1993 年 10 月 15 日 第三種郵便物認可 毎月 1 日発行 Vol. 45 第 6 号 No. 1 Shimbun 2013 年 6 月 1 日発行

June 2013
Volume 45 No. 6¥400

DEAD IN THE WATER?
Tokyo’s Olympic bid struggles to stay afloat+
Is Toru Hashimoto digging his
own political grave?
Kisha Clubs are not all they’recracked up to be
A talk with Richard Lloyd Parry
Online dating: the ins and outs
Five generations of outsiders
in JapanNumber 1 Shimbun | June 2013

In this issue
The Front Page		 4 		President's message
Georges Baumgartner
Letter to the editor
Click on this Online dating
Steve McClure
Loose lips
Stumbling on the path to Mt Olympus 		Hashimoto’s “high noon”
Justin McCurry

6
8

ProfileRichard Lloyd Parry of The Times

Gavin Blair

10

Book excerpt
Yokohama Yankee

Leslie Helm12

How come The Boso Boys consider FCCJ
Saturday Night Live the best gig in Kanto? Roger Sherrin

14Halls of Power Kisha club concerns

Ayako Mie

16

Exhibition
The Floating World Through Blue Eyes

Peter MacIntosh

17

Obituary
Marvin Petal18

New members		
New in the library		18
18

New at the Club

Volume 45, Number 6June 2013contact the editors

no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Editor Gregory Starr
Publisher John R. Harris
Art Director Andrew Pothecarywww.forbiddencolour.com
Assistant Editor Geoff Tudor
Editorial Assistants Naomichi Iwamura,Angela Erika Kubo. Elena Omura, Tyler Rothmar,
Albert Siegel
Photo Coordinator Akiko Miyake
FCCJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Georges Baumgartner,
Swiss Radio and Television
1st Vice President Martin Koelling,
Handelsblatt
2nd Vice President
Masaaki Fukunaga, The Sanmarg
Secretary Suvendrini Kakuchi,Inter Press Service
Treasurer Jonathan Soble, Financial Times
Directors at Large
Lucy Birmingham, freelance
Yoshio Murakami, IHT
Yozo Hasegawa, BS Japan and Radio Nikkei News
Tetsuo Jimbo, Video News Network, Inc
Kanji Charles Pomeroy
FCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRSAssociate Members Liaison Joan Anderson
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship+ Professional Development Masaaki Fukunaga
Entertainment Sandra Mori
Exhibitions Bruce Osborn
Finance Jonathan Soble
Food & Beverage Michael Penn
Freedom of the Press Khaldon AzhariHouse & Property Martin Koelling
Human Resources Masaaki Fukunaga
Improvement Mary Corbett, Ed MernerInformation, Technology Policy Council
Tetsuo Jimbo, Video News Network, IncKoeki Yoshio Murakami
Library/Workroom Suvendrini Kakuchi,
Koichi Ishiyama
Membership Monzurul Huq
Marketing Advisory Mary Corbett
Movie Edwin Karmiol, Karen Severns
Professional Activities Beryl Tung, Rick Wallace
Photo Archive Lucy Birmingham
Publications John R. Harris
Shadan Hojin Kaz Abiko, Yoshisuke Iinuma
Special Project Haruko WatanabeSports Duke Ishikawa
Kanji Advisory Panel Charles Pomeroy
Foreign Press in Japan Justin McCurry
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Yurakucho Denki Building, North Tower 20F,
1-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006.
Tel: (03) 3211-3161 Fax: (03) 3211-3168
www.fccj.or.jp

Just like his father, Harry Ryall was late to the deadline but eventually put in his appearance on
April 24. Harry, who tipped the scales at slightly over 3.7 kg, and mum Kanako — who sacrificed
her career in the FCCJ’s bar to generate a new future member — are both doing well.

Published by the FCCJAll opinions contained within Number 1 Shimbun arethose of the authors. As such, these opinions do notconstitute an official position of Number 1 Shimbun, theeditor or the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
Please pitch and send articles and photographs, oraddress comments to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Cover by Andrew Pothecary. Hand photo: Dreamstime

FCCJ

3

THE FRONT PAGE

4

Number 1 Shimbun | June 2013

President's message

Letter to the Editor

THE NEWS WILL COME TO MANY AS A RELIEF. AND NO ONE IS MORE
relieved than me. I will not be president for life of the FCCJ. “Touchons dubois,” as we say in French — “touch wood” — because I still have a few weeks.
Last month I wrote that since no competent successor had stepped
forward, I feared I would be obliged to run for a fourth term.
In the interim, Lucy Birmingham has volunteered to run for president in
the Club’s upcoming election. A director-at-large active on the current Board,a seasoned contributor to TIME and other reputable outlets, Lucy is better qualified thanme to represent the FCCJ. Her Japanese is far superior. She is more diplomatic than me, andexponentially more charismatic. So I can retire in good conscience knowing FCCJ Members
have the option to choose her to replace me.
Three years ago, the business and finances of our Club were headed toward disaster. Having
previously served five years as Treasurer I could see this clearly. Convinced we had one lastchance to put the Club back on a sustainable course, I ran for president in order to do that.
Three long years later, I cannot say the job is done. But we have overcome the inertia ofendless disagreement to enact fundamental reforms that give the FCCJ a decent chance oflong-term survival.
Some claim I misrepresented the Club’s finances in order to create a sense of crisis. But
you don’t need a forensic accountant to gauge who is telling the truth. Declining revenue
from membership and F&B is a fact evident in our financial statements. With a history ofantagonistically deadlocked Boards and rotating-door management, could anyone credibly
claim good governance over the long term? Has the past decade been a time of prosperity forother organizations in Japan —­ or for journalists? Take a look at the condition of our carpets.
And that’s what anyone can see.
Other grave deficiencies that became apparent to the Board could not be publicized withouthuge effort to amass evidence able to stand up in court. So we decided it was better to change
the future than fight the past.
This much was clear to us. Journalism is the raison d’être of the FCCJ. F&B operations weredeveloped to support journalism and not vice versa. Our labor costs were unsustainable. And,
fundamentally, it makes no sense to have a rotating committee of foreign journalists managea large hospitality operation. Not only is that not our business, it is madness.
It took over two years, but last fall we succeeded in outsourcing the FCCJ’s F&B operations.
This will have a significantly positive impact on the Club’s finances, short and long term.
Should a future Board be displeased with the current operator, they can be replaced. But it
makes no sense to revert to the status quo ante.
In conjunction with outsourcing, to ensure our journalistic mission has appropriate legal
stature in Japanese society, the Board also moved to secure public-interest non-profit (Koeki)
status. Due to changing laws the decision could not be put off, and I would like to thank the
many volunteers — especially Yoshio Murakami — whose heroic effort enabled us to submit ourapplication last month.
To apply for whichever new status, general or public interest, we had to ratify new Articles
of Association. This required the consent in a referendum of two-thirds of Regular Members— not just two-thirds of voters, two-thirds of those eligible. Thirty years ago a relatively noncontroversial measure failed to pass because the same hurdle was too high.
In this case, the clique that loudly opposes every reform tried to turn the referendum
into a vote of confidence in our Board — and their most zealous partisan went to the officeto scrutinize every ballot. He must have been disappointed: 77.8 percent of eligible voterssupported our initiative, while 8.7 percent heeded his call to vote “No.”
Incredibly, not even such a democratic landslide dissuades this clique. Unable to prevailat the ballot box they have launched three separate lawsuits, causing the Club to incur morethan ¥2.5 million in legal bills from Sept. last year thru April. That’s roughly ¥1,250 from each
Member’s pocket — and counting.
Not to mention the distraction, which we have done our best to overcome. Staying focused
until the last day of our term, the current Board has launched an initiative to give the FCCJ an
online presence to support its public-interest mission. And this month we will appoint a new
General Manager.
Unfortunately. I have run out of space to thank all those whose support has been criticalover the past three years. But I will squeeze in thanks to Treasurer Jonathan Soble. I am also
out of time — but that is a relief.
— Georges Baumgartner

