The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

October 2016, Volume 48 No. 10, ¥400

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The other abdication:
When a young Prince Akihito
was fêted for the throne

Profiled:
Robin Harding of
the Financial Times

Vol. 48, Number 10

October 2016

contact the editors

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

YouTuber
Hikosaemon
from his video“Tokyo Tonight:
Hikosaemon Go!”In this issue
The Front Page
From the President by Peter Langan
Collections: Newsprint numbers“Doomsday” Cold Warrior and futurist Herman Kahn

p12
4
4
5

The Independent, RIP
by David McNeill

6

The future of the media is you(tube)
by Richard Smart

8

Newsflash or false news:
the abdication of Emperor Hirohito
by Eiichiro Tokumoto

10

ProfileRobert Harding
by Gavin Blair

12

From Russia with loveby Geoff Tudor
Club News
Exhibition: Tsukiji Fish Market
by Shun KatoHeard at the Club/Special Campaign offer/
New Members/New in the Library
FCCJ

OCT 2016

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 TBA
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 Peter Langan
Human Resources Khaldon Azhari
Information Technology Said Karlsson
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 Imad Ajami, Kazumi Hayakawa
Publications Gavin Blair
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe
Web Committee Gavin Blair
Foreign Press in Japan Justin McCurry

14

16
17

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, from the
Independent logo

3

FRONT PAGE

– Peter Langan

KHALDON AZHARI has been
selected to replace Peter Langan
upon his resignation.

4“DOOMSDAY” COLDWARRIOR AND FUTURISTHERMAN KAHN

44,246,688

NEWSPRINT NUMBERS

Total
circulation ofnewspapers inJapan in 2010

Total circulation ofnewspapers in Japan in 2015

Circulation ofsports newspapers in 2010

47,419,905
Number ofhouseholds in
2010

1.13

Subscriptions perhousehold in 2010

3,554,819

I WAS OUT OF JAPAN for much of September, but I
didn’t dodge all of the typhoons, arriving back in Japanin the early hours of Sept. 19 to a good drenching over
several days.
Such weather does have an upside: Nothing beats agood read when it’s pouring down outside.
I’m reading The Power of Habit, by New York Times
reporter Charles Duhigg. I usually stay well awayfrom books in the so-called self-help genre, but this isinteresting stuff on the latest research and case studies
on how habits form and can be changed.
My other reading included the minutes of FCCJ Board
meetings and a General Membership Meeting written
in September and October of 1975. I realize that sounds
very sad, but as the Club is now in the process of moving,the minutes of 41 years ago make for a good read as they
deal with the FCCJ’s move from its previous location to
the current premises in the Yurakucho Denki building.
The minutes support the adage, “The more thingschange, the more they stay the same.” That is, theconcerns of members in 1975 mirror those in the Club
today regarding moving premises.
I’ll paraphrase, but among the questions in the minutes
is this one: “Will we be able to afford the rent in the
bigger space in the Denki Building?” Countered by: “We
won’t get a better offer than the one by Mitsubishi.” And
they go on: “The Denki Building is inconvenient,” said
some. “We have to get our finances in order before we
move,” and “The Club should get smaller not bigger,”were some others.
One discussion involved moving from a walk-in clubto one on the 20th floor. Some members said having touse elevators was inconvenient and would damage theClub’s prestige.
As those voices of 41 years ago echo through
FCCJ Board, committee and bar meetings today, I
unfortunately will no longer be involved, as I’m leaving
Japan for a job in Hong Kong. You are left in the mostcapable hands of Khaldon Azhari as FCCJ President.
There are many people I’d like to thank for the work
they do for the FCCJ, but that would fill several pages.
Instead I’ll limit it to two “volunteers" I’ve worked mostclosely with in the past year or more: Bob Whiting and
Kurt Sieber. They are both unsung heroes, dedicating
enormous amounts of time and energy to the Club to try
and make it the best it can be. I salute you, gentlemen.
It’s been an honor.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

6,307,162 53,708,831

From thePresident

COLLECTIONS

Circulation ofsports newspapers in 2015

55,365,197
Number ofhouseholds in
2015

0.80

Subscriptions perhousehold in 2015
OCT 2016

FCCJ

95.07%
4.39%

Percentage of homedelivery copies
Single copy sales

23,40921,596
10,520
3,550
3.7m
3.03m

FCCJ

OCT 2016- 7.75%

Editorial
staff in2014

Printing
staff in2001
- 66.25%

Printing
staff in2014

Tons of newsprint
consumed in
2000
- 18%

Tons of newsprint
consumed in
2015

755bn
418.8bn
Sources: The Japan Newspapers andEditors Association, Dentsu

Editorial
staff in2001

Advertising
revenue in ¥in 2004- 44.5%Advertising
revenue in ¥in 2014

Herman Kahn of the Hudson Institute, a frequent speaker at the
FCCJ, untangled world affairs for our members on Nov. 28, 1977.
Club Secretary Sam Jameson (Freelance), who moderated the event.
To the right of Kahn is Johnny Fujii of Fairchild Publications, who
is seated next to the shoulder of Tom Pepper, former Tokyo Bureau
Chief of the Baltimore Sun who had been hired by the Hudson
Institute several years earlier.
In the political scene of the 1960s and 1970s, Herman Kahn’s
name ranked with that of Henry Kissinger and other ColdWarriors. He had parlayed his university physics major into
a position as a military strategist and systems theorist at the
Rand Corporation and become a sensation with publication of
his 1960 book, On Thermonuclear War. In the book, he speculated
on a “doomsday” device, which caught the popular imagination
in a morbid way, and was reflected in Kubrick’s 1964 satiric
masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb. He followed up with several more publications
on the potential effects of nuclear war and strategic options that
influenced U.S. nuclear and military strategies.
With two colleagues, Kahn founded the Hudson Institute in1961 as a policy research organization. As its head, he expanded
his areas of interest to include economics, public policy issues
and future studies. He was especially noted for his meshing oftheoretical and practical matters, applying systems analysis,game theory and scientific forecasting tools as well as the
scenario method. The scope of his activities included theories
and publications that made him a controversial figure. His
frequent appearances at the FCCJ attested to the attraction heheld for journalists.
Of particular interest to Club Members were his futuristic
takes on Japan. His 1970 tome, The Emerging Japanese Superstate:
Challenge and Response, outlined much of the success later
achieved by Japan. In 1979, another book on the Japan theme also
made a splash. The Japanese Challenge: The Success and Failure of
Economic Success, was co-authored with Thomas Pepper, who had
been the Bureau Chief of the Baltimore Sun until he was recruited
by Kahn and joined the Hudson Institute.
Herman Kahn headed the Hudson Institute until 1983, when astroke ended his life at age 61.

