The magazine of The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan

The
Long
Road
ForwardDec. 2018 Vol. 50 No. 12 ¥400

(Belt &)

Pio d’Emilia travels China’s newtranscontinental Silk (Rail) Road

Open season
Increasing violenceagainst journalists

Member profile
Political asylum andbusiness successSuicide or murder?
The curious death of a
Reuters reporterIn this issueVol. 50, Number 12

December 2018

contact the editors

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

ALBERT SIEGELFrom the President by Abigail Leonard

THE FCCJ ONLINE: www.fccj.or.jp

4William Horsley, p4

Freedom of the Press news: In the line of fireby David McNeill
From the archives: The pacifist Prime Ministerby Charles Pomeroy

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5

FEATURES
MEMBER EVENTSPRESS CONFERENCE VIDEOS

Fast and Forward: China’s new silk (rail) roadby Pio d’Emilla
Death in Kudan
by Mark Schreiber
CLUB CALENDARCLUB INFORMATION

610PROFILE

Mehdi Bassiri
by Gavin Blair

12

COLUMNS

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Making every pitch countby Tim Herrera
Last month in photosby photographer members

1416CLUB NEWSNo. 1 SHIMBUN ONLINEFREEDOM OF THE PRESS INFO

Exhibition: Portraits of Artists by Benjamin Lee
Join the Film Committee . . .
Hello Nijubashi
photographs by Albert Siegel
New Members, New in the library
FCCJ

DECEMBER 2018

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

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

3

FROM THE PRESIDENT
DEAR FELLOW MEMBERS,
I write to you from our new
home in the Marunouchi
Nijubashi Building on behalf of
President Peter Langan, who
is recovering from a bicycle
accident (for more on that,please refer to his previous column on Murphy’s
Law). We all wish him a very speedy recovery.
I’d like to extend the Board’s sincere thanks to
all Club staff who worked incredibly hard and put
many sleepless hours into making the move go assmoothly as possible. It was a massive undertaking
and despite a few hiccups, most functions areoperating normally.
To celebrate, the Club hosted a successful
opening celebration, with nearly 300 guests who
were treated to a Noh blessing, sake barrel breaking
and performance by Club favorite Pikotaro.
Our daytime activities have been top-notch aswell. The Professional Activities Committee kicked
off events in the new space by wasting no timein hosting two major press conferences in one
day on Nov. 9: Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki,
followed by journalist and former hostage Jumpei
Yasuda. Both were well attended and filled our new
briefing room nearly to capacity. A special thanks
to Ito-san and the hard-working front desk staff
for pulling off the events seamlessly and making
sure all journalists found their way to the press
conferences in time, which in some cases meant
rescuing them from the basement.
There are some big happenings ahead:
On Dec. 3, we’ll host Rugby Appreciation Night,
when members will meet and raise a glass with
Rugby World Cup, Japan Rugby Associationand World Rugby Association officials, local
ambassadors, and special guests. The World Cup
relationship is certain to bring even more athletes
and sports officials to the Club.
We also hope to draw more students and tothat end, the Scholarship Committee recently
announced a call for entries for this year’s award
for aspiring journalists, so please spread the word.
We plan to hold a joint Scholarship/Freedom of
the Press award ceremony in the spring.
Of course, it’s not all good news: Our foodand beverage service is still in limbo but weare working hard on a fix. The Club is in talks
with several companies and we hope to have acontract soon. One major problem is staffing– the inevitable consequence of a shrinking
workforce – but in the meantime, we’re fortunate
to have Marybeth Boller, the former US embassy
executive chef, running the kitchen and turningout beautiful banquet food.
Thank you, everyone, for your support, andplease be in touch with any questions or concerns.
– Abigail Leonard
4“The demonization of journalists and the vilification of journalism is seen by many as incitement to violence and hatred”

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS NEWSFROM THE ARCHIVES

In the line of fireIt’s open season on reporters worldwide, laments
the author of a guidebook on journalists’ safety.
William Horsley
at the ClubALBERT SIEGELThe Front Page

By David McNeill
WHEN JARROD RAMOS BLASTED five people to death in thenewsroom of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland last June,it was another grim marker in a bloody period of violence against
media workers.
The Committee to Protect Journalists lists 44 reporters killedworldwide this year, including Jamal Khashoggi, reportedly lynchedinside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by assassins armed withsyringes and cutting tools. While well below the 155 deaths recorded
in 2006 (at the height of the chaotic Iraq War), the number is
deceptive: Instead of dying in crossfire, journalists are increasingly
being targeted just for the work they do.
“Killings, attacks and jailings of journalists worldwide areat an all-time high,” says William Horsley, author of the Safetyof Journalists Guidebook. Thanks partly to the rise of illiberal
governments, he says, many people now speak of “open season” onreporters.
Horsley says the state of the media is an “absolutely crucial
warning” of when things go wrong in society, and is “very intimately
tied to structures of power,” noting mounting hostility to the media,
from China to Europe and even the United States.
For journalists, he says, the most dangerous development inthis trend is the fusing of partisan politics with media power. In
many places, the media have become a tool of ruling parties, “withruthless domination of the information sphere through technology,
violence and the misuse of law.”
The template is China, where the ruling party keeps its hands
around the throat of old media, while jailing bloggers and using
monitoring systems and firewalls to control cyberspace. In Russia,
media watchdog Reporters Without Borders recently noted the“steady decline in media pluralism” and growing control of media
outlets, which are used to “inundate the public with propaganda.”
Then there are European countries in the grip of various shades ofauthoritarianism, including Hungary, Poland and Turkey.
Paradoxically, says Horsley, the framework of legal protections
for media workers has never been stronger. But more countries
are flouting these protections. Even countries like Britain, which
helped create the system on which the free press has been built,
seem determined to pull it down, he says, noting, for example, theway the current British government has insulted and vilified theEuropean court.
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THE SPEED OF DECLINE in media freedom has been
striking, he says. “The surprise has been that state
power has been so adept and quick at using software
to track and monitor its enemies, and create armiesof trolls to frighten and intimidate people, and buy up
more and more of the media landscape.”
Even more worrying, he says, has been the growing
hostility to independent journalism in the citadels ofadvanced liberal capitalism. Horsley describes Donald
Trump’s media baiting as “a torpedo” fired rightat the heart of America’s First Amendment, which
protects freedom of speech.
“The demonization of journalists and thevilification of journalism is seen by many asincitement to violence and hatred,” he says. Though
America still has some of the strongest media
protections in the world, the U.S. Press Freedom
Tracker website notes over 40 major physical assaults
on journalists in 2018.
In August, outgoing United Nations HighCommissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad
al-Hussein didn’t mince words when he said that
Trump’s rhetoric “echoed that of the worst eras of the20th century.” Says Horsley: “Is this not incitement toviolence against the press coming from the presidentof the United States himself? And it is giving cover toother countries that abuse journalists.”
The rise of Trumpism shouldn’t surprise too much:
The Republican Party helped pave the way when it
scrapped the media fairness doctrine in 1987. “Given
that, and the turbo-charging provided by the internet,
it was only a matter of time before the American
media landscape lost its key distinction between
fact and comment – and its attachment to facts andstandards.” But given the robustness of the Americansystem, he says, critical journalism will survive there.
As for Japan, which Horsley spent over seven years
covering as the BBC’s bureau chief in the 1980s, hebelieves the practice of critical journalism, neverparticularly robust, is being weakened. “Compare it
to countries that do have a free press and you see theenormous difference. The expectations and behavior
of Japanese journalists are so much more conditionedby their relations with sources and the government.
There is little real narrative of fighting for press
freedom, and against abuse. There are flashes here
and there, but the overall record is not at all clear.”
The bright spot, he says, is that you often find the“spunkiest journalists” in the most troubled spots.
Sometimes we are at our best when things are attheir worst. ❶*Safety of Journalists Guidebook is published by theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, anintergovernmental body of 57 participating states with amandate that includes fair elections, human rights andfreedom of the press.
David McNeill writes for the Irish Times and the Economist andteaches media and politics at Hosei University.
FCCJ

