and clinics — and thereby rein in soaring medical costs. Japan’s medical expenditures totaled a record ¥41.5 trillion in fiscal 2015 — up from ¥36.6 trillion in fiscal 2010 and ¥32.4 trillion in fiscal 2005 — and they are expected to grow further as the population grays. It’s no secret that Japan’s universal and relatively cheap health care has led some people to rush to doctors every time they get a cold or fever, a trend often criticized as konbini jushin (visiting doctors as if going to convenience stores) and turning not a few neighborhood clinics into chanomi saron (tea salons), a socializing venue for the elderly. By nudging more people to become comfortable treating minor symptoms by themselves, the government wants to free the bloated health care system from abuse and overuse. The health ministry has not conducted simulations on how much the new scheme will contribute to curbing medical costs, a ministry official said. The Finance Ministry estimates that the program will result in a loss of ¥3 billion in income tax revenue per year. How much money will be saved? It depends on the amount people spend on the drugs and their income. For example, if you buy designated OTC drugs worth ¥50,000 per year, ¥38,000 will be deducted from your annual taxable income. If your taxable income is ¥4 million, you can deduct 20 percent of ¥38,000 — or ¥7,600 — in income taxes and 10 percent of ¥38,000 — or ¥3,800 — in residential taxes. That translates into total savings of ¥11,400 per year. If you have the same level of income but pay just ¥20,000 for OTC drugs, you can save ¥2,400. Which OTC drugs are covered? The full list of roughly 1,600 products covered by the refund, as of Feb. 14, can be found in Japanese at jtim.es/W3ZW309nMOi . They range from cold and pain-relief medicine to eye drops, acne creams and rhinitis capsules. Cooling/heating pads and medications for gastrointestinal problems, diarrhea and athlete’s foot are also included. Some, but not all, products will bear a small logo that says they are included in the scheme. When in doubt, ask the pharmacist if the drug you are buying is covered. You need to keep the receipts and submit them when you file tax returns between mid-February and mid-March (for this year’s receipts you will file tax returns next year). What about drugs purchased over the internet? You cannot print out a receipt of the internet transaction and submit it as proof. You must request the online seller to issue an official receipt and submit the original.


Foreign workers: Should they stay or should they go?

Abstract: As the rest of the world debated the ramifications of U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban on persons from seven Muslim-majority countries last week, Japan was notably silent. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently going out of his way to placate the new American leader for the sake of national interests, but in any case there was little he could add to the discussion. Japan has never universally welcomed immigrants, especially refugees. The local media, which covered the travel ban with detachment, didn’t bother to make any relevant connections to Japan’s situation, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any. For instance, the Asahi Shimbun ran an interview on Feb. 1 with Takaji Kunimatsu, the former chief of the National Police Agency. Kunimatsu is best known for having been shot in 1995 in what is believed to have been an assassination attempt carried out by the religious cult Aum Shinrikyo, whom the NPA was investigating at the time. After he retired, Kunimatsu was appointed ambassador to Switzerland for three years, during which time he observed how a multicultural society operated. The interview centered on Kunimatsu’s views on immigrants in Japan. While the head of the NPA, he advocated against permitting foreign nationals to settle here in large numbers. After living in Switzerland he feels differently, although he adds that these two impulses are not “contradictory.” “I’m not insisting on increasing immigration without conditions,” he told the Asahi reporter. “Once Japan decides to accept more foreigners to live here, we should make a proper system in order to protect social order.” When he was in charge of the NPA, “the media always talked about how many foreigners were being arrested, but I never thought the (foreign) crime rate was particularly high.” Kunimatsu was impressed by Switzerland’s approach to immigrants. The Swiss government spends money on language lessons and vocational training in fields that benefit the country. When immigrants break the law, they are subject to deportation. “One-fourth of the Swiss population is foreign,” he said, “either permanent residents or temporary workers. There are also many refugees. And they aren’t viewed as being special.” He came to understand this dynamic through his own staff, who were immigrants and played important roles in their respective communities. “The fundamental principle is not assimilation,” he said, “but integration.” Immigrants are not forced to give up anything of themselves, but rather encouraged to integrate economically and socially. He points out that the Japanese word “ imin ” (immigrant) has a negative connotation, so he suggests using the word “ seikatsusha ” to describe foreign residents in Japan, thus indicating a “person who lives here.” Kunimatsu is critical of the government-regulated trainee system used by many companies to obtain cheap labor from abroad, although not necessarily because of its exploitative aspects. The idea that an employer “trains” a worker who is going to have to leave the country in three to five years is, to the former police chief, a waste of resources. “The workers have no incentive to learn Japanese or integrate into society,” he said. The result is a “never-ending cycle of new short-term workers” who have no stake here. Kunimatsu’s complaint suggests that such integration is desirable, but current policy is designed to ensure that foreign workers don’t stay in Japan. He believes that if the government invites anyone to work in Japan at any job, it “must give them the same benefits as Japanese people. That way you foster productive human resources, which leads to natural economic competition.” If the foreign workers want to go back, they can, but if they want to stay, they should be allowed to do so. They will integrate as a matter of course. This same theory was discussed at a symposium on the foreign trainee system in Nagoya earlier this month. The symposium focused on the field of caregivers, which can newly tap the trainee system to acquire help from overseas. According to a report in the Feb. 1 Tokyo Shimbun , participants concluded that workers are just becoming proficient in Japanese language and good at their work when they are forced to move back to their home countries. As one researcher said, despite the “training” purpose of the program, it doesn’t “build careers.” It’s simply a short-term human resources solution. And now, the trainees themselves understand that they are only in Japan to provide cheap labor. A recent NHK documentary looked at the textile industry in Gifu Prefecture, which relies completely on trainees. Japanese people stopped working at these factories a long time ago. Now, more and more foreign nationals who come to work there through the trainee program are demanding better working conditions and wages. Ten years ago, it was easy to get foreign trainees because even below-minimum wages in Japan were higher than what they could earn in their native countries, but that isn’t always true anymore, and the number of applicants has dwindled. According to NHK, the Gifu textile industry is quickly collapsing as a result. One company, however, is taking a long-term approach by training Japanese workers and paying them fairly high wages. The money the company invested in these employees has led to higher productivity levels, not to mention better quality products, and NHK implies that the same theory could apply to foreign trainees if they were allowed to really learn the skills they are supposed to be learning — but that takes time. Kunimatsu’s interview and the NHK documentary suggest that Japan’s short-term approach to its labor woes is hurting competitiveness, but what’s missing from the media discussion is the moral dimension that informs the travel ban controversy in the United States. Everybody, non-Japanese and Japanese alike, deserves a living wage and, if you can’t pay it, maybe you shouldn’t be in business.