AS MANY MEMBERS ARE AWARE, DECISIONS BY
the current Board of the FCCJ with regard to
the Food & Beverage operation of the Club havebeen controversial and led to negative reactions
on the part of many of the Regular as well as
Associate members. This is only one of several
instances of the untransparent decision-making
that seems to be characteristic of the present andpreceding Boards.
The FCCJ plays a unique and important rolein Japan. It has the freedom to present casesand causes that touch everyone without being
subjected to the limitations that apply to theJapanese press. However dissatisfaction withthe way the Club is run endangers the continued
existence of the Club.
These Boards decided fundamentally to alter
the character of the FCCJ by outsourcing theservices of its restaurant and bar facilities on thebasis of faulty logic, and incorrect assessmentof the Club’s present finances. Many Associate
members wish to see the relationship between
staff and members typical of a private and noncommercial Club restored. They did not join theClub to be subjected to the commercial treatment
they are now getting as a result of outsourcing
F&B operations.
Management of an organization like the FCCJ
fundamentally requires good financial analyticalskills and good business sense, leading to carefully
considered decision making that takes into
account the interests of all stakeholders, including
the Club’s employees. This kind of experience andknowhow are not typically part of the backgroundof a working correspondent. For that reason the
FCCJ in the 1990s rewrote the bylaws to establish
the post of general manager along with theappropriate delegation of responsibility.
Besides business experience, financial expertiseand experience is also extensively available among
the Associate membership. Associate members are
happy to make their knowledge available to theClub. At the same time many Associate members
want to have a bigger voice in the way the Club is
run and to be better informed by the Board of its
actions. This has now become a matter of urgency
and cannot wait till the possible election of
Associate members to the board in 2014.
We have formulated suggestions on how toaddress what we see as shortcomings in the Club’s
governance. For more details please see: http://
fccj-needs-reform.com/recommendations/
We are asking for support from themembership.
Thank you,
— Stephen Church
Rick Dyck
Robert Kirschenbaum
Willem Kortekaas

FCCJ

Steve McClure on the ins and outs of online dating
between foreign men and Japanese women
A THIRTY-SOMETHING FEMALE FRIEND
of mine recently decided to get back into
the dating game after breaking up withher boyfriend. A generation ago, shewould have hit the singles bars. Instead,
she’s taking her search for Mr. Right
online by signing up with dating websites
catering to lonely souls like her.
My friend happens to be Japanese. And
judging from the many websites offering
to make matches between foreign men
and Japanese women, she’ll soon bedeluged with pledges of undying lovefrom foreign men for whom the femalesof these islands are the quintessenceof feminine charm and beauty. The
stereotypes and cultural clichés of“Madame Butterfly” and Bachelor’s Japan
appear to be alive and well.
Leaving aside the vexed question of
why those seeking true love should
circumscribe their search to specificethnicities or nationalities, a Google
search for “Japan dating sites” yields pageafter page of results. They range fromthe serious to the scabrous and salacious.
The latter category includes http://erolin.
net, which provides English-language
information about “dates” with “escorts,”
as well as information about “gaijin
welcome adult stores in Japan.”
Here are some other representative
samples of love in the age of cyberia:
Soulmates Japan (www.soulmatesjapan.
com) seems to be on the up-and-up. The
profiles of lonely hearts of both sexes havethe ring of sincerity – which is always sohard to fake. And the photos on display
show people who look reassuringly (orperhaps depressingly, depending on what
you’re looking for) ordinary.
The bilingual site goes out of its way tocaution users about the pitfalls of seeking
romance on the internet: don’t ever sendmoney to people you meet online, don’t
give out too much private information,
and arrange to meet in a public place thefirst time. The site also helpfully warns
users to be on guard against married
miscreants. “It’s unfortunate, but somemarried people do use online dating
services and try to hide the fact they are
married,” Soulmates’ operators state in the
About Us section. “Of course they may
have legitimate reasons for using the site

FCCJ

but often they are just looking for somefun on the side.” Shocking, but true, I
suppose. Caveat amator, after all.
JapanCupid.com is another slick-looking
website that comes up when you do asearch for Japanese dating portals. It has
a pleasant, friendly feel, in contrast to
the somewhat clinical vibe of Soulmates.
Some of the photos verge on the prurient– one wonders what sort of “friend” ayoung lady attired in a maid costume isseeking, for example – but the site looks
legit on the whole.
Then there are sites like Japan Woman
Dating (www.japanwomendating.asia),
which features photos of attractive young
women who, despite the website’s name,appear to be Chinese. I signed up with thesite (using a fake name), and found myself
directed to the chat section of website
AsianBeauties.com, which “shows all thosebeautiful Orient women currently online
and ready to Live Chat” (no necrophiliacs,
please). The site sorts available chattersaccording to the helpful but somewhat
subjective criterion “beautiful ladies first.”“I am kind-mind and happy and simple
girl and i like to enjoy life in the right way
which i want to found someone can share
the beautiful life with me together,” writes
a lovely-looking young lady named Qian.
“I like western man and i like the way theytreat ladies.” By the time you read this, Qian
will presumably have been snapped up by
the Western man – or men – of her dreams.
Here in Tokyo, there’s always Metropolis
magazine’s personals section, which likethe rest of the mag, can be accessed online(http://classifieds.metropolis.co.jp/
category/personals). Most people here arelooking for marriage partners, although
one Japanese woman recently placed an
ad that lends new meaning to the phrase“affairs of the heart:” “Seeking sincere,
gentle, and well-educated American
medical doctor (cardiologist is preferred)to understand my condition and giveme advice for long-term friendship.”One hopes her efforts to find true loveand sound medical advice in one handy
package are not in vein. ❶Discount LexisNexis
Subscriptions
for FCCJ Members
The FCCJ is pleased to offer
members a substantial discount on
subscriptions to LexisNexis’ news
database service, Nexis.com
The Members-only deal
allows for flat-rate access at¥7,900 per month – offering
big savings on a service that
normally costs ¥126,000 per month

The service will be billed by theClub. The FCCJ benefits from all
subscriptions sold under thisarrangement.
Nexis provides access to news andinformation from more than 34,000
sources, including Kyodo News, Jiji,
Yonhap, Xinhua, AP, Reuters, AFP,
all major world newspapers andspecialist news sources. Also
included is a database of U.S. andinternational company information,
biographical databases, country
profiles and a U.S. legal database.

For those already in on the secret,the application form is available
on the FCCJ website or from the
19F Club office.

Steve McClure publishes the online music-industry
newsletter McClureMusic.com. He has lived in Tokyo
since 1985.

