The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

January 2017,
Volume 49 No. 1,¥400

A hostof quotables
who spoke at theClub last year. Plus,
our correspondents’
predictions forthe year ahead.

WELCOMETO THEYEAR OFTHE COCK
Tube talk:
The broadcast industry
braces for change

Profile:Freelancer
Abigail Leonard

Vol. 49, Number 1

January 2017contact the editors

no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Publisher FCCJ

In this issue
The Front Page
From the President by Khaldon AzhariCollections: Club numbers
From the archives

p6
Police at
protests in
Okinawa

4
5

Voices in 20166

2017: Something to crow about
by Tim Hornyak, Brett Bull, John R. Harris, Said Karsson,
Richard Lloyd Parry, Abigail Leonard, Ayako Mie, Justin McCurryand Gavin Blair

8

ProfileAbigail Leonard
by Tim Hornyak

10

A change in the air(waves)by Gavin Blair

12

Is the government blind to Japan’s impoverished?
by Julian Ryall

14

Vaccine battle stakes are highby Justin McCurry

15

Club News
Exhibition: Some Day, Going Back Home
– Syrian Refugee Children
by Natsuki Yasuda
Special Campaign offer/Join the Film Committee. . ./Media visit to Yamato Holdings “Haneda Chronogate”/
New Members/New in the library
FCCJ

JAN 2017

16
17

FCCJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Khaldon Azhari, PanOrient News
1st Vice President Anthony Rowley,Singapore Business Times
2nd Vice President Todd Crowell, Freelance
Secretary David Satterwhite, Associate Member
Treasurer Robert Whiting, Author, Freelance
Directors-at-Large Said Karlsson, TT News Agency
Milton Isa, Associate Member
Yuichi Otsuka, Associate MemberPeter Langan, Freelance
Ex-officio Suvendrini Kakuchi,
University World News
Kanji Yoshisuke Iinuma
Associate Kanji Makoto Honjo, Associate Member
FCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRSAssociate Members Liaison Milton Isa,
Masanobu Tsukagoshi
Compliance Kunio Hamada
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship Abby Leonard
Entertainment Sandra Mori, Suvendrini Kakuchi
Exhibition Bruce Osborn
Film Karen Severns
Finance Robert Whiting
Food & Beverage Robert Whiting,Robert Kirschenbaum
Freedom of Press Khaldon AzhariHouse & Property Khaldon Azhari
Human Resources Khaldon Azhari
Information Technology Khaldon Azhari
Library, Archives & Workroom Koichi Ishiyama,
Suvendrini Kakuchi
Membership Andrew Horvat, Peter O’Connor
Membership Marketing Rie Sakamoto
Professional Activities Andrew Sharp,
Tetsuo Jimbo
Public Relations Khaldon Azhari
Publications Gavin Blair
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe
Web Committee Gavin Blair
Foreign Press in Japan Justin McCurry

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Yurakucho Denki Building, North Tower 20F,
1-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006.
Tel: (03) 3211-3161 Fax: (03) 3211-3168 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 illustration: Andrew Pothecary

3

YOSHIKAZU TSUNO

Japan’s Olympic
Silver Medalwinning 4x100
relay team

Editor Gregory Starr
Art Director Andrew Pothecarywww.forbiddencolour.com
Editorial Assistants Naomichi Iwamura,Tyler Rothmar
Photo Coordinator Akiko Miyake
Publications committee members
Gavin Blair, Freelance (Chair); Geoffrey Tudor,
Orient Aviation; Monzurul Huq, Prothom Alo;
Julian Ryall, Daily Telegraph; John R. Harris,
Automobile Magazine

FRONT PAGEWEBSITE NUMBERS (Jan.-Nov.)

COLLECTIONS

105,200
532,830

CLUB NUMBERS
From thePresident

Total users

SOME SHARE THE VIEW that Japan isfinished as an international news hub– and believe that the age of foreign
correspondents is part of the past as well.
I disagree.
This country remains a major democraticnation and a key country in world affairs andglobal power games. It has an East Asianneighbor that seems intent on becoming a
nuclear power. For journalists living in Japan,
it’s enough to keep us working extensively –and luckily in a free environment.
From a media perspective, Japan is thesource of much of the news from Asia. The
Japanese economy is still the third largest in
the world, with a giant financial market thatkeeps the newsrooms busy 24/7.
In terms of technology, this country is
far out in front in many areas of expertise,and Japanese products continue to dazzle
and amaze.
Because of Japan’s position as a diplomatic
leader leveraging her unique position bothas the only nation to have experienced anuclear bomb attack and as a major providerof development assistance, those of us inTokyo often see the flags of another country
gracing the streets of downtown Tokyo whenworld leaders come to visit.
Ministers, CEOs and VIPs from all over
the world come to Tokyo year-round, in allseasons. International conferences regularly
invite world-class speakers, and celebrities andsport stars are often gold mines of quotes
for journalists stationed in Japan, especiallywhen they come to talk at the FCCJ.
A number of unfortunate natural disasters
have also attracted the world’s attention, andrequired some extensive reporting.
At the heart of all of that, the Foreign
Correspondents’ Club of Japan retains its
place as the international press club in Japan,
a location where news is still made andreported.
After 71 years of operation, the long
tradition is being proudly upheld, and theClub – and our foreign correspondent
members – is still alive and kicking,determined to help get the news out.
I believe our best days are ahead of us,
and with pride and confidence, I would
like to extend my New Years’ greetings bysaying, “When you come to the FCCJ, youwill feel the buzz of news-making at work andat play.”
Happy New Year!
– Khaldon Azhari
4

TOP 10 PAC EVENTSFROM THE ARCHIVES

TRUMP MAKES A
TOKYO VISIT

Total page views

1. Junichiro Koizumi (Former PM) 181
2. Yuriko Koike (Candidate for Tokyo Gov) 160

TOP 5 FILM
COMMITTEEEVENTS

3. Shigetada Kishii, Soichiro Tahara, Shuntaro Torigoe,
Akihiro Otani, Satoshi Aoki (Journalists) 143
4. Kengo Kuma (Architect/Olympic stadium) 121
5. Shintaro Ishihara & Shizuka Kamei (Former Tokyo
Gov & Member of house of Representative) 110
5. Pikotaro (Singer/songwriter) 110

1. While the Women are Sleeping, with producer
Yukie Kito; stars, Shioli Kutsuna, Sayuri
Oyamada and Makiko Watanabe(130 attendees)

7. Tadae Takubo (President of Nippon Kaigi) 107
7. Renho (Candidate for DP president) 107
9. Rachel McAdams (Hollywood actress) 102

2. Nikkatsu Roman Porno reboot kickoff with
Hideo Nakata, Sion Sono, Isao Yukisada,
Akihiko Shiota, Kazuya Shiraishi; and special 		screening of The World of Geisha (Tatsumi
Kumashiro) (120)

10. Gerald Curtis (Burgess Professor Emeritus of
Political Science, Columbia University) 97
TOP 10 FCCJ YOUTUBE-CHANNEL VIDEO VIEWS

