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I don't want to start on a gloomy note, & I'm loath to worry you folks, but I got a rather nasty SARS-related shock when I returned from my recent 'Golden Week' holiday. Visitors to Japan may recall being given a small yellow piece of paper by the Narita health authorities, right? Well, you might expect the aforementioned health authorities to be extra vigilant with SARS around, but sadly, this is NOT the case. OK, I was returning from Saipan, not exactly on the W.H.O's danger list, but there were tourists from all over Asia in Saipan, meaning that anyone on the plane might have come into contact with an infected person. However, none of us were given one of those yellow health declarations before landing & the desk where one normally hands in those papers was deserted. If that is Tokyo's idea of guarding against infection from this 'foreign' disease, I for one am not impressed. Just before I left on that holiday jaunt, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference that although there had been 53 'suspicious' or 'probable' cases of SARS here, later examination 'suggested' that 44 of them couldn't have contracted the virus. Sure enough, the last time I checked the W.H.O. site, Japan had no SARS cases listed but whatever Fukuda-san may say, don't expect this to last. How will SARS break into Japan? Simple -- the 'salarymans' favourite holiday pastime: the sex industry. Not just the Chinese sex industry, but the Japanese variety, which employs a lot of Chinese. as a result, ' massage parlours' & nightclubs employing such Chinese ladies are already suffering. Funny how AIDS doesn't scare them but SARS does! As one establishment manager reported, 'Up to February, we always got at least 15 customers even on the slowest days, & cleared ¥200,000. These days, if we're lucky, we'll get 5. That's not even enough for our girls to pay their rent. They're hurting.' However, not content with avoiding Chinese sex, the noble Japanese are now engaging in 'Chinese hunting,' sometimes even assaulting random Chinese on the street. Real heroic! As one commentator said, this new level of xenophobia & bigotry (never far below the surface here) could be just as contagious — & every bit as frightening — as the virus itself!



On the crime front, one of the nastiest cases that reached my attention recently concerned the arrest of a 36-year-old truck driver on suspicion of killing a 22-month-old baby boy because he was annoyed by his crying! The boy had been left inside a car parked outside a games arcade in Toyokawa, Aichi Prefecture at around 10 p.m., which explains why the poor little chap was crying. However, although the boy's father should also be arrested for leaving him like that, the police are more concerned with the accused, who claims that he was woken up whilst sleeping in his car by the boy's crying & killed him out of rage, dumping him in the sea 4 kilometres away. Why was he sleeping in his car? Because he was homeless & usually slept in his vehicle. Of course this evil man deserves the harshest punishment the law allows but I still feel that the boy's father is equally to blame. If he had acted like a decent parent, the boy wouldn't have been in that carpark & would now still be alive. Sadly, Japan's laws concerning parenthood leave a lot to be desired & even though youth crime is rising alarmingly. no one has yet linked this trend with the dwindling level of parental responsibility here.

Another nasty crime that recently came to light involved a 10-year-old boy who was set on fire by an unknown man on his way to his school in Fukuoka, suffering serious burns to his back and upper body, police said. Luckily, the boy's injures are not life-threatening, but the police are treating the incident as attempted murder. I think that's a fair description, when someone showers a boy's backpack with flammable liquid before setting it ablaze. & you thought such things only happened in the West?

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Japanese ladies have a well-earned reputation for feminine beauty but you might have second thoughts about this if you were to travel around these islands, for it is very difficult to escape ads for cosmetic surgery for both men & women. A Japanese writer recently examined this trend, prompted to do so after finding 26 ads for cosmetic surgery clinics in a single issue of a weekly women's magazine.   The writer, Yumi Yamashita, expressed great concern for those who blithely seek such surgery without knowing the risks. After all, plastic surgery doesn't always work, no matter how infallible doctors may consider themselves. For example, 10% of new patients at Showa University's Department of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery need treatment for a complaint related to cosmetic surgery. However, this sort of statistic is never mentioned in the ads featuring supposedly handsome men & allegedly beautiful women, & so heaven only knows how many people seeking to look like Mr or Mrs Beckham (featured in many of the ads) end up looking much worse than when they started. Sadly, anyone waiting for the government to act on this matter shouldn't hold their breath . . .

