The Magazine of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

January 2021 · Volume 53 · No. 1

SNAFU, #MeTooor Moo?
Your prophecies for
the Year of the Cow

02 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

In this issue
January 2021 · Volume 53 · No. 1

Contact the Editors
no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Publisher FCCJ
Editor Peter O’Connor
Designer Julio Kohji Shiiki, www.sedo.co.jp
Editorial Assistant Naomichi Iwamura
Photo coordination Hiroko Moriwaki, Norio Muroi
Publications CommitteePeter O’Connor (Chair), Suvendrini Kakuchi,
Monzurul Huq, Robert Whiting, David McNeill
FC C J B OA R D O F D I R EC TO R S
President Isabel Reynolds, Bloomberg L.P.
Special Advisor to the President
Monzurul Huq, Prothom Alo, Dhaka
1st Vice President Andy Sharp, Nikkei Asian Review
2nd Vice President Walter Sim, Straits Times
Treasurer Mehdi Bassiri, O.B.M. Co., Ltd
Secretary Ilgin Yorulmaz, Freelance/BBC World
Service Turkish
Directors-at-LargePeter O’Connor, Freelance
Simon Farrell, Custom Media K.K.
Mary Corbett, Cresner Media
Daniel J. Sloan, Freelance/Nissan Motor
Kanji Gregory Clark, Freelance
Associate Kanji Vicki L. Beyer, Freelance
Ex-officio Khaldon Azhari, PanOrient News
Regular Reserve Director: Pio d'Emilia, SKY TG 24
FC C J C O M M I T T E E C H A I R SDiversity Ilgin Yorulmaz
Publications Peter O'Connor
Website Simon Farrell, Andy Sharp
Associate Members’ Liaison TBA
Entertainment Sandra Mori
Exhibitions Bruce Osborn
Film Karen Severns
Finance Mehdi Bassiri
Food & Beverage Robert Kirschenbaum, Pio d’Emilia
Freedom of Press Justin McCurry, Simon Denyer
House & Property Isabel Reynolds
Human Resources Walter Sim
Information Technology TBA
Law Koichi Ishiyama, Suvendrini Kakuchi
Public Relations (inc. Marketing Membership)
Simon Farrell
Membership Andrew Horvat, Monzurul Huq
Professional Activities Tetsu Jimbo, David McNeill
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship
Abby Leonard, Kazu Takada
Compliance Kunio Hamada, Mary Corbett
Election Reed Stevenson2020 was the year in which just about everything that could go wrong, didgo wrong. With this issue, the oracle at Marunouchi has spoken on the year
ahead and we release our visions to a waiting world, alongside a close viewof the troubles at Kusatsu, a retrospective on the rise of the capsule, and tworecollections on the passing of the great Takashi Oka.
As BREXIT falters, COVID conquers and China wins the world, the FCCJ willcontinue as an oasis of wisdom, calm and congeniality, with wonderful dining
privileges on the side.
Meanwhile, this editor takes his leave. It has been an honour and a privilege anda lot of fun putting this magazine together with the expertise and inspiration of
Julio Kohji Shiiki, our designer. I wish my successor Justin McCurry every possible
success, and all of us wish you, our readers, an especially happy New Year.

THE FRONT PAGE
03

From the President
Isabel Reynolds

COVER STORY
04

SNAFU, #MeToo or Moo?
Peter O’Connor

PAC AF TERWORD
06

J’accuse, redux
David McNeill

PERSONAL BEST09

Forty years on: the march of the capsule
Mark Schreiber

BOOK REVIEW
13

Saul J. Takahashi (ed.)
Civil and Political Rights in Japan:
A Tribute to Sir Nigel Rodley
Lawrence Repeta

RECOLLECTIONS
15

Two seasons in 1970 with Takashi Oka,
1924-2020
Barry Shlachter

18

Takashi Oka, 1924-2020:
a true friend, a great mentor
Daniel Sneider

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Marunouchi Nijubashi Building 5F
Marunouchi 3-2-3 Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-0005
Tel: (03) 3211-3161 Fax: (03) 3211-3168 fccj.or.jp
Published by the FCCJ All opinions contained within
Number 1 Shimbun are those of the authors.
As such, these opinions do not constitute an official
position of Number 1 Shimbun, the editor or theForeign Correspondent’ Club of Japan.
Please pitch and send articles and photographs, oraddress comments to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Read the Number 1 Shimbun online:
www.fccj.or.jp/number-1-shimbun

CLUB NEWS21

New members, Join the Film Committee,
New in the library, Regular by eggs

PHOTOGRAPHY
23Group Exhibition: The Year of the Cow

Cover illustration by Julio ShiikiINDEX03 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

THE FRONT PAGE

From the President

JULIO SHIIKI

Dear Members,I’m writing this column for the last editionof Number 1 Shimbun to be edited by Peter
O’Connor, who steps down at the end of
the year to be replaced by Justin McCurry.
It was with a bit of a jolt that I remembered thisevening that I’ve been Club President sinceAugust, but haven’t met Peter in person evenonce – we know each other only through Zoom,
phone calls and emails. That’s just one aspectof the slightly ghostly life many of us have been
living since the pandemic broke out – we canbe working closely with people even in thesame city for months without ever meeting
face-to-face.
Peter has been a hardworking and nimble
editor, producing a timely edition on womenjust as four female directors were elected to
the Board, and delving through the archives
to put together a tribute to the Club’s history to mark its 75th anniversary this year, an
event that we were sadly unable to celebratewith a party because of virus concerns. Please
help Justin maintain Number 1 Shimbun’s highstandard in the New Year by pitching ideas forupcoming issues.
As we head into the holidays, I’d like toexpress my deep appreciation to the staff andvolunteers at the Club who have made great
efforts to maintain all our areas of activity,
despite the unprecedented difficulties we’ve

faced in 2020. After a year featuring everyone
from would-be prime ministers, to a former
member of SMAP, the Professional Activities
Committee in December offered journalists
the opportunity to get right to the heart of acontroversy. Both accuser and accused in asexual assault allegation that has caused apolitical drama in the traditional hot spring
town of Kusatsu in Gunma Prefecture came to
the Club to discuss the case. Meanwhile, Book
Breaks, film screenings, photo exhibitions andother events have all continued, with careful
precautions against the virus.
There’s a whole lot more to look forward toin 2021. We’re planning to revive our Freedomof the Press awards, so keep an eye out for
details on how to nominate those you see as
most deserving in Japan or the region, withprizes to be awarded in the coming months.
Importantly, the Board has also selected a new
Food and Beverage vendor, W&D LLC, who will
be opening operations with a soft launch and alimited menu from Friday, January 8, graduallybuilding up to full service in the coming weeks.
I’m looking forward very much to seeing everyone in the Main Bar to toast the arrival of theyear of the Ox.
● Isabel Reynolds has been reporting for
Bloomberg in Tokyo since 2012. She has lived inJapan for more than 20 years and been a Regular
Member of the FCCJ for most of that time.

