The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of JapanThe

Outlaw
February 2020 Vol. 52 No. 2 ¥400

Escaping
corrupt justice?
The corrupt,
escaping justice?
The legal situation
for Carlos Ghosn.

The many—and varied—demands
that visiting journalists make on local fixers

In this issueVol. 52, Number 2

February 2020

contact the editors

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

From the President by Khaldon Azhari
Freedom on the Net 2019: The crisis of social media
by Adrian Shahbaz and Allie Funk
From the archives: The super-imaginative inventor
by Charles Pomeroy

4
4
5

FEATURES

The legal fallout from the great escapeby David McNeill6

One step ahead of the stateby Martyn Williams

8

ROMAN HARAK/CC

Page 8:Subway riders look ata copy of the Rodong
Sinmun newspaper inNorth Korea.

Visual investigations:
New tools of the journalist’s tradeby Martyn Williams
Scott McIntyre: a father's dilemma
by Martyn Williams

10

14

12

CLUB NEWSFCCJ Exhibition; Press tour of MoD HQ;
Reciprocal Clubs; Membership Campaign; In Memoriam;
New Members; New in the libraryLens craftby photographer Members
FCCJFEBRUARY 2020

FCCJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Khaldon Azhari, PanOrient News
1st Vice President Monzurul Huq, Daily
Prothom Alo
2nd Vice President Robert Whiting, Freelance
Treasurer Willem Kortekaas, Associate Member
Secretary Takashi Kawachi, Freelance
Directors-at-Large
Mehdi Bassiri, Associate MemberPeter O’Connor, Freelance
Warren Devalier, Associate Member
Abigail Leonard, Freelance
Kanji Kazuo Abiko, Freelance
Associate Kanji Makoto Honjo,
Associate Member
Ex-officio Peter Langan, Freelance
FCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRSAssociate Members Liaison Keiko Packard,
Yuusuke Wada
Compliance Kunio Hamada, Yoshio Murakami
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship Abigail Leonard
Entertainment Sandra Mori
Exhibition Bruce Osborn
Film Karen Severns
Finance Willem Kortekaas
Food & Beverage Robert Kirschenbaum,
Peter R. Tyksinski
Freedom of Press Abigail Leonard
House & Property Thomas Høy Davidsen
Human Resources Willem Kortekaas
Information Technology Yuusuke Wada
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 TBA
Publications Gavin Blair, Geoff Tudor
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe
Foreign Press in Japan Robin Harding

PROFILE

Bobbie van der List
Freelanceby Marina Yoshimura

Editor Gregory Starr
Art Director Andrew Pothecarywww.itsumo-music.jp/design
Editorial Assistant Naomichi Iwamura
Photo Coordinator Michiyo Kobayashi
Publications Committee members
Geoffrey Tudor, Orient Aviation (chair)
Warren Devalier, Associate Member
Sonja Blaschke, Freelance
Marina Yoshimura, Student

16-17

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

18

Cover photo: Nissan’s former chairman Carlos Ghosn
arrives for a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon.
AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo

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The Front Page

FROM THE PRESIDENTFREEDOM OF THE PRESSFROM THE ARCHIVES

Freedom on the Net 2019:

The crisis of social media
By Adrian Shahbaz and Allie Funk

Dear Members,
Last week, I stood about 10 meters away from reactor 2 in Fukushima
Nuclear power station to give a piece to camera reporting on the
preparations to decommission the crippled reactors that were hit by
the March 11, 2011 Tsunami.
I didn’t wear any protective gear and was only advised to wear long
sleeves by the press tour organizers. This stance was unthinkable in
the early days of the nuclear crisis when some reports went as far as
talking about evacuating Tokyo in the aftermath of the disaster.
Tokyo now, however, is preparing to hold the Olympics later thisyear, while numerous international-class events in Fukushima and thesurrounding region are ongoing.
FCCJ journalists in particular, have been busy covering thosedevelopments in Fukushima and elsewhere in Japan from day
one, and will continue with our Club playing the backbone of
supporting journalism.

We are very hopeful and working tonavigate this organization towards
a continued FCCJ success story”
At the FCCJ, while we are preparing to host events and bringworld-class Olympic athletes, we also face serious challenges to crossthe logistical and financial bumps caused by our move to one of themost central, important, prestigious, and vibrant locations in Japan:
Marounouchi.
The Board of Directors of the Club and our loyal and proud
Members, along with our all dedicated staff, are doing everything tochange those challenges to opportunities. Maintaining service quality
and in fact improving it are our number one goal.
A journalist’s mission is basically to transfer information andreveal the truth. And this is why I say our current challenges are
unprecedented. I don’t want to talk about the details because this isa developing story that changes with every passing hour. But I canassure you that we are very hopeful and working to navigate this Club
towards a continued success story.
The Board is planning a townhall meeting for the membership in
February to discuss all questions and ensure that you are kept fully
aware of developments. For that, all Members are welcome to share
their thoughts and provide assistance by joining the committees
volunteering their time and expertise for the Club to continue.
I have established an advisory panel outside of the BOD comprisedof former Club leadership and financial experts to diagnose the stateof the affairs and suggest a course of action. In fact we have alreadystarted that.
– Khaldon Azhari
4

INTERNET FREEDOM IS INCREASINGLY imperiled by
the tools and tactics of digital authoritarianism,
which have spread rapidly around the globe.
Repressive regimes, elected incumbents withauthoritarian ambitions, and unscrupulous
partisan operatives have exploited theunregulated spaces of social media platforms,
converting them into instruments for political
distortion and societal control. While social
media have at times served as a level playing
field for civic discussion, they are now tilting
dangerously toward illiberalism, exposing
citizens to an unprecedented crackdown on theirfundamental freedoms. Moreover, a startlingvariety of governments are deploying advanced
tools to identify and monitor users on an immense
scale. As a result of these trends, global internet
freedom declined for the ninth consecutive year
in 2019.
Social media allow ordinary people, civic
groups, and journalists to reach a vast audienceat little or no cost, but they have also provided
an extremely useful and inexpensive platform
for malign influence operations by foreign anddomestic actors alike. Political leaders employedindividuals to surreptitiously shape online
opinions in 38 of the 65 countries covered in thisreport—a new high. In many countries, the rise of
populism and far-right extremism has coincidedwith the growth of hyperpartisan online mobsthat include both authentic users and fraudulent
or automated accounts. They build large
audiences around similar interests, lace theirpolitical messaging with false or inflammatory
content, and coordinate its dissemination acrossmultiple platforms.
While social media have at times served as alevel playing field for civil discussion, they are
now tilting dangerously toward illiberalism.
Cross-border influence operations, which firstdrew widespread attention as a result of Russianinterference in the 2016 US presidential contest,
are also an increasingly common problem.
Authorities in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and a
growing list of other countries have expanded theirefforts to manipulate the online environment andinfluence foreign political outcomes over the past
year. Malicious actors are no doubt emboldenedby the failure of democratic states to update
transparency and financing rules that are vital

