The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

April 2018 · Volume 50 · No. 4

Apocalypse (Not) Now
An Italian Journalist Hits the Slopes toTake North Korea’s Pulse

Memoirs:
Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo(Part 1)

About the Speaker:
A New Chapter in
Social Business

A Deeper Look:
Cry Havoc and Let Slip theDogs of (Trade) WarAPRIL 2018 | FCCJ | 03

In this Issue
April 2018 · Volume 50 · No. 4

Publisher FCCJ
Editor Albert Siegel
Fuku Nabe Bugyo Geoffrey Tudor
Art Director Kohji Shiiki
Editorial Assistant Naomichi Iwamura
Photo Coordinator Akiko Miyake
Publications Committee Members
Albert Siegel
Geoffrey Tudor
Martin Koelling
Ayako Mie
Emiko Jozuka
Johann Fleuri
Tomomi Yokomura

FCCJ BOARD OF DIRECTORSALESSANDRO D’EMILIA

President Khaldon Azhari, PanOrient News
1st Vice President Anthony Rowley,Singapore Business Times
2nd Vice President Gregory Clark,
Writer/Columnist
Secretary Mary Corbett,Professional Associate Member
Treasurer William Kortekaas, Associate Member
Directors-at-Large Milton Isa, Associate MemberPeter Langan, Asia Times
Robert Whiting, Author, Freelance
Yoichi Yabe, Freelance
Kanji Yoshisuke Iinuma, The Oriental Economist
Associate Kanji Makoto Honjo, Associate Member

Apocalypse (Not) Now

6

by PIO D’EMILIAFCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRSAssociate Members Liaison Milton Isa
Compliance Kunio Hamada
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship Abby Leonard,
David SatterwhiteEntertainment Sandra Mori
Exhibition Bruce Osborn
Film Karen Severns
Finance Willem Kortekaas
Food & Beverage Robert Kirschenbaum,
Mehdi Bassiri
Freedom of Press Abby Leonard
House & Property Khaldon Azhari
Human Resources Khaldon Azhari
Information Technology Albert Siegel
Library, Archives & Workroom Koichi Ishiyama,
Suvendrini Kakuchi
Membership Andrew Horvat
Membership Marketing Anthony Rowley
Professional Activities Fred Varcoe, Ayako Mie
Public Relations Dan Sloan
Publications Albert Siegel
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe
Membership Andrew Horvat, Peter O'Connor
Foreign Press in Japan Robin Harding

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Yurakucho Denki Building, North Tower 20F,
1-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006.
Tel: (03) 3211-3161 · Fax: (03) 3211-3168 · fccj.or.jp
Published by the FCCJ All opinions contained within
Number 1 Shimbun are those of the authors. As such,these opinions do not constitute an official positionof Number 1 Shimbun, the editor or theForeign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
Please pitch and send articles and photographs,
or address comments to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Read the Number 1 Shimbun online:
fccj.or.jp/number-1-shimbun
Cover Photo: Alessandro d’Emilia

Front Page
• From the President by Khaldon Azhari• Letter from the Editor by Albert Siegel

4

From the Archives
Moshe Dayan — Symbolic Israeli Fighterby Charles Pomeroy

5

Features
Mr. Smith Goes to Tokyo (Part 1)
by Charles Smith

10

A New Chapter in Social Business — Collaborating with Entertainment
by Suvendrini Kakuchi

13

Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of (Trade) War
by Anthony Rowley

14

The North Korea Issue and the Little Question of Costby Anthony Rowley

16

Club News• Exhibition: Sakura, and Words of Loving and Cherishing• San-in San-yo• New in the Library• New Members

1718

04 | FCCJ | APRIL 2018

Front Page

From thePresidentW

ith the recent appointment of a new general manager to oversee the Club’s staff andadministration, we on the Board feel a senseof relief as we can now shift away from certain aspects of the Club that have been taking up our time – inparticular membership issues, human resources, the Club’s
move – and concentrate on other matters related to journalism
and the core raison d’etre of the Club. The Board is involved increating a vision for the future that will help the Club shine inits new premises. The priority for the new GM will be the MOVE,
outsourcing and restructuring the office and staff operations
to better suit the Club as we move forward.

Letter fromthe EditorThis promises to be a year of big change for the FCCJ.
We are scheduled to move into our new locationnear the end of the year. With that, we will have awhole new look and feel that arguably will better fit
what journalism is about in these changing times.
But this message is not about the move, it's about the No.
1 Shimbun – which turns 50 in September. As you, our loyal
readers, may have noticed, the club’s magazine has undergone
some changes over the past six months. During that time, we
had temporary help while the search for a replacement for
our former long-time designer went on. As a result, there weresome changes to the look and layout that were a bit too different for some. We have listened to your feedback and havetaken action.
We are pleased to announce that we have retained the talents of Kohji Shiiki, an award-winning art director and designer,to lead the way in bringing a modern, yet familiar, look to our
beloved publication. For nine years until recently, Shiiki was art
director of Metropolis – a magazine known for its outstanding
design. In addition to his design work for International Pressand various other print publications, Shiiki is also a talented
photographer and videographer.

One main structural problem – or, rather, challenge – hasbeen the limited term of the Board's officers, namely one
year. As soon as the Board learns about the issues facing theClub and draws up new policies, June comes along and withit the election of a new Board. In many cases, a whole newboard is elected and its members need to learn everythingfrom scratch.
On the positive side, most members involved in Club affairs
and “politics” are very knowledgeable on the issues we deal
with and ready for the challenge whenever the Club faces priority issues and developments that require immediate attention and action.
On balance, I feel that this Board, with the help of our staff
including the new general manager, is well equipped to continue leading the Club toward a successful move and an improved
food and beverage operation. I ask the members to continue
their important support of their Board in these busy and difficult months. We always appreciate this support.
● Khaldon Azhari

We will not stop at changing the look. Content is king as
they say. We have been trying various types of articles andlistening to feedback. And as expected, it's much like askinga room full of people for the perfect pizza topping; no two
people can agree. Some people like the stories relating to thepast, others are tired of memory lane. Still, one common areaof interest is in articles related to journalism and club news.
While we focus on improving the publication to betterreflect the interest of our members, another area we will focus
on is online. Let us be clear that we are not at all abandoning
the print edition, which remains a top priority. Rather we arelooking to vastly improve the website to better complement
the magazine. One Club member told us bluntly that the website looks like a blog designed 20 years ago. Rest assured, by
the end of this year we will have a modern website that will beworthy of our Club.
Finally, the reason the magazine has been able to exist fornearly five decades is because of the incredible volunteer
efforts of our members. In a troubling sign of the times, though,I’m sorry to say that fewer and fewer members are showing
much interest. And so, I ask you, the membership, please do
email us and offer us your time. Volunteer to be on the committee. Pitch a fresh story. Share (with your employer’s permission)a relevant story or photograph that you’ve already sent out toyour regular fan base. Give words of encouragement or scorn
us for our mistakes. Whatever the case (and pardon me while I
adjust my stovepipe hat), always remember that the No. 1 Shimbun is of the members, by the members and for the members.
● Albert Siegel

