The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of JapanMay 2017
Volume 49 No. 5¥400

Nostalgic for Showa

Mark Schreiber on the media’s sentimental trend
Sontaku: Lost intranslation?

Entourage: following
Bruce Osborn: theNorth Korea:
the emperor
photographer in profile Showdown in 1969Vol. 49, Number 5

May 2017

contact the editors

no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Publisher FCCJ
Editor Gregory Starr
Art Director Andrew Pothecarywww.forbiddencolour.com
Editorial Assistants Naomichi Iwamura,
Photo Coordinator Akiko Miyake
Publications committee members
Gavin Blair, Freelance (Chair); Geoffrey Tudor,
Orient Aviation; Monzurul Huq, Prothom Alo;John R. Harris, Automobile Magazine;Peter Langan, Asia Times; Yoichi Yabe, Freelance
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

Stefano Carrer
gets on board
with the emperor

In this issue
The Front Page
From the President by Khaldon Azhari
To the Editor
Collections: Showa memories
From the archives : The man with the baton

p12
4
4
5
5

Trouble, rubble, toil and bubble
by Mark Schreiber

6

What’s in a wordby Eiichiro Tokumoto

8

ProfileBruce Osborn
by Abby Leonard
The emperor’s buon viaggio
by Stefano Carrer
When we targeted North Korea
by Todd Crowell
Club News
Exhibition: Made in Tokyo
by Carla Hernandez
Press tours organized by the Special Projects Committee/
Join the Film Committee/New Members/New in the library
FCCJ

MAY 2017

10

FCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRSAssociate Members Liaison Milton Isa,
Masanobu Tsukagoshi
Compliance Kunio Hamada
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship Abby Leonard,
David SatterwhiteEntertainment 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

12

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

14

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.

16

Please pitch and send articles and photographs, oraddress comments to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Read the Number 1 Shimbun online:
fccj.or.jp/number-1-shimbun
Cover photo: AP PHOTO/MITSUNORI CHIGITA

3

FRONT PAGE

SHIMBUN TIMES AHEAD
A group of journalists were invited to analternative universe and, while having an
audience with the king there, were handed
a bundle of cash.
From theThe following year, the same group
President wereinvited by the same king and, as in
the previous year, all were handed morecash except one journalist who looked puzzled.
The king asked him to come forward and whispered to the ears of the
shaken journalist: “After your visit last year and getting my gift, you didn't
write anything about me!”.
The journalist replied immediately whispering, “Your Majesty, but I
thought that I received that cash for NOT writing about you!”.
I am reminded of this story every time I must write my president’s
column for our legendary magazine, No. 1 Shimbun, for which I was theeditor from June 1999 to June 2000.
As there is no cash involved for me at least (never has been), I feel it is
becoming harder to write in light of the new rules of club governance,with so many restrictions about what we can and can't write to themembership. For some articles I wanted to write, I had to consult with the
Kanjis, the lawyers and others on some content and decided, in the end,
to just quit it and search for new idea, but I can never quit our original
mission of the “free exchange of information.”On the other hand, speaking of cash, I and members of the publicationcommittee, as well as contributors, back in 1999, were all volunteers, thus
as stipulated in our Bylaws, weren’t paid.
Bylaws’ Paragraph 12-3 says “Officers and committee members shallserve without personal compensation. However, they may be reimbursed
for necessary official expenses, subject to approval by the Board. At
official meetings on the Club premises their meals and refreshments,
within reason, shall be provided without charge.”
The Bylaws haven’t changed. The times have. And back then mostcontributors were FCCJ members who had stable jobs and income and,even though it was difficult, we could always find writers even without
paying them.
It has become harder to find writers who will work for free. So against
this backdrop, I have decided that we need to draw the lines clearly andempower the publication committee to continue its success story to give
it more energy and power at this crucial time,
This is why I have named former FCCJ president Dan Sloan as co-chairof the publications committee to work alongside current publicationscommittee chair Gavin Blair and a new editorial team in charge of thecontent.
Dan and the team of the Publications Committee will look to realignthe business model for the No.1 Shimbun, ensuring editorial contribution
from Members on issues topical to the Club, expanding the number ofauthors and viewpoints expressed, but limiting the compensation forcontent to an infrequent honorarium for Members, and designatedexternal payment to Nonmembers for the services of copy editing andcompilation. Ways to improve on-line platforms for the FCCJ and its
printed or video content will also be examined, with recommendations on
No.1 and 21st Century media strategies for the membership.
Our current editor, Greg Starr, will, from May 2017, continue as copy/
layout manager while Andrew Pothecary, our very able art designer, andJohn Harris, our talented advertisement expert, will also continue their
excellent work separate from the editorial team. We are working for themagazine to stay with our basics, and the editorial team will work to set
up standard payment guidelines for all contributors, both writers andphotographers.
The No. 1 Shimbun is coming up on its 49th anniversary this September
and as one of the club’s icons, AP legend and former FCCJ president John
Roderick, reported in then-newspaper’s inaugural issue: “Newspapers
must not be run behind closed doors...” this should prevail. and be No. 1
Shimbun’s policy.
– Khaldon Azhari
4

TO THE EDITORFROM THE ARCHIVES

COLLECTIONSIT HAS COME TO our attention that
Mr. Yasuhiro Nakasone, former Prime
Minister of Japan, was discussed ina recent issue of Number 1 Shimbun[“Catalyst for Change,” March]. We
would like to set the record straight.
Mr. Nakasone did not criticize theEmperor with regard either to thewar or to Japan’s defeat. The Emperor
had, in fact, desired to avoid war but
Japan’s government structure is suchthat the Emperor’s views are notreflected in policy, and the country
went on a path to war and to defeat.
The Emperor must have suffereddeep pain at the course that Japan
had taken. In the National Diet, thenPrime Minister Shigeru Yoshida was
asked if the Emperor was considering
abdication, and if this would free himfrom the painful sense of restriction,
whether that request should be
respected.
As prime minister of Japan, Mr.
Nakasone did not instruct educators
to teach patriotism nor did he request
textbook revisions for that purpose.
As prime minister, he establishedthe Ad Hoc Council on Education
to address educational reform. In
that effort, internationalization andadvanced information technology,
together with cultural education,
were included in the curriculum.
The matter of sales tax [had]nothing to do with his resignation.
The Government Tax System Study
Council and LDP Tax System ResearchCouncil proposed a sales tax which
was planned for implementation.
However, this proposal was met withstrong opposition by the public. The
Nakasone administration abandoned
the plan and left it for the Takeshita
administration to continue theeffort. In the July 1986 election,
Nakasone was swept to reelection. At
that time, the term of office of the
LDP president was two consecutive
terms for a maximum of five years.
In that election, the LDP achieved aremarkable total of 304 seats, so thefour years of the LDP administration
was extended by another year
and Nakasone appointed Noboru
Takeshita as his successor.
We trust the above
explanations help to clear up any
misunderstandings about the
Nakasone administration.

