The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

Nov. 2018 Vol. 50 No. 11 ¥400

Come inside:
The new Club in photos

The Seoul investigative-journalism conference
Press freedom news
Ilgin Yorulmaz profiled

In this issueVol. 50, Number 11

November 2018

contact the editors

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

From the President by Peter Langan
Freedom of the Press news
From the archives: Mr. “Made in Japan”

4
4
5

FEATURES

Joining hands to promote press freedoms
by Daniel Hurst

6

Page 6: Attendees of the 3rd AsianInvestigative Journalism Conference
hold posters of arrested Reuters
journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.
Photo courtesy of THE GLOBALINVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM NETWORKTHE FCCJ ONLINE: www.fccj.or.jp

MEMBER EVENTSPRESS CONFERENCE VIDEOSCLUB CALENDARCLUB INFORMATIONPROFILEIlgin Yorulmaz
by Julian Ryall

8

No. 1 SHIMBUN ONLINEFREEDOM OF THE PRESS INFO

New look
photographs by Stirling Elmendorf

10

Thanks for the memories
by Club Members

16

Plus
Exhibition: FCCJ Photo Archives
New Members
New in the library

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
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 Ayako Mie
Professional Activities Tetsuo Jimbo,
David McNeill
Public Relations Rose Argyropoulos
Publications Gavin Blair, Geoff Tudor
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe
Foreign Press in Japan Robin Harding

CLUB NEWS: NEW PREMISES SPECIAL
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Editor Gregory Starr
Art Director Andrew Pothecarywww.itsumo-music.jp/design
Editorial Assistants 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

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
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 photo: Stirling ElmendorfFCCJNOVEMBER 2018

3

The Front Page

FROM THE PRESIDENT
DEAR FELLOW MEMBERS,
The commonly cited “Murphy’sLaw” states that what can gowrong will go wrong – usuallywith a myriad of unforeseen
consequences. It has beensuggested Murphy’s Law be included in studies ofphysics, though I’ve yet to see a book titled: Black
Holes, Quarks and Murphy.
Journalists are not well known for their graspof quantum physics but they are familiar with
Murphy’s Law. When dealing with breaking news
and dozens of moving parts, Murphy’s Law truly
comes into its own. My memorable experiences ofMurphy were running a newsroom with about 200
staff on dozens of news beats. The lesson learnt
was you cannot fight Murphy’s Law, you can only
embrace it, laugh along with the absurdities andcarry on.
I’m rambling on about this because the FCCJ’s
move to a new Club is prime territory for
Murphy: new untested facilities and hundreds andhundreds of moving parts. FCCJ staff members
have been working long days and, in some cases,
overnight, to prepare for the move, but thanks
to Murphy’s Law it will take months to bed down
operations in the new Club. Stuff happens. We ask
your patience and cooperation to make this work.
And, of course, suggestions are welcome.
While on the subject of welcomes, the Board
met on Oct. 24 and Treasurer Willem Kortekaasgave an update on the donation drive. We havea long way to meet our financial targets, but it
was very welcome to hear about the generosityof members. A big Thank You to those who havecontributed, and much encouragement to those
who are considering the same.
At the Board meeting we passed a number ofresolutions. They include:
Hiring an auditor for fiscal 2018/19 and a tax
advisor. The Board also authorized publication ofminutes of meetings, excluding items discussed
in “executive session” that can include personal
information and other confidential data. The
minutes will be posted on the membersonly section of the Club’s web site. It will beannounced when the first report is posted.
Finally, we have tempered our ambitions
somewhat on the Nov. 22 Gala Opening of the
new Club as we believe we were being, well,overly ambitious considering the short timeto prepare.
It will be a Grand Opening Party for members
and guests, including several entertainment
events. Taiko Drummers and Kagami Biraki arejust a couple of them. More details will follow. I’m
not sure about inviting Murphy, but he usually justshows up anyway.
– Peter Langan
4

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS NEWSFROM THE ARCHIVES

A regional round-up

THAILAND ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

JAPAN ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan and its Freedomof the Press Committee are gravely concerned by reports thatHong Kong has refused to renew the working visa of Hong
Kong Foreign Correspondents Club’s Vice President Victor
Mallet after he chaired a talk by activist Andy Chan at theHong Kong FCC in August. Chan’s opponents had criticized
the talk and also applied economic pressure to the FCC Hong
Kong by threatening to cancel the market-rate lease on thebuilding it occupies.
These actions are an affront to press freedom. We standin solidarity with our Hong Kong colleagues and call on thegovernment to offer an explanation for denying Mallet aworking visa and in the absence of that, rescind the decision.

