The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

June 2019 Vol. 51 No. 6 ¥400

The FCCJ student-journalism winners
Cooperation
between anime
companies andshrines+ winning
photo story:

Watching
the geikowatchers
in Kyoto

Japan: take action
on women andminority rights!

In this issueVol. 51, Number 6June 2019contact the editors

no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Publisher FCCJTHE FRONT PAGE

From the President by Peter Langan
4
Freedom of the press news:
4
Freedom of the press in Asia
From the archives:
5Japan’s International Civil Servant by Charles Pomeroy
FEATURES

Swadesh deRoy Scholarship Award Winners
When anime meets ancient gods
by Jonathan Chu
Japan: Stop procrastinatingby Marina Yoshimura
Watching the watchers
by Alzbeta Kossuthova

THE FCCJ ONLINE: www.fccj.or.jp

810Page 10:
From the winningphoto essay on
tourism and Geikoin Kyoto

MEMBER EVENTSPRESS CONFERENCE VIDEOS

6

CLUB CALENDARCLUB INFORMATION

Faking ourselves to deathby David McNeill

14

PROFILESOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Emiko Jozuka, CNN
by Ilgin Yarulmaz

No. 1 SHIMBUN ONLINEFREEDOM OF THE PRESS INFOJUNE 2019

FCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRSAssociate Members Liaison Keiko Packard,
Harumi Kumagai
Compliance Kunio Hamada, Yoshio Murakami
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship Abigail Leonard,
David SatterwhiteEntertainment Sandra Mori
Exhibition Bruce Osborn
Film Karen Severns
Finance Willem Kortekaas
Food & Beverage Robert Kirschenbaum,
Mehdi Bassiri
Freedom of Press Abigail Leonard
House & Property Peter Langan,
David Satterwhite
Human Resources Willem Kortekaas
Information Technology Albert Siegel
Library, Archives & Workroom
Koichi Ishiyama, Suvendrini Kakuchi
Membership Andrew Horvat, Peter O’Connor
Membership Marketing Abigail Leonard,
Willem Kortekaas
Professional Activities Tetsuo Jimbo,
David McNeill
Public Relations Rosa Argyropoulos
Publications Gavin Blair, Geoff Tudor
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe

12
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Marunouchi Nijubashi Building 5F
Marunouchi 3-2-3 Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-0005
Tel: (03) 3211-3161 Fax: (03) 3211-3168 fccj.or.jp

16

Press conference voices
17-19
FCCJ Exhibition, Join the Film Committee . . .
Gozabune: Sunset cruise , New Members, New in the library
FCCJ

FCCJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Peter Langan, Freelance
1st Vice President Abigail Leonard, Freelance
2nd Vice President Robert Whiting, Freelance
Secretary Daniel Hurst, Freelance
Treasurer Willem Kortekaas,
Associate Member
Directors-at-Large Khaldon Azhari,
PanOrient News
Daniel Sloan, Nissan Motor/Freelance
Mary Corbett, Professional Associate Member
Milton Isa, Associate Member
Kanji Kazuo Abiko, Freelance
Associate Kanji Makoto Honjo,
Associate Member

Foreign Press in Japan Robin Harding

CLUB NEWSLens craftby photographer Members

Editor Gregory Starr
Art Director Andrew Pothecarywww.itsumo-music.jp/design
Editorial Assistant Naomichi Iwamura
Photo Coordinator Akiko Miyake
Publications committee members
Gavin Blair, Freelance (co-chair)
Geoffrey Tudor, Orient Aviation (co-chair)
Daniel Hurst, Freelance
Sonja Blaschke, Freelance
Albert Siegel, Freelance

Published by the FCCJ All opinions contained within
Number 1 Shimbun are those of the authors. As such,these opinions do not constitute an official positionof Number 1 Shimbun, the editor or the Foreign
Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
Please pitch and send articles and photographs, oraddress comments to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Read the Number 1 Shimbun online:
fccj.or.jp/number-1-shimbun
Cover illustration: Andrew Pothecary3The Front Page

FROM THE PRESIDENTFREEDOM OF THE PRESS NEWSDEAR FELLOWMEMBERS,
By the time you read thisin print, the FCCJ will bewell into another election
for new members of theBoard, with candidates from among Associate
and Regular members running for office. I’ll
take this late opportunity to wish them all well.
The election vote count itself will take placeon June 27 and the results announced at theGeneral Membership Meeting on the same
evening. I do urge you to vote and to support
the members running for the Board, who
volunteer their time to help in running the Club.
Meantime, here is an update on discussions
from the last Board meeting on May 16.
General Manager Marcus Fishenden
explained plans to re-open a Pen & Quilldining area in the FCCJ using a section of
the conference rooms adjoining the bar
area. I wouldn’t quite call it a pop-up dining
experience, but we will need to treat the
space as flexibly as we did in the previous
Yurakucho facilities, responding to otherdemands for banquets and such like asneeded. The goal is to have a Pen & Quill in
operation by the end of July, starting with an
evening menu and expanding from there.
The GM has also started taking bids fromcompanies to rebuild and revamp the FCCJ
website, an initiative that is long overdue.
The Board needs to finalize and choose acompany to do the job, but the goal is to haveit completed by September or in time for the
Rugby World Cup.
The buzzword for web sites is user-friendly
so the new site will aim to be just that andshow off more of the “content” generated at
the Club, as well as all the events taking place.
Also to make it more secure. More updates
will follow on both these developments or you
can enquire at the office.
I attended a recent meeting of the Library
Committee and a discussion on rearranging
the layout. The basic idea is to shift the sofa
reading area into the corner space by thewindows and likely move the wire service
computers. I think we will be experimenting
for a little while with finding the best layout.
Finally, some members may recall evenings
with a pool table at the FCCJ. We are looking
at trying to bring the pool table back, at least
temporarily. The most likely spot will be in thedining room if we can make it fit.
Best regards,– Peter Langan
4

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Freedom of the press in Asia

Japan’s International Civil Servant

MYANMAR RELEASES REUTERS REPORTERS ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, are now free. The two Reutersreporters spent more than 500 days behind bars after they weresentenced to seven years in prison for breaking Myanmar’s Official
Secrets Act. Before their arrest, the pair had been investigating thekilling of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys by security forces andBuddhist civilians. Throughout their imprisonment, Reuters as wellas press freedom and human rights advocates campaigned for theirrelease. They were freed May 7 as part of a presidential amnesty for
6,520 prisoners. “I’m really happy and excited to see my family and mycolleagues. I can’t wait to go to my newsroom,” Wa Lone told reporters
as he left prison.