Masaki Donji
Yasuhiro Nakasone Office
MAY 2017

FCCJ

SHOWA MEMORIES

25

THE MAN WITH THE BATON

The age Hirohito
became Emperor

4.0

Number of children
per married woman
in agriculturaloccupations in 1952

2.9

Number of children
per married woman
in other occupationsin 195215¥500 million

The age Kakuei Tanaka left home
to help his family working inconstruction

Amount Tanaka was fined after being foundguilty in the Lockheed scandal in 1983

50cc

The engine size ofthe Honda Super Cub
motorcycle launched
in 1958, now the mostproduced motor
vehicle in history

1960

The year the hulahoop was banned
in Japan for fear ofmass impropriety(Two years after ourcover star)

1,641,310

Record number of criminal cases reported– in 1988, not including traffic-related

169.7

Average heightin centimeters ofJapanese men in
1953

157

Average heightin centimeters ofJapanese womenin 1980

Dollar/Yen exchange rate, Jan. 11, 1971

$1 = ¥358.40
The age of Emperor
Hirohito at the time of hisdeath in 1989, marking
the end of the Showa era

87

Sources: National Tax Agency, UNFAO,
Ministry of Internal Affairs, Communications
Statistics Bureau
FCCJ

MAY 2017

Seiji Ozawa, the Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, shared his views
with Club members on March 17, 1978. Here, he is about to receive a name card fromDavid Tharp (Freelance), FCCJ Secretary, while President Frederick “Ted” Marks(UPI) looks on. David Tharp, who later transformed from journalist into physician
specializing in psychotherapy, participated in efforts to relieve posttraumatic stressdisorders following the earthquake and tsunami in March of 2011. David died in
October of 2012 at the age of 68 while on a visit to the U.S. Ted Marks also passed
away earlier in the same year at age 69.
Seiji Ozawa, however, is still going strong at age 82. Although he had practiced
piano at a young age, a hand injury resulted in a switch to conducting. In 1959 hewon the top prize at an international competition in France, which brought him
under the wing of Charles Munch, Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
He later received a scholarship to study under Herbert von Karajan. Then hecaught the attention of Leonard Bernstein, who made him assistant-conductorof the New York Philharmonic in the early 1960s, a position that led to his first
professional appearance in 1962 with the San Francisco Symphony.
On a trip to Japan in December of 1962, disputes with players of the NHK
Symphony Orchestra led to the cancellation of a performance (and a feud that
only ended some three decades later when, according to an AP report, he led thefamed orchestra in a charity concert for disabled musicians in 1995).
He led the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra as well as conducting the orchestrasof Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Singapore and various others until his
appointment as Musical Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1973.
That appointment lasted for 29 years, during which time his achievements
included several Emmy Awards. In 1984, together with Kazuyoshi Akiyama, heformed the Saito Kinen Orchestra in honor of an early Japanese musicologist
mentor, that brought international Japanese musicians back to their homeland
for annual concerts.
Known for his unorthodox conducting wardrobe, consisting of a whiteturtleneck in place of the traditional white-tie garb and his lion’s mane hairstyle,
Seiji Ozawa was not averse to controversy. He feuded with NHK, demandedchanges at the Tanglewood Music Center and was entangled in battles over thequality of his work in Boston that contributed to his relinquishing a formal role
there in 2002. But he has continued to lead major international orchestras inaddition to being a modernist in classical music. Health problems, including
esophageal cancer in 2010, have mostly brought an end to his active career. His
achievements have been recognized by many awards over the years, including
Japan’s Order of Culture.

– Charles Pomeroy,
editor of Foreign Correspondents in Japan,
a history of the Club that is available at the front desk
5

FEATURE
MEDIA TRENDS
Showa by numbers Opposite, Men Born inShowa 40’s recent cover; right, the recent mook(magazine/book) 99 Mysteries of Showa, from
UFOs to a Yokohama sex worker.

In the not too distant“The sole point of contenfuture, Japan will have ation,” the writer remarked,
new Emperor and a new“seems to be between
nengo, or era name. And perthose with the opinion
haps the media will eventuthat since the Constitution
ally start looking back on thewas imposed by the miliHeisei era with some sentitary occupation it must be
mental attachment.
revised in accordance with
But for now, anyone withthe will of the Japanese peoan eye on popular media willple, and – having been sohave noticed a long-running
imposed notwithstanding –nostalgic romance with thethose who are in accord asShowa Era that seems to be
far as its contents pertainpeaking in recent months.
ing to pacifism and renunThe reasons for this explociation of war, therefore insion of interest are manitheir view making revisionfold, but surely among
unnecessary.”
them must be the huge
If a single individual candemographic of 94 million
be said to dominate recent
potential readers. Roughcoverage of the Showaly three out of every four
period, it would not be its
Japanese alive today wereimperial namesake but aborn in Showa – between
prime minister who served
the last week of 1926 to thefor just two and a half years.
first week of 1989. The oldReferred to in some quarest among them turn 90 thisters as the “computerized
year; the youngest, 29.
bulldozer,” Kakuei Tanaka
The era was, if anything, a
was the enfant terrible ofstudy in extremes: EconomJapanese politics in the earic depression, militarism,
ly 1970s. A self-made man, arepression and war, followed
farmer’s son who left schoolby military occupation, ecoat age 15 to help his famAs the Heisei era enters its last months
nomic recovery, and then
ily by working in the conand days, the media is wringing out the lastprosperity, driven to a large
struction trade, his smug
drops of Showa nostalgia.
extent by exports. Trade proself confidence was popular
gressed from handicrafts –with the voters, but not withsilks, carvings and ceramics
his political rivals, and his– to cameras, electronics, motorcycles, automobiles, computpolitical demise was swift and spectacular.
ers and fiber-optic components for passenger jets.
Last year marked the 40th anniversary of Tanaka’s arrest
Such was the power of Showa, that today, three decades
for accepting bribes from Lockheed Aircraft Corp, stimulatafter its demise, its styles and influences
ing a revival of interest in the man, including a
not only endure, they thrive. Take the weekslew of books and magazine articles. One pubby MARK SCHREIBER
ly magazines: Still printed in B5 size on
lisher, Takarajima, devoted extensive coverage
unbleached newsprint, they are living dinoto Tanaka in two magazines and a 223-pagesaurs, surviving with minimal evolution while other formats
book titled One Hundred Sayings of Kakuei Tanaka, with sales– such as the glossy photojournalism magazines of the 1980sof over half a million copies. As with U.S. President Trump,– folded one after the next.
there was no love lost between Tanaka and the Fourth Estate:
Shukan Shincho, almost unchanged in appearance from its“There are three things you can trust in newspapers,” he oncelaunching in 1956, observed its 60th birthday last year, celgrumbled. “The obituaries, the stock quotations and the TV
ebrating with a solid month of nostalgic stories. Folded insideprogram listings.”
its Feb. 22 anniversary issue was a facsimile reproduction of
If there were a single common factor in the appeal ofthe magazine’s debut issue, dated Feb. 19, 1956. Priced at
Showa nostalgia it would be postwar childhood. Eight years
around ¥400 now, the magazine retailed then for just ¥30.
ago, what could be called an extreme niche product began
The debut issue contained numerous recognizable departappealing to this demographic; a glossy 4-color bi-monthly
ments that have changed very little over the past 60 years,
publication called Men Born in Showa 40 (1965).
such as the half-dozen short weekly news briefs.
Editor Akira Ogasawara, who was born in 1974, says that the
Several of the briefs from ’56 conveyed an unmistakable sense
magazine focuses on those born in 1965 because they makeof deja-vu. The lead item, featuring a photo of General Douglas
up “Japan’s first TV generation.” His readers, now age 52,
MacArthur, touched on debate over revision of the Japanese
enjoy reliving childhood experiences such as collecting sets
Constitution, which in 1956 was less than nine years old.
of premiums sold with candy. They recall faithfully watching