Defiant Apa paints a target on its back

Abstract: “The Japanese airplanes attacked, and a total of 1,200 men, roughly half the victims of Pearl Harbor, died in action on the USS Arizona . … In general, the powder magazine at the ship’s bottom is not induced to explode in a bombing and it would not have caught fire and blown up six minutes after the bomb attack. “At the time of the Spanish-American War the U.S. blew up and sunk its own USS Maine , blaming it on Spain. It then used the slogan ‘Remember the Maine’ to inspire the citizens to fight against Spain … and snatched away Guam and the Philippines. … It is thought that the U.S. did the same thing during World War II, when it used the slogan ‘Remember Pearl Harbor.'” The above is excerpted from pages 12-13 of “Theoretical Modern History: The Real History of Japan,” a collection of essays by self-described patriotic essayist Seiji Fuji that appeared from 2014 to 2015 in a periodical called Apple Town. The bilingual book, and a companion volume, are placed in most of the guest rooms at the several hundred Apa Group hotels around Japan. They serve up “alternative facts” regarding World War II, particularly the Sino-Japanese conflict, including accounts of the 1928 assassination of Manchurian warlord Chang Tso-lin and the Nanking Massacre of 1937. The two books have generated quite a bit of outrage, although not from Americans, despite Fuji’s rather incredible allegation that in December 1941 their government contrived to sink its own battleship to arouse its populace to go to war with Japan. Fuji, whose real name is Toshio Motoya, is the co-founder of the Apa Group (Apa is an acronym for “Always Pleasant Amenity”) and is believed to be one of the wealthiest individuals in Japan. His two books are placed in most of the guest rooms along with a 187-page manga that tells the saga of the company since its founding in 1971. Apa’s CEO keenly desires that “Japanese People Should Learn True Modern History and Have Pride in Their Native Country,” according to the title of one treatise published in February 2015. His other essays, many of which could be kindly described as being of questionable veracity, include an attempt to debunk the New Deal with “The War Between Japan and the United States Was FDR’s Plan to Break Free From the Great Depression”; “Historical Truths Have Been Demeaned Because of Postwar Conspiracies”; and “Japan Should Use Jewish Marketing Companies to Correct Historical Falsehoods.” So far the greatest objection to the books is their contention that the Nanking Massacre (aka the Rape of Nanking) was a complete fabrication, this despite the Chinese government’s assertion that as many as 300,000 civilians and POWs were gratuitously murdered by troops of the Imperial Japanese Army during a six-week killing spree in late 1937. After two university students, an American woman and Chinese man, stayed at an Apa hotel in Tokyo last month, they posted excerpts from the books on the internet. Apa hotels’ books were vociferously denounced, with the Chinese government going so far as to call on travel agencies to boycott Apa hotels. Apa, however, was not the least bit dissuaded by the boycott threat: It caters mostly to a domestic market, and Chinese are said to make up no more than 5 percent of its total clientele. Some writers were even happy to see Apa’s CEO adopting a nationalist stance. Writing in Yukan Fuji (Jan. 27), American columnist Tony “Texas Daddy” Marano described the Apa Group as “great,” saying, “When I go to Japan … I use Apa hotels and have met Toshio Motoya of the Apa Group any number of times. “What I like most of all is seeing the Hinomaru (the Japanese national flag) always displayed at the hotels’ front desks, just like you see the Stars and Stripes flying in Texas,” he writes. Marano doesn’t quite go so far as to endorse Fuji’s account of the Nanking Massacre, preferring to circumvent the issue by writing “I understand a variety of research and analyses exist.” In Shukan Kinyobi (Jan. 27), Taro Iwamoto lambasted the hotel under the headline “With such a ludicrous perception of history, can Apa Hotels call this hospitality?” “This problem might reinforce the viewpoint that ‘Japan is a country that won’t confront its war responsibility,'” writes Iwamoto, who added that as the controversy spreads through cyberspace, Apa’s supporters have been wading in and ever more brickbats are flung, with the debate deteriorating into a virtual version of U.S. TV’s rowdy “Gong Show.” Weekly Playboy (Feb. 13) took a completely different tack, explaining what makes Apa’s hotels so popular. It came up with a dozen points, including that they serve a terrific breakfast smorgasbord for ¥2,000. Another was the egg-shaped bathtubs that offer a relaxing soak. And yet another was the minimal difference (¥1,000) in the charges between single and semi-double occupancy of the same class of room, which makes them particularly appealing for trysts with call girls dispatched by “delivery health” services. While no one is questioning Motoya’s ardent patriotism, behavior that draws unnecessary attention tends to go against the grain of Japanese culture, as reflected in the aphorism Nō aru taka wa tsume o kakusu (“A skilled hawk conceals its talons,” or, in other words, the person who knows most often says least). Speaking of aphorisms, Sunday Mainichi (Feb. 19) reported that toothbrushes, combs and other assorted amenities provided to Apa guests come enclosed in protective covers that bear various “macho aphorisms” penned by its founder. One homily: “It is in a man’s spirit to enjoy the difficulties and uncertainties of his life.” “They smacked of male superiority; I can’t say they left me with a good feeling,” a woman in her 30s told the magazine. By engaging in air acrobatics on the media’s radar screen, Motoya may find himself dodging flak that has nothing at all to do with Nanking or Pearl Harbor.


