|
|
|
ISSUE: Feb/March 2003 |
You're visitor No.  since 03/02/15 !
|
|
Don't forget to check out the Gaijin's |
|
This Month's Topics: |
|
February is a funny sort of month here. It begins as winter & often ends as spring! In case you've never been to Japan, spring is certainly the best time to see it. Winter is cold & very dry, summer is like a Turkish bath, & autumn tends to be rather short. However, spring is a time of clear blue skies, moderate temperatures, & a feeling of relief that winter is over! Sounds nice, ah? Well so it is. The economy is going down the tubes, the government is talking about considering attacking North Korea, & the rest of the world is arguing about a war against Iraq. What the hell, at least the weather's nice!
Everyone with half a brain knows how badly China suffered from its wartime relationship with Japan, but now they seem to be getting their own back on the business front. Whereas Japan once purloined things from China with gay abandon (as did many other nations, in a less violent way), they are now buying them in a big way. According to a report in the Washington Post, Chinese exports to Japan have now surpassed those from the US for the first time since records began. Does this mean that Japan might finally apologise to China? Don't hold your breath! In a recent foreign policy document, Japanese officials painted China as Japan's main political & economic challenge, claiming that its failure to float or revalue its currency gives it an unfair trade advantage. So some Japanese may recognise China's economic power but whereas the customer is said to be always right, that doesn't mean you have to apologise. Does it?
A recent news story here may have puzzled some new arrivals. It was an announcement that the Justice Ministry plans to increase the number of Chinese kanji characters legally designated for personal names. yes, that's right. In Japan, parents can only choose a name from a government list, with no other name being allowed. What's more, a Japanese child can only have two names. The official explanation of this overbearing regulation is that people registering a new baby's name must use 'common & simple' characters using a list of 2,230 kanji designated by the ministry, of which only 285 are for personal names. The government obviously thinks it is being very generous doing this & certainly hasn't even considered dumping the list altogether. Not surprisingly, there have been many couples who had to change the characters for their newborn's names or have filed suits against the authorities rejection of their preferred names due to the use of inappropriate kanji. So what is 'inappropriate kanji'? Well, some examples of banned kanji are 'washi' (meaning eagle), 'nadeshiko' (a kind of flower) & 'ichigo' (meaning strawberry). Well, we can't have someone going around with a dangerous, subversive name like strawberry, can we?
Ah, the scent of a woman! However, one Osaka company has decided to add to this scent. The underwear maker Gunze has announced that it will launch a new range of ladies' underwear & pantyhose that will feature special built-in fragrances, such as grapefruit, pepper & fennel . The company claims this will have 'a slimming effect' on the wearers. Just in case this has whetted your appetite, you'll be interested to note that the pantyhose will retail for around ¥600 (in several different colours, you'll be glad to know), whereas the panties & camisoles will cost between ¥1,800 & ¥3,800. According to the company, trials showed that 65% of the women 'guinea pigs reported promising, weight loss results. Of course, there can't be any other reasons for making underwear fragrant, can there? What were you thinking of?
One of the less pleasant aspects of living in Japan are the large black vehicles that cruise around with huge speakers blaring out fascist songs & meaningless diatribes, breaking the sound pollution laws that the police seem strangely unwilling to enforce in right-wing circumstances. However, whereas many people dismiss these creeps as harmless freaks, the truth is more sinister. For example, one of these loonies recently pleaded guilty to murdering a Diet member in front of the politician's house in Tokyo last October. This particular fanatic is the leader of a group called 'Shukojuku', which means the 'emperor protection corps' & turned himself in to the police after fatally stabbing Koki Ishii, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, with a kitchen knife. The dead man had known his attacker for about 10 years, having given him money for right-wing books. However, shortly before the murder, the murderer was evicted from his home for failure to pay his rent, & the police claim he killed Ishii when the he refused to lend him money. So much for protecting the emperor!
Regular readers of this page (& there are some, believe it or not) may know that I frequently argue against the idea of Japan being crime-free. However, it is still very much safer than any other country & so gangster shootouts are pretty damn rare. However, we did have one recently & this was not in Roppongi but up in Gunma Prefecture, well to the north of Tokyo. In this incident, where 2 gunmen, wearing full-face helmets, walked into a bar & just started shooting, led to the deaths of 4 people. One of those who survived the attack was the presumed target, a former gang leader who heard gunshots outside the bar & quickly hid under a table. With him thus concealed, a harmless 53-year-old office worker was mistaken for him & killed with six bullets. However, don't you think that Japan's finest didn't react speedily to this crime. Shortly after this slaughter took place, the National Police Agency told local police to 'intensify monitoring' gangsters' activities. Reassuring though these words may be, the phrase 'closing the stable door' does seem to fit the circumstances.