5

LOOSE LIPS

Number 1 Shimbun | June 2013close to the IOC wind by highlighting perceived weaknesses in Istanbul’s vision for
the Games. “I don’t mean to flatter, but
London is in a developed country whose
sense of hospitality is excellent,” he said.
“Tokyo’s is also excellent. But other cities,
not so much.”
He went on: “For the athletes, where
will be the best place to be? Well, compare the two countries where they have
yet to build infrastructure [or] very
sophisticated facilities.”
The remarks drew an angry response
from Turkey. The country’s youth andsports minister, Suat Kiliç, took to Twitter todenounce them as “unfair and saddening,”
and a clear violation of the Olympic spirit.
Spying an opportunity to capitalize on
Inose’s intemperance, Kilic pointed out

FOOT-IN-MOUTH DISEASE STRIKES TOKYO’SCAMPAIGN TO HOST THE 2020 GAMES

nous Inose had acquired since becoming governor quickly evaporated. Inose
claimed that the New York Times interview
had focused on “a small number of comments” and did not reflect his “sincere
and wider thoughts” about the bidding
contest. Then, in an inexplicable show ofconceit, he went on Twitter to say that thedebacle had at least taught him “who are
my enemies and who are my allies.”
Inose, it must be said, had inheriteda tricky Olympic brief from Ishihara,
whose attempt last spring to buy the Senkakus set off a bitter territorial row that
continues today. Ishihara’s long recordof provoking China will not have goneunnoticed by IOC delegates, and it is
not unreasonable to believe that Chinese
members of the committee will use theirand innovation” that the city hopes willsecure it victory when the IOC votes todecide the 2020 host in Buenos Aires on
Sept. 7.
Aside from drawing on Japan’s technological prowess, advanced infrastructureand stable source of funding, Tokyo is
promising a “downtown” Games in which
85 percent of the venues are located withina five-mile radius of the Olympic Village.
“The city enjoys the largest GDP of any
city in the world,” Takeda said. “It alreadyhas a Games fund of US$4.5 billion in thebank, as well as full government financial
guarantees.”
The city can count itself fortunate thatits most powerful elected representative
betrayed his prejudices when he did. The
consensus among Olympic-bid watchers is‘TOKYO MAY HAVE ESCAPED OFFICIAL CENSURE, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN
THE INOSE STORM HAS BLOWN ITSELF OUT.’

Stumbling on the path to Mt. Olympus
by Justin McCurryILLUSTRATION: ANDREW POTHECARYI

f Tokyo fails in its second consecutive attempt to become host city of theSummer Olympics, the blame game would
have no lack of potential targets. The furor
surrounding recent comments on wartime
sex slaves by the mayor of Osaka, Toru
Hashimoto, and the perception that diplomatic expediency, not conviction, led theprime minister, Shinzo Abe, to honor official apologies for Japan's wartime conduct

6

have hardly helped the country's standing
overseas, particularly in Asia. But there is
no more worthy a target than the man
who occupies the office of the capital’s
governor, Naoki Inose.
In an interview with the New York Times in
April, Inose displayed breathtaking ignorance of Turkey, and of IOC rules banningbidding cities from commenting on bids
by rival candidates.

Displaying the same gift for diplomacy
as Shintaro Ishihara, the man he replaced asgovernor, Inose said of Istanbul’s bid: “So,from time to time, like Brazil, I think it’s
good to have a venue for the first time. But
Islamic countries, the only thing they sharein common is Allah and they are fightingwith each other, and they have classes.”
Having stomped over Turkish religious
and cultural sensibilities, Inose also sailed

FCCJ

that Istanbul officials “haven’t made any
impairing comments about any other candidate city until now, and we won’t.”
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, even suggested – only half jokingly – that Shinzo Abe withdraw Tokyo’sbid. Abe, who was in Turkey in May tosecure a US$22 billion deal to build anuclear facility there, politely declined,
but said he would be the “first to applaud”
Istanbul if it is named host city on its fifth
attempt.
One wonders who was briefing Inosein the messy aftermath of publication of
the New York Times article. Initially, the governor resorted to the time-honored tacticof blaming the messenger, accusing thenewspaper of taking his comments outof context. He appeared to have forgotten that the interview had been conductedby Hiroko Tabuchi, a Japanese journalist, and Ken Belson, an American reporter
who speaks Japanese, in the presence ofan interpreter upon whose translation thearticle was based.
In response, the New York Times said in astatement that it was “completely confident in the reporting for our article.”
When Inose’s apology finally arrived,
it came with a large helping of hubris. “I
regrettably acknowledge, however, thatsome of my words might be consideredinappropriate and consequently would
like to offer my sincere apology,” he said.
“I want to keep campaigning strictly inaccordance with the IOC rules that one
should not criticise other cities.”
Yet again, though, what little media

FCCJ

influence on African and Asian colleagues
to try to scupper Tokyo’s bid. Inose,
remember, was Ishihara’s deputy and his
favoured successor.
The Yomiuri Shimbun speculated that Inose’srecord-breaking election victory late lastyear had gone to his head, to the detrimentof Tokyo’s bid. “We are very concerned
how the Tokyo governor’s remarks willaffect the voting behavior of IOC membersof other countries, particularly those from
Islamic countries,” it said in an editorial.
It was left to Tsunekazu Takeda, the likable – and no doubt exasperated – president of the Japan Olympic Committee, topick up the pieces.
“Although [Inose’s] sincere thoughts
differ from the content of the story published, he acknowledges that his comments
related to another bid city and religion
may have conflicted with the IOC guidelines and, as a result, offered his profoundapologies,” Takeda said in a statement.
The show of contrition worked: the IOC
said it had noted Inose’s remarks but would
not be taking action, simply reminding“all candidates of the rules pertaining to
the bidding process.”
In a recent appearance at the FCCJ,
Takeda went to great lengths to avoid
any detailed discussion of “Inose-gate.”“Inose made remarks for which he has
apologized and the IOC says the caseis now closed,” he said. “We’re totally
focused on delivering the best possible
Games. Is that clear?”
Takeda repeated Tokyo’s three-pronged
Olympic mantra of “delivery, celebrationthat the final three months of the process
are the most decisive. Witness how Paris,
long considered the frontrunner for 2012,
was pipped at the post by London; ditto
Chicago and Rio de Janeiro, host of the2016 Games.
As Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid enter the
final, frantic phase of lobbying – beginning with presentations to the IOC in St.
Petersburg at the end of May – none canafford to be complacent.
Tokyo may have escaped official censure,but that does not mean the Inose storm has
blown itself out, says Owen Gibson, chief
sports correspondent for the Guardian.
“Such is the weird world of international sports diplomacy that this sort of thing
can have a lasting impact,” Gibson told
No.1 Shimbun.
“It was particularly unfortunate that hiscomments could be compared unfavorablywith Istanbul’s ‘East meets West’ rhetoric. If you look at all the recent winningbids – Beijing, London and Rio – in different ways they have all campaigned on amessage of opening themselves up to theworld, hosting a global celebration. But
Inose’s comments seemed to run contrary
to all that.”
That said, Inose’s outburst at least demonstrated that Tokyo “really wants to win”
the contest, added Gibson, who has covered two Olympic bids and interviewed
the governor in London earlier this year.
There are, though, flaws that Tokyo must
address between now and September. Japan
has already hosted the summer Games, in
1964, when it persuaded the IOC that the7

LOOSE LIPS

Justin McCurry is Japan and Korea correspondent for the
Guardian and Observer newspapers in London, and Tokyo
correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor. He also
reports on Japan and South Korea for France 24 TV.

