The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

August 2019 Vol. 51 No. 8 ¥400

Revealing Kim
Anna Fifield on the research behind
The Great Successor, her biography of
Kim Jong Un

In this issueVol. 51, Number 8

August 2019contact the editors

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

From the President by Monzurul Huq (1st Vice President)
Resources:
Global resources for women journalists
From the archives:
In the service of JFK by Charles Pomeroy

44

The new FCCJ board

6

5

FEATURES
Page 14:
Watching the feed,feeding the journalists
and more: in the press
hall for the G20 Summit

SONJA BLASCHKETHE FCCJ ONLINE: www.fccj.or.jp

MEMBER EVENTSPRESS CONFERENCE VIDEOSCLUB CALENDARCLUB INFORMATIONOn the twisted trail of Comrade Kim
by Anna Fifield

8

Making sense of the senselessby Gavin Blair

11

Cosmetic enhancement at the G20 Summit
by Sonja Blaschke

14

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

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

No. 1 SHIMBUN ONLINEFREEDOM OF THE PRESS INFOPROFILE

Milton Isa
Associate Member
by David McNeill

12

CLUB NEWSLens craftby photographer Members
Press conference voices
FCCJ Exhibition, New Members, New in the library
FCCJ

AUGUST 2019

16
18-19

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 positionof Number 1 Shimbun, the editor or the Foreign
Correspondents’ Club of Japan.
Please pitch and send articles and photographs, oraddress comments to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Read the Number 1 Shimbun online:
fccj.or.jp/number-1-shimbun
Cover illustration: Andrew Pothecary3The Front Page

FROM THE PRESIDENTFIRST OF ALL, ALLOW me toexpress my deepest gratitude
to all Members for making theelection a success. In recent
times, achieving a quorum
for the General Membership
Meetings has often turned out tobe a big headache. But as the newly elected First Vice
President (acting as President due to the absence ofthe president), it is indeed a great pleasure for me tosee our Members show once again that on mattersof extreme urgency they do not falter in responding.
This compels us to work hard for the greater benefitof the Club and its membership.
Our new board has started functioning with arenewed hope that the difficulties we face after our
move to the new location will not be insurmountable.
The new board is a fine blend of old and new, whichshould pave the way for an infusion of new ideas while
keeping on the track of our journey. It’s true that not
everything is in order at the new premises. We’ve yet
to work out, for example, how to arrange the formatof media luncheon events that were a past favorite,
both of the journalists attending the events and the
speakers coming to share their ideas and opinions.
Our revenues are still a problem, mostly due tothe expected shortfalls resulting from the huge
expenditure related to the move. However, as for our
professional activities, the Club has little to complain
about. The workroom atmosphere and facilities havemarked significant improvement and our regularpress events are gradually showing signs of returning
to the high standard for which the Club has always
been acclaimed. The library, despite the departureof a staff member, is providing valuable services toMembers. In addition, all our staff, from the generalmanager to the front desk personnel, are working
very hard to ensure that past standards are notcompromised in any way. They all deserve our deep
appreciation for their dedication.
As for other services, there have been somesetbacks that are mostly related to the move and to
the new outsourcing company taking over most of
our food and beverage related functions. However,here too, are obvious signs of improvement. The Pen
and Quill dining operation has been re-launched andthe Sunday brunch is already functional. The newboard is also determined to keep a close eye overthe issues of food quality and prices, things close to
Members’ hearts.
Next year, our Club will celebrate its 75th
founding anniversary. I’m sure that over the next
quarter century, we’ll move forward as always,
despite all the ups and downs that at times might
compel us to face questions about the rationalityof our survival or the validity of our existence. I’m
confident that as long as we all think about the wellbeing of the Club as a whole, our path towards thecentenary will never be derailed.
– Monzurul Huq, First Vice President
4

RESOURCESFROM THE ARCHIVES

Global resources for
women journalists■ NETWORKS

Launched in 2017, the Coalition for Women in Journalism aims to foster“camaraderie between women journalists around the globe,” offeringresources, events, advocacy and mentoring from experienced female
journalists. The Coalition has contacts in countries across Latin
America and Asia.

Women in Media Network Japan was formed in 2018 by 86 womenjournalists, growing out of the #WithYou movement against sexual
harassment.
The Washington-based International Women’s Media Foundation
was founded in 1990 and today provides grants and training,offers several awards and organizes reporting trips for womenjournalists from all over the world, with a focus on underreported stories.

The International Association of Women in Radio & Television is a

■ AWARDS FOR WOMENThe International Women’s Media Foundation
sponsors the Courage in Journalism Awards,
which honor female journalists who face danger to
uncover the truth and raise the bar for reporting
under threat or duress. The prizes are open to womenjournalists worldwide and consider nominations.
The IWMF’s Lifetime Achievement Award
honors trailblazing women leaders who havedemonstrated extraordinary strength and acommitment to press freedom and to advancing
women’s voices around the world. These
candidates can also be retired journalists.

global network for women working in broadcast and electronic
media. The IAWRT supports global projects focused on womenand media, organizes conferences and offers professional skills
training opportunities.

■ SAFETY RESOURCES
The International Association of Women in Radio & Television has
published a Safety Handbook for Women Journalists, a 95-page guide
aimed at female reporters in conflict zones that includes sections onrisk assessment, online harassment and travel safety.
The International Women’s Media Foundation has set up an

Emergency Fund to assist women journalists with legal and medical
bills, as well as relocation costs.

■ RESOURCES ON DISCRIMINATION AND HARASSMENT
The International Federation of Journalists is working with theInternational Labor Organization on a campaign to stop violenceagainst women journalists. Resources include toolkits, publications
and links to relevant policies, including on the gender pay gap.
The IFJ also provides support and resources to directly address
problems—including harassment—and to pressure local
governments for meaningful change.

■ FINDING MENTORS
Digital Women Leaders offers women journalists free one-on-one
coaching for 30 minutes. While most of the coaches listed work in US
media, there are a few based around the world. Still, some issues—
like workplace discrimination and the pay gap—are universal.

The Coalition for Women in Journalism offers mentoring fromexperienced female journalists in Mexico, Latin America and Asia.
■ GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
For a general list of grant and fellowships available to both men andwomen, visit the GIJN resource page.
AUGUST 2019

The International Women’s Media Foundation has anumber of grants for women journalists aroundthe world, with varying deadlines throughout
the year. These include Women’s Health Reportingon reproductive health, rights and justice in theAmericas, in partnership with the Women’s Equality
Center; Reporting Grants for Women’s Stories forgender-sensitive coverage of under-reported topics,
in partnership with the Secular Society; and the Kim
Wall Memorial Fund for reporting on subcultures,in partnership with the Wall family. The IWMF
also runs the Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women
Journalists, which supports projects including
educational opportunities, investigative reportingand media development initiatives.