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Regular readers of this column (& there must be some, surely) will know that I have mentioned before the efforts of people hurt by the actions of the 'Imperial' Japanese Army during WW2. My comments have usually been less than flattering concerning Japan's judicial system, & sure enough, the Tokyo District Court recently rejected a damages suit against the Japanese government by Chinese women & families of dead women despite acknowledging they were raped by Japanese soldiers during World War II. The Chinese were seeking ¥20 million damages & a written apology from the Japanese government. The Presiding Judge acknowledged the women were repeatedly raped & tortured by Japanese soldiers, but dismissed the case on the grounds there was no compensation legislation at the time. Shameful as this decision may be, it is to the judges' credit that the ruling went on to say that the court hoped the government would help the victims through new laws or administrative actions. 'It is hoped that war compensation issues will be dealt with in a forward-looking manner, in the direction that some sort of consolation will be brought to those who received damages,' the judge said. Historians report that at least 200,000 young women, mostly Korean but also from Taiwan, China, the Philippines & Indonesia, were forced to serve as sex slaves in Japanese army brothels during World War II, & more than 50 damages suits have been filed against Japan over its wartime sexual enslavement of women. However, Japan continues to hide behind its oh-so convenient laws, dismissing case after case on the grounds that the 20-year period for demanding compensation has expired, or that internationally recognised treaties only provide for reparations to be made to states, not individuals. If that sounds like a pretty damn'd weak excuse, it is, but with the government remaining stubbornly careless about Japan's international image, the victims of Japan's WW2 atrocities are much more likely to die of old age than receive a single yen from this dishonourable government.

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Another topic I have covered on previous issues is the number of English terms used in Japanese, & it seems that I am not the only one who finds this worrying. The National Institute for Japanese Language, affiliated with the Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology Ministry, has urged the government to avoid using certain English or English-like terms in their Japanese-language documents. The institute's panel, comprised of academics, translators & media representatives,  listed 59 terms selected from 62 samples examined together with suggested Nihongo (Japanese language) replacements. The terms listed included 'informed consent,' 'delivery,' 'second opinion,' 'barrier free' & 'lifeline.' However, even these learned folk were stumped in some cases. For example, they were unable to find a Japanese phrase to replace 'normalization'. The panel also decided that 3 terms -- 'impact', 'care' & 'day service' -- were suitable for use in Japanese-language documents. However, their work is not finished, for they plan to a 2nd report in July on 58 more sample terms. Such reports will, of course, do nothing to stop the man on the street from using far too many English terms in his everyday speech, least of all teenagers. (I recall one Japanese student asking me what was the English for 'home run'!) After all, when TV ads & programmes are filled with English words, used only because they sound fashionable, what can we expect? 

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It seems somewhat poetic justice in a way that in a country with the world's most aged society, police have recently had to contend with some geriatric delinquents! Back in April, a specially formed investigative squad of the Hokkaido & Sapporo Police launched a roundup of stimulant drug offenders, leading to the arrest of 4 people, including a 73-year-old gardener & an unemployed man of 79! According to one of the police investigators, 'They ran with a bad crowd — played mah-jongg & hanafuda (a card game) & that kind of stuff.' Apparently, the oldest of the gang obtained a stash of 'speed' 20 years ago & had used it in small quantities over the years. Unlike most addicts, the 4 apparently set aside small amounts of money from their discretionary income, bought drugs, & then stretched their supply for as long as possible. The men, all single, told police they used it 'to alleviate their loneliness.' This suggests that just like its juvenile counterpart, geriatric delinquency has a serious social background, possibly connected with the fact that whereas Japan's 'senior citizens' are living longer, their children are becoming less & less concerned with their welfare. Will this trend also worsen, as juvenile crime has? Only time will tell but after more than 12 years in this country, few things surprise me any more! 

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If you ever feel the urge to have a heart attack, try to make sure you are not in Kyoto at the time. Why? Well, the government of that historic & beautiful city was recently ordered to pay ¥1 million damages for the failure of the city fire department (which also runs ambulances here) to respond to emergency calls made by a man who suffered a stroke. The 61-year-old plaintiff had asked for ¥4 million after the fire department treated his repeated calls for help as a prank & failed to respond for 2 days. The poor citizen , who lived by himself, suffered a stroke at his home in August 2000 & quickly dialled 119 for an ambulance. Unfortunately, because of the stroke, he was unable to speak or sufficiently respond to the fire department's questions. The man made a total of 20 calls but the fire department, after getting no response to their questions during the calls as well as in the return calls they made to the man, decided it was a prank & ignored him. Not being easily daunted, the man eventually crawled on his hands & knees to the front door of his house & was later found by his neighbour. The court ruled that the fire department staff should have realized the calls were not a prank since the man falteringly replied 'yes' to questions during his 8th call, & also because he had continued to make the calls even after being warned by the fire department they would notify police. Did anyone consider actually sending the police round to the man's home? It seems not, but then if the man had been unable to answer the door, this might not have been much use anyway. Nonetheless, it doesn't exactly make one feel any safer, does it?