— Charles Pomeroy
5

FEATURE
JOURNALISM“It still amazes me. . . how the paper
allowed me towander. It was thegreatest educationof my life.”
A former Tokyo
stringer laments
the demise ofa great British
newspaper and its
Tokyo coverage.
by DAVID MCNEILL

IP

,R
6

I

n British parlance, the 9 p.m. watershed refers to the point
where adult content can safely be screened on television.
In our house it meant something different: the mercifully
reduced risk of a call from an editor at the Independent, mysometime employer, asking for a late-night file.
After years of these calls, the buzzing on my cell phone
triggered a Pavlovian response: sweaty palms, raised heartbeat, angry spouse. Occasionally, the voice on the other end
wanted a story that Could Not Wait, but more often than not
it was a request for a 600-word color piece, rewritten fromthe local wires.
And so it was that Independent readers came to know aboutchopstick bras, herbivorous men, yakuza wars, blowfish,
Marxism manga books and countless other items on the London desk’s Far-East shopping list. Then there was the dreaded
double-page spread, an off-the-cuff daily feature.
If all was working well, the spread was planned well inadvance, but the Indy always flew by the seat of its pants. Thatmeant being cajoled into pulling together 2000 words on someexotic topic (Japan’s pet boom; Clint Eastwood’s Iwo Jima movie) by midnight London time – four or five hours away.
During a rare Tokyo visit the foreign editor told me of his
ideal correspondent: the paper’s star reporter in America
who could be yanked out of bed at 3 a.m. and induced to write
800 immaculate words on anything. “A total pro,” he said.
Other writers were sent into war zones for weeks. Tokyo wasa doddle, he laughed.
It was that kind of newspaper. The Indy paid buttons,
often asked the impossible and rarely acknowledged either.
Stringers were expendable. But its unique rough-aroundthe-edges ethic only became clear when you visited its headquarters in London.
THE FOREIGN DESK WAS a single cluttered table. The people
who made me want to metaphorically pull a blanket over myhead in the evenings were harassed, overworked editors trying to run a world-class newspaper on a shoestring budget– staffed by a handful of full-time correspondents (and, eventually, not a single one in East Asia).
The paper had relocated from the London Docklands toNorthcliffe House off the Kensington High Street in 2008 –its fourth and final move in 22 years. The aim, of course, wasto save money. It shared the building with the arch-conservative Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, London Evening Standard, theMetro and London Lite – hardly an easy fit for a freewheeling,
center-left title.
Launched in 1986 in the space opened up by the unionbusting of Rupert Murdoch (his assault on print workers
had helped lower production costs, and prodded journalists
from other quality titles, including his own, to jump ship),the Indy sold over 400,000 copies by the end of the decade(prompting Murdoch to slash the price of the Times.) Thereafter, it slid and lurched from crisis to crisis, punctuated byremarkable highs.
OCT 2016

FCCJ

Just after I took over as a stringer fromRichard Lloyd Parry in 2002, it became
the first broadsheet to switch to tabloid
format, dubbed “compact” to distinguishit from the populist red tops. The front
page was retooled, making it impossible
to ignore: In 2004 it famously condemnedthe Hutton Report on the death of UK
government scientist David Kelly with aone-word headline “Whitewash?” It clawedback circulation and won British newspaper of the year in 2004.
That was typical of the Indy’s maverick,never-say-die spirit. In a crowded market
segment dominated by the Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times,
it was forced to consistently challenge therules of what a newspaper could do. In
design, it celebrated photography, anchoring its pages and foreign news to some of
the most striking images in print history.

The Indy’s helter-skelter, 30-year ride
triggered many affectionate eulogies.
My former editor, Archie Bland, recalled“a lovely sort of chaos,” but said lack ofresources “sometimes made getting thepaper out each night seem like a Sisyphean miracle.” Journalists at the Independent were, he said, “quite apart frombeing fiercely talented, prepared to run
through brick walls for each other.”
Because it was perpetually broke andforced to take risks, the Indy gave its
staff “responsibilities, opportunities
and scope which we’d never have had
elsewhere,” wrote Lloyd Parry on Facebook. “It still amazes me . . . how thepaper allowed me to wander,” he said,
recalling weeks in Indonesia reportingits “horrors and wonders” during thelate-90’s uprising. “It was the greatest
education of my life.”