FEBRUARY 2020

FCCJ

to free and fair elections, and apply themeffectively to the online sphere.
In addition to facilitating thedissemination of propaganda anddisinformation during election periods,
social media platforms have enabled thecollection and analysis of vast amounts ofdata on entire populations. Sophisticatedmass surveillance that was once feasible
only for the world’s leading intelligenceagencies is now affordable for a muchbroader range of states. Freedom House
research indicates that more repressive
governments are acquiring social media
surveillance tools that employ artificial
intelligence to identify perceived threats
and silence undesirable expression. Evenin democracies, such mass monitoring is
spreading across government agencies
and being used for new purposes without
adequate safeguards. The result is a sharp
global increase in the abuse of civil liberties
and shrinking online space for civic
activism. Of the 65 countries we assessed,a record 47 featured arrests of users forpolitical, social, or religious speech.
While authoritarian powers like China
and Russia have played an enormous rolein dimming the prospects for technology todeliver greater human rights, the world’s
leading social media platforms are basedin the United States, and their exploitation
by antidemocratic forces is in large parta product of American neglect. Whether
due to naïveté about the internet’s role indemocracy promotion or policymakers’
laissez-faire attitude toward Silicon Valley,
we now face a stark reality: the future ofinternet freedom rests on our ability to fix
social media. The United States must takethe lead in rallying defenders of the open
internet to fairly regulate a technology thathas become a necessity for our commerce,
politics, and personal lives.
There is no more time to waste. Emerging
technologies such as advanced biometrics,
artificial intelligence, and fifth-generation
mobile networks will provide newopportunities for human development, butthey will also undoubtedly present a newarray of human rights challenges. Strong
protections for democratic freedoms arenecessary to ensure that the internet does
not become a Trojan horse for tyranny andoppression. The future of privacy, free
expression, and democratic governancerests on the decisions we make today.
Reprinted by permissionFCCJFEBRUARY 2020

The super-imaginative inventor

Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japan’s self-titled “King of Invention,” contemplating
his next comment to Club members on Nov. 11, 1994. Looking on expectantly
is Georges Baumgartner (Swiss Radio & Television). Dr. Nakamatsu had
shown a slide presentation of his world of inventions, including one of the“Tasty Power Seasoning Sprinkler in Doctor Nakamatsu’s Head” that showedprojecting beams of thoughts from his forehead.
Dr. Nakamatsu, who claims over 3,300 patents (triple those of Thomas
Edison) as well as being “father of the floppy disk,” was born on June
26, 1928. His father was a banker and his mother a teacher who tutored
him from a young age and encouraged his urge to invent. He did sofrom an early age, claiming invention of a stabilizer for model airplanes
at age five and obtaining his first patent (assisted by his mother)—for awater heater while in eighth grade.
In 1952, he patented an optical sound medium of stacked coloredpaper, contrived while a student at Tokyo University. That was followed
by a 1964 patent for a “Magnetic Record Sheet” which combined werethe concept for the floppy disk. IBM, said to have licensed 14 patentsfrom him, denies this combination is the origin of its 1969 floppy disk.
All in all, his mind-bending range of patents, from his useful siphon
pump for transferring liquids, to many on the wilder side—such as a
wig for self-defense and a magnetized condom to improve sex—madehim famous as a super-imaginative inventor. Critics might call most ofthem “gadgets,” but Dr. NakaMats, as he is also known, has appearedon TV and radio programs all over the world, while receiving a wide
range of awards. These include the 2015 Ig Nobel prize for Nutrition,
the research of which he credits to his survival from terminal prostatecancer in 2014. He has been featured in documentaries as well as theSmithsonian Magazine. Although unsuccessful, he has also run for highpolitical office multiple times.
Dr. Nakamatsu, who is married with three children, lives in a home
specially designed for creative thinking.

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

In law

The legal fallout
from the great escapeto see people in official circles trying to articulate why GPS is a bad
idea notwithstanding that. If Ghosn can get bail with GPS tracking, why can’t other people? In fact, why do you need to detain
them if you can just track them. I think detention is an important
tool for police and prosecutors, not necessarily just for reasons
related to preventing suspects and defendants from fleeing justiceor despoiling evidence. Widespread use of GPS tracking on custodial release could potentially take that tool away from them.

Law professor Colin P.A. Jones shares his thoughts on theongoing saga of Carlos Ghosn in an interview with David McNeill

After Ghosn’s press conference on Jan. 8, Mori Masako, Japan’s justice minister released a statement that said every country’s criminal
justice system has its roots in its history and culture and that arguing about the superiority or inferiority was irrelevant. She also said
it was Ghosn’s duty to prove he is innocent. Do you think she unwittingly revealed some truths about the system in these quotes?
It’s a perfectly legitimate, arguably meaningless statement. I
hope it is remembered whenever anyone in authority speculates
about the reliability of the Lebanese system in the days to come.
It is also a useful riposte to anyone making the counterclaims ofthe type in your second question.

Colin P.A. Jones is a professor at Doshisha Law School in Kyoto and the authorof several acclaimed books on Japanese law.* He writes a column for theJapan Times and has become a regular commentator on Japanese legal issues.
We asked him to discuss the arrest, detention and escape of Carlos Ghosn.

