Obscenity arrest may be hiding dirty politics

Abstract: What constitutes obscenity in Japan? The term, both legally and morally, has different meanings in Japanese, just as it does in English. In a strictly legal sense, the Japanese word for obscenity, waisetsu , refers to something that maliciously stimulates sexual desire in an inappropriate and immoral manner. There are plenty of widely available publications nationwide that would appear to fall within this definition: manga that depicts incest, gang rape and sexual abuse of children, as well as magazines and newspapers that publish illustrated stories or photo shoots on similar themes. Some people might even be offended by the fact that sexual services not only appear to be legal, but they are advertised. You don’t have to look too hard to find clasifieds advertising rates for fellatio or anal sex — both of which are legal — and yet actual intercourse is only legal in some situations. Heavens, child pornography is still technically legal, or at least until the grace period for possessing such material runs out in the middle of next year. Which, again, begs the question: What constitutes obscenity? As far as the Metropolitan Police Department appears to be concerned, a plaster cast of a woman’s vagina is most certainly obscene. On Wednesday, police arrested artist Megumi Igarashi, who calls herself Rokudenashi-ko (“good-for-nothing girl”) on suspicion of sending a link “that shows her plan to create a boat using three-dimensional obscene data to a large number of people,” a police spokeswoman said. Sex toy shop manager Minori Watanabe, 44, was also arrested for “displaying obscene goods in her shop window in collusion with Igarashi” from around October 2013 until July, police said. It was the second arrest for Igarashi who was taken into police custody in July for distributing data that would allow people to make a 3-D replica of her vagina. The arrest in July garnered international attention, with rights groups accusing police of censorship and discrimination. So why did police officers arrest Igarashi again last week? In an article titled “Suppression of free speech: arrested author vanguard of Abe criticism” on Dec. 4, the Nikkan Gendai went as far to suggest the target this time was Watanabe, an author who works under the name Minori Kitahara. Kitahara has also been an acerbic critic of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The newspaper implies that the arrest may be a warning to other critics who have questioned the timing of the upcoming elections. The implication is perhaps not as whacky as it sounds. In an interview with the Asahi Shimbun in June, Kitahara dumped some fairly hefty criticism on Abe and his cronies. “I want to say to Abe, ‘Eat a strawberry in one bite (without a fork). Conduct politics like an adult,'” Kitahara said. “Since Abe came to power, the state secrets law has been passed and the Diet has reinterpreted (the principle of) collective self-defense,” she said. “It’s not a coincidence. We live in a world where hate speech flourishes and we’re closer to going to other countries to kill people. I feel as if we are no longer allowed to criticize the state. It’s scary.” Japan’s security forces have arrested opposition leaders and suppressed dissent before. On April 22, 2002, Tamaki Mitsui, former head of the public security department at the Osaka High Court Prosecutor’s Office, was arrested on corruption charges — the same day he was going to appear on television and expose prosecutors for using investigative funds for wining and dining. It’s not a secret that Abe hates criticism just as much as he hates the Asahi, the country’s liberal paper. When the Asahi admitted errors in past reports on “comfort women,” he publicly accused them of “shaming Japan.” Is it possible that someone in the Abe administration put pressure on the Metropolitan Police Department to silence Watanabe? Theoretically, yes. Abe himself gets to appoint the head of the Public Safety Commission that oversees the National Police Agency. Moreover, the police are almost obligated to make an arrest if a crime has been committed, however minor. I personally don’t believe Abe would ever put pressure on the police department himself, but his loyal posse? Maybe. With the state secrets law coming into effect on Dec. 10, it’s unlikely we’ll ever know. The new law stipulates that asking questions about a state secret — whether or not you even know it’s a secret — is a felony that may earn violators up to five years in jail for “instigating” a leak. This brings us back full circle to the original question: What constitutes obscenity? Some would argue that the state secrets law the Abe administration passed in December 2013 despite overwhelming public opposition is obscene. What’s more, it’s equally obscene to stifle any last-minute debate on its enactment by making sure that the press are occupied with election coverage. On this note, it’s also offensive for Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Nov. 19 to tell reporters that “we shouldn’t question the details of the secrecy laws one by one. The ruling party decides what the vote of confidence is all about. This election is about ‘Abenomics.'” That’s Liberal Democratic Party freedom of the press principles in a nutshell: We tell you what the election is about, don’t introduce other issues. Shortly before her arrest, Watanabe posted “Sayonara Abe government”in a tweet and then recommended 100 LDP politicians who should be defeated in the next election. In hindsight, was this a mistake? Perhaps Watanabe’s real mistake was questioning the reason for the election in the first place. Those of us who are not incarcerated can still ask such questions — at least until Dec. 10. After Dec. 10, asking such a question may itself be a crime. Whatever punishment is meted out for asking such questions, the answer is always going to be the same: “We are not able to answer that question; it’s a secret.” In a free and democratic society, that’s really obscene.

megumi igarashi
rokudenashi-ko
minori watanabe
censorship
shinzo abe
obscenity laws


Opening WWI naval operations ended; U.S. architect plans Manchuria housing; Tokyo smog more poisonous; Ebola monkeys spur warning

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Saturday, Dec. 5 1914 First part of WWI naval operations successful The Navy Department yesterday published a survey of the operations of the different squadrons and divisions of the Imperial Navy since the outbreak of the world war, and announced that the first part of the operations has come to an end. In the early part of November, the survey noted, Germany’s warships in Kiaochou Bay, Hawaiian waters and the Indian Ocean all came to grief at the hands of the Imperial Navy. The rest of the enemy’s fleet are now known to have fled toward Chilean waters, thus marking the beginning of a new phase in operations. 75 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1939 U.S. architect plans housing for Manchuria Dwellings for Japanese residents in Manchurian cities should be remodeled, in consideration of the colder climate and their traditional living habits, says Dr. W.M. Vories, a noted American architect who plans to build a model Manchoukuo apartment house in Mukden. Dr. Vories stated that a better ventilation system for houses in Manchuria is urgently needed as the Japanese people, mostly unused to such severe winter conditions as they find there, are too frequently inclined to shut themselves tightly indoors during the lengthy cold season. As a result, they contract pulmonary ailments, noticeable among the second generation. The veteran architect has devised an inexpensive system of indirect ventilation that he will install in the projected Mukden apartment building. The architect plans to open a branch office in that city, and believes the prospects for the success of his new Manchurian venture are good. Having lived and prospered for 35 years in Nippon and being a sincere well-wisher of the Japanese people, he said he would like to build comfortable, healthy buildings suited to this country for the Japanese and Manchou residents. Referring to his recent trip to America, he was at first amazed and almost dismayed by the intensity of the anti-Japanese sentiment there, he remarked. He found such regrettable feeling very strong among the church folk also. They alleged that the Japanese were trying to wipe out Christianity in East Asia, the same as the Nazis and Soviets have done in their countries. However, Dr. Vories thinks the arrival of Mr. Horinouchi as ambassador to Washington has had a salutary effect upon the American churchgoers, as the envoy is reputed to be a sincere Christian. The saner part of the population are beginning to see the issue of (the ongoing war in) China in a true light, he said. 50 YEARS AGO Thursday, Dec. 10, 1964 Tokyo’s smog whiter, far more poisonous For many Tokyoites, the acrid, dishwater-gray smog that often blankets the world’s largest city in winter has become almost a way of life. But year in, year out, the contents of toxic gases in the pallid veil known as smog are on the rise, despite a sharp decrease in smoke and soot particles in it. And in these days, it is not only the downtown area that suffers; it is seeping deep into suburbia. A survey by the Metropolitan Government’s Public Nuisance Department indicates: • Tokyo smog is becoming increasingly white. In downtown Tokyo, soot particles in the air have decreased by half since 1959. • The sulphurous acid gas content in the air has increased more than nine times since 25 years ago. The nitrous acid gas level is now as high as in Los Angeles. All this means the air looks cleaner but is actually getting dirtier and more toxic. “Air pollution in Tokyo could soon become as bad as that in London,” Yoshiaki Kawanami of the Public Nuisance Department said. The Metropolitan Government has been trying for years to get rid of air pollution. It extinguished dump fires, went after more than 12,000 factory smoke stacks and enforced stiff regulations on power plants and steel mills. Still, the progressively worsening smog is believed attributable to ever-increasing automobiles in the nation’s capital. More than 5 million automobiles now run in the city daily. One solution to the auto intoxication may be to equip all automobiles with “afterburner” devices, which are claimed to help eliminate hydrocarbons from exhaust gas. Still, they would be expensive — costing around $120 per vehicle. Another factor in the deterioration may be the fact that industrial plants are switching from coal to oil for fuel. It is still technically difficult for oil-burning facilities to prevent generation of gases. 25 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Dec. 10., 1989 Ebola monkeys in U.S. spur import warning An emergency advisory urging Japan to restrict importation of monkeys for research reached the National Institute of Health Thursday from the World Health Organization. It said a deadly virus never before found in animals has been discovered in rhesus monkeys shipped from the Philippines to the United States in November. The virus causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever, whose symptoms are acute headaches and internal bleeding. According to the WHO, Ebola disease was found among rhesus monkeys that died at a private research center for animal testing in Virginia. According to the National Institute of Health, the virus is easily transmitted to humans, but Japan has no quarantine system to block such diseases from abroad. Japan imports about 3,000 monkeys annually, mostly for experimental use. The quarantine of experimental monkeys is done voluntarily by dealers. Pet monkeys do not go through any checks. The monkeys were later discovered to have been infected with what became known as Reston virus, which is related to Ebola.