3. A Bride for Rip Van Winkle with director
Shunji Iwai (110)

113,485 James Rickards: Author of Currency Wars,
lawyer and economist (March 21)

4. Red Turtle with director Michael Dudok de Wit (110)

29,343 Masaaki Hatsumi: 34th grand master of
the Togakure-ryu Ninjustsu (May 30)

5. Desperate Sunflowers with director
Hitomi Kuroki (110)

19,398 Yuriko Koike: Candidate in the Tokyo
Gubernatorial Election (July 7)
11,103

Dan Wang and Billy Fung Jing-en: Tensions
between China and Hong Kong (Oct. 16)

8,112

Manny Pacquiao: Deepening therelationship between Japan and the 			Philippines through boxing! (Nov. 24)

TWITTER FOLLOWERS

5,740

David Kaye: Freedom of Expression in 		
Japan (Apr. 18)

4,287

Mashu Baker, Shohei Ono and Haruka
Tachimoto: Judo gold medalists at Rio 		Olympics (Aug. 29)

4,273

Nomi Prins: How will a Donald Trump America
impact Japan and global markets? (Nov. 16)

3,883

Kengo Kuma: New Olympic Stadium Tokyo
2020 (Jan. 14)

3,874

Ryugo Hayano and Haruka Onodera: The 5th
Anniversary Series of the 3/11 Disaster (Feb. 7)

2,493

Pikotaro: Why PPAP took over the internet(Oct.27)
JAN 2017

FCCJ

3,248

(as of Dec. 19)

TOP 5 BOOKS MOST INQUIRED ABOUT AND
BORROWED FROM THE LIBRARY
1. Tensai by Shintaro Ishihara
2. Islam in Indonesia: The Contest for Society,
Ideas and Values by Carool Kersten
3. The Company and the Shogun: The Dutch
Encounter With Tokugawa Japan by Adam Clulow
4. Japan, Russia and their Territorial Dispute:
The Northern Delusion by James D. J. Brown
5. Japan Restored: How Japan Can Reinvent
Itself and Why This Is Important for America
and the World by Clyde Prestowitz
FCCJ

JAN 2017

Real Estate Developer – and as of Jan. 20, President of the U.S.
– Donald Trump presents his views at a professional luncheonon Aug. 18, 1993. FCCJ President Lew Simons (Knight-Ridder) is
seated next to him, smiling at the speaker’s remarks. Trump wason a swing through Asia to thank investors who had helped him
during his financial crisis and to discuss potential retail projects.
His comments were quoted in a New York Times article of thesame date by Andrew Pollack, and included urging the U.S. to get“tougher” with Japan in its trade negotiations and calling past
U.S. negotiators “morons” and “idiots.” The article also quoted
him as saying that in trade negotiations America should be
represented by a top businessman.
Donald J. Trump needs no introduction, but here’s athumbnail sketch. He was born on June 14, 1946, in New
York City and raised in a family entrenched in the realestate/construction business. From the early 1970s, when hetook over the family’s business and renamed it the Trump
Organization, he successfully expanded the company until
becoming financially over-extended in the late 1980s after
building resort casinos.
Trump’s dire financial situation was further aggravatedwhen his wife, Ivana, discovered an affair and divorced him
in 1992. (She reportedly received a $20 million settlement.)“The Donald,” as Trump had come to be known, however,made a successful comeback by the end of the 1990s, andwent on to become a celebrity entrepreneur as the host ofNBC’s hit show, “The Apprentice.”
Trump, too, had long been active in politics, supporting
candidates from both major parties over the years. He
considered running for the presidency in 2000 as a
candidate from Ross Perot’s Reform Party and in 2012 as a
GOP candidate, but bowed out of the race.
Little can be added to all that’s been said about Donald
J. Trump over these many years and especially the last few
months. His utterances have been sliced and diced by both
opponents and supporters, with appropriate spin given byeach side.
There is little doubt, however, that his inauguration
this month will also bring major changes, domesticallyand internationally.

– Charles Pomeroy
5

FEATURE
YEAR IN REVIEWOver the past year, the dais of
the FCCJ hosted a wide variety ofnewsmakers – speakers who offered
their views and opinions andanswered probing questions about awide variety of issues . . .

Feb. 8:“The effect of internal exposure
to radiation in Fukushima is verymuch less than
we initiallyfeared, and rightnow is almost
no problem . . .
which was not
the case after the
Chernobyl accident.”• Ryugo Hayano, Professor of Physics, University of Tokyo
On the radiation from the 3/11 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi
Nuclear Power Plant

June 3:Jan. 14:“At projects I have done overseas, I’ve felt avery welcoming environment for architectsfrom other countries. However, considering
English communication issues and the very
particular ways of proceeding with meetingsand conferences, I think that there are still
many aspects in which Japan could make more
efforts to open its doors and make it a morewelcoming environment for people from othercountries to work in.”
• Kengo Kuma, Architect
On the conditions facing architects
working in foreign countries• Wang Dan, leader of Tiananmen
democracy movement
On Chinese President Xi Jinping“Prior to the nuclear
power plant disaster,
the population of thetown was more than
70,000. As a result of
the disaster, however,it fell below 10,000. It
has now recovered tothe point where we have 57,000 residents
in the town of Minami-Soma, but alingering problem is that many young
people have left – the working and childrearing generation.”• Katsunobu Sakurai, Mayor of Minami Soma
On the devastation suffered by his town from the 3/11 disaster• Peter Franken, Safecast volunteer citizen monitoring project: On data activism around Fukushima
March 24:

“It is clear that what she said is against theConstitution and against the Broadcasting Law. If
she doesn’t know them, then as a minister, she isdisqualified. If she knew them and distorted theinterpretation, then it is taking us a step closer tospeech control.”“While we were only able to achieve ourmedal in the relay this time, at the next
Olympics I believe that all of us will beable to achieve a medal in the individual
races as well.”• Aksa Cambridge, Anchor, Japan’s Olympic Silver Medal-winning 4x100 relay teamOn aspirations for the 2020 Olympics to be held in Tokyo“Creating a transparent Tokyo Metropolitan Government is
my main goal. Public information disclosure is the first step
toward improving its transparency. I want to create two-way
communication where we talk openly with Tokyo citizens
about city government and city government affairs and invite
frank feedback from third-party observers. I believe this is
the way to run a city government that puts its citizens first.”

Feb. 17:“The structural lack of data is something we hope to fill byusing the power of ourselves. . . . From there we can have more
informed dialogues and make more informed decisions.
We strongly believe that data is the starting point, not opinion.”

6“HIS SPIRITUAL FATHERIS MAO TSE-TUNG. . . .
I DON’T THINK HE CAN BE
ANOTHER MAO, BUT HE
HAS THIS AMBITION
TO BE THESECOND MAO.”

Aug. 31:

March 22:

• Shigetada Kishii
News 23 commentator and special
senior writer at the Mainichi Shimbun
On communications minister
Sanae Takaichi’s comments aboutsuspending the licenses of TV
stations that didn’t follow the rulesof fairness in covering politics.