As some of you may remember, our great leader, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has made a habit of upsetting a lot of people by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours the spirits of Japanese war dead, including convicted Class-A war criminals! Well someone has finally decided to make it even clearer that his actions are not appreciated. A group of around
Say That Again . . .
The problem of Japan's 'telephone dating services', which allow schoolgirls to date older men (known as prostitution in some countries) is one that most people here dismiss much too lightly. However, before you ask about the parents of these schoolgirls, consider the case of Naomi Miyazaki, an unemployed Fukuoka mother who used her daughter to draw in a dating service sucker before having a gang of youths beat the **** out of him & then rob him. In her defence, this doting mother pleaded that:
' I gave my daughter & the boys a share of the money.'
Well, that make it all right, doesn't it!
Another example of the way children are 'used' here was the case of a 13-year-old Osaka schoolgirl who has taken her teacher to court for sexually molesting her. This brave girl has maintained her fight for justice despite being taunted & harassed by the teacher's supporters. As she so splendidly put:
'I knew he would do it again & again if I didn't speak out. '
On a happier note, yesterday was 'Valentine's Day' & so maybe a romantic quote would be in order. However, Japan isn't exactly overflowing with the spirit of romance & so this one will have to do. It comes from a professor (& best-selling author) at Kagawa University, who commented that:
'A single kiss or hold of the hand should be enough for a woman to tell whether a man is sincere or the type of guy she should spend her life with.'
Sumo is, of course, a very Japanese sport, but just as Japanese are allowed to play the American sport of Baseball, so foreigners are doing well in Sumo. In fact, the top ranking Sumotori is presently a Hawaiian by birth & the best candidate for promotion to yokozuna (grand champion) is a Mongolian! This is the first time in history that not even one native-born wrestler has occupied the top spot. One reaction to this has been that, Japan's xenophobic tendencies are coming to the fore again. Sumo's popularity as a career is declining & even though the 52 foreign-born sumotori (from 11 countries, with 32 from Mongolia) represent only 8% of professional sumo, many are calling for limits & even a moratorium to be placed on foreigners entering the sport. Last February, a new rule was adopted introducing a limit of one foreign sumotori to each 'stable'. To his credit, a former sumotori named Kitanoumi, who is head of the Japan Sumo Association, said that 'Even if they are foreigners, they are taught to speak Japanese, & are given the same chores & duties as other sumo apprentices. If they can demonstrate excellence under the same conditions, then perhaps we Japanese should emulate them as models of our traditional culture.' Heartening word. Of course it is sad that so few Japanese are willing to endure the exceedingly tough apprenticeship that all sumotoris must go through, & regret that foreigners now dominate is understandable. But if any sport is to thrive, it must adapt & so if sumo does try to stop foreigners taking part, it may well wither & die -- & might even deserve to do so!
Hobbies vary from country to country & one rather distasteful pastime that is very popular here is collecting beetles. Child-like as this may sound, it is taken very seriously here, with unusual beetles attracting high prices. An illustration of how seriously this fad is taken was a recent news item from Australia. Two Japanese men were caught by customs officers at Sydney airport trying to sneak out a large number of live & dead luminous stag beetles, for which they might expect to get up to $295 each back in Japan. The beetles in question are believed to be unique to Australia's remote Lord Howe Island, located about 780km northeast of Sydney in the Tasman Sea, & are protected by a World Heritage laws introduced 2 years ago. If found guilty, the two could face up to 7 years in jail &/or a fine of up to $27,100. As if stealing animals isn't bad enough, it needs to be remembered that these unfortunate creatures live in rotting timber, which the thieves must have broken open to collect them, thereby substantially damaging their ecosystem. It's lucky (for nature in general) that these thieves were caught in Sydney, for Japan doesn't have a very strong record of protecting the environment & as these beetles were gaijins, these crooks would have been very unlucky to get more than a mild slap on the wrist. After all, what is the fate of a species compared with a vital hobby?