APRIL 2018 | FCCJ | 05

From the Archives

Moshe Dayan— Symbolic
Israeli Fighter
by CHARLES POMEROY

M

oshe Dayan, former Israeli defense
minister, attracted 340 attendees,
plus another 40 auditors in themain bar, to a professional luncheon on March 27, 1975, the FCCJ’s largest
attendance following that of then-Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka some six months earlier.
Dayan stated that Israel and the Arabs werecloser to peace than ever before (page 219 of
our history book). Seated to his right is Club
Secretary Sam Jones (freelance) and to his left
is Bela Elias (Hungarian News Agency), who
was standing in for President Max Desfor (AP).
At the far end of the table is Henry Scott-Stokes(New York Times) and the waiter standing infront of the Club sign is Jimmy Horikawa, wholater was to become the Club’s general manager. The box of matzo (unleavened bread) on
the table represents the Passover celebrated
by Jews to commemorate their exodus from
Egypt ca 1300 BCE.

Born on a kibbutz (commune) in 1915 on
May 20th near the Sea of Galilee, Moshe
Dayan was raised on a farming cooperative
to which his family had moved in 1921. As ateenager, he joined an underground group
to defend Jewish settlements from Arab
attacks. In the process, he also learned
guerrilla warfare from the British. He later
served with special police forces for thesame purpose. Arrested and imprisoned for
two years, he was released and joined theBritish army in 1941 in their effort to liberate
Lebanon from Vichy France. He lost his left
eye in a battle there.
Dayan then played an active role in the1948 War of Independence and, in 1949, participated in armistice talks. His military abilities led to rapid rises in rank, and he became
chief of staff of Israeli armed forces in 1953.
As such, he organized military operations toface hostile actions from surrounding Arabcountries that had made the destruction of
Israel their goal. These operations resulted in
the Suez Crisis of 1956. Dayan left the military
in 1958 and entered politics. Elected to the
Knesset in 1959, he served as minister of agriculture until 1964, resigning after a disputewith the prime minister.
Dayan re-entered politics in 1965 andbecame minister of defense in 1967 – just prior to the successful Six-Day War, which he also
helped end by arranging a cease-fire. That
war cemented his reputation, making him asymbol of the Israeli military. He remained
as minister of defense until his resignationin 1974 to take responsibility for Israel’s lackof preparedness to oppose Egypt’s surprise
attack in the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
Three years later, in 1977, Dayan returned
as minister of foreign affairs, a post in which
he strove to bring about peace with Arab
opponents. His efforts contributed to theeventual peace agreement mediated by U.S.
President Jimmy Carter at the Camp David
Accords of 1978. He resigned as foreign minister in 1979 following a dispute with the prime
minister over the building of settlements in
occupied territories. Although Dayan formed
a new party in 1981 calling for disengagementfrom territories occupied in the Six-Day War
of 1967, the party received little support.
Moshe Dayan died of cancer on October 16,
1981. He is remembered by many as a symbolof Israeli military strength, but also as a complex and controversial personality.
● Charles Pomeroy is editor of Foreign
Correspondents in Japan, a history of the clubthat is available at the front desk.

06 | FCCJ | APRIL 2018

Cover Story

ALESSANDRO D’EMILIA

Apocalypse (Not) Now
An Italian Journalist Hits the Slopes to Take North Korea’s Pulse
by PIO D’EMILIAF

or a journalist, traveling to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea isalways a privilege. No matter how
strictly you are “minded,” monitored, accompanied, limited in your professional and even personal movements, every
time you go there you are able to discover new
things, deepening your understanding of themost feared and isolated country of the world,
but also the least known.
Despite the harsh – and pretty much useless – international sanctions imposed on
the DPRK, and despite Washington’s recent
move to forbid such trips by Americans wholack special permission, I strongly believe that
foreigners, including Americans and Japanese, should visit the country. Going there
as an ordinary tour-group member has its
merits, even for a journalist. There are plentyof opportunities now to do so, through a few
Chinese travel agents or by dealing directlywith the Korea International Travel Company.
DPRK tours these days are not all focusedon Pyongyang, the capital. You may, for example, travel to the east coast port of Wonsan andhead out from there for more adventurous
itineraries such as skiing at Masikryong andsurfing at the brand new Kalma Sea Beach
Resort, which is already completed but due toopen officially only next summer. You can also
enter and exit the country by rail, through the
Chinese border city of Dandong.
Don’t worry about safety. The flip side of the
DPRK’s reputation as the consummate police
state is that it’s one of the safest countries in
the world – assuming you behave yourself,
don’t act silly and don’t provoke local authorities. Life for tourists has become easier recently, with many new restaurants including the“fusion” sushi and ramen shop opened by thelate ruler Kim Jong-il’s Japanese personal chef
who, using his pseudonym Kenji Fujimoto, isamazingly back in Pyongyang. We even founda more than decent pizzeria.
The government has also relaxed the rules
for electronic communications. You can now

easily access the Internet from most hotels(although it’s a bit expensive) and even bringin your mobile. With a local SIM card, you canmake international calls and surf the net. If you
have a Chinese SIM card, you can roam without having to buy a local SIM.
Along with my sons, I’m fond of skiing andalways looking for new locations. Two years
ago I discovered Masikryong (see box) one of
the most secluded, albeit perfectly organized,
ski resorts in the world. I went there with sonsAlex, 28, who is a ski instructor, paraglider
and high-line addict, and Miki, 17, who’s still inhigh-school.
We made that trip with the help of Michael
Spavor, a young and bright Canadian businessman who runs a cultural-exchange travelcompany from nearby China. He speaks Korean and has strong connections with the inner
circle including Kim Jong-un himself. Spavor
was part of the team that took retired basketball champion Dennis Rodman to Pyongyang
and to Masik Ryong.