FCCJ

The International Association of Women in Radio& Television’s IAWRT Documentary Awards give out
a $1,000 prize every two years in three different
categories, including Social Impact, Innovationand Emerging Talent. Entry is open to women
producers, directors and journalists working withradio, television and digital media anywhere in
the world.

■ FINDING FEMALE EXPERTS
The Request a Woman Scientist platform sponsoredby 500 Women Scientists helps journalists connect
with an extensive multidisciplinary network ofvetted women in science for subject matter expertise,
project collaboration, conferences and panels.

Women’s Media Center’s SheSource is a database ofover 1,100 vetted female experts on diverse topics
around the world, searchable by name, keyword
and area of expertise. Source bios and photos areprovided, and experts can be contacted through aform on the website.

In the serviceof JFK
Prior to his speech, US
Attorney General Robert
F. Kennedy conversed with
Igor Oganesoff (Wall Street
Journal) and his wife at the
FCCJ on Feb. 9, 1962, in frontof the club’s calligraphy screen by Toko Shinoda*. Kennedy spoke at
one of the few professional events held at the Club in its earlier days—
he was preceded in January by Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meirand followed in May by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. He noted that
“Japan is importing far more from our country than she is exporting
to us.” Within a few years, the number of professional events at theClub increased significantly, and the US–Japan trade balance hadreversed strongly in favor of Japan.
Robert Kennedy—better known as “Bobby”—was born on Nov.
20, 1925, into a politically prominent family. It included, among
his siblings, John F. “Jack” Kennedy, who became US president
in 1960 and was assassinated in 1962, and Edward M. “Ted”
Kennedy, who became an influential US senator in 1962 andserved until his death in 2009.
Robert, following service in the US Navy (1944-1946), graduatedfrom Harvard in 1948 with a degree in political science and briefly
worked as an accredited correspondent in the Middle East for the
Boston Post. But politics became his ambition, perhaps as a resultof participating in his brother John’s 1946 campaign for Congress,and he entered law school in 1948. Following graduation in 1951,
he again briefly served as a correspondent for the Boston Post,
covering the San Francisco Peace Treaty that would bring an end
to the occupation of Japan by the Allied Powers.
Later that year, Robert traveled with his brother John, thena congressman, to Israel, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and Japan,
deepening a relationship that later resulted in his playing a
key role in John’s successful 1960 campaign for the presidency.
Appointed US Attorney General, Robert became an influential
advisor to the president and expanded the power of that office toa historic high. He made a name for himself fighting organizedcrime, exposing corruption in the Teamsters union, supportingthe civil rights movement and opposing the death penalty as well
as playing a key role in the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and the Cuban
missile crisis of 1962.
Following the assassination of President Kennedy in Novemberof 1962, Robert expanded his own political base and was electedto the US Senate in 1964. As a Senator, he advocated for gun
control, supported labor and minorities, pushed for humanrights in foreign policy and sought to end the Vietnam war withan honorable peace agreement. He decided to run for president
in 1968. While on the campaign trail in California, he wasassassinated by a Palestinian, Sirhan Sirhan on June 5, 1968.

organized by research area and locations aroundthe world.

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

Excerpted from resources assembled by GIJN contributing
editor Kira Zalan. Reprinted with permission.

*(See page 298 of our history book for background on the Shinoda screen,
and the May, 2019 issue of Number 1 Shimbun re Shinoda screen update.)

Women Also Know Stuff has a directory of scholars,

FCCJ

AUGUST 20195

Club election

The new FCCJ Board

DIRECTORS-AT-LARGEPETER LANGAN, freelance, has been in the news business in Asia for 30
years, with postings in Japan and Singapore, covering stories on the groundfrom Jakarta and Beijing to Mumbai, Ulaanbaatar and many points in-between. He was the Tokyo
Bureau Chief of Bloomberg News from 2005 to 2009, and later as an Editor-at-Large led thebureau’s news team that won two SOPA awards for coverage of the Fukushima disaster. He isfrom the UK, more precisely the City of Liverpool—well known for producing lousy music anduseless football teams, with the exception of Everton FC.
PRESIDENT

1st VICE PRESIDENTMONZURUL HUQ, Daily
Prothom Alo, has been injournalism from his days
as a freelancer while still astudent in the late seventies.
Huq later joined the United
Nations as an Information
Officer, but left in the late1980s and moved to BBC
London where he worked asa radio producer. He landed
in Japan in mid-nineties towork at NHK radio and began
working for a Bangladesh daily
as their correspondent. Whenthe editor of that newspaper
launched a new daily, Prothom
Alo, in 1998, Huq joined as
their Japan correspondent,
and is now East Asia Bureau
Chief. He has authored anumber of books on Japanand other issues, including
a memoir reflecting on his
journalism activities. He has
been actively involved in
Club activities throughout his
tenure as a member of the
FCCJ and served as President
in 2009.
6

2nd VICE PRESIDENT

TREASURER

SECRETARYROBERT WHITING,
freelance, is the author ofseveral successful books
on contemporary Japaneseculture, including Tokyo
Underworld, The Meaning of
Ichiro, The Chrysanthemum
and the Bat and the bestselling You Gotta Have Wa. He
has published 20 other books
in Japanese. He has written
for Sports Illustrated, Time,the New York Times, the WallStreet Journal and the Japan
Times as well as for Japaneselanguage publications,
including Shukan Asahi andBungei Shunju. He authoreda manga series for Kodansha
that sold 750,000 copies
in graphic-novel form. At
present, he writes a weekly
column for Yukan Fuji. He
has lived in Japan on andoff for the past 50 years,
and is a graduate of Sophia
University.

WILLEM KORTEKAAS has
been an Associate Member
since 1983. Following a 25year career in banking withABN Bank and postings to
Africa, Canada, the US andJapan, he set up a Japanbased consulting firm that
focused on Japanese M&A
in Europe. He is a directorof several foreign-owned
companies in Japan. Past andpresent honorary functions
include Chairman of theNetherlands Chamber ofCommerce in Japan, Vicechairman of the JapanNetherlands Society, Vicechairman of the European
Business Community (EBC)and Member of the Expert
Committee of the Japan
Investment Council. He
lives in Joetsu and is trying
to become an expert in
Niigata-ken saké.

