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Well, spring is at last starting to give us a hint of pleasures yet to come, with an occasional day of splendid, sunny weather. Actually, the Japanese have a proverb that says early spring consists of  4 nice days followed by 3 cold days, and so far, this forecast is fairly accurate! Another sure sign of impending spring is 'White Day', which occurred yesterday. What's 'White Day'? Well, in Japan, as I explained last month, Valentine's Day is when ladies give gifts to men. White Day, a truly commercial invention, is when the men return the kindness. However, as I was sadly not flooded with chocolates on Valentine's Day, White Day was remarkably cheap for me! Not being a sex symbol does have its compensations sometimes. Anyway, time to take a look at some of the stories that have been doing the rounds here in Japan.

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One item of news that must have really upset the more right-wing of Japan's population, including a good many politicians, was contained in an article by the director of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in the Chuo Koron magazine. He noted that after peaking at around 128 million in 2006, Japan's population is likely to start contracting, and is expected to fall below 100 million in roughly 50 years. This means that if the government wishes to maintain a "big Japan" at the current level of population, it will be necessary to accept almost 30 million immigrants over the next half century. However, as this senior gentleman pointed out, with amazing understatement, Japan is currently far from being a multicultural society and has not become a place where talented people from other countries gather. Now many folk might conclude that Japan needs to change, that this country should adapt to multiculturalism. However, the director was possibly more realistic (though some might say more racist), so he concluded that Japan would indeed change, but meaning that Japan should accept a smaller population and embrace the idea of a "small but beautiful" Japan. So as I see it, the man in charge of immigration for Japan's capital doesn't want Japan to accept a lot of immigrants -- a bit like making an atheist Pope! Where else but Japan! However, the news about Japan's shrinking population does have a positive side -- maybe folk will have a lot less trouble getting a seat on the subway 50 years from now!

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Some of you may recall that not very long ago, Japan admitted to the existence of leper colonies, something the rest of the civilised world long since gave up as cruel and a waste of time. They then closed the colony and apologised to the unfortunates who had formerly been incarcerated therein. However, closing a camp is a lot easier than changing people's attitudes and so the sad curse of leprosy has been in the news here again. It seems that an onsen (hot springs resort) hotel in Kumamoto Prefecture recently made it a policy to reject former leprosy patients -- true hospitality at its finest! Now the company that owns this distasteful establishment has reacted by closing it down. The president of the Tokyo based hotel operator explained that "It is the sincerest way we can apologize for refusing former Hansen's disease (leprosy) patients accommodation." Now I know that this merely illustrates that Japan still has a medieval attitude towards this disease, but for me, it does have some positive aspects. For one thing, the owners were not content with the usual bow, apology and let's forget all about it, which most erring Japanese companies seem to consider sufficient no matter what the crime. Secondly, I was pleased to note that the president was PC enough to call it 'Hansen's disease', which is both kinder and more scientifically accurate than leprosy. So consider this a step, albeit a small one, in the right direction.

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Remember the controversy over the Prime Minister's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines Japan's war dead including war criminals? Well someone has suggested an excellent way of making such visits much less controversial, and even though this idea will probably lead nowhere, the suggester is rather surprising. You see, the proposition came from former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, a statesman whom no-one could call liberal or progressive. However, this former navy officer has proposed enshrining Class A war criminals separately from the Japanese war dead, so that the emperor and Japanese premiers can visit the Shinto shrine without angering neighbouring countries. In case you've forgotten, Yasukuni honours 2.5 million Japanese war dead but has also enshrined 14 Class A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo. However, as these criminals were secretly enshrined in 1978, any claims of tradition are rather feeble. So what is wrong with Nakasone-san's suggestion? To my mind, nothing at all. However, to certain Japanese politicians, including, sadly, the Prime Minister, I am sure there will be faults, possibly based on the fact that following this suggestion would mean accepting that men like Tojo were war criminals. Nonetheless, praise where it's due and so a pat on the back to Nakasone-san for at least attempting to find a way out of this embarrassing impasse. 