Migrants flock to EU door at Hungary's border

Abstract: ALONG, THE SERBIA-HUNGARY BORDER - Exhausted, hungry and cold, they have been walking for miles. What little they have is carried in plastic bags. They camp in abandoned homes, followed by stray dogs hoping to snag a morsel. Tens of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Kosovo have been flooding in a torrent this year to Serbia’s border with Hungary, hoping to cross illegally into the European Union nation and flee west to a better life. Many have been on the road for months. The 180-km-long (111-mile-long) border between Serbia and Hungary is flat farmland. Sometimes the migrants camp in the border area for days, hiding amid the crops, playing hide and seek with border patrols. Graffiti in Arabic, torn transit papers, ragged shirts and garbage litter the fields. Serbian and Hungarian border teams carry night-vision equipment as they patrol the border night and day. The situation has become so bad so quickly that German police have recently come to help. Hungary is part of the European Union’s Schengen passport-free travel zone but many migrants are seeking to reach Germany and wealthier EU nations. Groups of five or six migrants, all in hoods, walk slowly along the highway or the rail tracks in Serbia, patiently waiting for the best time to try to cross. If they are caught, they are either sent back to Macedonia or they seek asylum in Serbia, which buys them more time. Others make it across only to run into Hungarian authorities — some 25,000 migrants have been detained in Hungary so far this year alone, compared to nearly 45,000 last year. This week, a van packed with more than 40 migrants swerved off the road in southern Serbia, injuring half of them, some seriously. The driver ran away.

migrants
eu
hungary
serbia
middle east
africa
kosovo
border patrol
germany


Is Burger King's 'Flame Grilled' fragrance a hoax in a bottle?

Abstract: Burger King Japan has developed quite the reputation for its imaginative gastronomic creations, including the black Kuro Burger released last year. However, the result of the fast food chain’s latest experiment isn’t exactly edible. Starting in April, the company will launch a fragrance that will allow fast-food lovers to smell just like their beloved burgers. The perfume, named “Flame Grilled,” will be sold for one day only and exclusively at Burger Kings in Japan. A free Whopper is included in the purchase (at the high price of ¥5,000), so now you can eat your meal and smell like one too. The scent will be sold starting at precisely 10:30 a.m., just in time for an early lunch. As only a limited amount of bottles are being produced, Burger King fans will only be able to mist themselves with one bottle per customer. Many media outlets say they smell a long-game April Fool’s joke, but we’re tempted to believe that their aim is true. Burger King has even petitioned the Japanese government to make April 1 the unofficial “Whopper Day,” a move that suggests this may not all be pure mischief. Still skeptical? This isn’t the first time Burger King has tried to appeal to a sense other than taste. In 2008 the chain released “Flame,” a cologne hooked as “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.” Take a look at its disturbing video as proof.

burger king
fragrance
hamburgers
promotion
japan pulse


Police who stand with big sticks

Abstract: Dear Alice, I have noticed whenever I pass a police station in Japan, that there is almost always a policeman standing out front holding a pole. Is this some form of punishment? If not, what the heck is the rationale for using manpower in this way? It would seem a better use of taxpayer funds to have the officer doing something more useful. Nick T., Tokyo Dear Nick, When I got your question, the first thing I did was stroll over to my local police station to see if I could confirm your observation. Sure enough, right there at the front stood a handsome young officer, holding a very big stick. Sometimes the best approach is the direct approach, so I marched up and asked if he was in some kind of trouble. “Me?” he said, obviously taken aback. “No, not at all.” He then assured me he was engaged in official police business called ritsuban . Now before you add that to your flashcard pack, I should caution that it’s not exactly standard vocabulary. It’s not even listed in my big green Kenkyusha dictionary. And while it’s written with relatively easy characters— the ones for “stand” and “guard” — the Japanese friends I tried that combo on all misread it as “ tachiban .” I did find “ritsuban” in a bilingual glossary of police lingo, but the English equivalent offered was “point duty,” which is a term I’ve never heard before and probably doesn’t communicate much to the average English speaker. “Ritsuban” basically means to “stand guard.” It’s a practice that dates back to the early Meiji Era (1868-1912), when Japan set up its modern police system. But it’s important to understand that the officers you’ve seen outside police stations are doing more than protecting the facility and watching out for trouble. They are also making themselves visible to reassure citizens and deter those with criminal intent. Most importantly, though, they are making themselves accessible and available for anything that might come up, whether a true emergency or a simple request for directions. In effect, it’s like moving the front desk out onto the street. Some readers might appreciate a word, at this point, about the officer’s stick. It is called a keijō and isn’t meant to support the body while standing, as people sometimes presume, but rather to fend off possible attackers. It originates in a martial art developed centuries ago by samurai of the Fukuoka clan to subdue enemies with a minimum of bodily harm. The keijō was adopted as standard equipment by the Tokyo police around 1930, and it soon spread to police forces around the country. Today, Japanese police do carry guns, but whenever possible they respond with less deadly weapons first. You may have also noticed that police often stand out in front of kōban , the one or two-room substations found in neighborhoods throughout Japan. They are conducting ritsuban, too, even if they aren’t holding a stick. To get the facts on this, I requested an interview at the National Police Agency, which is the central coordinating agency and sets standards and policies for police forces throughout the country. Hiroki Okita, assistant director of the NPA’s Community Police Affairs Division, explained that ritsuban is one of the most basic tools in Japanese-style community policing. “Every police officer in Japan, regardless of rank or specialty, has conducted ritsuban at some point in his or her career,” he told me. “In Japan, our emphasis is on early intervention and crime prevention, through vigilance and close engagement with residents. The kōban is the center of that activity, and the first assignment for every graduate of the police academy is to work at a kōban as a chiiki keisastukan (community police officer). There are more than 87,000 officers — about one third of the national force — currently working at the kōban level, about 7 percent of whom are women. The main responsibilities of a community police officer, as mandated by law, are to conduct patorōru (patrols on foot or bicycle); go out on junkai renraku (routine visits to homes and workplaces to offer crime-prevention advice, listen to residents’ concerns and take down emergency contact information); and, of course, to conduct ritsuban. At kōban, officers can decide for themselves whether or not to hold a keijō while on ritsuban duty. Often they do without, in order to appear friendlier and more approachable. Visible policing makes residents feel safer, according to Okita, and acts as a deterrent to crime. It’s difficult, obviously, to quantify either factor, but communities do lobby regularly for increased patrols as well as keeping kōban staffed around the clock. And every year there are cases when an officer on ritsuban catches a criminal or stops a crime before it can happen. Okita shared one arresting example of an officer who was doing ritsuban duty outside a kōban at a busy Tokyo intersection. He noticed an elderly lady passing by who looked tired and disoriented, so he approached her and offered her a seat inside. As she was resting, he engaged her in conversation and learned she had just come to Tokyo and was on her way to deliver money to her son. The officer immediately suspected one of the so-called “ Ore, ore ” (“It’s me”) scams, in which fraudsters telephone elderly people and pretend to be a relative in urgent need of money to help them out of a jam. (Last year, such scams bilked unsuspecting Japanese of more than ¥40 billion). He convinced the woman to let him help her call her son, who, it turned out, had not contacted her and had no idea she was in Tokyo. The fraud might well have succeeded if the officer hadn’t been outside and noticed the woman appeared stressed. “Ritsuban teaches an officer to be observant, and to become sensitive to even small changes that signal that something is not right,” Okita explained. “It’s the very basis of Japanese police work — the starting point from which everything else evolves.”


North Korea's well-to-do feast on French baguettes

Abstract: SEOUL - French-trained chefs are cooking up a storm in Pyongyang, where North Korea’s privileged classes are devouring their baguettes, a pro-North newspaper reported on Wednesday, even as much of the population outside the capital struggles to feed itself. The Kumkop General Foodstuff Factory for Sportspersons, which was established in 2011, sent its pastry chefs to train in France last year as part of a drive to become a world-class food plant, the Choson Sinbo said. The daily, published by the association of North Korean residents in Japan, said in a report from Pyongyang that the wholewheat baguette had proved a hit. The North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, personally visited the factory in January. “He said that the factory should wage a dynamic drive for developing and producing foodstuff including chewing gum which is badly needed by the sportspersons and suited to the constitution of the Koreans,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said. Pyongyang is home to most of the North’s wealthy and educated class, as well as bureaucrats and a growing middle class. But in the countryside, many do not know where their next meal is coming from. The United Nations has said over a quarter of all children are malnourished.

north korea
baguettes
chefs
japan
kim jong un
wealthy
french food


Will Line put the brakes on Uber with its taxi app?

Abstract: In the not-so-distant future, it might be considered quaint to hail a taxi with your hand instead of using a smartphone app. Line Corporation, after expanding its mobile business with game apps and online purchases, is expanding its smartphone messaging platform with a new service called Line Taxi for users to book cabs in Tokyo via its app. Launched in January, users simply type their address into the app and, with GPS, the taxi’s dispatch time appears on the map. The taxi ride is automatically paid for using a pre-registered credit card, so there is no need to worry about having cash on hand. Line hopes the app will be useful for people who don’t want to fight over cabs during rush hour. Competitor Uber, a taxi booking app that’s already available in 55 countries , already expanded its service to Tokyo last spring and has many similar features to Line Taxi. However, along with Uber’s global expansion has come a series of huge bumps in the road, including an Uber driver being accused of raping a passenger in India in December 2014, and in the same month in Australia, Uber was harshly criticized for jacking up prices during the hostage situation in downtown Sydney . (They quickly apologized for the snafu .) Uber has also come under fire after testing out its services in Fukuoka. The government told the company to suspend its pilot project as the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry believes that the smartphone application service likely violates the Road Transportation Law prohibiting unlicensed taxi services. Although Line Taxi doesn’t have the premium service of luxury cars like Uber, the face that Line’s partner is Nihon Kotsu, Japan’s largest taxi company, means there might not be a big gap between the two. More than 3,000 taxis will be connected to Line, and the company plans to include more than 23,000 taxis for its service nationwide. Currently Line Taxi is only available in Japanese and the fare has to be paid with a Japanese credit card, but the app is expected to become more foreigner-friendly in the future and expand coverage throughout Japan. The company first said that they wanted to take their taxi service global since previewing it last October. So what’s it going to be? Will you get in Line?