DECEMBER 2018

The pacifist Prime Minister

Then Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, who spoke at theClub on March 10, 1977, takes in the view from the Club’s previous
premises, the Yurakucho Denki Building. Next to him is the FCCJ
President at the time, Bill Shinn (Sisa News Agency).
Born in 1905 of samurai heritage, Takeo Fukuda was exposed topolitics from an early age by his father, who was the mayor of
Gunma City. He was educated at top schools, including Tokyo
Imperial University, and early in his bureaucratic career servedin the Ministry of Finance and as Chief Cabinet Secretary. Postwar, he directed Japan’s banking bureau and budget bureau
before being elected to the Diet in 1952. He became secretary of
the LDP in 1957. During the decade from 1969 to 1979, Fukuda
headed three ministries – agriculture, finance, and foreign
affairs – as well as the Economic Planning Agency..
At a low point for the LDP in 1976, due partly to infighting
among factions, Fukuda assumed the premiership and served
for two years with the support of minor parties. Althougheconomic and political problems weighed heavily, he affirmed
his pacifist mindset by establishing the Fukuda Doctrine in 1977
that stated Japan would not again become a military power andwould better its relations with Southeast Asian nations. Fukuda
also played a key role in concluding Japan’s 1978 peace treaty
with China.
His failure to stabilize a deteriorating economy, compounded
by a decline in the public’s trust in the LDP following the
Lockheed bribery scandal, led to Fukuda’s downfall. His earlier
attempt to weaken the faction system by introducing primaryelections ironically resulted in his defeat by Masayoshi Ohira in
the first such LDP election in 1978. He remained active politically,
and in 1983 founded the InterAction Council in Vienna thatbrings together former world leaders and encourages them toutilize their expertise in resolving world problems.
He married and fathered three sons and two daughters, withthe eldest son, Yasuo, becoming the first son of a Japaneseprime minister to become a prime minister himself in 2007.
Takeo Fukuda died of emphysema on July 5, 1995, at the ageof 90.

– Charles Pomeroy
editor of Foreign Correspondents in Japan,
a history of the Club that is available at the front desk5

Feature: China’s Belt & Road Initiative

The author at
China’s borderwith KazakhstanThis is what dictators loveOn the roadand Western powers neverTop to bottom: Chonqing
understood: just feed theat night; Family ties are
establishment, and let people
still very strong – Chengdu
decide what to do with theirdelivery driver Huang is taking“dear” leaders. The rest of us
care of his mother who has
had now better learn to get it
Alzheimer’s; Guarding theright. Or we may all end up like“strategic” border at Horgos.
the Blade Runner replicant Roy
Batty, talking about “things
you humans could never believe.” After a few monthsof reporting in and on China, riding trains, driving on
highways, witnessing the immense, apparently inexhaustible energy and optimism, I do believe.
This is it. China is taking over.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF PIO D’EMILIAThe future is here

FAST AND FORWARD
China’s new silk (rail) road“L

production processes fromet China sleep, for
An Italian documentary team tries to grasp
sweatshops and intensive
when she awakes, she
the scope of China’s Belt and Road Initiative,
labor factories to internawill shake the world.”
and finds a society undergoing drastic
tional financial and third
Used and abused as it has
sector services and techbeen, this phrase of Napotransformation while accepting thenological hubs is bringing
leon’s – though very likely
direction of Party leadership.
along in its wake a massive
wrongly attributed to himsocial mutation. The Chinese– still resonates. For China
By Pio d’Emilia
middle class is becoming
has awakened, and is indeed
something like a new, intershaking the world. Not vionationalizedbourgeoisie
lently, as other fast-growing,aristocracy, proud and selfhegemonic powers have done.
confident, at times even arrogant, and very far from WesternInstead, it seems, the centuries of ups and downs, natural anders’ expectations. Instead of feeding a desire for democracy
human-provoked catastrophies, aggressions and exploitations,and undermining the establishment, it cements the support
invasions and occupations have taught the Chinese a lesson:for the regime, perceived as the source of security, stability,
economic and cultural pressure is much more effective in conorder and growth.
quering – and much more important in maintaining power.
In other words, do not expect a former Soviet Union-like
As millions of Americans and Europeans grew up withcollapse, nor another Tiananmen. When Chinese dream about
Rambo and other Western icons, hundreds of millions of Chitheir future, they don’t dream about the Dalai Lama’s return,nese now revere Jin Wu, hero of the blockbuster series Senrou
free and “democratic” elections, self-determination or the(“Wolf warriors”). Cute, just and generous, he shows up in
end of the brutal repression of ethnic and religious minoritimely fashion in locations all over the world to protect andties. They dream about when they will be able to buy and live
save Chinese citizens and Chinese interests. But this guardin a big apartment in a high-rise, something that hundreds ofian never champions revolutionaries, insurgents or freedom
million citizens have already achieved, despite the ever-risfighters in struggles against bloody regimes or arrogant anding prices. In big cities like Shanghai the cost for one squarecorrupt dictatorships. No. He always sides with the establishmeter in a high rise may go up to US$40,000, making a manment, protecting the status quo.
sion in Ginza a real bargain.
And here’s why. China’s relentless transformation of the

