In this issueVol. 52, Number 1

January 2020

contact the editors

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

From the President by Khaldon Azhari
Freedom of the Press:
Reporters Without Borders yearly round-up
From the archives:
Grand Champion and TV talent
by Charles Pomeroy

4
4
5

FEATURESGood Reads
by Club Members

6

KATSUMI KASAHARA

My ‘studies’ with
Nobel Prize winner
Akira Yoshino
by Roger Schreffler

14

PROFILE

Eric Johnston
the Japan Times
by Julian Ryall

12

BOOK REVIEWS

An Impeccable Spy by Owen Matthews
by Steve McClure

10

Editor Gregory Starr
Art Director Andrew Pothecarywww.itsumo-music.jp/design
Editorial Assistant Naomichi Iwamura
Photo Coordinator Michiyo Kobayashi
Publications committee members
Gavin Blair, Freelance (co-chair)
Geoffrey Tudor, Orient Aviation (co-chair)
Warren Devalier, Associate Member
Sonja Blaschke, Freelance
Albert Siegel, Freelance
FCCJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Khaldon Azhari, PanOrient News
1st Vice President Monzurul Huq, Daily
Prothom Alo
2nd Vice President Robert Whiting, Freelance
Treasurer Willem Kortekaas, Associate Member
Secretary Takashi Kawachi, Freelance
Directors-at-Large
Mehdi Bassiri, Associate MemberPeter O’Connor, Freelance
Warren Devalier, Associate Member
Abigail Leonard, Freelance
Kanji Kazuo Abiko, Freelance
Associate Kanji Makoto Honjo,
Associate Member
Ex-officio Peter Langan, Freelance
FCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRSAssociate Members Liaison Keiko Packard,
Yuusuke Wada
Compliance Kunio Hamada, Yoshio Murakami
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship Abigail Leonard
Entertainment Sandra Mori
Exhibition Bruce Osborn
Film Karen Severns
Finance Willem Kortekaas
Food & Beverage Robert Kirschenbaum,
Peter R. Tyksinski
Freedom of Press Abigail Leonard
House & Property Thomas Høy Davidsen
Human Resources Willem Kortekaas
Information Technology Yuusuke Wada
Library, Archives & Workroom
Koichi Ishiyama, Suvendrini Kakuchi
Membership Andrew Horvat, Peter O’Connor
Membership Marketing Abigail Leonard,
Willem Kortekaas
Professional Activities Tetsuo Jimbo,
David McNeill
Public Relations TBA
Publications Gavin Blair, Geoff Tudor
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe
Foreign Press in Japan Robin Harding

Asia’s Journey to Prosperityby Asia Development Bank
by Anthony Rowley

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The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Marunouchi Nijubashi Building 5F
Marunouchi 3-2-3 Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-0005
Tel: (03) 3211-3161 Fax: (03) 3211-3168 fccj.or.jp

CLUB NEWSFCCJ Exhibition; Join the Film Committee;
Christmas Party; Press conference voices; In Memoriam;
New Members; New in the libraryLens craftby photographer Members
FCCJ

JANUARY 2020

16-17

18

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 Pothecary3The Front Page

FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Members,
The year 2019 has been one of the most active years
in recent history for those covering news in Japan. We
have experienced world class summit meetings, suchas the G20 and related ministerial meetings, the Tokyo
International Conference on African Development,
and numerous bilateral summits including one
between Japan and the US)
Japan played host to the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the2020 Tokyo Olympics is just around the corner. The games will bringexciting assignments for journalists, reporters, camera crews and others.
Japan also hosted various international symposiums and seminars,
with top speakers and panelists projecting their insights on the political,
economic, military, and energy outlook for Japan, East Asia, and the restof the world.
Add to that domestic events–topped of course by the new Imperial
era, Reiwa, that came with the abdication of former Emperor Akihito
and the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito, embellished by theattendance of royalty and political leaders from around the world.
All of these news events took place while local and national
elections (although with few surprises) were held. Political scandals,
resignations, new Cabinets, very unfortunate natural disasters thatdevastated regions, all kept reporters very busy on a daily basis.
Diplomatic news had flocks of reporters chasing updates on thestrains Japan has with South Korea, and the continued confrontation
with North Korea.
Continued stress points in Okinawa over the US military bases also fed
the headlines. Regional territorial disputes continued to make writers
wonder about which generation might eventually see a solution to suchproblems. Last but not least, bilateral activities that perhaps appeal only tolimited audiences kept us busy covering extensive small-scale visits to Japanby delegations from various countries.
All in all, it seemed as though the world was coming to Japan andTokyo became a little United Nations hub.
In the center of all of this activity stands the FCCJ with its worldclass correspondents covering and reporting on events. The clubhas been the backbone of coverage with its subsidizing of the FPIJ
(Foreign Press in Japan) body specialized in pool coverage and accessto the foreign correspondents, and helping all the media in Japan,
including non-FCCJ members.
With that and with the help and cooperation of Japanese media
colleagues and authorities, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the“hub” coverage will continue in the New Year.
I would say that being in Japan has been a flourishing business forthe international media, and that this will continue. If you belong to
the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan—where history meets the
future at the present—and take advantage of the world-class facilities at
our new premises, your job and work will certainly be made easier andmore interesting. Our Nijubashi Marunouchi building provides a prime
location to meet your logistical needs. The FCCJ’s nearly 1800 members
drawn from all categories of media, and from business, finance, academia,
government and beyond are, along with our dedicated staff, in the rightplace to continue our mission of being at the center of the news.
As a “returning” president of FCCJ, I feel a sense of great honor tobe part of all this and to be a member of FCCJ. I have no doubt our club
will continue its success story in 2020, one of high news activity forJapan and for the FCCJ.
I wish you all a Happy New Year (calendar and lunar) in 2020 andhope that the FCCJ will gain a gold medal for being the center of news
making in Japan.
– Khaldon Azhari
4

FREEDOM OF THE PRESSFROM THE ARCHIVES

Reporters Without Borders yearly round-up:‘historically low’ number of journalists killed in 2019

Grand Champion andTV talent49
44%

journalists
were killed in 2019
decreasecompared to 2018

Compiled every year since
1995, the annual round-up
of abusive treatment anddeadly violence againstjournalists is based on
precise data covering theperiod from Jan. 1 to Dec. 1

59%

more journalists are now
being killed in countries
at peace than in war zones
compared to 201810

journalists
killed in Mexico

Nochangecompared to 2018

China alone holds a thirdof the worldwide totalof arbitrarily detained
journalists.

