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ISSUE: June/July 2003 |
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I read a very interesting article the other day, asking the simple question -- if Japan is in or near a recession, then why doesn't it act that way? It's true, you know. If you visit Tokyo, you'll see the pavements of the Ginza thronged with shoppers, the restaurants full & queues outside the cinemas. You may see homeless (living in 'tent cities' in almost every park) but you won't see beggars. What's more, you won't see people shabbily dressed & the garbage dumps are filled with seemingly almost new electrical & household items. So is Japan in recession or not? Not really. While young ladies can still afford to pay prices like phone numbers for bags & shoes, & spend around $50 or more on a luncheon buffet, Japan cannot be doing so badly. Yeah, sure, the economy is depressed & there is a lot of overdue belt-tightening going on, but don't start writing obituaries for Japan yet. There's plenty of life in this dog yet. The government is a different story . . .
I don't want to sound like a spoilsport but I am not someone who likes going on rollercosters & other rides designed to terrify you. Life is frightening enough without paying for the privilege! However, those of you crazy enough to like those rides should be a little less selfish. I am referring to the story I spotted in a newspaper a week or so back, saying that people living close to a new amusement park in downtown Tokyo are complaining that the screams from people riding a popular roller coaster are making their lives unbearable. Seems that the residents of an apartment block near the LaQua amusement park, which features a ride called the 'Thunder Dolphin', have asked Tokyo's noise pollution screening committee for help. The trouble began back on May 1st when the $141 million amusement park opened next to the Tokyo Dome sports stadium in Suidobashi. Neighbours had expressed concerns about noise while the park was being built, but the operator told them it was designed to be below the city's limit of 60 decibels in the day & 55 decibels at night. However, they forgot to factor in screaming from the riders. The rather lame reply from the owners was 'Does that mean we should tell them not to scream?'. Not surprisingly, the neighbours are not convinced, some of them are in a position to help the complaint. For example, an official at the Adachi Ward Office, which is just blocks away from the park, who said 'I didn't expect the screaming from the rides to be so noisy' . 'The level is comparable to riding on a train. It's quite unpleasant,' he said. The Thunder Dolphin goes up to 80 mph & operates from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. A recent test found the noise level just outside the park reached 79 decibels, far exceeding the legal limit. Possible steps the Tokyo Dome could take to reduce noise include building a wall around the park or installing double windows at nearby residences, ward officials said. Living in Tokyo can often be a less than tranquil experience, but thrill-seekers screaming their damn heads off is a bit too much!
Now that the Iraq war is almost officially over, it is to be hoped that America & the West will remember that Saddam wasn't the worst or more dangerous dictator around. However, just as certain Europeans helped make Saddam more powerful, so that curly haired looney in Pyongyang didn't get his arsenal without help. Where from? Guess! According to Lee Bok Koo, a North Korean defector who claims he was involved in North Korea's missile development program until 1997, the Stalinist state is highly dependent on Japanese technology for its missile programme, importing 90% of missile components from Japan. Lee said he was involved in the development of missile guidance systems & that semiconductors & other necessary components were imported directly from Japan. However, just in case you think the Japanese completely stupid, he did add that these imports from Japan fell sharply after North Korea test-fired a Nodong ballistic missile in 1993; productivity shrank 30% as result. This gives rather a different face to Japan's fear of a North Korean attack, & makes me wonder whether we should be leaning on Japan to control itself as well as North Korea!