• Source: Reuters“I’m really happy and excited to see
my family and my colleagues. I can’t wait
to go to my newsroom”
PHILIPPINES’ DUTERTE TURNS PRESS ON PRESS ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Once one of Asia’s freest media, the Philippines’ independent news
outlets are under sustained attack by President Rodrigo Duterte and hisallies, ranging from legal and political assaults to harassment by armies
of online trolls.
The award-winning Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism,
Rappler and Vera Files are being singled out for particular abuse,with the clear aim of destroying them. Rappler faces 11 politicallymotivated legal cases, its respected editor Maria Ressa is underindictment, and its staff routinely get death threats for reporting on agovernment “war on drugs” that Human Rights Watch says has killed
23,000 people since 2016.
Pro-Duterte columnists are now attacking the modest funding thatthese nonprofits receive from overseas, claiming, without evidence,that they are part of a foreign plot to oust Duterte.
• Source: Global Investivative Journalism Network

HONG KONG PUBLIC SEES PRESS FREEDOMS FALLING ■■■■■■■■■■
Press freedom in Hong Kong has hit a six-year low among the city’s
public with Beijing’s influence labelled their main concern for the firsttime, according to an annual public opinion survey.
More than 1,000 members of the public gave the city’s press
freedom an overall score of 45, on a scale of 0 to 100 – a record
low since the survey, jointly released by the Hong Kong Journalists
Association and the Public Opinion Program of the University of Hong
Kong on Tuesday, started in 2013. More than a third of respondents– 368 – said Beijing’s influence was their main concern, followed bymedia self-censorship.
The survey also interviewed 535 journalists between January
and February and found most were worried about self-censorship,
followed by Beijing’s influence. They gave the city’s press freedom in2018 a score of 40.9, roughly the same as the previous year.
Answering a question for journalists only, 112 of 516 respondents – 22
percent – said their superiors had applied pressure for less or zero
JUNE 2019

FCCJ

reporting about the controversy
surrounding those calling for thecity’s separation from China.
• Source: South China Morning Post

SOUTH KOREAN GOV’T PARTY
RETREATS FROM PRESS CRITICISM■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■In March, South Korea’s rulingparty withdrew personal criticism
of a Bloomberg News reporter for
writing an article about President
Moon Jae-in, after internationalpress groups warned the remarks
threatened journalistic freedom
and demanded a retraction by
the party.
The Democratic Party of Korea
removed from a statement
posted on its website language
mentioning the reporter’s nameand describing the Sept. 25, 2018
Bloomberg article about Moon’s
North Korean policy as “almost
like treason.” The move came days
after journalists’ organizations
said that the comments had
resulted in serious threats to thereporter’s personal safety.
“We would like to apologize
to foreign journalists within“Press freedom
in Hong Kong has
hit a six-year low
with Beijing’s
influence labelledtheir main concern.”
South Korea, if we have caused
any misunderstandings,” party
spokesman Lee Hae-sik said
in a statement. Moon’s officereaffirmed the president’s support
for press freedom and issued astatement pledging “an appropriate
countermeasure” against threats toany reporter’s safety.
• Source: Bloomberg
FCCJ

JUNE 2019

Yasushi Akashi, then head of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC),
spoke at the FCCJ on July 29, 1993. UNTAC was a peacekeeping operation in
Cambodia from 1992 that had organized and conducted elections there in May of
1993, resulting in a coalition government. Henry Scott-Stokes, Club treasurer, gives
his full attention to the speaker’s comments.
Yasushi Akashi was born on Jan. 19, 1931, in Akita Prefecture. After graduatingfrom the University of Tokyo in 1954, he went on to study at the University ofVirginia under a Fulbright scholarship followed by studies focused on law anddiplomacy at Tufts University. In 1957, he joined the UN – the first Japanesenational to do so – initially as a junior officer. He represented his own country
from 1974 to 1979, when he served in the Permanent Mission of Japan to the
UN as a Counsellor, then Minister, and finally as Ambassador.
An appointed international civil servant to the UN Secretariat, Akashi wasnamed to two successive posts as an Under-Secretary-General (USG), for PublicInformation (1979) and for Disarmament Affairs (1987), before being named as
the Special Representative of Secretary-General (SRSG) in Cambodia in 1992.
In 1994 he became the SRSG in the former Yugoslavia. Both were areas of brutal
civil wars and personal risk that an international civil servant accepted as partof the job. He served in 1995 as Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General
before in 1996 again becoming a USG, this time as Humanitarian Affairs andEmergency Relief Coordinator. Following 40 years of distinguished service inthe UN, he retired in 1997.
Akashi’s public service did not end when he retired from the UN. He went
on to serve as President of the Hiroshima Peace Institute as well as of the
Asahi Shimbun Asia Network (AAN) until February of 1999. The Governmentof Japan then called on him to be its representative for Peace-Building,Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in Sri Lanka. He served, too, as Chairman of
the International House of Japan from 2009 until his retirement in 2018.
Akashi has also found time to write books on international relations,
including The United Nations – Tracks and Prospects, Between War and Peace– People Across the Border, and Skills to Negotiate with a “Dictator,” that were
published in Japanese. He ran for governor of Tokyo in 1999 with the support of
the LDP and Komeito, but lost to Shintaro Ishihara, the well-known firebrand,author and former Diet member.
Akashi remains active today in a number of roles, including as a speaker atmany forums.