INDEX04 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

COVER STORYSNAFU,#MeToo or Moo?
FIFTEEN PROPHECIES FOR THE YEAR OF THE COW
PETER O'CONNOR

I

n the dying hours of a terrible 2020, assorted members, their guests and officers of the Club, gazedinto their crystal balls to see if 2021 would bring us anything better. While the general feeling was thatat best we can only expect more of the same, some were more optimistic and one invoked a higher
power, just in case. The good news is that there'll be more than enough gekikara to go around. We allknow the bad news. The least we can do is hang on, find some joy in whatever is coming down the line, andfrom everyone at Number 1 Shimbun and the FCCJ, wish all of you the very best of what may not, after all,be quite as bad a year as the one just gone. Moo!

Toshifumi Nagasaka

Masumi Sugamori

Nobuhisa Kishi“I have a sense that
fundamental social change
is coming, but it’s too early todefine or understand.”“I think we’ll look back on 2020 asa warning and an opportunity forchange. So, to me, in 2021 we haveto become less violent, take care of
our planet and put more faith in thefundamental power of humanity tochange through love.”“2021 is going to be bad,but we might as well enjoy
ourselves.”

University professor

Transmission Co., Japan

Ayaka Nakamoto

Hajime Kimura

Guest, website developer

40-year member, Senior Advisor Abie Ventures“When the Club moved to newpremises, I was a bit worried, butthings seem to have settled down.
As for 2021, I would like to see
more professional activities atlunchtime. All in all, 2021 could
be far better for new ventures – wemay have turned a corner.”

CEO Artisan Group

Khaldon Azhari
Former President, FCCJ

“I don’t see 2020 as a bad year –because we survived it. So I’m
optimistic, mainly because things
can’t get any worse. The Club willsurvive, God will see us through.”“2020 was difficult, but 2021
looks more hopeful. I think
we’ll see a revival of individual
enterprise and initiatives.”INDEX05 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

SNAFU, #MeToo or Moo?

Kathryn Wortley

Roger Schreffler

Monzurul Huq“We’re all facing so many challenges
right now and 2021 may bring evenmore, but even in the middle of thispandemic I know we’ll cope.”“The Trump horror show will last forseveral more weeks, but the American
democracy will survive, battered andbeaten, and “Trumpism” will slowly
weaken from Jan. 20 when a newadministration takes office.”“For all our current concerns, let’shope that the promise held out to us
by the crop of Covid vaccines turns
out to be more than a reflection of
our own optimism.”

Co-founder and Director at Sterling Content

Former President, FCCJ

Ilgin Yorulmuz

Secretary to the 2020-21 Board, FCCJ“My prediction for journalism isthat we can expect a big increase in‘journalist influencers’, especiallyin countries where press freedom
is being curtailed. As for #MeTooin Japan, it looks as if in 2021 itwill be as hard as ever for women to
confront and disprove their abusers.
No worthwhile development is likely
without sea changes in education,
public opinion and the rule of law.
Going by recent events, these look as
unlikely as ever.”Andrew Horvat
Former President, FCCJ“My wish is to remain alive in aworld in which at the end of the year
I will still wish to remain alive.”

Walter Sim

2nd Vice-President, FCCJ

Isabel Reynolds
President, FCCJ

“I want as many people as possible
to take the vaccine.”“More of the same: It’s difficult tosee how things will be different:
Covid-19 will rage on, travel will
be impeded, and Japanese politics
will be just as riddled with scandals.
Meanwhile, on the food front,
I'm relishing the boom in tonguenumbing gekikara (extremely spicy)
food and a growing appreciation forcraft gin, two F&B trends that willgrow in 2021.”

Former President, FCCJ

Andy Sharp

1st Vice-President, FCCJ
“Abe makes a miraculous recovery
after finding Avigan helps hisbowel disorder, and swoops in totake over from Suga to save the day
for the LDP.”Dan Sloan
Director, FCCJ

“2021 will make dumpster fire 2020
crawl into the annals of awful, as
mass vaccinations, new governments
and Tokyo Olympics punctuate
multiple recoveries.”INDEX06 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

PAC AF TERWORD

J’ACCUSE, REDUX©FCCJ

Shoko Arai, former Councilor to the town assembly of Kusatsu.

DAVID McNEILL

Shoko Arai, the sole woman
Councilor in Japan’s oldest
hot spring resort says the
Mayor sexually assaulted
her. Both brought theirclaims to PAC events at the
FCCJ in December.

For centuries, the gushing volcanic waters ofKusatsu (pop. 6,200) have lured Japan’s wounded and sick. The town’s fame grew during theEdo era when syphilitic visitors from Tokyo
made the 200km. trip to its cluster of hot spring resorts insearch of a cure. In recent months, however, Kusatsu has
become synonymous with a poisonous spat between the
town’s Mayor and its only female assembly member.
Former Councilor to the town assembly of Kusatsu,
Shoko Arai says she was “forced into sexual relations”
by Mayor Nobutada Kuroiwa during a meeting at his
office on January 8, 2015. Mayor Kuroiwa dismisses
her claim as a “100-percent fabrication.” Each madetheir case at the FCCJ last December, in dueling press
conferences following a week in which their row wentinternational, making the pages of the New YorkTimes and other national dailies and broadcasters, nodoubt to the acute embarrassment of Kusatsu’s conservative elders.

Going online
Arai laid out her claims in an online book publishedlast year. The Mayor reacted with fury, launching acivil libel suit for ¥44 million and campaigning successfully to expel her from the Kusatsu town assembly in December 2019. The prefectural government
reversed that decision in August, restoring her seat,
whereupon the Kusatsu assembly initiated a referendum to unseat Arai, saying she had “disgraced”
the town. Over 90 percent of voters signed a petition
against Arai’s reinstatement.
The defeat, and her recall in December, were crushing experiences but, given the context, unsurprising,insists Arai. The assembly is dominated by people with
ties to local businesses, including the head of the local
inn association, she points out. “A small number of men
hold power and women are in very weak positions.”
Most of Kusatsu’s citizens depend on tourism, virtually
the town’s sole industry (about 3 million people visit
every year).

INDEX07 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

J’ACCUSE, REDUXFCCJ. Those few who speak out are drowned
out by the “violence of numbers,” she said.

High stakes
Since going public, Arai says she has been
approached by three other women who claim
to have been verbally or physically assaulted
by the Mayor, although none has spoken out.
Initially, fear kept her from reporting her own
assault, Arai says. She would see the head ofthe local police sitting beside Mayor Kuroiwa
at local gatherings and wonder how far she
would get if she spoke out.
“I gave up the idea of speaking up. I thought,
if I say something nobody will believe me.
I could hardly believe it myself. I thought, if I go
to the police it will be rubbed out.”
Arai had, in any case, lost her seat, although
she continued to attend and monitor the
Kusatsu assembly. “I saw the Mayor become
more aggressive and dictatorial in running thetown,” she told the FCCJ, citing incidents where
he bullied or silenced opponents. In consequence, her own regret about not speaking up
about her assault, coming on top of a series ofincidents of petty harassment and sexism she
witnessed in the assembly, motivated her run
for a second term in April 2019.

KUSATSU TOWN WEBSITE

Publication and controversy

Kusatsu onsen, one of the oldest and most popular in Japan“I saw the Mayor
become moreaggressive anddictatorial inrunning thetown,” she told
the FCCJ, citing
incidents where hebullied or silenced
opponents.

“How many would be able to refuse such avote when asked to do so by their employer?”
she asked the Club at her PAC appearance on
December 18th.