Talking of Japan's low but growing crime rate (as we were a few paragraphs back), a rather surprising suspect recently appeared in court. He was charged with rape & robbery, which is hardly headline stuff. No, the surprising thing is that he was 15-years-old! What's more, his co-defendant, facing the same charges, is just 16! This is the first time a youth under 16 has stood criminal trial since the law changed to classify Japanese as young as 14 as criminally responsible for their actions. The official version of events is that the 2 boys first met the woman, who was in her 20s, while making door-to-door visits to solicit newspaper subscriptions. It is alleged that a fellow newspaper seller, aged 34, allegedly talked the two into raping and robbing the woman, & the trio then forced their way into her home. The 15-year-old then blindfolded the woman with adhesive tape before he & the others raped & photographed her. As if that were not bad enough, the older villain ordered her to call her mother & ask for ¥100,000 to be transferred to her bank account. The three are alleged to have held her captive until around 4 p.m. the next day, while withdrawing about ¥160,000 from her account. A friend of the 16-year-old boy is suspected of buying more than 250,000 yen worth of train coupons with her credit card. Now despite the severity of their crimes, some bleeding hearts have expressed doubts about the decision to send them to trial. However, as far as I can see, if you're 'man' enough to rape, you're man enough to take the punishment you deserve.
Now I'm not saying there's a link but bearing in mind recent crime stories mentioned within this e-column, who am I to say there isn't? What I'm talking about is the recent story about 14 police officers & officials of the Tohoku Regional Police Bureau (northeastern Japan) having been punished over a 5-year period for such booze-related misconduct as leaving a bar without paying & sexual harassment. The news was obtained through Japan's Freedom of Information Law, as the Police themselves announced few if any of the cases, claiming they lacked clear guidelines on publicizing such cases. The cases in question include a police officer who was reprimanded for sexually harassing a subordinate after getting drunk at a Sendai bar, an official who drunkenly left a Sendai bar without paying a ¥16,000 bar tab (the owner was in the bathroom at the time), an official who abandoned an injured truck driver after his car crashed into his truck after crossing the centre line on a road in Iwate Prefecture, & 3 cases of drunk driving . Now I know there's a theory that says a good cop should understand the criminal mind, but don't you think this is blurring the 'thin blue line' a little too much?
One thing that might help to keep Japan's crime rate down is a lack of criminals! What? Simple. Japanese people are not having enough children. According to a recent report, it's a simple case of wanting but not being able to. Quite a few young Japanese would like to have children, unsurprisingly, but they are being forced to reconsider due to severe social pressure &, of course, the dire economic situation that the government seems to think doesn't exist. On the social pressure side, Japan's antique sexual attitudes come to the fore. Consider the plight of a successful female journalist, a job field where the chances for women are a lot lower than for men. She has passed the age of 30 & is naturally worried that she might be unable to have children if she gets much older, but knows that she might have to accept much less challenging work if she does have any! An extra burden is the dire lack of child-care facilities, making it almost impossible for a working couple to have children. The government worries a lot about the aging society because that means less tax payers & more tax expenditure, but maybe they should worry more about encouraging more future taxpayers! The Japanese government has set up an office for promoting measures to counter the declining birth-rate within the Ministry of Health, but for anyone who knows Japan, this doesn't mean a whole lot. Don't hold your breath!
I have previously spoken of the dangers of being arrested here & the latest reports to be sneaked out from the world behind those strong iron bars do nothing to lessen that warning. A group called the 'Centre for Prisoners' Rights' (Kangoku Jinken Centre, http://www.jca.apc.org/cpr/) has publicised letters it has received dealing with many examples of brutal mistreatment within Japan's jails. One very unpleasant trend has been the increasing use of prolonged solitary confinement. In most countries, the placing of a prisoner in solitary confinement for over 1 year would be illegal but believe it or not, Japan has more than 30 prisoners who have suffered solitary confinement of 10 years or more — with the longest such confinement being a mind boggling 39 years! Is that legal here? Does the term loophole mean anything to you? You see, under Japanese penal law, a prison governor can impose solitary confinement (in 3-mat cells) for up to 6 months BUT this can be extended at his discretion in 3-month increments. It soon adds up. Men in solitary are prohibited from talking to guards or other prisoners — subject to punishment — & permitted no recreational activities. They are only permitted to leave their cells for 30 minutes of daily exercise or for a 3 times a week bath in used water in a small tub. Not surprisingly, this sort of treatment does have an effect -- for at least one poor soul, confined thus for 21 years, it proved fatal! So what about the poor unnamed wretch who has been held in solitary for 38 years, 11 months? He's now in the prison hospital in Kitakyushu, a place where all the inmates suffer from psychological disorders. Reminds me of the film 'Murder in the First' but that was the 1930s. Still think it's worth punching out that rude taxi driver?
