Archive for February, 2008

Japanese Woman Brings Rakugo to France

A report from FTV news about a Japanese woman who traveled to France to perform rakugo comedic storytelling in French:

• The woman in the video is Masayo Kondo, the 53-year-old manager of a winery in Osaka. She studied French when she was a university student.
• She translates the story for her performance into French with the help of her teacher Nikola. She practiced quite a lot for her performance, and the report shows her practicing at a cafe upon her arrival in France.
• The story she tells is about a man and his pet crocodile, which has a taste for human flesh.
• She performs at a Japanese restaurant, and several of the audience members seemed to have liked their first rakugo experience. (Didn’t hear very much laughter in the video, though.)

Ikebukuro Police Checking Foreigners’ IDs

Blogger Max Hodges recently encountered Japanese police who were demanding identification from foreign-looking individuals passing through Ikebukuro Station:

I noticed these police in the station doing random checks of foreign looking people’s identification. I started shooting them, and they got pissed and told me that I couldn’t take pictures (“Shashin wa dame!”)

I held my ground, and we got into a heated debate. I told them to check their law books because I clearly understand there is no law that forbids a photojournalist from taking pictures of police. They asked me to prove I was a journalist so I gave them my business card (which says White Rabbit PRESS and also Publisher. They eventually gave up and started harassing other foreigners.

Read his full blog post about the encounter here, and if you’re interested, check out his photo gallery of the policemen.

In other Tokyo police news, an MPD officer is facing punishment after it came to light that he had pulled a loaded gun on a group of boys who were talking too loud on a public street:

He admitted to the allegations. “I thought I had no choice but to instruct the defiant boys in a high-handed manner. I’m sorry,” he was quoted as saying during questioning.

The Seven Stages of Gaijinhood

The Westerner’s Fear of the Neonsign has an interesting post today about life as a foreigner in Japan, including a graph of the “Seven Stages of Gaijinhood:”

Read the story behind the graph.

Homework Assignment For Tokyo Students: Cut Greenhouse Emissions

If you can’t make citizens do it voluntarily, try making it a homework assignment for their kids:

Tokyo’s Koto Ward Government is set to require all elementary school fifth graders in the ward to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at home as part of their summer vacation homework, officials said.

The ward will launch the project beginning in the academic year of 2008, which starts this April.

“We’d like to raise children’s awareness about the importance of protecting the environment while they are still young,” said Mayor Takaaki Yamazaki.

The local government hopes that families will help with the homework, eventually helping transform local residents’ lifestyles into more eco-friendly ones. “If children take action, then their parents will get involved as well,” a ward government official said.

Prior to summer vacations, teachers at public elementary schools in Koto-ku will give fifth graders sheets on which they are supposed to record their specific actions aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions, such as “turning off lights in unused rooms,” “setting the air conditioner to 28 degrees Celsius” and “shortening the period of taking a shower.”

Chinese Journalist Lies, Doctors Photo

A large version of the photo with flaws pointed out is here.
Ah the Chinese and their counterfeits. Here on the Probe, we’ve seen fake Disneylands and cardboard filled foodstuffs. But this time it is the media that has been caught red handed trying to make the state’s expensive and environmentally controversial Qinghai-Xizang railway look friendly.

Here are some select excerpts from the article on the propaganda controversy:

The train, which soon brought many visitors to the pristine homeland of Tibetan Buddhists, became a flash point for China’s long simmering tensions with Tibet. During construction, it drew fierce protests from environmentalists who said it would threaten the breeding grounds of the chiru, an endangered antelope species found mainly in China.

When the train service began, a remarkable photograph appeared in hundreds of newspapers, and it eased environmental concerns. The picture, captioned “Qinghai-Tibet railway opens green passage for wildlife,” featured dozens of antelope galloping peacefully across the Tibetan landscape, unfazed as the gleaming silver train raced beside them.

The photo was the work of Liu Weiqing, a 41-year-old photographer who had been camped with his Jeep on the Tibetan plateau since March, as part of a highly publicized series by the Daqing Evening News, a regional newspaper, to raise awareness of the rare Tibetan antelope. Mr. Liu was also under contract with Xinhua to provide photos for China’s largest government-run news service.

Media critics say the photo’s deeper message was hard to miss. “It’s such a perfect propaganda photo,” says David Bandurski a researcher at the University of Hong Kong China Media Project. “They don’t tend to give journalism prizes to reports that rock the boat.”

Suspicions about the photo became public last week after Mr. Liu’s photograph was displayed in Beijing’s subway system.

Cornered by the mounting evidence, Mr. Liu admitted he had indeed used Photoshop to blend two pictures, according to the newspaper.

Mr. Liu resigned from the Daqing Evening News

The Antelope is one of the mascots for the upcoming controversially located Beijing Olympics.

Haiku Poet’s Pacifist Story

The Japan Times has a very interesting article today telling the life story of haiku poet Tota Kaneko, who embraced pacifism after witnessing the horrors of war:

Kaneko, a graduate of the school of economics at the Imperial University of Tokyo, enlisted in the Imperial Japanese Navy. After he was sent to the front, he came to realize “war is just about mass killings.” He’s now a staunch believer in the war-renouncing postwar Constitution.

These days, when he is not busy spreading the joys of 17-syllable poems, he lectures about his war experience and the Constitution. “Japan must never use military force and engage in military operations abroad,” he said.

Read the full article here.