Category: Japan

Aichi Expo a hit after all, dammit

From Japan Today:

No. of expo visitors tops 5 million

NAGOYA — The number of visitors to the World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture surpassed the 5 million mark Monday morning, at a faster clip than the organizers’ anticipated, the Japan Association for World Exposition 2005 said.

The number is one-third of the 15 million visitors the association has set as the goal for the total number of visitors to the expo, which runs from March 25 to Sept 25. (Kyodo News)

Bastards. I’ll never live down missing this thing. It still sucks though, right?

Hey China, don’t ask Japan for any more apologies!

Last friday I had to go into Manhattan to　drop off my passport and visa application at the Taiwanese Consulate Taipei Economic and Cultural Center located near the corner of 42st Street and 5th Avenue, conveniently only about a block away from the New York City branch of the popular Japanese used book store Book Off to look around for a bit and spotted last year’s special March issue of the magazine Bungei Shunju (文藝春秋) containing the two stories that won the Akutagawa literary prize for new writers that year on sale for only $2, and having read the beginning of one of the stories (蛇にピアス / Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara) and I decided to pick it up to have something a little lighter to read for the five hour bus ride to DC than the books on Taiwanese history that I had brought with me. As it so happens, I was distracted by one of the more serious articles in the magazine, a piece by a Mr. Ma Li-cheng.

Ma Li-cheng was born in 1946 in the Sichuan province of China. He become a commentator for Hong Kong’s Phoenix Television in 2003, but in August 2004 quit that position and returned to Beijing. He has written several controversial pieces on Chinese/Japanese relations, one of which has been published in Japanese as Japan Doesn’t Need to Apologize to China Anymore (日本はもう中国に謝罪しなくていい）. The following article is a summary of that book’s argument, translated into Japanese and with commentary by Japanese journalist Satoshi Tomisaka. Mister Tomisaka’s comments will be in italics, and I will not put add any of my own, although I may post some of my thoughts after finishing the translation of the entire piece. I am not posting Ma Li-cheng’s article because I agree with everything he says, but I think that he does represent a different position from what is currently avaliable online in the English language, and that readers will find something interesting to think and comment on.

This post will be a centralized table of contents for the article, and as I translate each section I will post it in a new blog entry and update the table of contents below with a hyperlink to the appropriate post.

Hey China, don’t ask Japan for any more apologies!

By Ma Li-cheng
Edited by Satoshi Tomisaka

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: China has also invaded Japan
Part 3: Set aside the history probem
Part 4: Japanese nationalism
Part 5: The ‘Chinese Threat Theory’
Part 6: To a ‘Normal country’

Japanese Hostage Seems Like a Cool Guy


The face of a veteran

At the time of writing, the status of Security Guard Akihito Saito, kidnapped and reported injured in Iraq, was unknown.

As we all wait and pray for his safety, Japanese media outlets are busy digging up information on this enigma of a man. The 44-year-old former SDF member had a 21-year career in the French Foreign Legion, seeing action in Africa and Bosnia. A quiet man, it is unknown why he left the Legion to work in Iraq as a security consultant. The French Foreign Legion has a rule of not asking its members about their past and does not follow up on them after they leave. But it is known that he was fluent in French and acted as an interpreter for new Japanese recruits to the Legion (of which there are apparently quite a few!).

A lieutenant who served with Saito said, “He had a lot of friends at the Legion, so even if he has parted ways with us we pray for his safe release.”

UPDATE: I just had to add something. Japan, as a pacifist country, has few “veterans” save for the aging survivors of the Imperial Army. The positive representation this guy is receiving reminds me of glorification of soldiers that goes on in America. Could he be the first modern Japanese war hero?

Japan the “Linchpin” of US Security Interests: Highlights from the Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure of the United States

As you may be aware, the US military has been attempting to streamline in order to meet the threats of the 21st century. Donald Rumsfeld has his own plans, and his proposals (Base Realignment and Closure [BRAC]) include a large-scale reduction of domestic and overseas bases.

Not everyone is thrilled with the idea of corporate downsizing for the US military. The Commission on Review of Overseas Military Facility Structure of the United States, an independent commission chartered by a $3 million act of Congress, released a report last week that criticized key suggestions of Rumsfeld’s BRAC policy. According to the report, “Base structure is strategy itself,” and dismantling the most extensive military presence in the history of the world would be a major blow to American power. “Basing is strategy itself” claim the retired generals on the Committee.