Gender and power
Japan’s skewed gender balance forms theinevitable backdrop. Just 10 percent of lawmakers in the House of Representatives are
women. Outside Tokyo, the situation for
women is ‘pre-war’, fumes a recent academic
paper. A third of town and village assemblies do not have a single female councilor.
Women politicians such as Arai ‘battle deep
condescension’ in such places, she told theOnce Arai-san’s claims were published, byjournalist, Reiji Izuka, the dispute quickly
turned ugly. Izuka’s book title alone (Kusatsu
Onsen Shikkoku no Yami) suggesting dark
and dirty business lurking beneath the town’s
façade would have been enough to get thebusiness community’s collective backs up. In
the assembly, Arai was asked to read aloud thepassage detailing her assault and heckled anddenounced as a liar as she did so. Her one supporter was disciplined and later compelled toread an apology to the assembly. “It really wasa second rape,” she said.

Bewildered
Arai seems to have been bewildered by thepolitical storm she had unleashed. During
the recall, she said, supporters of the Mayor
plastered the town and public buildings with
600 posters for the referendum, in addition to
distributing fliers and ads in local newspapers.
Campaign cars drove around the streets every
day, denouncing her.

INDEX08 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

J’ACCUSE, REDUX©FCCJNobutada Kuroiwa, Mayor of Kusatsu, makes his case.

“In this case
it is the otherway around: itis I who have
filed criminal
and libel cases
against former
Councilor
Arai. She has
not produced asingle piece ofevidence in thepast year.”

As Arai-san asked the Club, “Why does the
Mayor want to go to such lengths to removeme from the town council, and even the town
itself?”. Was he, she or Kusatsu the problem?
“Does the Mayor want to drive me out of thetown, to destroy my life?”‘Upset’For his part, Mayor Kuroiwa insists he isdefending the town, describing how ‘upset’ hebecame, taking calls from reporters as far away
as France asking what was going on.
“Under Japanese law, the burden of proof
lies with former Councilor Arai. She is posing as a victim but has not filed any criminal
charges. Victims should appeal to the police
and the courts. In this case it is the other way
around: it is I who have filed criminal and libel
cases against former Councilor Arai. She has
not produced a single piece of evidence in thepast year.”

Outcomes and consequences
The odds appear to be against Arai. In addition
to the usual legal problems of proving sexualassault claims (even had she filed a complaint)
the Mayor has far greater resources and has

most of the town publicly on his side. During his
press conference, he produced photographs of
his office, with its many glass windows, showing, he said, how the assault could not havetaken place in the way that Arai described it
without it being witnessed. As he put it, “She islying to bring me down.”
Kuroiwa, on the other hand, faces perhaps
the key question in all sexual assault cases: why
would someone go to such lengths to makesomething up? Arai says that since initiallyspeaking out, she has become aware of many
similar cases in Japan. Though clearly wounded by her battle with the Mayor she says she
is determined to fight on. “His way of thinking
is that if you repeat a lie 100 times it becomes
the truth. It is a fact that I was assaulted by the
Mayor. I will keep saying so.”● David McNeill is co-chair of the FCCJ’s
Professional Activities Committee and aprofessor at the Department of English Language,
Communication and Cultures at Sacred Heart
University in Tokyo. He was previously acorrespondent for The Independent and The
Economist newspapers and for The Chronicle ofHigher Education.

INDEX09 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

PERSONAL BESTFORTY YEARS ON:
THE MARCH OF
THE CAPSULE

Knut Netz (top capsule) hails
the author (lower capsule)

MARK SCHREIBER“I

t was one of those stories that epitomize the bizarre side of Japan’s technological frontier. Irresistibly it caught theminds of desk editors around the globe,
and sent hordes of Tokyo-based newsmen into
the ultimate in Japanese rabbit hutches, thehotel capsule.”
This lead to “We Swallow Capsule Story”
appeared in the June 15 1981 issue of Number
1 Shimbun, under the byline, “Our Investigation

Team.” The story continued, “Seasoned foreign correspondents swallowed their pride atfollowing up a story first run in Tokyo’s ‘Weekender,’ usually noted for its write-ups about
staff changes at airlines and snaps of the glitter
people looking at each other in Roppongi.”
Wait a second! Was Tokyo’s free weekly
tabloid being damned with faint praise or
being accorded some grudging respect? In afollow-up column, Weekender publisher Corky
Alexander took the Number 1 Shimbun follow-up as an accolade. As he wrote:INDEX10 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

FORTY YEARS ON: THE MARCH OF THE CAPSULE

Evolution: bidets
and LCDs

The original
capsule story,
Tokyo Weekender,
January 15th 1981

“Small Moments of Joy Department: It’s niceto realize that out there somewhere, someone
is reading the stuff we go to the trouble tohave set in type, put onto page form, hoisted
onto our old rattletrap flatbed press and rumble off onto the street for you nice folks.” After
explaining that the capsule hotel story had
been covered by Urban Lehner in The WallStreet Journal, which cited both Weekenderand Schreiber, he concluded, “Nice to be
noticed, as we say.” [Or show scanned article
from Tokyo Weekender]
Forty years have flown by since this humble
scribe was credited with a world “beat” for hishumorous review of Capsule Inn Osaka. My
story appeared in the Weekender of January
16 1981 under the headline “Compartment-sizerooms the 2001 item of the future? Roving
reporter finds ‘capsule hotel’ Osaka backs‘hutch’ theory.”

An estimated 300 capsule hotels currently operate
in Japan, and over the past four decades they have
evolved and diversified to meet the varied needsof the marketplace. A December 2017 study of 788
travelers (363 males, 425 females), published by
Nippon Legal Information Co., Ltd., noted that one
respondent in four had stayed in a capsule hotel.
The top reasons given for their selection were low
price (51%); missed the last train departure (19%);
was located close to one’s workplace (14%); andstayed there out of curiosity (7%). Nine percent ofrespondents said they felt staying in one carried anelement of risk. Other negatives included lack of aroom they could secure by locking (41%); more likely
possibility of theft occurring (26%); guests could staywithout showing ID (11%); used by large numbers ofpeople (10%); and used by many foreigners (8%).
In addition to becoming longer and wider over theyears, the facilities have undergone improvements
to meet the expectations of new generations oftravelers. Tiny monochrome TVs have given way tolarger LCD TV screens. Lockable security boxes havebeen added. Laundromat facilities have been madeavailable, and in the common restrooms, “Washlet”
warm-water bidet-type commodes are now standard.
Wi-fi connections and battery charging terminals are,of course, ubiquitous.
The general manager of sleep capsule sales at
Kotobuki Seating pointed out that from 2013 hiscompany shifted from use of FRP (fiber-reinforced
plastic) to panels.
“This eliminated electrical wiring tasks,” he told
me. “So now an assembled unit can just be plugged
in, without the need for electrical wiring work.” The
result was to speed up the construction process
considerably, so that the average time from initialorder of from 100 to 200 capsules to opening forbusiness has been reduced to as little as 80 days. The
only other requirement is a ceiling height of at least
2.4 meters.
These days, an overwhelming percentage ofbookings are said to come via the internet, so
multilingual web sites (and multilingual hotel staff)
have also become a must.
While guests are discouraged from eating in bed,
many places provide a cosy social room where they
can consume boxed meals or instant noodles broughtin from outside. Another welcome development isthat guests are no longer required to check out eachmorning and check in again later in the day, as was thepractice in the early days of the capsule. Today guests
can book for an extended stay in the same capsule,thanks to a secure space for stowing luggage below
the sleeping platform.
One rule that has not changed since their inception
is strict separation of the sexes. Sleep capsules formales and females are typically situated on separate
floors and, to the best of this writer’s knowledge,
capsules are limited to a single occupant. Smallchildren of either gender are generally not welcomed.
Capsule hotels are many things to many people, butlove hotels they are not.