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Crime File

• Dating a lady who has a kid may not be everybody's idea of fun, but one Nagoya teenager went really over the top, it seems. This 18-year-old boy has admitted beating to death the 4-year-old son of the woman he was dating last year. According to prosecutors, the youth beat and kicked the infant for about half an hour at his mother's home last October. What's more, he did this whilst the 28-year-old mother was present. As a result, she is also on trial on charges of aiding the assault by failing to try and stop it.

• Previously, I have had occasion to mention how irrelevant Japan's military appears to be. Well, it seems that their domestic opponents are even worse! You see, neighbours of National Defence Agency's headquarters in Ichigaya, near Shinjuku, recently reported 2 loud bangs at around 11 p.m. On investigating, the police found 2 timer-set projectile launchers in the garden of the nearby Zuikoji Temple, targeted at the agency. Not surprisingly, Police believe radicals attempted to attack the Defense Agency in protest against the dispatch of troops to Iraq, However, no projectiles were found and absolutely no damage was reported. Now if the Iraqis were only this bad . . . . 

• Here's an unusual crime, in that it was committed BY the police! The facts are these. A 68-year-old man, whose name has been withheld to respect his family's privacy, was apprehended by citizens near an automated teller machine (ATM) in a supermarket after a woman began to tussle with him and claimed that he was stealing. Police officers arrived and forcefully held the man down on the floor for about 20 minutes, after which he began vomiting and became unconscious. He died the next day at a hospital from hypertensive heart failure and irregular heartbeat. Following this, Police have admitted two facts: Firstly, the man was not involved in the alleged crime; secondly, the woman who started the rumpus has disappeared, and police are now looking for her. Not surprisingly, the dead man's family are not happy. One relative claimed the police's actions constituted an unjust arrest and that the man had been "virtually killed by the police." Not surprisingly, police claim the situation warranted his arrest. But what about the wrestling? Those who have seen video footage from a security camera installed at the ATM kiosk say that the woman was standing behind the man when she suddenly grabbed him around the chest and began shouting and struggling with him. I'd like to say there will be an enquiry and heads will roll, but don't hold your breath . . .

• And you thought gang war was an American thing? Think again! Right here in 'peaceful' Japan, 3 people were recently shot dead or stabbed to death and 2 others were injured in a suspected gang war in Tokyo and nearby areas. According to the police (who used to claim the Yakuza didn't exist), the incidents might have been in retaliation for the stabbing death in Hokkaido of a member of Japan's largest crime syndicate, the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, by a gangster from another gang, the Iijima-kai. Tokyo's taste of 1920s Chicago began when a 29-year-old gangster was stabbed by 3 men on a street in Tokyo's Koto Ward. Then, a 66-year-old street vendor, also a member of the Iijima-kai, died after being found stabbed on a riverbank in the city of Saitama. Then, in Tokyo's Toshima Ward, a 3rd man was shot on the street and died hours later. He was a member of the Kyokuto-kai gang but seems to have been mistaken for a member of the Iijima-kai. On the wounded side of the ledger, we have a 74-year-old street vendor who was shot in the right leg at the entrance of his home in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture. Another street vendor,32, was shot and injured in Sano, Tochigi Prefecture the same afternoon. In a separate incident, 6 shots were fired into the home of the head of a group belonging to the Iijima-kai, in the city of Saitama. These incidents followed a series of shootings Saturday in Tokyo, in which a woman sustained slight injuries from broken window glass at her home. So much for the yakuza not hurting ordinary folk! But why, you might ask, so many street vendors? Well, the Iijima-kai, which is based in Tokyo's Taito Ward and has about 500 members in 9 prefectures, gets most of its income from street vendors, according to the police. Al Capone, they're not!