India asks Saudi to help evacuate citizens from grave situation in Yemen

Abstract: THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA - India asked Saudi Arabia on Monday to help evacuate its citizens from Yemen, where more than 4,000 Indians, over half of them nurses, are caught up in fighting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office said he had spoken by telephone with King Salman of Saudi Arabia and requested Riyadh’s “support and cooperation in the evacuation of Indian citizens from Yemen.” King Salman assured Modi of all possible assistance to help them leave, it said in a statement. Two Air India planes on standby in neighboring Oman were unable to fly in to the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday despite what Indian officials said earlier were Saudi assurances that an air corridor would be opened. The nurses, mostly from the southern state of Kerala, are often hired on harsh terms with middlemen taking up-front fees. Hospitals are reluctant to let them leave because they would have to close without foreign staff. Sajeesh Mathew’s wife, 29-year-old nurse Asha, has worked for three years at the Al-Naqib Hospital in the port city of Aden, scene of fighting following the flight of Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi last week. “The areas around the hospital are now under the control of the Houthi rebels,” said Mathew, whose wife is one of 35 Indian nurses at the hospital. Although no Indian casualties have been reported, the nurses’ predicament in Yemen recalls the ordeal suffered by 46 Indian nurses kidnapped in Iraq last year as Islamic State militants advanced on Tikrit. The nurses were freed in June, in an early diplomatic triumph for Modi, but the fate of 39 Indian building workers captured in Mosul remains unclear. Eighty Indians were flown out on Sunday to Djibouti, on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Aden, but no evacuation flights were possible on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said. He said 400 Indians were being evacuated by sea from Aden and would reach Djibouti on Tuesday. They will be flown home by the Indian Air Force. New Delhi has issued a series of warnings this year to Indian nationals to leave Yemen, the last of them shortly before Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes on March 26 against Iranian-allied Houthi militiamen. Ruben Jacob Chandy heeded the call, taking a flight out of Sanaa and arriving back in the Keralan capital Thiruvananthapuram on Monday with a handful of other Indians who escaped the fighting. “The situation is critical,” said Chandy. “The Saudis are carrying out a lot of air targeting — it starts from 6 p.m. until almost 6 a.m.” An Indian navy patrol vessel involved in anti-piracy operations was heading for Aden, and would be joined by two more navy ships. Two passenger ships with the capacity to carry 1,100 people had also set sail from India, Akbaruddin said. Indians returning from Yemen said the situation, especially in Aden, was grave. “They cannot go out of their residences. Many are running out of water and food,” said Lijo George, an IT worker who returned to Kerala on Monday from Sanaa. Speaking from the Military Hospital in Sanaa, paramedic Ranjith Cheerakathil said he and his wife, a nurse, had decided to stay. Most of the 240 Indian staff were waiting for a flight out. “Most of the operations in the hospital will be shut down when they leave. There will not be anybody to care for those who suffer injuries in the attack,” Cheerakathil said by telephone. “This is cruel. My conscience does not allow me to leave them like that.”

india
evacuation
yemen
nurses
narendra modi
king salman
sanaa
aden
houthis
saudi airstrikes


R2-D2 toy keeps fans company and food fresh

Abstract: R2-D2, the eccentric cylindrical droid from “Star Wars,” has helped save the galaxy time and time again, but now he will help you save electricity. Mobile gadget company Hamee will be releasing a 10 x 7 cm version of the robot to keep in your refrigerator. He will greet you when you open the door, and panic, if you leave it open. “Living alone can get a little bleak. We wanted to create something that could welcome you back home at the end of the day,” explains Atsushi Yamashita of the product management team in the promo video . Although this mini R2-D2 may not be able to project holograms, hack computers or extinguish fires like we’ve seen on the big screen, the company has made sure he looks and sounds exactly like the original by receiving direction from Lucasfilm . It responds to light, but pressing the button on his head works too. It has 15 types of beeps, including some rare outbursts that you may catch if you are lucky enough. A fan may recognize R2-D2 “lines” from specific scenes in the movies. Pre-sale orders for the R2-D2 Talking Fridge Gadget are already available, but its official release will be April 30, 2015, at ¥4,320 — just in time for the Star Wars Exhibition , scheduled to take place at Roppongi from April 29 to June 28, 2015.


DPJ vows at convention to hold firm against Abe's security legislation

Abstract: The Democratic Party of Japan pledged to stand firm against the government’s security legislation in the Diet as it held its party convention in Tokyo on Sunday. In adopting an action plan, the main opposition party also lashed out at “Abenomics,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic program, claiming it is widening economic and social inequalities in the country. The DPJ called for “cautious and sufficient” Diet debate on legislation aimed at giving the Self-Defense Forces bigger roles abroad. The government is expected to submit the legislation to the Diet in late April, after a nationwide series of critical local elections. The DPJ vowed to defend Japan’s principles of peace and its exclusively defense-oriented stance under the Constitution and draw people’s attention to the “danger” of the Abe administration. DPJ President Katsuya Okada, who was elected president in January, had to skip the convention to undergo retinal detachment surgery Thursday. The party, which got its first taste of power from September 2009 to December 2012, pledged to rebuild itself and return to its status as a viable alternative to Abe’s conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The DPJ, admitting to its “defeat” in the December’s Lower House election, said it plans to expedite rebuilding work because the next Lower House poll may be held at the same time as the next Upper House poll, which is scheduled for summer 2016.

security legislation
democratic party of japan
opposition


Foreign tourists posing nude at temples infuriate Cambodians

Abstract: SIEM, REAP CAMBODIA - Cambodia’s most popular tourist attraction — the complex of ancient temples that includes Angkor Wat — is suffering from a form of overexposure: At least five foreign visitors have been arrested and deported this year for taking nude photos at the sacred sites. Authorities have no tolerance for people stripping down at Angkor Archaeological Park, a sprawling, centuries-old UNESCO World Heritage Site that drew 2 million visitors last year. The incidents are also upsetting to ordinary Cambodians, for whom the Khmer-era complex holds enormous spiritual and historical significance. “Angkor Wat is the most famous sacred … temple in Cambodia, where everyone — not only tourists but also Cambodians themselves — has to pay respect,” said Rattanak Te, an administrative assistant who lives in Phnom Penh, the capital. “It definitely upsets me and all Cambodians, because outsiders will think we — Cambodian people — are careless and do not take good care of this World Heritage (site) by allowing these tourists to do such an unacceptable act.” This month, guards arrested two American sisters after seeing them snap photos of each other’s naked backsides in the temple of Preah Khan, said Kerya Chau Sun, spokeswoman for the Apsara Authority, which manages the temple complex in Siem Reap, in northwestern Cambodia. Lindsey Adams, 22, and Leslie Adams, 20, both of Prescott, Arizona, were each sentenced to a six-month suspended sentence, a fine of 1 million riel ($250), deportation and a four-year ban from the country. In January, three French men in their 20s were deported after they were caught taking nude photographs at Angkor complex. Another photo showing a topless woman at the site has circulated on social media, but officials believe it is fake, according to Chau Sun. Three tourists were also caught riding a motorbike naked near Phnom Penh in January, according to local media. Reached via email, one of the Frenchmen, Rodolphe Fourgeot, said he did not want to talk about the case. He said it demonstrates “endemic corruption” in Cambodia but did not elaborate. A message on a cellphone listed for Lindsey Adams said the voicemail was full and not accepting messages. She also didn’t respond to a Facebook message. A message was left on a cellphone number listed for the sisters’ mother. This year’s incidents were not firsts for the Angkor temples, but Chau Sun said earlier attempts by tourists to get naked were thwarted. Signs at the temples and ticketing booths urge visitors to behave respectfully, and Chau Sun said the Apsara Authority plans to add posters warning them that taking nude photographs can lead to arrest and deportation. “As a Cambodian, I am hurt … I think especially to the poor Cambodians saving to be able to come across the country to pray at Angkor,” she said. “They don’t understand why people could behave like that.” Angkor Archaeological Park is the biggest tourist draw for this Southeast Asian country, which still feels the effects of the Khmer Rouge, the fanatical communist regime behind a reign of terror that left an estimated 1.7 million people dead from 1975 to 1979. The massive Angkor complex is in a sense a proud counterpoint to that painful legacy. It contains the remains of capitals of the Khmer Empire, which existed from the 9th to the 15th centuries and at its peak controlled most of Southeast Asia. For a time, Angkor was among the world’s biggest cities. The temples are renowned for their architecture and art, with countless intricate carvings, including semi-nude spirits known as apsaras. Angkor Wat is the largest and best preserved of the structures. The temples are much more than stone ruins for most Cambodians, said Trevor Sofield, a professor of tourism at the University of Tasmania in Australia. They are places of Buddhist worship as well as a symbol of the Khmer heritage, he said. He added that the Apsara Authority and UNESCO should focus on educating the public about the living sacred nature of the site in addition to its historical characteristics. Angkor is not the only world-renowned site that has had to deal with nude tourists. In 2014, officials at Peru’s Machu Picchu said they were increasing surveillance after visitors were caught taking nude photographs or running through the ancient site naked. Amichay Rab, a 32-year-old accountant from Tel Aviv, was one of those tourists who posed in the buff. Rab documented his nude escapades while on a nine-month trip through Central and South America on his blog. Many of the photos were taken early in the morning before there were crowds, he said, and local residents often snapped the photos for him. “I was anxious sometimes but was never afraid (of) getting in trouble as I was very discreet,” he said. “I was waiting for the right moment in order to avoid hurting someone’s feelings.” Cambodian Mollyda Keo said people there recognize that different cultures and societies have differing views on the body and what is deemed acceptable. Cambodian women, for example, will only swim in a T-shirt and shorts but are used to seeing Western women in bikinis, she said. She said posing naked at the temples crosses the line. “I just feel they don’t respect the culture,” she said. “You come from another culture. You should respect ours.”