389

journalists
are currently in prison inconnection with their work

Wakanohana, who had achieved sumo’s highest rank of yokozuna (Grand
Champion) the previous year, made the FCCJ’s New Year celebration a
special event on Jan. 29, 1999, by cracking open a sake cask with Bob Neff
(Business Week) and Haruko Watanabe (Press Foundation of Asia). This
was not his first professional luncheon at the Club. He had appeared withhis younger brother in February 1994, as the “Waka-Taka” siblings—a label
derived from their earlier sumo names of Wakahanada and Takahanada—
who had spurred greater interest in sumo.

2%

increase in journalists
being deliberately
murdered or targetedcompared to 2018

Born into a family of sumo greats—they were sired by Takanohana
I (born Mitsuru Hanada) who also became their stablemaster—the
Hanada siblings (born Masaru and Koji Hanada) made their first
appearance together as sumo professionals in 1988. When the twobrothers joined their father’s stable they were subject to the same rules
as their fellow trainees, including living in the communal area andcalling their father Oyakata (Stablemaster).
Koji, the younger sibling with a larger physique, became Takanohana
II and a yokozuna in November of 1994 and Masaru, as Wakanohana III,
achieved the same high rank in 1998, making them the first siblings toshare that title. (Over time, however, their sibling relationship becamestrained and culminated in a falling out after the death of their father
in 2005.)
Wakanohana, who had won five tournament championships as alongtime ozeki, (champion) prior to becoming a yokozuna, retiredin 2000 after injuries brought an end to his sumo career. He briefly
served as a member of the Japan Sumo Association, then reverted inname to Masaru Hanada and went on to make a short-lived attempt toplay professional American football.
Returning to Japan, he became a television personality and restaurant
owner. Unfortunately, his restaurant chain that specialized in chankonabe, a kind of hotpot that is a favorite dish of sumo wrestlers, wentbankrupt in 2010, but he remains active as a television personality.
Masaru Hanada married in 1994 and fathered four children, but thatmarriage ended in divorce in 2007. He later remarried and fathered
one more child with his new wife.

17

journalists
killed in Yemen, Syria
and Afghanistan

50%

decreasecompared to 201812%

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

increase compared
to 2018JANUARY 2020

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Read/write

GOOD
READS

Stick It Up Your Punter! The Uncut Story of
the Sun Newspaper, by Chris Horrie and Peter
Chippindale, is both hilariously entertaining
and horribly frightening. It’s the story of
how the unscrupulous Rupert Murdoch andthe bullying, obnoxious, foul-mouthed editor
Kelvin MacKenzie turned a sleazy tabloid
into a media goldmine that manipulated
public opinion with its populist approach,and even played an oversized role in British
politics in the eighties. Ring any bells? First
published in 1990, it was updated to include
the Leveson Inquiry in 2012. As eye-opening
as it is raunchy. And no, I’ve never looked at
MacKenzie as a role model.

My first instinct is to recommend
Scoop [the 1938 novel by Evelyn
Waugh], but let me instead suggest
My Paper Chase, the autobiographyof former Sunday Times editor
Harold Evans. It’s a guide tocampaigning journalism as it ought
to be done: with an eye for news anda desire to help, not to win prizes orpush a political cause.

Robin Harding, the Financial Times.

Books on andabout journalism

Gregory Starr,
editor, Number 1 Shimbun

Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists, a suite of shortstories about a fictional international daily based inRome, is nothing short of devastating, both for its
unflinching portrayal of the industry as well as its
utterly authentic portraits of the paper’s managers,
staff and readers. You won’t find a better novel about
the death of newspapers.

A bedside reading
list thatkeep you up at nigh shouldt

Sorcieres, la puissance invaincue
des femmes (Witches, the unbeaten
power of women), is by Mona Chollet, ajournalist for Le Monde Diplomatique inParis, and a French feminist figure. In
this book, she shows through a studyof the mythology of witchcraft and thehistory of witch-hunting how society
still sees women who are free andindependent as evil witches. (It should
appear in English soon.)

Johann Fleuri, freelance

Bradley Martin, the Asia Times

Richard Lloyd Parry,
the Times
I recently read and really enjoyed
Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror. It’s acollection of essays, including several
about journalism in the social-media
and digital age. It is a thoughtful
meditation on the state of theindustry, the new forces shaping it
and the responsibilities of journalists
in the current political era.

Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroadin a Post-American World, by Suzy Hansen (Farrar,
Straus and Giroux, 2017). “A brave and disturbing
account of what it means to be an American in theworld during the first decades of the 21st century,”
said the Pulitzer Prize jury when nominating myfellow Istanbulite’s part memoir, part journalism
debut book on Turkey, as a finalist in 2017.

