Category: Japan

Japan’s religious right part 1

My post about popular right-wing blog mumur has stirred some interest on 2ch. That has led me to try and look into just what the mumur blog is about, which hasn’t been easy. Despite being the 19th most popular blog in Japan right now, there’s no wikipedia entry for it, and no real description of the author on the blog itself. That’s pretty typical of a lot of blogs (like Kikko’s), so that doesn’t surprise me. Anonymous message boards are so common in Japan that they are a main feature of one of the most popular manga/anime in Japan right now, Death Note (the movie version of which was terrible, btw).

The content mainly consists of criticism of the media (Mainichi and Asahi, two left-leaning organizations, get the brunt of it) from a perspective similar to that of anti-American right wing manga artist Yoshinori Kobayashi (who actually has a pretty good English wiki article. Seemingly tied into the very concept of the blog, considering that it is subtitled “Site to support Tokyo Municipal Assemblyman Hiroaki Hatsushika” (in a reference to the campaign the blog led to harass the man), mumur regularly identifies people (usually public figures) whom he directs his readers to harass for their unacceptable actions. It’s reprehensible conduct that is sadly likely to go unpunished given that Japan’s remedies for libel are weak.

But in my brief research, I came across a forum thread in which a number of people claimed that mumur was among Japan’s “religious right” and cited as “evidence” the observation that mumur observes some of their common traits:

1. Writes frantic responses that would be inconceivable by common sense standards.
2. Pretends to be multiple people using dial-up connections. Also there will be many posts from multiple sources but from the same area.
3. As soon as the topic comes to religion the pace of posts drops.
4. Frantically emphasizes the fact that “I’m an average person.” An average person wouldn’t write frantic responses.
5. Hates deletions. It seems there is an order to post “a deletion means you lose” when that happens.
6. It seems there is an order to post “people like you are just a small sample” to the object of their abuse.
7. Hates Kobayashi, who betrayed right-wing religions and criticized the Iraq war.

Now, among the attentive, Japan-focused English-speaking public there’s some recognition of Japan’s right wing and their belief in the holiness of the emperor, etc. Less well-known is the large number of right-aligned religious groups that form a major wing of the conservative elements in Japan. The issue is especially poignant now that news stories have broken indicating that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is a follower of “Ekojuku.”

Let me point out that I have no idea who writes for the mumur blog, so in no way do I wish to imply that this anonymous person is a member of any specific religious group. Quite the contrary, I often have no idea what to believe on the Japanese net since it’s so mired in conspiracy and backdoor manipulation. All I’m saying is that reading about mumur inspired me.

For starters, let’s take a look at one of the main groups:

Unification Church: The well-known group known as the Moonies is very active in Japan (perhaps the most followers of any country) and is subject to many conspiracy theories, including that the right wing textbook writing group “Tsukuru kai” is controlled by church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon. A recent scandal hit PM Shinzo Abe after videos surfaced showing that Abe had sent a letter of congratulation to a mass wedding earlier this year. The discovery seemingly backs up rumors of continued close ties between the church and Japan’s elites (including Abe’s grandfather and several other former prime ministers) due to his contributions to the fight against Communism during the Cold War. The founder is well-known for his conservative beliefs and support of the Republican Party. The group is controversial in Japan for the fanatical devotion of its followers, its many dummy corporations, and its fraudulent sales of “spiritual goods” at inflated prices. The Japanese government began monitoring the church after Moon was known to have deepened ties with North Korea. (Source: incredibly long Japanese wikipedia article)

OK, it’s getting late, so other groups will have to wait.

PM Shinzo Abe a cult member?

Last week’s issue of weekly news magazine Shukan Asahi contained a feature story claiming to have strange video footage of Shinzo Abe attending a party in Nov 2002. This was around the time of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il’s admission of his country’s secret program to kidnap Japanese people. Abe, then Dep. Chief Cabinet Secretary, saw his star begin to rise as he received credit for pushing a strong protest of the program. At the party, for Ekojuku (Wisdom Light School), a “business consultancy” that uses fortunetelling and magic energies from the (now-deceased) founder’s hands to give business and career advice. The party was held to celebrate the birthday of the company’s founder, Hitoyoshi Mitsunaga.

Abe’s speech to the crowd gathered was as follows, in translation:

“Every November I attend Mr. Mitsunaga’s birthday party. We have a long relationship that goes back to the days of my father. Each and every day there are lots of hectic goings-on, but I am thankful, knowing that this is truly thanks to Mr. Mitsunaga. I would really like Mr. Mitsunaga to send his power to the diplomats in negotiations with North Korea now, and defeat North Korea. This is how I feel.”