8when he told local journalists that Japan’s
use of tens of thousands of wartime sex
slaves during conflicts in China and on the
Korean peninsula had been “necessary” tomaintain discipline among frontline troops.
Around the same time, it emerged that hehad told a U.S. commander during a visit
to Okinawa that his troops should frequent
the island’s commercial sex establishments
more often; that way, he said, they would
be less inclined to assault local women.
His “comfort women” remarks drew
predictable criticism from South Korea
and China, while a State Department official in Washington described his Okinawa

EXPECTATIONS FOR FIREWORKS FROM OSAKA'S"BAD BOY" MAYOR WERE MET BY REPEATED
PLATITUDES AND A CHANGE OF COLORS

fight, he apologized for his advice to U.S.
soldiers on how to rein in their sexual
energy, describing his remarks as a kneejerk response borne of “a sense of crisis”
over rapes and other crimes involving U.S.
military personnel. “My real intention was
to prevent a mere handful of U.S. soldiersfrom committing crimes and strengthen
the Japan-U.S. alliance and the relations oftrust between the two nations,” he said.
“I understand that my remark could beconstrued as an insult to the U.S. forces
and to the American people” and wasinappropriate. I retract this remark andexpress an apology.”

young as 13 to work in military brothels.
“The argument of many Japanese historians is that there is no evidence to showthat the will of the state was used to systematically abduct or traffic the women. A
2007 government statement, approved by
the Cabinet, also concluded there was noevidence to show the will of the state wasused for the systematic abduction andtrafficking of the women.”
Hashimoto resorted to the time-honored tactic among historical revisionists ofattempting to dilute Japan’s wartime guiltby sharing it around. “It is not a fair attitude to blame only Japan. Sexual violationin wartime was not an issue uniqueto the former Japanese army,” hesaid. “The issue existed in thearmed forces of the U.S., the UK,
France, Germany and the former
Soviet Union, among others. It also
existed in the armed forces of the
Republic of Korea. The world is trying to put a lid on all of these facts.”
At one point, he came dangerously closeto accusing surviving sex slaves who haveclaimed they were snatched from theirhomes by Japanese military police of lying.
Instead, he noted, “from a historical pointof view there is a debate over their veracity.”
The most uncomfortable moments camewhen he was twice asked about his former
role as a legal adviser to an association of“restaurants” in the Tobita red-light districtof Osaka that, according to one questioner,“even junior high school students” knew
doubled as brothels. Citing attorney-client
privilege, Hashimoto said only that hisformer clients “would have been investigated” by the authorities had they been
involved in any illegal activities.
Whether or not the comfort women
furor has irreparably harmed Hashimoto’s
political ambitions remains to be seen. In
any case, reporters in Osaka have speculated that he has grown disillusioned with
politics and is looking for a way out.
Eric Johnston wrote in the Japan Times thatsome Hashimoto watchers believe “he is
tired of being a politician, wants to end
his political career and return to the morefinancially lucrative world of televisionpunditry, and figured the quickest way to
do that was to make himself unpopular.”That could explain his apparent insouciance when asked about his party’s chancesin July’s upper house elections, amid a newpoll showing public support for the party
at just three percent in May, compared withnine percent a month earlier. “If Japanese
voters reject my recent comments then, yes,
we will lose seats in the elections,” he said.
“Then the party will have a discussion about
whether I should continue to lead it.” ❶WE WITNESSED THE UNLIKELY EMERGENCE OF HASHIMOTO
THE TIRELESS CAMPAIGNER FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS.

ALBERT SIEGEL

event would demonstrate Japan’s emergence from the ashes of war to become an
economic force and a responsible memberof the international community.
While the 2020 campaign has received
high marks for logistics and practical considerations, it lacks the “emotional resonance” of almost 50 years ago, says Gibson.
Yet using the Games to demonstrate
Japan’s continuing recovery from the
March 11, 2011 triple disaster could
prove counterproductive. Every time bid
officials offer justified reassurances about
radiation levels in Tokyo, they remind therest of the world that Fukushima Daiichi power plant remains vulnerable; andwhen Takeda describes Tokyo as “safe” –as he did several times during his FCCJ
appearance – he invites inevitable questions about the perennial threat to Tokyo
from a major earthquake.
Even so, Gibson, noting that Tokyo had
hired the same agency London and Rio
used to write their speeches and produce
promotional literature, believes the city
is “still very much in the race. There’s nodoubt Istanbul’s is the more expansive,
expensive vision, but if there is a sense that
Istanbul is too much of a risk, then Tokyo
will benefit.
“Tokyo has to sell itself more effectively
between now and September and provethat the Japanese people really want to hostit, something that has undermined its bids
in the past.”
A question mark hangs over just how
enthusiastic Tokyo residents are about theprospect of hosting the Games. “In general,people in Tokyo and the rest of Japan don’t
seem that interested,” a Japanese writer fora weekly magazine who has written about
Tokyo’s bid told No.1 Shimbun.
“Tokyo has hosted the Olympics before
and the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998
created a lot of debt,” the writer, who did
not wish to be named, said. “Japan itself isin debt, so people don’t understand why
the Olympics should be a priority. I canunderstand the motivation behind Madridand Istanbul’s bids, but not Tokyo’s.”
As the three candidate cities enter thedecisive stages of the bidding contest,
Tokyo may come to thank Inose for his
outburst. Given the events of recent weeks,
Japan’s Olympic officials at least know theymust find a way to keep Tokyo’s troublesomely loquacious governor in the shadows for the remainder of the campaign …
before irreparable harm is done. ❶Number 1 Shimbun | June 2013

Toru Hashimotoat the Club

Hashimoto’s “high noon”
by Justin McCurryM

onday, May 27, was one of those days
when the FCCJ effortlessly lived up
to its reputation as a place where the news
is made.
Well before the main event was due tobegin at noon, the conference room wasteeming with writers, photographers andcamera crews jostling for position. And all
this for a locally elected politician who has
never run for national office and, after themonth he has had, possibly never will.
The hardworking members of theClub’s Professional Activities Committee
had been trying for some time to secure
an appearance by Toru Hashimoto, whose
recent appraisal of Japan’s wartime history
and advice on the sexual behavior of U.S.
servicemen in Okinawa saw him eclipse
even the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, as
the country’s most talked-about politician.
Having refused several requests to speakat the Club since last year, Hashimoto’s policy of remaining close to his political basein Osaka began to weaken in mid-May,

FCCJ

advice as “outrageous and offensive.” The
43-year-old mayor must have been startled by the strength of feeling his comments had generated overseas. For the
first time since he and Shintaro Ishihara
created the Japan Restoration Party lastDecember, his brand of rightwing populism was again being dissected by thelikes of the New York Times and the BBC.
He was left with little choice but toagree to talk directly to foreign journalistsin Tokyo. Initially, he would do so only on
his terms, with plans made for a live link
between the FCCJ and Osaka, to be moderated by Eric Johnston, Osaka bureau chiefof the Japan Times and a familiar face at the
mayor’s press conferences at Osaka city hall.
Within 24 hours, Hashimoto’s handlers
informed the Club that he would be making the arduous journey along the Tokaido
after all. He was greeted by more than 400
people in a room buzzing with expectation of another headline-making gaffe or, atthe very least, a spot of mudslinging in the
direction of the international media corps.
In the end, Hashimoto shed his politician persona and returned to his professional roots as a highly successful lawyer
following, it should be noted, a strangely
flattering introduction by the FCCJ president, Georges Baumgartner.
Perhaps we should have known that,as far as the sex slave and Okinawa issues
were concerned, the most colorful copy
had already been served up and digested.
Hours before his appearance, Hashimoto,having been briefed by a “task force” comprising MPs from the JRP, attempted to
strike a more conciliatory tone.
In a long statement designed, perhaps,
to soften up journalists spoiling for a

FCCJ

On comfort women, too, there was achange of tack, and a mild ticking off forjournalists. In referring to military brothels
as a necessity, he had been evoking the feeling among armies around the world during
World War II. He had not, he insisted, evermeant the description to be interpreted as apersonal endorsement of sexual slavery.
Over the course of almost three hours, we
witnessed the unlikely emergence of Hashimoto the tireless campaigner for women’s
rights. “I find it extremely deplorable thatnews reports have continued to assume theopposite interpretation of my remarks andto depict me as holding women in contempt,” he said. “What I intended to convey…was that other nations should also
sincerely face the fact that their soldiers violated the human rights of women.
“I am totally in agreement that the useof comfort women by Japanese soldiers
before and during the World War Two was
an inexcusable act that violated the dignity
and human rights of the women in whichlarge numbers of Korean and Japanese
were included.”
For a man who owes some of his electoral success to his disdain for the ambiguous language employed by his mainstream
political foes, Hashimoto sent his audience
into a stupor with a speech that was asvague as it was repetitious. Yet for all theearnest condemnations of the comfort
women system, there were times when
the watery form of a nationalist politician
came into sharper focus.
Soon after reassuring the audience thatthe 1993 Kono statement should remain
intact, he criticized it as ambiguous on theextent of direct state involvement in rounding up and trafficking girls and women as