Aug. 28:

April 4:

“If I were Japanese, I would feel
exposed, because so much is riding on
the assumption that the U.S. will always
be there. You can see from [Trump’s]
election campaign that there is a currentof thought in the U.S. that is asking, ‘Why
should we always be there and what realinterest do we really have? Why should
we be facing off against China all thetime.’ The fact that these questions arebeing asked suggests the possibility that
America might not always be there.”• Yukio Koike, Governor of Tokyo: On her goals following her recent election victory
Oct. 27:“My knee was hurting so I went to
the hospital. I went to the restroom andwhen I was coming out, a woman was
exiting the women’s room. Our eyes met.
We kissed. It was
instant love. She’scute. She’s pretty.
She looks like apiranha. She’s socharming with her
teeth sticking out.
Her name is Tami. Her hobby is peelingbananas, arranging the peels and taking
photographs of them. She’s 78 years old.”• Pikotaro, Comedian/media phenomenon
On his wife of two years“Putin isprobably the
only leader
Russia has
had or will
have, foras far as
we can see,
who’s capable of giving up territory andgetting away with it in terms of domestic
Russian opinion. And Abe is the only prime
minister that one can imagine in Japan
who’s capable of settling for less than the
return of all four islands. So you put these
two together and you have the possibilityof a deal.”• Gerald Curtis, Professor of Political Science,
Columbia University
On Japan/Russia relation

Nov. 24:“I’m not thinking about becoming president. My main
focus is to change our country and help the president.
The president and I are very close, and I honor him
because he’s the only president who fights illegal drugs
and this is an opportunity to bring back harmony andpeace in our country.”• Manny Pacquiao, World-champion boxer: On his political aspirations• Clyde Prestowitz, Author of Japan Restored
On Japan-U.S. relations
JAN 2017

Nov. 22:AP PHOTO/EUGENE HOSHIKO

Voices in
2016

All videos of these press conferences are available to watch on the Club’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/FCCJchannel
FCCJ

FCCJ

JAN 2017

7

FEATURE
THE YEAR IN PREVIEW

2017: Something to crow about?
There were many sighs of relief heard around the world as the year 2016 came toa close, yet there is little evidence pointing toward a quieter 2017. The political
upheavals from populist movements that shook the stability of such nations as the
U.S. and Britain seem to be just the tip of the iceberg. And while a negotiated peace
halted the long civil war that killed thousands and thousands of Colombians, theMiddle East seems stuck in its cycle of warfare in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Japan, on the other hand, has been relatively quiet, and we wonder if this year
will be the same. Will 2017 see a song sillier than PPAP? Will Tokyo Governor Yuriko
Koike’s strong stance against the runaway Olympic costs and toxic landfill be
rewarded? Will baseball wunderkind Shohei Otani flee the professional fields of Japanfor the major leagues? Will some mediocre celebrity be pulled from a commercial
after a sleazy affair goes public? (The answer to that one is just too easy.)
To get some hint of what’s to come, we asked a few of our bravecorrespondents to peer into their crystal computer screens and make somebold predictions for the year ahead:

REALITY? WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ REALITY
This year will start seeing people wearing VR headsets in unexpected places,
as virtual reality will become even more mainstream, pushed by major brands
like Sony and Microsoft. Augmented reality applications
will continue to proliferate in the consumer and B2B fields.
AI assistants and AI reporters will take over the writing ofsports events, stock reports and other news. The few humanreporters still on contract will be found sitting at theirnewsroom desks, dejectedly mulling over the debris from the
U.S. election while sipping Family Mart coffee and chewing
7-11 doughnuts delivered by drones.

• Tim Hornyak

GETTING OUT WHILE THE GETTING’S GOOD
Sensing that a shakeup at the top could mitigate
hostilities between warring factors, Tsukasa
Shinobu, the Yamaguchi-gumi’s top boss, will step
down in the Year of the Rooster. The past two years
have not been kind to Japan’s largest organizedcrime group. Not only did its membership drop in a mutiny but it also became
engaged in a sometimes violent dispute with the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, a rival
gang composed of former members.
The groundwork for Shinobu’s move may have already been set. In late
September, a secret meeting - dubbed “The Yakuza Summit” - between Shinobu
and the bosses of the Sumiyoshi-kai and Inagawa-kai, two other top syndicates,
was held in Yokohama’s Chinatown. Was the purpose of the summit to prepare
for his resignation? Japan’s criminal underworld is about to find out.
• Brett Bull, Editor-in-Chief, the Tokyo Reporter (www.tokyoreporter.com)

FORWARD TO A
VERY BLEAK FUTURE
This year, Japan’s auto industry willpass a momentous tipping pointthat could fracture the bedrock ofnational prosperity – the $150 per
kilowatt/hour (kWh) cost of electricvehicle batteries.
This is widely seen as the level
where EVs start becoming cheaper
to build than conventional cars.
Once it’s crossed, internalcombustion engines may disappear
with head-spinning speed.
The balance point is battery
cost vs. a long list of components
EVs don’t need: engine block,transmission, exhaust system,gas tank and more. All those getreplaced by simple, durable electricmotors that have few moving parts
and need no lubricants. Tipping thescale further is the lower cost of EV
ownership – especially for homes
with solar panels.
Although a godsend for theplanet, Japan may suffer – given
how much of its economy isdevoted to skills-intensive making
of today’s auto drivetrains. With nocompensating inherent advantage
in making batteries, a huge chunkof manufacturing may simply
disappear along with a wide swathof auto services, since EVs need nogasoline, oil changes or timing-belt
replacements.

• John R. Harris
Automobile Magazine

NO ROOM FOR THE VIEW
The number of inbound tourists will continue to grow at a rate thatsurprises even the most positive analysts at the Japan Tourism Agency. In
order to cope with the hordes of people flocking to the most well-known
tourist destinations, different kinds of barriers and screening mechanisms
will be put in place. There will be a lottery deciding who will get to venture
past Asakusa’s Kaminarimon gate and spots in the elevators that lead up to
the observation deck at Tokyo Skytree will be auctioned to the highest bidder.

In a further
sign of the“silver tsunami”
engulfing Japan,
new research
reveals that by
the middle of the
century 98.6 per cent of articles written
by foreign correspondents based inTokyo will be about the ageing society.
The remaining 1.4 per cent will be aboutcute robots.

• Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times

WHEN A WOMENOMICS PROGRAM DISAPPEARSIN A BUREAUCRATIC FOG, DOES IT MAKE ANY SOUND?
Prime Minister Abe will meet his goals for women in management

positions by first revising the target from 15 to 1.5 percent, then byincluding male managers who promote women and finally by including
men who were born to women.
The Labor Ministry, which last year convinced exactly zero companies
to apply for a subsidy that rewards firms for promoting women, will
double that with an offer to cover the salaries of three female, non-regular
workers plus a round of drinks for the HR bucho at a hostess club.
Finally, American Ambassador Ivanka Trump will serve as a shining
example of women who fuel the Japanese economy when she inks a deal
with Sanei International and then holds bilateral talks on behalf of her
father, who will be busy filming thelatest season of “The Apprentice”
in the Oval Office, this one
featuring Miss USA contestants.
• Abigail Leonard

THE MAN WHO WILL (STILL) BE KING
Shinzo Abe will remain as the king of global politics in 2017, for better or worse.
The conservative prime minister is the only global leader, aside from German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who enjoys a stable government. Of course, he has
challenges.
The biggest international one is how he’ll deal with President-elect Donald
Trump. But he also is unlikely to make progress in peace treaty negotiations
with Russia and China, while North Korea is likely to remain provocative and
the Japan-Korea relationship is precarious. Domestically, he has not delivered
economic reforms to bring innovation.
All these questions are critical for him to push for his ultimate goal of revising
Article 9 by the end of the newly set tenure of 2021.
But the best news for Abe is the fact that there are no alternatives as long as thelargest opposition Democratic Party remains pathetically weak and incapable• Ayako Mie, Japan Times

THE ODDS HAVE IT

NO, THE SUPREME LEADER NEVER LEARNED TO PARALLEL PARK

The fake news phenomenon appears tohave swept across the Pacific to Japan with
reports that U.S. President Donald Trump
is to open a casino on the Senkaku islands.
Katsuto Momii emerges from his post-NHK
retirement to become chief cabinet secretary,citing his mahjong expertise as justification
to oversee the casino industry launch. “It isextremely regrettable,” says everyone. The
Liberal Democratic Party finally agrees tosend a cabinet minister to the FCCJ to discuss“how to bet at roulette and other important
stuff.” The press conference ends in chaos
after correspondents press the ministerto discuss government policy, sparking
threats to prosecute reporters under thestate secrets act. “This is deplorable,”the minister says. “Now ask me about myfavorite season.”Nintendo partners with Toyota and Google to create “Super Mario
Kart Driver,”an augmented reality game that is downloaded more than
25 million times on its launch day – and the stock prices of the threepartners and a host of related companies go stratospheric. The gameallows players to use footage streamed live from dashboard camerasof random cars to simulate a realistic driving experience, into
which characters from the Mario games are superimposed. On the
fourth day of release a team of North Koreansponsored hackers uses the app totake control of thousands ofcars via their onboard
computers and cause
hundreds ofaccidents, manyof them fatal.

• Gavin Blair• Justin McCurry, The Guardian• Said Karlsson, Navitime for Japan Travel
8

IF I HAD KNOWN I WAS
GOING TO LIVE THIS LONG,I WOULD HAVE TAKEN
BETTER CARE OF MYSELF

JAN 2017

FCCJ

FCCJ

JAN 2017

9

SERIESPROFILE

Abigail Leonard
by TIM HORNYAK

suffering “pain, amputation, disfigurement and death.” Media scrutiny ofprisoner care raised awareness, andreforms were made.
“It’s really important for democracy to have a healthy press, obviously,
and that’s true now more than everin the U.S.,” says Leonard, referringto the media fallout in the aftermathof the 2016 presidential election. She
believes that funding is a key part ofthe disconnect between mainstream
media and voters who felt marginalized and distrustful toward media likethe New York Times. And that it takes
money to assign reporters from power
centers in New York and Washington
into the heartland to do journalism
than can make a difference to people.
“I worked in the U.S. for 10 years, andyou could see that good investigative
journalism wasn’t getting funded,” shesays. “And how do you even start to deal
with fake news?”
She believes that it’s something that
Facebook and Google are going to haveto grapple with. “But the good thing that
could come out of the election is thatsome thought is now being given into
how to do better journalism and how
important it is to have a free and openpress. People are recognizing that andpeople are subscribing [to such outlets].
“It’s a critical time in American
media, particularly at a time where you have a president like
Donald Trump, who himself is spreading disinformation andvilifying the press. So it’s a tough time to be away from the
U.S. – but for now I’m in Japan.”

LEONARD IS NOW FOCUSED on working as a freelance journalist in Tokyo after her husband was sent here to open a
Tokyo office for his company in 2015. She operates out of aco-working space near Shibuya but visits the FCCJ for press
conferences and PAC meetings. While doing radio stories for
the BBC, she’s also been writing print pieces for the Washington Post, Newsweek, Popular Science, Vox, the New York Daily
News and Newsday. She’s also written for OZY and NPR. She
dislikes wacky Japan stories, the grist for many a freelancer’s
mill, and is especially interested in women’s and social issues
that aren’t being covered. One example of how she matches
THE PROGRAM WAS A brutal exposé. One female prisoner
her interests to her work is a Newsweek story she did on how
interviewed by Leonard claimed that doctors had left her
Japan’s declining population could lead to restrictions onwith an open wound from a C-section and, when it didn’t
women’s access to reproductive care.
heal properly, packed it with kitchen sugar from McDonald’s.
“There are so many stories out there
Although Leonard’s Al Jazeera article
that need to be told. Personally it’s been
included a dismissal of the claims fromTim Hornyak is a freelance writer who has
an amazing journey. I’ve met someworked for IDG News, CNET News, Lonely
a state lawmaker who drafted the privaPlanet and other media. He is the author ofreally incredible people and hopefully
tization legislation, allegations of misLoving the Machine: The Art and Science of
I could change things for the better intreatment were also raised in an ACLU
Japanese Robots.
some small way.” ❶lawsuit that claimed prisoners were10

JAN 2017

FCCJ

ANDREW POTHECARYO“It’s really importantfor democracy tohave a healthy press,
obviously, and that’strue now more thanever in the U.S.”n her first trip to Japan, Abigail
Leonard had a brush with fate.
She was on a plane flying from
Tokyo to Okinawa on March 11, 2011
when the massive earthquake struck
Tohoku, and – when Tepco’s nuclear
power plant in Fukushima melted down
– what was supposed to be a two-week
cultural exchange program for overseas
journalists turned into an opportunity toreport on the emerging nuclear crisis.
“I was here for something that was
critical and historic and identity-forming
for Japanese people and a lot of foreigners who were here,” says Leonard. Her
interviews with hibakusha in Hiroshima
about the Fukushima radiation problem,
contrasting it with the effects from thewartime atomic bombing, ended up airing on “Need to Know,” a program on the
U.S. Public Broadcasting System.
Born in Boston to a lawyer father andresearch scientist mother, Leonard went
to school in Philadelphia. A desire to do“something meaningful” after graduating, led her to a job teaching junior highfor two years in New Orleans.
She later returned to university studying science and environmental reporting in a journalism program at New York
University, before going back to work as
a staff producer for “Now on PBS.” Shealso wrote for MSNBC’s “Countdownwith Keith Olberman,” hosted by theacerbic popular sports and political commentator. “He wasan amazing editor and writer and presenter,” says Leonard.
“I learned from him how to communicate ideas really effectively – how that it’s more of an argument, building a caserather than telling a narrative.”
Leonard continued to expand her parameters, writingfor “The War Room” with Jennifer Granholm, and working
as a producer for CNN, ABC and Al Jazeera America, where
she had the opportunity to research and produce impactfulmaterial. “We did a story on privatizing prison healthcare in
Arizona that brought a lot of attention to an issue that people
don’t normally care about,” says Leonard. “What we uncovered showed they were making a profit while driving thecosts down as low as possible.”