Trouble, rubble,
toil and bubble

6

MAY 2017

FCCJ

Enfant terrible Below, the book cover of 100
sayings of Kakuei Tanaka: “There are three things
you can trust in newspapers. The obituaries, thestock quotations and the TV program listings.”

installments of “Kamen Raida” (Masked
Rider) the superhero TV series createdby the late cartoonist Shotaro Ishinomori. And they remember simply adoring virginal vocalist Mari Amachi, whose
singing career eventually crashed andburned. A recent “where are they now?”
feature in the magazine tracked down
Amachi, now age 66. The accompanying
photo did a remarkable job of concealing
the ravages of age.
The crimes of Showa times are also
recalled as part of the good old days.
In mid-February, Shukan Jitsuwa’s publisher came out with a special edition
titled “Hanko seimei” (letter admitting
responsibility for a crime), which cataloged the previous era’s most infamous
crimes and criminals.
Leading the rogues’ gallery was the
audacious crook who in December 1968
impersonated a motorcycle policeman.
He stopped a bank car by tricking theoccupants into thinking it was carrying
a bomb, and drove off with the Toshiba
Fuchu factory’s ¥300 million year-end
cash bonus. The shipment was insured solosses were minimal, and despite a massive long-running manhunt, the robber
was never apprehended.
Two serial murderers and rapists,
Yoshio Kodaira and Kiyoshi Okubo, and the bloodthirsty radicals of Japan’s United Red Army, are also recalled, the latter for
their fanaticism and sheer persistence (some are still at large).
And finally there’s the late Kazuyoshi Miura, the businessman who managed to evade a murder rap over the suspicious
shooting of his wife in 1981, while on a visit to Los Angeles. (Hewas the prime suspect in the death of a
girlfriend, also in California.) Describedby Newsweek as “The Man They Love toHate,” Miura spent over a decade in prison on other charges, but the prosecutor
never was able to convict him for arranging the murder of his wife. He committed
suicide in a Los Angeles jail cell in 2008.
Another recent publication is themook 99 Mysteries of Showa, from Million
Shuppan. Among its contents are photos
from an abandoned village in the creepy
Aokigahara “Sea of Trees” – one of Japan’s most notorious suicide spots – near Mt. Fuji; the account of a JAL pilot who swears
he encountered a UFO over Alaska; and the tale of “White
Mary,” who if not Yokohama’s most famous whore certainly
plied her trade the longest. In business since the Occupation
years, she died at age 84 in 2005.
The national tabloid Yukan Fuji has also been giving Showalots of heavy coverage of late. Its April 6 issue toured thenorth side of JR Nakano station, which it described as “amecca with the fragrance of retro Showa.” The same page
carried an installment of Shinobu Machida’s regular weekly

column, “Showa Heritage,” looking backat the old three-wheeled mini-trucks
steered by motorcycle handlebars which
plied city streets until the 1960s. Machidadescribed those days as the “eve before
Japan’s modernization.”
Overleaf in the same Wednesday Yukan
Fuji, Kenichiro Nakamaru ran a weekly lesson in “Showa Lingo,” introducing words
and phrases that typified the era, likeabekku (from the French avec, meaning acouple), kurukuru-paa (crazy), gariben (agrind at studies), zukku (exercise shoes),suicchi on (switch on, the first time to use
a new electric appliance), shakai no mado
(one’s “social window,” i.e., the front zipper on trousers) and “Washington Club” (atoilet, from the initials W.C.).
One recent entry was a popular buzzword from 1972: Asshi ni wa kakawari no
nee koto de gozanzu – “It’s got nothing to
do with me” – spoken just before the climax of each episode of the TV period
drama Kogarashi Monjiro. Played by actor,
and later Diet member, Atsuo Nakamura,Monjiro was a nihilistic ronin who chewed
on foot-long toothpicks while he roamed
about the countryside. The standard talewould find people in distress pleadingfor his assistance, at which point he used
this phrase to express his unwillingness to
get involved. Invariably, though, he did the right thing, andintervened with a display of deadly swordsmanship. Monjiro’s
resemblance to the characters in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti
westerns was typical of the widescale artistic borrowings thatwere common during these years.
Economically speaking, the Showa era went out with abang – the short-lived economic boom
referred to as the baburu keizai. For somereason, the recent media attention has,for the large part, ignored the extravagance and excesses of that age, thoughthe 2007 film, Baburu e Go! (Bubble Fiction:
Boom or Bust), in which a time machine isused to return to the age when salarymen
waved ¥10,000 bills to get the attentionof spoiled taxi drivers, remains a popular
staple on television. But it may be hard to
get nostalgic about a time when ¥4,800
loaves of sourdough bread airfreighted from France attracted long lines of shoppers.
Indeed, Showa’s cultural and emotional winds gusted so
powerfully that in a sense, the first decade of Heisei could
be said to have been dragged along in its slipstream. It took
the western calendar – the arrival of the new millennium – tostamp out the blaze. But at least during the current media
revival, the embers of Showa are still glowing brightly. ❶Three decades
after its demise,
Showa’s styles andinfluences not only
endure, they thrive

FCCJ

MAY 2017

Mark Schreiber was born in Showa 22 and first arrived in Japan in
Showa 40.
7

FEATURE
INTERPRETING THE NEWS

What’s ina wordya Kodama titled “Sabishiki Etsuzan-kai no Jo’o” (The lonely
queen of the Etsuzan-kai).
The Etsuzan-kai was the organization that managed Tanaka’s huge political fund; its controller was Aki Sato, Tanaka’s
female secretary. The article reported on Sato’s upbringing
and her personal relationship with Tanaka, as well as her tremendous influence on Japanese politics.
Before the magazine went on sale, LDP Diet member
Tokusaburo Kosaka, who held the position of Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office, paid a visit to the publisher’s head office. After meeting with the president, Kosaka
departed through the magazine’s editorial office, leaving his
business card on the desk of the editor-in-chief, Kengo Tanaka, who happened to be absent. On the card, he had written
the following message: “Please treat Ms. S. favorably” – “Ms.
S,” of course, being the PM’s right-hand woman, Aki Sato.
Shukan Shincho, a weekly magazine published by a competitor, later ran an article about the politician’s visit andthe business card, resulting in an opposition party member
questioning Kosaka at the Diet about whether the move wasan attempt to discourage Bungei Shunju from publishing thearticle. Kosaka replied, “[with the president of Bungei Shunju]
I discussed social trends, the problem of mistrust in politics
and various other matters . . . but there is no truth whatsoeverthat I implied anything threatening.” In other words, Kosaka
had demanded sontaku.