FROM THE START, INTELLIGENT writing was
BY THE TIME I came along, such indulthe paper’s hallmark and its pages became
gences were rare. With notable excepa platform for some of the greatest first-person journalism oftions, editors in the financially strapped 2000s were lessthe last three decades. Robert Fisk, arguably the most celewilling to fund expensive reporting, though I loved how
brated correspondent of the era, helped put the foreign pageccentric pitches (“I’d like to interview Imelda Marcos”)
es up in lights but the Indy was full of other famous reportwere rewarded with enthusiastic one-line mails (“Go, man,ing names, including Patrick Cockburn, Rupert Cornwell andgo!”). And when the story was important, such as Japan’s(until he left) Lloyd Parry.
3/11 triple disaster, the paper was exceptionally generous
Though it resisted political pigeonholing, the paper waswith time, money and space.
often on the right side of history, strongly arguing against
Even in its demise, the Indy may – like so many times –the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, for example, and lamentbe ahead of the curve, sadly so. It survives as a digital pubing Britain’s unqualified support for America’s “war on terlication, employing a handful of editors to churn out copy,ror.” In 2007 it was rewarded by a bitter swipe from Prime
rewritten from articles it would once have commissioned. A
Minister Tony Blair, who dismissed the Indy as a “viewsparecent piece from the Japan Times, reporting on blanket surper” not a “newspaper.”veillance of Muslims living in Japan, was a case in point – pilIt took a stand on the parliamentary lobby system, a sort offered lock, stock and barrel.
press club for British journalists widely criticized for spoonThat approach appears to be working – at least for now.
feeding them. “The Independent was not going to deceive its
Online readership is up (helped by heavy promotion onreaders,” declared the paper’s then editor Chris Blackhurst.
Facebook and other social media). Around two-thirds of the
For years, he added, the paper banned its journalists fromIndependent’s UK readers access it only from mobile devices,
going on press trips. “Nothing was to be gained from going inaccording to Journalism.co.uk. But for better or worse, thea pack and being subjected to PR ‘spin’.”
Indy’s fate encapsulates the decline of old media and the rise
But all these principled achievements and a string of innoof algorithm-led churnalism.
vative content refits (“let’s get Bono to edit!”) couldn’t halt theSome digital optimists will be happy to see the citadels
slide. In one of several final humiliations, the paper was tradof mainstream journalism tottering, and it is possible thated between billionaires for a quid in 2010, sold by Irish mogul
something better will arise from the rubble. But for now it’s
Tony O’Reilly to Alexander Lebedev, a Russian oligarch andhard to see what that is. As Cockburn, one of the Indepenex-KGB spy. It was Lebedev’s son Evgeny who eventually broke
dent’s greatest talents recently wrote in another context: “We
the news to long-suffering staff in February this year that withhave entered “an age of disintegration.”circulation at 40,000 and still sliding, theAs for me, I won’t miss those late-night
David McNeill writes for the Irish Times,
paper would print its last print edition thecalls. But I do sometimes long for thethe Economist, and other publications.
following month.
Indy’s beautiful bedlam. ❶FCCJ

OCT 2016

7

FEATURE
MEDIA
but little more. He declined to go on the record with his
profession and real name as a precaution against potential
trolling and harassment. This was true of the many who
spoke with the Number 1 Shimbun who declined to release
personal details, and all said that it simply wasn’t worth
the hassle. The threat of trolls seeking out your identity toharass you can turn a hobby, or possible career, into thesort of irritant or worse that is all too familiar to many
journalists at the FCCJ.

MONETIZING THE STREAMS

Abroad in Japan

From his video “WhyTeaching Swear Words
is Important”

The future of themedia is you(tube)
by RICHARD SMART

D

espite recent films extolling the heyday of investigative journalists, like the Boston Globe team that took on
the Catholic church in the film Spotlight, traditional
media jobs are no longer thought of as desirable by young
people entering the workforce. In fact, in a CareerCast.com
ranking of the worst professions to enter, a career in newspaper journalism topped the chart. In No. 3 was broadcaster,
only barely beaten by the logger profession in second. Thereis one job in media, though, that is among the most desired
career choices for 21st century youth: the YouTube star.
A look into the inner workings of the platform in Japansuggest that these starry-eyed job hunters, who likely see theplatform offering a path to easy money and a lavish lifestyle,may want to rethink their ambitions. Earnings are opaque,trolls are common, a jimusho system that is as impenetrable
as that in J-pop controls the trajectory of its stars, and justas the biggest newspapers of the world find themselves at
the whim of the Facebook algorithm, so do “vloggers” – video
bloggers – face online processes that can make or break theirad revenue in any given month.
So why are 400 hours of video worldwide getting uploaded to the platform every minute? Those involved on the
ground speak of a sense of community and an opportunity
to create, while those in what is derogatorily referred to as
Richard Smart covers Japanese business, science and the economy for
publications around the world.

8

But there are those who have become professional YouTubers
over the years, taking advantage of the platform’s AdSense
program that allows contributors to share a slice of the advertising pie, while download speeds have taken streaming mainstream. With increased viewer figures have come sponsorshipdeals, paid contracts with talent agencies and a chance to
crowdfund channels through Patreon, a platform that allows
fans to contribute money to those online that they support.
Up in Tohoku, Chris Broad’s Abroad in Japan channel has
amassed more than a quarter of a million subscribers, attracts
hundreds of thousands of views and allows him to live off ofhis earnings. “You still need to make something that is informative and entertaining – or ideally both – with a clear demographic in mind,” he says of his success. “But I’d say if you
were consistent in uploading and delivering quality content,“legacy media” view video – whether on
YouTube or other platforms – as a way ofreaching millennials.

OCT 2016

FCCJ

LEARNING FROM SCRATCH
Can major international publications learn from the YouTubers? The Guardian thinks so. Christian Bennett, global headof video and audio for the Guardian, says the videos the site
produces attract more women and a viewership about 15
years younger than the average reader. “We have to find a way
to engage with that audience if we want a future audience
for the Guardian,” he said. “They are commercially more valuable in terms of pre-roll ads, and if you’re really serious about
digital news gathering you have to be in video. It’s like color
photography once was for newspapers.”
With their markedly higher quality, the Guardian’s videos
have won numerous awards. Most recently, the Grierson
Trust nominated the company’s We Walk Together, a 17-minute piece on the journey of a Syrian refugee family’s journey
across Europe, for a Best Documentary on Current Affairs
award. Other nominated films came from the BBC and ITV,Britain’s main terrestrial networks.

SharlaFar left, from her video“Thank You for 5 Years
on YouTube”

ESCAPING THE TROLLS“Endless September” is a phrase rarely
heard outside geek circles. It refers to aphenomenon from the early days of theinternet, when sophisticated, high-context conversations on chatrooms would
be disrupted once a year, then more
often, then always, by the inane, the misinformed and trolls. Why September? That is when students
arrived online, getting free online access at their universities. As more joined the internet, so did the tendency for dull
conversation and trolling increase, making the September
problem a year-round one.
Japan had its own endless September. Hikosaemon, a YouTuber with 35,000 subscribers who has been active on theYouTube site since around the time of its launch, joined to
avoid the trolling and banality of comments sections in otherareas of the internet. “It was a time when news forums turned
into rage spaces for the expat community to vent,” he said. “Ioriginally used YouTube to try and reach out to other people
who shared my interest in Japanese news without the rage.
Since the 1990s I was reading Japanese news online, andwatching people using YouTube to talk about American news.
I was more interested in discussion than foreigner fights,
where trolls dominate the forums.”
YouTube gave him a chance to be a “guide” to news stories
from Japan, with an overseas-to-Japanese audience ratio ofaround 70:30. “I found it was a way of engaging with people on my own terms,” he said. “What I do complements old
media. There has been an observable decline at times in thequality of coverage in some parts of the media, and people
online are looking for verification; they are asking if they cantrust what they are reading.”
Through the ads that appear alongside his videos, Hikosaemon makes just enough to pay for broadcast equipment,

Yoshida Masaki says that it believes YouTube is heading
down a sustainable path. Many of the accounts may at basebe seeking out just clicks, according to the company, and areunlikely to stand the test of time. Other accounts though,operated by people with a creative drive that is about morethan money and an understanding of the platform they are
working on, are the future for the platform.