Ilgin Yorulmaz, freelance

6

Isabel Reynolds, Bloomberg

Tim Hornyak, freelance

Recall the nursery rhyme: “Whenshe was good, she was very, very
good, but when she was bad, she washorrid.” Journalism is a lot like thatlittle girl, and that’s why I’ve always
included Evelyn Waugh’s classic
comic novel, Scoop, on my syllabus
for a Foreign Correspondence
course. Exaggerating images fromhis own coverage of the war in
Ethiopia in the 1930s, the British
author held a fun-house mirror up to
our profession—in such memorable
fashion that once you’ve read thisbook, you’ll never go to the front
without a supply of cleft sticks.

On the face of it, Ryszard Kapuscinski’s
The Soccer War is a mess, a series of loosely
connected sketches about now remote charactersand episodes from Africa and Latin America inthe 1960s. But no book I know, better or morehonestly captures the chaos, fascination andfutility of foreign news reporting, especiallythe reporting of conflict. “We always carry it
to foreign countries, all over the world, ourpride and our powerlessness,” the great Pole
writes. “We know its configuration, but there
is no way to make it accessible to others. It will
never be right. Something, the most important
thing, the most significant thing, somethingremains unsaid.”

How about Matt Taibbi’s Hate, Inc:
Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise
One Another? If you can read this andnot want to switch to some other lineof work, you’ve really got the bug.

Abby Leonard,
freelance

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Andrew Marr’s unputdownable My
Trade: A Short History of British
Journalism, which I was given for
Christmas some years ago. The awardwinning BBC political correspondent
was previously a print journalist for anumber of publications, and the book
is a compelling ride through the past
combined with amusing and alarming
anecdotes from newsrooms and the“front lines” of the business.
His conclusion is worth repeating:“Reporters are what journalism is about.
. . . Never mind the arguments aboutownership and regulation. A journalism
which is based on vigorous honest
reporting is in good health; one that is
not, in decay. It’s as simple as that.”

Julian Ryall, the Telegraph
7

Read/write

Search for a
New Order:Intellectuals andFascism in Prewar
Japan, was written
by my college
roommate, Miles
Fletcher. In 1968, at
Ann Arbor, he hadalready started to
do research on thelife of Shintaro Ryu,
an economist who
acted as advisor
to Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoye,
while writing columns for the Asahi.
Ryu spent the war years as the Asahi’sBerlin correspondent. After returning
to Japan in 1945, he rose to become thepaper’s editor in chief.
Fletcher was among the first scholars
to point out that many Japanese
intellectuals prior to WWII were active
supporters of the government andworked hard to promote what they saw
as Japan’s legitimate interests. His
book shows that there is not one right
way to be a reporter and that we needto judge our colleagues not only by the
choices they made but by the choices
they felt they had.

Andrew Horvat, freelance

As a CBS “60 Minutes” television
correspondent and former anchor
of the “CBS Evening News,” Scott
Pelley has had decades of amazing
experiences. In Truth Worth Telling,
he relates countless intriguing
anecdotes from his career as anextremely ethical journalist. He also
tells us about the struggles of his
early career and how he refused toaccept “no” for an answer.

Fiesta (The Sun Also Rises), is Hemingway’s firstfull novel. The semi-autobiographical tale of aforeign correspondent in Paris and his friends who
travel to the running of the bulls in Pamplona is asremarkable for the complete absence of journalistic
work done as it is for the sparse writing stylethat came to define the author. The protagonist
is apparently unencumbered by deadlines ordemanding editors, and gives no thought to pitchinga feature about his trip to Spain. This leaves him
free to pursue his true passions: drinking, fishing,bullfighting and more drinking.

Gavin Blair, freelance

THE BOOK SHOWS THAT THERE IS NOT ONE RIGHT WAY
TO BE A REPORTER AND THAT WE NEED TO JUDGE OUR
COLLEAGUES NOT ONLY BY THE CHOICES THEY MADE
BUT BY THE CHOICES THEY FELT THEY HAD.
If you needto teacha class injournalism
or simply
just want a
primer on
anythingfromethics andattribution
to investigative reporting andinterview techniques, you must get thisoutstanding book. Inside Reporting,
3rd Edition, by Tim Harrower, is abreeze to read, accessible to anyone
and a great guide for neophytes andcrusty, ink-stained wretches alike. I
enjoy just leafing through it.

Hans Greimel, Automotive NewsTHE FCCJ ONLINE: www.fccj.or.jp

The Impossible
H.L. Mencken.
This 700-pagecollection of
Mencken’s bestnewspaper articles
between 1904 and1948 covers topics
as diverse as thestate of journalism,
US presidential elections, the famous
Scopes Monkey Trial, and thoughts
on eating and the telephone.
Dedicated to the working journalist,
and with a forward by Gore Vidal,
this book shows, as Vidal points out,
the difference between a journalist
being “Right” as opposed to being“Correct.”

MEMBER EVENTSPRESS CONFERENCE VIDEOSCLUB CALENDARCLUB INFORMATION

Eric Johnston, the Japan Times

Randy Schmidt, CBS
Roger McNamee’s Zucked: Waking up to the Facebook
Catastrophe. In the historical blink of an eye, Facebook
has become the world’s largest publisher. Some 14
years after being started in a Harvard dorm, it has 2.4
billion users and, together with Google, FB is eating
journalism, both by luring young consumers away fromold media and undermining its economic base.
Yes, technology always brings disruption and isoften creative, but FB is a monopoly run by people
with no idea of what comes next. McNamee is a former
insider (his firm once owned stock in Facebook) turned
Cassandra figure, warning us about a new generation of publishers that have“power without responsibility.” Will we listen?”