Would you speculate on what the next steps of the prosecutors
and the justice system will be?
I would hesitate to speculate as to what will happen, other thanthat they will probably spend a long time trying to make his life
miserable. They have long memories, these institutions.
A common criticism of foreign correspondents in Japan is thatthey simplify or sensationalize the Japanese justice, focusing
on the unlimited detentions, or the 99.4 percent conviction rate,
while playing down problems in the countries from which they
hail, especially America. Do you think that’s valid?
If you are eating sushi with an acquaintance and you say, “Thesushi here doesn’t seem very fresh,” and your acquaintance
responds with, “Well, American hot dogs are atrocious,” it may be
a true statement, but it doesn’t get you any closer to whether thesushi is any good or whether you are qualified to judge it. Comparisons can be useful but often they are a reflexive responsethat distracts. Comparative criticism about legal systems often
fails to identify what a “better” system might be, because whatis “better” may be highly contextual. People who criticize Japan’s
99.4 percent conviction rate probably can’t articulate what a“better” conviction rate would be or why. And if other countries have a lower rate, why is that better? Better for whom?
Japanese journalists come in for their share of flak too, for being
too ready to play patsy to the establishment. Do you agree withthat criticism?
I thought it was funny that Ghosn effectively established his
own press club (at his first press conference in the Lebanon)and refused to accredit media organizations that had been
critical in the past. I would have thought mainstream Japanese journalists would find that familiar.
6

Do you have any advice for foreign journalists trying to make sense of how things
are done here, especially those covering
legal issues and the courts?
I teach Japanese law to foreign students,
and I always start out with the overall structure of government and the ministries, and then go to the courts. I think
starting with the courts is confusing, because dependingon where you are from, it may burden you with all sorts ofassumptions about the role of courts in government, which
may not apply in Japan. But that may not be immediately
obvious. I think it is also helpful to think of the Supreme
Court as effectively another ministry—the “Ministry of Dispute Resolution,” perhaps. When Japanese lawyers and legal
scholars talk about “The Supreme Court” half the time they
are actually talking about the administrators of the national
judicial bureaucracy, not the “court.”

One of the points that gets made, quite explicitly in Mori’s statement,is that Japan has very successful outcomes—notably its very low
crime rate—and that justifies the problems with the system of overenthusiastic prosecutors. What’s your take?
I don’t know. There may be all sorts of factors in Japan’s low crimerate, none of which have anything to do with the way the criminal
justice system functions. I don’t know that a causal relationshipbetween the two has been empirically validated. To an extent, theauthorities can control the crime rate anyway, by defining thecrime and enforcement. For example, the police can generate
more “foreign crime” by simply doing more identity checks andarresting those who don’t have ID.

Many people find it hard to sympathize with a rich foreigner
who earned $120m from his gigs as head of the world’s largest
car alliance.
Being in favor of Miranda rights does not mean you havesympathy for rapists, which is what Ernesto Miranda was. In
America, at least, a certain amount of important law comesfrom people who may not be very sympathetic. That suchpeople can still be expected to receive a fair trial is part ofthe bargain in a fair legal system, because next time it might
be you. Of course, there are all sorts of people in the UnitedStates who may quite reasonably not have such expectations.
Ghosn has indeed brought a lot of attention to the system,
and when he was originally arrested one of my first thoughts
was, “Do the prosecutors know how much negative attention
this is going to get them on the world stage? Do they reallywant that?”
Is it too early to speculate whether the Ghosn circus might resultin any long-term changes to how police and prosecution work isdone in Japan?
Mostly worse in the immediate term, I suspect: less bail, moredetention. Since changes to criminal procedure will almost
certainly need to go through the Ministry of Justice, which isrun by prosecutors, it is hard to imagine substantive changes
that at least do not provide some benefit to prosecutors as
well. But if they keep the case in the news, the constant attention will make it easier to advocate for change at least.
One interesting thing to watch will be GPS tracking on bail.
His own lawyers offered it as a bail condition and it was rejected, but it is now identified as something that might have prevented him from escaping. My prediction is that we will start
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FCCJ

Speculate outrageously for a minute that the Japanese government
asks you for your opinions and actually acts on them: What would you
recommend in terms of most immediate reform, in the understandingthat you can only focus on the most egregious issues?
Eliminate the ability of prosecutors to appeal an acquittal. It
seems ridiculous that being acquitted by a trial court is notadequate to establish enough “reasonable doubt” to prevent a
conviction on appeal. If Ghosn had been acquitted at trial, he
could still have spent the rest of his life fighting to keep that
acquittal from being overturned. That is one of the reasons why
I think that, assuming for the sake of argument that he really
was innocent of all charges, it was still perfectly rational for
him to try to escape.
Eliminating prosecutorial appeals would also probably change
some of the institutional dynamics at play in the judiciary whichmakes it harder for judges to acquit in the first place. Judges are
subject to annual personnel reviews, and being “wrong” too often
is probably part of the equation. So if acquittals are no longer
potentially “wrong”—because they are appealed—then perhaps
there will be less reticence in granting them. ❶AP PHOTO/MAYA ALLERUZZOMCNEILL: Like the rest of us, you’ve been following the Ghosn
case with some interest. What aspects of the case do you find mosttroubling or fascinating?
JONES: Well, I guess what I find troubling is that I don’t reallyfind anything about it troubling—it all seems to be the Japanese criminal justice system operating in the usual manner.
The escape was, of course, fascinating. I think it will also beinteresting to see how the debate over the Japanese system
plays out on the world stage, including in extradition hearings—in the unlikely event they happen—or efforts to go
after Ghosn family assets and so forth.

“BEING IN FAVOR OF MIRANDARIGHTS DOES NOT MEAN
YOU HAVE SYMPATHY
FOR RAPISTS”*Jones is lead author of The Japanese Legal System (2018) and The
Japanese Legal System in a Nutshell (2020), both from Kurodahan Press, as well as Obey, Not Know: Essays in Japanese Law andSociety (2019).
David McNeill writes for the Irish Times and the Economist, and teaches
media literacy at Hosei and Sophia Universities.
FCCJ

FEBRUARY 2020

Facing off
Carlos Ghosn, pauses during a press
conference in Beirut, Lebanon, on Jan. 8.
(AP PHOTO/MAYA ALLERUZZO)

7

North Korean media

MARTYN WILLIAMS

Off grid
Screengrabs
from major
news channels
as Kim Jong Un
met Moon Jaein in Panmunjon.
North Korean
TV didn’t reporton the event
until later.

