The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

THE
ORLD:
NEW W n’s photos
sbor
Bruce O hima familiessof Fuku nder issues,G
Plus: e tecturearchi
uildingand reb mi
KitakaMarch 2017 Volume 49 No. 3, ¥400

3/11
THEN

. . . AND NOW

Press freedom in Japan:
excerpts from a new book

A life on the ocean waves:photographer Yoichi Yabe

Kim Jong-nam: and thejournalist who knew him

Vol. 49, Number 3

March 2017contact the editors

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

The rebuilders of Ishinomaki’s
Kitakami community:
Architect Hiroyuki Teshima,consensus builder Naomi Sato andmunicipal official Teruo Konno.

In this issue
The Front Page
From the President by Khaldon AzhariCollections: Behind bars
From the archives
Excerpts from Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan
Growing pains:
how Japan’s media got here and why
by Koichi Nakano
Trials in the shadowsby Lawrence Repeta and Yasuomi Sawa
ProfileYoichi Yabe
by Tyler Rothmar

p12
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4
5

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8

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FCCJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Khaldon Azhari, PanOrient News
1st Vice President Anthony Rowley,Singapore Business Times
2nd Vice President Todd Crowell, Freelance
Secretary David Satterwhite, Associate Member
Treasurer Robert Whiting, Author, Freelance
Directors-at-Large Said Karlsson, TT News Agency
Milton Isa, Associate Member
Yuichi Otsuka, Associate MemberPeter Langan, Freelance
Ex-officio Suvendrini Kakuchi,
University World News
Kanji Yoshisuke Iinuma
Associate Kanji Makoto Honjo, Associate Member
FCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRSAssociate Members Liaison Milton Isa,
Masanobu Tsukagoshi
Compliance Kunio Hamada
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship Abby Leonard,
David SatterwhiteEntertainment Sandra Mori, Suvendrini Kakuchi
Exhibition Bruce Osborn
Film Karen Severns
Finance Robert Whiting
Food & Beverage Robert Whiting,Robert Kirschenbaum
Freedom of Press Khaldon AzhariHouse & Property Khaldon Azhari
Human Resources Khaldon Azhari
Information Technology Khaldon Azhari
Library, Archives & Workroom Koichi Ishiyama,
Suvendrini Kakuchi
Membership Andrew Horvat, Peter O’Connor
Membership Marketing Rie Sakamoto
Professional Activities Andrew Sharp,
Tetsuo Jimbo
Public Relations Khaldon Azhari
Publications Gavin Blair
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe
Web Committee Gavin Blair
Foreign Press in Japan Justin McCurry

Women power the reconstruction of Kitakami
by John R. Harris

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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

Who was Kim Jong-nam?
by Justin McCurry

14

Published by the FCCJ All opinions contained within
Number 1 Shimbun are those of the authors. As such,these opinions do not constitute an official positionof Number 1 Shimbun, the editor or the Foreign
Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

15

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

Club News
Join the Film Committee/The MembershipMarketing Committee’s “Hidden Gems”
Exhibition: Fukushima Photographic Journeyby Bruce Osborn
New Members/New in the library
FCCJ

MARCH 201716

Cover photo: Bruce Osborn

173FRONT PAGE

THE FCCJ IS FACING an
extraordinary dilemma regarding the
proposed move to new premises.
A report from the Club Treasurer
says that this move involves
From theincreased rent charges
President significantly
and moving costs which cannot besafely met without raising monthly
dues significantly. Yet the Club could be exposed to a huge contract
penalty if we opt not to move without obtaining our landlord
Mitsubishi Estate’s understanding.
This is most frustrating and arises out of past Boards’
overemphasis on “confidentiality” instead of upholding our mostbasic mandatory rules. Now, the current Board has returned us tocompliance and in light of this, you, the Regular voting members,
must decide the FCCJ’s future at the March 8 GMM.
That’s why your full attendance and involvement is crucial.
To evaluate the problem, the Board empaneled an Audit Task
Force chaired by former President Andrew Horvat and including
financial expert and veteran banker Willem Kortekaas with decadesof experience in such matters in Japan.
The crisis and our options are explained in detail in reports fromthe Treasurer and the Audit Task Force which have been sent to all
regular members and at the GMM you will have the opportunity toquestion the Board and Audit Task Force directly.
According to the Audit Task Force report, the FCCJ must raisemonthly dues by a maximum of ¥2,000 per member effective April
2017 to accomplish the move in October 2018 and remain solvent.
This will meet an already contracted 20 percent rent increase(¥17.4 million annually) plus moving costs including purchase andinstallation of furniture and IT equipment and paying a project
manager – in all up to ¥100,000,000, and there is a pressing
need to increase FCCJ’s cash balances and replenish the seriously
underfunded employees’ retirement fund, according to the report.
I would like to offer my sincerest thanks to Treasurer Bob Whiting
and his team and to the Audit Task Force for their dedication in
preparing these reports.
The motion approving this ¥2000 raise has been made. Failure
to approve it means that the FCCJ must reconsider the plan andseek to renegotiate a more favorable agreement with Mitsubishi.
However, that agreement, signed on March 19, 2015 by the
Birmingham Board (again without informing the membership of thedetails) commits the FCCJ to hundreds of millions of yen contract
cancellation penalty. There is no Board consensus as to whether
Mitsubishi would actually litigate or negotiate, but the penalty
clause is valid should they choose to pursue it. And there are noquick fixes.
Some current Board members are more optimistic and feel that
we could sustain the move financially with the proper policies. They
will be able to share their perspectives and insights with you at the
GMM as well.
I won’t mince words: Previous BODs and some BOD officers
have, whatever their intentions, put the Club at risk of either
becoming insolvent or putting it into litigation, according towarnings from the most of the Finance Committee members.
They committed us to enormous increases in expenditures without
informing us or obtaining required authorization, in contraventionof Club By-Law 9-3 [any revenue disbursements exceeding ¥5million must be approved by the GMM].
I also observe with concern that our kanjis throughout this period
have failed to uphold their most basic obligations and prevent thisfrom happening.
I appeal to the members to read the motion and documents
carefully, come to the March 8 meeting, ask questions, and vote forthe best course for FCCJ. Now we are out of time so let’s get thisdone at the GMM.			
– Khaldon Azhari
4

FROM THE ARCHIVES

COLLECTIONSCATALYST FOR CHANGE

BEHIND BARS: The global war against journalists

81
145
259

Journalists in jail in 2000

Journalists in jail in 2010

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone spoke at the FCCJ on Oct. 7, 1985, with Club
President Jurek Martin (Financial Times) seated to his left. Nakasone reada prepared statement, including comments regarding his and his Cabinet’s
taboo-breaking official visit to Yasukuni Shrine to pay tribute to Japan’s war
dead on Aug. 15, the 40th anniversary of the country’s surrender. Until then,postwar visits by political leaders to Yasukuni, where 14 Class A war criminals
were enshrined in 1978, had been private. Nakasone later told journalists that
he had avoided engaging in religious rites to avoid a potential constitutional
issue. Still, his official visit sparked domestic and international criticism.