Auto unions seek repeat of 2016 base pay hike amid firms' cloudy earnings prospects

Abstract: Annual spring wage negotiations between companies and labor unions got into full swing Wednesday with unions from Japan’s major automakers demanding the same base wage increase as last year despite concerns about the industry’s earnings prospects. The unions of Toyota Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., among other major automakers, requested a ¥3,000 monthly hike. The demand comes as some of the leading automakers recently reported sluggish earnings for the nine months to December, with concern growing about U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist policy stance. Auto and electronics makers also face uncertain business conditions because Britain is preparing to begin negotiations this spring on its departure from the European Union and China is experiencing slowing economic growth. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been urging businesses to raise wages to help boost the country’s economy and the head of Japan’s top business lobby has called on companies to increase remuneration on an annual basis, not necessarily sticking to base wage hikes. “I hope to see positive outcomes from the spring’s wage talks,” Abe said during a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy held at his office. Tepid private consumption has been a bottleneck for the country’s economic growth as consumers remain reluctant to increase their spending. Japan has yet to see what Abe has described as a virtuous cycle of wage growth leading to increased consumer spending. In Japan, the pace of income growth is slower among people in their late 30s and 40s, who are often responsible for raising children, than other age brackets, according to analysis presented at the meeting. Such people appear to have low expectations for future income growth, which thus reduces their appetite for spending, the council’s private-sector members said as they called for measures to be taken. The labor unions of major electronics makers will submit their wage requests by Thursday.


Tokyo's Shiodome area celebrates the old and new, the high and low

Abstract: It’s an area where the old and the new stand right next to each other. That’s what the Shiodome district, which stretches from Minato to Chuo wards along Tokyo Bay, looks like. Visitors view Tokyo Bay, including the Harumi and Odaiba waterfront districts, from an observatory about 200 meters above street level Feb. 20 in Minato Ward, Tokyo. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Visitors are greeted by some of Japan’s tallest skyscrapers hosting the likes of big-name companies like airline ANA Holdings Inc., ad agency Dentsu Inc. and SoftBank Corp. People work in a skyscraper in the Shiodome district in Minato Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 20. | SATOKO KAWASAKI But when they go up to the restaurants on the 40th or higher floors, visitors can see that Shiodome sits right next to the Hamarikyu Gardens, a 25-hectare Japanese garden that once belonged to the Tokugawa shogunate. Women in ‘yukata’ summer kimono visit a teahouse in Hamarikyu Gardens in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, on Feb. 20. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Back in the 17th and 18th centuries, the garden was used for hunting ducks, and a 300-year-old pine tree adds prestige to its rich history. And not many know that Shiodome hosted one of the nation’s first railway stations, Shinbashi Station, built in 1872. Designed by American architect Richard Bridgens, a reproduction of the station was built north of the Shiodome City Center complex in 2003. Shinbashi Station moved a little west to where it is now in 1914. A reproduction of the original Shinbashi Station, which dates back to 1872, is shown in this photo taken Feb. 20 in Minato Ward, Tokyo. | SATOKO KAWASAKI While over 60,000 people work in Shiodome on weekdays, on weekends it attracts couples and tourists for the view of Tokyo Bay, theaters and restaurants.