– Charles Pomeroy
editor of Foreign Correspondents in Japan,
a history of the Club that is available at the front desk5

Congratulations
to theSwadesh DeRoy
scholarshipwinners!
THE FCCJ CELEBRATED THE
talent of the next generation ofjournalists with the announcementof the winners of the annual
Swadesh DeRoy Scholarship.
The initiative – named in honorof the late Swadesh DeRoy, arespected long-time journalist
member of the FCCJ – aims toencourage and support university
students interested in entering
journalism. The award is intended to
be used for purposes like language
courses, travel, purchase ofcomputer equipment or books,
or living expenses during ajournalism internship.
For the 2018-19 awards, theScholarship Committee asked
for submissions that addressed thebroad topic “Japan's Future in a
Changing World – Geopolitical,
Economic, or Demographic
Dynamics.”
The judges were impressed by
the creative ways that entrants
addressed the topic, and insome cases decided to award
prizes jointly to recognize
outstanding entries.

Feature: Joint Pen-Category Winner

When anime meets ancient gods
When two seemingly disparate cultural icons come together,some see opportunities for economic and cultural growth

the anime first aired. The connection is that one of the highschool girls in “Love Live!” is cast as a miko, or “shrine maiden,” of Kanda Myojin. According to Kishikawa, the shrine isopen to consider any such offers, as long as they are not inappropriate. The shrine does not specifically calculate the profits generated by the collaboration, he says, but they have felt
a surge in visitors since the project began.

By Jonathan Chu

It may be cliché, but it is also true: Japan is a country of contradictions,where one can find all sorts of old traditions alongside new subcultures.
But are they co-existing in harmony or tension? Recent collaborative
activities between ancient shrines and anime production companies may givea clue into such interactions, and how they change Japanese culture and create business opportunities in the process.
At Kanda Myojin, a 1,200-year-old Shinto shrine near Tokyo’s Akihabara
district, one can find many anime-based products on sale, along with theirusual lineup of religious articles. Featuring the characters of “Love Live!,” ananime in which a group of high school girls pursue their dreams of becoming an idol group, they range from sweets, posters and lucky charms to ema,
small wooden boards on which worshipers write down their wishes andprayers to the gods.
Here, the ema hanging on the rack not only are covered withwishes, but also with drawings of the “Love Live!” anime
characters. The quality of the drawings is amazingly professional, and some are even colored.
Mr. Masanori Kishikawa, a priest at Kanda
Myojin, says that the shrine began collaborating after the anime company Sunrise Inc. approached them with
an offer to sell the animethemed products in2014, a year after

THE PHENOMENON OF FANS visiting places that are featured
in their favorite anime is called “anime pilgrimage.” This is
not something unique to Japan (just imagine all the Harry
Potter fans who visit King’s Cross station in London), but thetrend is growing at a fast pace, creating a whole new genreof tourism. Information on the “sacred places” of various
animes, access and how to take pictures that look identical tospecific scenes can be found easily online.
One of the early examples of a shrine benefiting fromanime tourism is Washinomiya Shrine in Saitama prefecture,
though the collaboration was unplanned. After an unexpectedboom in popularity of the 2007 anime “Lucky Star,” in which
two of the main characters were cast as the shrine’s miko, an
influx of anime fans began visiting, and the shrine and shops
nearby started selling anime-related products. According to
the shrine, annual visitors jumped from 130,000 in 2007 to
300,000 in 2008. A report by the Development Bank of Japan
in 2016 estimated that “Lucky Star” brought in economic
benefits of ¥3 billion over ten years for Washinomiya Shrine
and the surrounding community.
Last year, Narita airport put up a billboard with a guide toanime pilgrimage sites aimed at foreign tourists, listing 88“sacred places” across Japan, in collaboration with the Anime
Tourism Association, an industry body formed by publishers,

AS OLD AND NEW CULTURES MEET,
THERE ARE TENSIONS

Full list of winners as announced
at an awards ceremony at the
FCCJ on April 17:transport and tourism companies. Promoting anime tourism
abroad is part of the government’s Cool Japan initiative, aimed
at attracting tourists to localities and supporting local economies. A survey of foreign tourists by the Japan Tourism Agency,
a government bureau, found 4.8 percent of respondents cameto Japan to “visit sites related to movies and anime,” whichtranslates to over a million people. Anime tourism is a growing opportunity to earn foreigners’ cash, so it is unsurprisingthat more and more local governments are getting involved.

VIDEO CATEGORY:
1st: Chisato Tanaka (Waseda
University) – ¥250,000
2nd: Chi Long Nguyen (Tohoku
University) – ¥100,000
PHOTO CATEGORY:
1st: Alzbeta Kossuthova (Waseda
University) – ¥300,000
6ANDREW POTHECARYPEN CATEGORY:
1st: Tin Tung Jonathan Chu (Waseda
University) and Marina Yoshimura(Waseda University/Yale College)– ¥200,000 each
2nd: Reiko Naka (Hosei University)and Makoto Iwahashi (Kyoto
University) – ¥75,000 each

COOPERATION BETWEEN VARIOUS SECTORS, including thegovernment, can also be seen in Otsu, Shiga prefecture. The
city began to attract anime pilgrims after the local Omi Jingu
shrine appeared in an anime called “Chihayafuru,” featuringa young schoolgirl playing the traditional card game of karuta. The collaboration featuring the anime is supported by Omi
Jingu, the Otsu city tourism board, the National Karuta Association and the local Keihan Railway, which operates trains
with “Chihayafuru” characters painted on the exterior.
FCCJ