A step ahead of the state

O

North Korean context, this
ver
the
last
few
The North Korean government is fighting
means anything that attacks
decades, the amount of
hard to protect citizens from imported
the regime or party, anythingforeign content flowcontent, but the battle is far from overpolitical, and all pornography.
ing into North Korea has grown
The harshest penalties of up
immensely. What began as a
to 10 years in a mobile labor
trickle of VHS cassettes frombrigade are now reserved forJapan in the 1990s has now
By Martyn Williams
supplying or dealing the conbecome a wave of South Koretent. This is effectively an admission that consumption of
an TV dramas, Hollywood movies, Chinese blockbusters, andforeign content has become so commonplace that individuals
more illicit content on USB sticks and MicroSD memory cards.
higher up the distribution chain need to be targeted.
While much has been written about the smuggling operaThat doesn’t mean North Koreans can watch foreign content
tions, less time has been spent looking at the reaction of thewith impunity. No matter what the law says, this is still North
North Korean state. Working with the Washington, D.C.-based
Korea. Should a crackdown be ordered, the unlucky can findCommittee for Human Rights in North Korea, I studied how
themselves facing a public trial and execution, no matter thethe government and party is responding. I spoke to experts
letter of the law. Death penalties are also used in cases involvand interviewed 40 escapees in Seoul, and the results of thising large-scale distribution or destabilizing content.
work were published in late December as “Digital Trenches:
Citizens are also targeted in random street checks andNorth Korea’s Information Counter-Offensive.” A copy can behouse raids, but escapees told me it’s increasingly possible todownloaded from www.hrnk.org.
escape trouble with a bribe. Bribery has exploded in the lastAmong the main findings are changes in North Korea’s
few years, especially among local police and security forces
laws, a constant but little-seen propaganda battle against(rather than provincial or national level forces).
foreign information and a particularly effective re-engineerAs the state economy has weakened, the slow disintegraing of Android smartphones to prevent them from being usedtion of the public distribution system has security agentsto consume illicit content.
feeling the pinch. At the same time, the rise of markets hasbrought private wealth to some ordinary Koreans, so it’s no
A Changing Legal Battle
surprise that bribery has flourished.
North Korea’s Criminal Code bans the possession, consumpDuring the interviews that I conducted, I heard abouttion and distribution of foreign content. But updates tobribes that ranged from a few dollars to over a thousand. This
several articles in the 2009, 2012, and 2015 editions of theis a massive amount of money for someone earning the state
code indicate the state is slowly losing its battle on the law
salary of 50 cents per month, but is not necessarily out of theenforcement front. In the last decade, the emphasis of thequestion if you have a successful private business.
law has shifted away from consumers to focus on smugglers
Almost all of the illicit content that enters North Korea
and distributors or those with destabilizing content. In the
8

FEBRUARY 2020

FCCJ

crosses the northern border from China. Shortly after Kim
Jong Un came to power, border security was reinforced, andthere’s now a new camera network that covers most of theborder. It is both for conventional surveillance and to catch
corrupt border guards taking bribes from smugglers. Guards
are more regularly rotated now to prevent them from making local contacts—more recognition that the battle against
smuggling is being lost.

Keeping Their Minds Pure

At the heart of North Korea’s brain-washing system lies the
Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which liaises with the Organization andGuidance Department to ensure that all North Koreans are
exposed to a consistent message that supports and reinforces party priorities. PAD oversees all cultural output in North
Korea and is directly responsible for approving all the material in newspapers, radio and TV, posters on the street, song
lyrics, theatrical productions, workplace meetings, and theeducation system. Anything that diverges from the message
undermines the entire propaganda base, so it’s easy to see
why foreign content represents such a threat to the regime.
Messages warning against accessing foreign content arenever seen in media that reaches the outside world, suchas Korean Central Television or the Rodong Sinmun newspaper. To do so would be to admit there is a problem. Instead,warnings are delivered in more private forums, such as theweekly meetings which all North Koreans must attend. These
Saturday morning events usually contain a lecture about anissue of interest to the party. Sometimes an officer from the
Ministry of Public Security will lecture on the ills of foreigncontent and why it shouldn’t be consumed, though escapees I
talked to say the lectures were ineffective and boring.
Similar messages are carried on the third radio network—
the infamous “speakers that can’t be turned off” inside every
household. In reality, they can be turned off, and are oftenout of service due to electricity shortages. But when they dowork, the third radio network carries reports of neighbors
caught with foreign content, including their names andaddresses. The unsaid psychological message is that yourneighbors are getting caught and you could be next.
North Korea’s TV news is a key propaganda tool, painting
a picture of a perfect nation and a chaotic world outside. Aspart of my research, I cataloged foreign news from a year of
KCTV news reports between June 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019.
Over the 12 months, I counted 388 reports broadcast on
140 days. The largest amount of reporting was devoted to stories about politics, scandals, or labor unrest in South Korea.
This was always accompanied with still photos—never video.
This was followed by reports on China, usually positive news;
Iran, typically government statements attacking the US; andRussia, which was usually military news. KCTV used wire service video for everything but the South Korean news.
After South Korean politics, the next largest focus was on
the weather. There were many reports on storms, floods,
droughts, and other natural disasters around the world. Thencame military news, often from China or Russia; conflicts,
usually U.S. or Israeli actions in the Middle East; and environmental news, mostly on climate change.
News from Japan was occasionally reported—and it wasusually about a crime, such as the May 2019 stabbing at abus stop in Kawasaki. The underlying message of all of NorthFCCJFEBRUARY 2020

Korea’s foreign news is clear: people all over the world are
suffering or in conflict with their leaders.

The High-tech Response

North Korea’s response to digital technology is both clever anddynamic. There are now an estimated 5 to 6 million smartphones in North Korea, and while they all look like conventional Android phones, there’s a lot going on behind the screen.
First is an app that takes random screenshots and storesthem in a database in the phone. Can you risk viewing illicit
content never knowing when a screenshot will be taken? The
database cannot be deleted, and the authorities include an
app to view its contents—a sinister touch that reminds usersthat everything they do on their phones might be captured.
There’s also a file watermarking system that adds a stringof data to each opened file. The data is based on the phone’s
serial number and becomes a part of the file. If the file ispassed on to someone else, more data is added. This potentially allows security forces to build an entire map of how afile is distributed, revealing personal contacts between people and where the file originated.
An Android update forced on all users in 2012 added a digital signature system that only allows the playing of content
that has either been created by the phone or has come fromthe government. This system stops phones from being used
to watch smuggled video and has proved very effective as itcovers a wide range of formats.
The phones also include a check performed at power-up,
just in case North Koreans attempt to hack their phones anddisable the security systems. It ensures the central security
files have not been tampered with and reboots the phone ifthey have.
With these security systems, the state has effectively locked
down the device with the most potential for mass consumption of foreign media.