FCCJ

JAN 2017

11

FEATURE
MEDIA

T

une in to Japanese television on any given evening andyou will find nothing that different from two or three
decades ago. Programming is still dominated by theusual menu of variety shows packed full of segments on foodand travel punctuated by excited cries of “Oishii!” and “Sugoi!”
emanating from the familiar roster of celebrity faces, alongwith some largely formulaic dramas, the ubiquitous quizshows and the occasional elaborate popular music program.
But take notice, for changes are afoot. A shrinking
domestic market is forcing the big networks to look further
afield for growth, while competition from new platforms
such as Netflix and Amazon is posing challenges, but also
creating opportunities.

Demographics and new technologies arehaving a big effect on viewing habits in Japan.

A change in the air(waves)

ONE CHANGE THAT HAS undeniably occurred in televisionviewing habits, though not one peculiar to Japan, is the growing tendency to watch programs in time-shift: either recorded,on VOD (video on demand), catch-up services or on net-based
platforms such as Hulu and Amazon. The way that viewing figures are calculated in Japan was recently changed to reflect thischange, bringing some cheer to the networks, which are able
to show that their audiences have not dropped as much as had
been thought. With the price of commercial slots based on ratings, the networks now have to devise new formulas to reflect
the time-shift audience, complicated by the fact that some can
12watch ad-free or skip ad breaks on recorded programs.
In addition to expanded offerings from cable and satellite
networks, the Japanese TV industry now faces stiffer competition from a growing number of alternative content platforms in a now crowded marketplace. “Amazon, Netflix andother new platforms have been totally disruptive in the U.S.
and are now trying the same strategy in Japan,” says Hayakawa. “Competition is getting very tough and we are only at theinitial stage of disruption in Japan as they have just launchedrecently here. But their growth is inevitable. The Japanese TV
industry is pondering how to survive in this landscape.”
Definitive numbers are unavailable, but local platform
Abema TV is reported to be the most popular VOD service,
followed by Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, dTV and then Netflix.
In terms of hours watched weekly, dTV – which was originallya mobile service launched by DoCoMo that has expanded to
television – is in the lead, followed by Amazon and Netflix.
Hulu found it difficult to carve out a niche in the local
market and sold its Japan operations to Nippon TV in early
2014. Since the takeover by NTV, the service has ramped up
its local original programming, including a Japanese versionof the German police series “The Last Cop,” which became abig draw for Hulu last year.
Original content is becoming a key part of the expansion of
the new platforms in Japan, mirroring the strategy of Amazon Video and Netflix’s global ambitions. Amazon Japan has
already announced 12 original series, including dramas, documentaries, variety shows, anime programs and children’s
shows, with plans for more. In the summer of 2016, Netflix
Japan launched “Hibana (Spark),” a 10-episode drama based on
an Akutagawa Prize-winning novel by Matayoshi Naoki. As well
as boosting local content, the drama was made available on
Netflix in 190 countries and dubbed into around 20 languages.
ALTHOUGH THE NEW PLATFORMS are a clear challenge to thelegacy commercial broadcasters, the networks aren’t adopting a siege mentality, but rather working with them. Fuji TV
created the drama “Underwear (Atelier)” for Netflix, and theJAN 2017

FCCJ

DAVID BECKER/NBC

by GAVIN BLAIR

The programming and business of the commercial broadcasters – and to a lesser extent NHK – revolves around the“Golden Time” hours of 7 to 10 pm, when the highest-rating
programs and biggest-earning commercials air. And while
you may not notice the difference, the shifting demographicsof the domestic audience has led to a shift in content overthe last 10 to 15 years to programming designed to appeal
to older viewers, according to Taka Hayakawa, director ofworldwide production and sales at Fuji TV. “There is no young
generation, so it’s all about the ojisan and obachan,” says Hayakawa, whose career has also included writing, directing andproducing for televisionThis has manifested itself most visibly in the increasing
number of police detective and medical-themed dramas,
with relatively simple, formulaic storylines in the primetime
slots, says Hayakawa. “If it’s a detective story, you can guessthe conclusion is going to be catching the bad guy; with a
medical-type drama, if you can understand the first few minutes, then you will be able to work out the story.”
According to Hayakawa, these dramas are “safe and comfortable, without any edginess or feeling of danger.” He says that
despite Fuji TV’s efforts to resist the shift, the broadcaster will
run two dramas with such themes in its next primetime slots.
Makito Sugiyama, vice president of global business at Tokyo
Broadcasting System Television, doesn’t see such a significant
change in content on the terrestrial channels, although the
Broadcast Satellite channels are “targeting older viewers.”