9

of in o Ano
Cl ur thproub M seri erfile em ess ber

PROFILE

Number 1 Shimbun | June 2013

Richard Lloyd Parry of The Times
by Gavin Blairis interest piqued by a two-weektrip to Japan that he won as a prizeon the cult British teenage TV quiz show
Blockbusters in 1986, Richard Lloyd Parry
returned several times to the country thatwas to eventually become his base as Asia
Editor of The Times.
Lloyd Parry “wasted quite a lot of timeat university doing plays, and thought fora while that I wanted to be a director.”
But he was already beating a path into thefourth estate during those student days at
Oxford, through summer jobs working on
the Observer’s art pages and the Evening Standard’s “Londoner’s Diary,” the latter a gossip column that he says was “the breaking
ground for quite a lot of journalists.”“One moment of enlightenment I had
working on the Londoner’s Diary was
when the editor told me he wanted me
to call up some cabinet minister aboutsomething ridiculous like his pet tortoise. At that moment I realized that theone secret of journalism is that you if you
have their phone number, you can call up
whoever you like and ask them whatever
you like.
“For non-journalists, there’s sometimes
a sense of mystery about what journalists
actually do, and what the skills are; there
are no skills really, it’s something that anyone can do, but you spend all your time
doing it.”
While freelancing in London after graduation, he managed to land a contract towrite a Japan guidebook. That took him
back to Japan in 1993, where he visited the
FCCJ for the first time, before finishing thebook in London.
He was able to return once more in
1994. The Independent had shuttered its Tokyo
bureau and “wanted someone cheap,”
giving Lloyd Parry the chance to string forthe paper, his knowledge of the countrycompensating for a lack of news reporting
experience.
“The Kobe earthquake happened the
day after my interview, so Japan was in
the news again. I came out in March.
The [Aum cult’s] sarin attack on the subway happened while I was stopping off
to visit a friend in Pakistan, so I arrived
two days after that with a lot to do,” herecalls. “That was a big year, with the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war,
the Murayama Statement and the unraveling of the bubble economy beginning to

10

show itself in corporate scandals.”
Shortly afterwards he found himself
also covering the Korean Peninsula, andtraveling around Southeast Asia stringing for the British broadsheet. It was inIndonesia that Lloyd Parry says he cut his
teeth on “conflict coverage,” charting thedownfall of the Suharto regime and thebrutal violence that accompanied it.
After 9/11, he was sent to cover Pakistan and Afghanistan, where his reportson the effects of U.S. bombings on Afghan
civilians are among the work he says hestill takes some pride in.

at the limitations of newspapers; by theirnature, the articles that run in them areshort. When you know a place well, youwant to do justice to its subtleties, and
130,000 words are just enough,” he says
with a smile.
Being able to continue to cover Korea
and Southeast Asia since moving to The
Times in 2002 has been both a privilege
and a vital reason keeping him in Tokyo,
says Lloyd Parry.
“News-wise, for a British newspaper,
Japan can go very quiet. After a few weeks
in Japan, it’s very exciting to go to Indone-‘ONE SECRET OF JOURNALISM IS THAT YOU IF YOU HAVE
THEIR PHONE NUMBER, YOU CAN CALL UP WHOEVER YOU
LIKE AND ASK THEM WHATEVER YOU LIKE.’“The sad truth – and this is one of thereasons I like to write books – is that mostof the time when you look back later at
newspaper articles, they don’t read thatwell really. The value was in the freshness
and the contemporaneity.”
With two acclaimed books – In the Timeof Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos andPeople Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman – already published, and one on the
3/11 disasters on the way, Lloyd Parrysays he has ambitions to author more.
“I love the excitement of news, daily
deadlines, being on the road, going somewhere without knowing what’s really happened. But inevitably, you find that you
are repeating yourself in stories. You chafe

Gavin Blair covers Japanese business, society and culture
for publications in America, Asia, and Europe.

sia, Burma or Iraq. But after a few weeks
in Baghdad, you just feel tearfully grateful
to come back to Tokyo. I appreciate Japaneven more for being able to visit thoserockier places.”
Now the father of two small children,
Lloyd Parry says he is less eager to jumpon the next plane when a major conflictbreaks out.
“I didn’t do the Arab Spring, which
if I didn’t have young children, I think I
probably would have done,” he says. “Thereason is not actually the danger of being
killed – because I was just as attached to
my own skin before I had kids. It's thatspending extended periods away is not fairon the family.”
Despite the relative decline inJapan’s appeal to the global media,
he believes it will remain an important story for some time to come.
“It’s a really creative, fertile culture,” he says. “Economically, China is going to dominate the region,but culturally it’s way behind.
News editors in London are notyet interested in the fashions andmorals of Chinese schoolgirls.
But Japanese schoolgirls still havethat iconic status. I think that willremain true for a while.
“Having been here quite a few
years now, I’ve seen Japan go in and out
of fashion a number of times.” ❶FCCJANDREW POTHECARY

H

FCCJ

11

BOOK EXCERPT

Number 1 Shimbun | June 2013

IN HIS NEW BOOK, A FORMER CLUB MEMBER AND
LONG TIME RESIDENT RECOUNTS HIS SEARCH FORHIS FAMILY ROOTS – AND HIS OWN IDENTITY

Excerpted from Yokohama Yankee: My Family’s
Five Generations As Outsiders In Japan(Chin Music Press, 2013)

Yokohama Yankee

Just Another Gaijin?

by Leslie HelmTry as we might to be objective, we reporters invariably bring our
personal preconceptions and prejudices to the stories we write.
Because of Japan’s tendency to set itself off from “outsiders”—that
strong sense here of “we” versus “they”—many of us have a love/
hate relationship with the country. That ambivalence is magnified
when you come, as I have, from a family that has lived in Japan as
outsiders for 144 years. And it’s magnified even further when, formost of that time, your family, as part Japanese, has never quite fit in.
Working as a young reporter in Japan for Business Week
from 1982 to 1986, I never thought of such things. I wascovering a trade war, and I was reporting for the Americanside. But while writing for the Los Angeles Times in the early
1990s, I faced two very personal crises that made me
re-examine my attitudes towards Japan. The first was thedeath of my half-Japanese father who had never reallyfound a home in either Japan or America, and had died an
unhappy man.
The second was the decision my wife and I made to
adopt Japanese children. It seemed natural at first, but I
found myself having doubts. I couldn’t explain them atthe time, but today I suspect they had something to dowith our family’s efforts over the generations to hide ourJapanese heritage.
Although we happily adopted Mariko, followed
soon afterward by my son Eric, I remained ambivalent
toward Japan, and I wondered if I could be a good father
with that attitude. That’s what set me on the road to
explore my family’s long history in Japan. My book,
Yokohama Yankee, is about that journey, about my effort
to rediscover the past and to reconcile my Japanese selfwith my Western self.
Since my family story is so intertwined with modern
Japanese history, the book is also about Japan’s efforts,
over the past century and a half, to reconcile its national
identity with a world so dominated by the West.
When my German great-grandfather arrived in
Yokohama in 1869, Japan was hiring foreign experts in a
mad rush to catch up with the West. My great-grandfather,
who had fought in the Austro-Prussian War, was hired as amilitary adviser to a warlord in Wakayama.
Later, he married a Japanese woman and started Helm Brothers, astevedoring and forwarding company that would grow to be among
the largest foreign-owned companies in Japan. Twice the company
was wiped out together with most of Yokohama: once during the
Kanto earthquake of 1923 and again during the fire bombings
toward the end of World War II. My grandfather, an American, spent
the war in California where the family had to hide their Japaneseheritage to avoid being sent to internment camps.
Understanding what happened to my family over that turbulent
century helped me to understand my father, embrace Japan and be abetter father. It has also forced me to look at Japan’s problems froman insider’s perspective as well as that of an outsider.