Social Engineering at WorkA lot of North Korea’s propaganda isn’t at all subtle, but there
are a couple of examples of clever social engineering thatsteers people away from foreign content. One of the latest
smartphones, the Daeyang 8321, has a catalog of 125 smartphone games. Many have no ideological value, so the question
is: why? As we’ve seen globally, people who play smartphonegames have less time for other media. In the North Korean
context, this might be to draw people away from illicit content.
The state has also been slowly rolling out an IPTV systemthat provides all four Pyongyang TV channels live and alibrary of on-demand content. Some of this additional content includes sports, such as European soccer, and statesanctioned foreign movies. Offering a wider selection ofmaterial to viewers appears to be an attempt to keep themwithin the state media ecosystem as much as possible.
In the end, I found that while the state undoubtedly has afight on when it comes to protecting citizens from foreigncontent, it’s fighting back hard. While each new technology or
innovation represents a fresh chance for outsiders to provide
North Koreans with greater access to information, development and innovation will be essential if they want to stay a
step ahead of the state. ❶Martyn Williams is is a journalist and researcher or North Korea

currently based in California. He is a former president of the FCCJ.
9

Hack’s toolbox

VISUAL INVESTIGATIONS

the migrant detention center, we
looked for old videos of that particular detention center, called
Tajoura. We found an old video of
the center’s opening ceremony on
YouTube. So we could see that it
was actually the exact same placethat was blown to smithereensin the pictures that were coming
out. Because the old archival video
An expert in verifying content and social media newsgathering
had so much panning across the
migrant center, we were able toat the New York Times shares the advanced technology behindlocate the exact building. Then we
his work at the forefront of digital forensics
talked to a satellite imagery company and got fresh satellite images.
“We also analyzed and translated
a couple of on-camera videos with
migrants who were there that were posted overnight. SomeBy Gaelle Fauresaid, ‘We were working in the weapons depot, cleaning weapons as we usually do, and there was an airstrike on the weaponsalachy Browne is a senior story producer on the Visudepot, and so we ran out and we were forced into the migrant
al Investigation team at the New York Times. A native
lodgings, which is across the way.’ By tracking down some ofof Ireland, Browne became an expert in social-media
those people, and by tracking down freelance journalists who
newsgathering and verifying user-generated content throughhad worked on the migrant issue, we then were able throughhis work at Storyful and Reported.ly. In 2016, he took theseWhatsApp to get in touch with witnesses.
skills to the New York Times, where he has become a pioneer“They sent us photographs of them working in the weapons
in the field of visual investigations, which mixes traditional
depot. These migrants—who are trapped in the center andreporting with digital forensics. This frequently involves recnot allowed to leave—are also forced by the militia to work inreating crime scenes by using 3D modeling, satellite imagery,the weapons storage area, which is a legitimate target in theand images filmed on cell phones.
middle of a civil war. And from the satellite imagery, we could
Browne has led a number of award-winning investigations,see that the center was also bombed—so the witnesses’ story
including into journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder at thewas correct.
Saudi consulate in Istanbul, chemical attacks in Syria, and the“We use a number of satellite imagery tools, like TerraSershooting of a young medic in Gaza.
ver or Planet Labs. They provide satellite imagery almost every
Here are some of Browne’s current favorite tools:

New tools of thejournalist’s tradeM

was a chaotic moment—a bullet rang out and she died. Our
question was: Can we accurately freeze that moment in timeand space, and examine what was going on? Who was where?
Where were the protesters? Where were the medics? Where
were the soldiers? Why was that shot fired, and how did she
get hit? Was she directly targeted?
“We went through our normal steps of collecting as much
video evidence and photographic evidence from the day as
possible. We collected 1,300 photos and videos from the original devices people used to film there, meaning we had alltheir metadata, and we could organize it.
“Then we went there, and using a high-definition drone,
filmed the entire area. Using a technique called photogrammetry, you can take that footage and create a 3D model ofit. We used the photogrammetry software RealityCapture,
and worked with the London-based research agency Forensic
Architecture to work on the 3D model in Blender, which is an
open-source program.
“Using the footage that we had from the day, we sketched insome of the details that the drone didn’t pick up. We placed thesnipers, army jeeps, the fence, the coils of barbed wire before
the fence. The model was so precise that we were able to slot
in and calculate where the cameras were rolling at the time bylooking at objects in the distance, like the fence or the tower or
tufts of grass, and line up those cameras in the model.
“We could retrace the paths of the cameras, and freeze
them at that critical moment when the shot rang out fromsix different angles. That allowed us to analyze everything,measure where people were, and ultimately ask the question:
Was that gunshot justified? And was the violence such that
there was an immediate threat to life at the other side of theboundary fence with Israel?
“Our conclusion was that it wasn’t. Legal experts and others that we spoke to talked of it being a potential war crime.

Connected
How SAM Desk
detects events.
SCREENSHOT:SAM DESKSATELLITE IMAGERY“We use satellite imagery in almost every story that we do. It
can reveal details about when there’s changes to topography.
Also, for example, if a building is hit in an airstrike, we canconfirm that it happened within a 24-hour period.
“An example: Dataminr sent us an alert that there was anairstrike on a migrant detention center in Libya. We started getting reports on Twitter, and Libyan media had someaccounts, but very few images. Then, we found a livestream
on Facebook by one of the organizations that runs the center.
And so, everybody’s worst fear—that this actually did happen—looked like it was legit.
“In order to verify the exact location that was hit within
10

Data collection
3D model of abullet’s path.

day from almost everywhere, and you
IMAGE: COURTESY
can search through the images. It’s
MALACHY BROWNE
not always very high-definition, butsometimes it can be quite good. Maxar
DigitalGlobe provides the highest resolution imagery. These
platforms are not hugely expensive, so for a newsroom thatis thinking of making better use of satellite imagery, it’s a nobrainer cost-wise.”

DRONES AND 3D MODELS“We took an experimental approach last year in recreating aprotest site in Gaza in 3D. The story we were investigating
was the shooting death of a medic who was working there. It
FEBRUARY 2020

FCCJ

[The 3D model] allows us to get into really specific details
about the moment that it happened. So when we interview
the Israeli authorities about it, we have very specific details.
We can match those details with what they say was going on
at the time, and present the truth.”

SAM DESK“One of the tools we use a lot for newsgathering or contentgathering is SAM Desk. It’s a paid-for tool that allows you
to search for certain keywords across multiple social media
platforms at once, and it allows you to filter for videos, pictures, and text. You can turn the results on and off, depending on what you’re looking for. Very often, we’re looking forFCCJFEBRUARY 2020

video content. We might put in a place name or a hashtag or
a very specific search term. It’s a bit like TweetDeck—theresults come in columns, so you can keep an eye on it.
“It’s also good for monitoring situations. If there’s a particular story that’s ongoing—the Sudan protests or protests in
Venezuela, for example—you can keep checking it day in andday out. It also allows you, from those search results, to collect tweets or videos or whatever it is into little collections, inwhich you can do your work on them. You can set tags to say
whether it’s verified or unverified and put in notes from yourteam. Depending on the platform, it will automatically archive
the footage as well so if it’s later taken offline, it’s preserved.
“It also allows you to search for geolocated content. You
can put a pin on ‘Hamburg,’ for example, and create a circle
around it, or draw a map, and say ‘give me everything that’s
geotagged from that area.’ And because its search results
include snaps from Snapchat, which are almost all geolocated, that can be quite useful.”