• Families are rarely the jolly, loving communities shown in some movies but a recent case in Osaka Prefecture really went too far. Osaka police arrested a 32-year-old man on suspicion of murdering not only his mother, but also his sister and grandmother at their home , using a knife and hammer. What's more, the unemployed defendant has admitted to the deeds. The 'disagreement' came to light when police received a silent emergency call from the victims' house. On arriving, police found the sister and grandmother lying dead, whilst the mother, who had wounds apparently made by a knife, died after being taken to hospital.

• The bubble days may be over but the Ginza shopping district still has the sort of goods thieves crave. This was shown by the recent news that 2 men raided a Ginza jewellery store and made off with ¥3.5 billion (US$31.5 million) worth of jewels, including a 125-carat diamond necklace. According to police, the 2 robbers, described as being "Western-looking" (there's a surprise!) allegedly stole 12 pieces of jewellery, including a ¥3 billion necklace made of 116 diamond stones. One 21-year-old shop assistant was slightly injured during the robbery by pepper spray used by one of the robbers. The 2 then made their getaway on a motorcycle parked near the store. This was no spontaneous raid, as police said the 2 had previously made purchases at the shop. Bear in mind that few if any jewellery shops have security guards here, and what security guards they may have couldn't protect a T-bone steak from a vegetarian!

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Whenever a nasty disease hits Japan, many here initially react by blaming foreigners. However, tossing the blame around doesn't cure it or ease it, and this is certainly true of AIDS, which has confounded the ignorant bigots by reaching beyond the foreign and/or homosexual communities.  The Yukan Fuji newspaper recently carried a report that claimed, quite reasonably, that unless Japan wakes upend takes effective measures to discourage the spread of AIDS, this country could well experience an explosion of new cases by the year 2010. In case you think that is alarmist, bear in mind that the number of new cases testing positive for the HIV virus reported to the Ministry of Health and Welfare last year reached 672, the highest figure ever. What's more, it isn't just careless salarymen returning from sex package tours to Bangkok. A professor of research into infectious diseases at Kyoto University reported that there have been alarming increases among middle and high school students. That sounds like cause for concern to me! AIDS first hit Japan back in the early 1990s, but the victims were mostly returning sex tourists or gays. However, like an unwelcome party gatecrasher, once AIDS gets in, it tends to stay, and what with condom usage being surprisingly unpopular here, the victims are now coming from younger segments of society. A contributing factor is the trend (often reported on this page) for high school girls to 'date' middle aged men. It is estimated that around 20% of female high school students have had sex with an adult male. So much for Madame Butterfly! What makes all these contributing factors truly scary is that yet again, Japan is going against the trend. It is true that the spread of HIV infection has levelled off in most economically advanced countries, due to serious efforts at prevention, but wouldn't you know it -- Japan is the sole exception! Why doesn't that surprise me? However, for those who do ignore the facts and continue their cavalier attitude to sex, the penalty is harsh, financially speaking. It is estimated that the medications used to prevent HIV from developing into full-blown AIDS can cost more than ¥30,000 (US$270) per month — and that's with health insurance. If you are one of those with no coverage, the bill can be more than ¥200,000 (US$1,800). Doesn't that make a condom seem damn cheap?

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Now this is going to sound hard to believe, but a recent murder has got the local gendarmes totally baffled. The facts are these. At the end of January, a 21-year-old college student had dinner with her boyfriend and then left him sleeping in her apartment in Ibaraki Prefecture to go out. Her naked body was found the next day 6 kilometres away, on the banks of the Seimei River; she had been strangled and repeatedly stabbed in the neck with such ferocity that her head was nearly severed. Naturally enough, the first suspect was the boyfriend but police report that he has been cleared. Now as if to prove that quality and quantity are different, the almost 1,000 police assigned to the case have made little progress. What's more, many questions remain unanswered. For example: she is believed to have left on her bicycle, which was duly found in a vacant lot 2½ kilometres away. However, she didn't take her glasses and contact lenses, so how could she ride without them?  She also left her cell phone and purse at home, so she wasn't going to the convenience store. One theory, put forward by no less an authority than the former president of the Tokyo Municipal Medical Institute, a man with more than 20,000 post-mortem examinations under his belt, is that the murder started out as a rape after she was spotted by chance. The professor does not believe this was a 'grudge' crime, pointing out that the mad stabbing frenzy suffered by this girl suggests a case where the original intention was not to kill. In a country where ladies routinely think it safe to walk alone late at night, cases like this could and should make them think twice before doling so. Sad, but true.