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

No. 1 SHIMBUN ONLINEFREEDOM OF THE PRESS INFODavid McNeill, the Economist, the Irish Times8

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Book review

Book review

An Impeccable Spy

Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master AgentOWEN MATTHEWS’ AN IMPECCABLE SPY
is a competent but less than definitive
re-telling of the story of Richard
Sorge, the Tokyo-based, WWII-era
Russian spy, whose mission was tokeep the USSR informed of Japaneseintentions in East Asia. Many people
consider Sorge the greatest spy inhistory, and that he and his Japanese
partner, Hotsumi Ozaki, saved the
USSR by confirming that Japan would
not open a second front against
Russia in 1941.
Matthews, who reads Russian, hasprovided a detailed account of Sorge’s
colorful career by delving into thedeclassified Soviet archives.
Sorge was born in Baku in 1895 to a
German father and a Russian motherand grew up in Germany. He joined
the German Army in October, 1914.
In March, 1916, Sorge was heavily
wounded in fighting near Minsk. Whileconvalescing, he read Marx and othersocialist writers, and became convincedthat communism was the only way to
end the cycle of imperialist war.
Sorge joined the German Communist
Party and later went to Moscow to workfor the Comintern, the internationalorganization that advocated worldcommunism. In 1929, Sorge began
working for the Red Army’s Fourth
Department military-intelligenceagency, which sent him to Shanghai
in 1930 and Tokyo in 1933. Sorge
established his bona fides as ajournalist for the Frankfurter Zeitung,and was a member of the Nazi Party,
making him one of the few people—
perhaps the only one—ever to be amember of the Soviet Communist Party
and the Nazi Party at the same time.
ONCE IN JAPAN, SORGE assembled
one of history’s most accomplishedspy rings. His star recruit was
Asahi Shimbun journalist Ozaki,
who had access to the highest
levels of the Japanese government.
He also ingratiated himself at theGerman Embassy in Tokyo throughhis knowledge of East Asia and byproviding inside information suppliedby Ozaki.
10

By OwenMatthews
Bloomsbury
PublishingLondon 2019
Reviewed by
Steve McClure

The Sorge ring provided crucial
information to Soviet military
intelligence on four occasions. In 1938,
Soviet and Japanese forces clashed at
Changkufeng, near the intersectionof the borders of the Japanese puppet
state of Manchukuo (Manchuria),
Korea, and the USSR. Ozaki’s sources
told him the Japanese did not want theconflict to escalate.
In the Nomonhan Incident of spring
1939, Soviet and Japanese forces
fought a localized war on the border
between Manchukuo and Mongolia.
Ozaki told Sorge that Japan was intent
on “solving the problem locally.”
The Sorge ring’s attempts to warn of
the German plan to invade the USSR
were less successful. Stalin ignored
the solid intelligence that Sorge
sourced from his high-level German
Embassy contacts.
The biggest question surrounding
Sorge and his network is to what
extent Stalin acted on the informationthat Sorge supplied confirming that
the Japanese would not invade Siberia.
Matthews quotes a message Sorge sent
to Moscow on July 12, 1941: “If the Red
Army suffers defeat then there is no
doubt that the Japanese will join thewar, and if there is no defeat, thenthey will maintain neutrality.”“The version of this telegram in the
military archives bears Stalin’s initials
alongside those of Molotov, Beria
and army chief Marshal Voroshilov,”
Matthews writes. “A handwritten
note on the bottom written by a
Fourth Department official says: ‘In
consideration of the high reliability
and accuracy of previous informationand the competence of theinformation sources, this information
can be trusted.’”AN ATTACK BY JAPAN on the USSRin the summer of 1941 would havedoomed the Soviet regime—andchanged the outcome of the war.
“Exactly what role Sorge’s information
played in Stalin’s decision making
has been hotly debated by Russian
historians,” Matthews writes. “But it
is clear from the wide circulation that
Sorge’s reports received that the Fourth
Department, the top members of the
Politburo and Soviet Army, had finallybegin to trust Sorge’s information.
Towards the end of September, troops
began moving from the Far Eastern
Military District in large numbers tofight the Germans on the plains ofEuropean Russia. . . . In all, Stalin would
shift over half the available troops inSiberia to the defense of Moscow.” Thisappears to be the first confirmation in
English of Sorge’s pivotal role in theSoviet leader’s decision.
Sorge’s luck finally ran out. The
Japanese police had been trying to findthe source of coded radio messages
that were being sent from somewhere
in Tokyo. In October 1941, they finally
got a break that led them to the source.
Sorge and his confederates werearrested. Sorge and Ozaki were hangedon Nov. 7, 1944.
Writing a full, well-rounded
description of Sorge’s career requires
a thorough grounding in the politicaland diplomatic machinations of Japan,
the USSR and Germany, not to mention
the necessary linguistic skills. An
Impeccable Spy does not come up to thismark, unfortunately. It is, however, fullof interesting historical footnotes, suchas a Japanese plot to assassinate Stalin,
and the Lyushkov affair, which saw ahigh-ranking NKVD officer defect toJapan in June 1938. It also contains
some unfortunate errors concerning
Japanese names and places.
Matthews paints a well-rounded
picture of Sorge as a player in the
broad context of the years leading up
to the Second World War. But what’s
missing is the nuance and detailprovided by Chalmers Johnson’s An
Instance of Treason: Ozaki Hotsumi and
the Sorge Spy Ring, which is still the best
book on the Sorge case in English. ❶Steve McClure is a writer, editor and narrator

who has lived in Tokyo since 1985.