TAKASHI KAWACHI joined
the Mainichi Shimbun in 1970,
after graduation from the Keio
University faculty of Law and
Politics. He began his career
as a local reporter at thenewspaper’s Chiba branch. He
was transferred to the political
department in 1975, where hecovered the Prime Minister’s
office, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Department of Defense
and the LDP. In 1988, he was
assigned to Washington D.C
as correspondent, where hecovered the White House,
the Department of Defense,
two presidential elections andthe Gulf War. He was named
foreign-news editor in 1996
and editorial writer in 1998. In
2002, he became a Mainichiboard director, manager of
the Nagoya office, and later,
head of the Tokyo digital media
department. He is working asa freelance journalist since his
resignation from the Mainichi
in 2006.

AUGUST 2019

FCCJ

KHALDON AZHARI ispresident of PanOrient News,an American media company
producing TV News Packages
and articles for wires andprint publications, mainly inArabic, with a focus on Japanand East Asia. Azhari has been
the bureau chief of WAM(UAE-based news agency)
and a correspondent for
PETRA (Jordan News) since
the mid-nineties. Additionally,
as a former correspondent
for various Arabic media
such as MBC, CNBC Arabia,
Dubai TV, he has been aregular contributor to BBC
Arabic Radio and TV since
the mid-nineties. Azhari has
been the voice of Japan andEast Asia to West Asia and theArabic world for more thana quarter of a century and isa recipient of an award fromthe Japan-Arab Association
for his contributions to
media relations and forstrengthening ties between
Japan and the Arab countries.

MEHDI BASSIRI, an
Associate Member, wasa career diplomat with
the Iranian foreign affairs
ministry. He served at the
Iranian Embassy in London
England before his posting as
first secretary to the IranianEmbassy in Tokyo in chargeof consulate affairs and press
relations. In 1980 he resigned
his diplomatic career becauseof disagreements with the
new Iranian revolutionary
regime and established
his own trading company.
Immediately after becoming
an FCCJ member, he became
involved in the Club’s social
activities, first joining the
Associate Liaison Committee,
and organizing an annual
Persian New Year Night thatdrew capacity bookings toenjoy Iranian food and music.
He has served as co-chair ofthe Membership Marketing
committee, and chairmanof the Wine Committee.
He has also been a longtime member of the Foodand Beverage Committee,
including serving as secretary,co-chair and chairman.

WARREN DEVALIER,
Associate Member,has 50 years of career
experience in finance,
general management andentrepreneurship, with
Citibank, Exxon Corporation,
Chase Manhattan Bank, andInterface Inc., a consulting
firm he founded in Japanto serve Asian clients indevelopment of businessand global leadership skills.
He is an alumnus of Johns
Hopkins School of Advanced
International Studies, and aprofessional coach certified
under a joint program of the
Executive Education Divisionof Columbia Business School
and the Department ofOrganization and Leadership,
Teachers College, Columbia
University. A native of
New Orleans, he displayeda passion for food andwine well before the word
‘foodie’ entered the English
language. Rumor has it thathe dabbles in a miscellanyof hobbies, including longdistance running, poetry,
Argentine tango, andflamenco guitar.

ABIGAIL LEONARD is aTokyo-based journalist who
covers Japanese politics
and culture for print andbroadcast news outlets in
the US and Europe. She
has written stories for the
Washington Post, Newsweek
and Vox; produced video
pieces for the New YorkTimes and radio stories for
NPR, BBC and Deutsche
Welle. Before she moved
to Japan, she wrote andproduced long-form news
documentary stories
as a staff producer for
PBS, ABC and Al Jazeera
America and was also a lead
writer for two news analysis
programs: “Countdownwith Keith Olbermann”
and “The War Room with
Jennifer Granholm.” Stories
she’s reported from Japan
have earned a National
Headliner Award and aJames Beard Foundation
Media Award Nomination.
She was a 2011 East-WestCenter Japan Fellow anda 2010 UN Foundation
Journalism Fellow.

RESERVE DIRECTORS, REGULAR MEMBERS
THOMAS HØY DAVIDSEN, Jyllands-Posten
PETER O’CONNOR, MUSASHINO UNIVERSITY, freelance
RESERVE DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATE MEMBERSDAVID SATTERWHITE
KANJI, REGULAR MEMBERSKAZUO ABIKO, freelance

FCCJ

AUGUST 2019

KANJI, ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
MAKOTO HONJO

7

Feature: The Great Successor

International Pro Wrestling Games, a weekend of martial artsrelated events organized by Antonio Inoki, a lantern-jawedJapanese wrestler who was promoting peace through sports.
As we took off, Andersen told me he was curious to see
what North Korea was really like, to get past the clichés ofthe American media. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that
he was flying into a charade crafted over decades specificallyto make sure no visitor could see what North Korea was reallylike, that he would not have one unplanned encounter or one
ordinary meal.
The next time I saw Andersen, he was wearing tiny black
Lycra shorts with STRONGMAN emblazoned across his butt.
He came romping into the Ryugyong Chung Ju-yung Gymnasium in Pyongyang in front of thirteen thousand carefully
selected North Koreans as the sound system blared: “He’s amacho man.”
He seemed so much bigger without his clothes on. I gasped
at his bicep and thigh muscles, which seemed to be straining
to escape his skin like sausage meat from its casing. I could
only imagine the shock that went through the North Koreans,many of whom had experienced a famine that killed hundreds of thousands of their compatriots.
It was as foreign and as mind-bending as anything I’d everseen in North Korea: American farce in the home of the world’s
most malevolent propagandists. It soon dawned on the North
Koreans in the audience, no strangers to deception, that it
was all highly choreographed, more entertainment than sport.
With that realization, they laughed at the theatrics.
I, however, had trouble discerning what was real and what
was not.

On the twisted trail ofComrade Kim
In this excerpt from a fascinating new book, theWashington Post correspondent describes her
obsession to discover the secrets of the young
tyrant who now stars on the global stage

By Anna Fifield

I

8

ANDREW POTHECARY

was sitting on Air Koryo flight 152 to Pyongyang, ready tomake my sixth trip to the North Korean capital but my firstsince the third-generation leader, Kim Jong Un, had taken
over. It was August 28, 2014.
Going to North Korea as a journalist is always a bizarre andfascinating and frustrating experience, but this trip would reacha new level of surrealness.
For one, I was sitting next to Jon Andersen, a three-hundredpound professional wrestler from San Francisco who goes by thering name of Strong Man and is known for moves including thediving neckbreaker and gorilla press drop. We settled into the redseats of the aging Ilyushin jetliner, which, with their white-doilycovered headrests and gold brocade cushions, looked like armchairs from Grandma’s front room.
Andersen was one of three American wrestlers who, their bestdays behind them, had washed up in Japan, where their size had
helped make them the top attractions they no longer were athome. They enjoyed modest levels of fame and income there. But
they were still in the market for new opportunities, so the threewere on their way to a gig like no other: the first-ever Pyongyang
AUGUST 2019