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US Marine Corps misbehaviour in Okinawa often reaches the headlines here but there was recently a surprising twist to this sadly continuing story. It seems that an Okinawan woman who claims she was the victim of an attempted rape by a US Marine Corps officer told the Naha District Court that she has forgiven him. She continues to claim Major Michael Brown, 40, attempted to rape her, but added 'I have forgiven him because he sincerely apologized. This should not be a case of attempted rape & there is no need to punish him.' Not exactly routine in this sort of case, ah? However, a prosecutor later said that 'her words will have no effect on the legal assessment because a court only makes judgments based on the facts.' According to the prosecution, Major Brown tried to rape the woman last November in a car in Gushikawa city. The Major admits he was with the woman but denies the charges, claiming that she asked him to have sex with her but filed a criminal complaint against him after he refused.

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Say That Again . . .

 As commented on above,  Japan courts continue to help the Japanese Government avoid its responsibilities for WW2. Their strategy is obvious, & was well summarised by Liu Wu Cheng, a 78-year-old Chinese man, whose deceased wife was a World War II sex slave. As he put it:

'The Japanese government appears to have a perception that if we die, the facts will disappear.'

The next quote comes from a 52-year-old high school teacher who must really qualify as one of the unluckiest perverts around. The man was arrested for groping a lady on a train in Kobe, only to find out that she was a policewoman! His defence was:

'My hand just hit her.'

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Omiyagi, the Japanese habit of bringing back holiday souvenirs for colleagues & friends, took on a nasty twist recently when a Japanese reporter tried to carry a battlefield souvenir from Iraq through a security checkpoint at Amman's Queen Alia International Airport. This particular piece of omiyagi -- identified by some reports as a hand grenade -- exploded & killed a customs official -- not exactly in line with Japan's pacifist reputation! The offending journalist, 36-year-old photographer Hiroki Gomi of the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, is being held by police in Jordan & may, understandably, be charged with murder. In line with Japanese custom, the Mainichi Shimbun bowed & apologized for the fatal accident, in which an additional 3 people were also injured. In a statement printed on the front page, the newspaper said, 'Although the blame lies with the journalist himself, we are painfully aware of our responsibility as a newspaper.' This incident gives a very different slant to the reports of looting that have been filling newspapers everywhere. It seems that there are 2 types of looters; those who crimes remain relatively harmless, & those whose light-fingeredness can kill innocent people! (A strange irony may or may not be found in the offender's name, Gomi -- this has the same sound as the Japanese word for rubbish!)

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The Japanese are, in many ways, a gifted race but one area in which they seem to lack suitable talents is computers. A recent report stated that at least 1 in 4 major Japanese companies are lacking qualified information-technology (IT) workers, & this is despite Japan's currently very high unemployment rate. The companies thus affected have understandably blamed the situation on the lack of relevant training schemes & have urged the government to improve opportunities for IT training, saying that any failure to do so would seriously hamper Japan's ability to keep up with international IT competition. It must be said that all of the IT professionals I know here are foreigners, & are making handsome salaries. Some Japanese companies, of course, are very reluctant to hire foreigners & some also cling to the traditional system of hiring 'generalists' from college, but such blinkered companies deserve any loss of business their attitude leads to. I still remember back when I worked for Nomura, Japan's #1 securities company, section chiefs used to rely on their 'office ladies' (general assistants) to help them operate their PCs. I hope that has changed but I wouldn't be surprised if it hasn't. 

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Japan's present financial problems might have been made a lot easier to understand by a recent quote. Japanese workers have a well-earned reputation for being ant-like in their ability to work hard & long hours. However, one citizen who doesn't seem to deserve that reputation is our revered Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi. The political commentator Hisayuki Miyake, commenting on the PM's habit of seldom showing up at his office before 11 a.m., said, 'I've never met a politician who sleeps this much.' The economy heading for the basement, unemployment soaring, & SARS waiting on our doorstep, but fear not -- so long as World War 3 starts after lunch, Japan's gallant leader will be ready for action. 