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Asia’s Journey to Prosperity:

Policy, Market and Technology Over 50 Years
THE SECRET BEHIND ASIA’S
transformation over the past half
century from a mainly poor andunderdeveloped region into a global
economic powerhouse is that there
is no secret or mystery about it. The
term “East Asian Miracle” is probably
misleading, there is “no such thing as
an Asian consensus,” and the belief
that the twenty-first century will be“Asia’s century” is too early to call.
This rather blunt, but essentiallyrealistic analysis forms the basis ofAsia’s Journey to Prosperity, publishedby the Asian Development Bank in
January. It also suggests that it willtake time for Asia “to become as
influential as the West has been for the
past five centuries.”
The work is the product of economists
from many countries at the ADB led byoutgoing President Takehiko Nakao,
who for the past seven years has been a
key figure on Asia’s development scene.
It represents, he says, his “passion towrite Asian development history in abalanced and comprehensive manner inEnglish by economists from Asia.”
Far from dismissing Asia’s economic
achievements over the past five orsix decades, the book argues thatgrowth, poverty reduction, andprogress in education and health havebeen beyond anyone’s expectations.
But Nakao believes that the policies
pursued in Asia can be explained bystandard economic theories. And
these policies are not so different
from those prescribed by the so-called“Washington Consensus.”
Asia has pulled itself up by its own
bootstraps by learning from the successes
and failures of others, rejecting what
does not work and building upon what
does, by preferring trade openness toprotectionism, adopting new technologies,
transitioning from agriculture to
manufacturing and services andbuilding infrastructure and institutions.
Yet there is “no room forcomplacency,” warns Nakao, in what
is a very readable book that has been
three years in the making. Thereremain many challenges including
persistent poverty, gender gaps,
FCCJ

JANUARY 2020

Published by
the AsianDevelopment
Bank
January 2019
Reviewed by
Anthony Rowley

environmental degradation, andso on. He argues that Asia must
continue to strengthen its institutions,contribute to the development ofscience and technology, assume more
responsibility for global issues andarticulate its own ideas.
The volume steers away from politics
in its analysis (understandable for a
multilateral development institution).
But some may feel that China could
learn something from Nakao’s counsel
in favor of caution. Those who know
relatively little about Asia can learnmuch from this book for the context it
provides on Asia’s economic history.
For example, Asia produced twothirds of global GDP (in purchasingpower parity terms) from the beginningof recorded history until the early 19th
century, reflecting its large population
and relatively high productivity.
Chinese and Arab merchants laid thefoundations of East-West commerceand scientific progress flourished inparts of Asia while Europe was being
repressed by religious dogma.
This all changed after the
Industrial Revolution. Except forJapan, which pursued Westernstyle modernization in the late 19th
century, Asian economies stagnatedfrom isolationism, colonization, weak
institutions, outdated education
systems, domestic conflict, and wars.
As recently as 1966, when the ADB wasestablished, the Asia Pacific region wasvery poor. Developing Asia’s per capita
gross domestic product was just $330. By
2018, this had soared to $4,903, a near
14-fold increase, while global per capita
GDP tripled over the same period. As aresult, developing-Asia’s share of global

GDP jumped from 4 to 24 percent.
As the book observes, the roleof markets and the state wasshaped by changes in development
thinking. After World War II, stateled industrialization and “importsubstitution” strategies dominateddevelopment policy in developing
countries. Nationalist and socialist
ideologies had significant influence.
These led to massive inefficiencies andeven crises in many countries.
Japan had a tradition of a strong
private sector going back to premodern
merchants. After the Meiji Restorationin 1868, government policies focusedon establishing modern institutions
and education. Although Japan resorted
to “targeted industrial policy” after
the war, it was mainly to address
serious resource constraints during therebuilding process.
From the 1960s, South Korea, Hong
Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan shifted toexport-promotion and market-friendly
policies. In the 1970s, Indonesia,
Malaysia, and Thailand opened up to
trade and foreign direct investment,
and became “high-performing Asian
economies” in the following two decades.
From the late 1970s, more Asian
economies embarked on far-reachingmarket-oriented reforms and opened
to the outside world. China began“reform and opening up” in 1978, anddecided to adopt a “socialist market
economy” in the early 1990s, enabling
40 years of rapid economic growth.
South Asia also joined the waveof economic reforms. India started
comprehensive reforms in 1991 toreduce government control, rely moreon market forces, and liberalize trade,and the reforms were followed by
growth. From the early 1990s, Central
Asian countries started the transition
toward market economies.
Development, the book concludes,“requires efficient markets, an effective
state and strong institutions. Markets,
prices and competition are critical forthe efficient allocation of resources andcreation of entrepreneurial incentives.
The state is needed to establish strong
institutions, intervene where markets failto work efficiently, and promote social
equity.” That probably comes close tosumming up the elusive Asian consensus. ❶Anthony Rowley was formerly with the Far
Eastern Economic Review and the Times of
London, and is the author of several books.
11Series: Profile