INDEX11 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

FORTY YEARS ON: THE MARCH OF THE CAPSULE
The origins of capsules
The original “capsule” concept evolved froma post-war Japanese architectural movement
called “Metabolism” that fused ideas aboutarchitectural megastructures with those oforganic biological growth. These concepts
were tested by students from the architect
Kenzo Tange’s MIT studio and put on display at
the 1960 Tokyo World Design Conference.
Another architect, Kisho Kurokawa, designerof the controversial Nakagin Capsule Tower
erected in 1972 in Tokyo’s Ginza district, personally oversaw the design of the first capsules, asdeveloped by Kotobuki Seating, Co. Ltd.
An increase in taxi fares is said to have playeda key role in opening the original capsule hotel,
the Capsule Inn Osaka.
In 1979, taxi companies in all major cities
increased their start-up fares from ¥50 to ¥380,
meaning both overtime workers and late-nightrevelers with homes in the distant suburbs
faced higher outlays if they missed the lasttrain. For an affordable ¥1,900 per night, theCapsule Inn offered thrifty Osakans a sensible
option to taking a cab or spending the night ina regular hotel.

The story behind the story
From 1978, working as an in-house copywriterfor Aiwa, a manufacturer of stereo equipment,
I began contributing to the Weekender, a weekly foreign community freesheet distributed
around the Kanto region.
The Weekender had some wonderfully
entertaining regular columnists, not least
society editor Bill Hersey (c.f. “glitter people”), entertainment editor James Bailey,desk editor Bob Cutts and Carl Hansen, who
contributed using such nommes de plume as
Danny Callaghan and W. Somerset Watanabe.
Appearing each Friday, The Weekender was agreat read. And you couldn’t beat the price.
To his everlasting credit, Corky ran the
Weekender as an open shop – anyone with agood story was welcome to contribute, andlots of aspiring young writers did just that.
Working with then-editor Cathy O’Brien in
1978 I covered the establishment of Japan’s
first antismoking organization, described
my experience of fasting for 10 days at a
Buddhist temple in Hachioji and flew down
to Okinawa to cover the prefecture’s July 30
changeover to driving on the left.

My offerings competed with those of ayoung New Zealander named Martin Roth,an unintentionally funny and fearless scribe
who had covered the marriage-swapping
phenomenon in Japan and many other esoteric topics.
One day I was taking lunch at the coffee shopin the basement of the Aiwa office in Bunkyo
Ward where I worked, flipping through Shukan
Gendai magazine as I downed a humongous
dish of spaghetti when I came across a photoessay introducing Japan’s first capsule hotel,
the Capsule Inn Osaka. I hadn’t seen it covered anywhere in the English-language press.
Opportunity came knocking and I heard it loudand clear.

The triple finagle
But to put out a free publication Alexander wasforced to run a tight ship. Maximum remuneration for articles was ¥30,000, and out-of-pocket expenses were almost never reimbursed. So
to rustle up expenses for my round trip shinkansen to Kansai, I agreed to produce threearticles: on the upcoming Portopia Expositionin Kobe; the Capsule Inn Osaka; and a visit to an
obscure company in Kyoto called Nintendo tolearn more about an odd, hand-held electronic
game it had recently launched.
Knut Netz, a congenial German friend, camealong for a ride in the capsule. Kimiya Ohara,an Osaka-based CPA who did the book-keeping
for the retail concessions that Knut and I managed at the Osaka World Exposition, reserved
our spaces escorted us to the the Capsule Inn
Osaka, a short walk from JR Umeda Station.
Kimiya also shot the photographs of Knut andI that you see in these pages.
Interviewing the Inn’s manager, I scribbled
pages of notes and snapped dozens of photos.
The story wrote itself, especially Capsule Inn
Osaka’s unique check-in procedure:First, you lock your shoes in a little numbered shoebox at the entrance. The shoe key
is exchanged for your locker key. Then you
undress (putting on an orange bathrobe) andswap the locker key for a numbered plastic
wristband. When you take a bath, you exchange
the wristband for a key you wear around yourneck on a string. Bath attendant returns thewristband in exchange for the locker key upon
exiting, and so on, ad infinitum. [So] ...you either
pay the charges and return your locker key, orINDEX12 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

FORTY YEARS ON: THE MARCH OF THE CAPSULE
Sales of the James Clavell’s novel in paperback
rocketed to 2 million copies before the end of
1980, and Shogun was credited with bringing
about a general shift in American awarenessof Japanese culture.

Gaining traction

Capsule entrepreneur
Kuniyase Ase shows FCCJ’s
Don Kirk how to make his
expenses go further at theFirst Inn, Mitaka, 1981.

tiptoe out into the clammy Osaka morning inyour stocking feet.
The tone of the article was greatly augmented by Knut’s impressions of his night in thecapsule, such as this exchange:“How’d you sleep?”“Ach, not so vell. They shut off der air-conditioning. I’m then almost suffocating. Und it
vasn’t any two meters long. I’m vun meter 86
und I couldn’t all der vay my leks stretch out.”

Going viral

FUN FACTAn unscientific search showsthat Tokyo alone boasts some
110 capsule-type hotels, orapproximately one-third of
those in the country. Facedwith a long, late train journey ortaxi ride, members and guests
seeking inexpensive overnightaccommodations in easy
proximity to the FCCJ might
consider the Capsule Value
Kanda, located at 1 Chome-4-5
Kanda Kajicho, Chiyoda-ku or
the Hotel Owl Tokyo Shinbashi
at 3 Chome-15-7 Shinbashi,
Minato-ku.

It’s hard to say exactly why some stories
grow legs and go viral while others do not,but the sleep capsule story was precededby two major Japan-related developmentsin the fields of international diplomacy andmass entertainment.
First, about two years before the article’s
appearance, the infamous memo referring toJapanese as being “a nation of workaholics
living in rabbit hutches”, ascribed to the late EU
commissioner Sir Roy Denman, was still freshin people’s minds.
Next, in September 1980, the TV miniseries
Shogun was broadcast in the United States on
NBC TV. Boasting the distinction of being theonly American television production to dateto have been filmed on location entirely inJapan, it scored an average rating of 26.3, thesecond highest in U.S. TV history after “Roots”.