Rachel and Jun

Left, “Pros and Cons ofTraveling in Japan”

250,000 subscribers is achievable in 18 to 24 months.”
Broad says many in the industry are signing up with companies and agencies to make a living, while he has followeda more independent path. “Most YouTubers make an income
from three sources: YouTube ad revenue, merchandise andsponsors,” he says. “I’ve dabbled with all three, but they’re all
fairly unreliable. YouTube ad revenue can be fairly unpredictable and goes up and down throughout the year according
to advertising spending, which is typically higher around theend of the year.”Three of the big English-language YouTube channels inJapan belong to Canadians Micaela Braithwaite (270,000 subscribers) and Sharla (467,000), and the American wife/Japanese husband team Rachel and Jun (679,000). All three arerepresented by Yoshida Masaki, a talent agency that refused
to give access to its stars, citing their inability to answer questions such as “How has YouTube changed your life” within adefinite time period because of commitments. The agency
did, however, answer questions about those it represents.
“There is not much difference between the way we treat
YouTube creators and our other staff,” an official at the company said. “We praise them when they deserve praise andscold them when they deserve scolding. But whichever we do,it is with love.”
FCCJ

OCT 2016

Those on YouTube, though, are more focused on community than mass appeal. “It is not that we are going to become
big media,” Hikosaemon said. “But all these interest communities that have videos of broadcast quality will get places on
platforms [now being developed by Silicon Valley companies]
for their specialist channels.”
YouTube itself sees opportunities both with major companies and the upstarts. “YouTube wants to be the preferred
destination where fans and video creators engage,” Ayako
Kono, a spokeswoman for the company said. Those video creators need not have a DIY spirit. “Recently, respected animation houses Nippon Animation and Kadokawa have worked
with YouTube to bring their content onto our platform, allowing more fans around the world to view their productions
than ever before.”
The company aims to be in virtual reality on cellphones andanywhere else that people view video, Kono said. So is this the
future? Broad believes it may well be, but says that the main
risk is that the company changes in ways that will alienate
those contributing and cause them to jump ship.
“Given that YouTube is a Silicon valley company, it's very
proactive when it comes to innovation,” he says. “I’m all for
innovation, but it can make you a bit anxious when they makedramatic changes suddenly that affect creators.” ❶9FEATURE
HISTORY

Newsflash or false news:
the abdication of Emperor Hirohito
Succession?

The Emperor (center left) andhis son, Crown Prince Akihito(center right).

office in the Dai-ichi Building on June 12.
A record of their conversation, which Gascoigne sent to the
British Foreign Office, can be found in the National Archives
in London. In it, he wrote: “I said that I hoped that there wasno truth in these rumours and that in my opinion the resulting formation of a Regency Council, in which Prince Takamatsu would presumably play a leading part, would not bedesirable from the point of view of the aims of occupation.
I said that as far as my information went Prince Takamatsu
was inclined to be reactionary and that he had certain affiliations with undesirable purgees.”
Gascoigne’s worries stemmed from the imperial family’s
make-up at the time. Crown Prince Akihito was only 14 years
old at the time, so if he were to immediately succeed theEmperor, it would be necessary to name a regent. That task
would have normally fallen upon Prince Chichibu, the younger
brother of the Emperor, but as he was sufferingfrom pulmonary tuberculosis, that was out of
the question. There left the strong possibility
that Prince Takamatsu would be next in line.

the Japanese economy and bolster communist influences.
Among the group’s influential members were Newsweek’s
foreign editor Harry Kern, Tokyo bureau chief Compton Pakenham and Kauffman himself.
MacArthur saw them as attempting to change the policiesof the Occupation, by encouraging the Emperor’s abdicationin accordance with the timing of the verdict of Tojo and theother defendants. He told Gascoigne, “Elements both in Japanand in America now saw an unlimited period of occupationahead and Japanese purgees no doubt hoped to have morechance of getting back into their old positions under a Regency (in which Takamatsu took a prominent part) than under
the present regime of Emperor Hirohito – they blamed theEmperor for his docile ‘yes-man’ attitude towards the severe
punishment which had been meted out to them. (The Generalthus insinuated that big business in the States was behind

AP PHOTO“MacArthur confirmed that the questionof abdication was no longer an actual one.
It had been ‘artificially stimulated byforeign correspondents.’”

The issue of imperial succession was usedin political maneuvers with the press in
Occupation Japan.
by EIICHIRO TOKUMOTO

B

y indicating his desire to hand over the imperial throne
to the crown prince, Japan’s 82-year-old emperor set
off intense debate about the state of the imperial family and the institution of the monarchy itself. What started
as rumor has become a real issue for the government, as it
scrambles to find a legal way to handle any succession. Press
coverage has been extensive, not only in Japan but worldwide.
This is not, however, the first time in the postwar era forthe subject to arise, and not the first time it has caused great
consternation for the interested parties. According to declassified documents of the British government, a group of Japanese and Americans engaged in behind-the-scenes political maneuvering to bring about the abdication of Emperor
Hirohito soon after the end of WWII. And, whether willingly
or through deception, there were a number of foreign correspondents involved in a disinformation campaign to achieve
the plotters’ aim – to change Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Occupation policies and the state of postwar Japan.
It started with an article in the New York Times of May
25, 1948, under the headline “Hirohito’s reign seen nearingend.” Lindesay Parrott, the NYT’s Tokyo correspondent and amember of the Tokyo Correspondents’ Club (precursor of the
FCCJ), citing “usually well-informed Japanese” as his source,
wrote: “The possibility that Emperor Hirohito may abdicate
within the next few months again is becoming a subject of