12

One evening about a month after
Dad’s funeral, I was browsing the magazines on display at a train platform kiosk
when I saw the banner headline on a copyof the Bungei Shunju, an intellectual journal.
“Kenbei,” it read – contempt for America.
I bought it and flipped to the special
report. My heart quickened as I began
reading the essays. This was incredible!
Here were Japan’s leading industrialists
and intellectuals declaring that the United

page of the Los Angeles Times and was picked
up by newspapers around the world. My
editors loved it. A friend at the State Department said President Clinton, who was preparing for his upcoming trip to Japan, hadcommented on it. I loved the attention.
Two weeks later, I received a packet of letters from readers that had been forwarded
to me by my editor. The letters were allabout my kenbei story. The first few werecomplimentary and I smiled, but as I readon, the blood drained from my face.
My heart pounded as I continued to readthe letters. The raw anger and hatred theyexpressed frightened me. Later I heard thatanti-Japanese grafitti had popped up inparts of Los Angeles. I felt like a child playing with matches who had started a fire hecould not control.

work early. Since my wife Marie was stillin Seattle, I took the subway three stops to
the Foreign Correspondents’ Club to grab
dinner. The Club was on the twentiethfloor of an office building on the edge of
Ginza, a popular shopping district. Visiting dignitaries gave press conferences atthe club. Reporters met with sources fordinner or drinks.
I walked to the bar and sat at the “correspondents’ table” where a few regulars
gathered. Sipping our beers, we discussed
the latest news: perhaps it was the story
about the latest politician to deny Japanesesoldiers had ever massacred civilians inNanjing, China. I can’t remember. What I
do remember about that night was a distinct shift in how I looked at myself and myrole as a reporter. I had always felt a sense of

Clockwise from facing page:Helm’s great-grandfather Julius
and family; grandfather Julie andfamily; father Don and mother
Barbara; Leslie Helm, Marie,
Mariko and Eric.

States was a nation in decline. The chief
executive of a giant electronics company
said he wouldn’t buy American semiconductors because they were shoddy. A
Japanese novelist said the noble America
she had once admired had turned into aself-centered bully. An economist advised
the United States to focus on its one true
expertise: farming.
The next day, I began reporting for anarticle about this growing disdain for
America. My article, In Japan: Scorn for America,
appeared in late October 1991 on the front

FCCJ

Had I been fooling myself? I knew Americans regarded their country as the greatest
nation on earth. Of course they would be
upset. Wasn’t that what made kenbei sucha good story? Ever since the end of WorldWar II, Japan had played the role of obedient disciple to its American teacher. Now, it
seemed, Japan was coming into its own. It
was a legitimate story. And yet, I had a nagging feeling. Was I simply reporting a trend
or was I venting some deeper personal hostility toward Japan?
Distracted for the rest of that day, I left

FCCJ

esprit de corps among these foreign correspondents – a feeling that we were a special
breed reporting an important story. Now
I felt disengaged. Weren’t we just cycling
through variations on the same tired story
about Japan’s insular ways? The intimacy I
felt toward my fellow reporters was real,
but the sense of community was not. We
were like members of a packaged tour.
We enjoyed being together, but when thetour ended, we might never see each otheragain. So if this wasn’t my true community,
what was? Lodged uncomfortably at theback of my mind, like a tiny pebble caught
in a shoe, was the reality that my father had

died at sixty-four without ever finding aplace where he belonged.
After dinner, I took a detour homethrough Shibuya, the heart of Tokyo’s
busy entertainment district. I followed thecrowd off the train, down the stairs andout the turnstiles. I stopped at the pedestrian crossing, but more people kept coming from behind, and soon I was packed
as tightly on the sidewalk as I had beenon the train. I gazed up to see a teen idol
dance across a fifty-foot screen that dangled on the other side of the street somewhere between heaven and earth.
When the light turned green, we surged
forward, and for a moment, as a wall ofpeople moved toward us from the opposite side, we looked like two armies converging in battle. I slipped away fromthe crowd down a narrow lane. I walked
past restaurants and bars whose kitchens
pumped out smoke that smelled of grilled
fish and burnt soy sauce. An old fortune
teller who always placed her small tablein the middle of the lane, split the flow ofpedestrian traffic like a rock in a stream.
Her wrinkled face, bowed low over thetable, reflected the yellow light of her
square paper lantern.
At an electronics store, I stopped tolook at a long row of television screens
where a boyish-looking man with a blue
blazer, scruffy brown hair and goggleeyed glasses stood frozen, staring out
from a passing stream of grey-suitedsalarymen. It took a moment for me torealize that it was my face being captured by the store’s camcorder.
“Irasshai, irasshai (welcome)” shouted ayoung salesman. He put his back to me as
he tried to lure passersby into the store. I
walked on to an area where every surface– telephone booths, utility poles, walls
and ground – was plastered with small
flyers advertising prostitutes. If I had beenof another generation, I might have called
one of those phone numbers. If I climbed
a low hill to the left, I would have foundmyself on one of the quiet, dimly lit
streets that surrounded this entertainment district. There, in a love hotel thatcharged hourly rates, I could have had aprivate rendering of Shibuya’s flashing,
thumping sensory sea.
Shibuya was the mecca for Japan’s youth,
but I was neither Japanese nor young. Perhaps it was the unexpected raction to the
kenbei article. Or perhaps it was Dad’s
recent death. Whatever the reason, I felt as
if I had been let loose from my mooring
and was drifting rudderless. ❶Leslie Helm is editor of Seattle Business magazine(www.lesliehelm.com)

13

MUSIC

Number 1 Shimbun | June 2013

How come The Boso Boys consider FCCJ Saturday Night Live the best gig in Kanto?
byRoger Sherrin
The Boso Boys feature Roger Sherrin – a good ol’ boy from Dallas, Texas, who cansing the paint off a pickup truck, and pick good, too – along with Shinjiro Mori –who may just play Japan’s meanest blues guitar. On June 15, they’re fixin’ to drivein from Chiba to perform in the FCCJ’s Main Bar.