The article goes on to detail numerous meetings between the two (who hail from the same area of Yamaguchi prefecture), the fact that Abe was a board member on some of Mitsunaga’s companies, and some dealings that the Abe family had with Mitsunaga. Sure, the man’s beliefs are his own business I suppose, but it just irks me that crucial details like the man’s philosophy (i.e. magic hand energies can sway diplomatic negotiations) don’t make it into English-language media reporting on a major world leader. Somewhat less irksome is the absence of credit given to Abe for his 2002 best dresser award.

I don’t feel like going into detail on this now, I just wanted it covered since I am working on a post about right wing religions in Japan.

Behind the Deletion of 30,000 Japanese videos from Youtube

You may have heard that YouTube deleted 30,000 Japanese videos from YouTube on the request of the powerful music industry group JASRAC. Well, here’s an article that goes into more detail on the efforts to quash the online sharing of copyrighted content.

Translated/paraphrased (translaphased?) from Nikkei (via 2ch):

Behind the Scenes of the “Request to Delete 30,000 Files” from Youtube – The 2nd Act May be to “Eliminate Anonymity”

Even if you did not receive complaints after putting another person’s music on your blog without permission in the 5 days following Oct 2, you should not rest at ease. That is because JASRAC’s monitoring team was constantly connected to American video posting site YouTube from 9 to 5 during that period. We have taken a look at the “Week of Strengthening Measures Against Youtube” during which 23 copyright-holding companies and groups launched a concentrated attack, making simultaneous requests for deletion.

“30,000 videos in 5 days” the Limit

JASRAC was responsible for about 10% of the 30,000 deleted videos. It’s a tiny number compared to the tens of thousands of videos per day on YouTube, but even regularly having a special person in charge of going around various sites on the Internet and monitoring copyright infringements, we were told in what was close to a scream, “Deletion procedures are an extremely minute process. Anything more than that is impossible.”

On YouTube, there is a web site, which regular users cannot see, that is reserved for rightsholders for them to request that videos be deleted. They search for videos by keyword and place a check next to videos subject to the request. Once the deletion request is sent to YouTube, most of the time deletion is completed the next day.

These requests seem simple, but they are rather work intensive. The page is of course in English. Since the name of the song used in the video is not displayed, there are times when it is impossible to judge whether the video actually constitutes a violation unless it is watched to the end. They cannot neglect to listen to even one part of the song.
Continue reading Behind the Deletion of 30,000 Japanese videos from Youtube

Automobiling in 1906 – Locomobile in the Mikado’s Empire

Looking through the NYT online archives, which now allow viewing of articles back to 1851 with a Times Select account, I came across a Jan 18, 1906 feature on an auto-show at Madison Square Garden, in which I found three fascinating nuggets. Each one gets its own post.

After all, why even bother bringing an automobile without a native to drive it for you?

＊ ＊ ＊
BUYS AUTO FOR JAPAN

Good Touring Roads There, Says Mr. Thompson-Society at the Shows

An automobile that will be taken to Japan for touring purposes was purchased yesterday at the Madison Square Garden show by J.W. Thompson, who has just returned to New York after a residence of three years in the Mikado’s empire. Mr. Thompson’s purchase was a 30-35 horse power locomobile. He was the first man to introduce the motor car into Japan, his first car having been used there in 1900. Mr. Thompson said last night that the roads of Japan were excellent for automobiling, but owing to the heavy import duty few motor cars have been brought into the country. His greatest difficulty was in teaching the native the mechanical construction of the car so as to make them capable chauffeurs and repairers.

Aso in the mist

So tonight I was at a huge party at the Imperial Hotel welcoming one of the international bigwigs of PricewaterhouseCoopers to town. It was a major affair. They booked an enormous banquet room, and provided foreign guests with earphones so they could listen to simultaneous translations of Japanese speeches from the major partners in the tax and advisory wings of PwC. Then the bigwig came up to speak, and he had a Japanese interpreter copying each sentence of his English speech. A slightly more stilted performance.

Finally came the guest of honor: the Foreign Minister himself. He wandered out onto the podium, looking slightly drunk, and proceeded with his speech… in English. Now, Aso doesn’t exactly speak perfect English to begin with, and being red-faced didn’t help too much either. He stumbled around a talk about international business for a couple of minutes, then turned to the interpreter (who was still hanging around from the last speech) and shouted “All right, now translate it!”

One of my companions looked down at his simultrans earpiece and said “I wonder if he’ll get the message if I put this on?”