Eric Johnston
The Japan Times
By Julian Ryall

12

JANUARY 2020

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KAZUKO JOHNSTON

A

s the only full-time Kansaimy main job,” says Johnston. “So whenbased foreign reporter writing
one of the reporters at the Japan Times’“STORYTELLING THAT AIMS
about Japan in English, Eric
Osaka office said he was quitting, I
FOR THE TRUTH RATHER
Johnston has a different perspective
applied and became his successor.”
THAN RECITES FACTS WILL
on the news. And after more than 30
More than 20 years later, Johnston
years in and around Japan’s “second
knows the decision was the right one.
NEVER DISAPPEAR”
city,” he does not feel overly envious of“The Japan Times is the ideal placecorrespondents who find themselvesbecause of ‘trust,’” he says. “The edirooted to Tokyo.
tors in Tokyo, from the beginning, gave me a lot of freedom to
do my own stories and allowed me to develop my career at my“If you enjoy being an ‘outside’ journalist, without theown pace with relatively little oversight. That trust continues
constraints and often complicated loyalties to sources thatto be strong, if not stronger.”‘inside’ journalists, especially in Tokyo, have, then it’s defiThere are a couple of disadvantages to being based in Osanitely an advantage to be in Osaka,” says Johnston, the senior
ka instead of the capital, he admits. Being at arm’s length
Kansai correspondent for the Japan Times. “Distance allows
from the political and economic heart of the nation makes it
for a more detached, critical view of the capital and its sheharder to develop relationships with sources who can provide
nanigans, and the news coming out of it.”diverse and directly informed opinions on what is happening.
Born in Pennsylvania, the 55-year-old Johnston studied
But he has no plans to swap Kansai for Kanto. “I preferbusiness and communications as dual majors at the Univerresearching and writing from a non-Tokyo base in the selfish
sity of Pittsburgh with no thoughts of a career in journaldream of reminding readers, for a half second, that ‘Japan’ism. But, intrigued by tales of the “economic miracle” takdoes not automatically equal ‘Tokyo,’” he says.
ing place on the other side of the Pacific and books such as
Among the many advantages is that Osakans are notably
Ezra Vogel’s Japan as Number 1, Johnston began taking Japaloud, brash, and quick-witted. “People are often more direct
nese language classes.
and opinionated than their Tokyo cousins, which makes for“To my surprise, I not only enjoyed it more than my othergreat copy if you’re a journalist.”classes, but decided I wanted to become highly fluent,” hesays. “By the time I graduated in 1987, I was itching to travel
JOHNSTON IS PARTICULARLY INTERESTED in stories thatand wanted an adventure.”
examine some of the deeply entrenched political and social
Through a university friend from Kyoto, Johnston was
issues of the country from a different angle. Of the events
able to find a job at an English conversation school in thefrom his career that have stuck with him, Johnston points toancient capital, enabling him to make a living while learning
the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the “tension, excitement andabout Japan and picking up more of the language. Initially,
sense of hope that climate change could be controlled that
he toyed with the idea of combining studying with travelling
permeated the 1997 conference creating the Kyoto Protocol.”in the region.
An interview with Harrison Ford in 2011 is also memoraThat changed in 1988, when he was invited to write able, as well as watching US President Barack Obama pay hisstory for a Kyoto-based student magazine, and realized herespects as the first sitting US leader to visit Hiroshima.
enjoyed it. A couple of years later, he was in the right place
He is generally upbeat about the future of his trade. “Goodat the right time when the Osaka-based publisher of a Japastorytelling that aims for the truth rather than recites a mere
nese trade magazine for the video arcade game and karaokecollection of facts will never disappear,” he says. “It’s a funmachine industries was setting up Japan Amusement Monthly,
damental human need.”an English-language version of their publication. For theJohnston remains particularly optimistic about the future
following three years, Johnston travelled to trade shows in
of individual acts of journalism. “But to make a difference inthe US, Europe and Asia, testing out foreign manufacturers’society,” he says, “it has to continually reach a loyal commumachines and writing about the latest releases from Sega,
nity of followers who understand and accept that, unlike air,Namco, and Capcom in Japan.
truthful information and storytelling is not free, can be quite
expensive, and may not always make them ‘satisfied customIN 1994, JOHNSTON WAS asked by the Mainichi Daily News toers.’ That’s a tough sell.
write freelance articles on different aspects of the city from“That said,” he continues, “I’m encouraged by reports in
a foreigner’s perspective. That soon evolved into a full-timesome parts of the world that news on printed paper is making
position, although the English-language print version of the
a comeback.” ❶Mainichi was already under pressure by 1996.
“I was also ready to move on and do full-time reporting
rather than mostly translating and editing, which had been
Julian Ryall is the Japan correspondent for the Daily Telegraph.

FCCJJANUARY 202013

Chemistry studies

My ‘studies’
with Nobel
Prize winner
Akira Yoshino
The lithium battery inventor taught theauthor a thing or two about a breakthroughthat has changed the world around us

By Roger Schreffler

Akira Yoshinoat the Clubon Dec. 20
last year
14

KATSUMI KASAHARAIn October, 2010, I found myself zipping around a test
track at the research center of Hiroshi Shimizu, a professor in Keio University’s engineering department. He hadbuilt a prototype electric car, the Eliica, that could acceleratefrom 0 to 100 kph in four seconds and run at speeds of over
350 kph—faster than just about any car outside the supersports car segment. Prof. Shimizu didn’t let me drive, but oneof his assistants took me for a spin, and seeing or “feeling,” ashe would say, was believing.
Later, while discussing the car’s battery, Shimizu urged
me to reach out to another researcher, an employee of Asahi
Kasei named Akira Yoshino, who he predicted would one day
win the Nobel Prize. I followed up in short order, requesting
an interview, while trying to make myself seem more knowledgeable about battery technology than I was. The fact was,batteries are about chemistry, and chemistry was not one of
my strong suits as a student.
I didn’t know, frankly, the difference between an anodeand a cathode or an electrolyte and separator, the four main
components of so-called rechargeable batteries. I did knowthat Japan was far and away the global leader in both nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries, the two leading
candidates to replace lead-acid, the industry mainstay. I also
knew that Japan had staked out a leadership position in small
applications such as personal computers, mobile phones andassorted power tools.
What I didn’t know at the time was that the reason for Japan’s
preeminent position, in the case of lithium-ion batteries,
involved Yoshino—who, while being well-known in the scientific community, was relatively unknown in the media world.
Asahi Kasei, a global chemical company, responded affirmatively to my request and we scheduled a late-afternoon
interview. I arrived with an interpreter, someone wellschooled in chemistry, and we were led to a conference room.
YOSHINO ENTERED THE ROOM, and after perfunctory introductions, he immediately launched into what can best be
described as a “lecture” to a college chemistry class, befitting
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his doctorate in engineering and master’s degree in organic
chemistry. He was genial, unassuming, and focused, clearlyin an educational mode.
Using a projector, he began a 15-minute slide presentation
by explaining what a lithium-ion battery is. “A nonaqueous
secondary battery using cabonaceous materials as a negativeelectrode and transition metal oxides containing lithium-ion—LiCoO2—as a positive electrode,” he said.
This “student” reporter was already lost. But the “professor” had just begun. He then reviewed the evolution of primary and secondary batteries from alkaline, lead-acid andnickel-cadmium to nickel-metal hydride, lithium-metal andlithium-ion and finally to describe the characteristics oflithium-ion batteries and why they had aroused such intenseinterest among global automakers.
“Small and light,” he noted, “with high electromotive force,high current discharge and no harmful substances such as
cadmium or lead. And for energy storage applications: highcharge/discharge efficiency and a low self-discharge rate.”
When his talk moved to electrodes, the student gave up.
Yet electrodes, the electric conductors through which current
enters or leaves a battery cell, were the centerpiece of Yoshino’s
research. And negative electrodes in particular were a major
obstacle to mass-producing lithium-ion batteries, which by
all accounts is what earned Yoshino his share of the prize.
Lest we forget, the 1980s up through the mid-1990s werethe “go-go” days for the Japanese economy and, for manufacturers in general, what later came to be known as “monozu-

