The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

July 2016, Volume 48 No. 7, ¥400

Plus: Fixers for journalists

Fostering children

Japan gets Trump’d

New Board“HELLOFROM THEOUTSIDE”
From the journalists
who were behindthe scenes at theG7 and Hiroshima . . .
way behind the scenes

Vol. 48, Number 7

July 2016

contact the editors

no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
Publisher FCCJ
Editor Gregory Starr
Art Director Andrew Pothecarywww.forbiddencolour.com
Editorial Assistants Naomichi Iwamura,Tyler Rothmar
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

Trump'd:NipponGendaiIn this issue
The Front Page
From the President by Peter Langan
Election results: the new Board
From the archives by Charles Pomeroy
When the world was watchingby Justin McCurry, David McNeill,
Monzurul Huq, Anthony Rowley,
Steve McClure, Huw Griffith, Jake Adelstein
ProfileLucy Alexander
by Tyler Rothmar

p15
4
4
5
6

10

My two (foster) sonsby Caroline Parsons

12

Rescue Squadby Lucy Birmingham

14

Trump’dby Mark Schreiber

15

Club News
Exhibition: On the waterby Rai Shizuno
Join the Film Committee/A visit to Ichiro’s Malt/
Heard at the Club/New Members/New in the Library

FCCJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President Peter Langan, Freelance
1st Vice President Khaldon Azhari,
PanOrient News
2nd Vice President Todd Crowell, Freelance
Secretary David Satterwhite, Associate Member
Treasurer Robert Whiting, Author, Freelance
Directors-at-Large Milton Isa, Associate Member
Said Karlsson, TT News Agency
Yuichi Otsuka, Associate Member
James Simms, Forbes Contributor, Freelance
Ex-officio Suvendrini Kakuchi,
University World News
Kanji William Sposato, Freelance
Associate Kanji Makoto Honjo, Associate Member
FCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRSAssociate Members Liaison Milton Isa
Compliance Kunio Hamada
DeRoy Memorial Scholarship Masaaki Fukunaga
Entertainment Sandra Mori, Suvendrini Kakuchi
Exhibition Bruce Osborn
Film Karen Severns
Finance Robert Whiting
Food & Beverage Robert Whiting
Freedom of Press Pio d’Emilia, Khaldon AzhariHouse & Property Peter Langan
Human Resources Imad Ajami
Information Technology Roger Williams
Library, Archives & Workroom Koichi Ishiyama,
Suvendrini Kakuchi
Membership Peter O’Connor, Monzurul Huq
Membership Marketing Bill Shin, Rie Sakamoto
Professional Activities David McNeill,
Tetsuo Jimbo
Publications Gavin Blair
Special Projects Haruko Watanabe
Web Committee Gavin Blair
Foreign Press in Japan Justin McCurry

16

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
Yurakucho Denki Building, North Tower 20F,
1-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006.
Tel: (03) 3211-3161 Fax: (03) 3211-3168 fccj.or.jp
Published by the FCCJ All opinions contained within
Number 1 Shimbun are those of the authors. As such,these opinions do not constitute an official positionof Number 1 Shimbun, the editor or 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 photo: Najib El-KhashFCCJJULY 2016

3

FRONT PAGE

From thePresident

ELECTION RESULTS

FROM THE ARCHIVES

THE NEW BOARD“THE GREATEST” IN
ACTION AT THE FCCJ
Directors-at-Large

President

WHILE THIS IS MY first column for the Number 1 Shimbun
since becoming president of the FCCJ on June 15, I would liketo pick up where my predecessor Suvendrini Kakuchi left off
in her last column. Continuity of purpose in a number of issues
facing the Club is important.
But before going into some of the topics in her last column,
I think it’s perhaps necessary to ask more fundamental
questions about the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan:
What is its purpose and what is its future?
The FCCJ is more than 70 years old. If it were human, it
would be drawing a pension and looking forward to visitsfrom grandchildren. If not quite playing gateball, it would lackthe energy of 30 years ago and the spring in the step would
pretty much have sprung.
The General Manager tells me the average age of themembership is now 62 years, so generally speaking we
Members aren’t exactly a collection of spring chickens, either.
Yet, at the heart of the FCCJ is something vital, powerful,essential to democracy, essential to freedom and something
we must guard and defend to ensure it outlives us all. That, ofcourse, is Freedom of the Press in the service of the public’s
right to know.
Reporters Without Borders releases a ranking of freedomof the press in scores of countries around the world. The
higher a country’s position in the index, the greater themeasure of press freedoms. Japan’s ranking in the World
Press Freedom Index was 59 in 2014. It slipped slightly to 61 in2015 and then took a much larger slump this year to 72. Thatslotted Japan between Tanzania and Lesotho on the index,
which covers 180 countries.
Why is Japan falling down the table in this key measure of
democracy? Well, you can read for yourself on their website
https://rsf.org/en/ranking/2016.
I would argue the FCCJ plays a particularly precious role inpreserving press freedoms in Japan and it has nothing to dowith the word “Foreign.” The FCCJ is not owned by any press
baron or media conglomerate that takes a particular tilt or
editorial view of news events. The FCCJ is independent and its
press events are open to all. It should remain this way.
At its heart and soul, the purpose of the FCCJ is to preserveand defend this space for the public’s right to know. The Club
may not always be bustling with packed press conferences,
but that space is always there for when it’s needed.
Historical examples show hard-won democratic freedoms
don’t typically disappear overnight, they are lost to slow
erosion. Is that what the Reporters Without Borders index
shows regarding press freedoms in Japan? Slow erosion?
The question remains, but it helps us answer the second
question I asked at the start of this column. The FCCJ’s futureis here and now and ever more important. The FCCJ may nothave the snazziest, jazziest facilities of Tokyo clubs (at least notyet) but it is unique.
I’ve run out of space here to follow up on some of mypredecessor’s important points. We can save that for futurecolumns. So let me finish by wishing everyone fun-filled, yetrelaxing summer holidays.