Roger Sherrin

14

PHOTOS: JOHN LANCASTERI

n a famous scene from the The Blues Brothers movie, after a long sweaty performance at Bob’s Country Bunker, Jake Blues
goes up to the bar’s owner and asks, “Bob,about, ah, our money for tonight?” Bob
replies, “That's right… ahh... 200 dollars,
and you boys drank 300 dollars’ worth ofbeer!” Already broke from feeding the band
and at the point of stealing gas, the Blues
Brothers are forced to cut and run, chased
by Bob and The Good Ol’ Boys, the country
band they had impersonated to get the job.
I always thought that scene was hilarious
and over-the-top – until it really happened
to my band, The Boso Boys. As I’ve discovered, if it’s tough being a local musician in
America it’s way tougher in Japan.
One night, after three hours playing toa packed house in Machida, we asked thebar owner about the ¥500 per customer
music charge he promised. After claiming
we had only drawn 26 customers (whenwe’d counted over 37) he first deducted
an “entertainer’s tax,” then withheld a
fee for collecting the music charge on
our behalf, and graciously said he waswaiving the usual “hall rental and soundsystem fees.” As we were heading out thedoor with what money was left, the owner, just like Bob, reminded us to pay our¥17,000 bar tab. By the time we paid forparking, I had to tell the band members,“Guys, we can split up about ¥800 each,or blow it all on dinner at Denny’s.”
Then there was the time we made acontract with Topanga, a bar popular with
surfers on Chiba’s Pacific coast near where
we live. The Boso Boys were to produce
and provide the sound system for a showwith two bands, in return for the proceedsof a door charge. Topanga’s owner – ironically also named “Bob” – was to benefit
from the food and drink sales from over
40 people. But after delivering several
hours of music, we were approached by
Bob who demanded a “hall rental fee.”
And he still can’t figure out why we’ve
never played his venue again.
I’ve got lots more stories like these,
but only one about an establishment thattreats musicians with respect and fairness.
That is the FCCJ and its long-running Sat-urday Night Live, which is our favorite
place to perform.
We were introduced to Saturday Night
Live three years ago, after blues guitarist
Shinjiro Mori and I sat in as guests with
the night’s featured performer, J.J. Vicars.
Bless her heart, over drinks after the show,
Sandra Mori of the Entertainment Committee said, “We’re going to invite you
guys back.”
So back we came with the whole bandthat year and the year after. Each time,
Sandra, Dennis Normile and other volunteers on the Entertainment Committee have shown us every courtesy andcompensated us fairly. Everything is takencare of, including dinner and parking.
The FCCJ staff have been equally supportive and a pleasure to work with, andthe audience always warm and welcoming. The heartening environment encourages performers to give their best entertainment efforts for Saturday Night Live
guests, and attracts top talent to the Club.
That is why The Boso Boys are looking
forward to Saturday, June 15 and celebrating our third year of performing for FCCJ
members and guests.

WHY IS JAPAN SO TOUGH FOR MUSICIANS?
In Japan, as a musician you are considered either a hobbyist or a professional –there is nothing in between. And you are
only considered a pro once the corporate
media establishment says so. One way to
be considered a pro is if you are in a prefabricated, corporate-produced pop group(with an uncanny ability to sing slightly
out of tune). Then you’ve got it made – atleast for two years until a newer model islaunched. You may also be accorded pro
status if you were popular 20-30 years ago.
The thing is, if you haven’t been on TV –no matter how talented or hard-working– you are a hobbyist here.
For starters, it’s hard for those of us who
strive to master our instruments, and who
can actually sing on pitch, to understandthe appeal of J-Pop. Why do audiences
swoon over performers who show no
objective evidence of musical talent?
According to Meiji University experts

FCCJ

on “Cool Japan” culture, the inability tosing on pitch is in fact the primary endearing characteristic of J-Pop performers.
They win sympathy and support because
Japanese audiences appreciate ganbaru
spirit more than talent. And anyway those
shortcomings can be overcome, electronically in the studio or by lip synching in“live” performances.
What’s missing in Japan is the hardeffort that aspiring pro musicians worldwide go through as they dream of a big
break – holding down day jobs and living their musical dreams at night. It’s pay-on which to strut their stuff. When they
don’t actually demand cash from the band
– which puts a whole new spin on “paying your dues” – live house owners expect
each person in a four-piece band has family,
friends and colleagues who feel obligated toturn out if invited to an event. Some bands
may bring actual fans, too. That’s what thelive house owners depend on – and many
don’t bother with marketing or even pretending to promote upcoming acts.
We come up against this all the time.
Often when The Boso Boys follow up on an
invitation to perform at some live house, we

COME ON OUT JUNE 15 FOR AN EVENING WITH
THE BOSO BOYS: REAL LIVE MUSIC DOWN-HOMETEXAS STYLE
ing dues that makes you good… but you
need an opportunity to pay them.
Take The Beatles. Although hailed as
an overnight success in 1964, Malcolm
Gladwell, in his book Outliers: The Story of
Success, estimates that by the time their big
break came, the “Fab Four” had logged over
10,000 hours of live performance time.
The lesson here is that if your country
or culture hopes to produce popular musicwith any kind of depth or transcendent value, you need low rungs on the ladder, sustainable opportunities for talent to develop.
Many Japanese have natural talent andput in lots of work to master an instrument. Everywhere you go, you see
instrument shops, music instructors andrehearsal spaces for rent. But in popular
music at least, there are few bridges to aprofessional career.
Instead of a system that provides opportunities, Japan has a business model thatis primarily aimed at exploiting musicians – making them pay for the chanceto perform rather than employing themto entertain customers.
The “Live House” system is unique toJapan – another Galapagos aspect of thisarchipelago. Everywhere else I’ve everplayed – in the U.S. or Europe – the deal isthat venues pay musicians to play in order todraw in patrons and keep them eating anddrinking. Smart venues know how to pickthe kind of music their customers like andpromote new talent. Only in Japan do musicians essentially pay bar owners for a stage

FCCJ

find ourselves presented with a long list of
conditions, including: the band must purchase a set number of tickets or to guarantee
a minimum number of guests; outrageous
demands for hall or equipment rental fees;and more. Meanwhile, some of these venues are charging customers admission fees
anywhere from ¥2,000 up to ¥10,000.
Japan’s music business model is dysfunctional. It discourages local talent fromdeveloping past a hobby level; it restricts
creativity and variety; and it makes live
music less accessible. Some of the people
I play with here in Japan are world-classtalents, but have no hope of making even a
modest living from it. And the current system doesn’t even work for the live houses.
The last decade has seen half of Japan’s live
entertainment venues go out of business.
If Japan wants to do more than just pretend it’s cool, changing this system would
be a good place to start. Until that happens, the FCCJ’s Saturday Night Live will
stand out as one of the few venues thatoffers local musicians a fair deal.
So come on out on June 15, and enjoy anevening with The Boso Boys. You’ll get real
live music played by real live musicians –down-home Texas-style, with no artificial
ingredients. And no cover charge. ❶Roger Sherrin is lead singer for The Boso Boys, who offer
an energetic mix of authentic Americana roots-rock, blues
and country music. Retired from the U.S. Army, Roger
is an Executive Coach with an MBA from Hitotsubashi
University and London Business School.

Shinjiro Mori

15

POLITICS

Number 1 Shimbun | June 2013

IMAGESFCCJ EXHIBITION: THE FLOATING WORLD THROUGH BLUE EYESHALLS OF POWER

AP PHOTO

I

have a confession to make. I’m a reguAyako Mie asks the perennial
lar member of the prime minister’squestion: “So you want to belong
kisha kurabu and an associate member of theDiet kisha kurabu, with all of what might be
to a kisha club?”called the perquisites that go with it. In
other words, I get to attend the regularpress conferences where I and the other reporters have a chance to grill ranking members of both the ruling andthe opposition camps and sometimes
have a casual chat with lawmakers.
I know that freelance journalists
and reporters affiliated with non-Japanese media are often not eligible orhave a hard time getting membershipin the “establishment,” and they often
cry foul as they are denied access tofirst-hand information and reporting
opportunities.
I’ve heard the kisha clubs describedas the “root of all of journalism’s
evils” as well as a “hot bed for collusive relationships” between the Japanese media and politicians due to its
closed nature. But, after five months
as a member of this “elite” groupof Japanese press corps, I’m kind of
disappointed; I’d have to say that thepower of the kisha clubs is far moremyth than reality.
What’s said in the press club confines does not often consist of, or leadto critical information, because ranking officials only repeat what’s already Deputy Prime Minister Aso’s faction to the author:out. Some people might disagree with you're not invitedme, believing that they would do a
far better job than the press club report- booze with them and belt out some memoers in prying knowledge from the tight rable late-night karaoke favorite. That’s how
lips of the politicians. But I’ll remind you they get them to remember who they are.
of something that I’m sure you alreadyCan I afford to spend every day chasing
know: like any country, it is the personal one person hoping that he will give me
relationships with your sources that will an exclusive some day? Am I prepared toeventually lead to the tip of iceberg.
pay visits to a source really late at night or
And that is the hardest part of covering early in the morning for the sake of getJapanese politics – because building such ting one piece of a document a few hours
relationships costs money, takes human before my competition?
resources and time, as well as experience
It’s a dilemma that I face every day, which
and teamwork.
sometimes leads to anxiety attacks. Despite
I (and most of my foreign colleagues, the fact I love reporting politics and remain
I believe) can’t compete, for example, fascinated by it, I’ll never have the samewith the ban kisha reporters of the Japa- amount of information that was collected
nese media, who are embedded so deeply by the infantry battalion of NHK reporters
with the prime minister and other politi- next to me. I cover both the ruling and thecal heavyweights that they follow them opposition camps alone while other Japaaround all day long, everywhere from the nese media have dozens on the same beat.
bathroom to costly overseas trips.
But that’s how they thaw the ice with pol- Ayako Mie is a staff writer covering politics for
iticians. That’s how they get the chance to the Japan Times.