Nippon Ishin no Kai bill targets gambling woes in bid to move casino policies forward

Abstract: OSAKA - The opposition party Nippon Ishin no Kai is proposing new legislation to deal with problem gamblers, hoping to speed up the debate after a bill legalizing casinos in Japan was rammed through the Diet in December. The Osaka-centric party, which is close to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on many issues, hopes that cooperation with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s LDP on the issue will help ensure the city becomes one of those picked for a casino resort license, if not the first. “The Nippon Ishin bill sets out a variety of measures to deal with problem gamblers to ensure that the problem is dealt with in a comprehensive manner,” said Hitoshi Asada, the party’s policy chief. On Feb. 9, the party submitted a bill targeting problem gamblers and their families to the Upper House. In an attempt to address strong public opposition to casinos, the bill identified the need for policies to deal with crime, suicide, poverty, debts and other problems that occur as a result of problem gambling. It also stipulated the need for the government to establish a basic program to deal with problem gambling that will be subject to revision at least once every five years. In addition, municipalities would have to map out plans for combating problem gambling that also would be reviewed every five years. The bill calls for policies that set the rules for casino advertising and admission charges and says they are to be drawn up only after taking into consideration how to prevent addiction. Other proposals include measures for having specialized medical professionals and a medical system in place to provide assistance. Nippon Ishin has also proposed funding a public relations campaign. Each year from the end of June until the beginning of July would be declared Gambling Awareness Week, with a variety of PR activities undertaken to educate and remind people of the dangers of gambling. Nippon Ishin’s proposal also puts the obligation of dealing with problem gamblers on central and regional governments, casino operators, the people of Japan and health professionals. With over a dozen places nationwide having already expressed varying degrees of interest in hosting an integrated resort, or IR, with a casino, the kinds of problem gambling initiatives created by these governments will likely play a large role in the central government’s timing for granting casino licenses. But the questions of who should take the lead on gambling addiction and who should take the lion’s share of the responsibility for identifying and dealing with them are likely to be sources of tension and debate among the various players. The central government is proposing that, while the Diet should set the national framework, regional governments and casino operators need to take the lead in dealing with concerns about problem gamblers. On the other hand, cash-strapped regional governments hoping to host casino resorts worry that, without strong guarantees of central government support, including funding, to deal with gambling addiction and other social problems that arise from casinos, local opposition will be difficult to overcome. For now, Nippon Ishin hopes the bill will push the Diet debate on how to move the debate on casinos rules forward. A decision by the Diet to delay passage by the end of the year would be bad news for the party’s Osaka faction, which has its own timetable for an Osaka casino. “Ideally, at least part of an integrated resort would open in Osaka by 2023, and that would be in operation to welcome the World Expo in 2025” that Osaka is bidding for and that will be decided next year, said Nippon Ishin co-leader and Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui.

nippon ishin no kai
osaka
gambling
casinos
legislation


Kyoto working to get its interpreter/guides up to global speed

Abstract: KYOTO - With over 3 million visitors from abroad visiting the ancient capital of Kyoto in fiscal 2015, getting around with an official interpreter would have meant relying on government-qualified guides. But critics have claimed that interpreter/guides who have passed national tests on language, history, culture and politics aren’t necessarily well-versed on the details of Kyoto’s rich history and culture. That’s why the city has founded the Kyoto Visitors Host program, aimed at nurturing tour guides who have in-depth knowledge on the city and are fluent enough in a foreign language to explain it to visitors. The program, which began in November 2015, trains residents and visitors of any nationality to become professional city guides. While Kyoto still lacks the broad range of interpreter/guides offering the kinds of highly specialized historical tours one finds in cities like London or Paris, the Kyoto Visitors Host program is a first step toward recognizing the need for local experts who can provide a special localized experience for foreign guests. The inaugural group of students specialized in English and Chinese. The second class, which began the program earlier this month, will include those who can explain Kyoto in English, Chinese and French. For those whose native language is Japanese, some proof of English proficiency, such as a TOEIC score of at least 730, is necessary to be an English interpreter. Nonnative speakers are required to have passed at least the second level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. The program ends in September. Successful graduates can register their names and contact information on a website where interested foreign tourists and tour groups can directly contact them. Classes include basic instruction in interpreter guide principles and the hospitality industry, as well as Kyoto’s history and culture. Students also take specialized classes in Kyoto’s traditional craft industries and culture, cultural properties and cuisine.


Bataan Death March survivor Lester Tenney dies in California aged 96

Abstract: LOS ANGELES - Lester Tenney, a former U.S. prisoner of war held by the Imperial Japanese Army and a survivor of the notorious 1942 Bataan Death March, died at a nursing facility Friday in Carlsbad, California, a local newspaper reported. He was 96. The Chicago native was one of 60,000 to 80,000 U.S. and Filipino POWs forced to march more than 100 km (60 miles) to a prison camp on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines during World War II. Many died on the journey from malnutrition, thirst and abuse or rampant torture and murder. The event was later judged as a war crime. He was forced to work at a coal mine in southwestern Japan from 1943 until the end of the war in 1945. After returning to the U.S., he became a college professor. When he visited Japan in 2010, then-Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada apologized to Tenney for the inhumane treatment he suffered at the hands of his captors.