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FCCJ

Ever since I devoured colleague and former Guardian Tokyo correspondent Jonathan Watts’ marvelous
book, When a Billion Chinese Jump, I’ve dreamt of somehow doing the same thing, but with a camera. Everybody knows at least a little about what is going on in
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and eastern China. Butvery few know about the interior of the country, northand especially northwest. This is where the Dragon’s
awakening is at its most fast and furious: 30,000 kilometers of high speed railroads (and another 20,000
to come in the next ten years); over five million kilometers of highways; 800 million people shifted frompoverty into middle class with 700 million expected totravel abroad in the next few years.
What is happening in China is already affecting thewhole world, and the Belt & Road Initiative, whether
you like it or not, is poised to make history. The socalled new Marshall Plan, already worth more thana trillion US dollars and very likely to double by theyear 2050 is not only going to expand China’s commercial, financial and political tentacles over Central
Asia, Europe, Africa and probably South America, it
is going to change China herself. Make no mistake,though: While it is possible that economic progressand social development may bring a new consciousness, a new approach to civil freedoms and humanrights, I find it doubtful that it will destroy, or evenreduce, the crucial, central role of the Communist
Party. Applications to join, which were declining until
Deng Xiaoping’s new “Great Leap Forward,” are now
increasing yearly. Over 20 million applied last year, of
which less than 2 million were accepted (and theseare subject to revision within the first two years).
For years I tried to convince my editors to invest incoverage of this story, and eventually I succeeded. Supported
by a decent budget and, most important, the full confidence
and trust of my editors, on April 4 we started our journey.
After a few days in Beijing to organize things, we set off for
Chongqing. Still relatively unknown abroad, Chongqing has in
the last few years become the largest megalopolis in the planet. We arrived there at night, by air, and I am still mesmerized by what we saw on our visit. Blade Runner, if I may makeanother reference to that film. Or Hayao Miyazaki’s fantasy
world in Spirited Away, since many people seem to believe he
got his inspiration for the magical bathhouse from a popular
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DECEMBER 2018

THE REST OF US HAD
NOW BETTER LEARN TO
GET IT RIGHT.
THIS IS IT. CHINA IS
TAKING OVER.

7

Feature: China’s Belt & Road Initiative

Moscow

restaurant here, and the resemblance is striking.
To say Chongqing is booming is a ridiculous understatement. The greater metropolitan area has alreadyreached 40 million inhabitants. There are 77 universities, over a thousand public hospitals and three different urban “people movers,” moving sidewalks thatcarry people at two speeds over 12 kilometers. But thecity is also becoming – withnew, strict rules about conBorderlines
struction and environmental
Top to bottom: Shooting
issues – the symbol of a hisat clouds at the Weather
torical switch from the counModification Agency; A hard
try’s long and disastrous war
fought-for shot of sunset atagainst nature to a new era of
the border; With Zhang Duo,sustainable growth. No nation
the young, proud director ofhas ever challenged mother
Horgos Railway Station.
nature – mostly disastrously– as China has from ancient
times. But authorities now seem to view nature not as
an enemy to subdue, but a precious ally.

No. 1 Shimbun graphic. Main source: Mercator Institute for China Studies

Duisburg

8

HorgosUrumqi

Istanbul

VeniceAthensLanzhou
Chongqing

TehranKolkata

Djibouti

Fuzhou

Hanoi

Colombo

Kuala Lumpur

Mombasa
Jakarta

Principal routes
The route taken by
the author
Other rail branches

Silk-Road Belt
Maritime Silk Road
Economic corridor* Yi Dai Yi Lu: Our Silk Railroad documentary

Smooth roads hit a rough spot

Travelling through China with an improvised andsomewhat anarchic TV crew was easier than expected. The Chinese Embassy in Rome issued us multiple three-month visas (for non-resident journalists) without setting limitations or conditions on ourreporting, other than requesting a very rough itinerary and a list of the public and strategic places wewanted to shoot. Over almost two months of travelling back and forth over the main “silk” railroads thatconnect China and Europe, we were never stopped,
bothered, or asked to show footage. We even changed
our schedule several times, causing lots of trouble,
yet received no avoiding warnings.
With one exception: Xinjiang, the autonomous
region where a conflict with local Muslims is ongoing. We had come from Lanzhou in Gansu Province,
where we had been the first foreign TV crew allowed
to shoot inside the Weather Modification Agency,
which shoots at clouds to make them rain. Arriving in Urumqi felt like a different country, maybe aless polite North Korea. From the very moment wechecked into our bizarre hotel, the Yema Desert Silk
Road (where, thanks to a hypervisionary, billionaireowner, the room fee included a ride on one of thehundreds of horses who are fed and coddled there)
until we left the region one week later, we were constantly followed by at least two “minders” who were
supposed to “help” us but who did their best to makeour journey a real nightmare.
Not even in my trips to North Korea have I had to negotiate for each single, innocuous shot. At one point, we weretaken into custody by the police because we were doing some“unauthorized” shooting of the main road from our car, andthey managed to keep us detained for hours, with our “helpers” unable to explain who we were and why we were shooting. The odd and unpleasant situation was finally solved by
diplomatic authorities, after our helpers proved helpless.
Note that we were not trying to shoot anything “sensitive.” Wewere not looking for dissident Uighurs willing to speak about
the recent violence and round-ups. From the very beginning