JUNE 2019

One may be tempted to dismiss these as gimmicks bylocalities desperate for any source of revenue and attention.
But that’s not necessarily true. Kanda Myojin, of “Love Live!”fame, has long been one of the largest and most popularshrines in central Tokyo, and during weekends in January,
thousands of people have always come to pay their new year
visits. The Shimogamo Shrine in the ancient capital of Kyoto, which now sells posters and products of the anime “The
Eccentric Family,“ in which the main characters are cute raccoon dogs which live around the shrine and can transform
into humans, is well known as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Still, as old and new cultures meet, there are tensions –and not everyone is eager to embrace this trend of anime
characters appearing at religious sites. There have been
news reports that some residents are uncomfortable with
the influx of otaku (a derogatory term for anime fans, like“nerds” or “geeks”) into their localities. Some critics alsoquestion the intention of shrines to join the trend. Are they
simply extracting profits from anime characters without
caring whether visitors come to pay respect to the gods? Are
there other motivations behind these collaborations between
shrines and anime productions?
IN SOME CASES, THE connection is stronger than others. For
instance, an exhibition of the manga “The Gate of Oten”
was held recently at Daizaifu Tenmangu shrine in Fukuoka. The manga’s main character is Sugawara Michizane, afamous scholar and official from the 9th century who is also
revered as a Shinto god of learning, and upon whose grave
the Daizaifu Tenmangu shrine is built. Still, a close match
between anime content and religion as in this case is rare.
Most links between shrines and anime are simply because theshrines appeared as locations in the anime.
Mr. Kishikawa of Kanda Myojin, however, does not find thisa problem, and instead views accepting new trends and cultures as part of the responsibility of a shrine to connect withpeople and the surrounding community. The old and new are
not intrinsically contradictory, he says. “Old things started
out as new ones when they began.”This attitude probably explains how Japan can be a country
that is constantly reinventing itself. Perhaps we do not needto draw a clear line between old and new, as both are partof the ever-changing Japanese culture and society, Adapting
to the times may actually help preserve the old, as maintaining tradition requires money, too. The worst scenario is when
traditional attitudes or practices lose touch with reality anddisappear into obscurity.
These collaborations also shine light on the fact that shrines
and local communities are intertwined. Since ancient times,
shops have developed around famous temples and shrines inJapan to serve pilgrims, thereby creating business communities and even forming towns. These are called Monzenmachi,
or “towns in front of the door (of shrines or temples),” andattracting visitors to the shrines is crucial for the businesses
operating there. In a sense, anime pilgrimage to shrines andthe shrines’ willingness to cooperate is just a continuation ofthis tradition.
As Mr. Kishikawa of Kanda Myojin puts it, “Perhaps 100
years from now, anime pilgrimages to shrines will also beseen as a Japanese tradition.” ❶Jonathan Chu is a master’s student at Waseda University.
7

Feature: Joint Pen-Category Winner

Japan: Stop procrastinating

foreigners and Japanese persist. In fact, only 23 percent ofrespondents in a PEW Research Center survey responded thatthe country needs more immigrants. Services such as At Ease
become all the more important. Expats are not the only foreigners in Japan to experience a sense of isolation, and this
could be a problem for Japan.
Japan is not an ideal haven for refugees, either. Mostof those who apply are denied refugee status because thegovernment is wary of the validity of their cases andperceives them as threats to the country’s traditions
Voices on the street
and homogeneity. In fact, the government rejected 99
About 500 people
percent of applicants in 2017, admitting just 20 out oflistened to women
19,628, according to Japan’s Justice Ministry. The rejecpublicly share theirtion pressures them to reapply, return to their countries
experiences ofor risk deportation. Those who resist are detained alongsexual harassmentwith foreign criminals. Although the international comand abuse andmunity has voiced its concerns over the Japanese govcalling for change inernment’s reluctance to admit refugees, the criticism
a demonstration in
has not yet convinced the country to open its borders.
Tokyo that followed
And those who are admitted aren’t welcomed with open
the acquital of a man
arms. “If I could give one [piece of] advice to incoming
after years of raping
refugees in Japan, I would tell them to not settle here,”his daughter.
said former intern for the Japan Association for Refugees (JAR), Phuong Phamthihoai, who, as a refugee inJapan herself, faced discrimination.
Ultimately, Japanese society should recognize that – however difficult the process may be – accepting immigrants,
including refugees, would benefit the country. The government should look to other countries for guidance. For
example, the Canadian government has adopted a Private
Sponsorship Program to bridge public and private sectors
to sponsor refugees. It’s not enough to just admit them. The
media should frequently cover immigration and refugee top-

Why the country should address minority rights
to solve its demographic challenges

By Marina YoshimuraJapan has to change its treatment toward minorities. It has
yet to address women’s rights in and out of the workforce,and it must integrate – not just accept – more immigrants
and refugees. These issues are not mutually exclusive; bothchallenge Japan’s traditional view of minorities as secondclass citizens. While the country has made progress in minority rights, gender roles are shifting with little momentum,
and society still treats immigrants as tools for the labor force.
Traditional systems need to be overhauled and society must
add foreigners to its social fabric. With globalization rapidly
growing and the population shrinking, Japan can no longer
procrastinate on such issues.

Gender roles around the world are shifting. Women, morethan ever, are speaking up and demanding justice. The#MeToo movement, which gained traction in 2017 (although
the Me Too organization was founded in 2006), sparked conversations on social media about sexual harassment andassault. This movement also challenged the misogynistic
power dynamics that dictate society. It prompted changes incorporate culture and systems concerned with sexual abuse.
The discourse about issues surrounding gender roles remains
active today.
In Japan, however, gender roles are not shifting nearly aseffectively or efficiently as they are in the West. Japanesesociety seems reluctant to support increased involvementof women in the workplace. “Womenomics,” a plan the Abeadministration initiated in 2014 to encourage women toenter the workforce, has largely fallen flat. The efforts, if
top-down, barely reach the bottom, and if bottom-up, rarely
reach the ivory towers in which politicians make decisions.
The notion that women will quit after getting married or
having children persists; so companies often relegate these
women to serving tea to their male colleagues. Despite thefact that more women graduate from college than men, women are at a disadvantage compared to their male colleagues
because of this perception. Today, for example, only about 10
percent of parliamentarians in Japan are women, according
to the World Bank Group, and women make up just 13 percentof corporate managerial positions.
Womenomics has, however, encouraged discussion of theimportance of women in the workforce, at a time when theirlabor participation was rising from 42.4 percent in 2012 tojust a little less than 50 percent in 2017. The problem, however, is not only whether women are in the workforce, butalso how they are treated. To prevent sexual harassment
and to foster equality in the workplace, traditional attitudes
must change. Kentaro Matsuoka, 20, a Yale College student