cambodia
angkor wat
tourism
machu picchu
scandal


When nature evolves to be awesome

Abstract: A few years ago, an anthropologist told me an amazing story about a wild chimpanzee she had observed in Senegal. A bushfire had ignited in the summer heat, and she saw a chimp stand upright on its hind legs, face the fire and perform “a really exaggerated slow-motion display.” The chimpanzee then started barking, apparently communicating with other chimps sheltering nearby. The anthropologist, Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University in Ames, said this kind of barking had never been heard in her roughly 2,000 hours of observations of chimps. What was the chimpanzee doing? It appears it was monitoring the fire. The community of chimps retreated a short distance as the fire approached, but remained calm. Other animals panic and stampede when they encounter fire, but these chimps, perhaps because they have experienced bushfires in the past, apparently knew what it was — they understood the concept of fire. But what was that weird, slow-motion dance? I couldn’t help but imagine it as a primitive kind of worship to some kind of fire god. Other chimps have been reported performing strange dances when they encounter unusual natural phenomena such as rainstorms or waterfalls. Perhaps it is an expression of awe in the face of natural power? As a flight of fancy, I like to think that this sort of behavior lies at the evolutionary root of our worship of natural spiritual powers. I remembered all this a couple of weeks ago when, to my surprise, I experienced the same feelings of awe. I was in Yosemite National Park in California. Tired after a day in which I had hiked some 20 km, I arrived at the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias. Tired? Who am I kidding — my legs had practically given out. I was hobbling with the aid of a stick I’d found on the path. My friend and I walked another kilometer or so through a forest of giant conifers. It was around 5 p.m., and no one else was around. The only sound was the occasional echoing drumming of woodpeckers. We stared open-mouthed at what we thought were sequoias, towering above us. Amazing, we said. We walked some more. Then we came upon what was self-evidently a real giant sequoia. The others had just been big trees. The giant sequoia is the world’s largest tree and, measured by volume, is the largest living thing in the world. This one was truly massive, some 80 meters tall and maybe 3,000 years old. I felt something stir inside me. To be next to this thing was mind-boggling. I felt like a chimp that had discovered a waterfall, or a forest fire. There are some 25 giant sequoia in the Tuolumne Grove. A couple have fallen. I clambered on one, which lay like the backbone of some gigantic sea monster across the forest floor. I took some photos, but it’s hard to capture the scale, and even more difficult to communicate the pine-scented chilled mountain air, the isolation and the feeling of diminishment. What I was experiencing, of course, was awe. The feeling is captured in Japanese in the phrase ikei no nen , meaning reverence, awe and respect. I felt all these things. But why? That’s the question evolutionary biologists (and children) always ask. Why did such-and-such a behavior evolve? What is the evolutionary reason for feelings of awe? Dacher Keltner of the University of California, Berkeley, and Jonathan Haidt of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, considered this question in a paper published in the journal Cognition and Emotion. They suggest that awe evolved from the hard-wired response automatically felt when a low-status individual encounters a more powerful, high-status individual. We’ve all experienced that and, in Japan at least, the high-status/low-status ranking is embedded in the language. This “know-your-place” feeling helps reinforce rankings in a social group. Keltner and Haidt believe the awe response developed from the status-response, and arises when people — and maybe other animals — encounter any powerful natural phenomenon or work of sublime beauty: a waterfall, a breaching whale, a giant sequoia. It also arises when we hear a sublime piece of music or art or understand a profound scientific explanation — such as natural selection. Many things in biology can be better understood by examining how they evolved. They start off as one thing and are later used for another. An example is feathers, which probably evolved to keep dinosaurs warm and were later used to help them fly. Keltner and his colleagues also believe that awe helps to direct attention to the environment. When encountering something new, complex and powerful, the feeling of awe helps the brain focus and process the information it is receiving. This, Keltner and his colleagues argue, gives a survival advantage and so is favored by natural selection. Could awe help focus the mind on environmental issues? A sense of wonder about natural beauty can drive support and action for environmentally sensitive policies. This was not what Keltner and his colleagues were referring to, but the point is worth making. Giant sequoias, found only in the Sierra Nevada mountains, are classified as endangered. They live in humid climates where summers are dry and winters are snowy. Climate change may well pose a threat to them. While giant sequoias are only found in limited parts of the western United States, there is a related tree in Japan that rivals the majesty of the sequoias: the Japanese redwood, or sugi . The sugi is the national tree of Japan. You don’t need to hike in the mountains to see them; sugi are typically planted at shrines and many have been designated special natural monuments. Ishikawa Prefecture, for example, has the great sugi of Kayano, a 55-meter-tall tree that is some 2,300 years old. I say “planted at shrines” but when a tree is this old, it is more likely the shrine was built near the tree. The Jomon sugi of Yakushima Island is named after the prehistorical period of Japanese history and the Jomon sugi has been estimated to be anywhere from 2,100 to 7,000 years old — though the lower end seems more likely. Around some ancient sugi, artefacts from the Jomon period have been discovered. That, as the kids say, is awesome.

yosemite national park
giant sequoias
biology


Of birds and bugs: journalism in Tokyo and Osaka

Abstract: One of the first things Tokyoites who relocate to Osaka notice is that, while their favorite mainstream media news source is available in both cities, the tone and often substance of the reporting is different. It’s a cliche among Japan watchers that “Japanese newspapers and TV news are all the same.” Yes, one sees the similarities easier than the differences. But it’s equally false to imply that readers of the five major newspapers or viewers of the major TV networks receive exactly the same views about the same subjects. Fundamentally, Tokyo journalism emphasizes a “bird’s-eye view” of news topics, and encourages a dry, and often humorless, tone about major events. How can one be possibly taken seriously when discussing serious topics unless one is, well, serious? There are, of course, advantages to bird’s-eye journalism. Breadth and width for starters. Journalists are, by nature, generalists. The Tokyo-style of journalism, at its best, encourages a wide variety of basic knowledge about different subjects, especially those of comparatively little interest to the Osaka journalism philosophy: politics and international affairs. Too many Osaka reporters, editors and producers simply don’t care about what’s happening in the halls of power in Tokyo, let alone abroad. And when confronted with a Tokyo-style journalism critique of themselves that is far deeper than the usual clever but politically correct comments and cliches in local media, they become thin-skinned. In a recent TV Osaka program about the city, its politics and how it was viewed by the outside world, Tokyo-based journalist Akira Ikegami provided a cool, somewhat verbose and yet concise analysis of Osaka. The Osaka commentators who sat alongside Ikegami attempted to make light of the report’s more critical comments at first. But as his detailed — and extremely accurate — analysis continued, a couple of panelists grew visibly annoyed at Ikegami’s style. “Well, it can’t be helped,” grumbled one of the Osaka-based tarento , after interviews were shown with foreign visitors about Osakans’ notoriously bad manners. The disadvantage of bird’s-eye journalism is that it overlooks important details and can lack the human touch. Defenders of Tokyo-style journalism might retort that their reporting style is “cool,” “dispassionate,” and “objective.” However, that can sometimes feel “cold,” “boring,” and “detached” to a lot of people in Osaka (as well as in Tohoku, Okinawa and among foreign readers of Japanese news). Osaka journalism, by contrast, traditionally offers a “bug’s-eye view” of the world, focusing on various crimes, follies, tragedies and victories of ordinary people. At its best, traditional Osaka-style journalism is progressive on human rights issues and sometimes more sensitive to the country’s ethnic and cultural minorities than the Tokyo media. In 2012, Shukan Asahi was forced to apologize to Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto after it ran a cover story titled “Hashishita yatsu no honsho” (“The true nature of Hashishita” — the kanji for Hashimoto’s name can also be read as “Hashishita,” and that’s how it used to be pronounced in traditional buraku communities). Hashimoto, who has buraku roots, took offense at what he felt was discrimination on the part of the magazine. Why did Shukan Asahi use “Hashishita”? Theories abound. However, veteran Osaka journalists quietly say that an editor from Osaka would have been more sensitive to the history of buraku discrimination than a clueless Tokyoite, and the word “Hashishita” would have not been used. Not, at least, in that way. Ironically, the Japanese-language newspaper that perhaps best represents the progressive, and sometimes cheeky, spirit of traditional Osaka journalism is the Tokyo Shimbun. It has a growing reputation for providing a bug’s-eye view of the details with a bird’s-eye analysis, proving the best journalism is, in fact, a combination of both styles.