• The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Tokyo

SINGAPORE ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Kirsten Han is editor-in-chief of New Naratif, an online news
organization covering Southeast Asia conceived in 2017 as aplace “where we could tell Southeast Asian stories, ones thatwouldn’t fit in foreign news publications or local publications
that might have censorship.” One of her main concerns, sharedby tech firms like Facebook and Twitter, is the government’s
intention to introduce legislation to tackle fake news. “It’s very
problematic. If there’s no clear definition of what the government
calls deliberate online falsehoods, the law could turn out to bevery broad.”
In April, New Naratif was denied permission to register as
a company or legal entity and was accused by the governmentof “being used by foreigners to pursue a political activity in
Singapore.” Yet Han remains defiant, and continues to publish on
the platform with her network of contributors. • TIME magazine,

June 22, 2018

CAMBODIA ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■The Cambodian government is extending its crackdown on“fake news”, just weeks before the increasingly authoritarian
government of Prime Minister Hun Sen heads to the polls.
A new directive aimed at fake news posted on websites andsocial media platforms could see violators jailed for two years
and fined US$1,000, according to a report in the Khmer Times.
The widening powers come at a time when Cambodia’s freepress has been under increasing pressure.
The recent sale of the Phnom Penh Post, an Englishlanguage daily considered one of the last independent media
organisations in the country, was seen as a major blow to
freedom of expression. The paper was sold to a Malaysian
investor who is the chief executive of a PR firm that has
worked on behalf of Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The sale of the Post followed the closing of the Cambodia
Daily last September, after the paper was saddled witha disputed $6.3m tax bill. The final edition ran with theheadline: “Descent into Outright Dictatorship.”Hun looks set to extend his 33-year grip on power inelections later this month, after having dissolved the
opposition party and jailed his main critics.

• The Guardian, July 6

NOVEMBER 2018

FCCJ

Bangkok, Sept. 11, 2018—Thai authorities on
Monday shut down a panel discussion at Bangkok’s
Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand, marking
the sixth such event the country’s ruling military
junta has canceled since seizing power in a May
2014 coup.
The event, entitled “Will Myanmar’s Generals
Ever Face Justice for International Crimes?,” wasshut down after Thai police delivered a letter tothe club’s management saying the discussion could
be used by “third parties” to cause unrest andendanger national security, according to reports
and an FCCT statement protesting the cancellation.
The letter was delivered after participants andattendees had arrived at the event, according to
the same reports.
The FCCT statement said there were “no grounds
whatsoever for such suspicions” and that Thaiauthorities had “overreacted” in shutting down
the event. Journalists who spoke with CPJ on thecondition of anonymity said that plainclothes
authorities took pictures of attendees andpanelists at the event before it was closed down.

• Committee to Protect Journalists, Sept. 11

VIETNAM ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
A court in the northern Vietnamese province of Bac
Ninh sentenced land-rights activist and citizen
journalist Do Cong Duong to 48 months in prison on
Monday for “disturbing public order,” his lawyer told
RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
Duong, 54, was detained on Jan. 24 by the police of
Tu Son commune in Bac Ninh while he was filming aforced eviction. He met his lawyer, Ha Huy Son, on
April 5 and was charged with “disturbing public order.”According to the Vietnamese Political Prisoner
Database, Duong was warned by authorities in
September 2017 that he was sharing on Facebook“content that distorts the truth, impacts upon thecredibility and reputation of other citizens andorganizations” and “content that contradicts the
directions and policies of the Party and the lawof the state.”
Vietnam’s one-party communist government iscurrently detaining at least 130 political prisoners,
including rights advocates and bloggers deemedthreats to national security, according to New
York-based Human Rights Watch. It also controls
all media, censors the internet, and restricts basic
freedoms of expression.
During the first eight months of 2018, at least
28 rights activists and bloggers have been put on
trial, convicted, and sentenced to long prison terms,
including prominent blogger and democracy advocate
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc.
Thuc, who is serving a 16-year sentence, has been
on a hunger strike for nearly a month to protest
police pressure on him to plead guilty in exchange
for amnesty. • Radio Free Asia, Sept. 17
FCCJ

NOVEMBER 2018

Mr. “Made in Japan”

Sony’s top executive Akio Morita updated Club members on his
company and its latest technological wonder, the Walkman, on Oct.
25, 1979. Seated to his left is Jack Russell (NBC), sitting in for FCCJ
president Swadesh DeRoy (Press Trust of India). To his right is Board
member Loic Salman (AFP).
Born in Nagoya on Jan. 26, 1921, Akio Morita was raised in asake-brewing family, but went on to graduate with a degree inphysics from the Osaka Imperial University. That was followed
by a 1945 commission in the Japanese Navy, and to a friendshipwith Masaru Ibuka. In 1946 the two men launched Tokyo
Tsushin Kogyo, with Morita’s family as a major shareholder. The
company’s first major product came in 1950 when it marketed
Japan’s first tape recorder. It then licensed transistor technology
from Bell Labs and in 1957 launched a pocket-sized transistor
radio, a great success that led to the company’s 1958 namechange to the Sony Corporation.
In 1961, Sony Corporation of America became the first Japanesecompany to be listed on the New York stock exchange. Their stringof successes is legendary: the first transistor TV set in 1960, theWalkman in 1979 and the Discman in 1984. It was only interrupted
by their 1975 Betamax video cassette, which was eclipsed byVictor Japan’s VHS format launched the following year.
Morita diversified the company through acquisitions, including
in 1988 that of CBS Records and then in 1989 of the Columbia
Pictures Entertainment group. In 1988, Time named him one of
the 20 most influential business leaders of the 20th Century.
He was also an author. His second book, Made in Japan,
was a 1986 English-language autobiography written with theassistance of former FCCJ president Ed Reingold (Time) andJapanese journalist Mitsuko Shimomura. In 1989, he co-authoredwith Shintaro Ishihara The Japan That Can Say No. The criticismsin the book of the U.S. caused some controversy, and Morita
had his chapters removed before publication of the 1991 English
edition and distanced himself from the book.
Morita, who suffered a stroke in 1993, stepped down as
Chairman in 1994 and died from pneumonia on Oct. 3, 1999 at
the age of 78.