OK, you ask, what does this have to do with Japan? Bases in Japan have always been somewhat controversial. Not only are they a foreign force, but Japan gets all the problems of a US military base (loud, violent soldiers, noise, etc) but few of the benefits that make domestic bases so hard to let go of (jobs, federal funding). The movement to get the Marines out of Futenma has grown stronger lately Rumsfeld and the Committee seem to differ somewhat on base policy in Okinawa. Part of BRAC policy is a reduction of Marine presence in Okinawa. The Commission makes it clear that US bases in Japan are the “linchpin” of US security interests in the region. A reduction of presence in response to local opposition would be a “front-loaded” strategy that threatens to leave America unprepared for future developments.

The Commission does not believe that the current discussion calling for the relocation of US Forces in Okinawa meets US security interests.

They recommend instead that they be relocated from Futenma to Kadena and/or Iwasaki (on the mainland). The base has been a source of controversy, with incidents including the rape of a local girl fueling the rage of local residents.

The wording of the report belies a fundamental mistrust of America’s allies. If you are to believe them, even stable countries like Japan would fall apart without a US presence. Of course, the authors of the report are certainly realistic enough to know that Japan would step up to meet its defense needs if it came down to it. They just see things in terms of “bases = influence” and they can’t imagine why America would want to give that up. It’s a hard position to argue against, to be sure, but it’s equally easy to see why the Japanese would chafe.

Other sources:
i-Newswire
Stars and Stripes
DoD News (on BRAC)

Japan’s Self Defense Force on a PR Offensive

セイギノオマケ3
Some scenarios for the latest shooting game from Konami:

  • Terrorists have holed up in a building and threaten to detonate a nuclear weapon, and the only ones who can stop them are you and your fellow soldiers. Kill the terrorists, save the hostages and don’t hit civilians!
  • There’s a boat carrying drugs into the country. Stop the mafiosos and protect the citizenry from the corruption of narcotics!

    • Sounds like a pretty normal first level for an American SWAT simulation, right? Well, this game was not made for an American audience. “Heroes of Justice” is a simulation of Japan’s Self Defense Forces and is reminiscent of the similar “America’s Army“, a game funded by the US Army’s recruitment program.

    Despite its constitutional ban on the use of force to resolve conflict, Japan maintains the Self Defense Forces as a de facto military. Recent developments have accelerated Japan’s progression toward an official military and stronger defense policy.

    The SDF celebrated its 50th anniversary last year in quiet ceremonies that did not make the news in America but included appearances by PM Koizumi and calls for “a rethinking of Japan’s defense capabilities.”


    It is in such a spirit of revived military development that Toho is remaking the film “Warring States vs. SDF 1549” (Sengoku Jieitai 1549). If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Oda Nobunaga fought the Japanese Self Defense Forces, here is your answer. Go to the site to watch a trailer that features modern soldiers being killed with arrows.

    These two releases are only the beginning of the SDF’s public relations assault. As Japan debates constitutional revision, its more conservative elements are effectively using pop culture as a promotional tool. Many Japanese, in fact, know little of the SDF or its role domestically and internationally. Placing it in the context of popular games and movies should lessen public opposition to making the SDF a legalized, regular army. Even the juxtaposition of the Warring States Period with the modern SDF will make the transition easier by drawing parallels to what Japanese people learn in school with a modern army. I’ll let you know when a subtitled torrent opens up.

    “Planet” connects everyone

    The biggest thing keeping me from being an avid fan of history, sports, Roman mythology, Pokemon, or what have you has always been the countless names you have to remember. It’s never enough just to know who Ichiro is or that he steals bases because that doesn’t come close to answering why his team hasn’t been to the world series in years. Who else is on the team? How do they train? Why are tickets so expensive? Why is it so stupid to root for the Yankees when you know they’re going to win? These are questions with no answers, yet they inspire some to spend their entire lives following statistics and analyzing the significance of every trade, every injury, every management change… but even a relatively contained and uncomplicated system such as American Major League Baseball is impossible to completely understand. That’s why you so often see people relying on superstitions (some of my friends swear by their rally caps) and curses to make sure their team wins. But curses, too, are occasionally broken. Where will it stop?! When can my mind finally take a break?!