tokyo
osaka
akira ikegami
toru hashimoto


Nation stiffens defenses to counter invasion

Abstract: Doom was closing in. It was greeted with anxiety but without surprise. Its coming had been foreseen. Two centuries earlier — in the seventh year of the Eisho Era, 1052 by the Western calendar — humanity had entered the degenerate age of Mappo, the Latter Days of the Law. So taught the Buddhist sages. What did this mean, practically speaking? Political disorder, cosmic disorder, evil beyond anything imaginable — or maybe good beyond anything imaginable, for had not Amida, the “Buddha of boundless light,” vowed eons earlier to save all who faithfully called on him? The principal preachers of the new Amidist sect were Honen (1133-1212) and Shinran (1173-1263). Their vision of a “Pure Land” of radiant jewels, glittering palaces, celestial music and “the light radiating from the Buddha” took hold among a population slowly sinking into earthly despair. Only believe, pleaded Honen and Shinran, and rebirth in the Pure Land will surely follow. Nonsense, sneered the third great preacher of revivalist “Kamakura Buddhism” — so named for the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) in which it thrived. “Pure Land”? No such thing, scoffed Nichiren (1222-82) — not while humanity remained mired in sin. He saw one way out: mass conversion to his own teaching — which was what? A notion so unprecedented in Japanese history that Nichiren was exiled, arrested and very nearly executed for his temerity. The traditional Buddhist sects, powerful though they were, had always acknowledged themselves servants and protectors of the state. They did not, unlike the contemporary European medieval Christian church, claim to be its masters. Nichiren made that claim for them. For Nichiren, religion — Buddhism — was paramount; the state, secondary. Scorning all efforts to silence him, he preached on. The earthquake of 1257 was nothing, he said; likewise the famine and plague that followed. Worse was coming. What could be worse? A foreign host, unleashed by heaven to chastise a sinning nation. How many Japanese at that point would even have heard of the Mongols, let alone quailed at the mention of their name? How much did Nichiren himself know? And yet “they blew up like a hurricane,” writes historian J.M. Roberts, “to terrify half a dozen civilizations, slaughter(ing) and destroy(ing) on a scale the 20th century alone has emulated.” The story begins with the conquests of Genghis Khan early in the 13th century. By the time his grandson, Kublai Khan, forced himself on Japan’s attention, the Mongols ruled the largest land empire in history, twice the size of the Roman Empire at its peak. China, Korea, Russia and Central Asia were swallowed; Eastern Europe barely escaped. In 1268, Kublai dispatched a letter to the “king of Japan.” “We,” it read, “the great Mongolian Empire, have received the Mandate of Heaven and have become the master of the universe. Therefore, innumerable states in far-off lands have longed to form ties with us.” Why not Japan? asked Kublai. “From now on,” he wrote, “let us enter into friendly relations with each other. Nobody would wish to resort to arms.” Master by conquest of half the globe and yet reluctant to “resort to arms”? A strange note to strike — what did it mean? Japan by then had had no official relations with China in almost 400 years. Merchants and monks still traveled back and forth on private business, but neither the military government in Kamakura nor the Imperial court in Kyoto had very clear notions of what was transpiring in the country that once had been Japan’s revered teacher in the arts of civilization. Maybe this is why, as historian George Sansom puts it, “The Japanese at first made the mistake of despising their enemy.” Kublai’s letter went unanswered, his envoys dismissed with contempt. Subsequent Mongol envoys were beheaded. Still Kublai remained patient — why? “The use of military force without reason,” he wrote shortly afterwards, “runs counter to Confucian and Buddhist teaching. Because Japan is a divine country, we do not intend to fight with force.” This too was ignored. Patience has its limits. The Mongol fleet sailed at last, on the third day of the 10th lunar month of 1274. First to feel its wrath were the tiny islands of Tsushima and Iki, whose inhabitants, writes Sansom, “were treated with revolting cruelty.” Then it was Kyushu’s turn. But the harsh lessons of war, in this the only foreign invasion Japan had ever suffered, or ever would suffer until the Americans came calling in the 19th century, were destined to be taught by the insular Japanese, and learned, at great cost to themselves, by the world-conquering Mongols. Where were Japan’s poets and bards in those fraught years? Alive and well — busy composing the magnificent Tales of the Heike in memory of the civil wars (1156-85) that marked the nation’s passage from elegant, decadent, aristocratic pacifism to one of the hardiest militarisms the world has ever known. Celebrated in history and nationalist mythology for the “divine wind” ( kamikaze ) that blew the Mongol fleet to smithereens in 1274 and again in 1281, Japan’s most heroic battles escaped the shaping hand of literary genius — there is no Tales of the Mongols. Typhoons played their part, no doubt, but Japanese defenders — numbering in the hundreds against thousands; fighting “in loose formation or in no formation at all” (Sansom) against a tightly drilled, highly disciplined army; wielding swords against poisoned arrows and catapults and Chinese firearms — surely deserved a better memorial than history or literature has accorded them. While the fighters fought and the winds blew and the nation stiffened its defenses against anticipated future invasions, prayers rang through the land. “Here is what I have heard,” wrote an anonymous court noble in the 14th-century chronicle The Clear Mirror. “Just as the Great Wisdom (Sutra) recitations at Iwashimizu (Temple) reached their climax, a single black cloud suddenly appeared in the clear sky. … Huge waves sprang up, and the entire invasion force drowned in the wild waters. It was wondrous proof that ours is indeed the land of the gods” — a notion with a long and baleful history ahead of it.


First wave of April elections litmus test for Osaka merger plan

Abstract: For most prefectures, cities and towns, April’s quadrennial unified elections will be the last opportunity for the next few years to vote on local matters. But in the city of Osaka, the April 12 assembly poll is but a barometer — albeit a crucial one — for the May 17 referendum that will decide whether the city will be fundamentally restructured. After choosing a new municipal assembly next month, Osaka’s 2.1 million voters will then be asked to vote yes or no on the question of whether the city’s current 24 wards should be integrated into five large semi-autonomous areas, each with its own elected head and assembly. This would also mean abolishing the Osaka mayor and municipal assembly by 2017. The most recent media polls indicate the vote is likely to be close and that the pro-merger camp is gaining ground. Surveys by Kyodo News, the Mainichi Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun dailies in mid-March showed around 43 percent of the respondents favored the merger and 41 percent opposed it. That’s a change from an Asahi Shimbun poll earlier this year, where more opposed the plan than supported it. The reasons for the shift toward support vary. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga have said the referendum is “significant,” which the pro-merger camp, led by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, welcomed as a huge boost to its efforts. In addition, Hashimoto and Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui have barnstormed the city in recent weeks to push the plan, saying it will make Osaka efficient, more streamlined, more democratic and reinvigorate the local economy. The sight of Hashimoto and Matsui speaking on street corners, often in cold and windy weather, carefully going through detailed flip-charts of the plan for passersby, has convinced many that Hashimoto, if nothing else, is earnest in his desire to sell the plan. In the meantime, merger opponents, including the local chapters of the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, the Democratic Party of Japan and Japanese Communist Party, have found themselves on the defensive these past few months, forced at every turn to provide counter-arguments to the media-savvy Hashimoto rather than clearly articulate a detailed, alternate vision for the city. The result is that they sometimes sound like stern accountants, schoolmasters, or even parents saying “no.” Not the kind of image likely to sway lots of younger Osaka voters who, if the recent media polls are to be believed, tend to be more supportive of the merger plan than their elders. The Mainichi Shimbun poll showed that about 54 percent of voters in their 30s want the merger but only 33 percent of those in their 70s and above are in favor. Where city voters live also plays in role in their inclinations. In the tony areas of north and central Osaka, where many major firms have their offices, support for the merger appears somewhat strong. But in the more working-class districts, as well as the port area, opposition appears to be greater than support, as residents wonder if Hashimoto’s plan will increase the wealth and services gap with the more wealthy districts. However, it’s too early to predict how the referendum will turn out. Hashimoto himself has dismissed the latest polls, saying they’re always changing. Ultimately, the victorious side will be the one that wins the public debate in the coming weeks. The April 12 assembly elections, therefore, will determine which side will go into May enjoying the final, and probably decisive, political momentum in that debate.


Koga's parting shot may not hit its target

Abstract: In February, Reporters Without Borders published its annual list of countries ranked in terms of press freedom. Japan came in at No. 61, down two places from the previous year and lower than Taiwan (51) and South Korea (60). The reason for the decline was the state secrets act , which came into force last December and criminalizes the disclosure of classified information, whether by parties inside or outside the government. Japan had already been falling on the list. In 2010 it was No. 11. The sudden “deterioration in trust,” according to Kobe College professor Tatsuru Uchida , writing in Aera, was brought on by the “ambiguous” coverage of the March 2011 nuclear disaster and subsequent cleanup efforts. Uchida said the Japanese press did not sufficiently investigate the actions of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the government, and as a result Reporters Without Borders assumed the country’s media was under their sway. It’s easy to accept these assertions if you closely follow Japanese media, but it’s difficult to find clear examples of press organs bowing to pressure from above, so when an example seems to present itself, it’s news. Last weekend, the media was buzzing over the dustup on TV Asahi’s “Hodo Station” between commentator Shigeaki Koga and anchor Ichiro Furutachi. Koga is the former Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official who quit some years ago and has since made a living criticizing government policy. For a while he has been an occasional guest pundit on “Hodo Station,” which prides itself on more in-depth coverage than you get from other news shows. The producers appreciate Koga’s willingness to speak his mind, though their superiors at TV Asahi reportedly felt otherwise. Koga has explained publicly, through social media and other means, that he was told in January he would no longer appear on “Hodo Station” after April due to some of his on-air comments about the government’s handling of the hostage crisis, which ended with the death of two Japanese nationals at the hands of the Islamic State group. During a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Feb. 25 he said that TV Asahi executives are “trying to curry favor with the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,” and so they forced the producer of “Hodo Station” to let him go. Though it was not announced as such, Koga had assumed his March 27 appearance would be his last for the program. He was supposed to discuss the crisis in Yemen, but when Furutachi asked him for an analysis Koga changed the subject and mentioned he would be leaving the show due to the desires of TV Asahi’s top brass and Furutachi’s management company, which has a hand in the production. Such a revelation was unusual in and of itself — “Hodo Station” is broadcast live — but Furutachi compounded the surreal quality of the moment by contradicting Koga, saying it “isn’t the case” that he is being dropped. Koga replied that was odd as Furutachi had earlier apologized to him for “not being able to do anything” about the dismissal, and Koga could prove it since he recorded their conversation. He then went on to castigate Abe. Furutachi’s famous candor as an interviewer is a function of his prima donna attitude, and he obviously resented Koga for hijacking the show. TV Asahi was more forthcoming: Over the weekend, its PR department issued a statement blasting Koga, whose remarks about government involvement were “not based on fact.” It chastised him for rudeness and then apologized to viewers, even if the incident was probably the most entertaining thing that’s ever happened on “Hodo Station.” Adding to the excitement was a statement from Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga saying that the prime minister’s office had not put any pressure on TV Asahi to dump the ex-bureaucrat. We can only take Koga’s word for it that he was dropped from the show because of his views, but even if TV Asahi and the government are telling the truth, members of Japan’s mainstream press, unlike Koga, go easy on those in power as a matter of course, and not because they’re intimidated. In a recent piece in Gendai Business about the Reporters Without Borders ranking , former Tokyo Shimbun editor Yukihiro Hasegawa said there is no real press freedom in Japan, “but it has nothing to do with the secrecy act.” Most reporters would never leak confidential information because they aren’t, strictly speaking, reporters. “They are salarymen,” Hasegawa says, and care more about their positions within their companies than they do about their work: “They’re all in line waiting for promotions.” The notorious press clubs, where journalists regurgitate information spoon-fed to them by government organs, are designed so that every news outlet has a fair and equal shot at a story. “It’s an open secret,” Hasegawa points out, “that when reporters talk to politicians, they all share their memos with one another.” This means every news outlet reports the same information, the only difference being the outlet’s “ideology.” As to whether or not this helps the government, Hasegawa doesn’t think it makes any difference. “The media covered the collective forces issue thoroughly,” he says, referring to Abe’s efforts to allow the Self-Defense Forces to participate in military activities with allies, “but the public doesn’t know anything about it.” In a February interview with Mainichi Shimbun , also about press freedom, bestselling novelist Jiro Asada decried gumin shisō —limiting information so as to better control the people — but why should the government need to cultivate “ignorant masses” when the media is incapable of making the news relevant anyway? It’s worth noting that Hasegawa is a political conservative — he has no ethical problem with the secrecy act — who worked for the most liberal daily in Japan. He has seen firsthand how truth is at the service of expedience. Koga’s impromptu rant has drawn both admiration and condemnation, but in the end he’s just screaming into the void.