Japan aims to attract more foreign workers amid growth in tourism

Abstract: The government compiled a plan Tuesday to ease visa restrictions for foreign workers in designated special economic zones to address the growing need for tourism services. The move signals a shift in the nation’s immigration policy, which has traditionally focused on allowing only highly skilled migrants into Japan. By increasing the number of foreign workers, the government hopes to revitalize the country’s regional economies. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe instructed relevant ministers to work toward submitting necessary bills during the current Diet session for a legislative amendment on national strategic special zones, government officials said. The sectors in which the foreign workers will be allowed to work will depend on the specific needs of the economic zones, they said. The Osaka prefectural and municipal governments, for instance, have asked the central government to expand the intake of foreign workers for hotels and merchandising. The Japan Tourism Agency said last month the number of foreign visitors reached a record 24.04 million in 2016, up 21.8 percent the previous year, with the country aiming to attract 40 million foreign tourists in 2020 when Japan will host the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.


Government-backed IT agency urges WordPress users to update after hacks

Abstract: With the recent spike in the number of cyberattacks on websites using the popular web-management platform WordPress, a government-backed IT security agency urged website administrators and managers to patch a vulnerability that allows hackers to deface their sites. The Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) Japan released a warning Monday, calling owners of websites that use the content-management system to update the software to the latest version “immediately” so that their websites can be protected from malevolent attacks. More than 26 percent of websites on the internet use the open-source platform, including official websites for the Walt Disney Co., Microsoft News Center, and the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, according to WordPress. IPA warns that software versions 4.7.0 and 4.7.1 contain the vulnerability. WordPress released a software update ( wordpress.org/news/2017/01/wordpress-4-7-2-security-release/ ) on Jan. 26 to patch the breach. Websites in Japan, including the official website of Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa, reportedly had fallen victim to attacks. Marukawa, who serves on the government committee tasked with drafting and implementing cybersecurity strategies, said Monday her official website that logs her activity had been hacked and showed messages such as “HaCkeD By MuhmadEmad” and “KurDish HaCk3rS WaS Here,” according to media reports. The site had been restored by Tuesday. Other websites, including one run by Ibaraki Prefectural Central Hospital and another for Fukui Prefectural Hospital, were also attacked by hackers. The Ibaraki hospital detected sections that show the number of patients and seminar information being altered Sunday, said Yuji Uchimura, a hospital official. The Fukui hospital also found the announcement section of its website had been similarly altered Monday, said Toyomi Otani, an official in charge of the site, adding that the hospital also used WordPress. No personal data have been stolen in these incidents, the hospitals said. An official at the IPA said Tuesday cyberattacks exploiting WordPress’s security hole have been increasing at a rapid pace for the past several days, although he was unable to confirm the software was the route the hackers used to breach these sites. IPA official Shohei Daido said the vulnerability was less likely to place personal information stored on a web server at risk because only the appearances of the websites have so far been affected.


Lack of nursery school spots still widespread a year after 'Die Japan!' blog post

Abstract: A year since a blog post by an anonymous mother struggling to find a nursery school drew national attention, parents are still having difficulties finding facilities for young children. As day care centers have started announcing admissions results for April, many parents have expressed anger and sorrow on social networks after learning of denials. In late January, a 35-year-old woman in Kawasaki shed tears when she received a letter from the city saying her 8-month-old daughter would not be admitted. The woman had moved to the city from Tokyo, believing it would be easier in Kawasaki to keep working while raising her daughter, as only six children were on the city’s waiting list for nursery schools as of April last year. But in reality, 2,547 children who were attending uncertified facilities subsidized by the city or staying home with their parents were waiting to get in to the certified schools, although they did not appear on the waiting list. “I want to work as early as possible for a living,” said the woman, who was aiming to return to work this spring. “As uncertified facilities are expensive, I have to start thinking about moving out again.” Last March, the government announced emergency steps to address the chronic shortage after an emotional blog post written by an anonymous mother went viral. The author said she would have to quit her job in the post from February 2016 titled, “I couldn’t get day care. Die Japan!” The government measures include increasing slots at small nursery schools as well as expanding nursery facilities at businesses. It also plans to increase monthly salaries for workers at child care facilities from April. But local governments are still struggling to improve the situation. On Jan. 26, the city of Okayama sent 1,734 letters notifying parents that their children were denied admission to nursery schools. Since then, city officials have been tied up responding to phone calls and inquiries asking about vacancies, while some complained that they could not extend their child care leave. In late January, a group of parents in Tokyo started posting their feelings on Twitter and other social networks with the hashtag, “#I want nursery admission.” Because the negative phrase from the blog post was criticized last year, a different approach has been taken by the group, said 41-year-old Tae Amano, a key member. One tweet called on the state to “please stop bullying mothers,” while another posting said, “I feel that parents and children are rejected altogether every year.” “To tell the truth, I want to spend all my time (with my son) but I cannot live without working,” a single mother of a 2-month-old son said in a posting. Amano’s group is planning to launch a campaign to collect signatures online and hold an event near the Diet building on March 7. “I would like mothers and fathers to speak out,” Amano said. “By linking people who are involved, we’d like to influence the nation’s child care policies.” According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, around 23,500 kids were on the waiting list for certified day care services in April last year. But the ministry said some 67,300 more children were potentially waiting to enroll, as the figure does not include parents who are on child care leave.