10

general discussion among Japanese. . . . What has again raised
the question whether Hirohito is ready to step down from histhrone is the approaching verdict of the eleven-nation tribunal that for the last two years has been trying former Premier
Hideki Tojo and his former colleagues as war criminals.” Parrott also wrote that if the Emperor should abdicate, his brotherPrince Takamatsu, a former officer of the Imperial JapaneseNavy, would assume the regency of the Crown Prince.
Two days later, on May 27, Reuters’ Tokyo correspondent
followed up with a similar article, in which he wrote, “The city
today buzzed with rumours that Emperor Hirohito is planning to abdicate on August 15. . . . His abdication, it is said,
would be timed to coincide with the execution of General Tojo
and other war leaders.”
THE SAME DAY, HOWARD Handleman, the FCCJ’s first president and Tokyo correspondent for International News Service, joined the bandwagon, writing, “Japanese sources
reported that Hirohito has been persuaded to step downfrom the throne in favor of his son, Crown Prince Akihito,
who would reign through a regency until he becomes of age.”
The timing was important. One month earlier, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as theTokyo Trials, had completed its proceedings. It was expectedthat former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and other Class-A
war criminals would receive the death sentence, and rumors
spread among correspondents that the tribunal’s rulingwould be timed to the Emperor’s abdication. Their reports
were circulated worldwide, resulting in a considerable reaction in Japan as well.
Sir Alvary Gascoigne was worried. Acting for the sole constitutional monarchy among the Allies, the British Political
Representative in Japan harbored major concerns over theEmperor’s abdication, and met with Gen. MacArthur at his
OCT 2016

FCCJ

MACARTHUR SCOFFED AT THE reports, butseemed to agree with Gascoigne about the
choice of regent. “General MacArthur repliedthat there was ‘not one scintilla of truth’ in the
rumours regarding the Emperor’s abdication. Should there everbe in future any question of the Emperor wishing to abdicate,
he would insist upon his remaining in his present position.”
The report continued. “The Supreme Commander said that
he was in agreement with my estimation of Prince Takamatsu, whom he gravely distrusted. Rumours of the abdication
stemmed from purgee circles in Japan, and these had been
advertised by certain Wall Street elements through the medium of the American Magazine ‘News Week[sic]’.”So why did MacArthur single out Newsweek for criticism?
And furthermore, why would Wall Street have any involvement with the abdication of the Emperor of Japan? It started
with an article that appeared six months earlier, in the Dec. 1,1947 issue of Newsweek, written by American attorney JamesLee Kauffman. A graduate of Harvard University who worked
as a lawyer in Japan before the war, Kauffman taught at Tokyo
Imperial University’s Law faculty, and had many friends inJapan’s financial circles.
In his article, Kauffman was critical of GHQ economic policies. GHQ had just recently arranged for the complete dissolution of the Zaibatsu as a step toward democracy, and had
purged out not only militarists but those in financial or business circles who it considered to have cooperated in instigating the war. Their numbers were said to reach 200,000.
Kauffman believed the purges, particularly from the private enterprises, would interfere with Japan’s recovery. He
wrote, “Because of this purge both the Japanese Governmentand businesses have been stripped of older men of ability andexperience. Japanese banks are being run by former cashiers
and assistant vice presidents while business concerns arebeing directed by former plant managers and clerks. Young
men hold the key positions in government. They are hardworking, sincere and intelligent but lack the experience sodesperately needed at this time.”
According to Kauffman, GHQ’s economic policies were “farto the left of anything tolerated in this country.” He was notalone in his beliefs. The so-called “Japan Lobby,” a looselyknit group of U.S. government officials, financiers and journalists who were favorably inclined toward Japan, had begun
supporting a “Reverse Course” policy, warning that efforts todissolve the Zaibatsu and purge businessmen would weaken
FCCJ

OCT 2016

the abdication rumours by virtue of its desire to see restoration of pre-war economic regime in Japan which would suitits own purposes best.)”IN ANY EVENT, THE tribunal handed down its death sentenceson the seven Class-A war criminals in November 1948, later
than initially expected; their executions were carried out at
Sugamo Prison on Dec. 23. Concurrent to this, rumors of theabdication dissipated.
MacArthur, it seems, had managed to squelch any moves by
the abdication crowd by dealing directly with the Emperor.
On Jan. 13, 1949, Gascoigne sent another report to the Foreign
Office, in which he conveyed what MacArthur had said to a
Canadian diplomat. “MacArthur confirmed that the questionof abdication was no longer an actual one. This suggestion,
he said, had been ‘artificially stimulated by foreign correspondents.’ Emperor Hirohito had asked him (MacArthur)what course he should adopt and had intimated that hewould be willing to abdicate if the Allies wished him so to do.
If they were not, however, anxious to see him go, he would‘stick it out.’ Thereupon MacArthur had assured His Majesty
that the whole issue was an artificial one, and that there wasno necessity for him to abdicate.”
After a separate meeting with MacArthur, Gascoigne
reported the General’s assessment of Emperor Hirohito as
being “more democratically progressive than any of his subjects, and certainly much more so than any of the members of
the present government.”
In the backdrop of the rumors over abdication soon after
the war’s end were behind-the-scenes political moves by people wishing to remake the emperor to their own advantage,and it’s very likely that the Press Club correspondents wereused in a plot to circulate disinformation. Since then, theyoung Crown Prince has grown, been crowned Emperor andnow, at a venerable age, has expressed his desire to abdicate.
Will the abdication issue again become ensnarled in furtive
politics and press manipulation? And if so, who will the key
players be? ❶Eiichiro Tokumoto, a former Reuters correspondent, is an author andinvestigative journalist.
11

SERIESPROFILE

Robin Harding
by GAVIN BLAIR

have to work hard to find the stories in the middle.”
Harding cites two stories he produced this year which hit
the “sweet spot” that “tells people something really interesting about Japan: something different and relevant to the concerns you have.” The first was an interactive piece on earthquake preparedness and risk that featured a lot of graphics.
“It got well-read because it looked good and because FT readers around the world care about the impact of a major earthquake in Japan,” he says.
The other was about house prices
and how the looser planning laws makehousing cheaper in Japan, a theme that
resonates with readers in major cities around the world. “Nobody in Japan
would think of writing that story,” hesays. “You don’t have those rules, so you
don’t think about. Similarly, it wouldn’t
occur to people abroad to think about
how Japan does this.”