The recent incident concerning the sale of national
land to Moritomo Gakuen has shed light on how
sontaku, a singular method of communication,
permeates Japanese society.

by EIICHIRO TOKUMOTO

A

t 6:00 p.m. on March 23, just as night began to fall, afull house of more than 220 people were jammed into
the FCCJ dining room to await the arrival of the guest
speaker. A phalanx of 26 TV cameras lined the back wall;some were there to broadcast the event live. At last, Yasunori
Kagoike, controversial head of Osaka’s Moritomo Gakuen,
made his appearance before the foreign press, his first media
event following his sworn testimony in the Diet that morning.
Smiling, he was bathed in camera flashes as he took his seatat the head table.
The Moritomo Gakuen scandal is being called the greatest
crisis for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe since the forming of his
second cabinet in 2012. The school is under fire on a number of fronts. Pupils at its kindergarten undergo revisionist“patriotic education,” including the recitation of the nowdefunct Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890. And it was
about to open a new elementary school with PM Abe’s wife
Akie as the honorary principal, to be built on national landthat was sold to the school at a suspiciously low price. It was
the latter issue – their purchase of the plot of land at a drastic
discount far below the assessed value of the property – that
directed suspicion towards Abe and his wife. It led Abe to vow
in the Diet that he would resign and give up his seat if either
he or his wife were found to have been involved in any wrongdoing related to the school.
One of the more conspicuous points that came out during
the 100-minute-long press conference concerned a fax from
Mrs. Abe’s female aide to Kagoike in November 2015, notingthat an inquiry had been made to the relevant section in the
Ministry of Finance concerning Moritomo Gakuen’s request
for the land deal. The ministry had responded that they could
8

not grant the request. Yet not much later, the school was able
to acquire the land at the highly favorable price – almost as if
a gust of “divine wind” had passed over the institute.
Naturally reporters’ questions at the press conference
focused on the involvement of the Abes in the land deal, butwhen queried as to whether PM Abe gave the school favorable
treatment, Kagoike made an interesting reply. While statingthat he didn’t think there was any direct influence by PM Abe,
Kagoike remarked “Sontaku wo shita” (There was sontaku).
THIS TERM POSED NUMEROUS difficulties for the interpreter
handling the event, who translated it as “reading between
the lines.” That wasn’t enough for Kagoike’s attorney andanother interpreter, who added that in English the term canbe interpreted to mean “conjecture,” “surmise” or numerous
other words. The foreign media added their own interpretations: Tokyo Bureau Chief Motoko Rich defined it as “powers at work behind the scenes” in the New York Times, while
Leo Lewis of the Financial Times devoted a whole column toit, describing it as a “pre-emptive, placatory following of anorder that has not been given,” and pointing to it as a cop out
used to avoid responsibility even in the corporate world, mostrecently in the Toshiba crisis.
But there’s nothing new about sontaku in the political arena, and we can find a useful case study on the suspect term in
events from over 40 years ago.
In October, 1974, the monthly magazine Bungei Shunju
ran an investigative report by freelance journalist Takashi
Tachibana about the then-Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka’squestionable political fundraising activities. Also appearing in the issue was an article by freelance journalist TakaMAY 2017

FCCJ

IN THIS CASE, THE sontaku was ineffective. The magazine
came out, and the articles by Tachibana and Kodama were
important factors in PM Tanaka’s resignation two months
later, meaning that Bungei Shunju refused to accept the LDP’s
attempt at pressure.
A year later, a more successful example took place between
the LDP and the Toho film studio. After Takaya Kodama,author of the Bungei Shunju article about Aki Sato, passed
away at the age of 38 from lung cancer in May, 1975, the film company
planned to produce a film about thereporter, presumably focusing on
his investigative activities about
Tanaka. The director and script
writer for the film had already been
named when the president of Toho
halted the shooting, stating that
“This kind of project is not appropriate when former PM Tanaka is
down on his luck.”
Toho Studio Vice President Sanezumi Fujimoto submitted his resignation in protest at the aborting of
the project, and pressure from the
LDP was seen as an extenuating factor. Just prior to the aborting of the film, Fujimoto said that an influential member ofthe LDP had telephoned him, saying, “I’d like to ask about thesituation” [regarding the film], in what could be seen as a clear
attempt to use sontaku. Toho studios denied that the cancellation had anything to do with political pressure, but following
Tanaka’s resignation, there were rumors that the former PM,
leader of the LDP’s largest faction, would harness his immense
political influence and attempt to make a comeback. Drawing
attention to his troubles, even in a film, would not be seen as
helping his campaign.
Immediately after this, in the weekly magazine Asahi Journal, freelancer Takashi Tachibana looked into the Toho incident in an article titled “A perfect crime named political pressure.” In it, he explained just how sontaku works. “Politicalpressure from the LDP,” he wrote, “after having undergone
trial and error for many years, is exercised through exquisite and subtle techniques. Only on rare occasions are plain
truths allowed to come to the surface. Political pressure is
not applied in a blunt manner but through inquiries phrased
using such euphemistic expressions as ‘What is going on withregard to this?’ or ‘What is your intention?’”He explained how sontaku is an attempt to avoid any evidence of the “crime.” He wrote: “Even if the matter is exposedto the public, the side that did the coercing can stick to thestory by saying that ‘We absolutely deny having exerted any
form of pressure,’ and the side which was the target of thepressure can stick to saying, ‘We absolutely deny having beenpressured. Our company’s action was just based on an internal decision.’” Since nothing has been spelled out in detail,this is, in a sense, true. Wrote Tachibana: “This is what makes
it a type of perfect crime.”
OF COURSE, THE USE of sontaku is by no means limited toJapanese politicians in the LDP. In the records of Diet proceedings since 1890, the word “sontaku” comes up nearly 290
times, of which about 65 percent occurred during the post
WWII Occupation between 1945 and the early 1950s. In fact, amajor source of the sontaku intentions that were most fearedby politicians and bureaucrats at this time was the Supreme
Commander of the Allied Powers General Douglas MacArthur, who made excellent use of it.
Occupation-era Japan was under the absolute control of thegeneral, who was involved in major reforms of the political,
economic and educational systems. But for face-saving purposes (tatemae) he tended to operate Japan’s ostensibly independent government through remote control. Actually, in therecords of the Diet proceedings of those times, one can findplenty of evidence of politicians’ sontaku conjectures on how
they should read MacArthur’s intent on such matters ranging
from the right of public servants totake part in political activities toreorganization of the electric utility
industry. It’s not wrong to say that
MacArthur clearly was an expert at
the use of sontaku.
But Japan’s politicians wereclearly eager to get back in thedriver’s seat. In July 1953, after the
San Francisco peace treaty cameinto effect, Prime Minister Shigeru
Yoshida gave the following reply
during a Diet session in response
to a question on diplomatic guidelines: “Since Japan has become
independent, its diplomacy will nolonger be swayed according to conjectures over America’s
intentions.” Readers can decide for themselves if this was
actually true.
There is no doubt, however, that sontaku was back in thehands of domestic politicians. Though the backgrounds andconditions of political trust during the eras of MacArthur, Tanaka and Abe are completely different, there was one factor theyshare in common: despite the differences in degree, all three
men exerted forceful leadership. When their power was wielded
forcefully, politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen felt the
hot breath on their necks, read their intentions, and proceeded with taking action before having to be ordered to do so. ❶The Financial Times
devoted a whole column
to it, describing it as a“pre-emptive, placatory
following of an order thathas not been given,” andpointing to it as a cop out

FCCJ

MAY 2017

Eiichiro Tokumoto, a former Reuters correspondent, is an author andinvestigative journalist.