8

SONJA BLASCHKE

Admit more women in the workforce –and support them.

who has roots in both the United States and Japan, said every
time he flies back to Japan, he is struck by the sight of restaurants offering “Ladies’ Lunch,” and advertisements soliciting female workers only. In fact, some government officials
undermine the issue. Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso once
caused a stir by stating, “Sexual harassment is not a crime.”
Politicians who discriminate against women both in and outof the parliament should step down, for they do not represent
ideas that Japanese society needs to survive.
The culture – as well as the leaders – must change. Besides
being a barrier to a larger, more integrated work force, thesocial discrimination against and subconscious bias toward
women can harm women’s well-being. Japan has the second
highest female suicide rate in the world, according to theOECD, and mental health can affect the workforce. So providing mental health services as women navigate office politics, especially amid strict gender roles, is key. The Japanese
government, together with the private sector, should promote gender equality, not by putting women on a pedestal,but by hiring them on the basis of their qualifications.
JUNE 2019

FCCJ

Accept – and integrate – foreigners.

The shrinking and aging population inevitably raises thequestion of immigration. The Japanese Diet has brought thisissue to the political agenda. The problem with the government’s proposal to admit immigrants is that it sees them only
as workers who are conducive to Japan’s economy. But such
immigrants are not just workers; they are human beings, too.
The government, and by extension, society, would first needto consider how to treat foreigners to fully appreciate thebenefits of admitting refugees and immigrants to the country.
The number of foreigner residents in Japan is increasing
by the year, reaching 2.3 million in 2016. But despite theincrease, many struggle to fit in, and feel there is a social wallthat divides them and the Japanese. “I feel accepted but not
integrated,” expatriate Ann-Katrin van Schie said, although
she admitted that she may not have worked “hard enough”
to be integrated. She is the founder of At Ease, a support network for expatriates in Japan.
Many sectors of society still hesitate to integrate foreigners into their country as challenges in exchanges between
FCCJ

JUNE 2019

JAPAN CAN DEVELOP A STRONGER
SOCIAL FABRIC THAT NOT ONLY LEADSTO A STRONGER ECONOMY BUT ALSOA MORE DIVERSE SOCIETY
ics as an avenue for dialogue between citizens and the government. Policy revisions, difficult discussions and accurate
media portrayals of immigration and refugee admission arenecessary. By integrating refugees, immigrants, and foreigners in general, Japan can develop a stronger social fabric that
not only leads to a stronger economy but also a more diverse
society. As globalization expands, these changes are exactly
what Japan will need.
There is no time for Japan to procrastinate on theseissues. Women still lack an equal platform as men in theworkforce, which stems from the country’s traditionalviews toward women. Foreigners in Japan, especially immigrants and refugees, face legal and social discrimination in
the country. Addressing minority rights issues will determine whether Japan will remain a prosperous country inyears to come. It must solve them now or lose its positionon the global stage. ❶Marina Yoshimura is an undergraduate student at Waseda University

and Yale College.

9Feature: Photo-Category Winner

Watching
thewatchers
A photo series that explores how
the traditions of Japan are often
disrespected by foreign tourists
and point out the problems that
the Geiko (Geisha) face on a daily
basis in Gion, Kyoto.

Top, prohibited behavior in
pictures for non-Japanese
speakers.
Above, traditional beauty –Maiko performance at the HyattRegency hotel.

Alzbeta Kossuthova asked herself
how much discrimination against
foreigners was brought on by
their own discriminatory behavior
in a photo essay that the judges
described as “compelling.”

Main photo, an almost unnoticed
Geiko.