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

Feature: Investigative Journalism Conference

Joining hands to promotethreats, harassment, and lack of information access they faceare all too common,” he said. “They also discover they share a
stubborn commitment to the truth and accountability. That’s
a powerful feeling to take home.”press freedoms
A gathering of journalists from the Asian
region share knowledge and camaraderie inthe quest to bring truth to power.
By Daniel HurstT

hey say the pen is mightier than the sword. Even so,
Zunar, a renowned political cartoonist who has campaigned against corruption in Malaysia, faced an
uphill battle with authorities intent on suppressing his freedom of expression.
In recent years, he has been arrested numerous times,
detained, charged with sedition and slapped with travel andbook bans. His printers were harassed for publishing his workand he was forced to cancel an exhibition because of threats
from pro-government mobs. “I told the police: ‘Look, you canban my book, you can ban my cartoons, but you cannot ban
my mind,’” Zunar recalled in the keynote address to a large
gathering of investigative journalists in South Korea in early
October. “I said to them: ‘I will keep drawing until the lastdrop of my ink.’”
But Zunar may have the last laugh: the fallen prime minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, is now the one who is subject toa travel ban – and facing a raft of serious charges over corruption allegations that helped fuel his defeat at the generalelection in May. Najib has pleaded not guilty.
In a passionate speech peppered with light-hearted anecdotes, Zunar urged journalists to use their talents to expose
wrongdoing and to keep fighting for the truth and free
6

DANIEL HURST

Increasing hostility to ‘fourth estate’speech, saying it was a never-ending marathon. “Responsibility is bigger than fear,” he said. “My philosophy in cartooning
is: How can I remain neutral? Even my pen has a stand.”
Zunar was addressing the 3rd Asian Investigative Journalism Conference, held in Seoul’s Millenium Hilton Hotel after
previous gatherings in Manila in 2014 and Kathmandu in2016. The three-day event, the biggest one to date, attracted
455 participants and speakers from 48 countries, including investigative and data journalists, media law experts,
security specialists and representatives from leading nongovernment organizations. “It’s incredible to see this greatballroom full of investigative journalists from across Asiaand around the world,” said Kim Yongjin, editor-in-chief ofthe Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, one of the cohosts of the conference.
Apart from arranging panel discussions and workshops, theorganizers scheduled extra-long coffee and lunch breaks, giving
journalists from across the region an opportunity to networkand potentially even generate cross-border collaborative projects. “We were struck this time by the high levels of collaboration, brainstorming and camaraderie among the participants,”
said David Kaplan, executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), another co-host. “A lot of theaction at our conferences takes place not just in the panels andworkshops but in the restaurants, bars and hallways.”
Kaplan, a former Tokyo-based journalist, said a post-event
survey of the participants’ reaction was “off the charts” –with nearly 98 percent of respondents saying their capacity as journalists had been increased. “It’s also inspiring toour attendees to find out that they are not alone – that the
NOVEMBER 2018

FCCJ

The conference comes amid signs of increasing pressure onjournalists in many countries. Apart from the financial difficulties that many legacy media outlets are experiencing aspart of the industry’s digital transformation, loud voices canoften be heard denouncing reporters. Journalists are also having to confront sophisticated disinformation campaigns alongwith legal threats and other risks to their personal safety.
Sheila Coronel, an event panelist and dean of academic
affairs at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, said it was a fraught and difficult time to be an investigative journalist. She said there used to be a broad consensus that the press played an important role as a watchdog on
power, as the “fourth estate.” “That consensus is rapidly fraying,” Coronel told the audience, adding that journalists havebeen denounced in some quarters as “presstitutes,” purveyors of “fake news” or tools of the liberal global elite.
Zaffar Abbas, another panelist and editor of Pakistan’s English-language daily Dawn, said journalists are facing multipronged attacks including accusations of being unpatriotic.
This notion of patriotism, he continued, was destroying journalism and free thinking.
Maria Ressa, chief executive of the Philippines-basedsocial news network Rappler, explained how the outlet has
faced numerous threats, including a government attempt to
revoke its license. “We feel like the time to fight is now,” shesaid. “The only way to fight is to shine the light, because if we
do not fight we will lose.”
In a later plenary session, Patricia Evangelista, an investigative journalist for Rappler, provided a compelling accountof her work in documenting the effects of the so-called “drugwar” that has led to thousands of deaths at the hands ofpolice or vigilantes.
She emphasized the importance of fact-checking in orderto make a story bulletproof. “I know the world is howlingabout fake news but that’s not the worst of it,” she said, arguing it was worse when the general public believed a story
about an unjust killing in the drug war was true “but say ‘It’sokay. . . . They deserve it, so what?”