APRIL 2018 | FCCJ | 07

TALKING (ALMOST) FREELY TO PEOPLE
One night we were allowed to walk – a privilege rarely granted to foreign guests, for various reasons – from our hotel, the Koryo, to Kim
Il-sung Square, where thousands of citizens
had gathered for an unexpected “street party,”amazing fireworks and even some street foodstalls. The mood was very relaxed, to the pointthat our “guides,” realizing it would have been
almost possible to keep a constant eye on us,
just told us to “behave” and to please gather at
the center of the square by one in the morning.
We all complied – except for Rick, a young
American researcher, who disappeared, Ourguides were desperate, and we all helped
them look for him. No way. We had to wait thenext morning to learn that he’d been foundtotally drunk, lying on a road, and taken to
the International Hospital in the Diplomatic
Compound. He had to pay, quite legitimately I
believe, over three hundred US dollars before
being dismissed. Needless to say, we were all
pissed off at him. His irresponsible behaviour
had endangered not only the rest of the groupbut also our two nice and dedicated guides.
Even this episode did not ruin the general,
festive mood. Even soldiers – whom you areusually not allowed to talk to, let alone photograph – were quite relaxed and open to us.
We even played some football with a groupof them. All the people we were able to talkto – and we were quite free to do so, evendirectly, thanks to Spavor's fluency in Korean – showed evidently genuine and positive
feelings of hope.
Something similar happens in the South too,
where I went a few days after and where noneof the apocalyptic reports you usually read andwatch on international media, especially in the
US and Japan, seemed to connect with reality.
I never found a single South Korean seriously
concerned about being attacked by the North.
Actually, they mostly take DPRK threats withmuch irony, making all kind of jokes.

ALESSANDRO D’EMILIA

Even though the resort was almost empty
when we arrived the first time, we enjoyed an
unforgettable ski experience. Compared withthe long lines and overcrowded runs in Japanand Europe, skiing there was like a dream. And
we pledged to return. So we did. Learning thatthe DPRK would officially join the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, we decided to schedule our second visit to overlap. It was a goodcall. Witnessing from inside the DPRK the newmood and atmosphere ignited by the North’s
decision to join the Games – sudden, but
widely expected by those who follow Korean
things – was something I didn’t want to miss.
In the event, the mood was indeed different.

Masikryong,
Where “Horses
Must Rest”

North Korea’s first ski resort opened
its doors in 2015. It's is a bit far from
Pyongyang, about four hours drive
on a very bumpy highway, but recently it
became possible to reach it using the new
Kalma Airport, with a flight of less than anhour. Masikryong – which means “place
where horses rest,” – is one of the pet projects of Kim Jong-un, who studied in Switzerland and is fond of skiing. The whole resort
was completed from scratch in under 10months, and has since become proof that
despite sanctions and isolation, the DPRK iscapable of building – and managing – international-standard infrastructure. Originally,
the DPRK had hopes to somehow co-hostthe Pyeongchang Olympics, and Masikryong could certainly be a candidate to hostat least an Alpine Sky event. Unfortunately,
this did not happen, and now Masikryong,figuratively a jewel in the desert, must wait toanother chance to fulfill its initial projections:five thousand people a day during the peak
winter season.
Many people objected that Masikryong
was built by violating the internationalsanctions including an embargo on luxury goods; many products and structures
came from European countries like Austria,
Germany and Italy (including the main gondola). But apparently there was a loophole:
Goods were offered through their European
makers’ Chinese subsidiaries. While Europe
considers ski items “luxury goods,” China
does not. Beijing considers them items toenhance the cultural, social and sport levelsof the people.
Designed by the Pyongyang Architectural
Institute, the 120-room Masikryong Hotelrises in twin pyramidal towers with the tallerof the two having nine floors. The interior of
the hotel lobby is posh. People at the reception desk speak decent English and are very
nice and helpful. When we got our keys, werushed to our rooms and we were surprised
to find that they looked awesome. They had
been designed to look and feel as if we werestaying in a wooden Swiss chalet, but at thesame time with all contemporary comforts. It
took a few hours to set up the Internet (US$8
for five minutes), but eventually it worked,
and at a decent speed.
The only odd thing about the hotel wasthat the coffee and tea box that was beside
the kettle in the room was empty. But despair
didn't last long; in the luxurious lobby, where
you could enjoy karaoke and even playbilliards, there was a splendid, brand new,
top-of-the-line Italian espresso machine,with a good choice between Japanese Key
Coffee and Italian Lavazza. Guess which one
we choose to enjoy. After a full day of skiing
in extremely cold weather but with beautiful snow conditions, we enjoyed a morethan decent dinner. They served us a mix ofwestern and asian food mostly prepared withlocally produced items.

08 | FCCJ | APRIL 2018

Cover Story

ALESSANDRO D’EMILIAThe fact is that both countries’ people know
pretty well that they are not the main reciprocal targets. The DPRK will never, I am quite
convinced about this, attack the south. Never.
Despite more than seventy years of unjust,shameful and humiliating separation, Korea
is still one nation, one people. And all those
who imagine pictures of Seoul burning after aretaliation attack – or even a preemptive one –should be left alone with their nightmares.
Those nightmares should not become ours.
Certainly they are not shared by the Koreans,
North or South.
My feeling as a humble Korea watcher isthat ever since the DPRK achieved some kindof nuclear capability (or at least convincedmuch of the rest of the world that it had doneso), peace is actually much closer than war. And
given the unpredictability of President Donald
Trump and his need to deliver something moremeaningful than funny and silly tweets, I am notruling out, if he manages to avoid impeachment,that he will be the one to actually meet “Rocket
Man,” or, as the young Kim is usually referred
to in his country, the “Brilliant Comrade.” And
then – who knows? – maybe Trump will sign apeace treaty. This could get him – and Kim, contrary to year 2000, when only South Koreanpresident Kim Dae – jung got it, quite unfairly to
the DPRK leader Kim Jong-il – the Nobel Peace
Prize, conceivably far more deserved than theNobel given to Barack Obama in 2009, his firstyear in office.
This is not all going to happen right away, ofcourse. Kim and Trump have personally insulted each other, to the point that we will needsome time before a direct summit can yieldpositive results. But wise people are already atwork, and if American warmongers and their

Japanese allies will take a rest and let peopleof good will do their jobs, chances for new,constructive, direct talks are increasing day
by day. As I write this story, preparations areunderway for a pan-Korean summit by the endof April.
The patient, brave and coherent approachgiven to the DPRK issue by recently elected
South Korean President Moon Jae-in (the“political” Gold Medalist of the 2018 WinterOlympics) is beginning to bear fruit – much
more so than international sanctions andundeliverable threats did. Moon, much like his
predecessor Kim Dae-jung twenty years ago,
is emerging as the real broker of the future
developments on the peninsula. Moon’s task
is not an easy one, given the various interests,
pressures and demands he meets while dealing with skeptics in South Korea as well as in
the United States, China and Japan.