Osaka supermarket chain, manager fined ¥1.7 million over foreign students' illegal work hours

Abstract: OSAKA - Super Tamade Co., an Osaka-based supermarket chain, and its personnel division chief were fined Wednesday for violating labor laws by allowing foreign students to work illegally long hours. The Osaka Summary Court fined the discount supermarket chain ¥1 million ($9,000) and the personnel manager Mitsutoshi Maeda, 41, ¥700,000 as demanded by prosecutors for violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law. According to the ruling, Super Tamade had 12 foreign students, including Chinese and Vietnamese, work at outlets mainly in Osaka city between February and May 2016 for more than the 28-hour limit per week set for foreign students. Judge Masao Kashimori said it was “malicious” that the company concealed the violation by utilizing official and unofficial timecards. “We urge the company to adhere to the law by fully acknowledging its responsibility as a company that represents Osaka with more than 50 outlets,” the judge said. Prosecutors first filed a summary indictment against Super Tamade and Maeda but the court found the need for a more detailed examination of the case and put it to a formal trial.

osaka
labor
foreign students
super tamade


Cyberattacks targeting Japan networks hit a record 128.1 billion in 2016

Abstract: A record 128.1 billion cyberattacks against networks in Japan were detected in 2016, more than double the previous year, according to a recent survey by a public research institute. Many of the attacks appear to have been launched from China and the United States, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology said. Over 50 percent of cyberattacks detected last year targeted surveillance cameras connected to the internet, home wireless routers, and other devices within the internet of things, an increase from around 26 percent in 2015. Many of those devices are vulnerable to attacks due to deficient software security measures, it said. The institute operates a large-scale cyberattack monitoring system. But given its limited coverage, it said it assumes a far greater number of devices were attacked. The institute launched the survey in 2005 when the number of detected cyberattacks stood at around 310 million. The figure has surged close to 25.66 billion in 2014 and 54.51 billion in 2015. “I hope general users of those (vulnerable) devices would understand the importance of taking measures (against cyberattacks)”, said Takahiro Kasama, a senior researcher at the institute. With more and more household appliances, cars and factory infrastructure reliant on internet connections, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is considering taking measures against cyberattacks aimed at internet of things devices.

internet
cyberattacks
internet of things


State-backed scholarship program to open doors to university

Abstract: The government will soon launch the first state-backed scholarships in an effort to make universities more accessible as more students face financial difficulties to pursue higher education. The move is considered a big step forward in a country where the government has to date only offered student loans. But, still, the size of the program is too small to help every student in desperate need of financial support. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration submitted a bill relating to the new scholarship program to the Diet last week. To be launched in April, the initiative is expected to be fully implemented the following year. Here are questions and answers about the new program: Who is eligible to receive the scholarship? The program is for students from low-income households such as those on welfare or exempt from paying residential tax. Government-backed lender Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) will provide the monthly stipends, ranging from ¥20,000 to ¥40,000 depending on the type of university students attend and their housing situation. For example, a private university student who lives away from home is expected to receive ¥40,000 a month, according to the education ministry. The support would be less for a student who attends a national university, where tuition is cheaper, and commutes from home. The program is also expected to provide an additional ¥240,000 to cover enrollment fees for students from child welfare institutions. In fiscal 2017, JASSO plans to provide the scholarship to some 2,800 students considered to be in urgent need of financial help, such as those from child welfare institutions and private university students who live away from their families. The program is expected to expand from fiscal 2018 to support 20,000 impoverished students in total. The education ministry estimates it will cost about ¥1.5 billion in fiscal 2017, to be expanded to ¥22 billion in fiscal 2021. How many students are from low-income households? Will the monthly amount suffice? The education ministry estimates around 61,000 people need financial support to go to university. That means two-thirds of impoverished youths who wish to pursue university-level education cannot receive the scholarship. The monthly stipend is also too small to even cover annual tuition fees at a national university, leaving many students with no option but to take out a student loan to cover the shortfall, experts say. Hirokazu Ouchi, a pedagogy professor at Chukyo University in Nagoya, praised the program as a huge step forward, but added it should be expanded in the future. “Considering that Japan currently only has a student loan program, the scholarship carries great significance,” Ouchi said. “But the number of students who can receive it is extremely small and the amount is also insufficient.” How will the recipients be selected? High schools will recommend students who deserve state support. Based on the number of students from low-income households, each school will be allotted at least one recommendation. The high schools will select students who have achieved top grades or those with excellent records of extracurricular activities. But as impoverished students tend to have lower grades and no spare time to participate in extracurricular activities as they are often busy with part-time jobs, experts say students in dire need of a scholarship to pursue higher education may miss out. Are other scholarships available? Yes. Local governments, businesses as well as universities also offer scholarship programs. For example, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp. offers a university scholarship of ¥35,000 a month. Waseda University in Tokyo also has several scholarship programs, including a tuition-free scholarship. National universities also have programs where top students with financial difficulties are exempted from paying tuition. The education ministry has allocated ¥33 billion for the program in fiscal 2017, which starts April 1. However, unlike scholarships, students are screened twice a year based on their grades and other reasons. What is currently on offer from the government? JASSO offers two types of student loans: one without interest and one that carries an interest rate of up to 3 percent. In fiscal 2015, 1 in every 2.6 university students received a student loan, compared to 1 in every 4.3 in fiscal 2004, when JASSO was launched, according to its data. Among roughly 1.3 million borrowers in fiscal 2015, 837,000 students, or 63 percent, received loans that carry interest. However, as of Mach 31, 2015, there were 165,000 borrowers who had defaulted on their repayments for more than three months, according to JASSO. The organization filed 5,432 lawsuits in fiscal 2015 against debtors. Why has the number of students seeking student loans increased? The increase is due to the nation’s sluggish economy, which has more parents struggling to fully finance their children’s university education, as well as soaring tuition fees, observers say. According to the education ministry, average annual tuition fees for a private university increased to ¥864,384 in fiscal 2014 from ¥570,584 in fiscal 1989. As for national universities, the annual average cost was ¥535,800 in fiscal 2014 compared with ¥339,600 in 1989. Together with enrollment fees that freshmen must pay when they enter universities, students need to pay ¥1.13 million in the first year for private institutions and ¥817,800 for national ones. Given the figures, the monthly aid under the new scholarship program is way too insufficient, Ouchi of Chukyo University said. The welfare ministry’s statistics, meanwhile, showed Japan’s relative poverty rate among children increased to 16.3 percent in 2012 from 10.9 in 1985. The relative poverty rate among children refers to the percentage of 17-year-olds or younger whose household income falls below the poverty line, defined by half the median household income of the total population.