SIX MONTHS AFTER HARDING returnedto Tokyo, the FT was bought from Pearson by the Nikkei in a $1.3 billion deal
which raised inevitable questions about
editorial independence at the “pink ’un.”Though the FT’s Tokyo bureau has
moved back into the Nikkei building –it was previously housed there before
relocating – Harding insists there has
been no attempt at editorial influence,“I’m the person most exposed to that, so
if there was any, I’m pretty confident I would know about it,”he says. “We’re physically segregated from the Nikkei. Literally the only place we encounter them is in the canteen.
“The Nikkei is not a company controlled by a proprietor,
like a lot of the UK media is,” he says. “It’s essentially an
employee-owned perpetual trust and doesn’t really have any
TWO YEARS IN TOKYO were followed by a five-year stint as theideological interest in influencing us.”
FT’s economics editor in Washington, before returning again
Harding contrasts the situation with the former ownership
to Japan at the beginning of 2015 as bureau chief. “In the U.S.,
by publicly listed Pearson, which had extremely ambitious
my job was to break stories on what the Fed was going to do
requirements about how much money the FT was supposed
next,” he says. “In Japan, my job is to explain what is happento make, leading to a lot of instability. “I’ve been at the FT for
ing in this far off place that we don’t understand very well.
10 years and there have been three rounds of redundancies.
Breaking stories in Tokyo is possible, but you often have to
In terms of an owner who’s going to be there as it makes the
specialize so far to break something that it isn’t of interest totransition to online, they [Nikkei] are great.”a global audience anyway.”
Maintaining editorial independence, he says, “has actually
How to make Japan stories interesting to an international
been a twin challenge. One is to make sure we’re not censorreadership was the theme of a Meet the Press talk Harding
ing ourselves by avoiding writing controversial stuff aboutgave at the Club in October last year. “The challenge I disJapanese companies. But we also don’t want to go out of ourcovered – and it remains the challenge for all foreign correway to write aggressive stuff to show how independent wespondents – is finding ways to project Japanese stories so thatare. Both of these would be equally stupid things to do.”you’re still capturing the truth about Japan, but making it
The FT, along with other global media outlets, has previinteresting for foreign readers. There are traps on both sides.
ously run stories criticizing the frequent leaking of financial
You can just tell the standard story of the day, about politics
data ahead of official results by Japanese companies to thein Japan, and your readers will sigh with boredom – if you
Nikkei. Asked if he would still write thefind you have any readers. Or you can
Gavin Blair covers Japanese business,story today, Harding replies, “Definitego the other way and do weird, freakysociety and culture for publications inly, though I might avoid the canteen
stories, which will draw readers in, but
America, Asia and Europe.
that day.” ❶then you're not telling the truth. So we
12

OCT 2016

FCCJ

ANDREW POTHECARY

W

hile many have made the leap from journalism into
more lucrative professions – a trend that has only
accelerated in recent years as the media struggles toadapt to a digital world – Robin Harding left the world of highfinance for the life of a hack.
The native of Durham in England’s northeast graduatedfrom Cambridge with an economics degree in 2000, at theheight of the tech bubble, when everyone wanted to be infinance. Harding says he found himself ill-suited to the business side of the
field, despite trying a number of different roles. “I loved the subject matter,but not the practice.”
When the opportunity to take a Master’s in economics at Hitotsubashi University on a Japanese government scholarship arose in 2001, Harding made his
first trip to Japan. Upon graduation, he
returned to London. “I tried a couple
more jobs, still hadn’t learned my lesson: went back into finance,” he says.
He joined the Financial Times in thesummer of 2006 on a fellowship forleader writers. Tasked with writing aleader column on his first day, he didn’tknow it was supposed to be daunting. “Iwrote about all sorts of things in those
first two years,” he says, “most of which
I was deeply lacking in expertise about,but then that’s journalism.”
When an opening for an FT techreporter in Japan came up in 2008, Harding jumped at the
chance to return to Tokyo. “The TV industry was still Japanese-driven, the game industry was still Japanese-driven andthe phone industry had not yet been wiped out by Apple.”

FCCJ

OCT 2016

13

FEATURE
A LIFE IN JAPANA history Pokrovsky as a young boy, with hisfather (right) and an Orthodox priest in Tokyo.
And as a young man on the slopes at Bandai, Japan.

From Russia
with love

Although his degree was in chemicalengineering, Victor had a solid background in church music, encouragedby his father who had been head ofthe major Orthodox church. He had afine tenor voice and played the violin
with distinction – his violin teacher
had also tutored the maestro Jascha
Heifitz – and the Russian church in
Harbin needed someone like him to
improve its musical standards.
He wasn’t there long before wordof his reputation reached Tokyo,
where the Nikolai-do, the Russian
Orthodox cathedral in Ochanomizu,
was also seeking to boost the quality of its music and raise funds forreconstruction after the 1923 GreatTokyo Earthquake. Victor accepted
the church’s invitation and moved toJapan in 1924.
Not long after, Victor met Yevgenia, a young Russian woman from
Khabarovsk, and in 1930 they were
married at Nikolai-do. On Nov. 27,
1931, Yevgenia gave birth to theirson, George. Tragedy struck on thefollowing day when she suddenly
passed away due to post-birthcomplications. It was a devastating
blow, but Victor hired a Russiannanny to tend the child and got onwith life, remarrying in 1935.