Journalists in jail in 2016

144
114
19
17
239
20
53
206

182

Internet

Charged with anti-state
activities

40

Print

No charges announced
Television

81

Radio

Journalists injail in Turkey
in 2016(highest)

Male

38

FemaleJournalists in jail in China in 2016
(2nd highest)

25

Freelance

Journalists in jail in Egypt in 2016
(3rd highest)

Staff

Source: Committee to Protect Journalists
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Prime Minister Nakasone was no stranger to our Club, having expressed
his opinions to journalists here in various ministerial capacities in previous
years. On Dec. 1, 1970, he visited as director-general of the Defense Agency,
and commented on the suicide of Yukio Mishima less than a week earlier.
“The literary genius always had in his left hand the spirit of Zen and in his
right hand the pen that produced so many masterpieces,” he said. “He
had to kill himself when he replaced the pen with the ken, a sword.”
Born in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, on May 27, 1918, Nakasone
attended Tokyo Imperial University and served during World War II as
an officer and paymaster in the Imperial Japanese Navy. He became
a Diet member in 1946 as a proponent of Japan’s traditional values,
making his first big splash in 1951 by sending a letter to General
MacArthur criticizing Occupation policies – and again attracting
attention in 1952 by criticizing Emperor Hirohito for losing the war.
He became even more controversial with his support for a stronger
national defense, including the acquisition of nuclear weapons andnuclear power research. After rising through the LDP’s ranks andheading five ministries, he became prime minister in 1982.
Nakasone also served as a catalyst in bringing about major changes
in postwar Japan. Internationally, he improved relations with the
USSR, China and other Asian nations while solidifying an even closer
relationship with the U.S. through his “Ron-Yasu” friendship with
President Ronald Reagan. Domestically, he made waves by pushing
privatization of state-owned companies, including the breakup of Japan
National Railways, reducing the power of bureaucrats and calling for
more patriotism in schools and textbook revisions.
Nakasone sparked another international uproar in 1986 with acomment that Americans were less intelligent than Japanese becauseof its many immigrants and blacks, then compounded that by saying
the U.S. had succeeded despite these drawbacks. In 1987 he was forced
to resign after a failed attempt to introduce a value-added tax. Though
he was one of the many politicians implicated in the next year’s Recruit
scandal, he remained in the Diet until 2003.
Nakasone, who will celebrate his 99th birthday in May, is Japan’s
oldest living statesman.

– Charles Pomeroy
5

FEATURE
PRESS FREEDOM: 1
My goal in editing this project was to assess the implications of Abe’sreactionary agenda, partly to counter the hype about Abenomics
and his transformational leadership, but also to draw attention to
his goal of overturning the postwar order, rewriting the constitution
and revising history. It was easy to find contributors who also
believe that grasping how the media is being muzzled is crucial tounderstanding contemporary politics in Japan, and they have provided
in-depth analysis of the media landscape, how it has been changing
in 21st-century Japan and the implications for the Fourth Estate andits vital role in a democratic society. Controlling the media is about
controlling the narrative about these controversial issues and thus
merits the scrutiny that is offered.

Inoue, both Choshu natives. The paper was headed by Miyoji
Ito, chief secretary of the Privy Council and trusted aid to
Hirobumi Ito – in secret, because it was against the law for an
official to hold another office in the private sector.
Masayoshi Matsukata of the Satsuma clique countered thismove by founding Keisei Shimpo in 1891, in spite of the fact that
he was then prime minister. Over the years, Mainichi Shimbun (including its predecessors) invited bigwig politicians toserve as its president – both Takashi Hara and Takaaki Kato,for example, went on to serve as the nation’s prime minister during the Taisho period – while Asahi Shimbun (and its
predecessors) developed extensive relationships with former
bureaucrats of the Ministry of the Interior in particular. And
the Yomiuri Shimbun, an old “small paper” that was acquiredin 1924 by Matsutaro Shoriki, an ex-elite police bureaucrat, ofcourse, has eventually grown to become the newspaper withthe largest circulation in the world.

Jeff Kingston, editor
Director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan
from Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan, Routledge (2017)© Jeff Kingston and the authors

Growing pains: how Japan’s
media got here and why

CONTINUITIES AND CHANGES IN THE POSTWAR ERA

This excerpt from Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan describes how thepolitical development of Japan’s newspapers has seen both struggles for powerand collaboration between government and media
by KOICHI NAKANO

To make sense of the rise of illiberal politics with a particular focus on the role played by the media, it is ofutmost importance to look at the historical roots ofthe most striking features of press-state relations in modern
Japan. One of them is the extraordinarily close tie between
the press and the state, in terms of both personnel and money. As Sasaki Takashi, a professor of contemporary Japanese
history, argues in his 1999 book, Media to Kenryoku (“Mediaand Power”), “Ever since their inception, Japanese newspapers have had the character as devices for the disseminationof information for the government or power, and while there
have been some changes in the appearance, that character
remains essentially unchanged.”

LATE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PRESS
According to Sasaki, there are three ways in which the Meiji
state can be said to have “sponsored” the press in its earlyyears. First the state practically subsidized the press by purchasing a large number of copies. Both Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (today’s Mainichi Shimbun) as well as Yubin Hochi Shimbun(later absorbed by Yomiuri Shimbun) benefitted from sucharrangements from the time of their founding in the first
decade of the Meiji era. Amounting to as much as 25 to 30
percent of their revenue, this was no negligible amount of defacto subsidy for the fledgling papers.
Second, the government appointed some papers, Tokyo
Nichinichi Shimbun, for instance, as the semi-official conveyors of its news releases – a practice that boosted their sales.
This continued on until 1883, when Kanpo was launched as
the official news medium of laws, ordinances and personnel
appointments, which led to a nearly 40-percent drop in thecirculation figures of Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun.
6