ply couldn’t envision the explosive growth of cell phones andpersonal computers.”
Yoshino wasn’t alone in trying to achieve a technologicalbreakthrough. Lithium-ion batteries hold four times moreenergy than lead-acid and a breakthrough, for auto manufacturers, for example, would lead to a move away from internal combustion engines, all of which emit CO2 into the atmosphere, to electric powertrains, the cleanest of the clean.
In December, 2010, several weeks after our meeting, Nissan’s Leaf, which would become the best-selling electric car
ever, went on sale. Interest in electric cars had grown following the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show when almost all the Japanese
automakers exhibited an array of future and futuristic electric vehicles powered wholly or partly by batteries.
Since then, of course, thanks to Yoshino’s and other breakthroughs, sales have rocketed as battery costs have plummeted. Lithium batteries cost more than ¥100,000 per kWh,in 2010. Today, prices have fallen to around ¥15,000 per kWh,and Tesla and other automakers are claiming that they are fast
approaching ¥10,940 per kWh—one tenth of the 2010 cost.
Experts like Yoshino are skeptical and believe that figure
will be difficult to achieve in the near future, since it will
depend in part on putting a recycling system in place. Butthat hasn’t begun in any meaningful way, and most believe it
won’t be up and running until after 2025.
Let’s look at some figures.
Since 1995, global manufacturers have sold more than 5billion personal computers, 12 billion smart phones.
Since 2018, the number of electriccars sold has grown to more than 1 milTHIS ‘STUDENT’ REPORTER WAS ALREADY LOST. BUT
lion units annually. And by 2030, mostTHE ‘PROFESSOR’ HAD JUST BEGUN. . . . WHEN HIS TALK analysts expect sales to grow to morethan 10 million, with some estimates as
MOVED TO ELECTRODES, THE STUDENT GAVE UP.
high as 15 million.
Battery production, which grew to ankuri” production or the art of “making things.” Yoshino wasestimated 160 gigawatt-hours in 2019, is projected to growrepresentative of that period.
to 1.5 terawatt-hours in 2030. That is 1.5 trillion watt-hours,
Yoshino began his research in 1981, working out of a small
mostly for the auto industry. This compares to 19 GWh (19lab south of Tokyo in Kawasaki. His Asahi Kasei team discovmillion watt-hours) in 2010, the year Nissan began mass-proered that polyacetylene—an organic polymer with high elecducing the Leaf.
troconductivity—could be used as a negative electrode mateSo why was Akira Yoshino named the co-winner of the Nobelrial, and filed their first big patent in 1983.
prize for chemistry? A battery expert in the US explains: Yoshi“At that time,” Yoshino recalled, “many researchers were
no’s Asahi Kasei team “put together the fundamental structure
working with metallic lithium and there were problems, thewe see in today’s lithium-ion batteries. Every lithium-ion cell inmost serious being that the material is unstable and prone toportable electronic devices on the market—computers, phones,
overheating and fire.” He showed old lab footage in which a
power tools, and cameras—derives from Yoshino’s research.”
test sample of metallic lithium burst into flames. The polyIn an ironical side story, Sony beat Asahi Kasei to market byacetylene electrode, however, did not.
nearly a year in 1991, with a small battery for an early versionof its Handycam camcorder. Asahi Kasei, a global chemical
HIS TEAM EVENTUALLY ADOPTED less-costly carbon as the negmanufacturer and supplier of separators, arguably the most
ative electrode material, replacing polyacetylene, and filed
important component in lithium-ion batteries, pursued atheir second big patent in 1985. Before they were done, theydifferent strategy. Instead of marketing its battery technolamassed more than 300 patents while their carbon/lithumogy directly, reminiscent of Sony’s failed Betamax strategy
cobaltate battery would become the industry standard. It
in the 1970s, Asahi Kasei opted to license its technology tostill is.
more than 10 battery manufacturers including Toshiba (aUpon reflection, he said, “If my team’s tests had failed I
joint venture partner) and the former Sanyo Electric Co.,
am not sure if lithium-ion batteries ever would have been
now part of Panasonic.
mass-produced.”
Akira Yoshino is now teaching at Meijo University in Nagoya
By his own admission, Yoshino never envisioned a world in
while still serving as a senior advisor to Asahi Kasei. ❶which we depended on notebook computers and cell phones.
There were none in 1980. And electric cars were out of theRoger Schreffler is a veteran business reporter who focuses on thequestion. “Our main focus was camcorders,” he said. “We simauto sector, and a former FCCJ president.
FCCJJANUARY 202015

Club news

NEW MEMBERSFCCJ EXHIBITION

Mount Fuji Through the Seasons
Photos by Katsura Endo

REGULAR MEMBER
I remember first becoming aware of Mt.
Fuji during a summer festival when I
was three years old and my family hadgone out in a pleasure boat. I still have avague memory of a firework display anda spectacular Mt. Fuji seemingly floatingin the night sky.
Every morning Mt. Fuji calls out to me. I
awake, then go to see it.
I hope you will enjoy these images of a‘tranquil Fuji’ in the first yearof Reiwa.