EXIF DATA VIEWERS“EXIF data is raw information, like the hour, minute, and second that a video or a photograph was taken. Sometimes, it
contains GPS data as well, depending on the device. We’ll use
an EXIF data viewer to extract that information, which canhelp with the verification process.
“EXIF data can be manipulated, so we never rely on one
piece of evidence. It’s the same as traditional reporting: we’realways looking for corroborating pieces of information, asking who’s the second source, the third source, etc.
But EXIF data is quite useful, particularly when you want toreconstruct a timeline of an event to understand what happened when you weren’t there but a lot of footage exists. EXIF
viewers are important in organizing all the evidence.”

MONTAGE“Montage is an advanced YouTube search. It allows you tosearch by date, and also by place if you want — though not a
lot of YouTube content is geotagged. But, a little bit like SAM
Desk, it also allows you to collect videos into projects and tocomment and put tags on them, and at specific moments inthe videos as well. It allows you to organize YouTube content
and zoom in on the details as a team. And that’s quite useful,
especially if you’re doing historical investigations; so muchcontent from the Arab Spring, for instance, is uploaded onto
YouTube.
“It can also be useful just for finding archival referencematerial. For example, you might want to verify an airstrikelocation using Google Street View or satellite imagery on
Google Earth. But sometimes, the street view isn’t available,or the satellite imagery isn’t good enough. However, if it’s alocation that has been used often before, then there’s probably going to be YouTube videos of it out there.”

InVID“One last tip: Another tool we often use is the InVID Project’s
Chrome extension, which is a one-stop shop for getting YouTube video upload times, doing advanced Twitter search,doing reverse image search, doing video keyframe or thumbnail search, and finding metadata.” ❶Gaelle Faure is associate editor of the Global Investigative Journalism
Network (GIJN).
11

Series: Profile

Bobbie van der List
Freelance

By Marina Yoshimura

RICHARD ATRERO DE GUZMANJ12FEBRUARY 2020

FCCJ

people not in spite of but because they
ournalism serves a couple of purare part of Japan’s taboos. “Sometimes
poses: to report the truth, and, ide“I ALWAYS WANTED TO
you wonder whether there’s an effect on
ally, to add meaning to it. Dutch
EVENTUALLY WORK AS
the people of Japan,” he says. But people
journalist Bobbie van der List tries to
A CORRESPONDENT.
have told him that one way to change
do both, to write facts with objectivity
these issues is by having journalists fromand a touch of empathy—giving life to
EVERY CHANCE I GOT TO
the stories he shares.
TRAVEL OUT OF HOLLAND, outside write articles about the inside.
He says it was rewarding to write about
Van der List spent his childhood in
I GRABBED IT.
the North Korean defector. People in thethe Netherlands, mostly in AmsterNetherlands had no knowledge of thedam—where he says he enjoyed theclaim that Koreans were lured into returning
diversity—and Utrecht. After earning a
to North Korea as part of a Japanese governbachelor’s degree in journalism in thement program,, so it shed light on an underNetherlands, he had a couple of jobs before
reported issue. Although he acknowledges
returning to academia to specialize in East
that other journalists in Japan have written
Asian studies at Lund University in Lund,
about such stories, Van der List is covering
Sweden. His love of exploring is what perthem at a time when much of mainstream
haps led to his interest in journalism, he
media have shifted their focus to China.
says. “I always wanted to eventually work as“And it’s nice to show a side of Japana correspondent,” he says. “Every chance I
beyond the cliché,” he says.
got to travel out of Holland, I grabbed it.”
Activism, however, is not his purpose. “In
He chose to focus on Japan over China,
Holland, drugs are legal, but in many otherand as part of his graduate degree proplaces, they’re not,” he says. “I’m not writing
gram, visited Waseda University in Tokyo
articles so that the next day, everybody canfor two months while he wrote his master’ssniff cocaine.”
thesis. It was on Japan’s state secrecy law—a law that allows the Japanese government
BUT WRITING ABOUT SOCIAL issues in Japan,
to withhold information from the public towhich are often taboo, can be challenging,“preserve its data security.”
admits Van der List. He believes that one of the challenges about
After obtaining his master’s degree, his adventurous spirit
reporting from Japan is how to communicate with the people he
led Van der List to move to Japan. “I’ve always been curious
interviews, not necessarily because of the language but because
about living in one of the biggest cities on earth,” he says. His
the distinction between honne and tatemae can be hard to make.
initial plan was to spend only a month or two in Tokyo. But“Sometimes, you don’t know how much you can ask,” he says.
the more he explored and met people, he realized that the
He experienced journalistic “mutual understanding”, forcity, and by extension, Japan, had many stories worth sharexample, after writing about a father who had lost a child in
ing; he decided to stay longer. “I didn’t think I would staythe 3/11 disaster; Van der List was able to write a good story,
here for four years,” he says.
and the father was able to share stories that were importantto him. He says it can be difficult to get to an issue’s core
AS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST, Van der List has written forwhen people simply want to discuss the periphery, but theboth Dutch and international publications. He has covered
language is key. “Learning the language makes the experistories for NRC Handelsblad, Trouw, Financieele Dagblad,ence more enjoyable and deep.”
Parool, and AD; for the international audience, he has written
His long-term goals in journalism involve other formats. In
for Vice and Strategy + Business. The topics he has chosen are
the future, Van der List hopes to create a radio program andeclectic. He has interviewed Fukushima’s evacuees from themaybe a podcast that would focus on a particular theme in
March 2011 triple disaster that hit Tohoku; a North Koreaneach episode.
defector who sought refuge in Japan; a hikikomori recluse; a
The FCCJ is one of the things in Tokyo he appreciates. “Oneworking mother who fought against maternity harassment;of the great things about being in this Club,” he says, “is thatand a drug addiction counselor, who himself had recovered
you are literally among walking encyclopedias.” ❶from drug addiction.
What drives Van der List to write about them and the issues
they grapple with stems from his willingness to understandMarina Yoshimura is a senior at Waseda University. She currently
the world from a local lens and share their stories with peowrites for the university’s public affairs department and is a member ofple back in Holland and with the world. He writes about the
the Number 1 Shimbun committee.
FCCJFEBRUARY 202013