One of the first of the “hordes” of newsmen
to follow up on my story was Urban Lehner,
then-Tokyo bureau chief of The Wall Street
Journal. With the kind assistance of Asia
Times’ Bradley Martin I tracked down Mr.
Lehner, who was happy to recall the story. In
addition to the WSJ it later appeared in Lehner’s 1997 memoir, Let’s Talk Turkey (About
Japanese Turkeys) And Other Tales from the
Asian Wall Street Journal.
“Not only did Mark’s piece give me a terrificstory idea for the Journal,” Lehner recalled inan e-mail, “it gave me an irresistible quote – that
bit about giving ‘this pillbox Hilton four stars forcleanliness, three stars for efficiency and one
meteorite for comfort.’ I could have kissed
Mark. The capsule-inn saga was one of my first
front-page stories from Tokyo and it got me off
to a great start.”
Among the others I recall giving credit wereHong Kong’s Asia Week magazine and Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung. The U.S. edition ofNewsweek (June 22, 1981) namechecked boththis author and the Weekender, and also quoted the manager of the New Rubia, another capsule hotel in Osaka, as saying “I haven’t heard
any complaints, maybe because most of theguests come in quite drunk and just collapse
on the bed.”
The Number 1 Shimbun assigned Don Kirk(“a freelancer with more strings than Mantovani”) and Hamish McDonald of the Sydney
Morning Herald to cover another establishment, the First Inn, located in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka.
Prodded about rabbit hutches, First Inn’s
operator Kuniyase Ase offered the FCCJ teama remarkably prescient view that foresaw the
bubble economy that would inflate remorselessly as the decade went on: “The way land
prices are going, if we are living in rabbit
hutches now, we will be living in rat cages in
the future.”● Mark Schreiber currently writes the “Big in Japan”
and “Bilingual” columns for The Japan Times.

INDEX13 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

BOOK REVIEW

Saul J. Takahashi (ed.)
Civil and Political Rights in Japan:
A Tribute to Sir Nigel Rodley(ROUTLEDGE, 2019)
LAWRENCE REPETA

M

onth after month, year afteryear, throughout the long rule ofShinzo Abe, we constantly readof LDP plans to revise Japan’sConstitution. As a fan of individual rights protections, I was especially shocked back in 2012
when an LDP pamphlet declared “The current
Constitution includes some provisions basedon the western theory of natural rights. We
believe these provisions should be revised.”
The LDP prescribed a regime in which individual rights would take a distant back seat
to expanded government power. Fortunately,
none of the changes were adopted. Now that
Abe is gone, maybe it’s time to move on.
Putting aside the revision debate for a
moment, we might take a look at another bodyof law nearly as important to Japan as theConstitution itself. This is a series of international human rights treaties ratified by the Diet
beginning in 1979. Protections for individual
rights by Constitution and international treaty
are both grounded in the “western theory ofnatural rights” and key language is nearly thesame, but no one can claim the treaties were
“imposed” on Japan: all were ratified by Diets
controlled by the LDP itself. These treaties constitute binding law in Japan.
This new collection of essays edited by Saul
J. Takahashi places treaty rights at center stage
and shows how they can be applied to controversial topics. Each of the twelve essays given
here addresses a core human rights issue. Thisrich collection relies on the deep expertise of
the authors, many of whom have worked ininternational organizations that investigate
human rights issues, including United Nations
bodies. Takahashi himself has served in suchroles in Tokyo, London and the Middle East.
Combining scholarship with experience, theauthors show how specific rules of international law can be applied to concrete problems.
Three of the book’s twelve chapters concern women’s rights. One author poses thefundamental question “Why is gender equality advancing at such glacial speed?” Herdisappointment is rooted in laws that feature
shining rhetoric that call for equal treatment
but fail to create mandatory rules with penalties for non-compliance. Another chapter
reports on discriminatory rules embedded in
the Meiji-era Civil Code which the LDP-dominated Diet refuses to change. A third chapter
traces the long and difficult fight to gain recognition, apology, and compensation for thevictims of wartime sexual violence who werelabeled “comfort women”.

INDEX14 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

ASIACENTRE.ORG

BOOK REVIEW

Saul J. Takahashi
is Professor of
Human Rights
and Peace
Studies at
Osaka Jogakuin
University.

“It is ironic thatthough the 2016
criminal justicereform was
triggered by aseries of casesof wrongfulconvictions as wellas prosecutorial
misconduct, thereform ended up
strengthening
prosecutors.”

We all know of the special burden shouldered by the Okinawan people, unwilling hosts
to a vast US military presence for more thanseven decades. In this volume, readers learn ofclaims of excessive force by the police against
protesters and of the “rules of engagement”
established by international law. We also learnof the ordeal of Hiroji Yamashiro, leader ofdemos against the Henoko base expansion,
who spent five months in a Naha jail after serialarrests on trivial charges. Lengthy detentions
like this, including such conditions as the complete denial of visits by family members, clearly
violate Japan’s international law obligations.
Two other chapters also feature aggressive police action. One describes the hijackof reforms attempted in the wake of several
heavily reported wrongful convictions and theinfamous Muraki case, in which a prosecutor
was caught altering evidence in his attempt
to secure a conviction. The original intent of
the reform effort was to limit coerced confessions, but the result was a mixed bag. The
author concludes, “It is ironic that though the2016 criminal justice reform was triggered by aseries of cases of wrongful convictions as wellas prosecutorial misconduct, the reform ended
up strengthening prosecutors.” Many were
especially dismayed to see that the “reforms”
included expanded wiretapping authority forthe police and new plea-bargaining powers forthe prosecutors.

Another chapter describes comprehensive
police surveillance of Japan’s Muslim community as “an operation of colossal proportions.” Secret police actions were exposed in
documents released online after the 2008
G-8 meeting in Hokkaido. Police agents were
stationed at mosques, halal shops and otherplaces, followed individuals to their homes,
obtained names and addresses from alien
registration records and personal information from commercial sources, and compiled
all this in databases that profile more than
70,000 persons.
The list of individual rights violated by sucha blatant program of ethno-religious profilingis lengthy, but it begins with the most fundamental rule of human rights laws, “non-discrimination”, one guaranteed by several
human rights treaties as well as by the Constitution. Seventeen surveillance victims sued
the police, but the courts turned them away,
their final appeal rejected by Japan’s Supreme
Court on May 31, 2016. The Court’s failure torein in the police is a shocking black mark on
its human rights record.
Other chapters describe international standards for compensation of people displacedby disasters, like the “Fukushima diaspora,”measures adopted to address discrimination
against Burakumin, the forbidding legal structure that confronts refugees and other nonelite foreigners who seek to reside in Japan,
hate speech, and other important issues.
This volume should become a standard reference for writers concerned with the plightof women, minorities, and others who do not
enjoy the favored status of mainstream members of Japanese society. It is worth noting that
this collection is dedicated to the late Sir Nigel
Rodley, a lifelong champion of human rights
who served as a member of the UN Human
Rights Committee from 2001 to 2016.

● Lawrence Repeta is a former law professor at
Meiji University and a member of the Washington
State Bar Association. He is best known in Japan as
the plaintiff in a suit that expanded court reporting
beyond press club members and has spoken at theClub on multiple occasions. An excerpt from his
chapter in the volume “Press Freedom in Japan”(Kingston ed.) was published in the February 2017
edition of Number 1 Shimbun.

INDEX15 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

RECOLLECTIONS 1

Two seasons in 1970 withTakashi Oka, 1924-2020
BARRY SHLACHTERI

f any general statement can sum up
Takashi Oka, who died December 9, aged
96, it would be that his was a long life well
lived. A man of many talents, all cloakedby a gentle modesty, Tak spent six decades
chronicling some of the most consequential
developments of the second half of the lastcentury in Asia, the Middle East and Europe for
The Christian Science Monitor and The New
York Times, and was instrumental in launching
the Japanese-language edition of Newsweek.
At ease in different cultures, he navigated
rapidly changing, often dangerous situations,and then deftly explained them in a way that
American readers could grasp. A singularhuman being, Tak had been the youngest interpreter at the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, aged 21,
taught English to Americans at a Midwesterncollege, earned a Masters in Chinese studies
from Harvard and, at age 84, completed along-postponed DPhil from Oxford University.