Katsura Endo was born in Hakone, 1958.

His grandfather was a landscape photographer andhis father a commercial photographer. Endo took
part in a climb in the Himalayas in the winter of
1979-80 and held a solo exhibition on his return.
Since then, he has been involved in countless photoprojects, but he considers photographing Mt.
Fuji to be a life work. He has held numerous solo
exhibitions both in Japan and abroad.

Yumiko Mizuno, Mizuno Handy
Harman, Ltd.
Yuji Ohashi, Mori Hospitality
Corporation
Satoshi Tanaka, Mitsui & Co., Ltd.
Yasuyo Yamazaki, Kuni Umi AssetManagement Co., Ltd.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Yuji Aihara, Toyota Tsusho Corporation
REINSTATEMENT (ASSOCIATE
Lia Camargo, The Third Eye
MEMBER)
Corporation
Nami Fukutomi, Landscape Co., Ltd.
Kiyoshi Kawamoto, IDOM Inc.

NEW IN THE LIBRARYThe Democracy ofSuffering:Life on the Edge ofCatastrophe,
Philosophy
in the Anthropocene
McGill-Queen’s
University Press
Todd Dufresne

In December last year, the Club’s Christmas Party was a
happy and well-attended success, and families (children
were, of course, central to the party and a donation
ensured their attendance was free) were treated to a
Christmas buffet meal, Billy the magician, music fromClub Member Mary Corbett—and, naturally, Santa.

Regular member TSUKASA FURUKAWA passed
away Dec. 11 in a Tokyo hospital after a longillness He was 87.
Furukawa was Tokyo Bureau chief for
Fairchild Publications and a well-known figureon the Tokyo fashion scene.
He was an enthusiastic club participant andserved on three boards and several committees.

Hidden Horrors:
Japanese War
Crimes in World War
II: Second Edition
Yuki Tanaka
Rowan & Littlefield
Publishers
Gift from Yuki Tanaka

At
the
Club

IN MEMORIAM

16

PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST/ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
George Miller, Temple University
Jin Nakamura, Atomi University
Kumiko Seto, Freelance

SIEGEL. . .on Wed., Jan. 15 at 6:45 p.m. for a sneak preview of the international
festival favorite Complicity, an authentic and moving depiction of an illegal
immigrant working in Japan. Although he finds work with an understanding
boss, Liang Chen lives in fear his true identity could be exposed at any
moment. And he’s also plagued by guilt: we learn through flashbacks that
he has left his ailing mother and demanding grandmother in his native
Henan, where family responsibilities had curtailed any hopes he’d had forthe future. He’d come to Japan intending to work for three years, savemoney and return to start his own business. But a lost wallet jeopardizes hisplans. Complicity erases cultural barriers as it touches on themes of trust,friendship and food as the catalyst for building bonds. Debut director Kei
Chikaura, Chinese star Yulai Lu and legendary Japanese star Tatsuya Fuji will
join us for the Q&A session. (Japan/China, 2018; 116 minutes; in Japanese/
Mandarin with English/Japanese subtitles) — Karen Severns

CLUB CHRISTMAS PARTY

NHK World Department. She joined NHK asa news reporter, focusing mostly on Japanesepolitics and diplomacy. From 2008 to 2012,
she was a senior manager in the Corporate
Planning Department. From 2012 to 2017 sheheld executive positions at the Global Strategy
Division of NHK World Department. From 2017
to 2019, she was the director of NHK Kobe
Station. She took on her present post in 2019.

Photos: ALBERT

JOIN THE FILM COMMITTEE . . .

Rie Hayashi, is the managing director of“ONE OF THE ISSUES IN
INVESTIGATING RAPE CASES IS
THAT ONLY 7 PERCENT OF JAPAN’S
POLICE OFFICERS ARE WOMEN.
SO THERE IS A LOT OF GENDER
INEQUALITY IN THE POLICE.
FCCJJANUARY 2020

I HAD TO RE-ENACT THE
RAPE ON THE FLOOR WITH
A LIFE-SIZED DOLL IN FRONTOF THREE MALE OFFICERS.
THAT IS REALLYTRAUMATIZING”

Shiori Ito, journalist,
after the favorable
court ruling in her
rape case against
Noriyuki Yamaguchi,
Dec. 19

17

Photographer members

Lens craft

Forceful
Kabuki actor Ebizo Ichikawa performs in‘Star Wars Kabuki’ to promote the release ofStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, at Meguro
Persimmon Hall, Tokyo on Nov. 28
by Tomohiro Ohsumi

Papa
Pope Francis meets survivors from the atomic
bombing in Hiroshima during his four-day trip toJapan—the first papal visit here for 38 years. He
also visited Nagasaki and Tokyo.
by Rodrigo Reyes Marin18

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JANUARY 2020

Mama
Bottlenose dolphin Rig swims
with her 10-day-old baby at the
Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquariumin Yokohama, Nov. 17
by Yoshikazu Tsuno
19