Japanese journalists share their stories

A number of Japanese journalists spoke at the conference
about topics ranging from access to information about misuse of taxpayer funds, to shining a light on human rights
abuses. Satoshi Kusakabe, a deputy editor of the Mainichi
Shimbun, explained how he used Freedom of Information(FOI) laws in 2004 to reveal the lavish spending of then Tokyo
governor Shintaro Ishihara, as well as his frequent absencesfrom the office. “It was an eye-opening experience for me
because [the laws enabled us to act as] a watchdog without
any special sources,” he said.
More recently, Kusakabe has used FOI applications toinvestigate the development of Japan’s controversial statesecrets law – an extraordinary search that, he said, uncovered 40,000 pages of documents. Kusakabe advised the gathered journalists that even a failure to find specific documents
under FOI could become the basis of an article, if it suggested
FCCJ

NOVEMBER 2018flaws in the proper decision-making process.
Makoto Watanabe and Hideaki Kimura, both from the
Waseda Chronicle, spoke about their reporting on the practiceof forced sterilization in Japan. Journalist and documentary
filmmaker Shiori Ito also addressed the conference about her
efforts to counter the taboo of sexual abuse in Japan.

Support for jailed reporters

The conference focused heavily on press freedom and attempts by governments to suppress critical reporting. At thegala dinner on the final evening, the attendees endorsed astatement calling on Myanmar’s government to immediately
and unconditionally release Reuters journalists Wa Lone andKyaw Soe Oo, who were recently sentenced to seven years inprison for breaching state secrets.
The pair, who have maintained they were framed by theauthorities, were in the process of exposing a massacre of 10
Rohingya Muslim men and boys in the coastal village of Inn
Din in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. They were, according to theconference statement, “unjustly convicted and jailed, simply
for their crime of exemplary reporting on a matter of great
public interest.”
In a speech to the assembled media, Reg Chua of Reuters
spoke of the two journalists’ commitment. “Despite the tollon them personally – Wa Lone has a young baby girl he has
never met, since she was born while he was in jail – they havecalled at every trial hearing and every opportunity for theneed for a free press and the need for independent journalism,” he said. He added that it was important “to call for theirfreedom and the freedom of journalists everywhere who facea similar plight.”“It’s a really sad commentary on the world that we live inthat we have so many panels here [at this conference] about
the harassment, hate and violence directed towards journalists,” said Chua. “Forty-two journalists were killed last year, a
record 262 were imprisoned this year.”In the statement, published in seven languages, the conference attendees demanded that governments, multilateralagencies and authorities worldwide “commit to protecting
the press, freeing those held arbitrarily, and ending impunity
for those who attack journalists.” Attendees held up picturesof the Reuters duo along with a large banner saying “Journalism is not a crime”.

If you can’t beat them . . .

In his speech, Malaysian cartoonist Zunar described finding
his way to maintain resolve and a sense of humor throughout
his own ordeal. He said that as a cartoonist he believed that
“if you cannot beat them, laugh at them.” “No dictator in theworld can stand it if you keep laughing at them,” he quipped.
“Just laugh, until one day they introduce an anti-laughter
law,” he said. “Then if you want to laugh, you’ll need to get apermit, a license from the police, you know, and fill out a form:
When do you want to laugh? Next month. Where are you goingto laugh? Who are you going to laugh at – the opposition or thegovernment? And what kind of laughter will it be – hahaha or
hehehe? Until then we really have to fight with laughter. It isvery, very important for us to use our skills and our own way tofight with corrupt regimes.” ❶Daniel Hurst is an Australian freelance journalist based in Tokyo whowrites news and feature articles for a range of international publications.
7Series: Profile