Early days

Listen and learn
This was a crash course in working journalism.
I listened and learned to this master of the craftinterviewing in English and Japanese, noted his©BARRY SCHLACHTER

Tak had his first encounter with Tokyo foreign
correspondents during the early days of the
U.S. occupation, when The Christian Science
Monitor’s Gordon Walker took him on as aninterpreter on reporting trips. It was Walker
who filed the scoop on the 1947 Constitution,with a dispatch telling the world that Japan’s
pacifist postwar constitution had been
dictated by a secret committee on MacArthur’s staff. History repeated itself in in less
spectacular fashion in June 1970 when Tak,by then the New York Times Tokyo bureau
chief, hired me – a 21-year-old exchange student on summer break – to run errands while
the office manager was on maternity leave. I
had been doing some freelance work for theJapan Times and the Associated Press, andI’d always wanted to be a reporter, and now
Takashi Oka was making it happen.

careful accumulation of information and theway he fashioned and polished everything forthe final dispatch. Eavesdropping as he built
rapport with a source, Tak would repeatedly
but very casually interject, “Really?” letting theinterviewee know that while Tak was listening
intently, he was not completely clear on a particular detail. I this way he kept people talking, kept
them in their story.
Tak’s ease in shifting from English to Japanese gave me a whopping inferiority complex,
and I told him so.
“Barry,” he said, “don’t you know I was raisedbilingually?”
And he was, Tak’s mother was the daughterof a career diplomat with postings in Canada

In his 84th year, Takashi
Oka was awarded a DPhilfrom Oxford University
for his doctoral thesis on
Ichirō Ozawa.

INDEX16 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

©BARRY SCHLACHTERTWO SEASONS IN 1970 WITH TAKASHI OKA, 1924-2020

Takashi Oka,(standing, middle)
and other interpretersat GCHQ, ca.1947

Tak’s ease inshifting fromEnglish to
Japanese gave
me a whopping
inferiority
complex, andI told him so.
“Barry,” he said,“don’t you know
I was raisedbilingually?”

and elsewhere: multilingualism was in his DNA.
Takashi Oka had a working command of French,
Mandarin and Russian, and enough Vietnameseand Thai to get around and chat people up.
Tak trusted me enough to share his frustrations with editors, handy preparation for the
far-flung postings that were to come my way.
One day, he showed me a cable from the foreign editor, Jim Greenfield, admonishing him
for using “too many Japanese names.” Tak
had cited just three: the leader of the JapaneseSocialist Party and the heads of two rival factions. It would have been impossible to havewritten the piece without the major players.

June to November
As that summer stretched into fall, I was being
sent all over Japan to take photographs or do
spade work and set up interviews. The Timesran my photo of Leonard Bernstein and Seiji
Ozawa cheering their respective orchestras
as they played baseball. One night I was dispatched to watch Jane Fonda and Donald
Sutherland perform an anti-war play near theTachikawa Air Base. A fuming, half-naked starlet threw me out of her dressing room after
Sutherland pranked me by insisting Fonda was
expecting to be interviewed.
Tak had covered the Soviet Union in the
mid-1960s for the Monitor as its Moscow correspondent. I remember on one trip he began
talking about what he could have become
if he had been born a Soviet, speculating on
what sort of career he might have pursuedthat would have been fulfilling, while allowing

him to retain some intellectual honesty. His
conclusion? “I think I would have become ananthropologist.” To a twenty-something fromCleveland, Ohio, the very fact that he would
even consider such matters, let alone sharethem with me, broadened my horizons. Tak
made me think.
Another unexpected move by Tak was toorganize my first (and only) geisha party, thinking to broaden my cultural horizons. We werein the town of Fuji covering a pollution problem
caused by a huge paper mill. Needless to say,my geisha night in Fuji came nowhere close to
the Hollywood ideal. I had not realized till thenthat geisha got old. These women in heavily
silk brocaded kimono had a good decade on
Tak, who carefully translated their seemly
chatter and their songs over a pleasant, chaste,ryokan dinner.

Passing the story
Tak was the consummate professional but
he could always surprise. In The Memoirs of
Takashi Oka, published privately just weeks
before his death, he did something that
I could not imagine a competitive reporter
would do, especially in the restricted environment of Moscow. A Dutch writer/translator named Karel van het Reve had managed
to get hold of an essay on intellectual freedom in the Soviet Union by the famed physicist-turned-dissident Andrei Sakharov. Reve,
Tak explained, wanted him to get his paper to
run it. “I recommended the New York Times –over my own newspaper – because I knew the
impact would be greater than if the story had
run in the Monitor…” And so it was. Tak gave
the report and background to a very pleased
Times correspondent, Henry Kamm.
The episode didn’t surprise me. I learned agreat deal from Tak that summer and autumn,
growing to appreciate how he never seemed tolose his naturally courtly manner, his calm mien.
I might never have emulated that, but I learned
how the tough-guy or know-it-all approachof some colleagues never seemed to work as
well in the field. If he had one failing, it was his
inability to see through some of the outwardly
charming but extraordinarily spiteful personalities at the FCCJ, most notably the one-andonly ABC correspondent-turned-lobbyist Craig
Spence, of whom Tak remarked, “Nice guy.
Knew him in Saigon.”INDEX17 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

©BARRY SCHLACHTERTWO SEASONS IN 1970 WITH TAKASHI OKA, 1924-2020

Top: Yukio Mishima, taken on a
day off in Shimoda with his family
and the author, summer 1970.
Right: Mishima's Shield Society(Tatenokai) followers, stunned
and leaderless on hearing thenews of his seppuku November 25
1970 (New York Times November
26 1970).

“The insights
absorbed from
Tak that extended
summer would
never havecome to me in aclassroom, nor
his example asa gentlemanly,
consummatejournalist – anexample I havealways tried toemulate.”Spence, who would occasionally spew racism at the correspondents’ table, ended it all
through self-defenestration from the Boston
Ritz Carlton after being exposed for running agay escort service that offered clients after-hour
visits to the White House.