NOT ONLY NUKESThe DPRK is not only about nuclear things. It
is a small, proud country that has managed,
whether we like it or not, to survive under theKim regime until today. Accomplishing that
despite all the sanctions shows an amazingly, although not easily detectable, lively andfast-growing economy. The old, obsolete andimmobile state system is little by little changing, giving way to something very close to
the embryo of a market economy, even if still
under big state conglomerates. Just a few
examples:☛ Air Koryo, the state-owned airline, hasbeen diversifying its business. It now owns aconstantly growing taxi company, runs gasoline stations and even produces locally softdrinks and fast food, which are sold in directly
managed small supermarkets.
☛ Gold Cup, a state-owned corporation

APRIL 2018 | FCCJ | 09

TokyoPyongyang
Peace RoadN

all existing US bases in mainland Japan andOkinawa. But at the same time, the two countries would open embassies in Pyongyang andTokyo and immediately start negotiations. The
negotiations would proceed at three tables.
as recently suggested in one of his essays by
Haruki Wada, a Tokyo University professor
emeritus and Korea expert.
Table one would be for negotiations concerning economic cooperation. This is a stepthat was promised in the Pyongyang Declaration as a sign of apology for the “tremendous
damage and suffering” caused by Japan “tothe people of Korea through its colonial rule.”
A ten-year program of economic cooperation
should be drawn up, including agreement on
implementation of each year’s project.
Table two would be for negotiations concerning North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile
program. Japan should convey to North Korea
its grave concern about underground nuclear
explosions and ask it to stop. Japan also should
ask North Korea to inform when and where itplanned to test-fire missiles. Further, Japan
should ask North Korea not to attack US military bases in Japan, a much more likely option

than an attack to the south. But then North
Korea might say that the US forces might
attack North Korea from the bases in Japan.
North Korea might demand Japan get an official statement from the US government that
US forces would never attack North Korea
from their bases in Japan. Such negotiations
would be very meaningful and important,but, I imagine, difficult.
Table three (and not table one!) would be
for negotiations concerning the abduction
issue. These negotiations could start fromthe point at which North Korea said eight
abducted victims, including Yokota Megumi, had all died. Japan could point out that
North Korean explanations of the circumstances of their death is not yet persuasive
and could demand further explanation andjoint on-the-spot investigations. North Korea
may be still concealing some living abducted Japanese persons, for example Yaeko
Taguchi, teacher of a spy who helped blow
up a KAL plane in 1987, Kim Hyon-hui. To
save such a victim, it is necessary to continue negotiation as long as possible, waiting
for the North Korean position to change.

established in 2009 to deal with the fish industry, today has diversified its business to design
and produce interior furniture and manage
small coffee shops and street stalls, which
are actually operated by private citizens. A
similar case is Naegohyang, the old monopoly
company dealing with tobacco and cigarettes,
which now produces comics, playing cards,
sports items and garments.
☛ Even Masikryong, the company thatmanages the secluded, posh ski resort has
diversified. It now runs a bus company andproduces and distributes a very popular,
eponymous brand of mineral water.

These are all what we might call side businesses of the traditional big state-owned corporations, whose managers – far from being
idiots – have found ways to establish grayrelationships with the outside world in a timeof extremely harsh international sanctions.
Something not too different happened in
Myanmar, when that country was similarly hit
by international sanctions.
When sanctions are lifted – even partially,as China and Russia will probably propose to
the United Nations Security Council after thecurrent developments – the DPRK market will
be definitely different and probably ready towelcome foreign investments. Wouldn't it beworthwhile for Japan, the United States andEurope to jump on, instead of leaving all thecake to China?

ALESSANDRO D’EMILIA

ow that the United States seems tohave chosen to re-engage Pyongyang, Japan also should give peacea chance. Peace on the Korean Peninsula iscertainly important for the US and the wholeworld, but after the Korean people the number one beneficiary most certainly would beJapan – both its people and its economy.
But how could this be done? Well, bystarting from the Pyongyang Declaration,
which was was signed in 2002 by Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chairman
Kim Jong-il but de facto soon violated by
Japan under the ill-fated advice of thendeputy chief cabinet secretary Shinzo Abe,the current prime minister.
The declaration could be resuscitated.
Probably Abe is not the right person to doit and he has, anyway, other ideas on how
to tackle the DPRK issue, but his successor
could deal with it. In the meantime, Koizumi,
who has recently shown a lot of energy anddesire to make news, could start an informal
re-approach to Pyongyang.
Following the Obama Cuban model,
Japan and North Korea could issue a jointstatement reaffirming the Pyongyang Declaration and establishing diplomatic relations,
initially at least leaving the present situation
basically intact.
This means that North Korea would beallowed to continue to possess – or at leastpretend to possess – nuclear weapons andto maintain its basic position on the abduction issue, and that Japan would maintain its
own sanctions toward North Korea and keep

● Pio d’Emilia came to Tokyo in 1979 as alawyer. After earning a master’s in international
criminal procedure from Keio University, heswitched to journalism and started freelancing.
From 1985 he has been reporting for, among
others, the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto andthe the news magazine L’Espresso. Since 2006
he has been East Asia correspondent for Italy’s
all-news TV channel SKY TG24.

10 | FCCJ | APRIL 2018

FeatureMr. Smith Goes
to TokyoPART1by CHARLES SMITH

KOHJI SHIIKI

When Charles Smith
arrived in Tokyo in
1973 as Financial Times
bureau chief, he had
no idea he'd end up
spending most of therest of his life here.
Now 82 and still an
FCCJ Regular member,he's been writing his
memoirs and has
consented to share withus accounts of some of
the most memorable
moments in a long andinteresting career. Hereis the first installment.

F

inancial Times had closed its Japanbureau in 1967. Based in London I had
occasionally plugged the gap by making a series of short reporting visits toTokyo. By 1973, when the paper sent me to reopen
the bureau, I had plenty of grounding in trade andforeign exchange – but I had no idea of the scale andcomplexity of the story I had come to cover.
An illustration of my naiveté: As newly hired news
assistant Yoko Shibata shopped for desks and chairs,
I pondered what seemed to me a critical issue: Could
the office afford an electronic calculator? As a writer
who had ignored technology (not my beat), I wasunaware that calculators as small as cigarette packs
had come from nowhere to be in many people’s pockets and that Casio Computer Corp., a specialist makerthat rode this wave, had become a noted success story.
I bought a medium sized calculator and didn’t
stop there. Without understanding details, I began tograsp that a tidal wave of semiconductor technology
giving birth to products from calculators to robots
would be a big part of the story I had come to cover.
By 1984, when my long run with FT ended, I hadtime to develop a fascination with Japan that had
begun with the chance reading of a 1961 Economist
survey by the renowned British analyst Norman
Macrae. In “Consider Japan,” Macrae described how
the country had developed a number of highly original systems for managing its economy – systems
that Europeans and others could afford to imitate,even if they might find it difficult to do so.
Although the Macrae article had made a deep