by a growth in sales of streaming rights to
China of 78.7 percent.
Opposite, Jessie Graff
Clearance of copyright was a major issue
in the “American Ninja
for online distribution of all Japanese conWarrior” finals; left, Takatent because the Broadcast Law and copyHayakawa, director ofright are governed by different ministries.
worldwide production
Many of the hurdles have now been overand sales at Fuji TV;
come, but the issue remains a barrier for
below, the Netflix drama,international distribution, according to SugHibana
iyama of TBS: “Everyone is working towardtrying to resolve this, but it’s not as simple aspeople think it is; clearance is difficult evenfor the music used in TV programs, since it
may be cleared for domestic distribution,
but not overseas.”
The networks don’t own the rights for all
the programs they broadcast, but are often
involved as co-producers of anime, receivinga share of the revenue from overseas sales.
“TV stations used to sell content in stages,
with first broadcast and then DVD releases.
But now distribution through broadcasting,streaming and DVD sales are becoming almost
simultaneous,” says Sugiyama.
Sales of formats – essentially ideas forshows – has been a long-running global success story for the TV networks. The “Dragons’ Den/Shark Tank” show, where venture
capitalists decide whether or not to invest in entrepreneurs’
two have formed an alliance to co-create dramas for the Asianbusiness ideas, has been remade in around 30 countries, butmarket. Even staid public broadcaster NHK partnered withstarted life as “Money no Tora” on NTV in the early 2000s.
Netflix on “Tokyo Trials.” The four-part mini-series about the
Other global hits include “America’s Funniest Home Videos,”
trials of war criminals after World War II was broadcast on“Takeshi’s Castle” and “Sasuke/Ninja Warrior,” all of which
NHK in December, while Netflix streamed it overseas. NHK
originated at TBS, and Fuji TV’s “Iron Chef” and “Hole inwill offer it on its own VOD service before Netflix makes it
the Wall.”available to its subscribers in Japan.
Many observers put this plethora of ideas down in partFor decades, movie production has been an important revto the large number of short segments in Japanese variety
enue stream for the commercial networks. Many of the annushows, which are often the birthplace of formats for proal box office leaders are spin-offs from drama series or othergrams in their own right. The low-budget nature of much
films that TV companies are involved with through a movieof Japanese TV leads to producers being creative and often
production committee system that brings partners from discoming up with ideas for shows that can be made relatively
tributors, rights holders and advertising agencies together
inexpensively – another attraction for international buyers.
as investors. NTV has announced a movie spin-off from “TheWith younger people in particular now consuming video
Last Cop,” due for release this spring.
on a variety of devices from multiple platforms, the business
Few of the 400 or so Japanese films released each year genmodel of the traditional linear broadcasters looks unsuserate more than minimal interest or box office overseas. But
tainable. Factor in the shrinking population, and the TV netthe emergence of the huge Chinese theatrical market at aworks face a particularly acute environment. In addition totime when relations between the two countries have thawed
aiming for further growth in overseas markets for content
enough for Japanese films to start getting released again is
and ideas, the broadcasters will likely need to follow the leadcreating new opportunities. Flying Colors (Billy Girl) was theof corporations in other sectors in making investments andthird-biggest Japanese live-action film of 2015 with ¥28.4 bilacquisitions abroad.
lion ($23.6 million). Based on a true story about a waster ofFuji TV, for example, was an early investor in Niantic, the Sana high school student who suddenly decides to go to an eliteFrancisco-based developer of worldwide smash hit augmented
university, it featured TBS as a leading company of its producreality game Pokemon Go, despite not being the broadcastertion committee. The film was given a wide release in China inof the TV anime series. The company also produced a docuApril 2016 and took in more than $6 million. Although thatmentary about the Pokemon Go phenomenon, in Japanese andis only a fraction of the $80 million that the anime hit Your
English, that was broadcast in Japan in December and is tarName (Kimi no Na wa) had made in China by late December,geted at a global audience. Such strategies and synergies are
let alone the hundreds of millions that a Hollywood blockthe way forward, according to Fuji’s Hayakawa, who both ledbuster can pull in there, it represents significant overseas
the investment and acted as a producer for the documentary.
box office success for a Japanese film.
“Similar to the divide between Silicon Valley and Hollywood in
the U.S., the two industries are separate in Japan, but we have
ON THE ANIME TV series front, overseas sales have been
to combine the two in order to survive,” suggests Hayakawa. ❶growing exponentially over the last couple of years, helping
to boost revenue for the anime industry to ¥1.83 trillion ($18
Gavin Blair covers Japanese business, society and culture forbillion) in 2015. That was up by 12 percent from a year earlier,publications in the U.S., Asia and Europe.
according to the Association of Japanese Animations, helped

Airborne

FCCJ

JAN 2017

13

CHILD POVERTYHEALTH
Riko Muranaka says the vaccine can help save the lives of 3,000 young womena year, but a libel lawsuit seems aimed at silencing support for its use.

Vaccine battle stakes are highLeft to right, Chieko Kuribayashi, Yasuhi
Aoto and Charles E. McJilton at the Club

Activists dealing with the country’s disadvantaged claim that the poor,
especially children, are being ignored by the government.

Is the government blind to
Japan’s impoverished?
by JULIAN RYALLDESPITE PRIME MINISTER SHINZO Abe’s
declarations of concern over the nation’s
stubbornly unyielding poverty rate,
Yasushi Aoto says he has no interestin the problem that grips millions ofhouseholds across the country.
Poverty, including child poverty, does
not translate into sufficient votes forthe ruling Liberal Democratic Party for
it to be a major concern, says Aoto, who
has witnessed the problem close up as
chairman of the Japan Association ofChild Poverty and Education Support
Organizations. “To put it simply, I do
not believe that Abe has any interest inchild poverty, or the problem of poverty
in general, and I believe this attitude
is common to all conservative parties
because the issue does not generatevotes,” Aoto told a press conference atthe FCCJ last November.
“Politicians are living in a world of
immediate reality and I don’t believe
they have the ability to think about the
lives of children today and the people
they will be in 40 or 50 years,” he said.
In April, a report issued by the UN
Children’s Fund underlined Aoto’s
concern for the most vulnerable inJapanese society, revealing that children
from the poorest households here are
relatively far more disadvantaged thanchildren in most other industrialized
nations. That finding is backed up
by research by Aoto’s organizationand others campaigning against the
problem here – but who also admit that
determining precise figures for poverty
rates is more difficult in Japan for anumber of reasons, not least because
the social stigma attached to being poorcauses millions of people not to claim
welfare support.
14“If we look at how difficult thesituation has become, particularly
for children, over the last 25 years, I
believe there are two main reasons:education and employment,” said Aoto.
ACCORDING TO THE ASSOCIATION, 16.3
percent of Japanese households areliving on less than ¥3 million a year,
affecting 3.5 million children under
the age of 17 – which is fully one in
six of all children in the country. And
looking into the future, Aoto points
out, this will inevitably worsen as fewer
children are born, the government’s
tax revenues decline and increasing
numbers of elderly people requirepensions and healthcare.
The cost of a university education
has similarly increased in recent
decades, climbing from ¥100,000
a year in the 1970s to more than
¥500,000 a year today, even for aliberal arts course, he said. Invariably,
the majority of people that Aoto’s groupassists are from families that have
not had a university-level education.
Some are not even able to make it tosenior high school; such is their lack offinancial resources and support.
Chieko Kuribayashi is chief directorof the non-profit organization,
Toshima Kodomo WakuWaku Network,
and was instrumental in setting up thefirst “children’s cafeteria” in Toshima
Ward for youngsters in her community.
The initiative has since been replicatedacross Japan and there are now 300
such centers. “I am not a teacher or aprofessional, but a mother who raised
my children in the area,” she told thepress conference. “I would often meetkids who were hungry and had not hadanything to eat all that day. I started toprovide learning support for children
who feared they would not be able to
go on to senior high school.
As well as providing a place where
local children can meet up, eat together
and simply spend time in a comfortableenvironment, the centers invite
volunteer high school and university
students to help the children study.
BUT THE UNDERLYING PROBLEMS are notbeing dealt with, in part, critics say,because the government is handing
over responsibility for caring for
those living below the poverty line
to NGOs. “I believe the government
should be doing more and that its
current policies for alleviating poverty
are insufficient,” Kuribayashi said.
“However, citizens across the country
are now learning that this problem
exists. This is an opportunity to think
about our children’s futures.”Charles McJilton is executive
director of Second Harvest Japan, thecountry’s leading food bank and a close
collaborator with both local and national
governments and other NGOs – and he ismore aware than most of the problems
facing those living on the fringes ofJapanese society: he once spent 15
months living in a cardboard box inTokyo alongside homeless people to gaina better understanding of their plight.
“Within Tokyo, there are maybe 40 or
50 locations where someone can pick up
hot food, an emergency meal,” he said.
“In New York city, there are 1,100 places,
Chicago has 600, San Francisco, evenHong Kong has 520. So why do we have so
few here? We have resources, so how comewe can’t reach those who are in need?”
McJilton’s organization has set itself
a goal of feeding 100,000 people inTokyo every week by 2020 and he iscalling on the government to see foodsafety for the most vulnerable in society
in the same way as it sees healthcare
provisions. All children up to the age of
16 receive free healthcare, he said. They
should also have the same guaranteedaccess to sufficient food. ❶Julian Ryall is Japan correspondent for the
Daily Telegraph.
JAN 2017