9

SERIESPROFILE

Bruce Osborn
by ABIGAIL LEONARD

S

hortly before Bruce Osborn left for his first trip toJapan, he photographed Rolling Stones guitarist Ron
Wood. It was 1976 and Wood, already one of the world’s
most famous rock stars, drank cheap beer and acted no differently from the struggling Los Angeles musicians Osborn
frequently met as a photographer for a local music magazine.
“It’s always nice to see such highbrow people who know how
to lowbrow it,” Osborn says with a laugh.
Photography, he says, gave him access to intriguing people
and helped satisfy his curiosity about
the world. “As opposed to painting orother art forms, with photography,
if I wanted to meet somebody or go
someplace, I could do that.”
And he didn’t miss an opportunity.
A couple of weeks after photographing Wood, he packed his camera fora round-the-world trip from California to Japan to meet his future wife’s
family. He started in Europe thenwent overland to India, traveling for a stretch on a “hippiebus,” a 1940s British vehicle that was on its last legs but still
managed to ferry Osborn and his fellow travelers throughmuch of Central Asia.
Osborn eventually made it to Tokyo and was struck by
the city’s bold colors and design. “The whole visual aspect
just knocked me over; the advertising was just really strong,bright and entertaining.”
Still, he wasn’t confident he could make a life for himself
here, so he and his wife, Yoshiko,returned to Los Angeles where hecontinued a successful career inmusic photography until 1980, whena Japanese contact arranged a showfor him in Tokyo. Afterward, several
Japanese companies asked to bookhim and the couple decided it was
finally time to give Japan a try.

him with her expanded my whole understanding of what hewas beyond that stage persona,” Osborn says.
He started taking photos of all types of people with theirparents – tattoo artists, carpenters, even beauty queens.
The series grew into a decades-long project called “Oyako,”
a convenient Japanese word that encompasses parents andchildren. That eventually led to dozens of gallery shows, fivebooks, several commercials and, for the last 15 years, a majorannual event Osborn organizes with his wife, in which hephotographs a hundred families in a
one-day shoot.

ANDREW POTHECARY“Next, I’d like to go to
Papua New Guinea orsomeplace wild, set up
a studio in the jungle orsomething”

10

MAY 2017

FCCJ

HE FOUND A WIDER variety of work in
Tokyo than L.A. and was soon shooting not only for music magazines but
also advertisements, magazine editorials and fashion spreads.
A few years later, when he was
expecting his first daughter, he had
an idea that changed the course of
his career. He was photographinga particularly tough-looking punkrocker with a towering Mohicanhairstyle and suddenly thought, “I’dlike to see what that guy’s parents
look like.”
He convinced the musician to pose
for a series of photos with his mother, who, Osborn found, had a dynamic personality of her own and loved
watching her son’s performancesand hanging out backstage. “Seeing
FCCJ

MAY 2017

THEY HOLD THE MARATHON session
on the fourth Sunday in July to follow Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May and Father’s Day on thethird Sunday in June; they hope toturn Oyako into a similar nationalcelebration of family. The event has
grown steadily and last year a hundred portrait photographers across Japan held Oyako festivals of their own.
He recently expanded overseas, with his first international
Oyako show in Singapore. The Japanese series is in black andwhite, but in Singapore, where his subjects dressed in bright,
bold fabrics, he couldn’t resist shooting in color. “Next, I’dlike to go to Papua New Guinea or someplace wild and woolly,
set up a studio in the jungle or something,” he laughs.
Osborn has organized more somber Oyako shoots as well.
After the Tohoku Earthquake, hephotographed survivors who had lost
all their family photos and some who
had even lost close relatives. “One of
the most moving things was when one
fisherman said, ‘this is the first time
I’ve laughed in three months,’” he says.
He’s now working on a series ofphotographs of found beach objects
for an art festival in Hayama, nearhis home on the coast southwest ofTokyo. He combs the shoreline forthings like old sandals, lighters andother forgotten refuse, then creates beautiful, wall-sized imagesof them.
He also chairs the FCCJ’s Exhibition Committee, curating themonthly exhibitions that are shownin the Main Bar. It’s his seventh year
as chair and this month is his eightieth show.
He says that he’s still inspired by
the things that first drew him tophotography. “If I want to meet thisperson or see that place, I just get
Abigail Leonard is a Tokyo-based freelance reportermy camera and that’s my passportand producer whose work has appeared in theThrough media, you can reach a lot
Washington Post, Newsweek, NYTimes.com, NPR,of people, so I try to be a good influBBC and Vox.
ence, that’s the bottom line.” ❶11

FEATURE
WITH THE PRESS PACKAs the only
foreign correspondent on
Emperor Akihito’s recent trip to
Vietnam, this Italian journalist
had much to think about.

by STEFANO CARRER“O

n the day before departure, please come at 11 a.m. sharp
to the Sakashita-mon entrance of the Imperial Palace.”
With that surprise message from the Kunaicho, theImperial Household Agency, I found out that I would be theonly Western journalist, along with 126 colleagues from Japanese news organizations, to cover the historic first visit by aJapanese monarch to Vietnam.
That also meant being included in the restricted group thatwould receive the imperial couple’s pre-voyage greetings. But
any gratification was dampened by the necessity of attending
two excruciatingly long briefings and the reception of over
200 pages of detailed written instructions. I cannot imagine
127 Italian journalists attending a three-hour briefing of thesort – after 10 minutes, I believe, the scene would have looked
like herders desperately trying to corral 127 cats.
I expected the meeting at the Imperial Palace to be very
formal. So when Akihito and his consort entered the Shakkyo
room – surrounded by wood, shoji and a large painted lion
related to the Noh theater but with no furniture at all – I dutifully joined the collective deep and long bows.
Moving in gracious slow motion or as still as a statue,