press freedom
tv asahi
shigeaki koga
censorship


Learning valuable lessons from the yakuza?

Abstract: “He had connections and interactions with individuals related to the yakuza. Why on earth would he be appointed a (Cabinet) minister? The responsibility of the prime minister for appointing him to this position is tremendously weighty.” These angry words were said by a New Komeito Diet member in 2012. The Cabinet minister in question was Keishu Tanaka, a Democratic Party of Japan member appointed as the minister of justice. In contrast, Komeito and the Liberal Democratic Party have remained remarkably silent about the yakuza allegations surrounding Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura. Shimomura lobbied hard for his position in 2012 when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s LDP and Komeito coalition government seized power. He also spearheaded Abe’s program to bring back “moral education” in schools. If you have any ethical sensibilities he appears to be the quintessential hanmen kyōshi — “someone who teaches by setting a poor example.” Even without an education in morality, most people know that it’s wrong to take money from the yakuza or accept campaign contributions that may be possibly illegal. The scandal began in January, when the Akahata Shimbun reported that a front company for the country’s largest crime group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, had donated ¥180,000 over two years to a branch of the LDP — the Tokyo No. 11 district — headed by Shimomura. The company is banned from accepting public works and recognized by the police in Osaka as a yakuza operation, specifically a Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai operation. (Remember that name — it comes up again.) The scandal didn’t attract a great deal of attention and interest in it waned after a short time. In February, however, the Shukan Bunshun reported that Shimomura had received illegal political funds, including contributions from another individual connected to — surprise, surprise — the Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai. He quickly denied the allegations. The Shukan Bunshun and Sankei Shimbun have reported that regional support groups acting on Shimomura’s behalf had not been registered as political organizations and had improperly and, possibly, illegally collected funds on his behalf. These support groups, operating under regional organizations called hakuyūkai , were consortiums of private school and cram school owners. One might suspect a conflict of interest in them funding the man in charge of public education, but let’s put that issue aside for a second. The Political Funds Control Law obliges entities that support a politician or nominate a political candidate to register as a political group and submit reports on their income and expenditure of political funding. The groups run by Shimomura’s regional hakuyūkai failed to do this. When he appeared before the Lower House Budget Committee on Feb. 26, Shimomura said he had never received a donation from the regional groups, nor had he ever received money for “taxi fares” or “travel expenses.” He also described the political groups as voluntary organizations set up by friends in the education industry. At first, Shimomura said he planned to protest over the magazine’s report. He also denied receiving a ¥100,000 donation in 2009 from Masahiro Toyokawa, a yakuza associate and former cram school operator. Police sources say Toyokawa is a longtime associate member of the Yamaguchi-gumi — specifically, the Kodo-kai — and that Toyokawa and Shimomura had known each other for several years. They believe that Toyokawa may still be running cram schools from behind the scenes. Toyokawa also reportedly loaned roughly $6 million to a chain of massage parlors known to be paying protection money to the Yamaguchi-gumi, according to several reports. Toyokawa is important because he was also a central figure in creating the Chubu Hakuyūkai, one of the main political groups collecting funds for Shimomura. Shimomura has changed his story several times and even admitted that his secretary had urged regional support groups not to speak to reporters about allegations of financial irregularities. He has also admitted to receiving the ¥100,000 donation from Toyokawa, reversing previous denials. A former executive member of a hakuyūkai support group held a news conference last month, during which she admitted giving Shimomura an additional ¥100,000 in cash for a lecture, saying the money had come from Toyokawa. Shimomura has denied this. Although the jury is still out on how the country’s “moral education” is working out, it’s hard to imagine that voters condone taking money from criminals or lying while in public office. Since Oct. 1, 2011, it is also illegal to accept money of any kind from “anti-social forces” — including members of the yakuza and its associates. In the same way the government’s new education policy places importance on tradition, domestic politics has long had ties to gangsters. The LDP itself was founded with money provided by notorious underworld power broker Yoshio Kodama. Even Abe’s grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, respected the yakuza, particularly the Yamaguchi-gumi. In 1971, Kishi paid the bail of a Yamaguchi-gumi leader who was later convicted of murder. Abe himself has been photographed in 2008 with Yamaguchi-gumi associate Icchu Nagamoto, but has denied any knowledge of the man. On the other hand, Nagamoto told his yakuza connections that he helped gather local votes for Abe to be elected top dog of the LDP in 2006, thereby ensuring Abe became prime minister in his first time at bat. That said, it’s hard to take a gangster’s words at face value. The law says that accepting money from anti-social forces, asking them to set up your political support group and supporting yakuza-backed groups is illegal. National Police Agency chief Eriko Yamatani also has a history of association with Zaitokukai, a yakuza-linked group that has been identified as being a security threat and is responsible for hate crimes. How much could and should be read into this? Abe has not apologized for the questionable connections of his handpicked Cabinet members. In fact, he has said nothing — I can’t find a record of him condemning the yakuza or those who kowtow to them. The Japanese word for this is mokunin , or admission by silence. Silence, sometimes, speaks louder than words.


Women's participation in elections questioned; sake labels mandatory; Tokyo bathhouses call for one-day lockout; automatic ticket gates employed

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 8, 1915 Women’s participation in elections questioned Women’s participation in election campaigns, which has hitherto been considered a matter of taste, is now reported to become a legal question as well. Those who disfavor the idea of any political action by the gentle sex claim that, while the police regulations, in force, forbid women’s attendance at a political meeting, it is against the spirit of the rule to acquiesce, as was done in the recent general election, by wives, mothers and daughters’ assisting in soliciting votes. If this be allowed, it is further alleged, a race of suffragists and suffragettes would grow in this country, as was done in the West, which must harm the beautiful ideals and characteristics of womanhood in Nippon. Critics will not be slow, however, to remind the lawmakers, whoever they may be, of the inconsistency of allowing women to listen to parliamentary debates and read political discussions in newspapers, books and magazines, and also of the impossibility of barring political reading at any rate. Madame Haruko Hatoyama, perhaps the real pioneer in this new field of feminine activity in Japan and the mother of a newly returned Seiyukai Representative, defends her position on a somewhat novel ground. The candidate can not attend to every detail of routine business by himself, says she, such, for instance, as the hiring of a meeting hall or the bookkeeping of campaign expenses. His relations and intimate friends, therefore, must perforce be asked to help. What she and other like-minded women did in the election campaign was, not to express political views themselves or of others, but the work of faithful messengers to convey their loved one’s wishes to the voters. This certainly does not touch the spirit of the existing police regulations, she further observes, and also is outside the question whether it is right or not for women to discuss politics. The work of pure love, done for one’s husband or son, can not possibly be represented as injurious to the traditional ideal of Japanese womanhood. 75 YEARS AGO Tuesday, April 9, 1940 Sake labels mandatory; price of beer pegged “The time has come,” the walrus said, “to speak of other things, of ships and snails and sealing wax and”… the price of beer (if you can find any) and the labelling of sake casks and bottles (if you can read the labels). All of which means the powers that be have erected another milepost in Japan’s drinking history by ordering labels pasted on sake containers and fixing the price of beer. Nothing is reported, however, on what has been done to supply the sake to go in the keg on which to paste a label or to produce the best to go in the bottle which is to sell for 70 sen a quart. The last report we had from a brave man who began a search for a bottle of beer was not reassuring. However, all we can do is report what the Chugai Shogyo says and what Domei guesses. The Chugai says, according to our translator: “All casks and bottles containing sake or Japanese wine will have labels pasted on them showing the respective contents of alcohol. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry thought of this novel method for the purpose of eliminating all watery kinds of sake and showing the purity of sake for the satisfaction of all tipplers.” Beer prices, according to Domei and Chugai, should come down, if the regulations are to be believed. All you have to do is find the beer. 50 YEARS AGO Tuesday, April 13, 1965 Tokyo bathhouses call for one-day lockout An estimated 2,500 public bathhouses in Tokyo will close Wednesday to press their demands for higher public bath charges. The public bathhouse operators will also hold a rally at Hibiya Park on Wednesday and representatives will call on Gov. Ryotaro Azuma and the Metropolitan Assembly after the rally to present their case. The association decided to close for one day because its request to the Metropolitan Government last November has not been acted upon. The bathhouse operators want to raise the charge for adults by ¥9 to ¥32, for junior high student from ¥15 to ¥25, and for primary school and younger children from ¥8 to ¥15. 25 YEARS AGO Sunday, April 22, 1990 Automatic ticket gates employed at some exits East Japan Railway Co. started using automatic ticket gates Saturday at three Yamanote Line exits at Tokyo and Komagome stations. The system records on tickets the names of passengers’ points of entry and exit, as well as the time and date the ticket was used. The service has been implemented at Tokyo Station’s Marunouchi north exit and Marunouchi underground south exit, and the east exit of Komagome Station. JR East officials expressed hope that the new system will prevent passengers from not paying the full cost of fares. The railway company estimates it loses about ¥20 billion a year in lost fares. At Tokyo Station’s Marunouchi north exit, passengers passed through the gates smoothly during the morning rush hour Saturday. But some passengers were held up because their commuter passes were incompatible with the new system. Some salaried workers complained the new system was “troublesome” because they had to remove their rail passes from the cases each time they passed through the gates. JR East plans to set up automatic ticket gates at other major stations on the Yamanote Line, such as Shinjuku, Ikebukuro and Ueno, by July. Teito Rapid Transport Authority, which runs Tokyo subways, will introduce the system at all its stations within five years.