FCCJ

IT WAS SIX YEARS since I’d last been to North Korea. My previous visit was with the New York Philharmonic in the winterof 2008. It was a trip that had, at the time, felt to me like aturning point in history.
The United States’ most prestigious orchestra was performing in a country founded on hatred of America. The Americanand North Korean flags stood like bookends at either side of
the stage, while the orchestra played George Gershwin’s “An
American in Paris.”“Someday a composer might write a work entitled Americans in Pyongyang,” conductor Lorin Maazel told the North
Koreans in the theater. They later played “Arirang,” the heartrending Korean folk song about separation, which visibly
affected even these carefully selected Pyongyang residents.
But the turning point never came.
That same year, North Korea’s “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong Il,
suffered a debilitating stroke that almost claimed his life.
From that point on, the regime was focused on one thing and
one thing only: ensuring that the Kim dynasty remained intact.
Behind the scenes, plans were taking shape to install Kim
Jong Il’s youngest son, a man who was at that time still only
twenty-four, as the next leader of North Korea. It would be
two more years until his coronation was announced to theoutside world. When it was, a few analysts hoped that Kim
Jong Un would prove to be a reformer. After all, the young
man had been educated in Switzerland, traveled in the West,and been exposed to capitalism. Surely he would try to bringsome of that to North Korea?
Similar hopes had greeted the ascension of London-educated eye doctor Bashar al-Assad in Syria in 2000 and would
later await Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who toured
FCCJ

AUGUST 2019

Silicon Valley and let women drive after taking power in Saudi
Arabia in 2017.
But mostly, there was a different kind of optimism—an
optimism that the end was nigh.
From nearby Seoul to faraway Washington, DC, many government officials and analysts boldly predicted—sometimes
in whispers, sometimes in shouts—widespread instability, amass exodus into China, a military coup, imminent collapse.
Behind all the doom mongering was one shared thought:
surely this regime couldn’t survive the transition to a third
totalitarian leader called Kim, much less to a twentysomething who’d been educated at fancy European schools andhad an obsession about the Chicago Bulls—a young man withno known military or government background.
I, too, was doubtful. I couldn’t imagine North Korea under athird generation of Kim family leadership. I had been following
the country, up close and from afar, since the Financial Timesposted me to Seoul to cover both Koreas in 2004. This system
could not continue existing into a third generation. Could it?
THE EXPERTS WHO PREDICTED widespread reforms were
wrong. Those who predicted imminent collapse were wrong.
I was wrong.
In 2014, after six years away from the Korean Peninsula, I
returned to the region as a correspondent for the Washington Post.
A few months into my posting, and almost three years into
Kim Jong Un’s tenure, I went to cover the pro-wrestling tournament in Pyongyang. The things journalists do to get a visa
for North Korea.
I was stunned.
I knew there had been a construction boom in the capital,
but I had no idea how widespread it was. It seemed like a new
high-rise apartment block or theater was going up on every
second block in the center of the city. Previously, it had been
unusual to see even a tractor, but suddenly there were trucks
and cranes helping the men in olive-green military uniforms
put up buildings.
When I’d walked on the streets before, no one as much as
glanced at me, even though the sight of a foreigner was a rarething. Now, there was an easier air in the city. People were
better dressed, kids rollerbladed in new rinks, and the atmosphere was altogether more relaxed.
There was no doubt that life was still grim in the showcase
capital: the lines for the broken-down trolley buses were still
long, there were still plenty of hunched-over old ladies carrying huge sacks on their backs, and there was still not a fat
person in sight. Not even a remotely chubby one. Apart fromthe One. But it was clear that Pyongyang, home to the elite
who kept Kim Jong Un in power, was not a city on the ropes.
Seven decades after the establishment of the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, I saw no signs of cracks in thecommunist façade.
Over those seven decades, the world had seen plenty ofother brutal dictators rise and reign, tormenting their people while advancing their own interests. But what sets thethree Kims apart is the durability of their family’s hold on the
country. During Kim Il Sung’s reign, the United States went
through nine presidents, starting with Harry S. Truman andending with Bill Clinton. Japan cycled through twenty-one
prime ministers. Kim Il Sung outlived Mao Zedong by almost
two decades and Joseph Stalin by four. North Korea has now
9Feature: The Great Successor

existed for longer than the Soviet Union.
I wanted to figure out how this young man and the regime
he inherited had defied the odds. I wanted to find out everything there was to know about Kim Jong Un.
SO I SET OUT to talk to everyone who’d ever met him, searchingfor clues about this most enigmatic of leaders. It was tough: so
few people had met him, and even among that select group,
the number of people who’ve spent any meaningful time withhim was tiny. But I went in search of any insight I could get.
I found Kim Jong Un’s aunt and uncle, who had been his
guardians while he was at school in Switzerland. I went to
the Swiss capital of Bern to look for clues about his formative
teenage years, sitting outside his old apartment and walking
around his former school.
I twice had lunch in a grimy restaurant in the Japanese Alps
with Kenji Fujimoto, a down-and-out cook who made sushi
for Kim’s father and who became something of a playmate to
the future leader. I talked to people who had gone to North
Korea as part of basketballer Dennis Rodman’s entourage andheard tales of drunkenness and questionable behavior.
As soon as I heard Kim Jong Un’s older half brother, Kim
Jong Nam, had been killed in Kuala Lumpur, I immediately got

Feature: Crime

SO EVERY TIME WE met—always over lunch at a steakhousein mid-town Manhattan, where they always ordered the forty-eight-dollar filet mignon rather than the daily special—I
would ask. Each time, I was met with guffaws.
On the most recent occasion, a month after Kim Jong Un’ssummit with Donald Trump in the middle of 2018, the suave
diplomat responsible for American media, Ambassador Ri
Yong Phil, laughed at me and said, “You can dream.”
Rather than dreaming, I set out to hear about the reality outside the fake capital, in the places that the regime
wouldn’t let me visit. I found North Koreans who knew Kim
Jong Un, not personally but through his policies: people who’d
lived through his reign and had managed to escape it.
Over my years covering North Korea, I’ve met scores, perhaps even hundreds, who’ve escaped from the Kimist state.
They’re often called “defectors,” but I don’t like that word.
It implies that they’ve done something wrong by fleeing theregime. I prefer to call them “escapees” or “refugees.”
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find people willing to talk. This is partly because the flow of escapees has
slowed to a trickle during the Kim Jong Un years, the resultof stronger border security and rising living standards
inside the country. It is also because of a growing expecta-