BY THIS TIME, LITTLE George was
growing up and taking note ofhis surroundings. “I remember
those as good days,” he says. “Asa small boy I attended the Russian schoolat Nikolai-do and we lived in a house in the
A long-time member of the Club looks back at a fascinating
cathedral precincts. I had many friends
life – from wartime to the Bubble era; from ski resort owneramong the local kids and we would play
to magazine publisher.
together.” George vividly remembers a 1937
visit with his father to the New Tokyo Beer
Hall, which had just opened in Sukiyabashi.
by GEOFF TUDOR(The beer hall still exists, on the B1 level ofthe FCCJ’s premises.)
The Pokrovsky family expanded with thearrival of two daughters, Lydia and Larisa. Then, in 1940,
hen Georges Pokrovsky celebrates his 85th birthday
the Russian leaders of the Orthodox church community wereon Nov. 27, he can look back on a life encompassing
forced to “retire” and were evicted from their homes. The
an eventful childhood, Japan’s dark days of conflict
Pokrovskys were forced to move to Yokohama.
and postwar recovery, the miraculous growth of the sixties
It was Victor’s intention to emigrate to the U.S. where a job
and seventies and the heady days of the “Bubble Economy.”
was waiting at a church in San Francisco. But the Japanese
An associate FCCJ member since 1964, magazine publisher
attack on Pearl Harbor happened before the family could
Pokrovsky has been an eyewitness to Japan’s modern history.
leave, stranding them in Japan.
His story begins back in 1917 in Kazan, a city in southwest
During the war, Victor, who had little capital, was able to
Russia that lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka
augment his income by teaching music and playing the violin.
rivers, where his father, Victor Alexandrovich Pokrovsky, had
George had enrolled in St. Joseph’s College, a catholic interjust graduated from university. Young Victor joined the White
national school in Yokohama, where they lived until 1943.
Army and battled the Communist Red Army forces acrossThat year, faced with the threat of Allied bombing, the famRussia before finally escaping to Manchuria where he found
ily moved to Karuizawa where they were eventually able tosanctuary in the city of Harbin.

W

14

OCT 2016

FCCJ

buy their own house, thanks to Victor’s connections.
By 1944 the wartime economy had worsened so much that
local shops had closed their shutters; the family had to deal
directly with the local farmers for basic supplies such as riceand potatoes. “At first cash was accepted but later we had tobarter clothes and shoes for food,” Pokrovsky says. “We werealways hungry.”
There were constant reminders of war despite their distance. By 1945 flights of B-29 bombers could be frequently
seen flying high overhead on their way to hit their targets –such as Niigata on the Japan Sea coast.
And then the war was over, and life slowly returned to“normal.” Victor got his old job back at Nikolai-do. George
went back to St. Joseph’s, having missed nearly three years ofschooling. He finished his studies there in 1952.

First, we didn’t have enough capital. Second, the site was in a
National Park where, according to the rules, foreigners could
not own property.”
They solved the first problem easily enough. “The fatherof one of my partners was the president of a major Japanesebank,” he says. “He couldn’t lend the money to three young
ski fanatics directly, but one of his clients was a university
classmate and vice president of a major corporation. He wasappointed to the board of directors of the ski resort company
and so with this impeccable figure onboard, our company
could borrow.”
Then the nationality issue had to be dealt with. One of his
ski friends spoke to his father who happened to be a closefriend of a top man at the Ministry of Justice. “He’s a very
curious foreigner,” George’s friend’s father told the ministry
official. “He has his own hanko seal.” That was good enoughfor the official, who ordered his staff to arrange the paperwork without delay. “From being a stateless person suddenly
I was a Japanese national.”“From being a statel
ess person
suddenly I was a Japa
nese national.”
GEORGE HAD A JAPANESE passport, and the ski resort proj-

IN OCCUPATION-RULED JAPAN, the Pokrovsky clan took stockof the situation. Most of them made plans to leave, though
it took time for them to bear fruit. Lydia met and married ayoung American navy officer, William Kosar, and left for the
U.S. in 1958. Victor, wife Irene and daughter Larisa joined
them in 1962.
But George had decided to stay put. “Originally my hope
had been to train as an engineer, as my father had done,” hesays. “But I had become disenchanted with education. I had
missed years of school. I had gone without good food and had
also experienced hard times. I was, you might say, an angry
young man. I felt attracted to becoming a businessman.”
There weren’t a lot of opportunities at the time. “Jobs weredifficult to come by in Occupation days,” he says. “You either
worked for G.H.Q. or some other branch of the military. I
eventually ended up as an advertising salesman for a publication aimed at the foreign community called Preview.”
The job was short-lived. When he noticed that the ownerpublisher had too many irons in the fire and the magazine
was suffering, he asked to take over. But Preview went bust in
1954 and the owner-publisher disappeared.
Pokrovsky turned elsewhere. “Around this time I was a ski
fanatic and I had another scheme in mind. Two Japanese
friends joined me in a ski resort venture on a site in Fukushima prefecture,” he recalls. “But we hit several barriers.
Geoff Tudor writes for Orient Aviation, Hong Kong.
FCCJ

OCT 2016

ect was on. “I didn’t take a Japanese name, though, so I’ve
had some fun when I turn up at airline check-in counters,”
says Pokrovsky. “And one of the first ski instructors we hired
was an ambitious young man called Yuichiro Miura, who later
gained fame for skiing down Mt. Everest.”
He began to develop his publishing business in earnest.
“I felt that the travel business had great capabilities, with
opportunities in the market for publications featuring Japanand Asia,” he says. He launched the Far East Traveler magazine, and its success made him feel secure enough to get married in 1966.
A big break came in 1975 when Richard Handl, the legendary General Manager of the Tokyo Hilton, asked George
to provide the magazine for distribution in his hotel rooms.
“This concept caught on – and to make a long story short,that’s still what I do today,” says Pokrovsky. “My company, Far
East Reporters Inc., produces customized magazines for distribution in hotel rooms. Today our single title is International
Travel Plan, which replaced the Far East Traveler in 1998.”
His son Michael runs the business on a daily basis as managing editor. Pokrovsky deals with clients and advertisers as
CEO – which in his case, he says, stands for “chief entertainment officer.” He makes use of the FCCJ almost daily.
Life was extraordinarily good during the “Bubble Economy,” when the publication business soared like a rocket. “Fora brief period,” says Pokrovsky, “we joined the rest of Japanin extravagance – first class air travel, Concorde flights, a big
house in Yokohama.”
The flow of income was partly from publishing but also
from his involvement in the property business. “I realized
something was happening in the real estate world when in1990 I sold a small tract of land for a truly amazing sum,” hesays. “I was hooked, and started to invest heavily, borrowing
from banks only too willing to lend.”
He also played the gracious host at lavish parties. “I invited
25 of my top clients once a year to the fabled Kawana Hotelnear Ito for two days of golf. My accountant thought I was
mad, but I felt justified in holding the event.”
Then the “Bubble” burst, and with it went his property
investments. “I lost a packet, and in retrospect I had made atremendous mistake,” he says. “But I was not alone.”
Happily, the publications business continues to perform
well, which may be the source of his approach to life. “I havea wonderful family and have been extremely lucky,” he says. “Ihave no regrets about how life has turned out.” ❶15

CLUB NEWSCLUB NEWSHEARD AT THE CLUB“Patrick Moynihan, who wasa famous senator from New
York, famously said, ‘You havea right to your own opinions,but not to your own facts.’
He was wrong. What thiscampaign has shown is thatthe candidates think they verymuch have aright to theirown facts.”