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We began this issue discussing the liberal racial views of an Immigration chief here, and this point seems to be supported by a recent scheme of the Immigration Bureau that has been condemned by Amnesty International. The scheme in question is a new section on the Immigration Bureau's web site that allows people to send tips on the identity, address or workplace of undocumented foreigners. Amnesty International claimed that this will promote racism. In Japan? Surely not! The Bureau responded by saying that receiving tips will not mean authorities immediately move to apprehend suspected illegal residents. Oh look at those pigs flying overhead! However, the scheme does seem popular, unsurprisingly, with about 100 tips received in just two days. Informants are asked to specify why they are reporting someone and offers such preset options as "causing anxiety" or "causing a nuisance to the neighbourhood." Where can I report a Japanese for such crimes? Nowhere, of course. In case you're wondering about follow-up, all reports submitted to the web site are automatically sent to regional immigration bureaus, which have jurisdiction over workplaces in Japan where foreigners may be employed. Now call me a conspiracy nut if you like, but I can't help thinking this 'help-a-snitch' service must be linked with the recent crackdown on foreigners who overstay their visas, with the Tokyo metropolitan government aiming to halve the number of illegal aliens in the next 5 years. So on the one hand, we have a report saying Japan needs millions of new immigrants to maintain its population, and on the other hand we have the authorities bending over backwards to help people report any gaijin they've taken a dislike to. Confused? You should try living here!

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Many foreigners begin their lives in Japan working as English teachers, regardless of their qualifications, or lack thereof. Some use teaching as temporary money-spinner but many continue teaching for some time. For young men, one of the attractions of teaching is the opportunities to spend time with Japanese ladies, with possibilities of meeting outside the classroom. However, some teachers have been known to abuse this opportunity, and so one of the biggest English conversation schools, Nova, has banned its teachers from dating students. However, this rule has been condemned by the Osaka Bar Association, which has urged Nova not only to lift the ban on but also to nullify past dismissals of teachers for breaking the rule. Nova responded by claiming that the rule is necessary "to protect both the teachers and students from trouble as they do not know each other's cultures and customs." Now both arguments have some merits, as some teachers do pressure their female students to date them (not having studied how to accept a 'no' politely), but it must also be admitted that some Japanese young girls go to these classes looking for a gaijin boyfriend, especially if the teacher is young and fair-haired. So what's to be done? Hard to say. As one who has often worked as an English teacher, often one-on-one with young ladies, I have known students who have sought extra-curricular activity, as I have also felt tempted to abuse the teacher-student relationship -- hey, I'm only flesh and blood! One way round this might be for Nova to recruit a better class of teacher, preferably those with genuine teaching credentials and a sense of ethics. However, to do this properly, Nova would have to pay a decent salary, which seems highly unlikely. After all, as the axiom so rightly says, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!

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Say That Again . . .

As reported above, a hot springs resort hotel was recently closed by its owners as a mark of contrition for its having refused to accept former leper patients as guests. Well, just in case this act of penance gives you wrong idea about Japan, bear in mind this quote from one of those former patients, who reported that:
"The phone has been ringing off the hook with abusive calls."
The world would be a nice place if it wasn't for people!

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 As reported above, efforts have been made to try and resolve the continuing controversy over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan's war dead including convicted war criminals. The efforts are almost bound to be unsuccessful but the Chinese Foreign Minister recently made a good point by saying:
"There is no leader in Germany or Italy who pays homage to the soul of Hitler or Mussolini." 
How can Japan expect to be treated as a normal country when its leaders don't act normally? 