Anyone who has ever been here knows that in Japan, the legal loan sharks are both common & amongst the most prolific advertisers. However, bad & ruthless as these 'Non-bank financial institutions' may be, they are not the worst. That distinction may belong to the illegal lenders. These groups, known locally as 'sarakin', have recently shown that their almost legendary tenacity in pursuing delinquent debtors has grown with the shrinking economy. I refer to the case of one employee of a Tokyo-based moneylender who phoned his customer's daughter at her school in Hokkaido, not once but three times, & demanded she pass a message to her parents that repayment had to be made. School staff reacted pretty well to this intimidation (the message included 'If something happens to the kid on her way home, you won't know about it'),, & immediately withdrew the child from her class & accompanied her home. However, this is unlikely to deter scum like this. The sarakin operate by obtaining lists of borrowers who owe money to two or more companies. They then phone these unfortunate fools offering to help them out. They arrange to send ¥20,000 to ¥30,000, but even if the sucker pays them back on the spot, these kindly folk demand an interest payment of ¥10,000 & keep compounding this amount until it reaches several hundreds of thousands of yen. It is to be hoped that cases like this might make Japan tighten up its lax laws on money lenders, or use the laws it has more forcefully. However, when even stock exchange listed 'sharks' operate in ways that would make a Western cop apply for a warrant, that seems sadly unlikely.
The Japanese 'economic miracle' may seem like a bad joke now but tit did happen, transforming a distinctly third world country into the modern nation I now call home. However, that 'miracle' was not achieved without a price, as is revealed in a new book by a long-term foreign resident of Japan who spent 6 years researching the Japanese government & the way it manages the land, economy, bureaucracy, & society.. The book, 'Dogs and Demons: Tales from the dark side of Japan' by Alex Kerr (Hill and Wang, New York) is somewhat depressing for we gaijin but it shouldn't be too depressing for non-residents, for as he points out, Japan has become less relevant, both economically & politically, since the bursting of the bubble. But going back to that price I mentioned. Take a look at these interesting facts:
* All but 3 of Japan's 113 major rivers have been either dammed or diverted;
* Japan spends 3 to 4 times more than the US on public-works projects, even though it is 5% of the size;
* More than half of the entire Japanese coast is encased in cement;
* Construction investment is about 18% of the GDP in Japan, compared with 12.4% in the UK & less than 9% in the US;
* Japan raises about 30 times as much concrete per square foot as the United States.
One reason why Japan is 'over-modernising' & failing to respond to the different problems of today is the bureaucracy, which is a terrifying combination of power & institutionalised corruption. Think your home country has red tape? Imagine this: To teach aerobics in Japan (hardly a dangerous or unusual occupation), you have to go through 4 agencies & buy 6 permits, costing around ¥650,000 (US$5,520 or €4,730). But, I hear someone argue, some of those grandiose public works projects have made Japan the ultra-convenient place it is, improving the quality of life. Like the airport built to shuttle radishes to the capital (even though it is too expensive to actually ship them that way)? Similarly, whilst most of the world is demolishing dams, Japan has plans for 500 new ones in the next 10 years. So why build such 'follies'? Simple -- to provide employment in the rural constituencies, where due to Japan's perverted democracy, votes have much more weight. The one reassuring thing about this book for me was the comforting feeling that I am not the only one that thinks this nation's potential is being criminally wasted, & that the politicians are partying while we sit on a speeding escalator going down!
Remember that Japanese photographer whose lame idea of a souvenir from Iraq killed a Jordanian official? Well, believe it or not, when he (Hiroki Gomi) appeared in Jordan's state security court, he pleaded not guilty. However, in line with those Japanese executives who run a company into the ground but are forgiven just because they say sorry, he has offered an apology to the family of the dead airport security guard & to the Jordanian people. The unfortunate official, Ali Sarhan, (aged just 26 & due to be married a week later), died instantly when a device he found in Gomi's luggage exploded as he examined it at Queen Alia International Airport on May 1st. In his defence, Gomi said he thought the bomblet (for that was his chosen souvenir) was already spent & wouldn't explode. Luckily for him, Jordan's military prosecutor has reduced the charges from premeditated murder (punishable by death) to 'illegal possession of explosives leading to the unintentional death or unintentional harm' of an individual, which can carry 7½-15 years in prison. Furthermore, the dead young man's family has waived their personal rights in the case, which could pave the way for a more lenient sentence for Gomi. He's a lot luckier than he deserves! Being Japanese, it is extremely unlikely that he had ever seen a 'bomblet' in his life, & so his opinion as to its safety isn't exactly infallible. If he had just bought macadamia nuts like every other Japanese traveller, that young guard would be alive & well right now!