Third, secret government funds were also provided as subsidies to such newspapers as the Nichinichi, the Yubin Hochi
Shimbun, Jiji Shimpo (founded by Yukichi Fukusawa) and even
Asahi Shimbun for several years.
It is well known that, as a late developing country, the Japanese state often played a leading role in founding and nurturing such various key industries as banking and steel, but
it is of great interest that similar patterns of state-led modernization were to be found in the news industry as well. In
early modern Japan, most of the newspapers fell into eitherof the two categories – “big papers” (o shimbun) that engaged
in political debates from strong partisan standpoints, or
tabloid-like “small papers” (ko shimbun) that traded in gossip
and entertainment.
In that context, the Meiji state sought to nurture newspapers that would disseminate information and lead public
opinion from a pro-government standpoint, but the overtly
pro-government newspapers were not very popular and,
consequently, were limited in their influence. As a result,the government attempted to assist the establishment of a
new genre, the “medium paper” (chu shimbun) that would
report seemingly “neutral” news. The eventual success of theMainichi Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun placed these “neutral”
medium papers in the mainstream of the newspaper industry
in Japan.
The intricate ties between the state and the press were notlimited to often covert financial support from the former
to the latter. The personnel connections were as extensive,and far more overt. The pro-government Tokyo Nichinichi
Shimbun, for example, was particularly close to the Choshu
clique struggling to control the government, and by 1891
it was under the direct control of Hirobumi Ito and Kaoru
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Once Asahi Shimbun, the last national paper to remain criticalof militarism, shifted its position and began contributing to
the war effort after the 1930 Manchurian Incident, press freedom and truthful reporting of news disappeared from Japan.
In fact, the papers who actively collaborated with the wartime
regime received secret funds and preferred paper rationing aswell as being supplied with top management personnel.
What is striking, however, is the fact that all of the major
national dailies referred to here survived the postwar
reforms and disruptions intact. None were disbanded by the
U.S. Occupation forces – and none saw fit to close themselves
as an act of contrition. In fact, Taketora Ogata, the public“face” of Asahi Shimbun in the prewar period, not only served
as a state minister and president of the intelligence bureau in
the final years of the war, but once he was de-purged following the end of the Occupation in 1952 and the resumption ofJapan’s independence, continued to rise up the political ladder as chief cabinet secretary and deputy prime minister, as
well as ascending to the presidency of the Liberal Party.
The Yomiuri’s Shoriki, in a similar fashion, swiftly regained
control of the newspaper and the Nippon TV empire after his
de-purging and went on to become a member of the Diet, an
active promoter of nuclear power, probable CIA asset, and aminister of the Science and Technology Agency.
The newspapers themselves, in general, became more liberal and more critical of state power in the newly democratized
Japan, but some of the old habits that developed during wartime persisted in the postwar era. The much-criticized pressclub (kisha kurabu) system is an obvious case in point. The wartime government tried to control the media by organizing theminto press clubs, and as one of many institutional continuities
in postwar Japan, they survived the spate of U.S. Occupation
democratization initiatives as they proved to be a handy way tomanage the news. It was a cozy arrangement for the journalists
as well, serving as an insiders’ information cartel.
Through the club system, some of the most powerful men
in the Japanese media rose and prospered. The now elderly
emperor of the Yomiuri media empire, Tsuneo Watanabe, saw
his career blossom in conjunction with the success of Yasuhiro Nakasone’s political career in the 1970s and 1980s. And
while most mainstream news organizations in Japan have not
adopted a sweeping ban on journalists’ participation in government councils, it boggles the mind to think how the journalists can critically examine the government policies they
actively take part in formulating in the first place.
Toshio Hara, formerly of Kyodo Press, wrote in his 2009
book, Janarizumu no Kanosei (“Potential of Journalism”),
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MARCH 2017

The biggest sin of the press club system is not only that it isa closed information cartel, but also that the agenda-setting
initiative of public debate in Japan is thus held by government
ministries, parties, and big businesses. News sources thus
control the news, and while the media is mobilized to lead public opinion in a certain direction, the journalists are hardly
aware that that is a problem.

This may indeed be among the most lasting and pervasive
wartime legacies, the happyo (announcement) style journalism that makes a mockery of the Fourth Estate’s presumedrole of holding the government accountable. Even thoughnews organizations today are not as dependent on the state
for money or personnel as in the wartime period, the prevailing mindset is still very much one of dependency and subordination to the state. So much of what passes as “news”
in Japanese newspapers and television programs amount tomindless, uncritical announcements of government initiatives and policies.
The press was generally repentant about the wartime collaboration with militarist leaders in the early postwar period and adopted a critical attitude towards the conservative
government agenda. Change began in the 1970s when the
Sankei Shimbun shifted to the right, adopted an overtly progovernment, pro-LDP stance, and started to criticize the other newspapers as “biased” and left-leaning. Further change
occurred as Yomiuri Shimbun, too, began to shift to the rightin the 1980s as Watanabe, a close associate of Prime Minister Nakasone, rose to take increasing control of the paper’s
media empire.

The fact that the press was now divided between pro-government, right-leaning papers and critical liberal papers is
not necessarily a matter of concern. After all, it is both normal and desirable in a liberal society to have a diversity ofviews represented by the media. What is both interesting andworrisome at the same time, however, is that a less unified
media environment did not lead to a freer, more open andmore pluralistic and vibrant press culture in the subsequent
years, but instead resulted in the considerable decline inpress freedom that we witness today. ❶Koichi Nakano is Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of
Liberal Arts, Sophia University.

7

FEATURE
PRESS FREEDOM: 2

Trials in the shadows

sometimes cherry-pick their preferred information and evenmodify or fabricate it.” He claimed that revealing such injustice serves an important public interest.
After eight months of deliberation, the bar association
panel concluded that his act did violate the unintended use
prohibition, but “giving weight to . . . his intentions, the propriety of his means, and the lack of actual harm,” that discipline was not appropriate. The “unintended use” rule has
quickly become an entrenched feature of Japan’s criminal
trials. Some bar associations have even adopted ethical rules
cautioning members against unauthorized disclosures.
Many reporters complain that it hamstrings their work.
The rule was applied in the infamous Ashikaga case, which
involved a murder conviction based on a false confession.
Audio-tapes of the defendant’s 1992 confession were first
disclosed to defense counsel in 2009. Although defense
attorney Hiroshi Sato spoke regularly with news reporters,
he was required to withhold the tapes due to the prosecutors’
insistence on the rule. The defendant was ultimately released
from prison later that year, following a retrial that resulted
in acquittal.
Creative application of the unintended use rule has evenaffected law schools. In 2006, Tokyo prosecutors blocked aJapanese equivalent of the “Innocence Project,” in which
criminal justice experts and law students at Waseda University inspected court records together. The prosecutors said
that allowing students to examine the records serves an educational purpose that has nothing to do with trial preparationand therefore violates the rule.