Peter Langan, Freelance

Milton Isa,
Associate Member

1st Vice President

Said Karlsson,
TT News Agency

Khaldon Azhari,
PanOrient News

2nd Vice President

Yuichi Otsuka,
Associate Member

Todd Crowell, Freelance

Secretary

Associate Kanji

David Satterwhite,
Associate Member

Makoto Honjo,
Associate Member

Treasurer

Robert Whiting,Author, Freelance

Ex Officio

Suvendrini Kakuchi
University World News

Regular Member Reserve Directors: None elected(Replacement for resigning Regular board member)
Associate Member Reserve Director: Mary Corbett,Professional Associate Member (Replacement for
resigning Associate board member)
Regular Kanji: None elected (William Sposato, Freelance
who is previous Kanji will serve the position until theirsuccessors take office according to Article 29-4.)
Reserve Regular Kanji: None elected
Reserve Associate Kanji: None elected– Peter Langan
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Boxer Muhammad Ali wowed the Club with his antics on June 18, 1976.
He and pro wrestler Antonio Inoki appeared at a professional luncheon
after a “weighing in” session for the “Bout of the Century” to be held aweek later. Here, Ali playfully chokes FCCJ President Al Cullison (NewYork Journal of Commerce) who is attempting to hand an honorary
membership card to Inoki while Ali’s manager looks on. Laughing to
the left is Bill Shinn (Sisa News Agency). Partially visible next to Inoki
is his interpreter and long-time Club member, Ichiro “Ken” Urushibara.
The death of Ali on June 3, after many years of fighting Parkinson’s
disease, brought back memories for people all over the world,
including long-time Members of the Club. The “Bout of theCentury” ended up being the “rip off of the century” wrote thenMember and sports-writer Andy Adams (Sumo World) in a scathing
review in the Japan Times. In his words: “Probably never in thehistory of sports has there been such a big buildup to such a big
letdown as in this much-publicized, $10-million contest between
the world’s best boxer and one of the world’s top pro wrestlers.”
Ali and Inoki were born within a year of each other and bothunderwent name changes. Muhammad Ali was born Cassius
Marcellus Clay Jr. on Jan. 17, 1942 and Antonio Inoki was born Kanji
Inoki on Feb. 20, 1943. After their bout, they became good friends,
and perhaps as a result of that friendship, Inoki converted toIslam in 1990. He took the same first name to become Muhammad
Hussain Inoki, although this was not made public until 2012.
It would take a book to describe Muhammad Ali’s
accomplishments. He was a major sports figure, including thewinning of an Olympic gold medal and becoming the first threetime heavyweight champion. He converted to Islam under the
influence of the African-American “Nation of Islam” and Malcolm
X. A staunch fighter against racism and for civil rights, Ali also
became a conscientious objector, refusing to be drafted for the
war in Vietnam, which resulted in losing his boxing license forseveral years.
Antonio Inoki, too, went on to further accomplishments, becoming
a lawmaker with an interest in international affairs. He negotiatedwith Saddam Hussein for the release of Japanese hostages in 1989
following his election to the Upper House of the Japanese Dietin the same year. Inoki was reelected to that body, the House ofCouncillors, in 2013 and remains active in Japanese politics.
A video of the FCCJ event can be viewed at this link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn9OsmF-L8g.

— Charles Pomeroy
5

FEATURE
REACHING THE SUMMIT

When theworld waswatching"…and, action" Justin McCurry readies himself
for a report from the international media center

NAJIB EL-KHASHWith two events of global interest –the G7 Ise-Shima Summit andU.S. President Barack Obama’s
Hiroshima visit – marking the earlysummer calendar, journalists
scrambled to get an inside perspective . . .
and some news.

WITNESS TO NOT MUCH OF ANYTHING

Sleep deprivation, mainlined caffeine and hours holed up
inside a cavernous, windowless hall subjected to the press
room’s version of auditory torture: the click-click of colleagues’ laptop keyboards. Welcome to the glamorous worldof the foreign correspondent.
I could have just as easily covered last month’s G7 summit in Ise-Shima from the comfort of my Tokyo apartment– although the bed and bookcases in the background would
have been difficult to explain to the presenters at France 24
TV, for whom I did several live reports.
Instead, I and many of the Tokyo press corps found ourselves ensconced in a sports stadium that, for a few days, doubled as the International Media Center for the G7 – an opportunity for Prime Minister Abe to establish his credentials as astatesman – and, more improbably, as something to help takeDavid Cameron’s mind off the looming Brexit referendum.
With security concerns inevitably trumping all else in theminds of the officials who plan these diplomatic jamborees,
any notion that journalists covering G7 summits are in any

I was on the first train bound for Hiroshima,
where later that day we would bear witness to a
moment of genuine historical significancesense in proximity to power is laughingly wide of the mark.
I was in Okinawa in 2000 for the Daily Yomiuri, and recall
daily contact with NGOs, government press officers and evenworld leaders who would drop by to talk to reporters, from
Vladimir Putin’s entreaty to take Kim Jong-il more seriously
to the delayed final presser by the summit host, Yoshiro Mori,
who, it was rumored, was struggling to master his brief.
The thousands of reporters who descended on Ise, a
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remote, and admittedly picturesque, corner of central Japan,
occupied hotel rooms located anywhere between 20 minutes
and more than an hour by road from the press center, itself amere 20 km from the G7 summiteers meeting on Ise’s answer
to Tracy Island.
So it was from some distance that we watched the day’s
events unfold on a big screen. It made for awkward viewing.
It was, for example, an odd choice to have each leader crossthe Ujibashi Bridge to Ise Jingu one by one rather than as agroup. And I’m sure I saw Abe mouth the words “mada, mada,”
as he waited – and waited – for Barack Obama to arrive.
It says a lot about the low expectations for the summit that
the Guardian’s two main news stories from the first day centered on political ructions thousands of miles away. Afterleading with European commission President Jean Claude
Juncker’s broadside against prominent Brexiter Boris Johnson – BoJo as British prime minister, he said, would be a “horror scenario” – we ended the day with Obama’s warning that
other G7 leaders were “rattled” by Donald Trump.
My time at the G7 press center was mercifully brief. After alate night of cold beers and kaki-pi with a fellow hack – whoshall remain nameless – I was on the first train out of Ise,bound for Hiroshima, where later that day we would bear witness to a moment of genuine historical significance.

– Justin McCurry, the Guardian, France 24 TV

THE 600-WORD HARRUMPH

Everyone has an inner grump. Mine came out when I emptied the contents of the two G7 press swag bags onto my desk
at the over-lit press center. Out tumbled rice crackers andPocky snacks, saké, a calligraphy brush, antibacterial towels,a pin badge for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, a piece of spinning
plastic promoting local tourism, pamphlets spinning the success of Abenomics and other essentials.
At that point, I began to doubt the wisdom of the editor
who sent me to Ise. Perhaps he should have chosen a more
responsible journalist, someone who would follow the finedetails of the policy discussions underway by the world’s

beautiful Ise because I was cooped up on the press center. So I
wrote a 600-word harrumph and took the train to Hiroshima.