Minsk

SINCE THE FIRST ONE left the station in 2013, more than 10,000“China Express” trains have made the passage between China andEurope, a journey that covers about 11,000 kilometers in 17 to 19
days. Most of them end up in Duisburg, Germany, but there are
now a total of 15 direct destinations in Europe, and more are to be
added in the next years. We started reporting from Chong Qing,
where we were able to film loading operations; on average, every
day a train of 50 cars departs the station for Europe.
More than 10 stations, including Chengdu, Lanzhou, Xi’an
and Senzhou, are seeing off China Express trains, most of whichpass through Horgos or Alashanko, in Xinjiang, where after atime-wasting and costly transfer onto a larger gauge track
they enter Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland and, eventually,
Germany, which is where our reporting ended after almost twomonths. Although there are hundreds of handlers, logistic andloading companies involved, China Railways, a public company, isdirectly managing the entire operation, which for the time being– and at least until the end of 2020 – is heavily subsidized by the
Chinese government.
While most trains travel fully loaded from China, on their way
back the average rate is about 30 percent of their capacity.
This trend is slowly improving, but it will take a few years until
European companies may find out the land/rail transportation could
be a good alternative to sea freight, at least for certain products.
* One Belt, One Roadof our trip we decided to stay out of trouble in order to finish
our project without any problems.
And so we had, carefully avoiding any kind of potentiallyrisky location or situation. But we couldn’t help, in this huge,
beautiful ocean of land in Urumqi and the rest of Xinjiang, tofeel as if the constant and pervasive tension could detonate
at any moment. There’s no doubt this is their most sensitive,
most difficult to handle local challenge, and while the Chinese government is handling it with overpowering determination, it could get out of hand at any moment.
Actually, we also had lots of fun. Our hardest and mostabsurd negotiation took place on the very last day. We needed
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to shoot a nice sunset, and for various reasons, we had not yet
been able to get one. All day, we’d been shooting trains crossing the border in Horgos, the last town before Kazakhstan, andwe asked the station master to please allow us in again, in theevening, to film the sunset. The young and sharp Mr. Zhang, a23-year-old naval engineer from Chengdu who had ended up
managing a train station “in the heart of history,” as he proudly
and repeatedly put it, immediately said yes. Only to be harshly
reprimanded by another Mr. Zhang, our young and arrogant“government team” leader, who bluntly refused the request.
“This is not in your shooting list,” said the latter Zhang. “Itis very late, and we have organized a dinner for you, and you
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DECEMBER 2018

should not get too tired, since you must leave tomorrow.” “Your thoughtfulness is appreciated,” we replied,“but still . . . we do want to shoot the sunset.” And,believe it or not, we spent the next couple of hours
getting everyone from the Italian Embassy in Beijing,
the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Xinjiang Autonomous Province International Public Relations office
involved. But the answer was still no, we were told.
We were almost going to give up, forfeiting dinner and the formal greetings, when I realized thatour presence there was far from welcomed, mainly
because the whole government team was obliged tofollow us instead of enjoying what was actually a long
period of holidays. So I said: “Sorry, but this is very
important for us. And since I understand this must be
taken to higher level, which will probably take time,
this being a period of public holidays, after all, we aregoing to wait here until the problem is solved. Afterall, our visas don’t expire for 10 days, so we will justrelax and stroll around. But you don’t have to accompany us, of course. We’ll manage on our own.”
A few minutes later, we had their permission. And,in the end, they became thoroughly involved in taking selfies with the wonderful sunset, apparently
surprised that even the border could offer a romantic side.

Welcome to the Party

Eventually we left China in a good mood. What we wereable to see over our long journey on the “silk trains”(although it’s likely they carry everything except silk)
could not be dampened by the heavy-handed Xinjiang way of dealing with their local conflict. And I
now actually believe it is time to avoid the “yes, but”
approach, and learn from Chinese pragmatism. Everycountry, every society has corpses in their closet,
old and new. To different degrees, we in America,
Europe and Japan still have to clean up our past andpresent misdeeds. China’s astonishing performanceand achievements cannot be blurred by continuing
to denounce the invasion of Tibet, the cruel treatment of some religious and ethnic minorities and theongoing, blatant violation of human rights. The “yes,but” approach, if applied to Italy, for example, could
very well translate into: “Yes we have a full-fledged
democracy, freedom of speech and free elections . .
. but one-third of the population lives below the poverty level, and it is going to get worse”.
At the risk of being repetitive, I believe the new
emerging leading class made up of engineers,
researchers, managers and financial wizards is not going tochallenge the “system” because they are not against the Party. On the contrary, they are grateful. Despite what we usually read and hear from Western “experts,” in China we won’t
witness anything close to Gorbachev’s glasnost and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union Empire. More competition, market economy and globalization – and the undeniablesocial development that result – are not challenging the roleof the Party and its leaders. On the contrary, they have given
them the future. ❶Pio d’Emilia is the East Asia Correspondent for Italy’s Sky TG24.
9

Feature: Journalists in custody

Death in Kudan

The unexplained demise of a Reuters correspondent while
in Kempeitai custody in 1940 is a reminder that Japan was
not always a cozy assignment for journalists

By Mark Schreiber

A

COURTESY OF HIBIYA LIBRARY

t approximately 12:30 p.m. on July 29, 1940, Reuterscorrespondent Melville James Cox fell to his deathfrom a fourth-story window at Kempeitai (military
police) headquarters in Kudan. The 55-year-old Cox had beendetained two days earlier, along with 10 other British nationals, for questioning on suspicion of espionage. His death,reported as a suicide in Japanese newspapers, was treatedmore suspiciously by the international press.
Tensions between Japan and Great Britain had been building from the previous January, when the British Royal Navycruiser Liverpool halted the NYK passenger liner Asama Maruin international waters off the coast of Chiba, near the end ofits voyage from San Francisco to Yokohama. An armed boarding party from the Liverpool took into custody 21 German passengers suspected of being German military personnel.
Japan was inching closer to an alliance with Germany – withwhich Britain was already at war – and for such an incident
to occur adjacent to home waters infuriated the Japanese.
Diplomacy prevailed, however: The British released nine ofthe detained Germans, and the Japanese government underPrime Minister Mitsumasa Yonai in turn agreed not to give10