This excerpt from Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan describes
how reporters for the news media face some formidable barriers intrying to cover criminal court cases in Japan, even after the fact.
by LAWRENCE REPETA AND YASUOMI SAWA

T

here are few news categories that attract more attention than criminal prosecutions. Everyone has a strong
interest in maintaining a high standard of public safety
and in confirming that police power is exercised in a responsible manner. And everyone involved in the news business iswell aware that tales of crimes – especially sensational crimes
or those involving celebrities – sell the news. So reporting
crime and criminal prosecutions is high on the agenda of allnews media.
Article 82 of Japan’s Constitution recognizes the immense
public interest in criminal prosecutions and other trials,“UNINTENDED USE” OF TRIAL EVIDENCE
In response to widespread complaints that trials take too
long, new rules that went into effect in 2005 created a pre-trial procedure that requires both the defense and prosecution
to identify the issues and provide the other side with accessto evidence in order to prepare for trial. This new procedure
was a boon for defense counsel because there is no generalrule requiring the government to disclose all evidence to thedefense. Under the new procedure, defense counsel can geta relatively early look at evidence the government plans topresent in court.
But there is a catch. Another new provision strictly prohibits defendants and their counsel from using disclosed
evidence for any “unintended use” other than preparing fortrial. Thus, news reporters may request to see this evidence,but defendants and their lawyers are prohibited from showing it to them – and violating this rule is punishable by finesand prison terms of up to one year.
This prohibition came into focus in May 2013 when a prose-

BARRING ACCESS TO TRIAL RECORDS
The most authoritative source of information on any criminal trial is the trial record itself. However, Japan’s courts
interpret the Code of Criminal Procedure to require that all
records in criminal trials be sealed throughout the durationof the trial and all appeals. Like other members of the public,

After Egawa filed suit, the prosecutor offered to voluntarily disclose the text of the judgment and another 31 documents, which she found to be irrelevant to her area of interest. The reason the officer gave for denying her the bulk of
the records was that she was a journalist and was planning towrite about the case. In the end, Egawa’s suit was fruitless.
The court declined to order any access beyond the prosecutor’s voluntary offer.
Another case that took place soon afterward concerned oneof Japan’s most powerful politicians. In 1992, Shin Kanemaru,
vice president of the ruling LDP at the time, was prosecuted for failing to report donations of several million dollars.
Kanemaru admitted to receiving the money and resigned his
position. There was a great uproar after Kanemaru escaped
the expected criminal trial when prosecutors applied a special procedure that did not require him to appear in court
and agreed to an extraordinarily light punishment with no
prison time.
After the court decision was final, a news industry researcher filed a request to examine the trial record. Provided accessto only superficial portions of the record, he filed suit, arguing that Article 82 and other provisions of the Constitution
guaranteed his access to the files. But the trial court ruled
against him, ordering only limited disclosure. He appealed all
the way to the Supreme Court, but in 1992, the court upheld
the trial court action, ruling that no constitutional rights
were involved. Thus, the trial of one of Japan’s most powerful politicians for improperly receiving a large sum of money
took place essentially in secret.
The 1987 law remains in effect today, and prosecutors
continue to enjoy broad discretion in deciding whether andwhat portions of trial records to disclose. For their part, news
reporters continue to make requests. For example, whenveteran Mainichi Shimbun reporter Hiroshi Dai requested
records from a bid-rigging case in 2014 that involved many
former high-ranking government officials, he was told, “[W]e’ll let you see nothing – if anything, only the text of
the judgment. Of course, any private and personal
information in it will be blacked out. We will never disclose anything else.”
The official implied that the disclosure policy prioritizes financial interests over journalism by saying,“We won’t disclose – especially because you are going
to run a story on it. If you intended to use the record forsomething like an insurance payment, that would be different.” Some reporters have had somewhat greater success, but
this seems quite serendipitous – a key feature of the system is
its decentralized nature and the nearly unlimited discretion
exercised by local prosecutors’ offices.
Although the Constitution guarantees freedom of “speech,
the press and all other forms of expression,” Japan’s NationalDiet, courts and government agencies have adopted laws,
made court decisions and enacted policies that create serious
obstacles to the exercise of these rights, especially freedomof the press. Because the public relies heavily on news organizations for information concerning matters of broad public interest, these restrictions significantly limit the people’s
right to know and their ability to understand and influence
public policy. ❶declaring that “Trials be conducted and judgement declared
openly.” Despite this unambiguous statement, Japan’s legal
community has conspired to spin a web of secrecy aroundcriminal trials. Journalists face countless obstacles in reporting criminal prosecutions.
The veil of secrecy descends at the time of arrest. In general,suspects can be detained up to 23 days before an indictment
is filed. During this period, police and prosecutors interrogate
suspects at will, while the suspects themselves are often prohibited from seeing anyone other than attorneys and immediate family members. Suspects have no contact with the news
media. When reporters try to build a story at this stage, theirprimary sources are often leaks from police interrogators.
Defense counsel are obvious sources of information, but they
are barred from interrogation sessions so they may learn ofconfessions and other client statements only after the fact. And
they may hesitate to speak to the press to protect client confidences. Even after an indictment is filed and trial commenced,
reporters face other obstacles. In particular, defense counsel
and their clients are subject to a relatively new restraint on talking to the press, created by laws passed in 2004.
8

cutor filed a disciplinary procedure with the Osaka Bar Association against attorney Masami Sadamoto for sharing his
client’s interrogation video with an NHK reporter. The video
had played a key role in gaining an acquittal by discrediting
the prosecutors’ allegation that the defendant confessed tostrangling a victim to death, and the reporter later aired thefootage on national television in an NHK program focused on
the value of video-recording in identifying false confessions.
Prosecutor Yuji Ueno alleged that Sadamoto’s disclosure
violated the “unintended use” prohibition. Sadamoto argued
that his act was legal and justifiable as the video was “important material describing the process of confessions that arecontrary to the deposer’s intent,” showing that “investigators
MARCH 2017

FCCJ

ANDREW POTHECARY“We’ll let you see nothing . . .
We will never disclose anything else.”
news reporters are blocked from access.
In 1987, the Diet passed a law governing the preservationof and access to trial records after appeals are exhausted andcourt decisions final. Oddly, this statute provides that trial
records are not to be maintained by the courts, but by theprosecutors’ office in the jurisdiction where the case was initially filed. And while Article 4 of the law declares the general rule that such records must be disclosed to anyone whorequests them, this rule is subject to broad and vague exceptions – a perfect example of a case where “the exceptions
have swallowed the rule.”
Access under the law was tested in some high-profile cases
soon after it took effect. One involved the renowned freelance journalist Shoko Egawa, known for her work investigating police misconduct and wrongful convictions. When
Egawa sought access to court records concerning the 1988
conviction of a police officer for rape of a female detainee in apolice jail, her request was denied on the ground that disclosure would damage public order and morals, hinder rehabilitation of the offender (a police officer) and injure reputationsof related persons. The official who denied the request told
her, “The idea that everyone may access records is just what’s
written in the law. The reality is, we disclose almost nothing.”
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MARCH 2017

Lawrence Repeta is a professor of law at Meiji University, best-known
as the plaintiff in a landmark suit decided by the Supreme Court ofJapan in 1989 that opened courts to note-taking by spectators.
Yasuomi Sawa is an investigative reporter at Kyodo News, whorecently worked with the Panama Papers project led by theInternational Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