FCCJ EXHIBITION

Norman Pearlstine,
Vice Chairman ofTime Inc.,
speaking about the
U.S. presidential
election at the
FCCJ on Sept. 11.

Tsukiji Fish Market:
photographs by
Shun Kato
INEVITABLY, EVEN THINGS WITH characterare helpless against the passage of time.
Despite the various problems involvedin Tsukiji fish market’s relocation, its
existence at its present site is finallydrawing to an end after 80 years. The
people who work there are renowned fortheir high spirits and energy, but will
the market be able to retain the sameatmosphere after moving to its new site inToyosu? I believe the ambience of the place
is something to be treasured. Tokyo’s new
governor has postponed relocation until
after February 2017. In order to cherish
the valuable time that remains, I intend
to use my camera to capture every small
drama in Tsukiji market as it occurs. ❶The FCCJ is pleased to offer
members a substantial discount on
subscriptions to LexisNexis’ news
database service, Nexis.com
The Members-only deal
allows for flat-rate access at¥7,900 per month – offering
big savings on a service that
normally costs ¥126,000 per month

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

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

Your ad in our pages
Advertize in
Number 1 Shimbun

Shun Kato, born in Gifu in 1992, became
fascinated with photography while studying at
Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences, andafter graduation he joined Jiji Press. The bulk of
his work is in black-and-white and concentrates
on people. His most famous series is ‘The
Fishermen of Okushiri Island’ which led him to
Tsukiji Fish Market.

16

Discount LexisNexis
Subscriptions
for FCCJ Members

Contact
no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
OCT 2016

FCCJ

FCCJ

OCT 2016

17

CLUB NEWS

New
Members

REGULAR MEMBERS

YOICHI TAKITA is a senior staff writer at Nihon Keizai Shimbun,
covering macro economy and financial markets. He joined thecompany upon graduating from Keio University in 1981 with a
Master’s degree in law. From 1987 until 1990 he was the Zurich
Bureau Chief and from 2008-2009 he was the senior staff writerfor Nikkei America. He returned to Japan in 2009 to the positionof deputy chief editorial writer for Nikkei, a post he held until 2011.
In 2011 he took on his present post. In 2008, Takita received theVaughan-Ueda International Journalist Award for reports on the
Lehman crisis. He has written several books, including The Global
Financial Crisis is Opening Pandora’s Box (2008), How to Read theCurrency Market, 4th edition (2013), How to Read Interest Rates (2014).
BOBBIE VAN DER LIST is a freelance journalist who writes forseveral Dutch newspapers: Financieel Dagblad, Trouw and Algemeen
Dagblad. A native of Amsterdam, he earned his Master of Science
degree in Asian Studies from Lund University (Sweden). With abachelor in Journalism in his pocket he made his way to Tokyo in
September 2015. In addition to covering general news for Dutch
newspapers, he regularly writes for special-interest magazines,
covering a wide range of topics and industries: from Japanesemanagement to culinary stories, and from technology to healthcare.
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Avnish Sharma, Embassyof India

Mariko Kishi, Hosei
University
Tsuneo Shimoji, Japan
Entrepreneurs & Presidents
Association

Naomi Tsukahara

SPECIAL CAMPAIGN OFFER FOR NEW ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
The FCCJ is offering a special deal for new
Associate Members. From the beginningof September to the end of the year,
those joining are eligible for a¥100,000 DISCOUNT off of theregular fee of ¥300,000.
If successfully approved, the applicants
will be able to enjoy all the member
benefits: attendance at all the majorpress conferences and professional andsocial events; dining services at the Main Bar,
Pen & Quill Executive Dining area andthe Masukomi Sushi Bar; special discounts on
sports, arts and cultural events; free wi-fi, half-priceparking, the Club’s monthly 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.

18

New in the
Library

Fukushima daiichi genpatsu hairo zukan
Hiroshi Kainuma (ed.)
Ota Shuppan
2016/7/21 Press Conference
Eikokujin dezaina ga oshieru arufabetto no himitsu
Andrew Pothecary; Rei Murakami (trans.); Fumiko
Yokoyama (trans.)
MdN Corporation
Gift from Andrew Pothecary
Choyaku bushido: gurobaru jidai no kyoyo o eigo tonihongo de manabu
Michihiro Matsumoto
President Inc.
Gift from Michihiro Matsumoto
Densetsu no eikokujin kisha ga mita nihon no senso
senryo fukko: 1935-1965
Hessell Tiltman; Hideaki Kase (trans.)
Shodensha
Gift from Hiroyuki Fujita
Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, vol. x
Hugh Cortazzi (comp. & ed.)Renaissance Books
Gift from Japan Society
Gin'iro shashinka funsenki
Toshiki Makino
Watanabe Shuppan
Gift from Toshiki Makino (Kyodo News)The Visit of Pope John Paul II to Japan in
Photographs 1981
Fr. James Paul Colligan
XlibrisGift from James Paul Colligan
Hodo shashin ga tsutaeta 100-nen
Shimbun Tsushin Chosakai (ed.); Kyodo Tsushinsha (ed.)
Shimbun Tsushin Chosakai
Gift from Kota Ishihara (Kyodo News)
Riodejaneiro orinpikku 2016 hodo shashinshu
Kyodo Tsushinsha
Gift from Yasunori Koizumi (Kyodo News)
Kokkai benran (140 edition)
Shuhari Initiative Ltd.

OCT 2016

FCCJ