ow of ¥100,000, equivalent at the time to £5,833.68, and aconsiderable sum in those times.
The British government immediately retaliated against
Japan for the arrests of its nationals, detaining the branchmanagers of the Mitsubishi and Mitsui trading firms in London, and eight others in the U.K. and several commonwealth
IN LATE JULY, NEMOTO was dispatched to Cox’s residence incities, including Sydney and Hong Kong. (They were eventuChigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, to bring him back to Tokyo
ally all released unharmed.)for questioning. He was accompanied by an English interSo what was Cox, a reporter or a spy? And was he murdered
preter named Taguchi who had spent 20 years practicing
or did he die by his own hand?
law in the US. The group returned to Tokyo by train, and Cox
Then British Ambassador to Japan Sir Robert Craigie
spent the nights of the 27th and 28th sweltering in a tiny, airrefused to believe that Cox “could have been connected evenless cell in the basement of the Kempeitai sub-headquarters
remotely with espionage.” He was highly critical of Kempeitai
in Kudan, not far from Yasukuni Shrine.
interrogation techniques, noting that their “method of subOn the 29th, Cox underwent a third day of questioning inmitting the prisoner to long and intensive grilling lastinga room on the 4th floor. The police allowed him to receive asometimes from 9 in the morning to 10 p.m. was of a characsashi-ire lunch of Western food delivered from outside, andter to test the strongest nerves and that it was a well-known
after the meal he had been pacing inside the room when sudthing that in the case of someone of Cox’s disposition, intense
denly he made a dash for the open window.
depression was thus induced.”As Nemoto relates, “Sgt. Kamata, who had been guarding
Two weeks after Cox’s death, R. Selby Walker, the Reuters
the prisoner, rushed to stop him . . . grabbing Mr. Cox’s left
acting general manager for the Far East, who was resident infoot with both hands. But he was already too late, as Cox’s
Shanghai, submitted a lengthy report to the company’s manentire body was outside the window, and in a flash his bodyaging director in London. According to him, Cox had beenfell from the fourth-story window to the rear yard.”
receiving hints for some time that the authorities were after
Nemoto described Kamata’s face as “pallid” as he rushed
him because he knew and said too much about the activities
into the former’s office and said, “Sir, we’ve got trouble! Coxof the Nazis and Japanese with pro-Axis sympathies. He noted
has jumped. Come quick!” Irritated by the intrusion, Nemotothat an AP correspondent had been arrested and interrogatedrushed to the window and looked out into the yard, to see
for five hours in connection with a telegram he’d sent about
Cox’s prostrate body.
Cox’s arrest, and that he’d been left “so mentally battered and
The reporter was pronounced dead at 3:46 p.m. The timingbruised that he could not think of anything but how to get
was unfortunate in the extreme: Unbeknownst to the Kempeitai
away.” Walker also assumed that Cox took his own life, but thatand Cox, Reuters had asked the Domei news agency to help
he’d been driven to it, and he believed that the report of the
secure his release and Inosuke Furuno, president of Domei, had
American doctor seemed to disprove any idea of murder.
been meeting with the War Minister at the time of his death.
Although Cox was popular among colleagues at the AmeriA note was found on Cox’s person, apparently addressed to
can Club for his “bright and cheery disposition,” Cortazzi
his wife, which the Japanese authorities claimed to be a “suinoted that he “had been ‘making himself a nuisanceat Gaimusho press briefings. He asked a barrage of
REPORTER OR A SPY? AND WAS HE MURDERED awkward questions and made no effort to cover up
his contempt and growing animosity for the JapaOR DID HE DIE BY HIS OWN HAND?
nese militaristic state.’”Punishments were meted out to at least two Kempeitai members responsible for Cox’s safety. As the officercide note.” It read, “See Reuters re rents. See Cowley re deeds
in charge of the interrogation, Captain Nemoto was ordered
and insurance. . . . I know what is best always, my only love. I
confined to his barracks and received a punitive wage cut.
have been well treated but there is no doubt about how matSgt. Kamata was subjected to “administrative punishment”
ters are going.”
and reassigned overseas. Interestingly in 1948, Nemoto
In his work Britain & Japan Biographical Portraits, Sir Hughwas sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment for
Cortazzi, the late British Ambassador to Japan, included a
his alleged involvement in the deaths of 17 U.S. air crew
report by the embassy on the incident. It stated that an Amermembers shot down over Japan. Describing Cox’s death inican doctor who viewed the body noted that the injuries werethe magazine article 17 years after the incident, when hesuch that they could be attributed to a fall from 40 feet, thatwas under no threat of prosecution or punishment, Nemoto
there were no signs of prior physical ill treatment and thatmaintained that no foul play had occurred.
the body was found so far out from the building that it could
Former Ambassador Cortazzi, who presumably had accessbe presumed that he leaped, disproving a fall from foul play.
to whatever evidence was available, eventually concluded that,
The British consul had examined the “suicide note,” which he“The true facts about how Cox died will probably never be known.
believed was in Cox’s handwriting and had the impression. . . The Kempeitai had nothing to gain by his death except perthat the correspondent was “sure gendarmerie intended tohaps that in their interpretation it tended to confirm his guilt.
convict him by hook or by crook.”. . . Whether it was suicide or not, it is clear that the Kempeitai
behaved with brutality and inexcusable callousness.” ❶A FUNERAL WAS HELD for Cox at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in
Shiba Park, with four Kempeitai officers, including Nemoto,in attendance. Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka, who had
Mark Schreiber currently writes the “Big in Japan” and “Bilingual”
known Cox personally, made an ex gratia payment to his widcolumns for the Japan Times.
the embassy of “a certain foreign country” and suspected
he was able to prevail upon the diplomat to forward reports
to intelligence agencies in the UK, a violation of Japan’s law
regarding use of the telegraph.

passage on civilian ships to Germans of military age.
Japan at that time was well along in the process of secretly
building up its fleet of capital ships, and the Kempeitai had
been under heavy pressure from the navy to plug leaks about
the refitting of the Nagato, a 32,200-ton battleship originallycommissioned in 1920. The Kempeitai had been tailing Cox
as a person of interest for three years, after intercepting a
letter of uncertain origin that contained a passage in what
appeared to be secret code.
In an article titled “The secret of Japan that I saw” in the
Dec. 25, 1957 issue of Tokyo Shuho magazine, Hisashi Nemoto,a former Kempeitai captain who had been assigned to watch
Cox – and who personally witnessed much of what transpired– gave his version of events. Nemoto wrote of the travailsof his hardworking operatives, noting that they had trailed
their subject to night clubs featuring “erotic performances.”
The operatives also reported that “Cox often visits the Imperial Hotel, where he meets with various suspicious persons,both Japanese and foreign,” “He uses the post office inside
the hotel to send mails” and “He always uses the same type ofenvelope when sending mail abroad.”
The Kempeitai also observed that Cox appeared to haveformed a “close relationship” with an intelligence officer at

A death reported
Cox’s note – top left of thisJuly 30, 1940, edition of
the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun –is reproduced opposite theheadline, “Foreign spies
arrested in simultaneous
roundup,” above.