Alzbeta Kossuthova is a graduate

student at Waseda University

10

JUNE 2019

FCCJ

FCCJ

JUNE 201911

Series: Profile

Emiko Jozuka
CNN

By Ilgin Yorulmaz

ANDREW POTHECARYI

12JUNE 2019

FCCJ

Her guiding principle through her work then and now has
n the summer of 2008, Emiko Jozuka, then a junior at thealways been “to give voice to the people who lack it.” The fast
University of Cambridge, was assisting one of her profespace of the international news agenda left Jozuka feeling dissors with an archeological excavation in Mersin, a major
illusioned with her role. “I felt like my stories weren’t having
town in southern Turkey, when she got invited to a wedding.
much of an impact. . . . It was only later on that my editor at
She was so intrigued by the friendly locals in the village
the time told me that the articles we’d worked on were being
who invited her into their homes that she became more interpicked up by academics and local news groups outside of Turested in digging into their everyday lives than the excavakey,” she says.
tion. Despite having to rely on a Turkish-English dictionary,
After a period in southeastern Turkey and along the TurkishJozuka never missed a chance to hang out with them as soon
Syrian border, Jozuka decided to return to school in 2013 for aas she finished her daily shift.
master’s degree in visual, material and museum anthropology“They called me a ‘wedding queen’ as I ended up going to all
at Oxford University. But she
the weddings in that village andquickly realized she wasn’t cut
beyond that summer,” she says.
out for an academic life. So she
Now a Hong Kong-based
HER GUIDING PRINCIPLE HAS
turned her attention to science
digital producer for CNN, Jozuand technology reporting.
ka says this chance encounALWAYS BEEN “TO GIVE VOICE TO
During stints in London at
ter kick-started her interest
THE PEOPLE WHO LACK IT”
Wired magazine and later atin telling human stories. She
Motherboard, the technology
returned to the Turkish village
portal by the online news outlet VICE, she became interested in
the next summer to improve her language skills, adding to
the intersections of society, culture and technology. She reportthe French, Spanish and Portuguese she had learned as a
ed in depth on Senegalese game developers, Kurdish Google,
languages, literature and film major at Cambridge.
and sought to explore the impact of technology on people.
Upon graduation, Jozuka spent a month learning docuJozuka started working for CNN in August, 2016. In 2018,
mentary making in Cuba. She then decided to crack into jourshe travelled to Japan on a Pulitzer Center grant to produce
nalism as a freelance reporter in Turkey for the Hurriyet Daily
five stories on the country’s much publicized demographic
News (HDN), the country’s oldest English-language paper,time bomb. Her stories ranged from Japan’s vacant housing
while also teaching English in Istanbul. She started out interissue and immigration to childcare and the elderly, docuviewing expat diplomats, artists and journalists, which she
menting solutions that communities had come up with tocalls “ironic” for someone who wanted to learn more about
deal with these challenges.
what Turkish people thought.
Her main reservation with foreign media’s Japan coverage
But this “sideways angle” of seeing Turkey through a foris the danger of missing cultural nuances, and misinterpreteign lens was indispensable in her later work as a foreigning seemingly weird but ultimately human stories. “Groweducated Japanese looking into various issues faced by cering up [overseas], I didn’t have such a great image of Japan,
tain countries, including her own – a unique position she has
because it had been filtered through the western media’s takeenjoyed since the beginning of her career.
of it,” she says.
Jozuka emigrated with her Japanese parents to the UK
She gives the example of one recent story on the Japanese
when she was just three years old. Speaking Japanese at home
man who married a hologram, and how that challenged her
and visiting Japan once a year during school holidays enabled
own assumptions. “Many people think that people like him are
her to keep close ties to her native country. Her father was
odd and have cut ties with other humans, but he had a normal
Asia’s first motorsports photojournalist and covered everysocial life and just did what made him happy,” she says.
thing from Formula One to the Paris-Dakar rallies over a
Another story recently was on a group of female members
career spanning nearly five decades since the ’60s. It wasn’tof the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). It featured, among
long before Jozuka also caught the journalism bug, proving
others, a 23-year-old actress-turned-navy recruit who had
the old Japanese saying, Kaeru no ko wa kaeru, (literally, “Thebeen deeply moved by a trip last year to Bosnia and Herzechild of a frog is a frog”), or “Like father, like daughter in thisgovina’s war zones and decided to join the military.
case,” Jozuka says.
“These girls had joined the army for a sense of adventure,
Turkey provided the perfect backdrop to cultivate her
ambition and career trajectory,” says Jozuka. No wonder sheinterest as a documentarist. During her freelance gig at thechose to feature them; the same passion seems to follow her
HDN, she took every chance to cover art, film and environeverywhere, whether it’s a small village in Turkey or a busmental festivals across Turkey “so I could learn the languagetling city like Tokyo. ❶faster and understand the country better,” she says. Anotherchance encounter with indie Kurdish filmmakers at an international film festival led to jobs as a script developer, producIlgin Yorulmaz is a freelance journalist and a regular contributor to BBCtion staff and freelance reporter in southeastern Turkey.
World Turkish-language service.
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JUNE 201913

Feature: Fake news

Tateiwa. In other words, Suga single-handedly spun the story
that Trump’s election meant trouble for Japan.

By David McNeill

D

onald Trump’s first press conference as presidentelect in January 2017 set the discordant tone for thetwo years to follow. The hour-long encounter with asullen media corps was seasoned with Trump’s now familiar
insults and sleights of hand.
A stack of folders on a nearby podium was “proof” that hehad divested his business interests to ensure no conflict ofinterest. Claims that Russia had helped send Trump to theWhite House, or had compromising information on his exotic
sexual peccadillos, were a “pile of garbage.” Obamacare wasa “complete and total disaster.” CNN reporter Jim Acosta wastold to be quiet when he tried to ask a question. “You are fakenews,” said Trump, eyeing him with contempt.
It was entertaining stuff. Many voters, after all, had dis-

The author of a new book says the qualityof reporting in Japan under the Abegovernment is in dangerous decline.

Above, Yoichiro Tateiwa at the Club in 201814

patched Trump to Washington in anticipation of these badtempered showdowns with the “libtard” media. For Japanwatchers, however, the event was thin gruel. Apart from asingle non-sequitur at the end, when Japan was cited – alongwith Russia, China and Mexico – as countries that had “taken
total advantage” economically of America, there was no mention of its closest Pacific ally.
So when Yoichiro Tateiwa watched the Japanese media’s
take the following day, he was astonished to see banner headlines about a looming trade war. “They read: ‘Trump criticizedJapan for trade issues,’” Tateiwa says. “But I wondered: Did heeven mention Japan? I had to go back and check the record.”
Tateiwa is a former NHK staff reporter who left the broadcaster in 2016 to take up a fellowship at the American University in Washington. He has just written a book, Toranpu
Houdou no Feiku to Fakkuto (Fact and Fakery in Media Coverage of Trump, Kamogawa Shuppan, 2019) that draws on his
comparative knowledge of media systems in both countries.
He believes the Japanese reporters took their cue not fromthe actual press conference, but from Yoshihide Suga, thegovernment’s chief cabinet secretary. “The political reporters asked Suga what the Japanese stance was and Suga said:‘This trade issue is serious and we have to discuss it,’” says
JUNE 2019