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Just for those who still think of Japanese girls as being a cross between vestal virgins and Madame Butterfly, this quote from Tsuneo Akaeda, head of a Roppongi Clinic that provides free medical check-ups to schoolgirl prostitutes, should come as something of a shock:
"Teenage girls tell me about romps in karaoke rooms, photo booths and toilet cubicles. Sex no longer seems to be something that should be important. Instead, it's become about instant gratification."
Whether this is a good or bad shock depends on what you're looking for!

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Rodney Hedley, part of a British team that visited various homelessness projects in Japan, recently said:
"We were shocked to witness an advanced country such as Japan allowing so many cardboard cities to exist." 
Such a comment needs no further comment, except a wish that national and local political leaders should have it hanging on their walls!

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As you may know, suicide is viewed very differently here than in the West, and jumping in front of trains, especially JR trains, is one of the favourite methods of doing so. This led to the following comment from Japan Railways West Chairman Masaaki Mori:
"I know I shouldn't say this, but sometimes I feel like asking them to jump in front of Hankyu or Kintetsu trains." 
Before we feel too sorry for him, remember that families of those who jump in front of JR trains are billed for the expense the suicide caused, like delays, etc!

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Finally, just when you think Japanese college students cannot get any more naive, they prove you wrong! Recently, 2 Japanese college students were briefly detained by local police after arriving in Samawah (Japan's military base  in Iraq) from Jordan. Can you believe these guys? As the Chief cabinet secretary so tactfully put it:

"I don't think backpackers should be going to Iraq on pleasure trips." 

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Japan's less than liberal judicial system does have a good side, you know. Take, for example, the blind fiend responsible for the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 12 people and injured more than 5,500. Shoko Asahara, the founder of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, was sentenced to death at the Tokyo District Court, not just for the subway attack but also the murder of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto (who had been helping people with complaints against the cult) and his family, plus the sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, in 1994 that killed 7 people. . In the west, he'd have probably claimed insanity or might have faced a 'life' sentence, meaning he'd walk free after a few years. However, one thing that Japan doesn't lack is red tape and so this scumbag will not be meeting his maker too soon. Unsurprisingly, his  defence team immediately appealed the ruling to the Tokyo High Court. However, long as the appeal procedure may be, no-one really expects the sentence to be overturned. Thankfully, Japanese judges and prosecutors are not elected in the American manner, but the government is sure to consider public opinion, and remember that for the end of this murderer's trial (which lasted 7 years and 10 months), 4,658 people lined up for the 38 seats open to the public in the courtroom. The defence claimed, unoriginally, that Asahara's followers had acted without his instructions. It is unlikely that any judge will ever believe this. Asahara convinced his remarkably gullible followers that he was the incarnation of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration. Like most other religious conmen, he then urged them to entrust themselves and their assets to Shiva and himself for their lifetime. Then, some time around April 1990, he began to believe that all people were sinful and needed to be killed to save their souls. Following Asahara's arrest in May 1995, Aum tried to cast off its criminal image, and renamed itself Aleph in January 2000. Astonishingly, the group remains legal and active, although it has been under surveillance by the Justice Ministry's Public Security Investigation Agency. According to the agency, Aleph currently has about 1,650 followers in Japan, plus another 300 believers in Russia. As one journalist who had been a target of attack by Aum due to her hard-hitting articles against it said, no-one should consider Aum dead and gone. "Those who were in elementary when the crimes occurred are now in university. They know about (Aum) but many of them do not care about the issue," she said. Japan's youth remain incredibly naive and gullible, and so let's hope the government eventually gets around the cosmetic name changes and bans this mob once and for all. 