FCCJ

DECEMBER 201811

Series: Profile

Mehdi Bassiri
By Gavin Blair

12

DECEMBER 2018

FCCJ

RODRIGO REYES MARIN

E

where he was staying. So Bassiri formed his own business andschewing the offer of a career in the post office incontinued exporting medical equipment to Iran until the 1985
the ancient Iranian city of Hamadan, a young Mehdi
Plaza Accord sent the value of the yen spiraling upward, makBassiri had already set his sights further afield. A
ing his goods prohibitively expensive. The currency fluctuadesire to travel and meet people, combined with the facttion, however, made importing from Iran a viable option andthat “The foreign ministry was the most respected governBassiri began to supply Persian carpets to Japanese department office in Iran,” had Bassiri determined to represent his
ment stores. His persona non grata status in Iran was overnation abroad.
shadowed by the government’s desire for foreign currency,
His first extended posting was to the Iranian Embassy inaccording to Bassiri, and left him able to source carpets, but
London in 1972 as an attaché. Mehdi remembers his four
not return to his homeland.
years in the British capital as the “mostThe business model he developed
enjoyable time in my career,” recalling
continues to this day: taking his wares
garden parties at Buckingham Palace,where he met the Queen and other royTHE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION to display at regional department storesand sell to wealthy local customers..
als. Returning to Tehran in 1976, Bassiri
WAS UNDERWAY AND
Although traditional wool Persian carlooked after foreign diplomatic misBASSIRI BEGAN TO
pets, with thousands of years of history,
sions and foreign leaders visiting IranREALIZE LIFE WOULD
are prized worldwide, it is the newer
for two years.
silk varieties that are popular in Japan.
After being posted to Japan in 1978,
NEVER BE THE SAME.
“Silk Persian carpets only began to be
he worried about the direction of Iranwoven maybe 100 years ago, but 90
and the fate of his relatives there.
percent of them are exported to Japan,
Within a few months the Islamic Revowhere people find silk very attractive,”
lution was underway and Bassiri began
he explains.
to realize life would never be the same.
Once his business success allowed“I tried for a year and a half or two to
him to pay back the people who had
carry on working with the new regime,
helped him after he had left the embasbut it was impossible,” he says, explainsy, in 2000 he joined the FCCJ, which
ing that many high-ranking diplomats,he had visited numerous times during
including his former boss and friend,
his diplomatic days. He has since been
and the former foreign minister,an active member, sitting on the assowere executed without trial. “Theirciate liaison committee, organizing a
only crime was working with the old
Persian New Year Night for a decade and serving in various
regime,” Bassiri says.
roles on the Food and Beverage Committee, of which he is
Bassiri effectively defected, asking for political asylum
currently co-chair.
from Japan. Although he says the authorities were kind to
After almost two decades in Japan, Bassiri was able tohim, “They wanted to help me go to the US or UK, not stay
return to Iran to see his sick brother after a close friend in
here.” However, after four years, he received approval for his
the foreign ministry received assurances during the tenurefamily to live permanently in Japan. In the meantime, theof relative moderate President Mohammad Khatami, thatnew regime in Iran had seized his house and financial assets.
he would be safe. He returned to Japan unscathed, but theAn unscheduled visit from a compatriot while he was stillfear he felt while there gave him chronic stomach pains. He
working at the embassy would lead to his first job after the
returned a number of times since, but the more hardline
diplomatic service. After handing Bassiri two packages, thedirection the regime has taken in recent years has again disvisitor explained he was importing medical equipment fromsuaded him from visiting.
Japan into Iran and was looking for an introduction to a reliHis three children are all working overseas, in New Jersey,
able person to open an office in Tokyo.
Brussels and London. Bassiri visits his youngest daughter“After he left I opened the packages, and one of them wasin London, a city he still has great affection for, but worries
a big portrait of the [Ayatollah] Khomeini. I telephoned him
about the future of his homeland. “I don’t know what will
and told him to come back immediately and take it away.
happen to my country; I hope something good,” he says sadly.
Later he called me and asked to meet him in a coffee shop.
Recent geopolitical tensions have once again cast a shadow
He asked me to come and work with him,” recounts Bassiri.
on his life. The latest US sanctions, imposed on Iran from Nov.
6, have left Bassiri unable to send money to his suppliers there.
THIS SERENDIPITY GAVE BASSIRI a job and a way out of
He is now seeking a solution, but says he is not hopeful. ❶his untenable position representing a regime he strongly
opposed. Working for the company for around 18 months, helearned the ways of business after a career in diplomacy, until
Gavin Blair covers Japanese business, society and culture forhis employer collapsed and died in the disco of the Tokyo hotel
publications in the US, Asia and Europe.

FCCJ

DECEMBER 201813

Hacks’ tool box

Making every pitch countGet attention without being annoying

By Tim Herrera
AS “SMARTER LIVING” EDITOR at the
New York Times, the bulk of my job
is working with freelancers. On theslowest days, I’ll get around a dozen
cold pitches in my inbox; on busy
days, almost 200. (Lol sorry if I owe
you an email, promise I’m working onit.) The thousands of pitches I’ve readover the last few years usually fall into
one of three categories: great (veryfew), something we can work with (asmall, but decent, amount) and bad(everything else).
Before we go on, it’s worth
remembering: A bad pitch is not
the same thing as a bad story idea.
Pitches get turned down for countlessstories I commissioned last year werefrom first-time New York Times writers.
But we can’t help you if you don’t knowwhat you’re pitching.
The most common variant is this:“Hi, I’m a freelance writer and I’minterested in covering [x topic] for yoursection.” I’m glad you’re interested,but. . . what’s the story?
Another version is the superlengthy email pitching a meandering,
unfocused “look,” “exploration,” or“deep dive” into a topic. I’m glad you’ve
thought so much about your topic, but
don’t forget to think of the actual story
you’re telling.
Even worse: You want me to tell you
what your story is. “Freelancers should
always come with story ideas,” said

If you’re going to ask an editor to pay you foryour idea, make sure it’s an idea worth paying for.
Think scope, reach and impact.
reasons – you pitched the wrong
outlet, the wrong editor, your idea
wasn’t fully fleshed out, the timing
wasn’t right, etc. And especially as
news outlets are evolving in theirapproaches to digital storytelling,
publications are increasingly open to
nontraditional storytelling structures.
So don’t be shy about getting weird
sometimes. (I, for one, love when I get
an out there or innovative story idea.)
But most bad pitches are bad forthe same few reasons, and they’reoften salvageable with some tweaking.
After consulting with about a dozen
editors who commission stories atpublications ranging from small,niche blogs to national magazines andnewspapers, I’ve pulled together thesix most common mistakes freelancers
make when pitching – and what you
can do to impress an editor.