Making sense of the senseless
By Gavin BlairOtion that escapees will be paid for their testimony, an ethicalon a plane and went to the spot where he had been assassinatno-no for me.
ed just a few hours before. I waited outside the morgue where
But through groups that help North Koreans to escape or
his body was held, watching angry North Korean officials
settle down in South Korea, I managed to find dozens of peocoming and going. I went to the North Korean embassy andple who would talk to me without payment. They were fromdiscovered they were so annoyed with reporters that they’d
all walks of life: officials and traders who’d thrived in Pyongactually removed the button on the doorbell at the gate.
yang, people in the border regions who were earning their
I found Kim Jong Nam’s cousin, the woman who essentiallivings through the markets, those who’d ended up in brutal
ly became his sister and stayed in touch with him long after
regime prisons for the most frivolous of offenses.
her defection and his exile. She had been living an entireThere were people who had also been optimistic that thisly new life under an entirely new identity for the previous
young leader would bring about positive change, and there
quarter century.
were those who remained proud that he’d built a nuclear proThen, amid the frenzy of diplomacy in 2018, it suddenly
gram that North Korea’s richer neighbors had not.
became a lot easier to find people who’d met the North KoreI met some in South Korea, often at down-market baran leader.
becue restaurants in satellite suburbs after they’d finishedSouth Koreans and Americans had arranged and attendwork for the day. I talked to others near the banks of theed Kim Jong Un’s summits with presidents Moon Jae-in and
Mekong River as they stopped for a pause in their perilous
Donald Trump. I talked to people who’d talked with him inescape, sitting on the floor with them in dingy hotel rooms
Pyongyang, from a South Korean singer to a German sports
in Laos and Thailand.
official. I watched his motorcade zoom past me in Singapore.
And most dangerous of all, I met some in northern ChiI searched for any understanding to be gleaned from any
na. China treats escapees from North Korea as economic
encounter with this puzzling potentate.
migrants, meaning they would be repatriated and subjected toI also repeatedly asked the North Korean diplomats assigned
severe punishment if they were caught.
to the mission at the United Nations—a
But hiding out in borrowed apartments,
collection of urbane officials who lived
Excerpted with permission
they bravely told me their stories.
together on Roosevelt Island in the East
from The Great Successor:
Over hundreds of hours of interviews
River, sometimes jokingly referred to as
The Divinely Perfect Destiny
across eight countries, I managed toa socialist republic in New York City—ifof Brilliant Comrade Kim
piece together a jigsaw puzzle called
I could have an interview with Kim Jong
Jong Un, published by
Kim Jong Un.
Un. It was a long shot but not a completePublic Affairs, 2019 © byWhat I learned did not bode well for
ly crazy idea. After all, Kim Il Sung had
Anna Fifield. She is the
Beijing bureau chief for
the twenty-five million people stilllunch with a group of foreign journalists
the Washington Post.
trapped inside North Korea. ❶shortly before his death in 1994.

n the morning of Thurs.,
July 18, two things happened in Japan.
A man reported to have been
receiving treatment for mental
health issues walked into the mainstudio of Kyoto Animation, ignited
40 liters of gasoline and perpetrated the worst confirmed mass
killing in Japan in the postwar era.
And the National Police Agency(NPA) released a crime statistics
report for the first six months of
2019, showing the overall number
of offences had fallen 8.7 percent
and were on course to hit anotherpostwar low for the full year.
Making sense of this juxtaposition is no easy task for those reading about or reporting on casesof multiple murders. The contradiction of an increasingly morepeaceful world and outbursts of senseless acts of horrificviolence can feel like a circle that is too round to square.
Conversations and online comments about such crimes
are frequently peppered with phrases along the lines of “Theworld is becoming an increasingly dangerous place,” “Whatis wrong with people these days?” or “When I was young…”
All of this is in defiance of the reality of crime and violence. But human beings are emotional and intuitive creatures, even though our intuitions are often hideously wrong.
Despite the falling crime rate in Japan, many of its citizens
are convinced of the opposite and more fearful than ever of
becoming a victim, something the NPA has acknowledged
and is trying to address.
Japan’s murder rate was 0.2 per 100,000 people in 2018,
joint lowest with Singapore, according to the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime. In recent years there have been
between 600 and 700 murders annually, though there was aslight spike in the first half of this year. This means the Kyoto
arson attack, from which 34 have died at the time of writing,will likely raise this year’s rate by around 5 percent. Those
figures compare to around 1,500 annually in the 1980s and3,500 in the 1960s, the latter in the golden days of the Showa
era that many look back nostalgically on as a time when front
doors could be left unlocked.
Keeping the big picture in mind can become more difficult
with proximity to events. In late May, I was covering for a UK
newspaper for another Club member when I received a callearly in the morning about a stabbing attack in Kawasaki. I
turned on the TV to see it had occurred near Noborito Station, two stops from where I live and the place I change trainson the way into Tokyo. A 12-year-old girl and the father ofanother student were killed—along with the assailant, who

10

FCCJ

THEY’RE OFTEN CALLED “DEFECTORS,” BUT I DON’T LIKE THAT WORD.
IT IMPLIES THAT THEY’VE DONE SOMETHING WRONG BY FLEEING THE REGIME.
I PREFER TO CALL THEM “ESCAPEES” OR “REFUGEES.”AUGUST 2019stabbed himself in the neck before
police arrived—and 18 young girls
were injured.
The next day, it emerged thatthe killer lived near my station,
where he had boarded the train
the previous morning carrying arucksack full of knives. It could
happen anywhere, it is just a coincidence. Crime is very rare in Japanand getting rarer; logically I know
this. My thoughts went back to themass stabbing at a care home in
July 2016 in Sagamihara, the city
I lived and worked in when I firstarrived in Japan. 19 people were
killed and 26 injured, but it had
less of an personal impact due tothe simple but illogical reason that
I was on holiday in the UK at thetime. The evening of the Kawasaki
incident I did a radio report andwas asked about the shock of thishappening in “safe” Japan. I referenced the Sagamihara stabbings and said violence isn’t completely unknown.
When news of the horrors in Kyoto breaks I am covering
for a different UK paper. It is also a huge story for my regularstring at the Hollywood Reporter. In a radio hit for anothernetwork that evening I’m asked the same “safe Japan” question and talk about the Sagamihara and Kawasaki stabbings.
Meanwhile, there are baseless rumors spreading on domestic social media that the arsonist is Korean-Japanese, because
he just must be. Bigotry and emotions have gone haywire.
In Kyoto the next day, the local deputy police chief tells me
they had no murders in his district last year, but a woman
fatally stabbed a man in March in what seemed to be a domestic dispute.
Near the scene of the arson, I talk to a high school student
who says he was walking past the studio seven or eight minutes after the fire started and he shares a photo he took at thetime (above). He saw three badly burned people outside andsays he couldn’t bear to look for long. I wonder if he feels hisneighborhood is safe.
In a taxi to Kyoto Station on Saturday, conversation withthe driver inevitably turns to the arson. The driver talks ofthe sense of community and unlocked front doors of his
youth and the problems of today’s young. I point out thatthe young Japanese I know are very gentle, most have never
had a fight, and crime is falling. He grudgingly agrees, but
insists youngsters do things he would never have dreamedof. I think of pointing out the contradiction and quotingsome statistics. But we’re pulling up at the station and I
understand how he feels. ❶Gavin Blair writes for publications in Asia, Europe and the US.
11