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THAT’S WORRYING ENOUGH, BUT it indicates a bigger problem, says Tateiwa: stories in the Japanese media often do notname their sources. Or source, since many important stories
are propped up by a single anonymous voice in the government. That’s a recipe for manipulation, he warns.
American political journalism has hardly covered itself inglory either, given how it was hoodwinked over calamitouswars in the Middle East. Tateiwa agrees, but says journalists there have become more careful. As evidence, he cites
the Washington Post’s scoop on alleged Russian meddling in
Trump’s election and the role of Michael Flynn, the former
national security advisor. “The newspaper confirmed withnine former government officials who had access to therecords of conversations between Flynn and the Russian
ambassador (in 2016),” he says. “The Japanese media doesn’t
do that.”Elite spin is most evident in the media’s coverage of North
Korea, says Tateiwa. When Kim Jong Un agreed to meet
Trump in Singapore last June, Japanese officials fretted thatprematurely rewarding Kim for coming to the negotiatingtable could leave the North’s missiles pointed at Japan. And
would the quixotic Trump grill Kim about Japanese citizens
abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and ’80s, aparticular priority for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? Someone
in the Abe government decided that journalists needed a carrot, says Tateiwa. Up popped a story on Fuji TV claiming without evidence that far from being diplomatically shoved aside,
Japan had in fact facilitated the Trump-Kim meeting. “I was
like, really?” says Tateiwa, laughing.
After Singapore, a nervous looking Abe spoke briefly to the
local press, warning that the abductions would have to besolved by Japan alone, seemingly confirming that the issue
was a very low priority for Trump. The next day, almost theentire Japanese media ran the story that Trump had in fact
discussed the abduction issue with Kim, who had ‘responded
positively.’ The sources for this claim were anonymous. “Given what Abe said the night before, I really doubt that conversation took place,” says Tateiwa.
“SOMEONE WAS MANIPULATING THE media,” he continues. “I
suspect it was one person who was the source on North Korea– and they don’t name him. He tells reporters: ‘I can tell you
what Trump really said to Abe – that the abduction issue isvery important and he is open to dialogue.’ We know it is a lie
but . . . .”“The stories are attributed to a ‘source close to the JapanUS relationship’ or ‘someone in the US government,’ Tateiwa
says. “You cannot just say ‘someone in the American government – there is no ‘American government!’ It should be‘someone related to the White House’, or ‘someone in theState Department.’
Tateiwa says even the “liberal” Japanese media swallow
the most unlikely stories when it comes to Pyongyang. He
cites one Asahi TV report in 2017 claiming that the American
military was preparing for a conventional attack because theNorth “would not retaliate.”“I was stunned because what the secretary of defense[James Mattis] said was completely different,” he says. The
conventional wisdom on all sides was that any attempt to
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JUNE 2019

dislodge the Kim regime by force risked setting off a ruinous conventional war that would destroy Seoul, about 40km
south of the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.
“Now Japanese TV was saying that the US forces had entirely
changed their stance by preparing for a pinpoint attack,” says
Tateiwa. “Nobody in America ran that, so it was clearly coming from a Japanese source. Again, somebody in the government was tipping the media. And the way the Japanese media
uses sources it could almost be anyone.”AS EVGENY MOROZOV, AUTHOR of Net Delusion: The Dark
Side of Internet Freedom, has pointed out, there’s nothing newabout exaggerated or fabricated news. False stories helped
goad America into war with Spain in 1898; faked reports of
Iraqi troops yanking babies from incubators in Kuwait in 1990
and the infamous “weapons of mass destruction” provided
the rationale for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. But fake news
has recently been turbo-charged by at least three factors: theInternet and the digital monopolies that dominate it, the erosion of journalistic resources and standards, and a mass cynicism about public institutions, including the media. The timing
was perfect for the rise of an unscrupulous political huckster.
At least, according to Tateiwa, most journalists in the UnitedStates are onto Trump. “Here, nobody knows who is spreading“HERE, NOBODY KNOWS WHO IS
SPREADING THE FAKE NEWS.
AND WHAT IS WORSE THE REPORTERS
BELIEVE THEY ARE DOING A GOOD JOB”
the fake news,” he says. “And what is worse is that the reporters here believe they are doing a good job. But they are being
manipulated and used. There is far less transparency in thiscountry, so I think the situation here is more serious.”
Reporters are part of the deception, he says. Abe, forexample, “is rarely caught saying anything stupid” because
the questions are sent to him before each encounter with themedia. “The reporters like that too: sending the question inadvance means they can prepare their stories before the press
conference even starts. That’s what they call good journalism.”
Tateiwa’s solutions are as straightforward as they are difficult to achieve. He says reporters must be trained to fact checkand seek out multiple sources. He has founded an NPO called
FactCheck Initiative Japan for this purpose, and is writing a
new book on the subject. He also wants more US-style journalism courses taught in Japan. “I’m not saying that American
journalism is good – they’ve failed a thousand times. But they
do investigative journalism there and they
have to use sources in a more precise way –they have to keep digging for their stories,
otherwise people say it is fake news.”
The alternative is that Japanese newspapers and TV keep being used by the government. “So long as they keep doing what
they are doing, any type of politician can
manipulate the press.” ❶David McNeill writes for the Irish Times and the Economist and teaches
media and politics at Hosei University.
15

Photographer members

Club News

Lens craft

FCCJ EXHIBITIONKnK Photo Exhibition
Class Rooms:

Places to spend time as a child.

By Kyo Shimizu
KnK (Kokkyo naki
Kodomotachi:Children without
Borders) isan NGO that
supports children
and schools ina number oflocations aroundthe world. These
photographs
by Kyo Shimizu
are of children,classrooms and school commutes
at KnK missions in Palestine,
Timor Leste, the Philippines,
Syrian refugee camps, Tohoku
and beyond. ❶Kyo Shimizu, born in Tokyo in 1970,

has been helping children for 20 years
and expanded his work to become
an award-winning photographer ofhumanitarian issues in 2016. He has
worked for KnK Japan since 2003.

JOIN THE FILM COMMITTEE. . .