You don’t know what your story is

Most editors are willing to take achance on a great story idea, evenfrom a new writer – 75 percent of the
14

Sarah Kessler, deputy editor of Quartz
at Work. “I get a lot of emails that justsay, ‘I’d like to be a contributor for
Quartz at Work.’ That isn’t much help.”
A good safeguard against this is towrite a solid, clear, powerful nut graf.
It’ll be just a draft – after all, you won’t
have done all the reporting for thestory yet – but knowing exactly what
your story is about is crucial to piquingan editor’s interest.

You didn’t check the archives

Even if you think you have the mostoriginal idea in the world, and you’re
100 percent sure the outlet you’re
pitching has never done it, checkanyway to see if the outlet has alreadydone it. Then check again. Skipping
this step shows you’re either blindly
shooting off pitches en masse, or you
just don’t care enough to look.
Meet your new best friend: Google
site search. Just type “site:[newsoutlet.
com] [your keywords]” and you’re set.
(Do not rely on a news outlet’s built-in
search engine.)

You pitched the wrong editor
or section

I see are: Your story requires very
little – or no – reporting; it could be
written by anyone; it applies to a verysmall demographic (caveat: this isn’ta problem if that’s intentional andthe publication is interested in thataudience); your story has a very limited
shelf-life (again, not a problem if that’s
intentional and you know the outlet
would be interested); or it just doesn’t
have any sweep or scope. Editors want
important, substantive stories.
Ask yourself: If an editor responded
and said, “So what? Who cares?” –would you have a real answer?

destination all at once. Often, it wasa trip I was invited on myself andhad to decline.
A writer pitched me one of thesestories, and I wrote her back politely
giving her a heads-up about the
no-press-trips rule. Her response: “Youmust have figured out I was on a press
trip because you’re stalking me!”Good tip: Don’t accuse editors of
stalking you. And also be honest about
stuff.
So now you know what not to do –here’s what you should do. It boils down
to basically three things:

You’re too aggressive withfollowing up

You don’t disclose conflictsof interest

Be concise yet informative.
Very few cold pitches need to be morethan, say, 10 sentences, and the best
ones are often less.
Explain why anyone should care.
Get me interested to learn more, butmore important, make me want totell this story to the readers of mypublication.
Show that you can pull it off.
If you want to pitch the huge,
ambitious, weighty feature you’ve beenmulling over months, go for it. But
make sure you’ve laid out how you’regoing to put it together, along with theclips to demonstrate that a story likethis is within your range.

“Pitching a version of something
I’ve already published, or a versionof something the writer has alreadypublished but for a different pub”
never works out, said Lisa Bonos,
editor of “Solo-ish” at the Washington
Post. “This latter one really gets me.
You don’t get to sell the same personal
essay more than once. If you’re writinga variation on a story you’ve told
before, be upfront about how this newstory is different.”

It’s sloppy and it shows you didn’t do
the basic research required to get yourstory published. Be absolutely surethat your idea fits within the section oroutlet you’re pitching, and that you’reemailing the right editor.
“Pitching me something that doesn’t
make any sense for the publication,subject-wise or tonally, shows me you
haven’t read through the site,” said
Gina Vaynshteyn, editor-in-chief at
First Media. “If you haven’t done yourhomework, I wonder how diligent you’ll
be about your story.”“It’s O.K. to follow up on unanswered
pitches, but wait a week, not 24 hours,”
said Kristin Iversen, executive editor of
Nylon. “When a freelancer’s pitches areturned down, they should not follow up
with more pitches a day or two later;
please don’t pitch me more than oncea month, unless it’s something very
timely.”Your story is too low-stakes
or narrow

This mistake is a little hard to define,but it probably accounts for at least
half of the stories I decline. If you’regoing to ask an editor to pay you foryour idea, make sure it’s an idea
worth paying for. Think scope, reachand impact.
This problem emerges in a lot ofways, but the most common issues
DECEMBER 2018

FCCJ

Most publications have codes of
ethics and/or guidelines aroundconflict-of-interest disclosures.
They can vary widely, so always– always! – err on the side of overdisclosure. The worst-case scenario
is that outlet finds out you had aconflict after publication (and they
will find out), which usually results ina correction with the disclosure andthat writer possibly being blacklistedfrom the publication.
A travel editor at an international
outlet shared this story:
I’m not allowed to accept press
trips, and same goes for people
who write for us. I can usually tellwhen someone went on a press
junket even if they don’t disclose it,
because multiple writers all pitch
me the same story about the same
FCCJ

DECEMBER 2018

“The best freelancers use theirpitches to showcase their writing skills– especially when pitching an editor
for the first time,” said Nick Baumann,an editor at HuffPost. “A pitch gives mea better sense of your raw copy thanyour edited clips do. If your pitch has
a fascinating, beautifully written lede,
your story probably will, too. If thepitch is confusing, the filed story is
likely to be, too.”
To end, here’s one of the best cold
pitches I’ve ever gotten. This was myfirst interaction with this writer – Anna
Goldfarb – and she’s since become aregular New York Times contributor:
Hello! I saw your call for pitches so
I figured I’d toss my hat in the ring.
Let me know if any of these ideas
resonate! [She had sent three different
ideas, but I’m including
only the one I accepted
and later published.](Essay) What I wish I
knew before moving inwith my boyfriend – I’dalways pictured moving
in with a guy like diving
into a pool; a graceful,swift action. It turns out
I was absolutely wrong.
Instead of a dive, it was
like doing the Macarena,in that there’s a series ofsteps that need to be executed in acertain order for it to be considereda success.
A little bit about me: I’m a culture
and food writer based in Philly. I’mcurrently a contributor to Elle, The
Kitchn, Refinery29, Thrillist andmore. You can see my full list ofwriting clips here. Thanks for yourconsideration!
Why’s this so good? Four simple
reasons: There’s no filler; she told me
everything I need to know about theidea without getting bogged down inirrelevant details; she knows exactly thestory she’s pitching and how to execute it;and she sent clips with a link to more.
Yes, it’s that simple. Don’t overthinkit. ❶Tim Herrera is “Smarter Living” editor at

the New York Times. This originally appearedon the NiemanLab website and is used withpermission.
15

ANDREW POTHECARY

Freelancing is tough! And getting the attention of commissioning
editors is a large part of the job. Here is some advice from several
experienced editors on how to catch their eye.