Naturalized Kabukicho denizen hopes to teach China lesson in democracy

Abstract: Second in an occasional series on the quadrennial unified local elections. The second round will be held on April 26. Komaki Lee gained fame as a pioneering “Kabukicho guide” who showed foreign visitors the ins and outs of the capital’s seedy nightlife entertainment district in Shinjuku Ward. Now he’s going into politics. “I’m not running to become a bossy politician. . . . I’m running as just one foreign resident in Shinjuku . . . running to represent 36,000 foreigners from 121 countries living here,” Lee, 54, said in a recent interview with The Japan Times, speaking in fluent Japanese. “If people call me sensei (teacher), I will scold them.” If elected to the Shinjuku Ward Assembly on Sunday, the China-born Lee will be the first naturalized Japanese in the ward to become an assemblyman. Lee, born in China as Lee Xiaomu, became a naturalized citizen in February after spending 27 years living in Japan. His goal is to become a symbol of change in a society he regards as somewhat closed to foreigners, and to show 1.3 billion people in China what democracy truly means. The former ballet dancer and author now owns a Chinese restaurant in Kabukicho, allowing him to experience the sweet and sour of Japan from the center of the capital. He is also continuing his tour guide business, showing customers around Kabukicho’s fancy stores and restaurants as well as its cabarets, sex parlors and other shady haunts. This has given him an insider’s view on life in Japan. “After 27 years living here . . . I still see signs saying ‘foreigners and nightlife business workers OK’ when looking for an apartment in Shinjuku,” he said, noting this implies both are looked down upon in Japanese society. “You never see ‘salaryman OK’ signs, right?” This bias prompted Lee to pursue a seat on the Shinjuku assembly. Shinjuku has the largest population of foreign residents in the nation. Although 11 percent of the ward’s residents are non-Japanese, its policies predominantly reflect the Japanese perspective, Lee said. Lee’s interest in politics didn’t emerge all of a sudden. His father, a former politician, was arrested in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, leading Lee to develop a critical attitude toward the elitist nature of Chinese politics while living in Japan. Now he can somewhat appreciate Japan for being an open society — at least on a tatemae (surface) level. “(In Japan,) I could do everything my father wanted to do . . . from writing an article to publishing a book to being featured by a newspaper,” all of which he could not have accomplished in China, he said. He even used to write a monthly column for Newsweek’s Japanese edition. Now, by running for office, “I want to tell 1.3 billion people in China about what democracy is like . . . that even a foreigner-turned-Japanese who is involved in a kind of job many people look down upon on can get a chance,” he said. Lee’s first wish has come true. News that he is running for a seat in the Shinjuku assembly has generated huge buzz in China, where it was shared over 8 million times on Sina Weibo, Twitter’s counterpart in China. “They seemed to be surprised to know how I can behave freely,” he said. But Lee has a bigger goal: to improve democracy in Japan by changing the honne (true feelings) of Japanese toward foreigners entering politics. “When I tell people that I’m running for the Shinjuku assembly, even my Japanese friends expressed concern,” he said. “They seemed to be afraid that a foreigner might attain a position (that would allow him) to alter their country,” because they can’t foresee how Japan would change if led by “a foreigner.” Even harsher criticism erupted in Japanese online, Lee said. Some people began spreading rumors that he is connected with the Chinese mafia and wants to subvert Japan from inside. “But such criticism is still part of democracy — the right of expression,” he said, adding that he wants to change such prejudiced mind-sets starting from Shinjuku, a step forward to improve Japanese democracy at the local level by adding a non-Japanese perspective to the assembly. Even if he is not elected, Lee said he will accept that as a sign that Japanese democracy has yet to open its doors to non-Japanese. “My challenge won’t stop” until the day when society accepts various parties and they can live in harmony, he said.


On the pleasing violence of fairy tales

Abstract: Traditional fairy tales are so steeped in blood it’s astonishing that children didn’t all grow up to become deranged in days gone by. Take, for example, the popular Japanese fable “Shita-kiri Suzume” (literally, “Tongue-Cut Sparrow”), which tells the tale of a kind old man, his avaricious wife and an injured sparrow. Some versions of the fable end with the greedy woman being tortured to death by demons, serpents and skeletons. Horror is by no means limited to Japanese fables — it’s a universal revulsion. The original versions of fairy tales that were penned by the Brothers Grimm are full of gore. I was fortunate enough to see some of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm’s stories in London last month as part of an immersive production based on a retelling by British writer Philip Pullman. The show included an adaptation of “The Goose Girl,” which ended with a woman — women typically bear the brunt of the punishment in fairy tales, I’m afraid — being thrown into a barrel that has spikes hammered into it. And, just in case that wasn’t gruesome enough, the barrel was then rolled down a hill. Titled “Grimm Tales,” the production was staged in a crumbling old warehouse on the south bank of the Thames, and took place across several floors. Each space was decorated with spooky things such as creepy doll’s houses and broken clocks. If you stop and think about it, it’s a bit strange that some people genuinely like being scared. Just look at the sheer number of people who flock to see horror movies at movie theaters. Fear, of course, is a vital emotion, and evolved to protect us from the very real dangers of the wild. Humans have an instinctive fear response. If your life is on the line — and it often was back in the day, when humans lived in caves and died from broken bones or something as small as a scratch — it pays to err on the side of caution. Therefore, being afraid when there’s no real apparent danger nearby — that is, watching a movie — seems to be physiologically pleasurable in some hormonal way. Greek philosopher Aristotle developed a few ideas about this. He believed that we derive pleasure from depictions of tragedy because it is cathartic. This may be true, but there’s also something to what suspense mastermind Alfred Hitchcock said in 1974: “Give them pleasure — the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.” Fairy tales are also important from an educational perspective. Instinct does seem to feature in our fear of certain animals. There is some evidence that our propensity for fear of spiders and snakes is genetic, but there needs to be an initial trigger. When we’re born, we’re only naturally afraid of falling and of loud bangs. It’s the same with other animals — they don’t seem to be born with innate fear, rather they learn what they should and shouldn’t be afraid of. One recent and fascinating discovery on this subject concerns smell. We know that certain smells can be associated with fear if they accompany a fearful experience. However, when biologists trained mice to associate the smell of cherry blossoms — of all things! — with electric shocks, they found that even the grandchildren of the trained mice were afraid of the scent of blossoms. The fear response persisted even though the younger generation had never been shocked. Learning to be afraid of the smell of a predator or the sight of a human with a gun is one thing. However, modern society is rather more complicated than what you find in the jungle, and our fears are rather more sophisticated. Learning what humans need to be afraid of in these modern times takes rather more than a close encounter with a snake. This explains the evolution of folk tales. Before public health announcements and compulsory education system, knowledge was passed on orally. As a result, folk tales exist in all cultures. As Hideo Toguchi of Chuo University put it: “In this world of pleasure and pain, everybody is on a long journey in pursuit of happiness. Fairy tales express these symbolic dynamics of life.” Symbolism can be found in virtually all fairy tales. Sexual partners often take the form of animals. In the Pullman adaptation, an ugly frog turned into a handsome prince. In Japanese folk tales, foxes typically disguise themselves as women. Which makes me wonder. Animals don’t have fairy tales to help them learn about danger. Or do they? Some fox cubs visited my garden last year and I enjoyed watching them play. They would stalk each other and tumble around on the lawn. At a very basic level, the play-ambush teaches the cubs about the dangers of the world around them. However, it would be bit of a push to call that a fairy tale. Obviously animals don’t have an oral tradition, right? Not, at least, as we understand it. Putty-nosed monkeys in West Africa have a very basic kind of language. The monkeys make different alarm calls depending on the type of danger. If there is a leopard nearby, the monkeys emit a “pyow” call. If there is an eagle, they shout “hack.” Each call elicits a different response from the group of monkeys. A pyow call causes the monkeys to move away, while a hack cry makes them stay still and take cover. And then there’s a third option: If a monkey puts the calls together and says “pyow-hack,” it means, “Let’s move.” I like to imagine the monkeys at night telling stories to their children by making the calls. Perhaps — and there’s no evidence for this — they act out the movements and reactions piece by piece, making the younger monkeys cling to their mothers in fear while they’re remaining safe in their nests.