Lastly, a couple of stories with a very nice happy endings, just in case the above reports have depressed you a bit.
First off, there's this one: the phenomenon known as 'Exam Hell', the annual session of ultra-important school & college exams that decides a person's future here, is of course a horrid thing. However, like so many horrid aspects of life, it does bring out the best in some folk. Imagine, if you will, how you might feel if you were on your way to sit a high school entrance examination & then discovered you were on the wrong train! In most places, you'd be in deep trouble. However, for one young Japanese girl in Chiba, hope was at hand. Her fellow passengers soon noticed that she was distressed & so they helped her make her way through the crowds to the conductor's room, where she told her sad tale. The conductor then contacted his office & passed on the details. As a result, the train made an unscheduled stop at Shin-Kiba Station in Tokyo's Koto Ward, & she got off from the conductor's room, without the other train doors being opened. The girl then caught a train to Nishi-Chiba & arrived at the exam site on time. Nice to have a happy ending now & again, right? What's more, the girl's parents later phoned the staff at Shin-Kiba Station to thank them for the special consideration.
Finally, & with Japan sinking further into the economic doldrums & the threat of war filling the newspapers, I felt that this was a reassuring story -- if only because it shows that not every retiree in Japan is worried about the 'aging society' or the recession! The retiree in question is, however, a little different. It's Heidi, an , who has served almost all her life as a stress management operative. What does that mean? It means that she helped employees of Oracle Japan to relax and make the most of their creative powers. I kid you not. The company gave her a farewell party, of course, at which she was presented with a voucher for a year's supply of beef jerky & duly thanked by chief executive Masaaki Shintaku. Not bad for an employee who only appeared at the office twice a week! What's more, unlike many Japanese, Heidi needn't worry about her future, as she has been adopted by a member of Oracle Japan's staff. Heidi was the company's first canine employee, joining a number of birds & fish already on the payroll. Furthermore, her job isn't being phased out -- she's being succeeded by an operative named Wendy -- an Old English Sheepdog puppy. Nice to have a happy ending for once, don't you think?
'It is surprisingly easy to live in Tokyo without speaking Japanese, but you might find life a lot more interesting & convenient if you know at least a little. Learning can be surprisingly cheap -- like around ¥2,000 a month! A charitable group called 'Sakurakai' has classes twice a week near Tamachi Station. Email sakurakai@par.odn.ne.jp for more information. Alternatively contact your local ward or city office for details of subsidised classes in your area.'
(Taken from the 'Gaijin's
Guide to Living in Japan')
&
'The above story about Sumo might have made you curious to know more about this sport. If so, why not visit a Sumo 'Stable' & watch 'Sumotori' practising? It's free & you can choose from more than a dozen stables in the Sumida area. Call 03-3625-5111 for more information.'
'For more information, 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 as easily as clicking below.
The day before this e-column went online was Valentine's Day but wouldn't you know it -- Japan does it differently! Back in the west, February 14th is a day when men are supposed to get uncomfortably romantic & shower their chosen lady (or ladies, if they have the energy & money) with gifts. In Japan, just as they read in the opposite manner, from right to left, so Valentine's Day is when the men RECEIVE gifts from their ladies! Yes indeed, & to make things even less romantic, ladies are expected to give such gifts (usually chocolate) to their colleagues & especially their bosses. However, if you think this sounds like a male paradise, don't forget 'White Day.' What? That's March 14th, when Japanese guys are expected to reciprocate. Maybe that explains why so many guys call in sick on that day! However, White Day is also close to that magical time when the next truckload of opinions fills this e-column. If you have time between buying chocolates & being a romantic fool, why not pop in & take a look? You will most certainly be welcome! Whatever happens, take care of yourselves & may the wind (preferably a warm one) 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. Everything will be read & then . . . Well, we'll see!
|
|
| * | Regular travellers
on Japan's buses & trains know that the seat next to a foreigner
will usually remain empty, even during the rush hours. This can rankle at first but should really be seen as a relief in a place where space is hard to find. It is also amusing to see a tired 'salaryman' torn between sitting next to a foreigner or remaining on his feet! |
|
|