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Weirdo religions are far from rare here, although the authorities seem to consider them as harmless loonies -- until they try to wipe out subway travellers. However, anyone with any sense knows that it is but a small step from harmless loony to terrorist, & so I hope I'm not the only one to feel a bit worried by the antics of the so-called Panawave Kenkyusho (research institute). In case you didn't get this story, a group of around 40 people clad from head to toe in white & shielding themselves with reflective panels, have been giving reporters worldwide plenty to talk about by slowly making their strange way through Japan, blocking mountain roads. What's more, members of this bizarre caravan stopped passing cars & asked drivers to identify themselves, prompting complaints to police. However, the police claimed the strange travellers hadn't committed any serious crimes, though all this seems serious enough to me. But who are these nutters? Well, according to a report in the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine, it is part of a religious group called Chino Shoho led by an elderly woman suffering from terminal cancer. However, the group claims its leader's illness is caused by microwaves, which they believe can be defeated by their white garb & reflective panels. The group believes there is a 10th planet in the solar system & has warned that something cataclysmic will happen in mid-May when the planet approaches Earth. Many sect experts say the cult could one day become a social threat if the authorities leave it alone, but I seriously doubt if the government will do anything. After all, the sect that attacked the Tokyo subway in March 1995 is still operating, having avoided the government's lame penalties by merely changing its name. Maybe if a politician had been on that subway train or had been driving on those mountain roads, things might be different! The government could do worse than listen to Ichiro Yamamoto, deputy mayor of the Fukui village invaded by the Panawave cultists, who said 'There is no telling what they will do if they are driven into a corner.'

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What do you do if your reputation as a bad guy isn't nasty enough? Well, in the unlikely event that you ever find yourself in that situation, you might consider taking a leaf out of North Korea's book. It seems that the loonies in Pyongyang are not content with having forcibly kidnapped Japanese citizens & dragged them back to their 'workers' paradise', they are now interfering with those abductees kids!  Kyodo News has reported that 2 of the recently liberated Japanese couples tried to send letters to their children who they had been forced to leave behind in North Korea -- but Pyongyang has refused to accept them. This disgusting state of affairs was revealed by Kyoko Nakayama, a Japanese Cabinet Secretariat adviser, who said the government had asked the North Korean Embassy in Beijing to hand over the letters to the children, but the embassy refused, saying it does not serve as a post office. Nice, ah? But maybe the letters contained state secrets or some evil capitalist plot? No, all the abductees wrote was to ask their children to be patient in waiting to see them. However, what doubtless really pissed of the jolly souls in Pyongyang was the fact that the abductees also told their children that they were Japanese; until then, the poor little kids believed their parents were Korean residents in Japan! Now let me see. North Korea acts like a particularly bad Mafiosi but its the USA that's the bad guy? Some of these anti-yank demonstrators should get their priorities right in the bad guys department!

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Finally, one thing that puzzles many visitors & new arrivals in Japan is how a country with an economy going down the toilet & record unemployment can still seem so affluent. So how come Japan isn't broke? How come Tokyo remains a tidy, prosperous-looking city? How come Japanese tourists heading overseas have increased in 26 of the last 39 months? All very good questions. Well, part of the explanation is the way many Japanese try to act as if nothing had changed, including many sacked executives who still dress up & put on suits each day. However, that quirk doesn't explain why the still over-priced bars & restaurants in Tokyo's nightclub districts continue to be packed. & what about the fact that local car companies are reporting record profits & even the steel industry is looking? Well it's like the fat man on a diet. Most folk whose lose a lot of weight show it but the fat guy loses 10-20kg & no one notices. You see, the sheer size of Japan's economy (the world's 2nd largest, at present) just keeps on providing salaries even when the market & profits are sending distress signals. Plus despite the panic stories in the media, a lot of Japanese companies have not lost money, especially as the weaker yen has helped the auto sector & export companies like Canon & Ricoh. So is Japan sinking or isn't it? The answer seems to be no -- but the iceberg sure did some damage! What's worse, the clueless politicians who guided the SS Japan onto the iceberg in the first place are still at the helm, & thanks to Japanese apathy, are likely to remain thus for some time. The only answer they seem to have for any kind of economics problem is short-term, 'throw money at it', like unwanted public spending & that old favourite, bond issuance -- thereby 'passing the buck' onto future generations. So Japan is still very much on its feet, but there are plenty of banana skins ahead if those in charge don't start looking where they're going!

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Gaijin's Tip:

'With New York banning public smoking, Tokyo often seems like an oasis for the non-PC, & even though some areas have banned smoking on the street, 'no smoking' signs are still rare here. What's more, all tobacco product prices are regulated so, for example, a cigar or packet of cigarettes should cost the same no matter where you buy it.