– David McNeill, the Irish Times/Economist

THE OTHER SIDE

The main focus of attention of the Ise-Shima summit was
to be the global economy, which has been going throughanother phase of chronic uncertainty. In the end, the leaders of world’s powerful economies seemed to have agreed
to gloss over their disagreements by adopting a declaration that vaguely talks about advancing structural reforms
and expanding investment in areas conducive to economic
growth. The end result was a free interpretation of the statement, and many listeners felt a chill when Japan’s prime minister told the media at the concluding press conference thatthe three arrows of “Abenomics” were to be adopted as economic policies of other countries as well.
The other issues that the leaders discussed at the annual
summit were merely a sideshow; the seven countries hardly
have the desire or the means to solve any political and social
problems of a global nature. The Syrian crisis has shown veryclearly that in talks about peace and security, it is necessary
to ensure the participation of all parties capable of influencing the situation. Hence, talks leaving important players like
Russia and China out of the discussion are going to have minimum impact on the gathered parties’ hopes.
For me, there was a different dimension to covering theevent. There is usually little interest in the event among thealmost 200 nations that remain outside of G7; after all, theissues are chosen by the leaders of the selective super rich.
At the Ise-Shima summit, however, the Japanese prime minister invited the leaders of seven countries from the otherend of the great divide with the aim of reaching out to themwith the messages that the rich adopt in their discussions. It
was a gesture by the rich to reach the poor with assurancesthat their plights too are not forgotten. When Bangladesh
was chosen as one of the countries, the summit became an
important event for the country, at least from the media perspective. However, the outreach agenda, carefully arrangedby the host nation, dashed from the onset much of the hopefor a meaningful dialogue on issues considered crucial atboth ends.
The session had two
major items in the agenda, both with tacit political goals. “Quality Infrastructure Investment” isa notion floated by Japanand some other countries
to address the massive infrastructure need of Asian countries
in coming decades. As there are a number of emerging economies moving aggressively to get a share of that big pie, the value-added terminology has been designed to outmaneuver suchcountries with the message that “quality” can be ensured onlyby those few who have the proven capability of providing it.
The second major topic was “Open and Stable Seas,” andthe political connotation here seems more direct. As six ofthe seven outreach countries were representatives from theAsia-Pacific region, the message of an open and stable sea
route was already quite clear. Many of these countries feel a
bit uneasy over the issue, in a region where hostility on theseas is becoming a matter of great concern with the increasing involvement of big players.
The hope of the host nation to forge a greater alliance using
the G7 as a pretext was not seen as casual by some of the partici-

If the aim of G7 summits is to promote tourism
we’d have been better visiting when there wasn’t a cop
every 50 yards guarding ditches and empty roads
most powerful leaders. Instead, all I could think about for the
few painful hours I sat in the center was the appalling wasteof the whole exercise.
G7 meetings began in the 1970s as an attempt to put
together a collective response to the oil shock. Today, they
are criticized as bloated talking shops with little to show for
the time and money spent on them. The total budget for the
Ise-Shima summit was reportedly about ¥60 billion, swelledby the cost of sending over 20,000 police officers to protect
seven people.
The leaders buffet, including produce from across Japan,
was a “meaningful opportunity to promote the appeal ofJapan’s food culture to the world,” said MOFA. At least that’s
honest. But if the aim of G7 summits is to promote tourism
we’d have been better visiting when there wasn’t a cop every
50 yards guarding ditches and empty roads. I saw little of
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7

FEATURE
REACHING THE SUMMIT
pants and hence they felt the need to remain cautious. This wasreflected clearly in the position that Bangladesh took regarding
both main points of the outreach agenda. In an exclusive interview given to NHK after the outreach meeting, Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina was candid and wise enough to suggest that it
was up to the countries directly involved in the disputes to finda resolution through negotiations. She also made it clear that
her country would actively accept financing from the new China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Telling points,
but unfortunately overlooked by the Western media who werefocusing exclusively on the maneuvers of the major players.

– Monzurul Huq, Protham Alo

When it comes to covering G7 summit meetings of politicalleaders, things are definitely not what they used to be. My
first such assignment was the Venice Summit of 1980 andthe contrast between that and the recent event in Japan’s Ise
Shima could hardly be greater.
One bright day 36 years ago I was conveyed from Venice
Airport in an elegant water taxi across the harbor to a citythat looked like a vast Canaletto canvas set out against themorning sky. It was an almost magical moment.
My rather charming (if somewhat aging) hotel was but ashort vaporetto ride away from the summit venue, on the
nearby Lido, and I was able to quickly check in my baggage
before repairing with colleagues to Harry’s Bar to contemplate the delights of the coming days over vino rosso.
And, delightful it proved to be, with generous amounts
excellent food and wine and unending cups of espresso coffee
supplied by lovely Venetian ladies who seemed equally delighted to extend warm hospitality to so many overseas journalists.
There was an extreme informality about the proceedings
compared with the ultra-heavy security precautions that
reduce summit meetings nowadays to something rather lessthan “close encounters” between leaders and the media. I
recall ambling into a leaders’ press conference at the Venice Summit with scarcely a cursory glance from a security
guard and sitting down to await the arrival of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and their counterparts from Canada,
Japan, Germany, France and Italy. We were seated less than astone’s throw (I suppose one would think now in term’s of abomb’s throw) away from those eminent personages and it all
seemed very friendly and informal.
This year, I arrived with an FCCJ colleague, Khaldon Azhari,
via a local train at a small station seemingly in the middle ofnowhere except that it was reasonably close to the International Media Center a temporarily converted sports stadium)close to the summit venue.
We went through the process of registering, having to pro-JUSTIN McCURRYNOT WHAT THEY USED TO BE

Rooms with a view The scene from a hotel (above), a mere 45 minutesby bus from the media centre, where journalists watch the arrival of G7
leaders on a big screen (right).

were liberal supplies of free food and coffee for the newsmen
and women, but “the Venice of Japan” it was not.
The summit events, including the leaders’ visit to Ise Shrine(a controversial issue, seen to involve mixing “church” withstate) were brought to us by TV monitors, with the exception ofbrief access given to pool photographers and one peek inside a
Shinzo Abe-chaired meeting by a small band of reporters who
were treated only to a short statement. As G7 summits go, it
was an adequate if hardly memorable experience.
More memorable, perhaps, was Barack Obama’s historic
visit to Hiroshima, which most of us ended up watching on
the special monitors. Unusually, for normally rowdy newsmen, his speech was watched with an almost reverent silence.
Perhaps we ourselves bear some responsibility for turningthese summits from what began as a “fireside chat” into a
media circus. The original G6 summit (Canada was not among
the members then) was held in 1975 when French President
Giscard d’Estaing invited them for an informal gathering
at the chateau of Rambouillet, near Paris. Then the media
demanded access to the leaders and they got it - thousands ofthem - and the “fireside” became rather overcrowded.