impression on me, my understanding had been shallow. It was only after I had lived and worked in Tokyo
for a while that I came to realize the Japanese systemwasn’t a single inspired creation. It was an elusive
combination of Western political and cultural ideas
dating from the arrival of Commodore Perry’s “black
ships,” in 1853, along with older and perhaps moresophisticated ways of building a nation.
Of course Japan had absorbed and adapted Chinese culture more than a thousand years earlier. It
was also crucial to understand how the aftermath ofWorld War II had left Japan with a lopsided democracy, featuring a stubbornly resourceful center-right ruling party confronting a pigeon-holed socialist opposition. Macrae hadn’t written about that, or about a vast
range of other, distinctive Japanese cultures. Taken
together these made the country into a mixture of aWestern replica and a homemade system whose formula wasn’t spelled out on paper, but worked.
I would notice this complexity more and more as I
found myself writing about companies that had imported or copied technology from the United States andEurope but had gone on to improve on their acquisitions in ways that the inventors had not contemplated.
And then there was the puzzling question of how
Japan’s brilliantly creative journalists managed towork in a newspaper industry that seemed to act
as an obedient extension of political and industrial
power centers.
All of this could and should have interested the FT,
but it wasn’t until my last two or three years with thepaper that I even tried to tackle such topics. WhatAPRIL 2018 | FCCJ | 11

dominated my first years in Tokyo were the questions, then on the minds of Western readers and myeditors, of how and why Japan had grown so fast to
become the world’s third largest economy and of
how long the tightrope walker – to use a fashionable
image – could avoid tumbling off the high wire.
RISKY
This was already a well-worn issue when the Tokyo
bureau opened but perhaps I was lucky in arriving
at a moment when the high wire act looked particularly risky. Kakuei Tanaka, then Prime Minister, was
not the scion of a political dynasty like many of his
predecessors but the son of a real estate dealer ina remote prefecture on Japan’s west coast. Tanaka
had made his own tens of billions (perhaps trillions)of yen in real estate.
As prime minister, Tanaka had famously put fortha plan to spread Tokyo’s concentrated wealth aroundthe whole nation under the slogan of “Remodeling
the Japanese Archipelago.” Tanaka was also the man
who, two months after taking office in 1972, had transformed Japan’s position in Asia by opening diplomatic relations with Beijing. This was done in seemingly
casual defiance of vested Tokyo political interests that
had long favored the Chinese Nationalists on Taiwan.
The opening to China made possible a relationship between two almost perfectly interlocking
economies but also created a dangerous web ofpolitical and strategic tensions. By 2010 China would
become Japan’s second largest export market, freeof the chronic frictions that overshadow trade with
the United States and Europe. On the other hand thetwo nations eventually came close to blows over the
Senkaku (Diaoyutai in Chinese), a group of tiny, barren islands in the East China Sea controlled by Japanbut emphatically claimed by China and Taiwan.
The breakthrough with China raised some eyebrows, and elicited some admiration outside Japan
in 1972. But in the short term Tanaka’s infrastructure
investment plan was a bigger issue. During 1972-73
its effect had been to add a point or two to Japan’salready double-digit GNP growth rate while triggering land speculation in distant parts of the country.
At a macroeconomic level there were doubts about
the government’s ability to finance a massive
expansion of public works investment – including
the building of a nationwide network of high-speed
railways, which would open up remote prefectures.
All of this meant that my first big job after thebureau reopened in September 1973 was to delivera feature article on Japan’s combination of accelerating growth and its highest rate of inflation in 20
years. At its most hopeful, the story suggested thatthe government might be able to keep economic
growth down to “no more than 10 per cent” in 1974
by a combination of sharply higher interest rates
and guidance to business to cut back on capital
investment. I thought, though, that even that would

be difficult given a striking lack of consensus on theaims of growth.
What followed was an event that outdated any
talk about the aims and objectives of rapid, or not
so rapid, growth. On October 17, 1973, Arab countries that were supplying 40 percent of Japan’s oil
imports announced a steep reduction of oil supplies
to the “Western” countries, including Japan, that had
supported Israel during the recent Yom Kippur War
between Israel and Egypt.
At almost the same time the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (including Arab and nonArab producers) announced cuts of five percent permonth in crude oil production. OPEC threatened tocontinue the cuts until the pre-war frontiers between
Israel and its Arab neighbors had been restored – inother words, until Israel surrendered all its recent
territorial gains.
My cuttings book suggests that most people inTokyo, if not the foreign press, were slow to grasp
the full implications of this. As the crisis began to
unfold, Tokyo’s affluent population at first seemed tocontinue blindly with the frantic business of making
and spending money. Compared with London thehuge city, with all its magnificent department storesfeaturing mouth-watering food halls, reflected what
to me was a new scale of affluence. Even someTokyoites seemed to be intoxicated by the country’s
sudden plenty.
For a couple of months after the news from theMiddle East turned ominous the consumption supertruck stayed in overdrive. It was good that the truck
eventually turned out to have brakes. By mid-November, I was reporting on plans by the government forsevere short term cuts in oil imports accompanied
by warnings of hardships to come. At the very end of1973 the fragility of Japan’s situation became visible
to all when illuminated advertising displays went out
simultaneously one night on the Ginza.

“It was only after
I had lived andworked in Tokyo
for a while that
I came to realize
the Japanesesystem wasn’t asingle inspired
creation.”

12 | FCCJ | APRIL 2018

FeatureAs it was, the bad news had already begun to inject
traces of originality into Tokyo’s Washington-led
foreign policy. When the Arabs announced plans fora global cut in crude oil production they classified
importing countries into three categories – friendly,
neutral and hostile – and allocated supplies accordingly, with a ban on shipments to hostile nations andpreference for friendly importers.

“The opening
to China madepossible a
relationshipbetween two
almost perfectlyinterlocking
economies but
also createda dangerous
web of politicaland strategic
tensions.”● Charles Smith is a veteran of
45 years with the Club, including
11 years as Financial Times Tokyo
bureau chief and two stints asbureau chief of the Far Eastern
Economic Review. He lives inTokyo and continues as an FCCJ
regular member.

SEKIYU SHOKKUThe sekiyu shokku (oil shock) as it was soon labelledbecame my first real introduction to the elitebureaucrats of Tokyo who, at that time, seemed tomake most things happen in the public sector andoften told private companies what to do, or not todo, as well.
The crisis put the Ministry of International Tradeand Industry into the driver’s seat as the government
agency best able to control short-term damage froma looming oil shortage. But there was plenty of moodmusic from elsewhere. In early December the Ministry of Foreign Affairs weighed in with a report warningthat oil import cuts of up to 15 per cent a year would
lead to a “deepening sense of social unrest” in Japan.
That was because the cuts threatened to lead,
via electricity, kerosene and gasoline supply cutsand perhaps some food shortages, to a diminishing
lifestyle instead of the consumer-fueled double-digit
growth that had seemed a national right before thecrisis. As the government tried to change course, bottlenecks of daily necessities had already appeared.
A story of the early winter of 1973-74 that even the
FT latched onto in due course was of a toilet paper
war in Tokyo supermarkets. TV shots showed elegantly dressed housewives elbowing each other forthe precious paper rolls, until order was restored withemergency imports from China.
What I did not allow for as the shutters closed on
pre-crisis affluence was Japan’s talent for “embracing” disaster (to borrow terminology from American
scholar John W. Dower’s brilliant 1999 book on the
country’s post-World War II resurgence). If I had taken a longer view I might have noted that a threat ofcolonization in the 19th century had sparked Japan’s
first big round of industrialization, and that devastation in World War II had inspired a redesign of theeconomy. A reporter less tied to covering daily news
might have guessed that, by the early 1970s, Japan
had just about reached the point where it needed
another challenge to its creativity.