Mind the gap: Nara election reveals voter values

Abstract: In the wake of last Sunday’s local elections, big city political reporters were quick to see the results as (1) a mandate for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; and (2) a disaster for the Democratic Party of Japan. The conclusions reached by those far removed from the rest of Japan — the place they sometimes visit during holidays in order to pay their respects to relatives living and deceased — are factually correct and rationally argued. But they offer little clue as to more fundamental social realities driving political choices. The real story behind this year’s local elections is, in fact, many stories. It’s a tale of the “Abe economic bubble” in (parts of) Tokyo and the gap with other regions, of public works critics in Honshu cities that enjoy mild climates and hyperconvenient transport infrastructures, and public works-friendly voters in the remote snowy mountains, forests and fields of rural Hokkaido, Shikoku and Kyushu, and of overcrowded and expensive urban centers and depopulated regions with abandoned houses. In short, the elections were about social, economic, political and even cultural and philosophical divides that will shape Japanese politics for years to come. One example of this was the Nara prefectural governor’s election. Incumbent Gov. Shogo Arai, backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and other established players, defeated Makoto Yamashita, an independent candidate. That’s all you might have read in Tokyo. The real story is that 70-year-old Arai won a closer-than-expected race against 46-year-old Yamashita, despite the former having the support of three major parties (the LDP, the DPJ and Komeito) and facing a candidate with no party support but lots of youthful energy. Arai and the old guard got a scare because a new generation of Nara residents, who often work in neighboring Osaka or Kyoto, is growing in political strength. Like Yamashita, they are younger, urban-educated and have little patience for traditional politics. Their priorities are different from those of Arai’s elderly supporters, where the motto is still “public works projects, spending on social welfare for the elderly, and agricultural protection.” Instead, they seek “economic growth,” as well as better child care, lower taxes, less bureaucracy (read: interference in their lives by bureaucrats of Arai’s generation) and decent public schools. Nara is really two prefectures in one. Northern Nara is home to the city of Nara, UNESCO treasures and a good chunk of its population. Younger residents who share Yamashita’s views are numerous. On the other hand, southern Nara contains some of Japan’s most ancient farmland, deep mountains and rugged forests. Here, younger politicians with “modern” ideas are rarely welcome. As the results showed, for the moment at least, the old guard — i.e. your grandfather’s LDP — remains on top. Not only in Nara but also in pretty much every prefecture nationwide. It’s easy to conclude that this is because there was no real choice, the DPJ and opposition parties are weak, etc. But politics is about convincing people to support you at the ballot box — out of hope or fear, and the latter is especially powerful. A best-selling book last year by the former governor of Iwate Prefecture created such fear by warning parts of Japan could go extinct as birthrates plunged, the percentage of elderly rose, and far fewer women of child-bearing age remained in the provinces. Voters in prefectures that, like Nara, were named in the book as being in danger of losing their populations thus chose safe, stable and well-known LDP candidates. Not just because of a lack of opposition, but also because, at a time of worries about depopulation and uncertainty about the future of their localities, who wants to take the risk of voting for the unknown?

nara
elections
politics
shogo arai
makoto yamashita


Route to base camp blocked, scores stranded on Everest above 20,000 feet

Abstract: MUMBAI - Ankur Bahl, a New Delhi shipping industry specialist, was ascending Mount Everest as part of a quest to climb the world’s tallest peaks when a devastating earthquake in Nepal stranded him about 21,000 feet above sea level. Now Bahl, 54, is stuck at Camp 2, about halfway up the mountain, after the path down was blocked following avalanches, according to his wife Sangeeta, who’s trying to arrange for a helicopter evacuation. About 120 other climbers are either in Camp 1 or Camp 2 and can’t get back to base camp, she said. Failure to evacuate the remaining climbers could add to the death toll on Everest, where at least 19 people, including a Google Inc. executive have already died after Saturday’s earthquake. Many of those killed were at base camp, which was heavily damaged by boulders, snow and blocks of ice. Bahl told his wife via satellite phone on Saturday that his group of 12 climbers felt the tremors while climbing to Camp 2 from Camp 1, which has an elevation of around 20,000 feet. He hung up because the phone was low on battery, and they haven’t spoken since. Madison Mountaineering, the Seattle-based company leading Bahl’s expedition, said on its website that the climbers were safe and would attempt to reach Camp 1 for an air evacuation. The group’s medic, Marisa Eve Girawong of New Jersey, died of her injuries at base camp, it said. The route through the Khumbu Icefall that stands between Camp 1 and base camp is impassable, Garrett Madison of Madison Mountaineering wrote on the site. The group is running low on food and fuel and needs to descend, he said. “At this point our only option to get down is by helicopter evacuation,” Madison wrote. “Our plan is to descend tomorrow to Camp 1 and hopefully with good weather fly to base camp to reconnect with the other members of our expedition who survived the avalanche.” Nineteen bodies have been recovered from Everest base camp, Sitanshu Kar, a spokesman for India’s Defense Ministry, said on Twitter. More than 2,300 people have died altogether in the most powerful earthquake to hit Nepal since 1934. Bahl’s friends were trying to arrange an airlift for him via Indian military helicopters, Sangeeta said. Bahl and Sangeeta, also an avid mountaineer, are attempting to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents.

base camp
mount everest
earthquakes
nepal
avalanches


Iran fires warning shots, boards, seizes freighter in Strait of Hormuz

Abstract: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Iranian forces fired warning shots across the bridge of a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo vessel as it was traversing the Strait of Hormuz in Iranian territorial waters, boarded the ship and directed it toward the Iranian mainland, a Pentagon official said Tuesday. The incident, which prompted the U.S. Navy to dispatch a destroyer and a plane in response, comes as Iran and the U.S. along with other world powers try to hammer out a final deal over Tehran’s nuclear program. The master of the cargo ship MV Maersk Tigris had initially refused an Iranian order to move further into Iranian waters, but after the warning shots were fired the vessel complied, said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. The cargo ship, which had more than 30 people aboard, was directed to waters near Larak Island, he said. The island sits off the major Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and is one of several in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state television reported that only 24 crew were onboard the vessel, and hailed from Britain, Bulgaria, Romania and Myanmar. It said the ship was seized based on a court order due to unspecified violations. Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Bandar Abbas is the main port for Iran’s Navy and separate naval forces operated by the elite Revolutionary Guard, as well as the country’s primary commercial port. It overlooks the Strait of Hormuz, the highly strategic waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. The strait is the route for about a fifth of the world’s oil and is only about 33 km (21 miles) wide at its narrowest point. Ships traversing the chokepoint have even less room to maneuver. The shipping lane in either direction is only 2 miles wide, with a 2-mile buffer zone between them. Iran has in the past threatened to block the strait, a move that could spark a military conflict in the Gulf. American and allied naval forces routinely patrol the strait and have conducted military drills aimed at countering threats such as sea mines that Iran might use to close the waterway. Tehran frequently conducts military exercises of its own in and around the strait. Large-scale, live-fire naval drills in February saw Revolutionary Guard forces assault a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier built in a Bandar Abbas shipyard. “It is inappropriate” for the Iranians to have fired warning shots across the ship’s bridge in Tuesday’s circumstances, Warren said. He said it was too early to know whether the Iranian intervention amounted to a violation of the freedom of navigation through a waterway heavily used by international shipping. Warren said the cargo ship had been boarded by Iranians, but no one was injured and no Americans were involved. The spokesman said the U.S. government has “certain obligations” to defend the interests of the Marshall Islands, but he was uncertain how those obligations to the Pacific Ocean nation apply in this situation. The Iranian vessels, numbering five or six, were with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, he said. The incident began at about 4:05 a.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Time, he said. After the cargo ship sent a distre6ss call, the U.S. Navy sent the destroyer USS Farragut and a Navy maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft to the area of the incident to monitor the situation, according to Warren. Lt. Joseph Hontz, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, which oversees American maritime operations in the region, declined comment further on the incident and referred queries to the Pentagon. Maersk, based in Copenhagen, said the ship was chartered to Rickmers Ship Management, based in Hamburg, Germany. Maersk said it had no information about the crew or the cargo. Sabina Pech, a Rickmers spokeswoman in Hamburg, said she was aware of the incident but had no information and could not comment. In 2007, Revolutionary Guard forces captured 15 British sailors and marines from a frigate in the Gulf, accusing them of operating in Iranian waters. They were released less than two weeks later.

iran
freighter
strait of hormuz
marshall islands
u.s. navy


In China, knock-off Apple Watches have their own fans

Abstract: SHENZHEN, / HONG KONG - Lining the glass display cases of Shenzhen’s giant tech malls, knockoff versions of Apple Inc’s smartwatch were on sale at many stalls, with some Chinese consumers eager to snap them up for a fraction of the cost of the original. “It came on sale in mid-March and has been constantly out of stock,” said one imitation-Apple Watch seller who declined to give his name. “On average we sell around 40 a day. Some customers just came and bought five or more at a time.” The watches, built on Google Inc’s operating system, do not need a separate smartphone to work, said one merchant. At her store, one was retailing for 360 yuan ($58) — around one eighth of the cost of Apple’s cheaper Watch models. One version used a SIM card, could make calls, send messages, browse the Internet and take pictures, she said. In Hong Kong, the official Apple Store preview of the Watch was quiet. No queues stretched down the street as they normally do for Apple product launches. A handful of people waited at the door, outnumbered by Apple staff whose cheers lasted a handful of seconds. Most of the shoppers from mainland China, who commonly cross the border to pick up the latest Apple must-have, were there for other gadgets. “I’m here to buy an iPad,” said a shopper from the southwestern city of Chongqing, who gave her surname as Jian. “I will take a look at the Watch later . . . none of my friends have talked about the Watch back home.” But the technology bazaars in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen were chaotic on Thursday. Merchants hawked their goods to Chinese and foreign shoppers, showing off different smartwatches’ various colors and models. Some were unimpressed with the imitation Apple Watches. “I really want to buy the original one,” said Vikram Jan, an Indian businessman from New Delhi shopping in Shenzhen. “The fake one is really bad.” Though the knockoffs have their admirers, some merchants are doubtful about the impact on genuine Apple Watch sales. “You know some want the real thing and some just want to go for the cheaper option,” said the woman selling knock-off watches. “There are all kinds of customers and people who want the cheaper one would still buy our product.”

china
apple
apple watch
smartwatches
smartphones