Don't let the fact that I live here fool you -- Japan doesn't just let anyone in, & that includes celebrities. If you don't believe me, ask blues singer Ike Turner. He was due to be the star of the 'Japan Blues Carnival '03' but the immigration boys at Kansai International Airport had other ideas & denied him entry into Japan because of a 1989 US conviction for cocaine possession, for which he served time in jail. With typical diplomacy, the promoter of the 4-day annual event posted a message on its Japanese web site informing fans that 'Ike Turner had changed his mind at the last moment & was unable to perform.' However, this decision is not exactly logical -- as if the immigration boys usually were! Turner's manager has claimed that the singer had performed in Japan several times since his conviction & a spokesman for the promoter complained that other celebrities such as Paul McCartney & soccer star Diego Maradona, also convicted of drug offences, had been allowed into Japan. However, one thing any sensible gaijin soon learns here is never to argue with the Immigration Department, & logical or otherwise, Ike held, questioned for nearly 5 hours & given a deportation order. So remember: They don't take just anybody -- it just seems that way!
AS regular readers will know, Japan's ability to 'interpret' World War 2 in a different way to everyone else never ceases to amaze me. The latest 'novel' theory about the cause of the Pacific War claims that it was all America's fault & that the Japanese were the victims of the war. Not surprising, maybe, but worrying when the speaker is the head of a government education panel! According to this apologist, it was the US decision to stop oil exports to Japan that caused the war, somehow forgetting to mention WHY the US did so. He spoke at a meeting which is seeking to resolve Japan's education problems, & he was one of many who claim (bizarrely) that the inclusion of patriotism in a revision bill for the 1947 Fundamental Law of Education will solve everything. Excuse me, but what's the weather like in whatever world he lives in! Doesn't all this talk of 'teaching patriotism' (a strange notion in practical terms) remind you of pre-war Japan? Isn't this a nasty step on the slippery slope towards a divine emperor & all that went with it? Japan suffered a nasty recession after the great 1923 earthquake & this is often cited as a contributory factor to the rise of militarism. With the economy down in the basement right now, knowing that idiots like that bureaucrat are being paid for saying things like that is more than a little worrying.
Say That Again . . .
If you are planning to fly by a Japanese airline, especially on a domestic route, you might want to skip the next bit. Regular readers might remember the story (in the Nov/Dec 2002 issue) of a p
'He's the captain, so if he wants to bring a woman into the cockpit, there's nothing ordinary crew members like us can do about it.'
A very worrying quote was recently carried by the best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. It was originally said by a Tochigi prefectural government official, criticizing the lack of leadership from Tokyo on the SARS crisis. He said:
'When we asked the central government what we should do, they just said 'Do what you can.''
In case you're wondering, Tochigi is less than 100km north of Tokyo -- & is where I used to live!
One of the weirdest quotes of the last month came from a lady named Junko Ogata, who has been charged with killing 6 people, including relatives. Now she admits administering electric shocks to her 61-year-old father but added:
'I didn't imagine he'd die.'
She has officially denied any intent to kill him.
Finally, on a strangely romantic note, we have a quote from a 51-year-old assistant police inspector in Kanagawa who was arrested for operating a sex shop with a 40-year-old Chinese woman. Why did he do it?
'I didn't want her to be taken by any other customers.'
Who said romance was dead!