Ilgin Yorulmaz
By Julian Ryall

8

NOVEMBER 2018

FCCJ

RODRIGO REYES MARINI

industry changing, so I decided to do the 10-month masters
n journalism, as in life, it’s often about being in the rightcourse at Columbia University,” she said. “It was very intense,
place at the right time. Ilgin Yorulmaz seems to havebut there was so much for me to learn about journalism.
made that something of a specialty since turning her
There were new skills to master, such as podcasting and vidhand to news reporting from the arts and culture features
eo production and we also had some wonderful professors,that she previously created.
including Bob Woodward.”
Take this example: Izmir-born Yorulmaz was aboard a flight
She was present at President Obama’s last White House
from New York to Istanbul in June 2016, just 48 hours after
Correspondents’ Dinner in 2016, ending with his infamous
three terrorists used automatic weapons and suicide bombs“Obama out” mic drop. “The presidential election campaign
to kill 46 people at Ataturk Airport. She was able to interview
was an interesting time,” she said. “Quite often I found myself
people on the flight about their thoughts and concerns as
as the only Muslim in a room, trying to explain and change
they approached their destination as well as speak with offiattitudes towards my religion.”cials and witnesses in the airport after landing. By the time
Yorulmaz brought that same desire to increase undershe arrived at her ultimate destination, Izmir, she was readystanding others to her reporting. “I found myself interestto file news stories for The Huffington Post and other outlets.
ed in writing about New York’s sub-cultures, about ethnic
Example two: Less than one month later, as she was preminorities, religion, LBGTQ issues,” she said.
paring to leave Turkey for New York, a faction of the TurkAnd while she is uncomfortable withish military attempted a coup against thethe direction that the U.S. has taken
administration of President Erdogan.
under President Trump, Yorulmaz
Fighting broke out on Turkish streets,“SEEING TURKISH
says she can understand its origins.
leaving as many as 248 dead, before pro“When I spoke to people in Milwaukee,
government forces ultimately fended off
CIVILIANS GIVE THEIR
for example, I could understand thethe coup.
LIVES TO RESIST THE
concerns they had for their jobs andBeing at the center of events that madeCOUP THAT NIGHT
the economy. I heard the anger overheadlines around the world was, YorWAS EXTRAORDINARY.
the regulations they felt Obama had
ulmaz agrees, a formative experience forimposed on them,” she said. “Smaller
any journalistic career-seeker. “Seeing
THEY WERE NOT SIMPLY
companies were struggling to pay their
Turkish civilians give their lives to resist‘CASUALTIES’ AND I FELT
taxes and there was real resentment in
the coup that night was extraordinary.
PRIVILEGED TO TELL
a lot of the country.”
They were not simply ‘casualties’ and I
In 2017, Yorulmaz’s husband took afelt privileged to tell their story.
THEIR STORY.”
position in Tokyo once again – and she“In journalism, I always ask myself
is happy to be back here working as a
‘Whose truth are we telling here?’ I warn
journalist. She contributes to the BBC World Service’s Turkish
my Western colleagues reporting complicated conflicts in thelanguage programming and has ambitions to follow throughnon-Western world to avoid catering to predetermined audion digital projects, using new ways of creating content.
ences within a narrow band width – progressive or conser“The media here is just one area in which Japan needs tovative – even if it means arguing against your editor sometransition in many ways,” Yorulmaz said. She’s keen to work
times,” said 46-year-old Yorulmaz, who is half-Turkish andat a university with a journalism program to pass on some ofhalf-British and now serves on the FCCJ’s Professional Activithe skills and knowledge she has learned in the industry toties Committee.
up-an-coming Japanese journalists.
“I think Japan is trying to change but there are too many culYORULMAZ FIRST CAME TO Japan in 1993 as a graduate stutural and heritage barriers that are holding it back,” she said.
dent at a university in Niigata Prefecture, where she studied“Look at China, where everyone uses electronic money forJapanese and international relations as a prelude to a diploeverything; Japanese still want to have bills in their pockets.”
matic career. After completing the course, she joined a marBut Japan also has an important role for the rest of the
ket research company and stayed a further five years, during
world. “Japan is the laboratory for the rest of the world,” shewhich she discovered a talent for writing analytical reports.
said. “The population is ageing fast. At first glance a story
Moving to London in 2000 with her husband, she comabout people renting strangers to act as members of theirpleted a course on feature writing at Central Saint Martin,
families at formal occasions is just a ‘crazy Japan’ story. But
the University of the Arts London and began contributing
it’s bigger than that and can tell us a lot about society here.
design, art and lifestyle features to magazines, including
And, she says, these aren’t isolated stories. “I can very easMaison Francaise and the Turkish edition of Vogue.
ily see stories like this appearing in Europe in 20 or 30 years,”
Yorulmaz continued to write for Vogue while she was backshe added. ❶in Istanbul with her growing family between 2007 and 2015,
before her husband was offered a job in New York. “I had been
wanting to go into journalism full time and I could see theJulian Ryall is Japan correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.

FCCJ

NOVEMBER 20189

Club news

NEW
look

10

Dedicated elevators open
on the fifth floor to an open,
glass-fronted Reception,with the hallway leading
off to the right to theClub proper. (The photos
temporarily hung behind
the reception desk will be
replaced by monitors.)

Architectural photographer(and Club Member) Stirling Elmendorf
photographed the new Club as it
began opening — while awaiting final
touches — for business.

NOVEMBER 2018

The wide hallways featuremonthly exhibitions (right).

FCCJ

FCCJ

NOVEMBER 201811

Club news

Of course, the Club’s ultimate
raison d’être is the work ofjournalism. Four adjoining
Function Rooms of adjustablesize will host the Club’s
regular press conferences(above) and other events.
The VIP Room (left) will host
speakers awaiting their press
conference appearances. It
has access to the balcony(page 15) and can also be
rented for member’s events.
The large windows offer aview of the Meiji Seimei Kan,a building designated as a
National Important Cultural
Property (and home of the
post-war GHQ).

12

On the 6th floor is the
Library (opposite top,
and center, left) andjournalists’ Work Room(center, right). The
windows have blinds to
avoid distraction. It has
a comfortable seating
area, a work table andcomputer and printeraccess. The librarybooks are housed in a
glassed-off area (center,
left). The work roomhas 20 work areas,
screened for privacyand quiet. Both rooms
feature the comfort
and function of Herman
Miller office chairs.

NOVEMBER 2018

FCCJ

USM has provided
modular furniture for
use throughout the Club,
including the Library’s
magazine rack and theside tables in the hallways
and the VIP Room.