12

I LEFT THE ROOM with a small confirmation of Akihito as the “emperor of thepeople.” After all, this is a son of a god
who became a human being, since hisfather Hirohito was considered divine
before the Americans induced him torenounce the highest holiness and tostate his human nature. The present
emperor has a number of firsts under
his belt: first to marry a commoner, tospeak on TV following the devastatingtsunami in order to encourage the suffering ordinary people, to suggest thetaboo of an affinity with the imperialline in Korea, and to pray for the souls offallen American soldiers in Saipan. Evenin full compliance with the constitutional limitations, he has
acquired a rather “liberal” aura.
The trip to Vietnam was the emperor’s 28th overseas voyage, and it could well be the last, so I was lucky to be able toreport on how serious a matter his departure from Haneda
Airport was. When the imperial couple walked down the red
carpet toward the State Boeing 747, past a lineup of the prime
minister and his wife, as well as imperial family members not
making the trip, my foreign eye was impressed by how deeply Princess Masako bowed to her father-in-law. Even more
impressive was watching the double bow of mother Michiko
to her first son, Crown Prince Naruhito.
According to some rumors, one of the reasons for Akihito’s
desire to abdicate is his wish to facilitate the transition to thethrone for his son. Naruhito is necessarily less charismatica figure, said to be somewhat affected by the psychologicalproblems of his wife. Conservatives have grounds to fear that
Naruhito too carries “liberal” sentiments.
Such were my thoughts while boarding the State Boeing. It
was the first time I’ve boarded before paying the fare, but I
guess I was trusted (the bill came a month later). Inside, even
MAY 2017

FCCJ

PHOTOS FROM STEFANO CARRER

The emperor’sbuon viaggio

the seats for journalists were clearly business class. During
the journey, every journalist was supposed to read the latest
package of documents that were handed out at the airport.
Included were maps of each floor of the hotels where we wereto stay, with clear indications of the emergency exits (for eachfloor). An entire sheet of paper was dedicated to the time zone
difference, and it was not enough to point out that Vietnam is
two hours before Tokyo time. Instead, we got a complete tableadvising us that when it is 11 o’clock in Japan it is 9 o’clock in
Vietnam, 12 corresponds to 10, and on and on and on.

Empress Michiko appeared as timeless a figure as a noblewoman fromthe Heian epoch. On the contrary, theemperor’s facial features betrayed ahint of irony that made him seem very
modern. After the official greetingsand short reciprocal speeches, we all“broke ranks” as attendants brought
coffee, tea and biscuits on trays. Akihito sipped a coffee while standing
and talking informally with those who
approached him.
When introducing myself, I recalled
the visit by Giorgio Napolitano in 2009,
when the Italian president, who had
already met Akihito, greeted him witha vivid “Buongiorno Imperatore, comesta?” Later that day, Akihito went with
him to see an Italian opera for the firsttime, arriving at the start of the third
act of Verdi’s Don Carlos. It was precisely
the moment beginning with the famousaria “Ella giammai m’amo,’” or “She never loved me,” showing the monarch of
Spain in a moment of regret, bitterlycomplaining about how burdensome it
is to be a sovereign. The irony, I’m sure,was not intentional.

AT THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE in Hanoi, looking at the imperial face filtered by the shadows of the bayonets of the Vietnamese soldiers parading with goose-steps, I could not help
but notice a respect that never turned into enthusiasm. (Thisseems contrary to the present prime minister, who seems to
enjoy the pomp of military parades.)Burdens and ironies from a painful history were likely
affecting the first Japanese emperor traveling to this country. Akihito laid a wreath at the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh,
who won the war with the U.S. during which the Americans
used the Japanese archipelago as their main logistics baseterritory.
A most moving moment was the meeting with the 93-yearold widow Nguyen Thi Xuan, who had married one of several hundred Japanese soldiers who remained in Vietnam
and joined the fight forindependence. After the
French were defeated in
1954, they were sent backto Japan with no thanks,
without their wives andchildren. (Many of thechildren suffered fromdiscrimination, and calledsons of “the fascists”).
“You have had a very difficult life,” the emperor
told the widow. “I deeply
sense your pain.” Empress
Michiko bowed almost
to the ground, taking her hands and consoling her, cheekto-cheek.
That led me to think about the Japanese rule which forbids
any physical contact with the imperial couple. The former
Italian president Sandro Pertini, during his official visit toTokyo in 1982, was the only one who dared to give a strong
pat on the back of Hirohito. But Pertini – the most belovedof the Italian chiefs of state – was a unique character, absolutely allergic to strict protocols. Instead of being horrified,
the Kunaicho staff should have welcomed that friendly pat. It
represented a forgiveness of sorts. Pertini had been languishing in jail for several years for anti-fascist activities when the
dictator Benito Mussolini signed the Tripartite Pact with Hitler’s Germany and Hirohito’s Japan.
Another quite interesting encounter was Akihito’s meeting, after more than 40 years, with an old acquaintance at
the Biology Museum in Hanoi. It was a white goby, a species that the emperor had discovered as a young scholar ona tributary of the Can Tho River and donated to the museumin 1976.
There were other events scheduled, including one inside
the imperial citadel of Hue, where the imperial couple witnessed a performance of Nha Nhac music and traditional
Vietnamese dances. A monk of the Champa region, Phat
Triet, introduced the style to Nara, and it was later incorFCCJ

MAY 2017

porated into Japan’s gagaku, proving that even a quintessential Japanese artistic expression like court music hassome foreign roots!
MANY COMMENTATORS DRAW PARALLELS between the firstJapanese emperor in 200 years who is going to abdicate andBenedictus XVI, who in 2013 became the first pope to relinquish his duties in some 500 years. But there are substantial
differences. The pope in Rome enjoys absolute powers: he has
no need to ask permission. (And, by the way, if he did, traditionalist Catholics would have never allowed him to resign.)
He can also make impromptu statements or answer questions
from journalists on the Alitalia plane which takes him to foreign countries, though the Vatican press office must sometimes do some “damage control” management.
The Japanese emperor, I discovered, is not supposed to talkfreely with the press: it would be too risky according to the
Kunaicho standards. Though we had one or two briefings a
day by the Kunaicho or Gaimusho officers (respectively, inJapanese and in English for the Vietnamese press), there wasno chance to ask questions directly to the emperor.
On several occasions I found myself very close to the emperor. Nobody actually told me not to talk to him: it was so taken
for granted that there was no need to highlight the point toa correspondent based in Tokyo that I grudgingly agreed not
to be found guilty of lèse majesté – which got me wondering if I have gone too far
Aircraftin absorbing the Japanese
Carrermindset. I settled my interOpposite,
nal turmoil by recalling thethe author
first lessons of criminal law
descending theat Milan University: despite
steps of the
my professional urges, preState Boeing
tending ignorance would
747; left, at thenever constitute an excuse
presidential
for a crime.
Palace in Hanoi
I was an object of curiosity among the Japanesecolleagues: they wanted toknow why I was with them,
what I thought about theemperor and what I would report on. Not being a member of theKunaicho kisha club, of course, I sometimes tried to circumventthe rules. Accredited as a pen journalist, I was not entitled totake pictures or moving images. So on a number of occasions
I slipped out of the group to shoot from public places: after all,only the Vietnamese police could have stopped me there.
Some friends in Italy begged me to take a selfie with theemperor. But while I was momentarily tempted by this suggestion, I ended up deciding not to contribute to a further
lowering of gaijin reputations.
But it was in front of the crowds of hundreds of flag-carrying Vietnamese that it suddenly dawned on me how important Vietnam was to the world. It was this country after allthat indirectly decided the outcome of World War II. In that
fateful summer of 1941, the Japanese decided not to attack
Russia, as the Nazis had asked them to do, and instead toinvade South Indochina. It was a decision that prompted
the American embargo and the later attack on Pearl Harbor.
Moscow was saved and the U.S. entered the war. It was theturning point of the conflict, the beginning of a new era. Forme, in the end, covering the emperor’s trip was not only aninteresting experience, but a great lesson in world history. ❶Stefano Carrer is the Tokyo correspondent of Il Sole-24 Ore,the Italian economic daily.