Some of you folks might have thought that I am too harsh when criticising Japan's police forces, but I can now offer official proof that they are not what they should be. My evidence comes from no less a source than Atsuyuki Sassa, the first director general of Japan's Cabinet Security Affairs Office, who recently wrote in the periodical 'Bungei Shunju' that Japan used to boast excellent public security, but nowadays its arrest rate for criminal offences is only 19.8%, ahead of the United States but behind Britain, France, & Germany. According to this gentleman, the arrest rate for violent crimes (homicide, robbery, arson, & rape), which had long been around 90%, hit a post-World War II low of 61.2% in fiscal 2001 (April 2001-March 2002). He blames this worrying decline on, amongst other things, the collapse of the Koban (police box) system, a shortage of staff, & declining morals among the police (something not exactly unnoticed by yours truly). The first factor has been caused by the transfer of police officers from the Koban to headquarters, to deal with the increase in crime. This has led to fewer offenders being caught in the act, & has also reduced crime prevention capabilities. The second factor is indeed cause for concern, though barely mentioned here. Amongst the 5 countries mentioned above, Japan suffers from the worst shortage of police officers, & the police now tend to avoid cases in which conducting a full investigation or building a prosecution case appears difficult. Mr Sassa sensibly suggests that more should be done not only to increase the number of police officers, but to put more uniformed officers on the street, a crime prevention technique long advocated by overseas police officials. Sadly, on the question of declining morals among the police, Mr Sassa seemed to have little advice to offer. Perhaps increased accountability might help, though I'm sure that's just a weird gaijin idea.
I had quite a few worried emails from friends overseas when Japan suffered that nasty earthquake a while back. However, you'll be reassured to know that at least one Japanese official refused to panic. I refer to Takashi Chiba, the vice-governor of Akita Prefecture, one of the areas worst hit by that major quake, which injured more than 100 people. You see, he displayed his total disregard for nature's wrath by continuing to play pachinko for more than 30 minutes -- even though he was acting governor when the quake struck because his boss was in South Korea on business. He eventually returned to his office about an hour after the quake. Not surprisingly, this display of nonchalance has not impressed his constituents -- he resigned not long afterwards, citing 'personal reasons'. Reminds one of Sir Francis Drake & his game of bowls as the Spanish Armada approached -- except Drake eventually won & got a knighthood! Such is life!
Talking of earthquakes, remember the horrible one that devastated Kobe back in 1995? Remember how elevated roads, etc., were seen to tumble like a house of cards? Well, not surprisingly, the Japanese transport ministry later instructed railway operators to strengthen the concrete pillars supporting Shinkansen bullet train lines. Dare I say it -- equally unsurprisingly, their instructions were not exactly obeyed. It has now been revealed that around 4,390 of these pillars need reinforcement work, which is very reassuring when one remembers that most shinkansen tracks are elevated! The seemingly most dangerous place to travel this way seems to be between Tokyo & Osaka, as the Tokaido Shinkansen Line (which links these great cities) has the lions share of weak pillars -- 3,600 of them. Encouragingly, the Tohoku Line (which links Tokyo with the north) has only 90 weak supports. I say encouragingly as I used to commute on that shinkansen every day when I first came to Japan. However, remembering that it only takes one weak pillar at the wrong time & the wrong place, I really must start checking the bus timetables!
Korea has more reason than most to bear a grudge against Japan but the new president of South Korea recently visited this country. However, any forgiveness that his visit may suggest did not 'infect' Japan's looney right, & so around 9,000 police officers were mobilised to ensure that President Roh Moo Hyun & his wife Kwon Yang Suk (his childhood sweetheart) returned home in one piece. However, if the authorities had hoped that he would show his gratitude by avoiding the subject of WW2, they were disappointed. During an address to the Diet (Japan's parliament), President Roh urged Japan to fight any domestic attempt to defend its wartime aggression (see above), saying Asian neighbours are still nervous about signs of Tokyo's return to militarism. He justifiably called on the Japanese government to improve people's awareness of wartime history -- although whether Mr Koizumi actually listened is open to doubt! After all, it was just before the president's visit when one of Koizumi's colleagues, the policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Taro Aso, supported Japan's attempt to force Koreans to adopt Japanese-style names during its colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. Unlike many of the Japanese Government, President Roh was born after WW2 but that doesn't mean he plans to forget it & what came before it, no matter how much Tokyo might wish he would!