children education university scholarships


20% of Tokyo's children from impoverished households: survey

Abstract: A survey commissioned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has found that more than 20 percent of children in the capital come from households in severe financial hardship — where families scrape by on little income, miss utility or rent payments or lack the means to buy new clothes or go out. The survey, conducted by professor Aya Abe of Tokyo Metropolitan University between August and September last year, covered 19,929 households in Toshima and Sumida wards and in the cities of Chofu and Hino, targeting fifth-graders in elementary school, second-graders in junior high school and teens 16 to 17 and their parents. The survey drew mailed-in responses from 8,367 children and 8,429 parents. Households with financial difficulties are defined by the metro government as those that meet two of three criteria, including an annual income of ¥1.35 million or less. The other two criteria are experience falling behind on utility or rent payments, and an inability to pay for cram schools, books or toys for their children. Households must meet at least two of the three criteria to be considered in financial hardship. The results of the survey, announced Thursday, show that 3 percent of all households were unable to pay their utility bills and 10 percent were unable to adequately feed themselves. Another 15 percent said they could not afford to buy clothes for their children. Children in impoverished families were also more likely to fall behind in their studies. Nearly 30 percent of fifth-graders in such families said they had problems understanding school lessons, versus 13 percent for all students in the grade. About half of all junior high second-graders from such families replied they couldn’t keep up with classes, versus 24.3 percent for all children in their grade. The survey found that children in families with severe financial difficulties were less likely to attend juku (cram schools) or use private tutors, and more likely to become targets of bullying and feel depressed. Juichi Nishio, head of the department in charge of child welfare at the metro government, pointed to the fact families with financial hardships were also less likely to know about helpful social services available to them, such as food banks and after-school study sessions. “In response, from the next fiscal year starting in April, we plan to introduce new subsidies for municipal governments who hire full-time staff tasked solely with child poverty measures,” Nishio said. “Such people would liaise with related agencies to provide the aid each family needs. We also plan to beef up subsidies for municipalities offering free lunches at drop-in centers for children during summer holidays.”


Holdout Dakota pipeline protesters face police as deadline passes

Abstract: CANNON BALL, NORTH DAKOTA - Several dozen demonstrators, the last holdouts from a mass protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline, faced off against riot police on Wednesday as they defied a deadline to end their months-long occupation of an encampment on federal land. Police arrested a handful of protesters who confronted them with taunts late in the day outside the camp entrance, then retreated as tensions mounted in the standoff, about 40 miles south of Bismarck, the state capital. State officials said about 10 arrests were made throughout the day. President Donald Trump has pushed for the completion of the pipeline since he took office last month, signing an executive order that reversed an Obama administration decision and cleared the way for the $3.8 billion project to proceed. Protesters, mostly Native Americans and environmental activists, have spent months rallying against plans to route the pipeline beneath a lake near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, saying it poses a threat to water resources and sacred tribal sites. Republican Gov. Doug Burgum and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had set a 2 p.m. CST (2000 GMT) deadline for protesters to leave the Oceti Sakowin camp, located on Army Corps land in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. As freezing rain and snow fell, some demonstrators ceremonially burned tents and other structures at the camp in what they said was a tradition before leaving a dwelling place. Others vowed to stay put. State officials said protesters had set about 20 fires, and that two youngsters — a 7-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl — were taken to a Bismarck hospital for burns after two explosions occurred. At least three dozen protesters could be seen gathering near the camp entrance as the deadline passed. About 20 police vehicles waited up the road and a few dozen protesters remained in other parts of the camp, a Reuters witness said. “I feel as though now is the time to stand our ground,” said Alethea Phillips, 17, a demonstrator from Michigan who has spent three months at the camp. Chase Iron Eyes, a Standing Rock Sioux member, said the arrest of protesters would not dampen their determination. “You can’t arrest a movement. You can’t arrest a spiritual revolution,” he said in a video broadcast. Protesters and law enforcement have clashed multiple times, and hundreds of people have been arrested since demonstrations at the encampment began in August. The site has become a major focal point for U.S. environmental activism and Native Americans expressing indigenous rights, with some 5,000 to 10,000 protesters inhabiting the camp at the height of the movement in early December. Most have drifted since away, as tribal leaders called for a voluntary evacuation of the camp during the harsh winter while they challenged pipeline plans in court. Roughly 300 demonstrators had remained until this week. Law enforcement officials urged people to leave the camp ahead of the deadline, citing hazards posed by spring floods. State authorities agreed to a request by camp leaders that only Native American cleanup crews be used. One activist, HolyElk Lafferty, said she had asked that cleanup not begin until after the camp was cleared. “It would raise the alarm and panic and not promote a peaceful process today,” Lafferty said. Authorities set up a travel assistance center to provide departing protesters with food, water and health check-ups, as well as a voucher for one night’s accommodation at a Bismarck hotel and a bus ticket home. A judge denied a request earlier this month by two tribes seeking to halt pipeline construction. The pipeline will be complete and ready for oil between March 6 and April 1, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