Family matters

Scott McIntyre:a father’s dilemma
In a press conference at the FCCJ,a father convicted of trespassing
for attempting to contact hischildren plead his case

By Justin McCurry
IT HAS BEEN MORE than 250 days since
Scott McIntyre’s last had contact ofany kind with his two young children,whom he claims were taken by his
estranged Japanese wife from theirhome in Tokyo last May.
McIntyre’s eight-month search forhis son and daughter, aged 8 and 11,
has come at a price. In early January,
the Australian journalist was given a
six-month prison sentence, suspended
for three years, after being foundguilty of trespassing last October. He
had gained access to a common areaof the apartment building where his
parents-in-law live by following a
resident through the main doors andwas arrested a month later.
Speaking at the FCCJ after heappeared at the Tokyo district court,
McIntyre accused the Japanese
authorities of abusing the humanrights of an estimated 100,000
children in Japan who are abductedby one parent and then denied any
contact with the “left-behind” parent.
Wearing a T-shirt calling for Japanto end to parental child abduction,
McIntyre said his conviction would
not stop him from campaigning for achange in Japanese law to allow courts
to award joint custody when parents
separate or divorce.
The UN convention on the rightsof the child states that abduction isillegal and children have the right tomaintain regular contact with bothparents, he said, adding that childabduction was also illegal underJapan’s penal code. “This is a group I
never wanted to belong to,” he said.
“But it is a fundamental human rightfor children to be with both parents,
enshrined in international treaties andobligations that Japan has ratified.”
McIntyre is one of a number of
14

Scott McIntyre at the Club

foreign parents who say they havebeen denied access to their children
after separating from or divorcing
their Japanese spouses. The Hague
convention on international childabductions, which Japan ratified in2013 after years of pressure, requires
parents accused of abducting theirchildren to return them to theircountry of habitual residence. But theconvention does not apply to cases
involving couples living in Japan,
even if one of the parents is a foreign
national, and Japanese courts almost
always award custody to the mother.
“The people talking about this areforeigners, but in many ways we are theones who are least impacted,” McIntyre
said referring to the 90 percent of
abduction cases that involve Japanese
couples. “We want to give a voice toeveryone. It’s not the mark of a tolerant,
modern society to have a system thatencourages the abduction of children.”
The solution was simple, he said.
“We need to change the law fromone of sole custody to joint custody,
and then the abductions of children
end tomorrow. That will be of great
benefit for parents, children, and also
Japanese society, because children
will be able to grow up with the love of
support of both parents.”
Japanese authorities have shown noenthusiasm for a change in the law,
despite international pressure that has
included personal interventions onbehalf of their citizens by the French
president, Emmanuel Macron, and the
Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte.
“Children are being removed fromtheir culture, their history and theirbackground,” McIntyre said. “And thisis all because Japan refuses to do what
every other G20 nation has done andimplement a system of joint custody.
It’s a basic, fundamental human right.
McIntyre believes this issue isbringing shame to Japan. “The police
are not working, the government is notworking and the judicial system is notworking,” he said. “These are statesponsored kidnappings. This is only
going to change when Japanese people
understand what is happening andwhen Japanese parents speak out.”
McIntyre’s plight has again drawn
attention to Japan’s treatment ofsuspects, an issue that attracted global
media coverage following the arrest,
detention, and escape of the fugitive
former Nissan chairman, Carlos
Ghosn. McIntyre, who spent 45 daysin detention, was initially taken into
custody at Takaido police station inwestern Tokyo before being charged
and transferred to the city’s main
detention centre in Kosuge.
Like Ghosn—who was held at thefacility for a total of more than 120 days
before he was released on bail for asecond time last April—McIntyre spent
all but half an hour a day in his tiny cell,which was lit day and night. He sharedcells with men charged with serious
crimes, including rape and murder. He
was not permitted to stand inside hiscell, and was only allowed to lie down
for two hours in the afternoon and atnight. When he complained about sleep
deprivation, he was threatened withsolitary confinement or told he would
be placed in a straightjacket.
He is aware that his enforced
separation from his children could
continue until they reach adulthood.
The police, the family court, McIntyre’s
in-laws and his children’s school have
all failed to act on his requests to help
locate his children, he said, despite being
presented with evidence that they are thevictims of parental child abduction.
“I don’t know if they’re alive orif they’re dead,” McIntyre said. “I
don’t know anything about theireducation. I don’t know if they’rein Japan or abroad. As a parent, it’sheartbreaking.” Asked if he had amessage for his children, McIntyre
said: “I love you very much and want to
see you as soon as I can.” ❶Justin McCurry is the Japan and Korea

correspondent for the Guardian and Observer
newspapers. His book, War on Wheels: Inside
Keirin and Japan’s Cycling Subculture, will be
published in July by Pursuit Books.
FEBRUARY 2020

FCCJ

Club news

FCCJ EXHIBITIONPRESS TOUR TO MoD ICHIGAYA HQINCREASE IN RECIPROCAL CLUBSREGULAR MEMBERThe Special Projects Committee arrangeda press tour to the Ministry of Defense
Ichigaya headquarters on Jan. 9. Seven
participants, all regular members, took
part. The highlight of the tour was
the historic Ichigaya Memorial Hall.
Constructed for Army Cadet School in
1937, and used for the Tokyo War Crimes
Trial from 1946, it provided the backdrop
for novelist Yukio Mishima, who made hislast speech on the front balcony before
committing suicide Nov. 25, 1970.
The press tour group in
front of utility helicopter
UH-1H , “Hiyodori”.