Talking of the war (as we were a few paragraphs ago), some surprising & oddly reassuring news recently came to light. It seems that the Emperor's father, the late Emperor Hirohito had seriously considered making a personal apology for the War, expressing his 'deep shame at my immorality' -- something no Japanese politician has ever come close to doing -- or ever will! This news is the result of the discovery of a short speech (never delivered) that was written by Michiji Tajima, who was the head of the ridiculously powerful Imperial Household Agency from 1948 to 1953. The document is in Tajima-san's handwriting but there is little doubt it was written on Hirohito's orders. The document was found by Tajima's biographer, Kyoko Kato. According to Kato-san, Tajima was in daily contact with the emperor at that time &, by the standards of the rigidly formal imperial household, on friendly terms. For example, the document uses the personal pronoun chin, which is used only by emperors. Ms Kato argues that Tajima would never have presumed to use the royal pronoun unless the speech was commissioned by the emperor. The speech, apparently drafted in 1948, uses words of apology that are clearer & stronger than anything ever expressed by any Japanese official. Ms Kato said the Japanese character used to express "shame" in the document is the strongest of three that were in use at the time. Before you start to think this is so radical, it must be pointed out that the apology was clearly addressed to the Japanese people, rather than the victims of Japanese aggression. It expresses sorrow for those who died overseas & those who lost family before describing the emperor's pain at post-war hardships. 'For more than 20 years since my enthronement, I constantly endeavoured to do my duty,' it said. 'However, I could not change the current of the times, lost good relations with our neighbours & fought with great powers, which ultimately led to miserable defeat in war & brought about the terrible disaster we experience now. I am burning with the flame of anguish. I am deeply ashamed of my immorality. I do not have peace of mind. Thinking of the nation, I do not know what to do with the heaviness of the burden I bear.' The message, which was written at a time of crisis for the imperial family, also addressed demands that the Emperor should abdicate, rejecting it as an easy option. 'I would like to seek immediate peace of mind [but abdication] is not the true way of taking responsibility,' it says. 'By bearing these hardships, I devote myself to the reconstruction of the country's destiny & to the happiness of the nation.' Is it just me or does that sound like a feeble excuse to cling onto one's job! We shall never really know why the speech was never made but it seems pretty clear that a change of government thwarted the imperial apology. It is also believed the prime minister's advisers feared an apology could reopen debate about the imperial system & the emperor's war responsibility, when the Tokyo war trials had already attributed blame to politicians & military leaders, effectively absolving Hirohito. Present-day Japanese politicians say it would be inappropriate for the emperor to apologise for the war. Under Japan's constitution, he occupies a purely symbolic role and his freedom to comment on political matters, or indeed anything, is severely curtailed. Unfortunately, Japan's usefulness as a base in the 'Cold War' meant that no real pressure was ever exerted to make them admit their guilt, & although the Cold War's now over, don't hold your breath waiting for anyone above the rank of traffic warden to ever come close to apologising!
Japan's image as a safe & peaceful country has recently taken quite a hammering! For example, 10 people died within a single 24 hour period in 3 separate cases of murder-suicides in Shizuoka, Yokohama & Iwate Prefectures. A couple & 2 of their 3 daughters were found dead in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka-ken, while 2 men & 2 women were found in Yokohama with their necks slashed. But that's not all. Up in Iwate Prefecture, 2 children were found dead at their home; their mother was later spotted on a road apparently after jumping off a bridge. So much for cherry blossoms & bowing geishas! In the Shizuoka case, police found the bodies of 30-year-old man, his wife & their daughters (aged 4 & 2), in the kitchen of their apartment. A bloodstained kitchen knife was found nearby. According to police, a neighbour had reported that the third daughter had said her father stabbed her mother. Meanwhile, down in Yokohama, police were called when the body of a woman was found lying in the corridor outside her 3rd-floor apartment. Police found the door open & inside they found another woman & 2 men, all with their throats slashed. The dead persons were identified as a father, mother, daughter & boyfriend. It seems that there had been some trouble over their relationship which led to Uehara murdering his girlfriend & her parents before committing suicide. As for the bridge jumper, police found what seems to be a suicide note & believe the 41-year-old mother killed her 12-year-old son & 6-year-old daughter before attempting to kill herself. Although she succeeded with her kids, the mother failed to kill herself & was reportedly not in a critical condition. All I can say is that although Japan's economy may not be as good as some other G8 nations, they seem to be doing their best to catch up in the area of violent crime!