FCCJ

to society. Ikeda’s social responsibility
is big. We found no evidence to suggest
reported symptoms are related to theHPV vaccine.”by JUSTIN MCCURRYJAPAN’S REFUSAL TO OFFICIALLY
recommend a vaccine that protects
against cervical cancer is a threat tothousands of women who contract theillness every year, according to medical
doctor and journalist Riko Muranaka,
whose campaign to prove the drug’s
safety has landed her in court.
Muranaka, a lecturer at Kyoto
University’s school of medicine, is now
fighting a libel suit after she accused
Shuichi Ikeda, dean of the schoolof medicine at Shinshu University,of “fabricating” the results of anexperiment with a single mouse that hethen used to “prove” that the humanpapilloma virus (HPV) vaccine causes
serious neurological conditions.
Ikeda, who had been given a grantby the health ministry to investigate
alleged adverse side effects, insisted
on a causal link in a TV appearance,
generating alarmist newspaper
headlines the following day.
The HPV jab was made available forfree in late 2010 for girls between 12
and 16 years old, and became part ofJapan’s national immunization programin early 2013. But just two months later,
the health and welfare ministry madewhat Muranaka called the “unusual andperplexing” decision to keep the vaccine
in the program but suspend “proactive”
recommendations for it.
The decision followed Ikeda’s claim
and the release of a video by a groupof alleged victims showing vaccinatedwomen with serious neurologicalsymptoms.
Since the ministry suspended its
recommendation, the vaccination
rate among the target age group has
plummeted from 70 percent to lessthan 1 percent.
IN AN ARTICLE IN Wedge magazine in
March of this year, Muranaka accused
Ikeda of fabricating the data. “Doctor
Ikeda’s data is not just about one
mouse experiment,” Muranaka said at
the FCCJ in November. “It is about theconsequences it has for 10,000 womenand their families who get cervicalcancer every year in Japan, and the
3,000 women who die from it.”
“Because of his actions, more young
FCCJ

JAN 2017

Riko Muranaka
at the Club
women have decided not to get a safeand effective vaccine [that could] savetheir lives,” said Muranaka, whose caseis not expected to reach a verdict for
at least another 18 months. “I would
like to ask Dr. Ikeda if he feels any
responsibility for this.”She said that the epidemiological
data from around the world has
shown no increase in the vaccinatedgroup for specific diseases such asneurological diseases or auto-immune
diseases. And a health ministrytask force subsequently ruled out
a causal link between HPV vaccine
and the professed symptoms, addingthat the reported cases were most
likely psychosomatic. Despite thosefindings, the government has notmade a “proactive recommendation”
to reintroduce the vaccine into theimmunization program.
The ministry’s decision has been
criticized by the World HealthOrganization, which fears that
dubious claims about harmful side
effects could lead to a global drop in
vaccinations and a rise in cervicalcancer cases. There is evidence thatthe controversy in Japan has alreadyhit vaccination rates in Denmark and
Ireland. Worldwide, about 528,000 new
cases of cervical cancer are reported
annually, causing 266,000 deaths. In
Japan 9,300 cases of invasive cervicalcancer cause 3,000 deaths a year.
While the libel case continues,
the health ministry has publicly
accused Dr. Ikeda of “causing
misunderstanding.” According to an
op-ed by Muranaka in the Wall Street
Journal, the ministry statement said:“We are truly sorry his inappropriate
presentation caused misunderstanding

MURANAKA, WHO IS PAYING her own
legal fees while accepting donations
from a support group, believes manyof the 3,000 Japanese women who diefrom cervical cancer every year could
have been saved by the vaccine. She
accused her opponents of “sowing theseeds for misunderstanding about thesafety of the HPV vaccine that persists
to this day.”To support the claims she has made innumerous papers and articles, she citeda study of 70,960 vaccinated and nonvaccinated adolescent girls in Nagoya
that found “no significant associations
between 24 alleged vaccine-induced
symptoms and the HPV vaccines.”
Muranaka said that she had been
unfairly targeted by opponents, andthat other doctors who support her
stance are too scared to speak out
in case they too end up in court.
“Publishers refused to publish myarticles, and declined to publish abook, even though they had agreed to
do so,” she said. “One magazine ended
my regular column since they don’t
want to be involved.”
She scolded Japan’s medical society
and the media for their silence. “Ihave asked Doctor Ikeda time andagain to publish more details about his
experiment and the original data, but hehas failed to comply,” she said. “I hope
the court will understand that the lawsuit
was not the right thing to do, because
Ikeda should have refuted my claimsin the scientific realm. I’m happy to
discuss this with him within the scientificcommunity, but he won’t do that.”
Muranaka said that her single aim
is for Japan’s government to comply
with global expectations and global
standards. “The voices of the victims
are echoing around the world, butscientific journalists have to do thesame – we have to make our voices
heard around the world and publish
science-based articles, or else people’s
health will be at risk.” ❶Justin McCurry is Tokyo correspondent for
the Guardian and Observer newspapers in
London and writes about Japan and Korea for
the Lancet medical journal.

15

CLUB NEWSCLUB NEWSJOIN THE FILM COMMITTEE . . .

FCCJ EXHIBITION

Discount LexisNexis
Subscriptions
for FCCJ Members
The FCCJ is pleased to offer
members a substantial discount on
subscriptions to LexisNexis’ news
database service, Nexis.com

Some Day, Going Back Home
– Syrian Refugee Children
photographs by Natsuki Yasuda
NATSUKI YASUDA IS CURRENTLY documenting the tragic plight of the
refugees of the Syrian civil war. Since it began in 2011, the worsening conflictin Syria has forced 9.5 million people – around half the population – to leave
their homes. Over three million of these displaced people have been forced toleave Syria, including over 600,000 who have sought refuge in Jordan. These
photographs are windows into the lives of the people there. ❶While at high school, Natsuki Yasuda
went to Cambodia on an NGO
program to document projects foryoung people. Now a professional
photojournalist, she reports fromSoutheast Asia, the Middle East,
Africa and Japan. Since the Tohoku
earthquake her main base has been
Rikuzentakata, from where she has
documented developments in thedisaster-hit area. In 2012 she won theeighth Younosuke Natori PhotographyAward for her work on Uganda’s HIVAIDS orphans. www.yasudanatsuki.com. . . for a very special sneak preview of Martin Scorsese’s long-gestating passion
project, Silence, on Thurs., Jan. 12. Nearly 30 years after he read Shusaku Endo’s
1966 novel about the persecution of hidden Christians in 17th-century Japan,
the legendary director has finally released this story of two Portuguese padres,Sebastian Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garupe (Adam Driver), whojourney from Macao to Japan to search for their missing mentor, after receiving
the startling news that he has gone native. The priests begin their arduous journeyto the Japanese heart of darkness with a lapsed Christian named Kichijiro (Yosuke
Kubozuka), settling in with clandestine worshippers in the tiny village of Tomogi.
But soon enough, the area’s ruthless Inquisitor Inoue (Issey Ogata) throws
Rodrigues and his new followers behind bars, and sets about putting their faith tothe ultimate test.
In collaboration with Kadokawa, Scorsese’s masterwork will be screened
from 4:15 pm at the Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho, above Bic Camera, with the
Q&A session starting from 7:30 back at FCCJ. Japanese stars Issey Ogata and
Yosuke Kubozuka will be on hand to discuss the months-long filming of this epic
international production. (U.S., 2016; 161 minutes; Japanese/English/Latin withJapanese and English subtitles.)– Karen Severns