UPGRADE
Although Japan had been classed as neutral, thegovernment thought it saw a chance of winning an
upgrade to friendly by favoring the Arab interpretation of a recent UN resolution on the Arab-Israeli
territorial dispute. This led to an exchange with theAmerican Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, who
made a flying visit to Tokyo to warn that any overtly
anti-Israeli moves might provoke unfriendly action by
Jewish business interests in the United States.
But the threat seemed to be vague and the change
went ahead. The immediate result was that Japanwas exempted from the effects of a five percent oil
production cut scheduled for December.
That was good, but a second shock came at theend of December: a doubling in OPEC’s oil prices,which shifted Japan’s primary worry from notbeing able to obtain oil to not being able to pay for
it. Our story on the price increase quoted officials
as warning that oil at the new price could accountfor one-third of Japan’s total import bill in 1974. The
result, I hastily calculated, would be a Japanese trade
deficit amounting to US$10 billion during the coming
year – enough, I thought, to almost soak up foreignexchange reserves of $13 billion.
That calculation did not allow for borrowing. As weshould have realized, the Arabs would want to recycle
their gains. It wasn’t long before the media were airing
rumors of a “private” $1.2 billion loan from Saudi Arabia.
But the strain on Tokyo’s ability to pay its way
was genuine. Japan, it seemed, could only hope todeal with this problem by returning to the policy ofaggressive export promotion that it had followed
through the decade of the 1960s until 1971-72. If it did
that the issue would not be availability of exportable
goods – since industry was emerging from an orgy ofcapital investment that had created plenty of spare
production capacity – but whether the world could
or would absorb what would be offered.
Japan’s vigorous exports of standard manufactured goods to the United States from 1969 onward
had provoked several (to Japan, shocking) revaluations of the yen. Those exports had shaken the
structure of world financial markets with the Nixon
Administration’s 1971 decision to end dollar convertibility to gold.
What would happen if the oil shock led to a second outbreak of “heavy rain” exporting, with theinundation spreading from the United States toWestern Europe?

APRIL 2018 | FCCJ | 13

Featureon exporting quality products developed with
top technology. During the last few decades,
however, Japan’s economy is dogged with low
birth rates, rapidly emptying farming villages
and tough competition from the rest of Asia.
To cope, the Japanese government is pumping money into new economic models thatwill revitalize local economies, but results
are slow. The timing cannot be more important for the new yySA company that taps animportant opportunity to expand social businesses in rural areas by using entertainment
for the purpose.

“Comedians
have powerfulcommunication skills
and this is the core
mission of the newcompany”

A New Chapter in Social
Business — Collaboratingwith Entertainment
by SUVENDRINI KAKUCHI

I

n March, the FCCJ hosted Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner
in 2006 and global promoter of social
business for poverty reduction. The
torch bearer of a softer and kinder economic
model that the founder describes as “unleashing empathy” – in comparison to western capitalism that is driven “by self-interest,” is much
loved in Japan.
Yunus has a growing following in academia,
business and political circles for his message
that empathy can be injected into the businessworld. In addition, his slogan that “no one canreally retire” has touched a deep rooted nerve inJapan where in 2025 more than one third of theJapanese population will be over 65 years old.
Yunus was in Tokyo to launch a new venture,
the Yunus Yoshimoto Social Action company,that marks a new page in social business. The
company, an offspring of Yoshimoto Entertainment Company famous for its comedians, will
use laughter to promote economic equality.
The new enterprise, yySA, is headed by Yuka
Kobayashi, who created the concept of the

Yunus Family where like-minded people work
together for social development through business ventures. Funds will be also extended by
the company to start-ups with ventures thathave a particular focus on supporting social
issues plaguing rural Japan.
In Japan, where Yoshimoto comedians command huge popularity and thus important
influence, the new company projects a uniquethrust in social business. By spreading theconcept and goals of social business throughcomedy in skits acted by local comedians,
start-up companies mixing profits with social
goals will be able to change society more rapidly, according to Yunus. Regional areas now
battle serious survival issues such as depopulation, aging and shuttered street syndromethat are slowly killing Japan’s rural areas.
“Comedians have powerful communication
skills and this is the core mission of the newcompany,” explained Yunus at the FCCJ.
Indeed, Japan, the world’s third largest
economy, is mired in difficult challenges. The
country’s post war industrial rise was based

And yySA represents an interesting andimportant twist to the Yunus social businessmodel. Apart from the slapstick gigs that are
thoroughly enjoyed by the public, comediansin the new yySA will be taking the extraordinary step of turning the spotlight on social
remedies through business on the same platform. “It’s a concept that I will support closely,”said Dr. Yunus referring to the dynamic new
dimension in his much admired businessdevelopment model.
Laughter and social development is notcompletely new for Yoshimoto. Under president, Hiroshi Osaki, Yoshimoto has started
the “Sumimasu Geinin” program, where morethan 6000 comedians have been settled inrural areas in 47 prefectures to make life more
fun in the localities. Through entertainment
such as filmmaking, theater and by actuallyworking in farms and vineyards, the comedians contribute laughter to the public throughregular performances; and during the years
made inroads into the social life of the local
villages and towns.
For Dr Yunus and international supporters of
the social business model, the yySA company
has emerged as an important platform that can
prove how entertainment can facilitate the mission of reducing poverty and make the world ahappier place.
● Suvendrini Kakuchi is a correspondent
for the UK-based University World News, witha focus on higher education issues. She is aformer president of the FCCJ.

