Beside The Empty Seat*

A Somewhat Personal & Very Non-objective View Of What's Happening In Japan

Don't forget to check out the Gaijin's Tip of the Month & Where-to-Go!

Back in October, just after the last 'Empty Seat' went online, Japan welcomed home five Japanese who had been abducted by North Korea & forced to help train spies over in that 'workers paradise'. Now we won't go into why it took Japan so long to get these poor souls back, as I touched upon that last month. However, the Japanese media has been revealing either astonishing naivety or amazing stupidity -- or, more likely, both! Every time a journalist gets near one of these unfortunates, they ask them either how things were back in North Korea, or ask them if they would like to stay in Japan.  What sort of send-off do these low-life morons think Pyongyang gave these victims? 'Well go back to Japan & feel free to tell everyone what a nightmare you've had over here. Also, if anyone asks, make sure you say you'd love to stay in Japan as this place is a real dump! Oh, & we'll just keep your kids & relatives here so they can enjoy themselves while you're getting used to life in the real world.' Get real, you idiots! If they say a syllable about what really happened or how they truly feel, their loved ones back in North Korea will be dead & buried before you can say 'Beloved leader.' Not that this would bother the average tabloid journalist, of course. At least that's one thing North Korea doesn't have -- irresponsible journalists. Then again, they don't have any real journalists at all!
(Update: On October 28th, Pyongyang apparently showed 'displeasure' at Japan's having said the abductees could stay indefinitely. If the Japanese foreign ministry had any balls at all, it would tell them where to stick their 'displeasure' & immediately demand the abductees' kin, but life is rarely as we would wish!)

Now I'm sure we can all understand a chap wanting to impress his girlfriend but when that chap is an airline pilot & he impresses her by letting her wander around the flightdeck, I'm afraid my tolerant attitude weakens somewhat! However, that seems to be what happened during a round-trip Japan Airlines (JAL) flight in Okinawa in August. JAL, realizing that this just might lower people's faith in the airline's safety, announced that the 55-year-old pilot was suspended from his job for 60 days & had his pilot license suspended for 6 months. Seems that the pilot's female friend was on board a flight from Naha to Miyako on August 27 & the return flight the following day. The pilot, who was obviously thinking with a lower part of his anatomy than he should, ignored the co-pilot's warning when he allowed her into the cockpit. However, we can all sleep safely in our seats, as the pilot has apologised! Sound's fair to me!

The world is full of sick people, alas, & Japan is no exception, as revealed by the recent case of the Hiroshima man who sadistically murdered his cat & then posted pictures on the Internet. However, at least Japan revealed a suitably stern view of the offence. The full, sick story is that this 27-year-old cut off the tail, left ear and other parts of a stray cat using scissors. The next day, he strangled the poor creature using string & threw it into a river near his home. If he hadn't put pictures of his horrible crime on the Internet, he might have got away with it. However, his WWW antics led to the Fukuoka District Public Prosecutors Office receiving some 3,000 letters & email messages calling for the scumbag to be punished harshly. Let's hope that the pervert enjoys life in Japan's 'liberal' prison system for the next half year!

Talking of scumbags & perverts makes it easy to switch to the next subject. Lawyers. Yes, Japan has them & some are just as bad as in the West. For example. Back in 1990, a schoolgirl was forced at knifepoint into the trunk of a car & then held captive for more than 9 years. A 40 year old man was arrested, tried & sentenced to 14 years, including time given for his having stolen the girl's camisoles. Now his lawyer comes out & says this term is 'too harsh.' What about the sentence he gave that poor girl, let alone what happened to her while he had her? The lawyers (I wonder if they have daughters) claim that the Niigata District Court had failed to recognize that Sato suffered a personality disorder. As the poor girl (who was just 10 years old at the time of the abduction) has suffered atrophied leg muscles & other injuries from her confinement, I think that 10+4 is pretty lenient. Funnily enough, the lawyer had nothing to say about the police's part in this, i.e., taking SO long to find her & then claiming credit for her rescue, when it was local health officials who found her & saved her. 