Mic Check Photos by Rob Gerhardt
In late 2014, protesters began gathering in New York City over theexoneration of the white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown
in Ferguson, Missouri. Shortly afterward, a second Grand Jury considering
the death of Eric Garner led to the same outcome. Protesters continued totake to the streets for a long litany of names and the protests also included
events to remember those from earlier incidents, such as Trayvon Martin
and Amadou Diallo.
New York never saw scenes like those that played out in Ferguson or
Baltimore. The police never used tear gas, heavily armored police vehicles
never rolled through the streets, and people were not confronted by policewith weapons drawn who looked more like soldiers than cops. But there
were masses of protestors. There were times traffic was blocked on major
streets and bridges. Insults and profanities were hurled back and forth.
There were arrests. There were signs. There were chants of every kind.
My work has always been on the edge of journalism, documentary, andart. This way of working has put me in an odd space: too journalistic forthe art world, and a bit too arty for the journalists. As a result, while mywork has been published, it is more likely to be seen on the gallery walls ofcolleges and universities.
I use my work to try to start conversations. I know that just seeing myphotographs is not going to change a viewer’s mind. Very few photographs
have that power. It is not an epiphany I am trying to create, but a way to
get people thinking and talking. And to me that is what good journalism is:
not telling people what to think but giving them the facts and information
to think on their own.
The arc of history is a long one, and when things are viewed throughthe passage of time, the truly important events and movements stand out.
And the Black Lives Matter movement, as a new chapter in the greater
Civil Rights Movement, already is a part of history. This will not be thefinal chapter in the struggle for equal rights, but as the movement morphs
into whatever is coming next, I will be there with my cameras to documentthat as well.
Rob Gerhardt is a social documentary photographer based in Brooklyn. His work has
been in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has been published internationally,
including in the Guardian, the New York Times, the Diplomat and the Hong Kong Free Press.
He is a member of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club, Hong Kong.

16

NEW MEMBERS

Thomas Hahn was born in Munich, Germany in

The FCCJ has been working to increase
reciprocal club arrangements with press
clubs, city clubs, and athletic clubs aroundthe world. For visitors to Japan during the2020 Olympics, FCCJ’s facilities and location
are very attractive. For FCCJ members, theavailability of a club away from home whentraveling overseas is beneficial. So far, several
clubs have responded favorably: Frontline
Club (London), Geneva Press Club, Jerusalem
Press Club, National Press Club of New
Zealand (Wellington), and the Press Club deFrance (Paris). Negotiations are underway withpress clubs in Strasbourg, Angkor, Jakarta,
Singapore, and Taipei. Many other clubs will be
invited in coming weeks; the FCCJ web site
will have the updated list of reciprocal clubs.

1972 and spent his youth there. After serving asa hospital nurse, he studied drama, history andcommunication science at Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversität in Munich and at the University of Kentin the UK and he graduated with a Master’s degreein 1998. During his studies he worked as a freelancer
for the sports desk of Süddeutsche Zeitung and for its
local branch Starnberger Neueste Nachrichten. Since
1999 he has been an editor at Süddeutsche Zeitung, first working at the
sports desk, covering several Olympic Games and world championships
in athletics and nordic skiing. In 2014 he moved to Hamburg to work as apolitical correspondent for northern Germany. Then, in September 2019,he became correspondent for Japan and Korea based in Tokyo.

PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST/ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Alec Jordan, Custom Media K.K.
STATUS CHANGE (ASSOCIATE
TO PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALISTASSOCIATE)
Hiromitsu Ida, Chuokoron-Shinsha Inc.

Save ¥100,000s!
For a limited period in 2020, the FCCJ will beoffering very attractive special discounts on
new individual Associate Members working
in our home, the Marunouchi Nijubashi
Building, as well as in the neighboring
Meiji Life Insurance, Marunouchi Park, andShin-Tokyo buildings.

REINSTATEMENT (ASSOCIATE)
Kenichi Suzuki, Democratic Party for
The People

IN MEMORIAM
The FCCJ sends its deepest
condolences to the family andfriends of the late DON G. HOUK,
who passed away as a result of atraffic accident in central Tokyo on
Jan. 18. He was 87.

NEW LOCAL MEMBERSHIP CAMPAIGNASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Masahiko Murayama, Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries F, E & T Holdings, Ltd.
Hajime Saito, Kandenko
Kiyoyuki Tsujimura, Carpediem, Inc.
Hirotake Yajima, Hakuhodo DY Media
Partners Inc.

Don Houk was one of theoldest Associate Members having
joined the Club in 1978. He was a
popular and regular fixture of theopen table.
He will be sorely missed.

NEW IN THE LIBRARY
Japanese Politics– One Politician’s
Perspective: From the
DPJ administration to
the LDP-KOMEITO rulingcoalition (2010-2019)
Yuzuru Takeuchi
Bungeisha

New individual applicants for Associate
Membership will receive a one-time
discount on the existing ¥400,000 joining
fee. With the one-time discount, thejoining fee would be ¥200,000 for thoseover 40 and ¥100,000 for those between
the ages of 35 to 40. Monthly dues of¥17,500 and the relocation levy of ¥1,000 for
Associates over 35 years of age will remainunchanged.

“Abe Shinzo” Daikenkyu「安倍晋三」大研究
Isoko Mochizuki; Yoshiro
Sasaki and others
KK Bestsellers
Gift from Isoko Mochizuki

Existing members who introduce anaccepted Associate applicant who joins the
FCCJ will receive a credit of up to ¥25,000.

Japan’s Infamous Unit
731: Firsthand Accountsof Japan’s WartimeFCCJFEBRUARY 2020

Human Experimentation
Program
Hal Gold; foreword by
Yuma Totani
Tuttle Publishing
Seiji no Riarizumu: Abe
Seiken no Yukue
政治のリアリズム : 安倍政権の行方
Takao Toshikawa
Kadensha
Gift from Takao Toshikawa
Jimaku no Naka ni Jinsei
字幕の中に人生
Natsuko Toda
Hakusuisha
Gift from Natsuko Toda
17

Photographer members

Patroling the seas
Anti-war protesters gathered near
the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo toprotest the decision to dispatch aMaritime Self-Defense Force ship to
the Gulf of Oman in response to the
Trump administration’s proposal for a“Marine Security Volunteer Coalition”
in the Strait of Hormuz.
by Richard Atrero de Guzman/ Sipa USA

Lens craft

Provisions from the seas
Kiyoshi Kimura, presidentof sushi restaurant chain
Sushizanmai, displays the
276kg bluefin tuna witha price of ¥193 million
at his main restaurant inTokyo, Jan. 5.
by Yoshikazu Tsuno

Year of the Rat
A man wearing a costumeof LED lights during thecountdown event at
Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossingon Dec. 31, 2019.
by Tomohiro Ohsumi
18Preparing the seas
World Sailing organised tests of the Olympic sailingvenue, courses (Sagami Bay off Enoshima), facilities,
management, media operations, and volunteers lastsummer in preparation for this summer’s start.
by Yoichi Yabe

FEBRUARY 2020

FCCJ

FCCJ

FEBRUARY 202019

O