– Anthony Rowley, Singapore Business Times

OMOTENASHI OVERLOAD

The Ise-Shima G7 summit was pretty much a bust newswise.
But it did serve as a chance to promote the Japan brand to
the world – rather clumsily, as it turned out. Media types whocovered the summit received a basket of goodies
that included desiccated oshibori hand towels that
expand when moistened, a box of Pocky, a makeup
brush, and two rather nice ceramic saké cups. The
latter were part of a boxed gift set that included arather mediocre nihonshu.
What caught the attention of cynical hacks,
though, was the message printed on the box: “Let’s
drink! Get drunk!” A somewhat unnecessary exhortation forbibulous ink-stained wretches – and just slightly unsubtle.
But a sign placed in the part of the International Media
Center where free snacks and drinks were provided was thebest example of how good intentions can be lost in translation. It urged hungry media folk to “Please follow the Japanese customs before and after every meal,” and then told the“Let's drink! Get drunk!”
A somewhat unnecessary exhortation –and just slightly unsubtle.
duce emails confirming accreditation, showing passports,
being photographed, collecting badges and all the things thatmake summit attendance nowadays about as delightful as avisit to the dentist.
Inside were two vast auditoriums that served as press
rooms, packed with several thousand journalists, mainly
from Japan, but with a strong overseas contingent. There
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unwashed gaijin how to use an oshibori and to say “itadakimasu” and “gochisosama” at the appropriate junctures. No
mention as to whether slurping noodles, belching or making
origami with chopstick covers is kosher.
How do such silly linguistic faux pas keep making it throughthe quality filter is unclear. It’s possible someone might have
known better, but they didn’t want their superior or an allegedly more knowledgeable person to lose face.
This kind of ometenashi hospitality makes me want to havea drink. . . .

– Steve McClure, NHK WorldDESPERATE FOR NEWSCovering big news events in Japan can sometimes be an exercise in meta-journalism. Never is this more true than at a big
news event that produces no big news.
Organizers of the G7 Ise-Shima Summit gathered over 2,000
reporters, photographers and assorted TV types in a cavernous
media center in rural Mie Prefecture at the end of May.
Then not a lot happened.
Sure, there were the exhibitions of delicate calligraphy, thedemonstrations of weird personal mobility vehicles for which
no one has yet found a use, and the displays of little spacebound robots intended to showcase Japanese tech at its best.
But Barack Obama and pals were a long way away in aswanky-looking hotel. And they weren’t really talking about
anything. Still, we’ve all got words to file or airtime to fill, so
our colleagues in the Japanese media turned to one of theirfavorite stand-by subjects: what do the foreigners think?
“What are your expectations of the G7 Ise-Shima Summit?”
Fairly low.
“What are you impressions of the G7 Ise-Shima Summit?” I
expect they’ll be talking about the economy.
“What do you think about Mie Prefecture?” Not seen muchapart from the media center.
“How is the food? What is the most delicious?” I’ve had the pot
noodles. The buffet is usually finished by the time I get there.
As a relatively early arriver at the venue – I was in the AFP
booth first thing on the morning of May 25 – I was ripe forthe picking. Five minutes after I sat down, the first reporter
stuck his head around the door. And I committed a rookie
error – I answered in Japanese.
The news spread like wildfire.
“There’s one in there. He’s not very good and barely intelligible, but he’ll do,” I imagined them whispering to each other.
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JULY 2016

For the next three-quarters of an hour, a steady stream ofjournalists piled through the door to hear my expectations
and my impressions. My 15 minutes of fame had begun inearnest, with appearances, I’m told, on five separate TV networks and I-don’t-know-how-many newspapers.
My 8-year-old son rang me excitedly to tell me he had seen
me on the telly. No idea what I was talking about – “What is
kokusai keizai?” – but bursting with pride and ready to boast
to all his schoolfriends.
In between writing about warnings over Brexit, the European migrant crisis and the obligatory piece on Justin “TheHunk” Trudeau, I kept up a steady stream of impromptu
media appearances over the following days. One interview
really went very badly – my questioner’s opening gambit wassome drivel about how Japan is a model for global tolerance
and diversity because people celebrate Shinto festivals, Buddhist ceremonies and (wait for it . . .) Christmas.
He got short shrift. But mostly I learned to Give Them What
They Want. Especially the local TV channels trying desperately to puff up the tourist industry.
So what did I think about Mie? Oh, it’s wonderful. And the
food? Oishiiiiiiiii!

– Huw Griffith, Deputy head of desk, Asia-Pacific,
AFP (formerly deputy bureau chief, Tokyo)

MAN ON THE STREETIn going to Hiroshima, Mari Yamamoto and I were hoping to
get a sense of how the locals felt about the visit – and Obama
and Abe. The first people we spoke to were a couple, a Hiroshima resident and his wife who had survived the bombing.
They were great. The police security was immense and I
noticed one older man arguing and laughing with some officers, insisting on crossing the road on his bicycle. He eventually waved them aside and crossed over. We flagged him down
and he took our business card with some interest. We weren't
talking for long before it became apparent that he used to bea yakuza (I can’t help running into them) – and was on his
way to the dentist. He had been a member of the Yamaguchigumi and had wound up living in Hiroshima after gettingout of prison there. He insisted that he was now straight. He
had great respect for Obama, but when asked about Abe he
was hilariously critical. Luckily, my knowledge of Japanesefolklore enabled me to translate his description of the prime
minister as an “irrelevant shape-shifting badger-dog.”– Jake Adelstein, the Daily Beast ❶9