16

Number 1 Shimbun | June 2013

And unless cloning becomes a reasonable possibility for a poor journalist, I’ll
never be able to spend enough time with
one ranking lawmaker to forge a good relationship, even though I make sure to pay
courtesy visits to the lawmakers I becomeacquainted with, and never turn down
any invitations for gatherings.
Am I the one whining now? I suppose a little bit. So I remind myself that
good reporters are always walking afine line between being an insider anda very talented investigative reporter.
I tell myself to remember the journalists who excelled in investigative
journalism without being a memberof the kisha club, like Takashi Tachibana, the prominent journalist who
broke the stories about the bankroll
politics that led to Kakuei Tanaka’s
downfall.
I tell myself the universal fact that
one does not need the kisha club if
one is really good at building sources
and has excellent news judgment andgood hunches.
And finally, I remind myself that myjob is not covering incremental stories
but reporting on the big picture, andhelping demystify the complicated Japanese political system for non-Japanesereaders. Since that requires monitoring
daily developments, as everything isconnected in Japanese politics, camping out at the kisha club or having
access to the Diet building helps.
Even with my coveted membership,
however, I am occasionally confronted
with the disappointingly closed nature ofpolitical reporting in Japan. Just the other day, I got a call from the office of the
Ikokai group, the habatsu – or faction – of
Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, who also
doubles as the finance minister.
They wanted to let me know that I was
not invited to their upcoming dinner
gathering, because I – or to be more specific, my newspaper, the Japan Times – was
not a regular member of the Diet kishaclub. Nor, as I was surely aware, was I the
Aso faction’s ban kisha. They were clearly
letting me know that even within the kishaclub, there is a hierarchy: regular members, followed by associate members.
So I missed one good opportunity to
get acquainted with the LDP politicians.
But am I going to let it affect my pursuitof good journalism? I don’t think so. ❶FCCJphotographs by Peter MacIntosh

PETER FIRST ARRIVED IN KYOTO IN 1993. IT WAS THIS CITY THAT
inspired Peter to pick up his camera and brushes and begin a new careerin the arts.
It didn’t take long for him to find his niche: the world of the geisha.
Although off limits to most, thanks to very important introductions byleading members of the community, Peter soon found the geisha opening
their doors to him and his camera (albeit slowly). Through his training insuch arts as traditional dance, calligraphy, sumie (Indian-ink painting) andflower arrangement, Peter has taught his eye to capture the real beauty of
his subjects by sharing an understanding of arts training. This mutual respect
and trust allows the geisha to relax, giving him complete freedom and aunique perspective to create his work.
Peter MacIntosh, originally from Canada, was the first foreigner to take geisha and maiko overseas
without a Japanese intermediary. He lives in the geisha district of Kyoto. www.kyotosightsandnights.com

FCCJ

17

BACK PAGE

Number 1 Shimbun | June 2013

NEW MEMBERS
After studying Social Sciences at the University of Lausanne,
DANIEL ESKENAZI began his journalistic career at Radio Suisse
Romande in the French part of Switzerland, followed by a stint ofwriting for different magazines and newspapers. He then joined the
Geneva-based newspaper, Le Temps, as an economics and financecorrespondent in Zurich. Eskenazi also began producing videointerviews after the internet became a must for newspapers. His
primary interests include the topic of renewables. He is taking on a new challenge
as a freelance journalist in his recent move to Tokyo.
REGULAR MEMBER
Daniel Eskenazi, Freelance
PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALISTASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Shinko Yuri, Sci-Tech Communications Inc.
Yasushi Kudo, The Genron NPO

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Ronald Haigh, Toyota Motor Corporation
Kazunobu Takita, HTL Capital Advisors
Motohiro Kurosawa, Kurosawa & Masumura
Law/Accounting Office
Fumio Tomino, Japan Overseas
Educational Services
Kenkichi Yoshida, Booom Corporation

NEW IN THE LIBRARY
Dear Life

Munro, Alice
Alfred A. Knopf

Anata ga Waratte Iru to
Ureshii

Hisano,Tokuko
Hisaichi no Kikigaki 101 Bungeisha
The Tokyo Foundation & Kyozon Gift from Keiichiro Tominagano Mori Network
Kurosawa Akira no
Gift from The Tokyo Foundation Jyujika
Tensai. Isai ga Tobidasu Sashida, Fumio
Gendaikikakushitsu
Sony no Fushigina

Kenkyujo

Shinko Yuri & Mario Tokoro
Nikkei BP
Gift from Shinko Yuri

Photo Exhibition

Tabi suru Taiwa

Amoeba Management

Lean inJapan Press Research InstituteJapan Press Research Institute
Gift from K.K. Kyodo News
Inamori, Kazuo
CRC Press
Gift from Kyocera

Zainichi Gaikoku
Tokuhain

Zara Imaeva & Nobuko Kyo
Shumpusha Publishing
Gift from Maki Wakiyama
Sandberg. Sheryl
Alfred A. Knopf

Killing Kennedy
O'Reilly, Bill
Henry and Holt

Pomeroy, Charles ed.
Japan Press Research Institute
Gift from the Publisher

OBITUARY – MARVIN PETALFORMER FCCJ
Member Marvin
Petal died on April
17 in Oxnard,
California after abattle with cancer.
He was born in
Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada on January
15, 1929. He graduated from the
University of Washington in Seattle
in 1948, with a degree in journalism.
While he was there he wrote for the
Seattle Post Intelligencer. He served in the
U.S. Army during the Korean conflict
and while in Korea, he wrote for the
Pacific Stars and Stripes. He returned to Los
Angeles in 1954, where he worked for
the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and KTLA-TV.
He was a talented writer who wrote
scripts and acted in early television.
Later he wrote for the L.A. Examiner anddid post-graduate work at UCLA. The

18

Twilight Zone episode, “Five Charactersin Search of an Exit” was adapted by
Rod Serling from Marvin’s script “TheDepository.” Marvin covered businessand economics for McGraw Hill WorldNews for 22 years. He wrote many
cover stories for Business Week and other
McGraw magazines. In 1970, he led
a 12-member journalist group tointerview Chiang Kai-shek.
From 1964 thru 1970, Petal wasTokyo Bureau Chief for McGraw-Hill
World News. After his return to the U.S.
and his retirement from McGraw Hill,
Petal did writing, editorial and public
relations work for various publications
and businesses. Marvin is survived by
his wife, Diane, his former wife Ruth,
three children, a son-in-law, and three
grandchildren.
Memorial services were held at
Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles
on April 21. ❶FCCJ

一九九三年十月十五日 第三種郵便物認可 毎 月 一 日 発 行

第六号
Vol. 45

二〇一三六月一日発行
No. 1 Shimbun

定価四〇〇円 税(込)