Series: Profile

Milton Isa

Associate Member
By David McNeill

12

AUGUST 2019FCCJYOSHIKAZU TSUNO

T

the largest custodian bank in America.
hough he hardly looks old
Isa helped set up the bank’s securities
enough, Milton Isa remembers
HE HAS SINCE SPENT
the departure of General MacArMUCH OF HIS TIME TRYING operation in Tokyo.
thur from Japan in 1951. Then just a
TO STRAIGHTEN OUT THE
SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN, HE got martoddler, Isa was among maybe half aCLUB’S FINANCES.
ried and set up home in the Shitamachi
million people who lined the streets toarea of Tokyo, not far from where his
Haneda Airport to see off MacArthur,mother grew up. “I love it there,” he says.
who had effectively run the nation“YOU LEARN A LOT OF
His involvement with the FCCJ began
since 1945 before being relieved of his
PATIENCE,” HE LAUGHS.
in 1992, as an associate member initiallycommand by President Harry Truman.
attracted to PAC events. At some point,
Isa’s peripatetic childhood included
he recalls, he became grimly fascinatedstints in Hawaii (where he was born),by the FCCJ’s tangled politics.
Europe and California but a family thread always pulled him“I was chairman of the finance committee of the Ameriback to Japan. His dad was nissei (second generation) Japacan Club. I couldn’t believe how poorly the finances of [thenese and ran early computers for the Department of Defense
FCCJ] were run. There was too much infighting. People wereduring the US occupation. He met Milton’s Japanese mothernot looking ahead or looking out for the best interests of thein Tokyo.
Club. They didn’t see that the demographics of the Club were
It could all have been so different. Isa’s father was a third
going to change; that the membership was getting older.
year college student in California when war broke out in 1941.
They didn’t prepare for that.”He was shipped in cattle-cars along with thousands of otherHe was among those who began pushing for more say inethnic Japanese to a camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. “IfClub activities by the 1,600 associate members and profeshe had stayed in Hawaii he would have been fine,” says Isa.
sional associates who pay the bulk of its dues. Associates, he“They weren’t interning people there.”says, bring expertise from banking and other industries. That
As it was, there was only way out of the camp, so his father
campaign culminated with his first election as associate tovolunteered to help the war effort against Japan. When it
the FCCJ board in 2014–2015. He has since spent much of his
ended, he was assigned to an office with US military inteltime trying to straighten out the Club’s finances. “You learn aligence just up the street from the FCCJ. His job included
lot of patience,” he laughs.
assessing the damage from the American bombing campaign
Isa supported the move to the Club’s new premises andthat had leveled most Japanese cities.
rejects criticism that it is too expensive. “If we’d stayed at the“He went all over Japan interviewing people, asking ‘where
Denki Building in Yurakucho, what was our future? We were
did the aircraft come over your city?’ and ‘how did you feel?’”going to go bankrupt there; one broken pipe and we couldn’t
recalls Isa. “One of reasons he was in military intelligence was
get insurance.”that he spoke Japanese.” Among the places he took his son
He says the Club must be pragmatic about its future in a
was to Niigata, “where the bombing had been quite heavy.”
world where journalism may no longer pay the bills. Among
his proposals is charging “administrative fees” of ¥500 to
THE FAMILY RETURNED TO Hawaii and Isa eventually went toattend press conferences. “People come here and break our
Seattle University, where he graduated with a BA in businesswalls but we pay for that. We’re famous; we should use ouradministration. Then it was off to Japan again: all men at the
FCCJ brand. A lot of people who have banquets here think it iscollege had to take basic ROTC training. When he graduatedprestigious. We need more effort to market the Club.”in 1970 he was sent as second lieutenant on temporary duty
He sees no reason for pessimism. “We have no debt—that’s
to Okinawa.
where our strength is. And we have a special banker behind
Luckily for Isa, the Vietnam War was winding down, but
us—the Mitsubishi Group. They’re not going to throw us outthat didn’t mean he was out of danger. Assigned to a medical
because we’re not paying our rent for a few months. They’recompany, he was ordered to help move highly toxic chemical
pragmatic people too. We should get serious but it’s not as
munitions, including FX Gas and Agent Orange, from Tengan
bad as some think it is. I’ve helped a lot of companies that
Pier in Okinawa to the Johnston Islands. The military kept cagwere in far worse shape, and much more optimistic.”
es of rabbits on flat bed trucks in case the chemicals leaked.
“If every one member can bring in one member, our probLuck struck again when he returned to the US after active
lems will be solved.” ❶duty: Merrill Lynch was recruiting staff to come to Japan.
“I came here with a typewriter, suitcase and golf bag,” herecalls, laughing. He spent 20 years with the investment bankDavid McNeill writes for the Irish Times and the Economist, and teaches
before joining the Boston-based State Street Corporation,
media literacy at Hosei and Sophia Universities.

FCCJ

AUGUST 201913

Feature: Summit summary

Cosmetic enhancement at the G20 Summit

SONJA BLASCHKE

The events at summits are calculated to draw press and public attention to important
global issues. But after the hoopla of the staged activities, does anything really change?

Peak summitry
Left to right, the world’s press at work; Queen
Máxima on empowering women; host PM Abe
who announced that Japan is spearheadinginternationl efforst to reduce plastic waste; forthe exhausted press corps, between the long rowsof journalist work tables the organizers createda kind of “relaxation island”, which consistedof artificial grass areas with very enticing big
cushions–and even a handful of hammocks!