There may be a recession here but working mums are still the exception, as a recent survey by the Ministry of Health shows. According to the MoH, two-thirds of working women who gave birth to their first child in 2001 have since given up their jobs. The survey questioned the parents of just over 50,000 babies born last year, & also found (big surprise) that fathers' involvement in household & child-rearing work is limited, especially when it comes to meal preparation, dishwashing, child feeding, cleaning & washing. More than 70% of these dads said they never or almost never prepared meals or washed clothes even if their spouses have jobs! Sex equality is just a nice idea over here, as you can plainly see! The MoH is trying to find out why the Japanese birth-rate is falling, but it seems to me that one reason if that women are pissed off after having & caring for the first kid on their own & don't want to repeat the experience! In more ways than one, salarymen might well be the cause of Japan's lack of babies!

Christians are a very small minority here, less than 1%, but some recent news will certainly have upset the Pope had he read it. You see, the municipality of Kushiro in Hokkaido decided, quite commendably, to relying on chastity wasn't enough to deal with the high abortion rate or AIDS. With surveys showing that around 30% of male high school students & 40% of the girls have had sexual experiences, they are undoubtedly right. So that progressive city held a 'Health Festival' back on October 12,m which included a 'Sex Corner', featuring some 50 varieties of condoms, a VCR explaining their function & use, & attendants passing out free condoms to teens on request. There were, of course, protests from locals about having school boys & girls carrying condoms in their pockets & bags, but luckily the city was undaunted. Sadly, this far-sighted gesture may not have reached all it needed to, for of the 2,000 condoms supplied to the exhibit, only 1,000 were handed out. All we can do now is wait & see if Kushiro's rate for teenage abortions (currently almost double the national average) declines. Anyway, whatever others might say, I support the move, for lack of condoms won't stop a randy teenager -- it certainly didn't stop me!

Praise where praise is due & so I would very much like pay tribute to Yoshio Nakazawa, a 28-year-old firefighter of the Osaka Fire Department. This heroic chap was killed back on November 6th when he was hit by an express train as he tried to rescue a 14-year-old boy injured by another train. A fellow firefighter & the boy also suffered serious injuries. The tragedy began when the boy was injured while playing a hide-&-seek game with school friends. It could of course be argued that the boy caused that firefighter's death by playing where they shouldn't, but surely some of the blame belongs to whichever idiot failed to stop ALL trains from passing through that station. whoever is to blame, the firefighter was a brave & dedicated professional & deserves all the praise & compensation he gets -- & more!

A recent report showed that 20% of Japanese companies monitor employee email, but if you think that's bad, how about killing an employee by confining him & refusing him access to food! I kid you not! It seems that the owner of a Tokushima city car repair shop confined a 23-year-old employee in a lavatory or a car boot & starved him to death. The dead man was what they now term as 'mentally challenged' & it was his family who recommended that he work & stay with his future killer. The poor victim disappeared in early 1999 & police have found a badly decayed body where the garage owner's confession led them. So far, no reason has been given for the murder. However, it's reassuring that whatever some may say about the divine nature of the Japanese, they still have weirdoes & evil sods like everywhere else!

Say That Again . . .
Last year, a nut with a knife attacked a school in Ikeda, killing 7 children. He was, of course, arrested & even though he may not be able to escape the death penalty he so richly deserves, Japan's judicial system still gives him many more years of life as he waits for appeals, etc. The parent of one of the murdered children, Fumiko Moriwaki, recently said something that many parents in such a hellish situation might agree with, although the afterthought is very Japanese:

'I want to kill the defendant myself but there is the law.'

Sadly, there will be plenty of lawyers & do-gooders who put his rights above those of the children he killed.