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Despite its recycling of garbage (which shames places like the UK), Japan is still a remarkably un-green country. However, the recent news that Toyota Motor Corp has been given the top AAA rating for efforts to become an environmentally friendly company may sound like progress. However, one should also remember that Toyota was the only company among 449 Japanese firms to have earned this rating, awarded by the Tohmatsu Evaluation and Certification Organization. Now this shouldn't surprise anyone who has driven along any of Japan's expressways, where small industrial plants spewing out noxious fumes can be seen with alarming regularity. There is even a polluting plant in front of the allegedly sacred Mount Fuji, blocking the view of passengers in passing 'Bullet Trains', which also says a lot about Japan's system of city planning. There are some positive examples, like Tokyo city buses, which are instructed to switch off their engines when waiting at traffic lights, but having sacrificed their environment during the post-war reconstruction period (don't even think of eating anything caught in Tokyo Bay), Japanese folk have yet to realise that nature will not endlessly clean up their mistakes. The green lobby here is still remarkably weak, as most folk here seem alarmingly apathetic about the environment and are reluctant to change their habits to make things better for their offspring. Then again, this should come as no surprise to anyone who's seen those oxymoronic adverts from 'Japan Tobacco' that talks of 'smoking clean'! 

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America has its 'Bush-isms' to keep it amused and here in Japan, we have the wisdom of the Tokyo Governor, Shintaro Ishihara. His latest bon mot seems to suggest that he is the only person in Japan hoping for casualties amongst the Japanese contingent in Iraq. His way of thinking is often hard to fathom but he seems to believe that if the Japanese troops deployed in Iraq are killed or injured, then public opinion will unite behind the government (his son is a cabinet member, remember) and help hasten moves to revise the country's pacifist Constitution. To be exact, the Governor was quoted by Britain's Financial Times as saying "If we see Japanese soldiers killed, the public will be angry and unite, and support the government". He went on to say that "We will need to change the Constitution so that we are no longer at the beck and call of the US." So if troops helping the Americans are injured, this will help Japan become more independent of the US. See what I mean about his speeches providing light relief for those with a realistic knowledge of the big, bad world. Another way of looking at this report is to remember that before he became this city's leader, he co-wrote with Sony's Akio Morita "The Japan That Can Say No," a book widely interpreted as anti-American. However, if Japan had said no to president Bush, then no Japanese would die in Iraq and the constitution wouldn't get altered. Confusing? Yes, he can be. However, as I have said many times before, let's be grateful that unlike France, a politician here can only hold one elected office at a time, and so while he is 'managing' Tokyo, he can't run the country. Be grateful for small mercies!

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Living in the earthquake capital of the world means one has to accept the fact that one day, the earth will shake and you are going to be in trouble. Japan is, therefore, more prepared than most for disasters but a new quake-related problem has recently been discussed, namely how to organise the protection and evacuation of foreign residents despite problems raised by language barriers, etc. The national government is presently in the process of passing a law that would require local authorities to draw up plans to protect and evacuate the public in the case of a foreign attack or anticipated attack. The chief of traffic and disaster prevention in the town of Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture, said, "There is the language difference and there would be difficulties such as in conveying the warnings." He has a point, especially remembering how few bureaucrats or police speak any foreign language. The chief has extra reason to worry, for 15% of his town's population are foreigners, mostly Brazilians, brought over to work in factories in the late 1980s when there was a labour shortage during the 'bubble'. However, give them credit. Oizumi has prepared a map indicating evacuation sites in Portuguese, and when (not if) a disaster occurs, it will also make announcements in Portuguese. The other approach, hinted at by Tokyo's own beloved Governor, is less accommodating. A few years ago, in a speech to Japanese soldiers taking part in a disaster drill, the Governor warned them to be prepared for hoards of foreigners robbing and looting in the aftermath of such a disaster. Hey, at least if they arrest you, you'll get food and a place to sleep. But what if they prefer another means of 'deterrent' . . .?