Directions to the unforgettableThat summer of 1970, the British Sunday Timesmagazine ran a cover profile of the novelist
Yukio Mishima, perennially speculated as aNobel Prize choice. Mishima kept bugging theoffice to ask when his 50 copies were arriving.
When they did, Tak sent me to a resort in Shimoda with a stack of magazines, and I ended up
spending a long day with the disarmingly charismatic, seemingly cosmopolitan writer and his
family, leaving me with a completely erroneous
impression of this phenomenally gifted novelist,
but fanatical nationalist.
In late November, on the eve of my return tocollege, I stopped at the Times bureau to say
goodbye. Before I got a word out, Tak instructed:“Grab your camera, Barry. Mishima has takenover the Jieitai [Japanese Self-Defense Force]base in Ichigaya.”
Perhaps it was adrenalin, but my Japanesecomprehension soared over the next few hours
as I grasped nearly everything, from shouts towhispered asides and rumors, and relayed what
I heard by phone while Tak dictated the story on
deadline to New York. He relates in his memoirthat I kept jumping up to see over the frosted

glass partition to the room where Mishima helda general hostage. After his attempt to mount acoup was met by soldiers’ jeers, the novelist performed the samurai’s supreme sacrifice, disemboweling himself followed by decapitation by afollower, a final chapter perhaps more dramaticthan any of his fiction.
Tak writes in his memoir that he was grateful for not having to witness the gruesome
scene. I myself had mentally buried muchof the detail until reading the book. Clearly
remembered, however, is my photographing
Mishima’s gray-uniformed, Shield Society student protégés at the moment they were toldof his death.
It made the Times front page. A week later
I was an ordinary undergraduate again, but witha difference. The insights absorbed from Tak
that extended summer would never have cometo me in a classroom, nor his example as a gentlemanly, consummate journalist – an example
I have always tried to emulate.
Survivors of my extraordinarily gifted, generous mentor include Tak’s wife Hiroko (“Hiro”),
his daughters Megumi (“Mimi”) and Sakuya(“Saya”), and his grandchildren Kazuma Makihara, Miyé Lamprière and Morio Lamprière.
● Barry Shlachter was a foreign correspondent in
Asia and Africa for The Associated Press, returning
on a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard. He thenworked as a reporter and editor for the Fort WorthStar-Telegram. https://www.barryshlachter.net

INDEX18 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

RECOLLECTIONS 2

Takashi Oka, 1924-2020:
a true friend, a great mentor
DANIEL SNEIDER

I

t was my good fortune to become a colleague of Takashi Oka in what turned out tobe his final stint as a foreign correspondent.
I arrived in Tokyo in September of 1985 in thewake of the Plaza Accord, a young reporter with ahandful of stringer deals in hand, among them towrite for The Christian Science Monitor. The Monitor did not have a Tokyo bureau: Takashi parachuted in now and then from Beijing. But in 1985,
he had become editor of the newly launched
Japanese-language edition of Newsweek.
Takashi Oka was a legendary figure in theworld of the Monitor, hailing from a Japanesefamily that embraced the exotic faith of Christian Science in the pre-WWII period. From anearly age, he was given an American educationand throughout his life remained dedicated toacting as a bridge between the land of his birthand what became his adopted country.

The man from The Monitor©OKA FAMILY

As a journalist, Takashi was a devoted supporter of the Monitor, a national daily founded
in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the
Church of Christ, Scientist, in response to thesensation and scandal-tainted ‘yellow’ journalism of the day.
The paper had a well-deserved reputation
for providing accurate and balanced reporting,with a bias toward explanation and a deep hostility to sensationalism. While the Church rarely
directly interfered in the content of the paper, it
did reflect the theology of looking for solutions
rather than problems, what it called ‘purposeful reporting’. The Monitor was a uniquely global paper, reflecting the worldwide membershipof the Church, which did not filter news reporting through the narrow lens of what might or
might not interest Americans, although they
were the largest part of its readership.
As a Christian Scientist, Takashi Oka remained
loyal to the Monitor even while pursuing an
illustrious career as a foreign correspondent. In
the late 1960s, he left for a stint at the New YorkTimes as their Tokyo bureau chief, but returnedto the Monitor, drawn back by its more reflective approach.

Takashi’s venture with Newsweek proved
equally brief, and somewhat turbulent, as
he was caught between the competing
demands of the Americans and their Japanese partners. After two years, he returned
to Monitor, where he re-established a fullbureau, staffed by the two of us (by thenI had become a staff correspondent, unusual for a non-Christian Scientist).

Monitoring Japan and Korea
Takashi and I covered both Japan and Korea,
and I ended up spending the greater part ofmy time in Seoul, covering the uprising against
the military regime, the first free elections andthe 1988 Olympics. Takashi loved the drama of
Korea but found much to write about in JapanAt the main entrance
to the International
Military Tribunal Far East,
ca.1946, just graduatedand now an official
interpreter, Tak Oka at 22.

INDEX19 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

©BARRY SCHLACHTER

TAKASHI OKA, 1924-2020: A TRUE FRIEND, A GREAT MENTOR

With Monitor editors
Charlotte Saikowski,
John Hughes, Geoffrey
Godsell, John Allan May.

in a newsy era packed with trade tensions with
the U.S., Japan’s bubble economy, and whatlooked at the time like the beginnings of realpolitical change.
The foreign media in Japan in those days,
particularly the Americans, were split between
those who saw Japan mainly as an economic
superpower and rival and those who weremore absorbed by a country in the midst of
rapid change as it re-emerged as a leading
global actor. Some were prone to lecturing
Japan on the failures of its society, writing
stories about outrageous supermarket prices
for fruit and Japan’s plot to buy up America. To
many, Japan seemed stuck, incapable of realchange, locked into a rigid hierarchy.
Takashi did not share that view, taking alonger perspective, reminding me of how
Japan had evolved from the prewar period,
through the war years, the Occupation andthe post-war recovery. It was a perspective
I easily embraced from my own childhood inJapan during the 1950s and 60s as the son ofan American diplomat. But Takashi had seen

enough of the dark side of Japanese history to
be wary of its flaws as well.
More broadly, Takashi approached foreign
reporting with the goal of putting the reader
in the shoes of the other and avoiding the perils of mirror imaging. He warned me against
the confrontational style of interviewing.
Takashi preferred to let his subjects tell theirstories, not just to seek a quote to affirm apre-conceived idea. He was a practitioner ofthe craft of writing, a lover of a great lead anda strong kicker.

Escaping the bonds of print
During the late 1980s, Takashi and his wife
Hiro became involved in what proved to be an
ill-fated but, in retrospect, prescient attempt
to leap into the digital age. The Christian Science Publishing Society, the corporate parent,
wanted to escape the limits of the printed
paper, which was distributed nationallythrough the postal system, forcing us to haveearly deadlines. It meant we could not coverlate breaking news easily, though that alsoINDEX20 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

©BARRY SCHLACHTER

TAKASHI OKA, 1924-2020: A TRUE FRIEND, A GREAT MENTOR

With Hiro in Tibet in frontof the Potala Palace.