14 | FCCJ | APRIL 2018

FeatureCry Havoc
and Let Slip
the Dogs of(Trade) War
by ANTHONY ROWLEYSHUTTERSTOCKAPRIL 2018 | FCCJ | 15T

he global economy has not seen real tradewars since those that resulted from thetariff-creating Smoot-Hawley Act in the US
in 1930 and the consequent onset of theGreat Depression. But the "dogs of war" are baying
once more now and conflict, once launched, might
not stop at trade issues.
Skirmishes of the kind that could ensue now that
US President Donald Trump is following throughwith his threat to levy tariffs on steel and aluminum
imports from China (and elsewhere) into the US
would be bad enough in themselves, but the seriesof shocks this could entail for the global economy
might be much more widespread and much worse.
Trade friction might easily lead to currency wars
in which exporting nations (and that means virtually every country in the world in today's globalized
economy) seek to devalue their currencies as a way of"getting under" rather than getting around tariff walls.
Volatile currencies lead to volatile financial markets and this upsets international capital flows. All
this tends to create gyrations in the prices of stockand bonds and in those of other assets such as realestate. It takes no great leap of the imagination tosee how this could morph into another global financial and economic crisis.
The dogs of war are baying louder and straining
more strongly at the leash every day it seems as
Trump (supported most likely by his proposed new
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo) threatens protectionist actions against China and other key trade
partners. Meanwhile, China has already announced
certain retaliatory measures, as has the EU.
The dogs of war could soon take on the form of
the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - not the Biblical scourges of death, famine war and conquest,
but trade wars - leading to currency wars, financial
turbulence and economic instability and crashingconfidence.
This is not a far-fetched apocalyptic vision, but
a real danger given the delicate state in which theglobal economy is poised at present despite its surface appearance of robustness. It is doubtful whether
Trump or his advisors realize what a Pandora's Box
they are about to open up.
It is worth remembering that from the Global
Financial Crisis in 2008 up to the final quarter of2016 that the global economy had been recovering
only modestly (with the exception of China, India andfew others). Growth had, as the IMF for one was fondof saying, been "too low for too long."
What turned growth round at that point remains
the subject of debate among economists, but one
factor was a pick-up in world trade. Thus if Trump
had chosen deliberately to sabotage the recovery(unlikely even in today's White House), he could nothave done better than target trade.

If he goes full steam ahead with tariffs on steel andaluminum imports - and it is becoming increasingly
hard for him to back away from that without looking
like a paper tiger - it is doubtful whether Chinese andother suppliers would simply take it lying down.
Retaliation in some form would be needed inorder to save face. Countervailing tariffs on various
imports from the US would be likely, as the European
Union has already indicated. This would obviously
impact exports and world trade but that is by nomeans the end of the story.
Trading partners of the US could obviously counter the "Trump trade torpedo" by raising their own
tariffs in a tit-for-tat process and they also could (andvery probably would) seek to "get under" the tariffs
by depreciating their currencies and making theirexports cheaper in US dollar terms.
This is where the danger of currency wars (thesecond "Horseman") begins to rear up. The world's
leading economies currently have a gentleman's
agreement (implemented via the Group of Seven or
G7 and the G20) not to indulge in competitive devaluations. But "all's fair in love and war."
Currency wars would translate into currency markets and more general instability that would almost
certainly damage already tenuous market confidence. Equity valuations are already at demanding
levels and it might not take much of a knock to confidence the send them tumbling far and fast.
The threatened damage to asset values (realestate and well as stocks) would likely have a reverse"wealth effect." Whereas rising asset values encourage increased consumption and investment, it goes
without saying that the reverse is true of a reverse
wealth effect.
All of this could happen too at a time when global debt has soared, on the back of a long period of
historically low interest rates. Total global debt - government, corporate and household - hit an all-timehigh of $233 trillion in 2017 where it was equal to justunder 320 percent of world GDP according to theInstitute of International Finance.
Even if a Trump-induced shock to the global economy reduced the US Fed's appetite to raise interest
rates, and delayed the evil day when rising rates
trigger debt defaults, the "debt mountain” is still areal threat. There are large volumes of corporate
debt due to be renewed or "rolled over" in 2018 andinvestor appetite for bonds is unlikely to be healthy
in the midst of trade and currency wars.
Much has been done to shore up the international
financial system since the Global Financial Crisis andanother financial crisis may appear unlikely just now.
But Trump is tampering with a global trade systemthat has not been tested in its present form and size.
He needs to tread very delicately - but delicacy has
not been a hallmark of his presidency up to now.

● Anthony Rowley is a former
Business Editor and International
Finance Editor of the Hong Kongbased Far Eastern Economic
Review and has spent some 40
years writing on Asian affairs
from Singapore, Hong Kong andTokyo. He currently writes for theSingapore Business Times, among
other publications.

16 | FCCJ | APRIL 2018

FeatureThe North
Korea Issue
and the Little
Question of
Costs
by ANTHONY ROWLEY

C

KOHJI SHIIKI

ompared with the recent flurry of
shuttle diplomacy involving North
Korea — by South Korean government emissaries to Pyongyang andWashington followed by North Korean leader
Kim Jong-un’s undercover trip to Beijing —reports that Asian Development Bank president Takehiko Nakao had met South Koreanpresident Moon Jae-in in Seoul seemed likesmall beer.
But there could be more to this than meetsthe eye. From all accounts the Moon-Nakaotalks were routine and there was no mention
in a joint statement of North Korea. This ishardly surprising given the sensitivity of theNorth-South issue. Potentially big financial
and economic issues could be involved, however, affecting most powers in Northeast Asia.
The ADB itself (along with the World Bankand IMF) could become heavily involved if the
proposed talks between US President Donald
Trump and Mr Kim talks should begin a process leading to the opening up of the “hermit”
state to outside aid and investment, and evento eventual reunification of the two Koreas.
The US along with South Korea, Japan and
China would be expected to stump up money,
as would multilateral development banks suchas the ADB. Just how much money is all but
impossible to say at this stage. Some estimatessuggest that the cost of eventual reunificationof North and South Korea could reach around$12 trillion or even much more than that.
Well before such an historic development
takes place, however, it is highly likely thatpart of any deal whereby North Korea agrees
to limit if not abandon its nuclear weapons
program would be a demand from Pyongyang
for financial aid (not to mention possible quid
pro quo demands for a reduction of US troops
in South Korea).
But what is at stake goes beyond the issue of
costs. As reports by the Tumen River Area Development Program, the United Nations Development Program and others have said, enormous

opportunities could open up for investment anddevelopment in Northeast Asia if only a thaw
could begin in regional political and economic
relations, and North Korea is critical.
The possibility of a thaw has sometimes
appeared tantalizingly close. For example, whenthen US Secretary of State Madeleine Albrightwent to Pyongyang in 2000 to meet Korean“Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il (Kim Jong-un’s father),to be followed two years later by then Japaneseprime minister Junichiro Koizumi and in 2008
by Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Whenever a breakthrough on North Korea
seems possible, the question of who would
finance rapprochement between North andSouth always arises, and it is a very vexed
question. Apart from the obvious candidates
such as Pyongyang’s close neighbors in Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul (as well as Washington
and others) attention focuses on multilateraldevelopment banks.