Think you've got a boring job? Spare a thought for Japan's Self-Defense Forces, the military that isn't! Back in Britain, they used to recruit soldiers saying 'join the army & see the world'; here, the best they could say is 'join the army & see some forgotten part of Japan'. During the last few years, some of them have been sent abroad on various non-dangerous missions, like operating a floating gas station for other nations' warships in the Indian Ocean. The supply ships were sent to the Indian Ocean at the end of 2001 to support the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan. However, if Koizumi-san has his way, the SDF might get more frequent & more soldierly missions in the future. He has submitted a bill to the Diet authorizing the armed forces to send troops to Iraq, claiming (with some justification) that Japan has grown tired of being the odd man out in the politics of international security. However, don't make any mistake -- the Japanese troops still won't be expected to act like real soldiers! The best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun advised the government to make sure Japanese troops only operate in 'areas in which no conflict is occurring or expected to occur during the time the SDF will be stationed'. To make sure these tax-wasting soldiers don't get hurt, the government is planning to send an official mission to locate 'safe havens' in advance. However, the only likely such places are the airports, & these are already guarded by US forces! What's more, to make sure these delicate creatures don't get tempted, the bill stipulates that Japanese soldiers will not provide weapons or ammunition to the US military. In fact, they won't be allowed to defend each other, as the use of force is limited to individual self-defence. However, the fact remains that even with record unemployment, the SDF still can't find enough recruits. Some Japanese have travelled all the way to France to join the Foreign Legion & are now seeing real soldiering in places like Ivory Coast. Whether the pacifists of this world like it or not, some men are born with a liking for a soldier's life, but if such a man is born in Japan, he'd better save up for a ticket to Paris!
'The Tsuyu or rainy season is with us again, & that means sky-high humidity & that means mould. So to help get through these weeks of dampness, be tsuyu-wise. Leave the extractor fan in your bathroom on a little longer than usual, open as many windows as you can (but don't forget to close them later), & check your clothes & shoes regularly. That mildew can come quickly & does nothing to help your image as a sartorial ace! Also, check to see if your air conditioner has a dehumidifier function! '
(Taken from the 'Gaijin's
Guide to Living in Japan')
'If the humidity isn't suffering enough for you (& it will get worse in the next few months), then maybe you should visit the Takaozan Yakuoin Temple, in the relatively cooler hills just outside Tokyo. Established in AD744, this Ascetic temple offers hot coals walking & waterfall bathing. Open between 10-4pm, Closed Mondays. Just take the Keio line railway to Mount Takao. For more information, call 0426-61-1115.'
(For more suggestions, check out the 'Gaijin's Guide to Enjoying Tokyo')
Miss last month's 'Empty Seat'? Not to worry. You can check
out the Gaijin's previous ramblings with remarkable ease by clicking on one of the links on the right. |
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Well, as I said in the tip above, the tsuyu (rainy season) is here, meaning a lot of cloudy skies & humidity. The government, which strangely expects nature to stick to some sort of timetable, announced that it started on June 10th but with nature's characteristic disregard for bureaucrats, the rains didn't start until the 12th. What's more, that was the only rain we've had this 'season'! Last year's tsuyu was pretty dry but unlike many Western cities, this did NOT lead to a drought or water shortage. Don't ask me how they do it, but heavy rain or sunny skies, Tokyo never seems to run short of water. I think it's called efficiency, not a word you hear too often when considering local authorities back in the West! Anyway, that's enough out of me. I can now shove this onto the Internet for your perusal & pleasure & get on with the day job. Now if this page has whetted your appetite for more of the Gaijin's sagacious reflections on life in the mystic East, then why not pop over to the Empty Seat around the middle of July? You'll be as welcome as an air-conditioner in mid-summer. Anyway, until the then, take care & 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 just want to contact the ol' Gaijin, you can use the Guestbook link below or drop me an email. I'll read it all, honest, & then . . . Well, we'll see!
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since 03/06/15 !