gave us a more analytical approach. Before
most other papers, they began to explore
electronic text delivery systems and decided
to create a television channel and MonitoRadio, broadcast both on public radio networks
and by shortwave globally.
Our leadership championed the power of‘synergy,’ imagining reporters operating in
multiple media at the same time. A large television bureau was set up in Tokyo, managed byHiro, with Takashi as the chief correspondent.
I had the radio beat and we divided newspaper
coverage between us. The concept was aheadof its time.
Takashi jumped into television despite
having a charmingly low-key personality. But
the execution proved daunting: Takashi andI learned that reporting for a visual medium, orfor an audio one, required different approaches than for print. Crossing between media wassometimes impossible, although print andradio worked together more smoothly thanTV. And most of all, television required massive
amounts of money and personnel. In the end,
the experiment crashed before it could prove
economically viable – television only lasted
four years, radio somewhat longer – and the
Church’s publishing arm never fully recoveredfrom the huge losses.
These recollections would be very incomplete if they were to neglect two other parts of
Takashi’s life. First, he was a passionate gourmet,
with a highly developed taste for wine – his only
visible departure from his Christian Science faith.
And as a devoted husband to Hiro and father to
his two daughters, Mimi and Saya, Takashi neverlet his work get in the way of family ties.
Takashi and I parted ways when I left Tokyoin 1990, heading to Moscow where I lived andworked in the same apartment and officethat Takashi himself had occupied back in the
1960s. Around the same time, Takashi reinvented himself yet again, true to the spirit of
his upbringing and sense of mission as a bridge
between people and nations. He became atranslator for and aide to Ozawa Ichiro, who
had just broken with the Liberal Democratic
Party, bringing conservative rule to an end andenacting an electoral reform that Ozawa hoped
would lead to a two-party system in Japan.
Takashi became a valued aide to Ozawa,
assisting him for a decade. Then, in his final
incarnation, Takashi earned his DPhil at Oxford
University, where his thesis was published as
the first political biography of Ozawa in English.
When he showed me the manuscript in its earlystages, it was heavy with academic theory – write
like a reporter, I told him. The book is a bit of acompromise on that front, but it offers still valuable insights into the politics of Japan.
In his last years, Takashi compiled a personal memoir, published just before his death with
the Christian Science Church, telling the storyof his remarkable life, beginning in the Taishoera. I count myself lucky to have shared justa summer and an autumn of that life, and tohave learned from them.
● Daniel Sneider was a correspondent for The
Christian Science Monitor in Tokyo, Moscow
and San Francisco, an editor and foreign affairs
columnist for The San Jose Mercury News, andAssociate Director of the Asia-Pacific ResearchCenter at Stanford University. He currently
lectures at Stanford University.

INDEX21 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

CLUB NEWSNew members
ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHARUKO WATANABE is Representative
Director, President and CEO of American
Home Assurance Co. Ltd.

AKIKO MATSUSHITA is President of
ConocoPhillips, Japan.

KIYOTAKA OKUMOTO is Executive
Vice-President of Nomura Co. Ltd.

TATSUYA SUDO is Officer & Division
Director of the Global Business Divisionof Nomura Co. Ltd.

SHOICHI WATANABE is Presidentof Nasu Bessou Keibi Hosho.

TATSUYA YOSHIDA is General Managerof the Corporate Communications
Department of Mitsubishi Corporation.

FUMIHIRO KITAYAMA joined the
Yomiuri Shimbun in 1990, specialising ineconomic affairs.

TAKAAKI TAKAI is the Managing
Director of NHK WORLD-JAPAN, witha background in TV documentaries
for NHK.

REGULAR MEMBERSYASUHIRO IHARA has been with
Kyodo News since 1983. He is now their
Executive Director.

INDEX22 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

CLUB NEWSNew in the library
1
Against the Storm: How Japanese Printworkers
Resisted the Military Regime, 1935 - 1945
Masao Sugiura; ed. by Kaye Broadbent;trans. by Kaye Broadbent; Mana SatoInterventions

3
The View from Breasts Pocket Mountain:
A Memoir
Karen Hill Anton
Senyume Press
Gift from Karen Hill Anton

2
Lockheed gigoku: Kakuei o homuri kyoaku o nogasu
ロッキード疑獄：角栄ヲ葬リ巨悪ヲ逃ス

Mikio Haruna
KADOKAWA
Gift from Mikio Haruna

4
Japan
Hans Sautter
Frederking & Thaler
Gift from Hans Sautter

Join the Film Committee…

● Karen Severns©THE PLEDGE TO MEGUMI Film Production CommitteeOn Wednesday, January 13 at 6:30 pm
for a sneak preview of The Pledge to
Megumi, a timely docufiction about
Megumi Yokota both before and during
her abduction by North Korea, with scenes recreated based on information provided by returnees, aswell as scenes of Shigeru and Sakie Yokota’s nonstop efforts through the years to raise consciousness among the Japanese public as well as thegovernment. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has
made the abductions of the 1970s/80s his adminsistration’s “top priority”, and vowed to do whatever
it takes to reunite the remaining abductees with their aging parents as soon as possible. Sakie Yokota, who has discussed the issue
with three US presidents, has graciously consented to join us for the Q&A session, along with director Sho Nobushi. (The Pledge to
Megumi, Japan, 2020, 102 minutes. In Japanese with English subtitles).

INDEX23 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

PHOTOGRAPHYTHE YEAR OF
THE COWGROUP EXHIBITION – JAN. 9 - FEB. 5, 2021

W

elcome to the Year of the Cow, the 2nd in the 12-year cycle of animals. As therat scurries away, the cow is faced with many unresolved challenges fromthe previous year. 2021 is the year of the White Metal Cow which is considered to be gentle and responsible, but also stubborn. We hope our knight inshining armor, I mean cow, will help save the day and lead us to greener pastures. Starting
off this year’s exhibitions on a bright note, we hope you’ll enjoy seeing our cow show.
Wishing everyone a safe and Happy New Year!
● Bruce Osborn, FCCJ Exhibition Chairartist: Hiroshi Sunto
title: Non Title
https://note.com/2235

INDEX24 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

PHOTOGRAPHYThe Year of the Cow - Group exhibition: Jan. 9 - Feb. 5, 2021

artist: Kozo Chiba
title: Omi-ushi
www.kept.jp

artist: Jimmy Park
title: Genki Cow
https://jimmypark.com

INDEX25 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

PHOTOGRAPHYThe Year of the Cow - Group exhibition: Jan. 9 - Feb. 5, 2021

artist: Lewie Denton
title: Woke
https://www.instagram.com/lewiejpd

artist: John Shelley
title: Jack & the Beanstalk
www.johnshelley.com

INDEX26 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

PHOTOGRAPHYThe Year of the Cow - Group exhibition: Jan. 9 - Feb. 5, 2021

artist: Lou Beachtitle: Belle, Stories & Pictures
www.loubeachart.com

artist: Mike Fink
title: CLEANslate
https://mikefink.myportfolio.com

INDEX27 | FCCJ | JANUARY 2021

artist: Eric Jones
title: Invisible Ox
www.jonesstudio.com

artist: Pui-Pui Li
title: OXOX
www.jonesstudio.com

Sushi with Mieko Kawakami
or lasagne with Shiori Ito?
The choice is yours
Every week of the year, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan serves up a special combination of mouth-watering
dining experiences and controversial thought-provoking writers, politicians, scientists and commentators speaking on justabout every topical field of human endeavour. Book Breaks, Professional Activities, live music on Saturday Nights, andmore. It’s all here at the FCCJ.
Try us. You’ll like us. With special rates for the curious and hungry.

NEW MEMBERSHIPCAMPAIGN¥5,000 ~ ¥25,000 credit for introducing a new member¥25,000 if you introduce: Associate, Diplomatic Associate or Five-Year Associate member¥10,000 if you introduce: Regular, P/J Associate, Young Associate or Outside Kanto Associate member¥5,000 if you introduce: Young Regular, Young P/J Associate, Outside Kanto Regular or Outside Kanto P/J Associate member
FCCJ may end promotion at any time. Please check with the office to confirm still active.

THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB OF JAPANMarunouchi Nijubashi Building 5F, Marunouchi 3-2-3 Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-0005, Japanwww.fccj.or.jp E-mail: front@fccj.or.jp Tel: +81-3-3211-3161 Fax: +81-3-3211-3168