Photographer Members

Club NewsFCCJ EXHIBITION

Last month in photos

ShibuyaFacing the onslaught on thescramble crossing in Tokyo
by Richard Atrero de Guzman

PORTRAITS of ARTISTS
by Benjamin Lee
BENJAMIN LEE’S CAREER HAS taken himfrom creative advertising in London(1974-1987), working for international
advertising agencies and magazines
like Vogue, Elle, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar
and GQ to more creative and artistic
photographic experimental image
making in Tokyo (1987-2018 and beyond).
Imaginative portraits of Yayoi Kusama,Frank Gehry, Picasso, Issey Miyake, Haruki
Murakami and Kengo Kuma are a few ofthe portraits in this exhibition.

JOIN THE FILM COMMITTEE. . .
. . . on Thursday, Dec. 13 at
7:00 pm to celebrate themadcap cult-musical classic
The Legend of the Stardust
Brothers – the 1985 feature
debut of Makoto Tezuka (nowMacoto Tezka), son of thegreat manga artist Osamu
Tezuka. Despite the film’s
local success, infectious
charm and natty costumes,
Brothers never got English
subtitles and was never shownoutside Japan. Earlier thisyear, working with British
distributor Adam Torel, thedirector remastered thefilm and created a subtitledDirector’s Cut. In October, it
premiered at the Sitges Film
Festival in Spain, wowing an
audience that never evenknew it existed. A time
capsule of musical stylingsand cinematic inspirations,
it also features some of Japan’s most famous creators of the time, includingmusicians Kiyohiko Ozaki, Issay, Sunplaza Nakano and Hiroshi Takano; and cameos
from mangaka Monkey Punch, Shinji Nagashima, Yosuke Takahashi and evenemerging film directors Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Daihachi Yoshida. The director andcomposer will be on hand for the Q&A session after the screening.
(Japan, 1985; 100 minutes; in Japanese with English subtitles.).
– Karen Severns

CLUB DIARY DATE

12/12

Press Conference: “Hayabusa2 Project - Mission Update”

For more information please see
www.benjamin-lee.jp

Kart-ography
The (controversial)
kart ride in Tokyo
hits Marunouchi
by Rodrigo Reyes
Marin
16

“I AGREE THAT A JOURNALIST’S JOB IS TO PROVIDEINFORMATION WHICH IS NOT CONTROLLED BY THE
POWERS THAT BE. WITH REGARD TO MY APOLOGY,
WHAT HAPPENED WAS A RESULT OF CERTAIN MISTAKESI MADE. THAT’S WHAT I’M APOLOGISING FOR.”

Eyes on the try
Japan’s Kenki Fukuoka fights
against All Blacks players during atest match against New Zealandon Nov. 3. Japan was defeated by
the the All Blacks 31-69
by Yoshikazu Tsuno
DECEMBER 2018

FCCJ

FCCJ

DECEMBER 2018

Jumpei Yasuda,journalist who was held hostage for40 months by militants in Syria,
at the Club
Nov. 9, 201817

Club news

NEW IN THE LIBRARY
Smashing
Left-to-right: Club
treasurer Willem
Kortekaas, SandraMori, Director-atLarge Khaldon Azhari
and Club Secretary
Daniel Hurst open thesake, provided by Born
Saké – flanked by thenight’s Noh performers
Otomasa Sakai andOtoharu Saka, below).

Meeting
Pikotaro meets Club
Exhibition Chair
Bruce Osborn and hiswife Yoshiko; Stirling
Elmendorf, Norman
Tolman, KumikoElmendorf and Club
GM Marcus Fishenden

Hello Nijubashi!

On Nov. 22 the the FCCJ held a Club-warming party in our new Marunouchi premises.
Welcomespeeches
by Sandra Mori
(who has beenwith the Club at
all its premises)
and behind her
Club Events
Committee
Chair, Akihiko
Tanabe. Below,
Tetsuo Yuasa,
Senior Executive
Officer, of
Mitsubishi
EstateYokohama Burning: the Deadly
1923 Earthquake and Fire That
Helped Forge the Path to WorldWar II
Joshua Hammer
Free Press
Tadao Ando (GA architect: 8)
Ando Tadao; Yukio Futagawa(ed.); Criticism by Kenneth
Frampton;
Yoshio Takase (photo)
A.D.A.EDITA Tokyo
Gift from Georges Baumgartner
An Investigative Study of Endstage Care in Japan: from the
Perspective of International
Comparison
Takashi Sasaki
Chuohoki
Gift from Takashi Sasaki

Performance art
Above, the Fuka Daikoh drummers from
Gunma and, right, entertainer Pikotaro

Convenience Store Woman
Sayaka Murata ; Ginny Tapley
Takemori (trans.)Grove Press

Dance flooredwith music
provided by theMoonshots

18

Return from Siberia: a JapaneseLife in War and Peace, 19252015
Oguma Eiji; David Noble (trans.)
LTCB International Library Trust:International House of Japan
Gift from Georges Baumgartner

ALL
PHOTOSBY
ALBERT
SIEGEL
DECEMBER 2018

FCCJ

FCCJ

CheersAbove, Mew Iwabuchi,
Grady Loy and Phoebe
Amoroso; above right,
Masanobu Tsukagoshi,
Kuniko Isa, Milton Isa,
Mikuni, Katsu and Shozo
Tsukagoshi; right, Chris
Lawson, Reiko Sugioka,
Kathryn Wortley, Yuntao
Fan and Daniel Hurst.
DECEMBER 201819