As a matter of form, North Korea would needto join the IMF and the World Bank in order toestablish its credentials. But it is very likely that
the Asian Development Bank would becomea main conduit for channeling aid and loans
because of the predominant influence of the US
and Japan, along with other Asian powers in the
Manila-based bank.
Back in 1997, North Korea began making
friendly approaches to the ADB after behind-thescenes diplomacy extending over several years.
At that time, Seoul had stepped up its financing
contributions to the ADB and, as President
Nakao noted in his visit there last week South
Korea has since contributed to the bank throughcapital, trust funds and cofinancing aid.
The time for Seoul to look to the ADB forreciprocal help could be not so far away if South
Korean president Moon’s initiative in helping
broker talks between Trump and Kim pays off.
This would be welcomed in Beijing and Tokyo

as they are no more anxious than is Seoul to beleft with the burden of financing reconciliation
between the two halves of a divided peninsula.
Pyongyang was among the 70 or so nations
that applied to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) a couple ofyears ago and its acceptance seemed likely given traditionally close relations between Beijing
and Pyongyang. But the application was turned
down because the AIIB was concerned about
inadequate information flows from North Korea.
Mr Nakao’s visit to Seoul can thus be seen
as being replete with diplomatic as well as
economic significance for the Northeast Asia
region at this delicate juncture. The visit mightalso serve to move the ADB back more toward
center stage at a time when the AIIB, plus China's Belt and Road Initiative have been stealing
much of the limelight.
From a wider regional perspective, any
progress in lessening tensions centering upon
North Korea could also allow debate to berekindled on economic development of Northeast Asia. There are various forums throughwhich this could be done, apart from the ADB
itself and within the Beijing-based AIIB.
There is also the Tumen River Area Development Program which has proposed ambitious
schemes for economic cooperation in areas
where China, Japan, Mongolia, Russia, Northand South Korea share land or sea borders.
The area could become to Northeast Asia
what the Mekong River development has
become to Indochina, a symbol of regional
cooperation, some experts say.
A proposal was drawn up some years ago
for a new North East Asia Development Bank(NEADB). This was prepared under the auspicesof the North East Asia Economic Forum (NEAEF)
and would have been modelled along the lines
of existing development banks, but it appears tohave been superseded by the AIIB. The NEAEF
which drew up the plan still exists however.
Northeast Asia has been termed the world's‘last frontier.’ It is, as a study headed by former
ADB vice president Stanley Katz noted, rich indeposits of just about every metallic mineralfrom manganese to gold, in energy, timberand multiple other physical resources as wellas in human resources. But they cannot betapped without a geopolitical breakthrough.
● Anthony Rowley is a former Business Editor
and International Finance Editor of the Hong
Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review andhas spent some 40 years writing on Asian affairs
from Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. He
currently writes for the Singapore Business Times,
among other publications.

APRIL 2018 | FCCJ | 17

Club News

April Exhibit
REKITEI HARADA & AKINOBU OGUCHI

Sakura, andWords of
Loving andCherishing
The Faint, Pale Feelingsof the Distant Past
This art is a photo collection printed on Japanese washi
paper, brushed over by the Japanese art of shodo(calligraphy). Focusing on the cherry tree, which isat the soul of every Japanese person, the words ofloving and cherishing from the past are integrated.
We live and suffer by naturally falling into love,
being tormented between the feelings of hopeand despair. This law of nature was also operative
during the times of Man-you (around the 8th century, CE). When the words and thoughts of the people
expressing their commitment to love at that time areexpressed through shodo, the ever-slight, and everpale memories may be revived.

[PROFILES OF THE ARTISTS]
REKITEI HARADA
Born 1940 in Sasebo of Nagasaki
Prefecture, Harada began shodo atseventeen. His work was selected by
The Japan Fine Arts Exhibition in 1978.
He received the Grand-Prix in the 36th
Mainichi Shodo Exhibition, and became
one of the judges in 1984, the same year
when he exhibited his work “Yousetsu”
in the Nihon Kokuji Exhibition in
Seattle, Washington.
In 1989, he was the first foreign
national to be selected as one of
the “Eight Students” of Soui Oh in
the Yu Zhao Shan Fang in Taiwan.
In 2010, Harada’s works such as his
calligraphy “Dankin” and his screenart “Kyougakusouchou” became acollection in the Taiwan National Art
University.
Harada currently resides in Shiki,
Saitama Prefecture, and still judges for
the Mainichi Shodo Exhibition, is alsoa part of the Print Coterie of Taiwan,
and is a permanent steering committee
member as well as a judge for the
Tokyo Shosakuten.

AKINOBU OGUCHI
Born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1956,
Oguchi made his professional debut
as a photographer in 1973. He signed
a contract with a famous magazine
as a mountaineering photographer
in 1988, and in 2007 became amember of the Japan Professional
Photographers Society.
He showed his “Tibet Kamu Shoujo
Junrei” gallery in 2009, and wastelevised in a special feature programof photographers for NHK in 2013. The
Art Museum of Shizuoka Prefecture
held a section featuring the works ofOguchi in 2016. Still living in Shizuoka
prefecture, Oguchi’ recently held his
own exhibitions in Taiwan and China.

18 | FCCJ | APRIL 2018Club News

New Members[ASSOCIATE MEMBERS]

The ceremonial
breaking of
the sake barrel(kagami biraki)with President
Azhari andEntertainment
Chair Sandra Moriat the center, Sanin Sanyo Night.

Entertainment Committee

San-in San-yo

On March 8th, the FCCJ hosted San-in San-yo, a showcase of culture and cuisine. Sumptuous seafood, roast
Choshu chicken and Hiba beef were on the menu for this special cultural evening, along with jizake — a local sake.
Consisting of Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Shimane, Tottori and Okayama prefectures, the ancient region of San-in has
been the cultural highway between Kansai (Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto) and the southern island of Kyushu for ages.

●● Wang Zhi Min,GF Co., Ltd.
●● Masanori Kato,
PSB Co., Ltd.
●● Yoshinobu Kusano,Renova, Inc.
●● Yoshiyuki Ochiai,
Hamilton Corporation

PITCH US YOUR STORY

Please send your story ideas tono.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp,
and be sure to note whether you have(or have access to) visuals.
Our rates are ¥20 per published word,¥20,000 for a front cover photo.
Photo essays: ¥15,000 for full-page
photos and ¥5,000 for smaller shots.
All payments will be made in credit
to your member account.

New in the Library
1.

Re-Rising Japan: Its Strategic
Power in International Relations
Hidekazu Sakai (ed.);
Yoichiro Sato (ed.)
Peter Lang
Gift from Ritsumeikan
Asia Pacific University

2.

Tsunami no reitachi:
3.11 shi to sei no monogatari
Richard Lloyd Parry;
Hiromichi Hamano (trans.)
Gift from Hayakawa Shobo3.

Ketsudan no toki: tomodachi
sakusen to namida no kikin
Junichiro Koizumi;
Kenichi Tokoi (comp.)
Shueisha
Gift from Junichiro Koizumi

4.

Koike Koizumi datsu
genpatsu no uso
Kumao Kaneko; Akimasa Ono;
Tomio Kawata
Asuka Shinsha
Gift from Kumao Kaneko

N

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