FCCJ

NOVEMBER 201813

Club news

At the heart of the Club are its socialand dining facilities. The Main Bar
and Restaurant (top) features alarge space with corner view of the
Mitsubishi Ichigokan museum (a faithfulreconstruction of its 1894 design). A
piano graces the entertainment space, thecorrespondents’ tables nestle in the corner(above) next to the open table, and all thechairs are freshly refurbished.
14

Fine dining is provided by two
restaurants – the Pen and Quill(above, left), which is part of theadjustable complex of function
rooms and can be screened off
or left open to the Main Bar, andMasukomi Sushi on the floor above– a renowned sushi restaurant thathas come with the Club from the
Yurakucho location.

The restaurant opens ontoa Balcony Terrace (opposite,top) that will give Members
an uncommon chance toexperience open-air dining in
the middle of Marunouchi.

NOVEMBER 2018

FCCJ

FCCJ

NOVEMBER 2018

Photos by Stirling Elmendorf:
www.stirlingelmendorf.com
15

Club news

Thanks for the memories

RANDOM THEATRICAL THOUGHTS . . .

Club Members share their remembrances from the FCCJ’s
42 years at the Yurakucho Denki Building North Tower.
Yurakucho Denki Building,North Tower, from the Number 1
Shimbun front page, Nov. 1975

A SHOUT-OUT TO THE PM
SANDRA MORI IS ONE of a select few who haveactually set foot in all four premises the Club has
used since its foundation in November 1945. They
are the old Tokyo Kaikan (1945-1954), the former
American Club Building, Marunouchi (1954-1967)
the Chiyoda Annex Building (1967-1976) and the
Yurakucho Denki Building (1976-2018).
“My first visit was with my Dad in 1947 when I
was 11. I remember summer-night film shows on
the roof of the old Tokyo Kaikan, organised by the
Zenier brothers Gene and Julius (aka Julie). There
was no air-conditioning then,” she says.
Mori’s most treasured memory of FCCJ life in
the Yurakucho Denki Building was the visit by thenPrime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sept. 14, 2001.
“It had been some years since a Japanese premier
had visited the Club. The Foreign Correspondents’
Club was the Jaws of Death, seemed to be theattitude in Nagatacho,” says Sandra.
When Koizumi strode purposefully into thepacked Main Dining Room, Sandra – like a true
Edokko greeting a favorite actor at a Kabuki
performance – called out, “Yooo! Matemashita!” –which translates as “We’ve been waiting for you.”
Koizumi stopped in his tracks and breaking
into a smile turned towards Sandra inacknowledgement. “Ah! That’s Kabuki” he said.
But before he could make more than eye contact,
one of his minders gently but firmly steered theprime minister towards the podium. Sandra’s brief
moment of mixing with the powers that be passed
into oblivion, largely unnoticed by the media
throng, leaving her, she admits, “All of a-quiver” as
the charismatic politician walked past.
Apart from that stellar experience Sandra – akeen volunteer who has organized numerous
FCCJ entertainments over many years –remembers “so many fun things” during thefour decades plus in Yurakucho. Modestly
she plays down the leading part she took inestablishing the “Saturday Night Live” music
event in the Main Bar as one of the Club’s uniquecontributions to the Tokyo music scene.
“Glenn Davis [now retired in Texas] got this event
started,” Mori says. “The intention was to makethe Club more cheerful and I can honestly say thatwe’ve done that.”
Now Sandra is looking forward to similar goodtimes at the Marunouchi Nijubashi Building, andplanning the inaugural party for Nov. 22.

– Sandra Mori
Member since 196916

THE DALAI LAMA, 1980
(from this month’s FCCJ
Photo Archives Exhibition)
A PHOTOGRAPHER’S LAMENT
THERE ARE SO MANY individual incidents that it’s hard to choose
just one. How do you pick between a past president falling off hisbackless barstool in the old Stag Bar and breaking his arm or awidely told tale about a Filipina woman charging into the club with akitchen knife in search of her husband and/or his alleged lover withwhom she believed he was having an affair, among so many others.
One conversation I do remember was with Karl Bachmeyer,
who accompanied General Douglas MacArthur when he made his
return to the Philippines in 1945. Karl didn’t get any shots of thegeneral striding through the surf because he was stuck with thecomplicated process of reloading his Leica camera. I knew how
complicated it was, since I had some of those Leicas: the film had to
be trimmed manually beforehand, and then very carefully inserted
using both hands.