SERIESPROFILE

Lucy Alexander
by TYLER ROTHMAR

L

fierce territoriality often found among journalists. “He’s been
extremely helpful, and he is a real model, I think, of what aforeign correspondent ought to be. Very measured, very analytical, he never resorts to stereotype. So I learn a lot by reading his work,” she says.
Alexander accepts that Japanese fluency isn’t in the cards
and uses interpreters where needed. In her coverage, which
has included the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster and ahost of business and hard-news stories, she aims to sketch
in some of the unknowns surrounding“a country that’s still a bit of a mysteryto most people in the West.” In somecases, such as the recent story abouta boy who went missing in Hokkaido,
she’s left somewhat at odds with what
her editors back home, and possibly her
readers, want to hear. The 7-year-old
boy’s parents left him by a roadside in
the mountains as punishment for bad
behavior, only to find him gone when
they returned shortly thereafter. He wasfound six days later, unharmed, having
travelled through woodlands known tohost bears.
“I was covering it that week, and [theTimes UK editors] were crazy about the story. They were like,“So, what does this tell us about the Japanese psyche? About
Japanese parenting? Is this a normal thing that everybody doesin Japan?” Of course that kind of anthropological and sociological analysis is interesting, but you have to tread carefully
not to fall into a stereotypical portrayal. So while I want tofight against portraying Japan as this mad country, it has to beacknowledged that there are aspectsof Japanese culture that remain alienin the West, and I think denying that
isn’t actually very helpful.”
Alexander has written several articles for the Wall Street Journal andthe Financial Times in the UK about
Japan’s disposable houses, and would
like to write more about the nation’s
economy and working women. She
worries, though, about journalism’srole amid a crumbling business modeland a public that seems content withfree content cobbled together by
replacements for experts the industry
can now ill afford.
Like many journalists, she’s taken
on corporate jobs, but is always cognizant of the change in viewpoint.
“Broadly speaking, journalists willdrift into writing for clients,” shesays, “because they’re not being paid
to write critical articles about society,and that’s a shame, because it means
corporations and governments get all
Tyler Rothmar is a Tokyo-based writer and editor.
the power and are unopposed.” ❶ucy Alexander is a freelance journalist who writes tobring Japan just a little bit closer to readers in the West.
She was born to a Scottish mother and an English
father in Stirling, Scotland, and moved to St. Andrews, where
she grew up the eldest of three. “I should clarify that I consider myself Scottish,” she says. “But that’s not how I was perceived at school.”
She applied to Scottish universities with friends but settled on Oxford, where she read English literature in the academic sense, beginning with Beowulf
in Anglo-Saxon and ending with Modernists such as James Joyce.
The experience was good, but three
years of scholastic exertion left her“totally sick of writing. I wanted toearn money and not have to write
long essays.” She took a job in London
with the PR firm Freud Communications, discovering quickly that “beinga PR person, a sales-y kind of person,
was totally against my character. I was
crap at bullshitting.”
Overworked and underpaid, Alexander decided to switch horses atfull canter, using her vacation time to
do a stint of work experience at the Times in 2001. Soon she
was working part-time for its “Diary” gossip column, complimented by work in a pub, and by 2003 she had joined theTimes’ Saturday magazine, doing a mix of commissioning,
researching and writing. “But I wasn’t doing enough,” sheremembers. “This was the days when newspapers had quite
a lot of staff.”
Alexander then worked in both thefeatures and properties sections of
the broadsheet, with occasional contributions to the news and businesspages. Property is “a total nationalobsession,” she says. “I covered crazyluxury London properties . . . but also
government housing schemes andhow to get first-time buyers onto theproperty ladder. The whole spectrum.”
By 2012 she had two young children
and was married to a lawyer who’dbeen offered a position in Japan.
She was eager to sample life outside
the UK, and although Japan wasn’t at
the top of the list, the family resettled
in Tokyo.

ANDREW POTHECARY“It has to beacknowledged that
there are aspectsof Japanese culturethat remain alien in
the West, and I thinkdenying that isn’t
actually very helpful.”

10

JULY 2016

FCCJ

FREED FROM THE GRIND of a staff
position, Alexander began to string
for the Times, covering news and business stories in Japan and Asia whenever bureau chief Richard Lloyd Parrywas elsewhere on assignment. The
two have developed a symbiotic relationship, exactly the opposite of theFCCJJULY 201611

FEATURE
SOCIAL ISSUES
were caring for a baby who might not become theirs andthey were having to keep cool, despite being on an emotional roller-coaster.
I learned that adoption of children unrelated to you byblood was rare in Japan, but it did exist. The woman’s advice
was that I build personal connections with people involvedin childcare. I should let them get to know and trust me, andstay patient and open to the process.
I had all that in mind when I visited my local ward officelooking for advice on local adoption agencies. They had nosuch list, but on the desk was a pamphlet about a child-fostering seminar that was taking place the very next day. Whenthey saw that I was curious, the staff urged me to go along.
That was in 2008. Now it’s a glorious May morning in 2016.
As I write this, my foster sons, two brothers a year apart in age,are indulging in their favorite Sunday morning pastime: a long
lie-in. I gaze at their sleeping faces – as angelic to me today as
they were when they first turned “My Home” into “Our Home.”

CAROLINE PARSONSNOW 12 AND 13, they have lived in a children’s home since they
were 2 and 3, when their birth parents experienced intractable difficulties that made them unable to care for the toddlers. Altogether, we spend about two to three months of theyear together, including regular weekends and the school
holidays. We are a happy trio and, as I believe any parent does,
I organize my life around them.
I’m not suggesting this is an easy journey. It has challenged
me to the core every step of the way. Emotionally (the younger
brother could be enormously challenging at the beginning),

My two (fo ster) sonsA volunteer parent experiences the joys and struggles of
expanding children’s horizons and building a family.
by CAROLINE PARSONSO