Memories of the nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway are still very fresh here, so you can imagine how people felt when a nightclub in Shinjuku's Kabukicho entertainment district suffered a tear gas attack back on November 13th.  Nothing worse than sore throats seems to have resulted & even though the Tokyo metropolitan police said they suspect tear gas or a similar spray was released as a prank, it isn't very reassuring. This is especially true when one recalls that there was a very similar tear gas attack at 2 bars just 50 meters away in early October. The police deny any link but are questioning 6 male customers who left the club complaining of poor service just before the incident. Four spray cans were found inside their car in front of the nightclub, but the men denied involvement 

One of the questions raised by the mini poll on this page concerns racism in Japan. Racism is, of course, banned by the constitution but it happens, like the Ginza soul music nightclub whose sign says 'Japanese only' & the public bathhouses that ban foreigners. However, sometimes, the foreigners fight back. This was shown when the Sapporo District Court recently ordered the operator of a private bathhouse in Hokkaido to pay ¥3 million yen in compensation to 3 men because it had a policy of rejecting foreign customers. The 3 men concerned were a German, an American &, would you believe, a naturalized Japanese! The bathhouse admitted it had put up a sign saying 'Japanese Only' in English, claiming that the behaviour of drunken Russian sailors at similar facilities in the region had caused Japanese customers to stay away. So why not have a sign saying 'No drunks'? They didn't get round to that. Anyway, the sign wasn't accurate, as the naturalized Japanese showed them his driver's license as proof of his Japanese citizenship but was still turned away! Seems no government act can stop a foreigner being a foreigner here! 

Sad to see Japan joining the list of nations who eagerly rush to keep China happy no matter how demeaning. Tokyo recently announced that it will not issue a visa to former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui. Here we have the former leader of a wealthy, democratic & friendly nation being told he is not welcome, not because he has a criminal record or is undesirable, but merely because the corrupt dictators in Beijing are afraid of Taiwan being treated as what it is -- a nation! The evil men who massacred their own citizens in Tienanmen Square are welcome everywhere but not anyone from Taiwan's government! Their business is welcome but if nation's had a servant's entrance, they'd be forced to use it. President Bush has voiced his support for the people of Taiwan but this slap in the face by Tokyo makes it clear whose side Japan would be on if China carries out its threat of invading that island.

Gaijin's Tip:

'Don't be upset because Japanese trains don't run all night. The railways use the night hours to inspect & maintain the tracks, one reason why public transport here is so safe to use.'
(Taken from the 'Gaijin's Guide to Living in Japan')

&

Gaijin's Where-to-Go

'Now that the weather is getting colder, spending some time indoors reading magazines from around the world might sound attractive. If so, check out the World Magazine Gallery near Higashi-Ginza Subway. It even has its own coffee shop. Open 11am-7pm, Monday-Friday, Free admittance. For more information, call 03-3545-7227.'

'For more information, check out the 'Gaijin's Guide to Enjoying Tokyo'

First visit to 'The Empty Seat' & want to see what you missed before? No problem! You can check out the Gaijin's previous ramblings as easily as clicking below.

• April/May 2002 issue

• May/June 2002 Issue

• June/July 2002 Issue

• July/August 2002 Issue

• August/September 2002 Issue

• September/October 2002 Issue

• October/November 2002 Issue

That's it for another month. Autumn has been a big disappointment so far, with grey clouds & low temperatures instead of sunshine & a nip in the air -- no pun intended! By the time the next 'Empty Seat' goes online, it'll be winter for real so as going out won't be much fun, you might as well pop over & see what the Gaijin has to say. You'll be as welcome as always. Until then, take care of yourselves & may the wind be always at your back.

The Gaijin

Don't forget: If you want to know when the next 'Empty Seat' is online, or you just want to contact the ol' Gaijin, you can always use the Guestbook link just below. Everything will be read & then . . . Well, we'll see!

Read my Dreambook guestbook!

Sign my Dreambook!