– Ichiro Urushibara
Member since 1964

“IT HAD BEEN SOME YEARS SINCE A
JAPANESE PREMIER HAD VISITED THE CLUB.
THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB WAS
THE JAWS OF DEATH, SEEMED TO BE THE
ATTITUDE IN NAGATACHO.”NOVEMBER 2018

FCCJ

SAM JAMESON WAS MY mahjong student and became mysponsor when I joined in 1972. I once asked him why heran for FCCJ president, and he replied “I didn’t like theother guy so I ran against him and got the seat.” I forgot
who he defeated. . . .
. . . For my “Macbeth” production at the FCCJ, then GM
Nakamura insisted that the audience at the FCCJ would
never exceed 100. “Our members aren’t that intelligent,”
he said. I offered to bet him that we’d do better than that.
“It’s a deal,” said Nakamura, “and I’ll give you half of theticket price of the audience over 100.” Well, it seems FCCJ
members were more cerebral than he thought. The box
office was 135, so I walked away with half of the priceof the 35 tickets. (There’s still a sword-scar on the main
dining ceiling from one of Macbeth’s fights) . . . .
. . . After I attended “The Winds of God” in Shinjuku,
the playwright Masayuki Imai begged me to bring his
popular play to the FCCJ. “I want the foreign press toknow the true faces of the kamikaze,” he told me. So westaged it to a full-house audience at no cost to FCCJ. I
think the story of the young pilots’ suffering and theirtraining changed the image of the kamikaze among
media members and associate members alike. . . .
. . . When I was doing the gaijin casting for the TV
documentary, “Unrealized Japan Divisional Occupation
Plan,” I chose the FCCJ for the premiere. After thescreening was held, a Russian reporter angrily protested
to the writer-director why the Japanese family had
to escape from the Russian occupied zone to the US.
zone. After looking around at the roomful of foreign
correspondents, the director dodged the question,saying, “Oh, they could have run away from the Americanzone just as well. That’s not my theme in the film.” That
was too much for me. “Liar!” I whispered.
This is my 46th year and I still love my Club.

– Junichi Takahashi
Member since 1973

“FOR MY MACBETH PRODUCTION AT THE
FCCJ, THEN GM NAKAMURA INSISTEDTHAT THE AUDIENCE AT THE FCCJ WOULD
NEVER EXCEED 100. “OUR MEMBERS
AREN’T THAT INTELLIGENT,” HE SAID. . .”HARD WORK AND LUBRICATED DEBATETHE CLUB SEEMED MUCH more of a working journalists’hangout in the early 1980s when I first joined. Those were
the days when news reports were written on a typewriterthen filed by telex – and for those of us who didn’t belong
to a news bureau, that meant trying to find a vacant spaceamong the cubicles lining a corridor-like room at the backof the Library (which was then on the 20th floor).
Work went on around the clock, especially for thosewriting for different time zones, and even after the Main
Bar closed (which was very late at night), drinks could
always be had, on a help-yourself basis, in the intimate
Shimbun Alley bar, with Marilyn’s famous nude photographgracing the wall. (Whatever happened to that picture, I
wonder?*)No matter what time of night you arrived, there was
guaranteed to be a well-lubricated, hot debate going on
between correspondents on the issues of the day, withthe likes of the young Richard Pyle, Mike Tharp, Bradley
Martin, Andrew Horvat, Bruce MacDonell and others at theheart of the fray. Those were heady times, with a vibrancy
that one doesn’t feel today.

– Roslyn Hayman
Member since 1981

*It’s in storage at the Club (ed.).

CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE AWKWARD KINDI HAD AN ODD experience at the Club when Mr. Yukio
Hatoyama, the former prime minister of Japan, visitedthe FCCJ for a press conference. I think it was in 2011.
I finished lunch at the Main Bar counter and – ready toreturn to work – headed for the 20th floor entrance hall
to wait for an elevator. When one arrived, Mr. Hatoyama
stepped out of it. Seeing me standing alone, he walked
toward me smiling, with his right arm stretched out.
Taken aback and not wanting to embarrass Mr.
Hatoyama, I shook his hand and mumbled, “Welcome to theClub.” Then, in my eagerness to escape from the awkward
situation, I rushed into another elevator whose doors wereabout to close, and vanished without a trace.
I have been wondering ever since what went through Mr.
Hatoyama’s mind at that moment, and what he thought
about his strange reception at the Club.

– Richard R.F Ginies
Member since 1978

FCCJ

NOVEMBER 2018

AUTHOR KENZABURO OE, 1984
(from this month’s FCCJ Photo
Archives Exhibition)

17

Club news

NEW MEMBERS

VIEW FROM THE TOP:HISTORY AND HORRORCHIEF AMONGST THE CHERISHED
features we will surely miss of the old
Denki Building is the impressive view
Members have enjoyed from its 20th
floor. For years we’ve been privy toscenes of the evolution of the capital,
thanks to the panorama stretchingfrom the Imperial Palace to Tokyo Bay.
At no time did the pleasures of its
panorama clash so dramatically withthe horrific drama of breaking news asin the moment when Tohoku was hit by
the giant earthquake on March 11, 2011.
To most of us on the 20th floor thatafternoon, the epicenter felt like it wasunder Tokyo. The building’s structural
defense against earthquakes was its
ability to sway widely, so damages fromfalling glassware, bottles of wine flyingout of cabinets, and chairs tumblingover with their guests still in them,were disproportionate to the quake’s
actual strength.
Moments later, we watched thick,black smoke rise from the garbage
disposal island of Yumenoshima, thena large explosion in the direction of
Chiba, which was reported later on
the news screens as one of Idemitsu’s
refineries. As members made our way
from the Bar to the Media Room, thenthe Pen and Quill and Masukomi fora quick 360-degree assessment, wewere pleasantly surprised to see little
evidence of damage nearby. Taxis andbuses were still making their way down
the main traffic arteries, before thethrongs of people began to flood onto
the streets, stopping all transportation.
Perhaps the biggest surprise may havebeen the sight of members who climbed
20 flights to the Club in search of foodand FCCJ’s antiquated land lines which
heroically delivered where most cell
phone connections failed. That night,
the bar was packed with earthquake
refugees telling tales of their trials
trying to reach family and friends.
By the next morning, a wave ofinternational reporters were arriving
at the Club, as Japan took center stage
for news. Unfortunately, the true
scope of the earthquake/tsunami/
nuclear accident’s impact on the livesof millions in the region continues toevade us.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Ku Chin Cheng, Taipei Economic &Cultural Representative Office“The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan ismoving after decades. It feels like my parents
sold the family home and moved to Florida”
Jake Adelstein, twitter, Oct. 26, 2018
Member since 2008