9

SERIESPROFILE

Yoichi Yabe
by TYLER ROTHMAR

Ysion of the crews to a near peak. Everything is heightened, andoichi Yabe is a photographer, chiefly of nautical races
the windier it gets, the wetter we get,” Yabe says, adding thatand vessels, but his love of sailing and the elements
doing the job well is a combination of economy of movement,
preceded any knowledge of how to shoot them.
equipment management, and luck. He refers to his early periBorn in 1957 in Mishuku, an area in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward,
od of shooting European races such as the Admiral’s Cup andYabe nurtured an interest in music and guitars even as hethe Whitbread Round The World Race as “good training.”
studied law and international politics at Hosei University. He
landed a scholarship and spent his third year of study at the
FROM THIS FOOTHOLD HE climbed, eventually covering
University of California San Diego, where he took a course ineverything from the America’s Cup to the Olympics. The scope
sailing out of the school’s training facility in Mission Bay. “Iof Yabe’s work has likewise increased: Assignments from a
was fascinated by all the knowledge that is condensed into
range of clients have included chronicling the major refit ofsailing ships,” he says. “All the different riggings, all the details
the storied J-class yacht Endeavour in– it’s a crystallization of human knowlNew Zealand, and profiling solo raceredge and culture.”
Kojiro Shiraishi, 49, a national hero andYabe returned to Japan, where after
the youngest person ever to sail aroundgraduation he found himself at odds
the globe alone when he was 26, whomwith his parents’ wishes: He wanted to
Yabe counts as a good friend.
make the acoustic guitars he’d loved toIn 1999, Yabe founded his own compaplay as a student, while they were loath
ny, Office 11, though he is still a contractto see him enter a field in which his edued chief photographer for Kazi Co. The
cation would be all but useless.
arrangement affords him the freedom to
As a kind of compromise, he joinedcover events of his choice with the equipthe Yamaha Corporation in the stereo
ment of his choosing, something that’s
equipment division, hoping somehow to
extremely valuable to him. He sometimes
change tack to guitar production. But heshoots from hired helicopters, too.
was assigned to sales, eventually workAlthough he made the switch to digitaling at the firm’s headquarters in Hamawith everyone else, Yabe says he misses one specific aspect ofmatsu. Frustrated with the limitations of company life andthe film era that affects the photos themselves: optical acuity.
longing for autonomy, he bought a small dinghy and sailed“Everything was manual at that time; manual focus, manual
Lake Hamanako on the weekends.
everything,” he explains. “Because of that, the optical quality
One day Yabe noticed an ad in Kazi, Japan’s preeminentof the camera’s finder was very high, and it was easy to focus.
sailing magazine, the publisher of which was seeking a staff
But nowadays autofocus is the major technology, and camera
photographer. The successful recruit would be 27 or under,
makers don’t invest in the optical system. It’s very hard to focus
have a love of the sea and boats, be able to speak English,
manually – you don’t see the peak. In
and, curiously, have no experience
the film days, you could focus on thewith photography. Being 27 and a perface of a crew member on a yacht fromfect fit in all regards, Yabe was taken
a distance. That part I really miss, andon and trained in editing text as wellit makes the photos different. The way
as taking pictures. Before long he wasyou focus is very important.”
sent to Europe for six months to cover
When he has time, Yabe practices
yacht races from a base in the UK. The
aikido as well as Kashima Shin-ryu
year was 1989.
kenjutsu, a traditional sword art with
Covering a race typically involves
centuries of history. He also enigmatiriding ahead of the competition incally professes a love of mangoes, anda powerboat full of other photograhopes one day to grow them: “A warm
phers. There is rivalry and camaradeclimate. A small shack in the middle ofrie in equal measure, Yabe says, anda mango farm. A small dinghy or sailmuch depends on the skill of the phoboat. This is my dream.”
to-boat captain in bringing them close
Until then, he remains a profesto the action without interfering withsional shutterbug, covering events
it. Large races attract multiple photoaround the world in both photos andboats, which compete for vantage eventext while pursuing a private quest to
as individual photographers negotidocument the wind, the waves and theate with the captains and their peers
light. “These are the elements that I’m
for the same. The resulting melee is aschasing,” he says.
thrilling as it is unpredictable.
“Many times I have been at the right“The windier the conditions get,place at the right moment to meet
the better the photography becomes.
good people, good boats. I’ve been
Action, the power of the waves andTyler Rothmar is a Tokyo-based writer and editor.
lucky,” he adds. ❶wind, brings the movements and ten-

ANDREW POTHECARY“The successful
recruit would be 27,
have a love of the sea
and boats, be able
to speak English,
and, curiously, haveno experience withphotography.”

10

MARCH 2017

FCCJ

FCCJ

MARCH 201711

FEATURE
POST-TSUNAMI RECONSTRUCTION

Women power the reconstruction of Kitakami

The restoring of a tsunami-battered community
in Miyagi Prefecture has been enhanced by anapproach that values listening to its citizens
and involving women in all aspects of planning.
by JOHN R. HARRISS

ix-and-a-quarter years after the 3/11 tsunami took the
lives of 185 residents of Kitakami, six elderly women left
widowed and homeless will finally move into a social
housing complex specially designed to meet their shareddesire to live out the rest of their days together. Although longin coming, this small step will mark an important victory forthe citizens of Kitakami, a community of 3,900 inhabitants on
the northern fringe of Miyagi Prefecture’s Ishinomaki City.
The tsunami that barreled up the mouth of the KitakamiRiver on the afternoon of March 11, 2011, defied all expectations. Since the city branch office was a designated evacuation site, 37 residents took refuge there along with 20
local officials. But after the full force of the tsunami struck
the building only three survived, including Teruo Konno, amunicipal official who has since played a key role in reconstruction efforts.
Meanwhile, just across Japan’s fourth-largest river, 80
pupils and teachers perished at the Okawa Elementary
School after the principal opted to follow the rulebook andkeep everyone assembled in the schoolyard instead of climbing a nearby slope.
Few Tohoku communities experienced greater devastation. And with most of Kitakami’s administration lost, Konno
and the other surviving officials were too overwhelmed withimmediate response to even begin thinking about reconstruction. That’s partly why Konno made the pivotal decision
to delegate planning efforts to Kitakami’s economic development committee, a group of citizens and local businesspeople. Repurposed as the Kitakami Town Planning Committee
in February 2012, the group’s efforts are now being hailed asa model for inclusive community rebuilding.
BY NOW, FEW OBVIOUS traces of devastation remain along
Tohoku’s coast, save for vast, eerily empty lots. Roads, rails
and other infrastructure have been restored by massive gov12