    Thus, it has become clear to me that the daunting task of trying to comprehend the world on a macro level takes up valuable time that could be better spent blogging. As you may have noticed, I prefer to take comfort in the agenda-driven generalizations, half-understood slogans, and other baseless name-calling that make for great blog posts. However, when a cool article such as this one comes out, even I must sit up and take notice (OK, I sat on it for 2 months but who’s counting?). Enjoy my translation:

    By Nishida Mutsumi (March 21), editor, Nikkei Shimbun

    Few have heard of him today, but once there was a strange man named Hisahara Fusanosuke. After founding Hitachi and Japan Energy he went into politics, eventually to become the leader of the prewar Seiyukai. The man lived a roller-coaster life, eventually being brought before the Marunouchi Military Police Headquarters (the charges were later dropped).

    “The Planet Revolves” by Furukawa Kaoru (published by Nikkei BP), from Yamaguchi Prefecture (same as Hisahara), is the story of Hirahara’s life. “Planet” was a common nickname for politicians at the time, meaning “surprisingly able but somewhat reckless.”

    Hisahara married the younger sister of Aikawa Yoshisuke after being introduced by Inoue Kaoru, but previous to that he was dating a different woman and produced a daughter named Hisako. A young Ishii Koutarou (former House of Peers President) married this Hisako.

    Shimomura Nankai, Ishii’s professor at Kobe Business School who later became his boss at the Internal Affairs Ministry, suggested the marriage. “At first Ishii was against it, saying, ‘If I marry a famous person’s daughter, people will think all my achievements are because of him.’ But Shimomura was a skilled persuader, reassuring him, ‘That is up to your attitude. I don’t think you’re the type to break under pressure like that.'” (From “Reflecting on 88 Years” by Ishii Koutarou, published by Culture Publishing). That is what Ishii had to say in his memoirs.

    “Besides my older sister, there were several female members including Ishii Yoshiko, but in terms of age, Morimura Atsushi (who went blind at the Imperial Horse Show immediately after the War) was the youngest, and then next was me, then next was Umasugi Kikuko (Later Inoue Kikuko), a master equestrian rider (馬場馬術 — bababajutsu, possibly the coolest word in the Japanese language) who went on to perform in the Olympics after the War.” (From “The Distant Showa Period” by Ogata Shijurou (Asahi Shimbun Publishing)).

    The “me” in the previous paragraph is Ogata Shijurou, former Bank of Japan board member who took the job of Vice Chairman of the Japan Development Bank. Here Ogata tells of a prewar youth who enjoyed riding horses at the Tokyo Equestrian Institute.

    Ishii Yoshiko, who would later become a chamson singer, was the daughter of Ishii Koujirou and his wife Kumiko. Shijurou’s father was politician Ogata Taketora, and The Distant Showa Period’s subtitle is, “My father Ogata Taketora and Me.”

    Back when Shijurou the boy and Ishii Yoshiko were riding horses, Ishii Koujirou and Ogata Taketora were working at Asahi Shimbun together. Both Ishii and Ogata went on to become powerful politicians after the War.

    Shijurou’s wife is former UN High Counselor for Refugees Ogata Sadako. If you climb up Sadako’s family tree, you will find that her father was Nakamura Toyoichi, former minister extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Finland, her grandfather was Yoshizawa Kenkichi, a former Foreign Minister, and her great grandfather was the famous former Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi, whose assassination signaled the end of Taisho democracy. In Yomiuri Shimbun’s “Witnesses of an Era”, Sadako writes, “If you put the families of my husband and me together, the hidden areas of Showa history may come uncovered.”

    How interesting to look at recent and modern history while tracing the connections between people!

    Two interviews discuss Japan’s war apologies

    The Asahi, one of Japan’s three major daily newspapers, has two contrasting Q&A format opinion pieces regarding Japan’s recent problems with China and Korea that some people may find interesting. The first is with a German freelance journalist Gebhard Hielscher, who was formerly Far East correspondent for the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

    Q: What was your reaction to the recent outrage against Japan in China and South Korea?

    A: My impression is that all along, Japan has been deliberately not trying to face the past, and hoping that these issues would go away. Japan has been more concerned about its relationship with the United States.

    Running away from the issue of compensation to the two countries that were the main victims of Japan’s aggression, the Japanese have had it (protest) coming for all these years.