13

NORTH KOREA
If recent events have given you a feeling of deja vu, perhaps there’s a good reason for it.

by TODD CROWELL

RECENT HEADLINES SUGGEST THAT the
United States is considering a rangeof “options” to curb North Korea’s
nuclear weapons/missiles ambitions,
up to and including air strikes. Whateveryone seems to have forgotten isthat there was a moment between thetwo countries in the past that also
involved the planning of an air attackby the U.S. Though it eventually never
took place, it’s not as easy for me toforget, as I was personally involved.
There was nothing to indicate thatthe day April 15, 1969, would be any
different from any other day as wintergave way to cherry blossom season in
Japan. I was a young air force lieutenantstationed with the 347th Fighter Wing
at Yokota air base as an intelligence
officer for a squadron of F-4 Phantoms.
I began my daily routine by stoppingby the communications shop to pickup the morning “flemsies,” a militaryversion of teletype print outs. Fromthem I would construct a short briefing
for the benefit of what was grandly
called the “battle staff.”
On that particular morning there
was no indication that anything out of
the ordinary was taking place. There
was the usual complement of war
news from “down south,” meaning
Vietnam and Cambodia, where thewar was still going strong, and some
information on deployment of Russian
fighters in the Far East.
As I entered the War Room togive the 7 a.m. briefing, I could see
immediately that something wasdifferent. The room consisted of abank of seats culminating at the top
14

A piece of thewreckage of thedowned U.S.
Navy EC121
reconnaissanceplane is carried
off the USS
destroyer Tucker
in 1969.
dais where the wing commander andhis deputy sat, and people usuallyslowly drifted in. But this day every
seat was occupied and, it seemed,
every eye was on me. I went over to amajor sitting in the corner, and bent
down to ask him what was going on.
“North Korean jets shot down one of
our planes,” he said.
“Oh,” I said. I stood up and turned to
face the briefing audience, fully awarethat as I repeated what he had just toldme, I was probably the last in the room
to know. So I added, optimistically,“We’ll provide more information when
we get it.”That is how I learned about what
could have become a seminal eventof the Cold War in Asia. Two North
Korean MiG-21s ambushed and shot
down a U.S. Navy EC-121 electronic
surveillance aircraft with the loss of allher crew of 31 sailors and marines over
the Sea of Japan.
Within in an hour I was ordered to
grab my kit and we were hustled aboard
a C-130 transport plane and flown from
Yokota to Osan Air Force Base in South
Korea, the advance base for our wing of
jet fighters. For the next week we wereon a war footing, fully expecting tolaunch air strikes on North Korea. I still
remember our target: Pukchang-ni air
base north of the capital, Pyongyang.
It is still an important North Korean
Air Force base, home for MiG-23 andMiG-29 fighters.
Everyone was on edge. Pilots, whousually could barely conceal theirboredom on our briefings, suddenly
became very attentive to what we

had to say about defenses they might
encounter on bombing runs. We
pulled together maps and photos andanything else we could find out about
Pukchang-ni in order to make target
folders. There wasn’t much we coulddo, considering how skillfully theNorth concealed its assets, including
placing many aircraft safely in underground bunkers.
But after a week of fevered activity
we were ordered to stand down. No
airstrikes were ordered, and I returnedto the comforts of Japan – able to enjoy
the cherry blossoms instead of enduring
the tag end of a cold Korean winter.
This was former President Richard
Nixon’s first real crisis, coming about
three months after he was sworn
in, or roughly the same time frame
President Donald Trump sits in today.
Nixon and his advisors consideredseveral responses, including air strikes
on North Korean military facilities.
After debating various options, hedecided against retaliatory air strikes.
Presumably, he believed that one war
at a time was enough.
Instead, he dispatched a small
armada of war ships, built aroundseveral aircraft carriers, into the Sea
of Japan as a show of force – verymuch like the flotilla sent into theregion by Trump. But after a time, they
departed and Nixon simply ordered
the reconnaissance flights to resume,
albeit escorted by fighters.
He faced the same conundrum thatbedevils policy makers to this day:namely, what kind of force could the
U.S. use that would be tough enoughto punish North Korea but not so
tough that Pyongyang would think
it was prelude to a general invasion,requiring a massive retaliation?
Remember, this was a time when
nuclear weapons were only a gleam in
the eye of supreme leader Kim Il-sung.
The EC-121 shoot down was the
single largest loss of U.S. aircrew
during the Cold War. There is no
memorial to the crew, but the U.S.
Navy detachment at Misawa Air Force
Base places a floral wreath on the edgeof the Sea of Japan and watches it drift
out to sea. They have been doing thisevery April 15 for 47 years. ❶AP PHOTO/Y. JACKSON ISHIZAKI

When we targeted North Korea

Step up
See aheadStand outAward-winning, bilingual, content-creationand communication agency.

Todd Crowell is the author of The Coming
War Between China and Japan published as an
Amazon Single Kindle.
MAY 2017

FCCJ

Contact us: unique@custom-media.com | www.custom-media.com | www.bij.tv

FCCJ

MAY 2017

15

CLUB NEWSCLUB NEWSPRESS TOURS ORGANIZED BY THE SPECIAL PROJECTS COMMITTEEFCCJ EXHIBITIONThe Special Projects Committee has
been busy as usual this early spring,organizing two recent press tours.
On March 23, 20 members
participated in a visit to the Tokyo
Komatsu “IoT” (Internet of Things)
Center in the Chiba port area. Members
were briefed on the construction
machine company’s concept of “Smart
Construction,” which includes improvingease of maintenance, helping find lost or
stolen machines and making operationof the big machines easier, minimizing
the amount of time needed to teach new
operators.
Participants of the tour tried theirhand at operating Komatsu machines.
On April 17, 14 journalists visiteda Special Exhibit of Chanoyu, thetea ceremony, at the Tokyo National
Museum in Ueno Park. Special exhibits included national treasure tea bowls, utensils for the ceremony
and cultural heritage scrolls from the Muromachi era (1336-1573) to today.
With the cooperation of nine major schools, tea ceremonies were performed by kimono-clad tea
masters in the lobby of the museum. Tour participants partook of fresh powdered green tea and exquisite
wagashi sweets reflecting seasonal changes.		
– Kenji Obayashi and Haruko Watanabe

FCCJ Member
Richard Weisburd
watches the tea
preparation.