ernment spending. Although 45,000 Tohoku families still livein temporary housing, new multi-story housing blocks aresprouting on the heights behind the coast.
“The best thing about reconstruction in Japan, is that we doit very quickly, which is of course essential,” says Akiko Domoto, former Chiba governor and now an activist in the multilateral process aimed at improving global Disaster Response
and Reconstruction (DRR). “But Japanese officials are slowly
coming to realize that the social fabric of local communities
is too often sacrificed in the haste to get the job done quickly.”
Domoto, who heads the Japan Women’s Network for DRR(jwndrr.org), an advocacy group focused on the social aspects ofdisaster planning and response, believes citizen involvement is
the answer, before and after a calamity: “There is no substitutefor intensive consultation if reconstruction plans are to meetthe needs of everyone – especially women, the elderly, children and the disabled. Ideally, the mechanisms for this should
be prepared before disaster strikes. Organizing after the fact
takes a lot of time and effort. So governments typically prefer to make one standard plan and, to avoid favoring one area
over another, impose the same thing on all communities. This
is why Kitakami is such a rare and important model.”At a Tsunami Awareness Day symposium, held in Tokyo
last October, government bureaucrats and constructionindustry people sat down together with DRR social-policy
advocates to hear Kitakami’s story. “It was a wonderful
moment,” Domoto says. “You could see the lights go on as
they finally got the point.”
LIKE MANY TOHOKU COMMUNITIES, Kitakami has always beenclosely knit, a tight cluster of low-rise houses around the harbor and riverside, steeped in traditional customs and relationships that order the ways of its fishery and local festivals.
After losing so much to the tsunami, however, it was obvious to all that the village could not be rebuilt exactly as it
was: the wisdom of moving to higher ground was undeniable.
What was not obvious was how the plans for a new community could restore its damaged social fabric.
Most other damaged communities had little chance to evenconsider such questions. Traumatized, habitually obedient
to authority and eager to rebuild quickly, most communities meekly accepted one-size-fits-all government plans to
replicate suburban Japan, with serviced lots for those able torebuild single-family houses and multi-story social housing
blocks for others. Typically, units are distributed by drawing
MARCH 2017

FCCJ

lots, so instead of living next to long-time friends or relatives
people end up with randomly assigned neighbors.
Teruo Konno and his surviving colleagues in Kitakami’s
local administration opted to take a different route in delegating responsibility to what was initially an ad hoc group of
local residents – and not only because their ranks were decimated and overwhelmed. Konno says they had also learned
vital lessons from other disaster-stricken communities.
“Citizen consultation is clearly important,” Konno says,“but we realized that when you
put municipal officials in front
Women with a planof a group of people traumatized
Left, five of the six womenby the loss of homes, families andwho won the right to live
livelihoods, too often the result
as neighbors. Below, theis endless complaints and arguplanned layout of Nikkori’sments. Nothing gets done.
social housing.
“We learned a lot from the experience of Yamakoshi in Niigata” [which had to rebuild after the2004 Chuetsu quake]. “Their consultation process took three
years, but in the first two years only men were involved . . . andall they did was argue. Then they brought local women into theprocess and everything was resolved quickly.”
DELEGATING RESPONSIBILITY TO A citizen-led group not only
created a buffer between bureaucrats and citizens, it harnessed the strength of Kitakami’s tradition of neighborhood
consultation – a channel where women have always had a voice.
At the Tsunami Awareness symposium, one local man wasquoted as saying: “This town has been made by women! We
really didn’t expect they could do so much.”“Women are just more practical and adaptable,” counters
Naomi Sato, a mother of three school-aged children, widowed by the tsunami, who stepped up to organize the consultation process. “When men lose everything they often
become paralyzed, but we women just think, ‘What are wegoing to make for dinner tonight?’”
Sato also says local women were better able to shoulder theburden: “This is volunteer work that most men didn’t havetime for because they were off working to pay the bills. I had
never been involved in anything like this before, but I thought
the best way to honor my husband’s memory was to build abetter community.”
Encouraged by Konno and his colleagues, Kitakami’s women
began to hold a series of meetings focused on specific issues
or neighborhood needs. Starting informally in 2012, the Town
Planning Committee later took on official power delegated by
Ishinomaki City. But as that change made it less open to ordinary citizens, subcommittees were formed, giving residents ofeach neighborhood a conduit to provide detailed input.
For critical meetings to decide on relocating residential
areas to higher ground, female university students from outside the community were brought in to moderate. “This created a much better atmosphere than if we had tried to do it
ourselves,” Konno says.
Through these consultations, Kitakami residents achieveda strong consensus on the shape they wanted their new community to take. But in order to focus that into a detailed alternative to the standard government plans, sympathetic professional expertise was required.
John R. Harris is a freelance writer and journalist who lives in Onjuku,
Chiba. Yasufumi Horie assisted with this story.

FCCJ

MARCH 2017

Fortunately, Sendai-based architect Hiroyuki Teshima
stepped forward soon after the disaster. Having been interested in the community’s traditions before 3/11, his local
knowledge quickly earned the locals’ trust.
TESHIMA WAS PUT IN charge of designing the Nikkori housing
complex, now nearing completion, which creates a new uplandresidential neighborhood and elementary school groupedaround an existing junior high school.
Based on local consensus, Nikkori provides 25 serviced lots
to those rebuilding single-family dwellings on higher ground,plus a 60-unit social housing complex mainly for seniors.
Under standard plans, the houses would have all faced in thesame direction and the social units might have been a multistory concrete block – an alien structural form for small-town
seniors. And both types of housing would have been allocatedby lottery, randomly scattering people across the area.
Instead, Teshima designed the social housing as barrierfree single-story units grouped around shared gardens andcommon spaces to replicate the fabric of the old community.
The single-family houses were oriented to optimize ocean
views. And who gets to live where was decided by consensus –after extensive discussion.
Where contractors initially recommended bulldozing theentire area into a flat plateau, Teshima integrated the new dwellings into the existing topography and preserved the surrounding forest to serve as a natural windbreak. Not only is the result
more visually appealing, it slashed the cost of earth-moving.
Public input also determined the compact layout of theneighborhood center, with elementary school, baseball diamond and festival space all grouped together, and surrounded by housing. “The ultimate aim,” Teshima says, “is to feelthe area’s energy wherever you stand.”Still, when the new development is completed in June, nothing will give Konno, Sato and Teshima more satisfaction thanwatching six elderly widows settle into their new nest. During
the consultations, they shyly approached the committee witha photo of themselves holding hands. “Can you please give thisto the mayor?” they asked. “Tell him we have come to dependon each other in temporary housing. Now all we want is a place
where we can look after each other until the end.”“Kitakami’s experience teaches a lesson of global importance,” says Domoto, who led successful efforts to have gender issues recognized as fundamental to disaster best practices in the Sendai Framework adopted by the Third UN World
Conference on DRR in March 2015. “Beyond being particularly vulnerable in disasters, women have inherent strengths
that are a vital source of resilience. Kitakami shows how we
can harness women’s natural power.” ❶NORTH KOREA

CLUB NEWSA Tokyo Shimbun journalist recalls his time with the half-brother of
the North Korean leader and expresses shock at his recent murder.

Who was Kim Jong-nam?