    Our (Germany’s) main victims, aside from the Holocaust, were the Soviet Union and Poland, and we have done a lot for them. I always leave out the Israel issue because it is not part of the comparison: Japan did not commit a Holocaust. But what we did in Poland, which is colonize it, can be compared to what Japan did in the Korean Peninsula.

    Germany didn’t pay direct reparations to Poland, or the Soviet Union, but the Allied Forces took a lot of industrial property out of Germany as a form of reparation. Also, Germany gave up 24 percent of its traditional territory to these two countries, the two biggest victims. We saw that as one way to pay our moral debt.

    The intreview given as a response to Herr Hielscher, which disagrees from what I would consider a rather moderate position, and not the extreme nationalist stance that has been irritating everyone, is by Keio University professor Tomoyuki Kojima an expert on Chinese and East Asian affairs.

    Q: Do you think Japan has compensated enough for wartime aggression, compared with Germany?

    A: In terms of state-to-state compensation, I would say Japan has done more through the process of normalizing relations with many of its neighbors.

    While there are countries that did not demand compensation, for those countries that did, we have paid compensation.

    In the case of China, both Taiwan, with whom Japan normalized relations first, and mainland China, declared they would forfeit claims for reparations.

    Taking the example of forced labor, a court has ruled that the former employer of forced laborers from China and Korea pay damages. But the same court did not rule on whether the state was liable, as that issue has been settled through bilateral negotiations.

    In the case of South Korea, for example, Japan agreed in 1965 to provide grants and loans to the country. There is a problem that it was not clearly referred to as “compensation,” but in reality both sides agree that is what it was.

    There are individual issues pertaining to the war that remain unresolved, and that is undeniable. Definitely Japan must do something.

    But my view is that it is not worthwhile to simply consider Germany a model and criticize Japan for lack of atonement for the past.

    Japan not yet totally cut off from East Asia

    The Mainichi’s English language Waiwai feature reports that not all of Japan’s international relations have been damaged beyond repair by recent diplomatic gaffes.

    One intrepid reporter braved the frontlines of China to find out.

    “Welcome, I’m Nana!” one of the older-looking hostesses in a black dress greeted him in Japanese. “Is this your first visit?”

    “Are you participating in a boycott of Japanese goods?” the reporter then asks her.

    “What you say? Me no understand?” she replies.

    “Never mind. Tell me, what do you think of the recent controversy over Japanese history textbooks?”

    “You know, your eyes have got a horny glimmer,” she counters. “It means you wanna do ‘rabu-rabu’ with me, right?”

    “Um, okay, let’s move on to a different subject. How do you feel about the prime minister’s making visits to worship at the Yasukuni Shrine?”

    “Hey, listen, if you no take me out, I’m really pitiful,” she nags. “I don’t make money hanging around this bar. You Japanese men are all lechers, but I’m good at doing ‘etchi.’ How about I give you nice blow job and then ride you on top?”

    And another conducted similar field research in Korea.

    There he is introduced to a hostess named Ruby, who croons a currently popular Korean tune, a stirring melody entitled “Tok-do belongs to us.”

    “This song used to be banned, but these days you often hear customers in Korea singing it,” she explains.

    “Should I take that to mean you intend to declare war on me?” the reporter asks.

    “Shhhhhs,” Ruby whispers. “Our ‘mama’ told us to avoid discussing political problems here at the club.”

    “You know actually,” the reporter thinks out loud, “I’d like to make that generous cleavage between your breasts my territory for a little while. What do you say?”

    Paradox of public opinion – SDF and Article 9

    Judging from the total lack of response to my last two postings, I trust no one will be terribly troubled if I go back on my word to make my next post about the implications of RMB revaluation, and write instead on Japanese constitutional reform.

    This morning’s Asahi print edition carried the results of the newspaper’s latest nationwide poll, which, in addition to the normal questions about support of political parties, contained a large number of questions about possible constitutional revision. (I had originally intended to translate the entire results and post them, but there are too many questions and too little time.)

    One thing the poll data reveals is an interesting paradox in public opinion with regard to the relationship between the SDF and Article 9. Although close three quarters of respondents indicated that the Constitution should be revised to either recognize the SDF’s existence (58%) or make it into a regular army (12%), when asked directly, a majority opposed revision to Article 9 (51%), with only slightly over a third favoring revision (36%).