ne photo is of a 5-year-old boy, beyond cute in a blue
foreign photographer while putting out feelers to see if there
plastic rain jacket, singing at a festival in his chilwere children who might want what I had to offer: a heart
dren’s home. Another captures the big gentle eyes ofvery ready to love a child.
his younger brother out on a country walk with me, wearing
Divorce, single parenthood, adoption, step-parents, stepthe orange dinosaur T-shirt I had just given him. They are
siblings and half-siblings. I had experienced all of this while
prize possessions, some of the first pictures I ever took of mygrowing up in the 1960s and ’70s in the UK, and it was all
foster sons.
perfectly normal. So even though my dream of starting myEight years ago I started to foster these two Japanese chilown family was beginning to look seriously challenged by thedren, turning me overnight into a mother – a foster one,
realities of aging, I knew there were many kinds of families
anyway. Having children was something I’d always assumed
and refused to believe that I could not, should not or would
I would do when it felt right. But my Japanese husband andnot have children. I did recognize, however, that giving birthI, both professional photographers, prioritized work, andto the mother I felt strongly growing inside me might require
watched as our thirties passed into our forties. We had foura fair bit of flexible thinking.
lovely cats but no children of our own.
Eventually I did feel ready. I had hopes that we could grow
AN AMERICAN FRIEND OF a friend in Tokyo was in the proour family, even if we had to help nature along. But my huscess of adopting a Japanese baby. We’d never met, but sheband was more determined than ever to live from his art withgenerously chatted to me on the phone between bottleno day job and feared the resentment that he might feel withfeeds. She knew how I felt and I could feel for her too as she
the demands of a larger family. So we made the hard decision
described being on tenterhooks – for the next six months,
to support each other’s dreams
the teenage birth mother ofCaroline Parsons is a retired photojournalist.
– and divorced. He moved tothe infant in her arms had the
For more on the foster parent experience, visit her website,
Europe. I chose to stay in Japan,
right to change her mind atfriendsoftheboys.org
juggling the fortunes of life as aany time. She and her husband

12

JULY 2016

FCCJ

dren growing up in an institution into our homes for weekends
and/or the holidays. There are only a few of us doing this andmost only take the children for a few days of the year. Most foster parents are Japanese married couples, but the law does not
stipulate nationality or marital status and I was accepted into
the system, the only foreigner doing this in my area.
If the boys were to live with me full time, which is theoretically possible, I would receive much more training than
I did. And I would have full financial support from the childwelfare authorities. Last year we discussed this, but thestaff involved in the decision were worried that if things
went wrong untold damage would be done to our relationship. They have witnessed “families” being crushed under
the strain of suddenly living together full time, and asked
me to continue as I have been.
One big problem is that there is little financial support inthis category. “Volunteer Family” foster parents receive asmall daily allowance when the children visit, but it does notcover much more than the cost of transport to and from thechildren’s home. For the eight years I have been fostering theboys, I have borne the lion’s share of the expenses myself,with help from my family in the UK and friends.
THE BOYS WANT TO come and stay as often as possible andof course I want that too. The more time we spend together,
the more we truly do feel like family. But as they’ve grown, so
have all the costs – food, transport, books and entrance tickets if we go out somewhere. As I currently earn only a modest
salary as a children’s teacher, I am now looking for grants andOnly about 15 percent find homes with foster
families and only a tiny number get adopted.
The majority live their whole childhood in institutions.
physically, financially, it has taken all I’ve got and more. I still
approach things a day at a time and just continue to pray that
we will all work out fine. I am heartened that the more time
passes, the more closely and naturally we three seem to havebonded in an amazing, organic kind of process.
The number of children taken into care in Japan is increasing every year: there are currently over 36,000 such children
nationwide. In the majority of cases, this is due to parental
abuse or neglect. Economic hardship, of course, is a big factor.
Only about 15 percent of these children find homes with
foster families and only a tiny number get adopted. The
majority live their whole childhood in institutions. That figure is very different from the figures in Western countries.
In the UK, some 75 percent of “looked-after children” are in
foster care and in Australia the figure is over 90 percent.
Many studies have been done showing the negative effects
of growing up in institutions, how many children will later
have difficulty integrating into society as adults. Two years
ago, the international NGO Human Rights Watch put out adamning report titled “Without Dreams,” criticizing Japan forbeing predisposed to institutionalizing children rather thanplacing them in adoption or foster care. The report claimed
these children were being deprived of the family-based carethat is so important for their development and wellbeing. It
urged Japan to be “consistent with its international legal obligations” and to “prioritize the best interests of the child” byphasing out institutions.
I AM A “VOLUNTEER Family” foster parent. Our role is to givethe children an experience of life in a family, so we take chilFCCJJULY 2016

other financial assistance to enable me to support the boys
through university.
Fostering a child in the UK would have been an entirely different experience since the system there is far more developed, with a lot of training and financial support. But Japan iswhere I live so this has been my sole experience with fostering.
I have been warmly welcomed by everyone I have worked
with – the caseworkers, the psychiatrists (my foster sons areeach assigned one and meet with them at regular intervals),the coordinators, the special-needs teachers at school. The
institution’s teachers are very dedicated, and I know that if
I run into trouble when the boys are with me, I can call andask for help.
Noriko Yamauchi, who is in charge of coordinating with
foster parents at the Yokosuka child consultation center, says
the government recognizes the problems with institutions,and is working to expand the fostering system. But the target
is far from ambitious, calling for only 30 percent of children
in care to be placed with foster parents by 2030. While notphasing out institutions, Yamauchi said, they are working toreform them, making them closer to a family environment:group homes in which four or five children live with a maleand female teacher.
My foster sons have woken up from their lie-in. I told them
what I was writing and asked if they had anything to say. The
older one said: “Well, when I come here, I have a proper parent and I can enjoy my life because of that.” “I’ve lived in achildren’s home since I was little, so I’m used to it,” said his
younger brother. “But when I come here, I feel free.”And our family journey continues. ❶13

MAKING NEWS

Rescue squad
by LUCY BIRMINGHAM

IT WAS A JOURNALIST’S nightmare:Japan’s biggest story of the decadeand no fixers or interpreters available.
This was a frequent scenario during
the March 2011 disaster, testing locally
based foreign journalists and many fromabroad, desperate to find assistance.
But it’s something that may nothappen again. November 2015 saw thelaunch of the Japan Fixers & Journalists
Network (JFJN), now offering a teamof seven fixers concentrating on
Fukushima and Tohoku issues. Most
double as multilingual interpreters.