By Sonja BlaschkeIt was the morning of June 29, the second day of the G20
Summit in Osaka. The kick-off event was to be a “special
panel” on women’s empowerment, and by the scheduledstarting time, a group of journalists had gathered in front of
one of the TV screens in the exhibition-hall-like international
media area at the G20 Summit in Osaka. We put our recording devices and phones on a shelf below the TV . . . and thenwe waited.
Two or three days before the summit, the event had beenchanged from a “side event” to a “special event.” One canonly wonder what prompted this cosmetic, but revealing
name change. Only a quarter of an hour had been allocatedfor three speeches about women’s empowerment—by G20
host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, senior White House adviser(and more importantly, the US president’s daughter) Ivanka Trump, and special guest Queen Máxima of the Netherlands. If that weren’t enough, those same 15 minutes wereto include recommendations to Abe from representatives offemale empowerment organizations.
And we waited some more, while the participants in theevent—leaders from G20 nations and several guests—happily chatted away before getting down to business. Surprisingly, in Japan, where punctuality is valued like few other traits,
the kick-off event of the day started about 30 minutes late.
The attention the participants garnered could not gloss
over the fact that the whole affair felt cosmetic anyway. Its
purpose was to make Japan look like a modern nation, when
in fact, when it comes to women’s rights, the country trails
far behind other industrialized nations and the majority of
Asian nations. While Prime Minister Abe’s Womenomics initiative continues to be lauded and has, to some degree, drawn
awareness to the topic in Japan, its effect has been limited. In
the Global Gender Gap Index of the Swiss-based World Economic Forum (WEF) think tank, Japan was only ranked 110th
14

among 149 nations in 2018—worse than some years prior to
the Womenomics program. The dismal ranking is, to a large
degree, due to the dire lack of women in politics, including in
Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party.
The optics weren’t helped by the fact that only two of theGroup of 20 leaders on stage were women: outgoing British
Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela
Merkel. The discrepancy between being supposedly serious
about empowering women and the reality of women being
discriminated against—overtly and covertly—was compounded by Ivanka Trump’s speech.
After a few introductory remarks, Trump quickly went on
to praise the policies of her father, who was sitting close
by. She neglected to mention the numerous accusations ofsexual misconduct against him and his repeated misogynist
acts. In the end, at an event that was supposed to be about
women’s empowerment, she made it all about a man.
The only participant who used the event to discuss specificsuggestions for women’s empowerment was Queen Máxima.
“If women had an identical role in labour markets as men,” shesaid, “up to $28 trillion dollars could be added to the global
GDP by 2025.” She spoke of three steps needed to achieve that:bridging the digital divide, removing legal and regulatory barriers that obstruct women’s financial inclusion and economic
empowerment, and ensuring that women also enjoy access topublic goods, including connectivity, cybersecurity, digital ID,
financial literacy, digital literacy and data privacy. She alsocommended German Chancellor Merkel, whose initiative it
was to put women on the G20 agenda in the first place.
Unlike the other speakers, she even took time to attend a
briefing with journalists in the media center.

MIND YOUR OWN PLASTIC BUSINESSThe women’s empowerment event was not the only cosmetic item of the summit agenda. Another “side”—sorry,“special”—event concerned the pollution of the oceans with
AUGUST 2019

FCCJ

JAPAN SEEMED INTERESTED IN GIVINGITSELF A FACELIFT AND IMAGE BOOSTVIA THE SUMMIT. WHETHER THAT REALLY
WORKED IS A DIFFERENT QUESTION.

plastic. In order to demonstrate Japan’s commitment to recycling, trash cans had been set up in the venue, with English
explanations of how the recycled materials would be used. A
nice idea, although it didn’t seem to leave much of a lasting
impression on the attendees. A much better idea was to provide attending journalists with a goodie bag which contained
a thermos bottle—very useful, in particular, because in the
preparation materials we were asked to bring our own bottles
and plates.
Sadly, there was little incentive to use your own. Glasses
and plates were provided in the buffet, paper cups and plates
were provided in the snack area, and cans of tea, juice andcoffee were everywhere. The absence of plastic cutlery andcups was surely cosmetic and hard to ignore, given how plastic is so ubiquitous in daily life in Japan.
As G20 host, Japan had announced it would be spearheading international efforts to reduce plastic waste. In theory, alaudable action, especially since Japan is the second-biggest
producer of single-use plastic in the world with 5.87 million
tons in 2018 (the US is the first). According to the Ministry of
the Environment, 60 percent of the plastic thrown away inJapan is incinerated for energy, only 25 percent is recycled.
In the press conference at the summit’s close, one female
journalist from Asia asked Abe quite poignantly whether,instead of exporting recycling technologies and measures
to curb the use of plastics in other countries, it would not bebetter to start in Japan first, considering the pervasive use ofplastic and the high plastic production volume. Clearly embarFCCJ

AUGUST 2019

rassed, he circled around to again tout Japan’s efforts abroad.
The only participant with a “personal” take on anti-waste
initiative was Russian President Vladimir Putin, who wasspotted using his own thermos cup at the formal dinner banquet. While officials claimed it was due to his fondness fortea, the internet was abuzz with wilder theories, like his fearof being poisoned.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Cosmetic solutions were also present in the press area. Oneof the first things I heard from my Japanese journalist colleagues was how great the food was. But eating out in Japanis always a challenge for me, since I suffer from several allergies and intolerances. The situation has been improving in
the last two or three years. More and more places, including
the catering company at the summit, now indicate allergens
in food containing wheat, milk and so on.
Unfortunately, they don’t always offer options if you cannot
eat, for example, wheat. While there were several options fordinner (yeah!), the only dishes at lunch that did not contain
wheat were green salad and white rice, not a good base forsustenance during a stressful summit schedule. For vegetarians and vegans—increasingly popular food trends– it musthave also been a bit of a challenge.
All in all, G20 host Japan seemed very interested in giving
itself a facelift and image boost via the summit. Whether thatreally worked is a different question. It reminds me of theseveral large Japanese convenience store chains who decided
to ban porn magazines from their shelves in the lead-up to
the Olympics, so as not to shock the sensibilities of foreign
visitors. But no amount of make-up can conceal the reality–that Japan has one of the biggest sex markets in Asia. ❶Sonja Blaschke is East Asia & Australasia correspondent for print media

in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and a producer for German andSwiss television.

15

Photographer members

Making America
eat again
Kim Jong Un
impersonator Howard
X helps Donald Trump
impersonator Dennis
Alan to tie a paper
apron in a tempura
restaurant in Osaka,June 24.
by Tomohiro Ohsumi

Lens craft

16

Signs of the times
Protesters calling for the complete
withdrawal of a controversial
extradition bill gather todemonstrate in Hong Kong,
July 7. (The slogan on the blackcards on the left says, “Let’s get
together and not withdraw”.)
Demonstrations continued evenafter Hong Kong Chief Executive
Carrie Lam suspended the bill.
by Richard Atrero de Guzman

AUGUST 2019

FCCJ

Fly time
A Doraemon-shaped
helicopter toy
displayed at the annual
International Tokyo Toy
Show, June 16.
by Yoshikazu Tsuno
FCCJ