Yoji Gomi at
the Club

by JUSTIN McCURRYIT IS LITTLE WONDER that Yoji Gomi
appeared tired, and at times close totears, during his recent appearance
at the FCCJ. Just three days had
passed since his friend, Kim Jongnam, had apparently been murderedwhile waiting to check-in for a flighthome to Macau from Kuala Lumpur
International Airport.
As one of the few journalists to havespent significant amounts of time with
Kim, the elder half-brother of the North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Gomi has
been in huge demand for insights into
the possible reasons and people behind
Kim’s death at the age of 46. Gomi said
he did not wish to speculate on who

tell his opinions to Pyongyang throughme or other media,” Gomi said at apress conference on Feb. 17. “He said
that the only way that North Korea
could survive would be to go throughthe series of reforms and liberalizationthat China had carried out.” In his
discussions with Gomi, Kim had
criticized North Korea’s hereditarytransfer of power in a socialist society,saying that the leader should be
democratically elected.
Kim Jong-nam’s death had come as “agreat shock” to Gomi and his wife, who
accompanied her husband to Macau for
his first meeting with the exiled Kim in
January 2011. That meeting, plus several“I’d heard rumours that he was a playboy andwas crazy about gambling, but the man I
encountered was polite, and with a keen intellect”
was behind the killing, or their possible
motivations. As the Number 1 Shimbun
went to press, police in Malaysia hadarrested four people, including one
North Korean, while another four North
Koreans wanted in connection withthe attack have reportedly fled to theirhome country.
Gomi spoke fondly about Kim
Jong-nam – calling him a man with“a keen intellect” who, despite his
public image as an inveterate gambler
and womanizer, had displayed great
personal courage in speaking out
against the North Korean regime
under his younger half-brother. “Even
if it put him in danger, he wanted to14hours of follow-up interviews and about
150 emails, formed the basis of Gomi’s
2012 book, Kim Jong Nam: My Father, Kim
Jong Il and Me.
GOMI, A SENIOR STAFF writer at
the Tokyo Shimbun, cast doubt on
widespread speculation on the reason
Kim Jong-nam had been overlooked tosucceed Kim Jong-il. In May 2001, Kim
was reported to have caused his father
deep embarrassment after he tried
to enter Japan via Narita Airport on aforged Dominican Republic passport.
Accompanied by his wife, their nanny
and young son, they had said they wereplanning to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

“He told me that he didn’t think theDisneyland incident was the reason
Kim Jong-un was chosen over him tobecome the next leader,” said Gomi,
adding that the half brothers had
never met.
Gomi believes Kim quickly grew
disillusioned with the North Koreanpolitical system soon after he returnedto the country after attending schoolin Switzerland.
In a possible sign that he was being
groomed for leadership, Kim was
asked to accompany his father in theearly 1990s on a nationwide tour offarms and factories to witness thecountry’s economic development. “Hesaid he saw the reality of the country’s
situation on that trip, and that waswhen he started expressing views that
contradicted those of his father,” said
Gomi. “That’s what prompted him tostart leading a ‘wild’ life and eventuallyto leave the country.”
Gomi said Kim had made several
trips to Tokyo, where he enjoyedsinging karaoke and drinking in thebars of Ginza with South Koreans,
North Koreans and Japanese.
The reporter’s friendship with
Kim began after a chance meetingat Beijing airport in 2004. “I’d heard
rumors that he was a playboy, hadcomplicated relationships with women
and was crazy about gambling, but
the man I encountered was polite, andwith a keen intellect,” Gomi said.
They began exchanging regularemails in 2010. Kim gave Gomi
permission to use his comments in thebook, but became more cautious after
Kim Jong-un became North Koreanleader in December 2011. In a message
to Gomi soon after the succession,
Kim Jong-nam requested that he delay
publication of the book, describing
the timing as “difficult.” Gomi said:“I thought that it was important totell the world about Kim Jong-nam’s
philosophy and humanity, and hoped
it might bring about a change in North
Korea’s relationship with Japan andother countries, so I decided to go
ahead and publish.”
He informed Kim of his decision
and, after a gap of several days,
received a response in early January
2012. “He emailed me back to say there
would be no more contact between
us,” Gomi said. ❶Justin McCurry is Tokyo correspondent for
the Guardian and Observer newspapers in
London and writes for the Lancet medical
journal. He also reports on Japan and South
Korea for France 24 TV.

MARCH 2017

FCCJ

JOIN THE FILM COMMITTEE . . .
. . . at 7:00pm on Monday, March 24 for a special screening of the immersive,
award-winning documentary Don’t Blink — Robert Frank, about the renowned
photographer-filmmaker-prickly character whose seminal 1958 The Americans
completely revolutionized the art of photography and is now considered themost influential photo book of the 20th century. The irascible, reclusive artist,
90 years old when the film was made, appears relaxed and insightful as his longtime collaborator, Laura Israel, captures him at work in a variety of settings, fromhis New York loft to his isolated cabin in Nova Scotia. Like a visual game of freeassociation that pays tribute to Frank’s purposely imperfect, impromptu, personalstyle, Don’t Blink is cut together as if it were one of the restless artist’s frequentroad trips, with rapid-fire montages of his photographic and film work, from his
fashion-snapping years with Harper’s Bazaar and his freelance photojournalism,to his handmade-style films and his friendships with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg
and other assorted counterculture artists, as well as with the everyday people who
continue to fascinate him. Israel will be on hand for the Q&A session following thescreening. (USA, 2015; 82 minutes; English with Japanese subtitles.)– Karen Severns

PITCH US
YOUR
STORY

and support yourClub magazine
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 toyour member account.

THE MEMBERSHIP MARKETING COMMITTEE’S “HIDDEN GEMS”
IN 2017, THE FCCJ will start a new initiative: “FCCJ in-house Networking,” bringing
together working journalists and PR officials of associated member companies. It is thebrainchild of the Club’s Membership Marketing Committee, of which I – PR director at
Wacom, Co. Ltd. – am a member.
I became an Associate Member of FCCJ in May 2015 in order to develop andstrengthen Wacom’s relationships with the foreign media. Club programs, such as“Meet the Press” – the series of speeches by bureau chiefs of the leading foreign
media – are useful in that respect as we can get acquainted with the people involvedin the program. Building on this momentum, the MMC is planning to begin a new
initiative called “FCCJ in-house Networking” between working journalists and PR
officials of associated member companies.
Specifically, this program offers a platform for match-making among journalist
members, their colleagues and company PR representatives. Company PR officials will
speak about their company’s business and products/services so that journalists can get
in-depth, first-hand information direct from the source. Each session, which will lastfrom one to one-and-a-half hours, will consist of presentations and Q&A sessions withrepresentatives from two or three companies.
There are many opportunities in Japan, “hidden gems” one might call them, waitingfor discovery by journalists. Some of them, the MMC believes, might be right under
our noses, within the walls of the Club itself. 		
– Ted Kanno
FCCJ

MARCH 2017

YOUR ADIN OUR PAGES
Advertize in
Number 1 Shimbun
Contact
no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp

15

CLUB NEWSFCCJ EXHIBITION

Fukushima
Photographic Journey

Photography: Bruce Osborn
Chief Organizer: Hitoshi Maruoka

SIX YEARS HAVE PASSED since the tragedy of 3/11 struck
Tohoku. I watched the live coverage in disbelief as thetsunami swallowed buildings, cars – anything that was inits way. In Fukushima Prefecture alone, 164,865 people
were forced to flee as a result of the nuclear accident
and the evacuation order from the government. As of
November 2016, there are still 84,289 people who have notbeen able to return home. Japan has not seen such a large
relocation of its population since World War II.
The word furusato is roughly translated as “hometown,”
but it has a much deeper meaning in Japanese. It is theplace where you were born and raised, and the family’sancestral home. For generations, Fukushima families have
lived on this land, cultivating the fields and praying at the
local shrines for a good harvest. In an instant, everythingchanged and whole communities were swept away.
Fukushima is now known throughout the world
as a result of the media coverage of the earthquake
and meltdown at its Daiichi nuclear plant. The words“tsunami,” “nuclear accident” and “evacuation” evoke
images of great loss and communities that have been
torn apart. Despite their hardships and uncertainty about
the future, people have not forgotten how to smile andeven laugh as they rebuild their lives. My motivation
for starting this project was to preserve photographic
memories of these proud people from Fukushima. And
to share the love they have for their furusato. I hope that
their traditions and culture will not fade away. ❶This project was made possible through a grant from the
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry).
16

The Hayashi family on our current cover(photographed in November 2016) and here in 2012
Hitoshi Maruoka began his career as an editorial designer in Tokyo
before relocating to Fukushima in 1995. He established “Glamorous
Tohoku” in 2016 to help revitalize the community through promoting
the beauty and culture of the Fukushima Prefecture.

MARCH 2017

FCCJ

Bruce Osborn has been based in Tokyo for over three decades. His work has appeared in many publications
and advertisements. His “Oyako” (parents and children) series started as a personal project, but has grown into
something much larger. He went to Tohoku to photograph displaced families and has been back to continue thiswork and to teach photography workshops to high school students. www.bruceosoborn.com www.oyako.org

FCCJ

MARCH 201717

CLUB NEWSSPECIAL CAMPAIGN OFFER FOR NEW ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
The FCCJ is offering a special deal for new Associate Members.
Until March 31 this year, those joining are eligible for a ¥100,000
DISCOUNT off of the regular fee of ¥300,000.
If successfully approved, the applicants will be able to enjoy
all the member benefits: attendance at all the major press
conferences and professional and social events; dining services at
the Main Bar, Pen & Quill Executive Dining area and the Masukomi
Sushi Bar; special discounts on sports, arts and cultural events; free wi-fi, half-price parking,
the Club’s monthly magazine; and access to reciprocal press clubs around the world.
Present members can also benefit. A ¥20,000 restaurant voucher will be given to those
who introduce successfully approved new Associates. For more information, or to pick up
an application form, go to the front desk.

New
Members

REGULAR MEMBERS

SARAH BIRKE is the Economist’s Tokyo Bureau Chief, covering Japanesepolitics, society and business. Prior to this she covered the Middle Eastand North Africa, first as the regional correspondent and then as Bureau
Chief, reporting on some 20 countries. A specialist in Syria, she has lived inDamascus, Beirut and Cairo. Prior to joining the Economist, she wrote for arange of publications including the Wall Street Journal and the Times (London).
She has also contributed to the New York Review of Books, London Review ofBooks and the New Republic. Sarah also lived in Italy for two years and spenttime wandering Liberia in West Africa. She speaks Arabic, English, French,
Italian and Spanish.
ADRIANA DIAZ is Asia correspondent for CBS News. Adriana attended
Princeton University and received her Master’s from Columbia University andFrance’s Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. Before joining CBS News in 2012,
Adriana reported for the in-school news program Channel One News andhosted Yahoo’s “Trending Now” web show. For CBS, she’s reported from the
U.S. Midwest, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, and Laos. Adriana has
also covered Pope Francis’ visits to Brazil in 2013, Israel and Palestine in 2014,
Cuba in 2015, and Mexico in 2016, as well as the 2014 Winter Olympic Gamesin Sochi. She is from New York City and speaks Mandarin, Spanish, and French.
PEI-FANG TSAI is the Tokyo correspondent for Taiwan’s United Daily NewsGroup. She graduated with a degree in Journalism from National Chengchi
University and a Masters in Political Science from National Taiwan University,
before starting as a reporter for GTV News in 2003. She then moved to BCC
News from 2005 to 2007 before taking a position as Senior Reporter for
United News Daily. She believes strongly in the media’s role as a watchdog
for the public’s interest and has been recognized with several distinguishedjournalism awards in Taiwan.
HIROSHI YOSHITSUGU, TV Tokyo Corporation
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Fumiyo Harimoto, OOCL Ltd.
Takatoshi Horikoshi, 3 Top Co., Ltd.
Tazuko Ikeda, Suntory Holdings Limited
Takayuki Yamada, Kanamecho Hospital

18

REINSTATEMENT (ASSOCIATE)
Arseny Chuk Besher, GREE, Inc.
Fumio Ishida, (No affilication)

New in the
LibraryJapanese Girl at the Siege of
Changchun: How I Survived China’s
Wartime Atrocity
Homare Endo; Michael Brase (trans.)
Stone Bridge Press
Gift from Center for International Relations,Tokyo University and Graduate School ofSocial Welfare
Anjin - The Life & Times of Samurai William
Adams, 1564-1620: As Seen ThroughJapanese Eyes
Hiromi T. Rogers
Renaissance Books
Gift from Hiromi T. Rogers
Tokyo: A Biography: Disasters,
Destruction and Renewal
The Story of an Indomitable City
Stephen Mansfield
Tuttle Publishing
Gift from Stephen Mansfield
Promoting Better Lifetime Planning
Through Financial Education
Naoyuki Yoshino (ed.); Flore-Anne Messy(ed.); Peter J. Morgan (ed.)
World Scientific
Gift from Suvendrini Kakuchi
Dare ga tosei o koroshitaka
Takashi Uesugi
SB Creative
Gift from Takashi Uesugi
Nihon kaigi o meguru yottsu no taiwa
Tamotsu Sugano; Satoshi Shirai; Masakuni
Murakami; Kohei Yokoyama; Akira Uozumi
K&K Press
Gift from K&K Press
Kurosawa’s Rashomon: A Vanished City,a Lost Brother, and the Voice Inside His
Iconic Films
Paul Anderer
Pegasus Books
Are You an Echo?: The Lost Poetry ofMisuzu Kaneko
Misuzu Kaneko (poems); Toshikado Hajiri(illus.); David Jacobson (narrative); Sally
Ito and Michiko Tsuboi (trans. and editorial
contributions)
Chin Music Press

MARCH 2017

FCCJ

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