Makiko Segawa fixed and interpreted for
Dominic Nahr (TIME), here photographing
Terumi, who attempted suicide at her
temporary home in Iwaki.
JFJN was co-founded by Makiko
Segawa and Takaho Murakami, aveteran freelance editor, journalist andfixer for international and domestic
news-related events. “Fukushimabrought us together,” says Segawa, now
chief of the network.
Soon after the nuclear accident,
Murakami, along with other Japanese
freelance journalists, had founded
another organization, the Free Press
Association of Japan, in response
to self-censorship by major media
outlets. “They wanted the public to get
all the information on Fukushima, notjust information monopolized by the
Lucy Birmingham is a long-time Tokyo-basedjournalist, scriptwriter, author and former
president of the FCCJ.
14

kisha clubs,” says Segawa.
Segawa joined the Free Press afterfacing obstacles in her own reporting on
the accident. “Besides Shukan Kinyobi
or other weekly magazines and tabloids,
I couldn’t find any place that would
publish the truth about Fukushima.”
She later turned to Reporters Without
Borders and in 2012 became their Japancorrespondent covering issues such as
freedom of the press, nuclear-related
topics and the controversial State
Secrecy Law enacted in 2014.
LAST YEAR, SHE AND Murakami decided
to organize a group of fixers who could
assist foreign journalists leading up
to the fifth anniversary of the disaster.
It was the start of JFJN. “We brought
together many friends working as fixers,
including those living in the Fukushimaregion,” she says. “The official members
are posted on the site, but we’ve also
got ‘underground’ investigative
journalists who we’re collaboratingwith.” For the 5th year anniversary
coverage, the network assisted about
10 foreign journalists fromsuch countries as Singapore,
Korea and Australia.
Network members
include people liketrilingual (Japanese, English
Norwegian) 26-year-old
David Mori. He and his
parents live in the town ofIwaki, which lies just outside
the initial 40-kilometer
evacuation zone set up
immediately after the
Fukushima Daiichi plant
explosions. They chose not toevacuate, despite government warnings.
David also assists with the Christian
non-profit center set up by his father
in 2012 to aid the locals and help
revitalize the area. David’s work withthe center includes guiding Japaneseand overseas visitors. “David also
works part-time at a convenience store
within the 20-kilometer exclusionzone,” says Segawa. “He’s helping out
the owner as no one wants to work
there because of radiation concerns.”
With his many local contacts,
disaster experience and multilingual
skills, he has been an ideal fixer for
JFJN, she says. “If a journalist needs,
for instance, to talk with someone who
tried to commit suicide or is struggling
with divorce, David has the ability tofind that person.”
Other JFJN fixers include Elena
Nakai from Kiev, Ukraine. Based inTokyo, she has extensive experience as
an interpreter and translator (English,

The U.S. Republican presidential nominee,
as reported on by Japan’s lively tabloids.

Japanese, Ukrainian and other Slavic
languages) for nuclear conferences
and a wide variety of Japanese andinternational media.
Fixer Yukiko Miyagoshi is a columnist
who has written about her experiencesin Chernobyl. From the age of 17 she
became well known as a Japanese media
figure for her visits to the destroyed
nuclear plant and her human rights
activism. Fluent in Russian, she
graduated from the Moscow State
University, and now specializes in both
Chernobyl and Fukushima issues.
IN 2013, MIYAGOSHI and Segawa
visited a hospital in Kiev where they
met children of the Chernobyl plant
workers, the second generation bornafter the accident. Many have heartdisease and leukemia. “The disasterhas been forgotten,” says Segawa, “butthe effects of it are still present.”
Segawa and co-founder Murakami
fear that Fukushima will face the samedecrease in interest as time goes on.
“We keep hearing how much the local
Tohoku people want the foreign media
to continue coming to the region andcovering the many stories there,” says
Murakami. “The Japanese people don’t
trust the Japanese media, especiallyafter 3/11. They know the foreign
media has a much bigger impact. Theirstories can result in outside pressurethat changes things.”
The two are now looking ahead, andreadying to organize a strong team of
fixers in time for the 2019 Rugby World
Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics andParalympics. They’re hoping that someof the competitions will be held in thetsunami and quake-hit areas and help
revitalize the Tohoku region.
They’re also looking toward
expanding their numbers. “We’relooking for candidates with foreign
language ability, translation andinterpreting skills, and ideally somejournalism experience,” Murakami says.
One of their ongoing challenges,
however, is explaining to the Japanesethe meaning of “fixer.” “It has a bad
connotation – meaning someone
influencing things behind the scenes,”
says Murakami. “Like a kuromaku(black curtain).” They sometimes use
the term “news coordinator” to bridge
the communication gap.
Segawa and Murakami admit that
their fixing work is more about passion
than pay. “We’re not in it for themoney,” says Segawa. “It’s importantand enjoyable work. And it’s so nice that
we can help bridge the gap between theJapanese and foreign media.” ❶JULY 2016

FCCJ

Trump’d!
by MARK SCHREIBER
Shukan Diamond (April 9) showed the “hidden face” of Trump, who it
described as “the worst candidate in history.” (And also gave the reasons
why “strongest candidate in history,” Hillary Clinton, is so disliked.)
Shukan Post (April 22) raised 10 “surprising points” that Donald Trump
has in common with the late Kakuei Tanaka. (Item 4: “His familiar andgenerous style was able to capture the people’s hearts”.)
Nikkan Gendai (May 19) noted common points that Trump and Shinzo Abeappear to share with Adolf Hitler.
Shukan Bunshun (May 26), in which columnist Isao Iijima wrote: “Even if
Trump is elected, the Japan-U.S. alliance will be daijobu.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAKIKO SEGAWA

A group of fixers and journalists
have joined forces to ensurethat news from disaster-ravaged
Tohoku will continue.

PRESIDENTIAL MATERIAL

Shukan Shincho (May 26), in which author of Eternal Zero fame and former
NHK director Naoki Hyakuta suggested that through Trump’s election,
Hyakuta’s allegorical fantasy novel published earlier this year, Kaeru no
Rakuen (“The Paradise of Frogs”) – about two idealistic frogs named
Socrates and Robert who travel to the peaceful and prosperous countryof “Napaaju,” where its amphibian inhabitants are obliged to follow a setof strange decrees – will come to be viewed as a “prophetic work.”
Friday (May 27) claimed that in anticipation of Trump being electedpresident, Abe’s office has been assembling “personal data,” on Trump,which include acts of domestic violence and the rape of his former wife.
WiLL (July) featured Hideaki Kase’s commentary on the Trump
phenomenon – described as “already shocked speechless.”
Shukan Jitsuwa (June 9) predicted that if Hillary Clinton defeats Trump in
November, the “secret file” regarding the “aliens” supposedly found in
Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 will finally be made public.
Shukan Gendai (June 11) envisaged the scenario for Trump’s assassination,
to take place at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on
July 18.
Sapio (July) contributor Nobuhiko Ochiai wrote that the “Fall of America”
mantra being spun by Trump can trace its beginnings to events that
occurred in 1968, such as the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in
Los Angeles.
Sunday Mainichi (June 12): “This is what’s really behind the popularity of
Trump, the king of bluster.” (Sub-head: “What on earth is happening in
America?”)Asahi Geino (June 16) looked back at Trump’s supposed interest inromancing the late Princess Diana following her divorce, and thenpredicted, “Under ‘President Trump,’ the heretofore Japan-U.S.
relationship will undergo extreme changes of the most outrageous kind!”
Yukan Fuji (June 10) Thursday columnist Tony “Texas Oyaji” Marano
denounced the anti-Trump demonstrators at a rally in San Jose, California
as being boryokuteki chimpira (violent punks).
– Mark Schreiber
FCCJ