“TO MOST OF US ON THE 20TH FLOORTHAT AFTERNOON, THE EPICENTER[OF THE MARCH 11, 2011 EARTHQUAKE]
FELT LIKE IT WAS UNDER TOKYO.”

Kazuo Ogasawara, Mitsubishi Ore
Transport
Co., Ltd.
NEW IN THE LIBRARYTWO FISTS AND A PLACE TO USE THEM

HATCHED AT THE CLUB: THE FIREFLY CAPER
THIS IS NOT SO much a memory of the Denki Building itself but rather amemory of the schemes that were hatched there. It was 1983 and a groupof Regular and Associate Members were visiting the Chinzanso Garden in
Mejirodai in order to watch fireflies, or hotaru. The participants included
Karel van Wolferen, Bill Emmott, Richard Hanson and Urban Lehner. I recall a
sumptuous kaiseki dinner in the garden restaurant and lots of sake. Then camethe hotaru, and they were absolutely breathtaking, right there in the middleof Tokyo. I remarked to one of the attendants that it was interesting that the
hotaru were plentiful inside Chinzanso’s garden but that you never saw any
outside. She looked at me in confusion, and said, “But we fly them in every
day from Shikoku.” The combination of sake and hotaru inspired a number of
haiku, as is customary on these kinds of occasions. The most memorable was by
Urban Lehner, of the Wall Street Journal.
“Imported fireflies tried to come hither tonight, non-tariff barrier…”– Willem Kortekaas
Member since 1984

TETSUKO KUROYANAGI WITH EDWIN REINGOLD, 1981
(from this month’s FCCJ Photo Archives Exhibition)

WHEN I ARRIVED IN Tokyo in 1977 the FCCJ, newly housed in the
Denki Building, retained some of the Wild West atmosphere that
had characterized the Club from the Occupation through the
Korean War and Vietnam War years. Although bedrooms were nolonger available upstairs for dalliances, the small Shimbun Alleybar spoke to the sexism of old by featuring our large, framed
print of a nude Marilyn Monroe.
Two-fistedness was the rule in more ways than one. One
obstreperous member (now deceased) seemed to think the small
bar was his personal domain. He got in the habit of drunkenly
swinging at other members, failing to connect, falling to thefloor and injuring himself.
The most memorable Denki Building fight occurred when aformer Regular Member (also now deceased), who had left to
study in the Caribbean at a for-profit, low-standards institutionthat we all denigrated as the “Papa Doc School of Medicine,”
returned midway through his course for a visit and was
drinking at a crowded correspondents’ table.
Taking issue with something said by a correspondent seatedopposite him, the returnee snapped, “You’re crazy!” “Is thatyour medical opinion, Doctor?” came the reply, dripping withsarcasm. Enraged, the Papa Doc student leapt across the table,
knocked his interlocutor to the floor and pounded his face until
another Member separated the pair.
Things have calmed down considerably since those days.

– Bradley K. Martin
Member since 1978

“Last call at the Foreign
Correspondents’ Club ofJapan @fccjapan, whichshuts its doors today tomove to a new building.
Hanif has worked therefor 37 years! お疲れ様”
Tokyotronic (Tim Hornyak),twitter, Oct. 26, 2018
Member since 2014

– Mary Corbett
Member since 1994

18

Hiroki Itokawa, Mitsubishi Corporation
Urban Development

NOVEMBER 2018

FCCJ

FCCJ

NOVEMBER 2018

East Asian Strategic Review 2018
The National Institute for Defense Studies,Japan
The Japan Times
Gift from the National Institute for
Defense Studies, JapanTokyo Roji: the Diversity and Versatility of
Alleys in a City in Transition
Heide Imai
Routledge
Gift from Heide Imai and Mark Gresham
The State of theJapanese State:Contested Identity,
Direction and Role
Gavan McCormack
Renaissance Books
Gift from Gavan
McCormack

Masaaki Hatsumi: Dojo Giga | Heaven
Masaaki Hatsumi; photographic art
direction by Steve Olsen
Steven Olsen
Gift from Masaaki Hatsumi

In Praise of Shadows
Junichiro Tanizaki;
Kengo Kuma (fwd.);
Gregory Starr (trans.);
Andrew Pothecary(photo & book design)
Sora Books
Gift from Gregory Starr

19