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Now this may sound ridiculous but there is a lot of high level disagreement in government circles over proposed changes in the law concerning surnames. A law about names? Hey, they have laws on everything here! At present, either a wife can take her husband's name or he must take hers -- they cannot combine them or have different names. Some radical thinkers have suggested that this rule should be scrapped but the mental dinosaurs who rule this country are screaming blue murder at such an idea. This has lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to conclude that it is unlikely to endorse submission to the current Diet session of such a bill. To give you some idea of the nonsensical opposition this suggestion has faced, one member of the panel considering the move claimed that "The proposed bill will promote too much individualism in society and lead to the collapse of Japan's family system", while another went so far as to say that the proposal is "part of a campaign for breaking up the country." Now on the one hand, they're claiming Japan is a strong and sacred country, whilst on the other they're claiming allowing name freedom would break up the nation. Make up your mind, guys! Honestly, such cretins shouldn't be allowed to run a corner shop, let alone a country!

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Tabloids are much the same the world over and they all love celebrity love affairs, especially illicit ones. Well, Japan's tabloids have recently been feasting on a real hum-dinger! Let me try to explain this strange 4-way affair. Those of you who have watched the fairy tale 'The Last Samurai' may be familiar with the Japanese star of that fantasy, Ken Watanabe. Well, despite being married, Watanabe-san is rumoured to be 'involved' with a pretty young actress named Mayumi Wakamura. To complicate matters, she is also married, to the leader of a religious cult called Shakusonkai, of which Watanabe and his wife were both members. It seems that he joined this sect during a recurrence of leukaemia in 1994. His wife went everyday to pray with the sect's leader and brought her husband some bottled water which had been "blessed" by him. Watanabe-san later recovered and kept making weekly visits to the headquarters of the cult in Okayama Prefecture with his wife. Fair enough. Then, however, things get less sacrosanct. Mrs Watanabe claims, in her divorce testimony (didn't I mention they were going through a less than amicable divorce?), that her recovered husband started an affair with Wakamura-san, telling the actress he wanted to marry her. At the same time, Mrs Watanabe took out a large amount in loans from her friends and the cult leader for unknown purposes. Her husband at first thought she took the loans to pay for his medical expenses, but later noticed the amounts were too big for that. This didn't help their relationship, but she allegedly refused his request for a divorce. In case Japan's many sects have got you confused, this one was established in 1979 and is said to have 10,000 members. The leader holds sessions in which he advises, prays and uses his "religious power" to heal his believers. His ex-secretary says: "We used to charge ¥10,000 just for a consultation, ¥15,000 yen for special prayers, and even planned a 10-day pilgrimage to India twice a year for which he charged each member ¥600,000 yen as travel expenses." Not a bad business, ah? Anyway, with claims that the love affair is over, isn't over and everything else, this particular 'scandal' is likely to remain in the headlines for some time, as the full details are unlikely to become clear until May 13th, and the Watanabes' divorce hearing. As if life weren't complicated enough!



Gaijin's Tip:

'If you're partying downtown to celebrate the arrival of spring or whatever, and suddenly discover you've missed your last train, check out some of the all-night bars, etc. Unless you live within the Yamanote circle, staying in one of these till the first train  should cost much less than a taxi home.'
(Taken from the 'Gaijin's Guide to Living in Japan')

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Gaijin's Where-to-Go

'The arrival of the 'Sakura' or cherry blossom is a big event here, and the ensuing sakura viewing parties, hanami, are an alcoholic way of celebrating the arrival of spring. Good blossom viewing sites are very popular, with some folk camping out overnight to secure their chosen site. Attractive places to see the sakura include Arisugawa Park (Hiroo Subway), Hibiya Park (Hibiya Subway/Yurakucho JR), Kitanomaru Park (Kudanshita Subway), Shinjuku Gyoen (Shinjuku JR/Shinjuku Gyoenmae Subway -- closed after sunset), Ueno Park (Ueno JR/Subway -- THE most popular hanami site), Yoyogi Park (Harajuku JR/Yoyogi-Koen Subway).'

(For more suggestions, check out the 'Gaijin's Guide to Enjoying Tokyo')