JULY 201615

CLUB NEWSCLUB NEWSA VISIT TO ICHIRO’S MALT

Discount LexisNexis
Subscriptions
for FCCJ Members
The FCCJ is pleased to offer
members a substantial discount on
subscriptions to LexisNexis’ news
database service, Nexis.com

Above, Malt whisky mash is mixed
in giant Japanese oak tubs: left,
journalists Martin Fritz (ORF) leftand Daniel Eskenazi (right) interview
president and founder Ichiro Akuto.
Japanese whiskies now rank among the best – and most expensive – in the world,and one brand that is creating lots of interest comes from Chichibu, in western
Saitama Prefecture.
In a distillery operated by the Venture Whisky Company, Ichiro Akuto is
producing single malt whiskies – under the brand name Ichiro’s Malt – that arebecoming famous around the globe.
The Special Projects Committee arranged a visit to the distillery on June 2,that included observation of the distilling process, blending and storage. The
company has also built a cooperage, or barrel-making workshop, where various
woods are used for making barrels to help create new and distinctive whisky
blends. Ichiro Akuto, president and founder, greeted the guests.
While the company currently imports most of the malted barley, whichis essential to whisky making, it plans to increase use of barley grown in the
Chichibu region by local farmers.
— Geoff Tudor

FCCJ EXHIBITION

On the water: photographs by Rai Shizuno“WATER IS EVERYTHING, IT is where it all starts”
Water is the theme of this exhibition. It’s the origin of all that exists in the world thatstretches beneath our feet. Water is never still and is forever changing form.
The exhibition features various expressions of water and nature along with the richindividuality of human life and the diversity of cultures. It shows beautiful moments
and unalterable truths happening in the world, and the pulse of the Earth where natureand mankind coexist. ❶Rai Shizuno’s work appears inmagazines and advertisements.
He planned and photographed
a trip to Rokkasho nuclear
waste reprocessing plant,
shot a documentary on the
French equestrian theater,
Zingaro, and collaborated
with the contemporary artist
Takashi Kuribayashi on thetheme of “Borders.”

16

JULY 2016

FCCJ

JOIN THE FILM COMMITTEE . . .
. . . on Wednesday, July 30 at 7:00 pm forone of the most powerful character studies inrecent memory, Ken and Kazu.
The extraordinarily beautiful, brutal andmoving first feature by Hiroshi Shoji, it won
the Best Picture Award in the Japanese
Cinema Splash section at the 2015 Tokyo
Film Festival, as well as international acclaim
for its breathtaking cinematography, thebravura acting chemistry of its two leads andthe Shakespearean dimensions of its tragic
tale. Up-and-coming stars Shinsuke Kato and
Katsuya Maiguma are the titular characters,
small-time meth dealers who are in it only forthe money: Ken needs it to start a new life
with his pregnant girlfriend, and Kazu needs it
so he can put his mother into a care home. Increasingly intense and thrillingas it hurtles inexorably to its fateful climax, Ken and Kazu is anchored by
performances of heartbreaking tenderness and explosive anger. The writerdirector and his two stars will be on hand for the Q&A. (Japan, 2015;
98 minutes; Japanese with English subtitles.)		
– Karen Severns

FCCJ

JULY 2016

The Members-only deal
allows for flat-rate access at¥7,900 per month – offering
big savings on a service that
normally costs ¥126,000 per month

The service will be billed by theClub. The FCCJ benefits from all
subscriptions sold under thisarrangement.
Nexis provides access to news andinformation from more than 34,000
sources, including Kyodo News, Jiji,
Yonhap, Xinhua, AP, Reuters, AFP,
all major world newspapers andspecialist news sources. Also
included is a database of U.S. andinternational company information,
biographical databases, country
profiles and a U.S. legal database.

For those already in on the secret,the application form is available
on the FCCJ website or from the
19F Club office.

17

CLUB NEWSHEARD AT THE CLUB“We focused on to trying to push the opposition parties
to join forces, given the biased nature of the Upper House
electoral system. Recently we were able to achieve asingle joint candidacy fromthe opposition camp in all
32 single member districts.
This is something that,
historically, has never
happened before.”
Koichi Nakano of the Civil Alliancefor Peace and Constitutionalism,speaking at the Club on June 17,
on the opposition coalition for theupcoming Upper House election

New
Members

REGULAR MEMBERTOSHIHIKO KASAHARA is a senior staff writer and member of the Article Review Committee at the Mainichi Shimbun.
He was born in Fukui Prefecture, and studied Indonesian affairs at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. After
graduation, he began his career as a journalist at the Mainichi. After 10 years at a few local bureaus he was assigned to
the Foreign News Department at the Tokyo head office. He was assigned to London twice and once to Washington
D.C. In London, he covered UK politics, diplomacy and more, as well as the wars in Kosovo and Afghanistan. His book,titled Fushigina Igirisu (“Mysterious UK”), was published by Kodansha last May. He returned to Tokyo in 2012 and worked
as op-ed editor for two years prior to his present assignment. His favorite pastime is playing golf.
PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALISTASSOCIATE MEMBER
Kathryn Wortley, Custom Media K.K.

New in the
Library

18

Shueisha kokugo jiten,
3rd ed.
Kenji Morioka andothers (ed.)
Shueisha
Gift from Shueisha

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Norikiyo Imanishi, Fuji Incorporated
Shohei Kawasaki, Fujifilm Corporation
Toko Koyanagi, HABA Laboratories

East Asian Strategic
Review 2016
The National Institute for
Defense Studies
The Japan Times
Gift from The Japan
Times, Ltd.

Islam in Indonesia: thecontest for society, ideas
and values
Carool Kersten
Oxford University Press

Hideki Tanaka, Dow Jones Japan
Hiroyuki Miyoshi, Ajinomoto Co., Inc.
Kumiko Yazaki, Ajinomoto Co., Inc.

Off center: power andculture relations between
Japan and the UnitedStates
Masao Miyoshi
Harvard University Press

Tensai
Shintaro Ishihara
Gentosha

JULY 2016

FCCJ