Lenses aft
Photographers await thefirst public appearance ofthe new emperor, April 4.
by Albert Siegel“Twilight Flow”
Jiufen, Taiwan.
by Stirling Elmendorf…on Wed., June 19 at 6:45 pm for 5 Million Dollar Life, which poses thequestion “Just how much is life really worth?” For Mirai Takatsuki (playedwith gusto by Ayumu Mochizuki), it took $5 million in donations to cover
his medical bills and keep him alive. Eleven years later, his miraculous
recovery is still TV news, and his mother continues to promise that
Mirai will pay everyone back by living up to their expectations. But
the 17-year-old has had enough of the pressure. In despair, he decides
to commit suicide – until a stranger texts him that he has no right totake his own life until he returns the $5 million. So Mirai sets out todo just that. What begins as a familiar-seeming journey with echoes of
the teen suicide/coming-of-age/road movie genres, then expands into
something completely unexpected, constantly surprising and ultimately,transformative. First-time feature director Sungho Moon will join us for
the Q&A session after the screening with Mochizuki.
(Japan, 2019; 112 minutes; in Japanese with English subtitles.)– Karen Severns

Spring is in the air
PM Shinzo Abe (along withhis security personnel) runs
to greet his guests at acherry-blossom viewing party.
Shinjukugyoen, Tokyo, April 13.
by Yoshikazu Tsuno
16

Left, concentrating without noticing mycamera, Kohistan, Pakistan, 2010
Above, a girl lights a candle to continue
studying after a power outage, in a KnK
Home, India, 2005

At
the
Club

“OUR SUBORBITAL ROCKET
MOMO IS ALREADYCOMMERCIALLY PROFITABLE.
WE’VE HAD SPONSORS FOR
EACH OF OUR LAUNCHES,SOLD THE NAMING RIGHTSAND USED CROWD FUNDING
FROM INDIVIDUALS TO
COVER THE COSTS.”

Takafumi Horie, founder ofInterstellar Technologies. Inc. on theirentry into the satellite market,
May 15JUNE 2019

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JUNE 201917

Club news

NEW MEMBERSGOZABUNE: SUNSET CRUISEREGULAR MEMBERYE SHAN is an English-language correspondent

The evening of May 5 saw
FCCJ members board aluxurious replica of the
shogun’s pleasure ship, theGozabune Atekemaru, fora dinner cruise aroundTokyo Bay.
The original was built
by the third Tokugawa
shogun, Iemitsu, in theearly 17th century, and its
opulent design and regal
decor was compared at
the time to the Toshogu
Shrine in Nikko. Thanks
to the Special Projects
Committee for arranging
the very unique event.
Cruises are regularlyscheduled, and the ship is
also available for charter.

At
the
Club

“IF REPORTERS AREN’T FREE
TO REPORT FREELY FROMDANGEROUS PLACES,
THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT
AND THE PEOPLE WILLLOSE PERSPECTIVE AND THE
ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND
THE GLOBAL SITUATION."

with China’s Xinhua News Agency, where
she is currently in charge of reporting on
Japan’s political and economic stories for theagency’s Tokyo bureau. Prior to this posting,
she was an editor at the English desk of theInternational News Department in Beijing since2015. She majored in English and International
Communications and has also studied Japanese.

PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALIST ASSOCIATE MEMBER
Nobuyuki Kataoka, Kinyobi, Co., Ltd.

PHOTOS: ALBERT SIEGELREINSTATEMENT (PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALIST ASSOCIATE)
Akiko Kashiwagi, The Washington Post

At
the
Club

CLUB DIARY DATE

6/22

Saturday Lunch with Shakespeare

HENRY VI [Sixth]
Part One“I HAVE NO CHARGES AGAINST ME, BUT
THE MILITARY HAS PUT UP MY
PHOTOS IN POLICE STATIONSLABELING ME A TERRORIST,GIVING EVERYONE THE IMPRESSIONTHAT I HAVE DONE SOMETHING
WRONG AND THAT ANYTHING THATHAPPENS TO ME WOULD BE JUSTIFIED."ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Alfred Moufarrige, Servcorp Ltd.
Dan Underwood, Ashton Consulting Limited
Hironobu Endo, Dentsu Ad-Gear Inc.
Akihiko Fukazawa, Homat Homes, Ltd.
Akiko Kanno, ELGC K.K.
Makoto Takahashi, ELGC K.K.
Satoshi Nakano, Japan-China Cultural Exchange Association
Kazutaka Okubo, Ernst & Young Shinnihon LLC
Izumi Okoshi, Dentsu Inc.
Masanao Tomozoe, Central Japan International Airport Co., Ltd.

NEW IN THE LIBRARYTokyo Ueno Station
Yu Miri; Morgan Giles (trans.)
Tilted Axis Press
Out of the Gobi: My Story of China andAmerica
Weijian ShanJohn Wiley & Sons
Gift from Naoya Nakata
Jimaku no Hanazono
Natsuko Toda
Shueisha
Gift from Natsuko Toda
Keep on Dreaming: Toda Natsuko
Natsuko Toda; Yuko Kaneko
Futabasha
Gift from Natsuko Toda

Kosuke Tsuneoka, freelance journalist,
who filed a lawsuit after his passport was
confiscated to prevent him from reportingfrom the Middle East war zone,
April 24
18

Notes on a Life: Coppola Family no Sugao
Eleanor Coppola; Natsuko Toda (trans.)
Futabasha
Gift from Natsuko Toda

The play – in a production from BBC TV –covers the years of English history leading up
to the Wars of the Roses, sees the loss ofEnglish possessions in France – thanks to Joanof Arc - and the break-down of order in England.

John Milton M. Lozande, Secretary General of
National Federation of Sugar Workers,
based on Negros Island of the Philippines,
where extrajudicial killings have been widespread,May 17

Tickets including lunch are ¥3,000 per person.
Reservations via the front desk: 03-3211-3161
JUNE 2019

FCCJ

FCCJ

JUNE 2019Japan Rearmed: the Politics of Military Power
Sheila A. Smith
Harvard University Press
The Rise and Fall of Modern Japanese
Literature
John Whittier Treat
The University of Chicago Press
19