Right wing blog, 2-channel harassing Mainichi reporter of Korean ancestry for left-wing stances, speaking rudely about emperor

Popular right wing nutjob blog murmur mumur, along with his buddies at 2ch, are furious over the behavior of a reporter for the Mainichi Shimbun, a third-generation zainichi (Japanese of Korean ancestry) named Park Chong Ju, at recent press conferences given by the Saga prefectural governor (UPDATE: For the record, murmur’s blog hasn’t commented on the emperor press conference specifically, but he probably will since Park is the subject of a “series” on the blog). In particular, people are angry over a 9/28 press conference given by the Saga prefectural governor announcing that the emperor would be attending a ocean-themed festival (that apparently already took place on 10/29) in the prefecture. Park was rude when questioning the necessity of spending millions of dollars to bring the emperor to the prefecture when govt finances are in trouble. He not only failed to use the proper honorifics when speaking of the emperor and his wife (calling the imperial couple “those two” rather than the formal 天皇皇后両陛下 “their majesties, the emperor and empress”), he questioned “the meaning” of an imperial visit, suggested that the money spent on the imperial visit could be used to help “the less fortunate,” and asked whether people would be forced to wave the Japanese flag, an act controversial among Japan’s left wing. Others were annoyed by his “interrogation” style of questioning, which is actually pretty common from what I’ve observed of reporters. It’s not pretty, but it’s also not something that’s usually publicized since press conferences like this have only recently been posted in full online and by their nature are not that popular to watch.

You can watch the video on Youtube or take a look at the transcript. In Japanese only.

To express his dissatisfaction with Park, Murmur mumurhas decided to use his favorite tactic and put up Park’s personal information, including mobile phone number, business card, and photographs, in an attempt to encourage readers to harass the man and contact his employers to complain about his performance. Consider it the online equivalent of black sound trucks outside a Communist Party picnic.

Basically, Zainichi can do no good in the eyes of the Japanese right wing. Almost anything Koreans do sets them up for ridicule and scorn, or denouncements as spies in their midst. The mere knowledge that a well-known person has Korean blood makes them a member of the Korean conspiracy. Apparently this reporter has an activist streak who thinks of himself as a representative of the people (a more recent incident had the Saga governor informing Park “This isn’t a place for reporters to state their opinions!”). He’s written articles critical of revisionist textbooks and in favor of allowing more government participation for the zainichi population, in addition to his critical stance on using tax revenues on the emperor’s visit.

As another commenter on 2ch pointed out, these stances make Park an easy straw man for those with a more conservative outlook (the majority of 2ch for starters). There have been several threads posted criticizing his manners, politics, and the definition of his own role as a reporter.

I want to say stuff like this makes me feel good about the state of American political discourse, but of course we’re no better, what with our own countless examples of petty harassment.

PSE Law update: Call for comments

You may remember the April 2006 flap about a law in Japan that bans the sales of a whole slew of used electronics, such as the original Playstation and used musical instruments, unless they could be tested to earn a seal proving their electrical safety. In response to massive protest from musicians and secondhand retailers, the relevant ministry, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), came up with a stopgap solution – allow and assist dealers in performing the tests themselves – that would supposedly. help ease the burden on the “recycle” industry. I, lacking the intuition to know a half-baked compromise idea when I see one, declared METI’s bone-throw along with other loopholes in the law to have “thoroughly declawed” the painful aspects of the PSE Law.

However, a recent survey conducted by the “Japan Reuse Association” indicates the following:

  • 47% of secondhand electronics retailers have stopped selling affected recycled goods that don’t already have the PSE mark;
  • 33% are inspecting and affixing the PSE stickers themselves;
  • 6% are making use of a “rental” scheme in which buyers of affected goods sign a rental contract for the goods but never actually have to return it and pay a rental fee equal to what would have been the purchase price; and finally,
  • 6% are ignoring the law and selling affected goods as they always have.

    • So regardless of METI’s attempt to ease the transition, if this survey is correct the new regulations are significantly harming the industry, and by extension, consumers. In that sense, the “assistance measures” taken up by METI seem to have had only limited effect.

    So to get the real scoop, here’s what I want to know from you: is this what it looks like on the ground? Can one easily buy old Playstations/Dreamcasts/Saturns etc at the “recycle” shops in Japan?

    Now keep in mind this survey came from an industry group chaired by a Mr. Koichiro Ogawa, a secondhand “wholesaler” and former chair of the “Association to Consider the PSE Issue” who was quoted in many articles during the PSE scare. The group was founded specifically to try and get the law amended so that it makes sense.

    How not to win an appeal

    A 30-year-old man appealing a ruling of death for killing and robbing four people in separate cases in Nagano and Aichi prefectures in 2004 said Wednesday he had killed another woman in Fukushima in 2003.

    In a hearing at the Tokyo High Court, Shojiro Nishimoto said, “I killed a woman probably in the city of Fukushima in around April or May of 2003,” adding that he abandoned her body “in the mountains.”

    “I hit her while inattentively driving a car…(and)…strangled her with a rope as she made a struggle,” he said.

    Totally defensible!

    (full story)