native americans
north dakota
donald trump
dakota pipeline


Memories of Japanese who settled in Britain soon after WWII recorded in videos

Abstract: LONDON - An endeavor called the Wasurena-gusa (Forget-Me-Not) Project, documenting the video testimonials of Japanese who emigrated to Britain after World War II, has been underway to preserve their memories for future generations. Aptly named after the flower known as a symbol of constancy, the project aims to record the history of the Japanese community in interviews, explaining the motivations and daily lives of the first wave of Japanese who made Britain their home from the 1950s onward. “People who came to Britain after the war weren’t part of a mass movement like to Brazil. They came on their own, individually,” Momoko Williams, who heads the project organized by the Japan Association in the U.K., said in a recent interview. “They seem to be people who didn’t accept Japanese norms at the time, to follow the ordinary route and get an ordinary job,” said Williams, 73. There were those who married Britons, and there were Japanese business expatriates who decided to stay, while others single-handedly built their own businesses from scratch in a new land. Whatever the hardships they faced, the Japanese community that formed in Britain during those times varied widely in occupation, from monks to musicians, to acupuncturists and people who started the first local Japanese restaurants. With the boom of the Japanese economy during the 1960s, traveling overseas became easier — although it involved weeks of being at sea or using the railway. Restrictions on passports were relaxed, and Japan took the international stage with the success of hosting the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. By interviewing those who made the long journey to create a life far away from home, Williams hopes the stories of ordinary folks, which tend to get overlooked, will be remembered. “Usually when ordinary people pass away, they aren’t recorded in history, or recorded in either country, even though they have such fascinating stories,” she said. The subjects for the interviews focus mainly on the pioneers. They are asked to recall the hardships of when they arrived in Britain and their reasons for moving there. Two edited versions, one approximately 30 minutes long in Japanese and a shorter version of about five minutes, which includes English subtitles, have been uploaded on the Wasurena-gusa website. Williams has recorded over 60 testimonials since the project started about three years ago. Her goal is to interview 100 people over five years. Ultimately, the plan in the future is for the video footage to be used as a resource for academics and researchers. The interview subjects tend to view the project as an opportunity to reflect on their first years in Britain. For some, the videos have become a way to remember their relatives and friends, some of whom have passed away since being interviewed. Last November, Williams interviewed Masaaki Takashima, 65, and his wife, Kiyoko, 63, at their residence in a London suburb. The Aomori natives lived as expats in central Manchester for 22 years before returning to Japan once and coming back to Britain where their children reside to live in retirement in 2016. Compared with when they first arrived, it seems like a dream that they now can buy Japanese rice at supermarkets in Britain, they said. In the 1950s, the Japanese population in Britain was in the hundreds. Now it is estimated to be around 67,000. Williams herself has personal experience of what it was like in Britain for someone coming from Japan over 50 years ago; she arrived in 1966, traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Originally from Kumamoto Prefecture, she met a British man while at university who eventually became her husband and decided to join another friend who wanted to travel abroad. It was a heady time when the London-based Mod subculture was just taking root. “London was at its height when I first arrived,” she recalled. “I had long hair like Yoko Ono and Mary Quant was in fashion. There wasn’t any smog anymore, but the buildings were black.” She said, “You could only phone home once a year. I went back maybe once every three or four years, but there are some who haven’t been back to Japan in 50, 60 years. “You don’t consider it bravery, but I couldn’t imagine (doing) it now. That’s the power of youth,” she reflected. Williams believes there isn’t much of a difference between the two countries now, but “only because the pioneers back then responded to the needs of the growing Japanese community. People who come over nowadays don’t know about this history,” she said. Some of the interviews from the project have been shown in public screenings, most recently at an event organized by the Japan Society in London. Japan Society Chief Director Heidi Potter considers the project a “valuable initiative” that tells the story of the Japanese community in Britain. “The testimonies being recorded through the Wasurena-gusa project will be welcomed by all who are interested in the personal dimension of the U.K.-Japan relationship, be they scholars or family members,” Potter said.

u.k .
expats
wasurena-gusa project
momoko williams