MEDIA VISIT TO YAMATO HOLDINGS “HANEDA CHRONOGATE”

THE SPECIAL PROJECTS COMMITTEE
arranged a visit to Yamato Holdings Co.
Ltd’s Haneda Chronogate, the mostadvanced and biggest logistics hub in theworld. Led by SPC committee member
Kenji Obayashi, the group of nine FCCJ
journalists made the visit on Dec. 14.
Opened in Sept. 2013, Haneda
16

JAN 2017

FCCJ

FCCJ

JAN 2017

Chronogate is
located next toHaneda Airport,
close to JR FreightContainer Terminals
and Tokyo and
Yokohama Ports.
The giant integrated
terminal provides
seamless land, sea
and air connections
both in Japan andthroughout the world.
The centralization of the YamatoGroup’s services and capabilities,
such as domestic delivery networks,
forwarding (import/export cargo process
management), distribution strategies at
one point enables speedy and consistentlogistics service to the customer.

The Members-only deal
allows for flat-rate access at¥7,900 per month – offering
big savings on a service that
normally costs ¥126,000 per month

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

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

17

CLUB NEWSSPECIAL CAMPAIGN OFFER FOR NEW ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
The FCCJ is offering a special deal for new Associate
Members. Until March 31 this year, those joining are eligible
for a ¥100,000 DISCOUNT off of the regular fee of¥300,000.
If successfully approved, the applicants will be able toenjoy all the member benefits: attendance at all the majorpress conferences and professional and social events; dining
services at the Main Bar, Pen & Quill Executive Dining area and the Masukomi Sushi Bar;
special discounts on sports, arts and cultural events; free wi-fi, half-price parking, the Club’smonthly magazine; and access to reciprocal press clubs around the world.
Present members can also benefit. A ¥20,000 restaurant voucher will be given to those
who introduce successfully approved new Associates. For more information, or to pick up
an application form, go to the front desk.

New
Members

REGULAR MEMBERS

KEIKO IIZUKA, the Yomiuri Shimbun
WALTER SIM is the Japan correspondent for the Straits Times. He joined
the paper, the most-read broadsheet in Singapore, fresh out of Nanyang
Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication andInformation, and first cut his teeth on the crime desk, covering everythingfrom lurid sex-for-corruption trials and murders to the Little India riot in 2013.
He then moved to domestic politics, reporting on the death of founding Prime
Minister Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore’s general election in 2015. It was during
his first trip to Japan – a solo trip to Tokyo in 2012 – that he fell in love with thecountry and decided to pick up the language. In his present position, he covers
Japan-related news including politics, diplomacy and social issues with an eyeon Singapore and the region.
KAZUNORI TAKADA is the Tokyo Bureau Chief for Bloomberg News,
overseeing 140 reporters and editors in both the English and Japanese
language services. Kazunori joined Bloomberg in April 2016 from Reuterswhere he spent 16 years covering a wide range of areas from general news tomarket and corporate news in Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and China. In hislast stint at Reuters, he was Shanghai bureau chief responsible for coverageof financial markets and corporate news in China. He was educated in Japanand the U.S. and is a graduate of International Christian University in Tokyo.
Kazunori, a Yokohama native, is married with two children.
LEI YAN, Xinhua News Agency
PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALIST ASSOCIATE
MEMBERS
Janolof Fritze, Big Five Film and TV Productions
Shuichi Akiyama, Freelance
Akira Inoue, Golf Times Ltd.
Hiroshi Kagawa, IBC Publishing, Inc.
Hideaki Ota, the Sankei Shimbun
Takashi Uesugi, NO BORDER, Inc.
STATUS CHANGE (ASSOCIATE TO P/JA)
Gregory Poole, Doshisha University

18

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Masahide Konishi, Kokuyo Co., Ltd.
Koushu Murakami, the Murakami Land Lord
Corporation
Kunio Ogawa, Techno Door Co., Ltd.
Tomosaburo Uno, Osaka Sanitary Co., Ltd.
Yuhiko Yasunaga, Shimamoto Partners
REINSTATEMENT (ASSOCIATE)
Arseny Chuk Besher, GREE, Inc.
Masami Doi, Kreab K.K.
Hiroko Usami, Art Consultants Int’l Ltd.

New in the
LibraryGamma: Une histoirede photographes
Hubert Henrotte;
Floris de Bonneville;
Gabriel Bauret
Éditions de La
Martinière
Gift from Itaru K.
KuritaJapanese Studies in
Britain: A Survey andHistory
Hugh Cortazzi (ed.);Peter Kornicki (ed.)
Renaissance Books
Gift from The Japan
Society
The Will to Keep
Winning
Daigo Umehara
Shogakukan
Gift from Takeharu
Chris Kusada(Shoagkukan)
A War of Words: The
Man Who Talked
4000 Japanese into
Surrender
Hamish McDonald
University of
Queensland Press
Gift from Hamish
McDonald

The Rape of
Nanking: The
Forgotten Holocaustof World War II
Iris Chang
Penguin Books
Gift from Christopher
A. Pitts
Kuroi kyoto : Saikosaibansho
Hiroshi Segi
Kodansha
Gift from Hiroshi Segi
Crooked Cucumber:
The Life andTeaching of Shunryu
SuzukiDavid Chadwick
Broadway Books
Countdown to Pearl
Harbor: The Twelve
Days to the Attack
Steve Twomey
Simon & Schuster
Gardens of Gravel
and SandLeonard Koren
Stone Bridge Press

Ugetsu Monogatarior Tales of Moonlightand Rain: A
Complete English
A Public Betrayed:
Version of the
An Inside Look atEighteenth-Century
Japanese MediaJapanese collection
Atrocities and Theirof Tales of theWarnings to the West Supernatural
Adam Gamble;
Ueda Akinari; Leon M.
Takesato Watanabe
Zolbrod (trans.)
Regnery PublishingRoutledge
Gift from Christopher
A. Pitts
Japans Modern
Prophet: Uchimura
A People’s History of Kanzo, 1861-1930
The Vietnam War
John F. Howes.
Jonathan NealeUBC Press
The New Press
Gift from Christopher
A. Pitts

JAN 2017

FCCJ

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