JOIN THE FILM COMMITTEE . . .
. . .at 7:00 on Wednesday, May 31 for a sneak preview of Masahiro Kobayashi’s
Lear on the Shore, starring screen legend Tatsuya Nakadai as Lear – or rather,as a faded star who is desperately holding onto memories of his glory days. In
this lean, elegiac tragicomedy, Chokichi Kuwahata (Nakadai) is trying to escapefrom the luxury nursing home where his daughter Yukiko (Mieko Harada) andson-in-law Yukio (Hiroshi Abe) have stashed him after forcing him to write awill leaving them everything. Chokichi has dementia and only fleetingly recalls
their betrayal. But he is a thespian to the core, and can still recite great chunksof dialog from heralded performances. He is determined to find his adoringaudience, wherever they are. When he comes across Nobuko (Haru Kuroki), on
the beach, he isn’t sure if she is an assistant, a fellow actor or, as she claims, his
estranged younger daughter. Does it matter? He’s free to discourse at will, andthat he does, delivering what may be his penultimate performance. Nakadai
and Kobayashi will be on hand for a Q&A session following the screening.
(Japan, 2016; 105 minutes; Japanese with English subtitles.)– Karen Severns

Made in Tokyo
Photographs by
Carla Hernandez

YOUR ADIN OUR PAGES

THE PHOTOS IN THE exhibition were taken in 2015 andmostly shot on a mobile phone. As the title says, they wereall “Made in Tokyo”. I want to show the variety, colors andcomposition of this big city called Tokyo. ❶Advertize in
Number 1 Shimbun

Carla Hernandez is a photographer with over 20 years of working
experience. Her images can be found in a number of overseas
publications, along with Asayan, Zipper and Tokyo Classified in Japan.
In addition, Carla is co-founder of Mejual group, which presents
photo/music fusion events in Tokyo’s clubs and event spaces.

16

MAY 2017

FCCJ

Contact
no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp

FCCJ

MAY 2017

17

CLUB NEWSREGULAR MEMBERSDANIEL HURST is a freelance journalist working in Tokyo. Hurst
started his journalism career in his home state of Queensland,
writing for community newspapers. He previously covered
Australian politics from Parliament House in Canberra, including as
the political correspondent for the Guardian. Before that he worked
as a national reporter for Fairfax Media mastheads including theSydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age. Daniel’s three years in
Canberra spanned four prime ministers; apart from the tumultuous
politics of the time he focused on education policy issues.
He has worked in Tokyo since January, 2017, and has been publishedby the Guardian, the Times of London, Asia Times and Australian
Associated Press.

New
Members

NOBUYOSHI SAKAJIRI is the foreign news editor at the Asahi
Shimbun. Sakajiri joined the Asahi Shimbun in 1989. He covered
Hong Kong as a correspondent from 1996 to 1998. From 2002,
Sakajiri was diplomatic correspondent in Washington D.C. From2005 he was based in Beijing to cover China including the Beijing
Olympic Games. He later spent a year in Washington D.C. as Asia
Society Bernard Schwartz Fellow and three years and half as
Beijing bureau chief before taking his present position in 2016. In
2007 he received the Vaughn Ueda Prize for his reporting from
Washington D.C. and Beijing.
PROFESSIONAL/
JOURNALIST ASSOCIATE
MEMBERS
Chris Russell,
Custom Media K.K.
Peter Robinson,
The University Of Tokyo
REINSTATEMENT (PJA)
Naomi Hatakeyama,
Doree Kami Co., Ltd.
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Richard Arno,
Merrill Lynch Japan
Securities Co., Ltd.
Keigo A. Mirwald,
Tokumaru Pearl Co., Ltd.

The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of JapanMay 2017
Volume 49 No. 5¥400

Eko Egashira, Aqua Moon
Systems Co., Ltd.
Shinichi Fukuma, Kyowa
Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd.
Kazuyoshi Furuhashi,
Murayama Inc.
Sonoko Hatchoji, Nisshin
Steel Co., Ltd.
Keiji Harano, Kyodo Public
Relations Co., Ltd.
Ayako Kaiho, EY AdvisoryCo., Ltd.
Kazuo Kubo
(No affiliation)
Yoshikazu Nagai, Mazda
Motor Corporation

Yoshinobu Nakamura,
Yoshinobu Nakamura
Law Office
Kosaku Nishida,
Alloy Corporation
Hideki Taira, Mazda Motor
Corporation
Mika Tsuiki, Ryu Insurance
Agency Co., Ltd.
Yoshiyuki Wada, Wada
Kaikei Jimusho
Takashi Yanagiya, Erecta
International Corporation
REINSTATEMENT(ASSOCIATE)
Leonardo Griglie,
Touring Magazine

PITCH US YOUR STORY

and support your Club magazine
Please send your story ideas to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp, and be
sure to note whether you have (or have access to) visuals.

Nostalgic for Showa

Mark Schreiber on the media’s sentimental trend
Sontaku: Lost intranslation?

18

Entourage: following
Bruce Osborn: theNorth Korea:
the Emperor
photographer in profile Showdown in 1969

Our rates are ¥20 per published word, ¥20,000 for a front
cover photo. Photo essays: ¥15,000 for full-page photos and¥5,000 for smaller shots. All payments will be made in credit
to your member account.

New in the
Library

Press Freedom inContemporary Japan
Jeff Kingston (ed.)
Routledge
Gift from Jeff Kingston
Amerika to Chugoku
Fumio Matsuo
Iwanami Shoten
Gift from Fumio Matsuo
Tokyo denryoku: genpatsu
jiko no keiei bunseki
Takeshi Tanie
Gakushu no tomosha
Gift from Gakushu notomosha
Kenpo to ikita sengo: shiko
70nen - teiten kansokusha toshite no tsushinsha
Shinbun Tsushin Chosakai(ed.); Kyodo Tsushinsha (ed.)
Japan Press ResearchInstitute
Gift from Mr. Kota Ishihara(Kyodo News)
Sekai nenkan 2017
Kyodo Tsushinsha (ed.)
Kyodo Tsushinsha
Gift from Kyodo News DigitalCo., Ltd.
Confessions of a Yakuza: A
Life in Japan’s Underworld
Junichi Saga; Susumu Saga
(illus.); John Bester (trans.)
Kodansha USA
Homecomings: The Belated
Return of Japan’s Lost
Soldiers
Yoshikuni Igarashi
Columbia University Press
Radiation Brain Moms
and Citizen Scientists:
The Gender Politics ofFood Contamination after
Fukushima
Aya Hirata Kimura
Duke University Press
Japandemonium Illustrated:
The Yokai Encyclopedias of
Toriyama Sekien
Toriyama Sekien; Hiroko
Yoda (trans. and annot.); Matt
Alt (trans. and annot.)Dover Publications, Inc.

MAY 2017

FCCJ

RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
PR Department
8-13-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku,
Tokyo 104-8222
Tel: 03-6278-5228
Email: koho@ricoh.co.jp
www.ricoh.com