AUGUST 201917

Club news

FCCJ EXHIBITION

At
the
Club

At
the
Club

“WE WERE ABLE TO
DEMONSTRATE USINGVARIOUS MINISTRIESOWN NUMBERS WAS
THAT WHALING HAS
FOR YEARS BEEN AN
ECONOMIC LOSER,
THAT ALL MANNER
OF SUBSIDY SUPPORTS
HAD BEEN DIVERTED TO
PROP UP THIS FAILING
INDUSTRY, INCLUDINGAID MEANT FOR THE
3/11 EARTHQUAKE.
YET THE JAPANESEPEOPLE HAVE SHOWNTHAT THEY HAVE NOYEN FOR WHALE MEAT”

NEW IN THE LIBRARY“NORTH KOREAN DIPLOMACY IS BASED ON THREE
PRINCIPLES. THE FIRST IS THAT AMERICA CANNOT ATTACKNORTH KOREA. THE SECOND IS THAT CHINA CANNOT GIVE UPITS SUPPORT, NO MATTER WHAT NORTH KOREA DOES.
THE THIRD IS THAT WHATEVER HAPPENS, WHATEVER
INCENTIVES ARE OFFERED, NORTH KOREA SHOULD NOTGIVE UP ITS NUCLEAR WEAPONS.”
Thae Yong Ho, Former North Korean Deputy Ambassador to the UK, June 20
NEW MEMBERS
REGULAR MEMBERSJohn Frederick Ashburne is a freelance writer,
editor and photographer, based in Kyoto. He mainly
specializes in Japanese culture (especially Japanesefood culture), but also writes on news and economics.
He is Kansai Correspondent for the Japan Times, andhas written for the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Kyoto
Journal, Business Traveller Asia and other publications.
He is the author of several books, including The Bestof Kansai and editor-in-Chief of the website www.
foodiesgolocal.com. He is also a photographer andwinner of several photography awards.
Benjamin N. Dooley has been named Japan Business

Lafcadio Hearn vs. Mokujiki Shonin:
The stories of two nomads
Kamikiri (paper cutting artwork)by Katsuyuki Yagi

Lafcadio Hearn, also known by his Japanese name Yakumo Koizumi,
was a writer known for his books about Japan, particularly his yokaistories about supernatural monsters, spirits and demons in Japanesefolklore. Originally born in Greece, he was raised in Dublin, educatedin England and France and worked in the United States before
moving to Japan in 1890. In addition to his writings, Hearn taught
literature at Tokyo and Waseda universities, influencing many wellknown Japanese writers at that time.
The other subject of this exhibition is Mokujiki Shonin, a wonderingmonk and artist who traveled throughout Japan depositing his
smiling Buddha sculptures at the sacred sites he visited. During his
pilgrimage—which took him from the northern part Hokkaido to thesouthern island of Kyushu—Mokujiki Shonin made over a thousandof “Min-gei” sculptures, the name that has been given to describe
freedom and harshness of nature and innocence of this artwork.
Katsuyuki Yagi was born in Yaizu, Shizuoka in 1947 and began to specialize inpaper-cutting art while working as a history and literature museum curator.
Katsuyuki’s unique artworks are created by cutting authentic Chinese papers
with traditional hand-made scissors and using a high-speed technique. His
artworks are highly acclaimed in Lafcadio Hearn’s alma mater in England andMokujiki Shonin’s birthplace in Yamanashi prefecture.
18

Patrick Ramage, Director, Marine
Conservation, International Fundfor Animal Welfare, June 26“IN MY OPINION, JAPANWILL BE PREPARED [for the
opening of casinos]. LAWS
WILL BE ENACTED, THEY’LL
BE COMMENSURATE
AND APPROPRIATE TO
THE SITUATION AND
THEY’LL HAVE VIGOROUS
OVERSIGHT BECAUSE
THAT’S THE JAPANESE WAY.”

James Stern, Former VP,
Wynn Resorts and former
FBI agent, June 21
AUGUST 2019

FCCJ

Correspondent for the New York Times after three
years reporting for Agence France-Presse in Beijing,
focusing on politics, human rights and the economy.
Before A.F.P., Dooley spent five years working forJapan’s Kyodo News in Beijing and Washington, where
he covered the State Department, the Pentagon andthe White House, with a focus on United States policyin Asia. Ben has a master’s degree in East Asian studies
from Stanford and a bachelor’s in Asian studies fromthe University of Virginia. He speaks fluent Japanese and Mandarin.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Angus Mckinnon, The L.T. Funds
Gloria Sadler-Mooser, No affiliation
Yuki Kawanaka, Soka Gakkai
Mitsunobu Kojima, Ryobi Holdings Co.,Ltd.
Yoshiko Yamaki, Ryobi Holdings Co., Ltd.
Toshio Kurino, Meikyo Trading Co., Ltd.

Eriko Katayama, LLC Eriko F Company
Japan
Yayoi Oguma, Bridge International
Tetsuya Sawano, Tekken Co., Ltd.
Junko Saito, Keio Plaza Hotel
Jun Sasaki, Canpotex (Japan) Limited
Kaori Shindo, Envision Co., Ltd.
Eisuke Yoshihashi, Dentsu-Adgear

Much Ado about
Nothingness:
Essays on
Nishida andTanabeJames W. Heisig
Chisokudo
Cutting
Back: My
Apprenticeshipin the Gardensof Kyoto
Leslie Buck
Timber Press
Selling Women:
Prostitution,
Markets, andthe Householdin Early Modern
Japan
Amy Stanley;
Matthew H.
Sommer (fwd.)
University ofCalifornia Press
Kibo wo Furu
Shikisha : Gergiev to Haran no Russia
希望を振る指揮者 : ゲルギエフと波乱のロシア

Kazuo Kobayashi
Kamakura Shunjusha
Gift from Kazuo Kobayashi

Peak Japan : the End of Great Ambitions
Brad Glosserman
Georgetown University Press
Gift from Brad Glosserman
Suiunshi kara sekai no mizu e: Speeches on
Water Issues
水運史から世界の水へ : Speeches on Water
IssuesCrown Prince Naruhito
NHK Publishing
A Social History of the Ise Shrines: Divine
CapitalMark Teeuwen; John Breen
Bloomsbury Academic

At
the
Club

“HARASSMENT MUST NEVER BE TOLERATED IN ANY FORM.
COMPANIES MUST REALIZE THAT MANAGING BY
HARASSMENT IS GOING TO LEAD TO SOCIAL ISSUES,AND TO A DROP IN THE SHARE PRICE.
INVESTORS ARE STANDING UP GLOBALLY AND SAYING,
WE’RE NOT GOING TO INVEST IN COMPANIES THAT HAVESOCIAL ISSUES WITHIN THE FIRM.’”
FCCJ

AUGUST 2019

Glen Wood, former head of Global Sales at
MUFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., Ltd.
on his paternity harassment lawsuit, July 4
19