    At the risk of oversimplifying things, it appears that although the Japanese like the SDF, and are increasingly in favor of revising their constitution, they remain wary of touching Article 9, which arguably prohibits the SDF’s existence. The Asahi argues that this paradox is rooted in the Japanese public’s acceptance of both Article 9 and the SDF.

    With regard to the SDF, only 7% of respondents said its existence was unconstitutional and should therefore be abolished in the future. Additionally, over half of the respondents said Japan should recognize the SDF’s ability to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, while one-third said they would do the same for SDF support for reconstruction in a country with an ongoing war.

    Concerning Article 9 on the other hand, 32% of all respondents said that out of the entire contents of the constitution, they were most concerned with Article 9, and just over three-quarters said they believed that Article 9 had played a role in [creating and maintaining?] peace and stability in Japan.

    This belief was even stronger (84%) among the 51% who opposed revision of Article 9. And even among those 58% of total respondents who believed that the constitution should recognize the SDF and that Article 9 had played a role in Japan’s peace and stability, nearly half of this group opposed revision of Article 9.

    That’s a lot of numbers to think about, and of course there are the usual caveats about the reliability of poll data, but there are a few other things worth considering here.

    First, one wonders if public support would remain high for UNPKOs and especially for reconstruction assistance in a war-torn country if a few Japanese peacekeepers met with the same fate as Belgian UN peacekeepers in Kigali in 1994.

    One might also wonder if Japanese politicians would be willing to risk political capital to put SDF forces in harm’s way. My guess is that given the lack of a past failure (i.e. no dead Japanese soldiers), and given that the ruling coalition was able to get away with the mission to Iraq, whatever public or opposition party resistance might exist would easily be overcome the first time around.

    Review: Into the Sun (SPOILER ALERT)

    Thanks Amazon

    This is a review (with spoilers) of Steven Seagal’s latest crapfest, Into the Sun, but first some background:

    Steven Seagal was 17 when he first made his way to Japan. By the time he left at age 32, he was the head of a major Aikido dojo in Osaka and spoke fluent Japanese. He then returned to his native California to become personal trainer to the stars.

    Eventually he met Hollywood mogul Michael Ovitz and the rest was history: crappy action movie after crappy action movie. Yet something always puzzled me about Seagal’s career: he rarely if ever brings up Japan and hasn’t really attempted to become a gaijin tarento despite his fluence in Japanese and obvious desire for stardom.

    There are a few possible explanations for such reluctance. In interviews, Seagal comes off as extremely humble (even though he could beat your ass just by thinking about it), a trait he likely learned in Japan. When asked why he left Japan, Seagal betrays his tough exterior and claims to be shy of the spotlight:

    When I was in Japan, people tried to deify me, and the reason I left there was that deification is truly a death trap. That is a reason why I kept my spiritual practice to myself in America. I don’t think deification has been one of my biggest problems in life because I am lucky enough to have understood a long time ago what adoration and power really are about. I think the great obstacle was just a lack of understanding of the way.

    My translation: “There’s no money to be made in Japanese showbusiness.” (See this good article for more on the Japanese entertainment industry)

    Anyway, Seagal’s first wife was Japanese, and depending on how bad their divorce was I would understand if he didn’t feel like immersing himself in Japanese stuff for a while.

    The actor seems to be coming out of his shell, finally, with his new movie Into the Sun. Let me start out by saying some nice things about the film. It was well-shot, there are lots of good-looking actresses dressed impeccably, and Japan is filmed very realistically and without the usual stereotypes. Seagal wrote the screenplay and obviously wanted to make sure his beloved Japan got treated well. The plot is ripped from the headlines as well, dealing with such up to the minute subjects as Japan’s ultra-conservative, anti-foreigner governor Ishihara Shintaro and the Chinese mafia’s expansion into Japanese territory.

    The plot: Seagal stars as a retired US government agent (CIA? Special Forces? We are never told) who grew up in Japan and has decided to live out his golden years as a part time sword salesman and a full time badass. However the yakuza/triad-related murder of the anti-foreigner governor of Tokyo forces the CIA to bring him out of retirement in hopes that they can crack the case. Why is the CIA investigating the murder of a Japanese politician? “They could be terrorists.” Welcome to post-9/11 America, where non-sequiturs like that are the major themes of presidential addresses.

    However, what the CIA (and the producers for that matter) didn’t bet on when they put Seagal on the case is that he is a complete fuck-up. Continue reading Review: Into the Sun (SPOILER ALERT)