Archive for June, 2008

Five Japan-related books to read this summer

Looking for some good Japan-related to read this summer? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Basho: The Complete Haiku – by Matsuo Basho (translation and supplemental information by Shiro Tsujimura and Jane Reichhold)

This newly-released book claims to be the first English translation of the complete collection of haiku by master poet Matsuo Basho. The English language translations of each individual haiku are nice, but the best part of this book are the 159 pages of notes, providing the original Japanese text of each poem, a literal English translation, and a paragraph of English text explaining the significance and cultural meaning of specific words and phrases used in the Japanese original. The book also contains a short biography of Basho and an appendix on Haiku techniques.

[Japan-based readers can obtain this book through Amazon.co.jp.]

2. Uneasy Warriors: Gender, Memory, and Popular Culture in the Japanese Army by Sabine Fruhstuck

An anthropologist takes a look at how a pacifist nation views its armed forces and how members of the Self-Defense Forces view themselves. As part of her research, the author underwent basic training at a GSDF base.

[Japan-based readers can obtain this book through Amazon.co.jp]

3. In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia – by Ronald Spector

A sequel to Spector’s previous book about the Pacific War, this book focuses on the events in Asia immediately following Japan’s surrender. Emphasis is placed on how allied occupation forces dealt with Japanese soldiers/civilians, local nationalist groups, and Europeans who wanted their old colonies returned. This book is only available in hardcover at the moment, but paperback edition will be out on July 9th.

[Japan-based readers can obtain this book through Amazon.co.jp.]

4. Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist by Andrew Osmond

A book about Satoshi Kon, the filmmaker who created anime such as Millennium Actress, Perfect Blue, and Paranoia Agent. If you haven’t seen any of those films, I suggest you watch them while waiting for the August 1st release of this book.

[Japan-based readers can obtain this book through Amazon.co.jp.]

5. Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 by Max Hastings

British military historian Max Hastings examines the final years of the Pacific War, managing to create a book that feels fresh on a topic so many others have already written about. Those annoyed by bad pronunciations of Japanese might want to avoid the audiobook version of this title because the man who reads it really butchers some Japanese names (Kyushu = Kai-u-shu?!).

[Japan-based readers can obtain this book through Amazon.co.jp.]

Bonus: Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America by Eric Jay Dolin

While it’s not exactly about Japan, this book provides some interesting background information about America’s golden age of whaling, and your friends who donate money to Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace will love it’s cover image! It’s finally been released in paperback, so check it out.

[Not available on Amazon.co.jp.]

Surviving a fake Japanese game show

W. David Marx has written a great review of ABC’s I Survived A Japanese Game Show:

Let’s say an enterprising Romanian television network wanted to make a “reality show” in the American mold. For authenticity’s sake, Executive Producer Bogoescu and his team travel to the United States, where they work with a few lower-level TV hands. Although they base the central concept on ideas gleaned from American TV, their production ultimately aims to exaggerate the “reality show” experience to the point of absurd parody, where half the appeal is poking fun at the “conventions” of American TV and the other half is “playing around” within someone else’s television morality. I mean, Romanian networks would never do such terrible things to their cast members. To reinforce the “otherness” of the material, every backdrop of the Romanian show would be made up of Stars-and-Stripes and a rousing Sousa march would provide the opening theme. The audience would have Uncle Sam stovepipe hats and fake guns to shoot in the air. With no real American celebrities willing to host such a two-bit fiasco, the production team would have to bring in a few Romanian-American ringers to act like “real American hosts.” The final product — American Reality Show: I Want to Learn to Torture Terror Suspects and Eat Big Steaks — would retain some elements of North American reality shows, but would be, honestly speaking, a completely Romanian creation.

This “hypothetical situation” is not some strange post-Borat fantasy: this completely explains what American TV network ABC did to make its new reality/game show I Survived a Japanese Game Show…

Read the rest of the article!

If you’re interested in watching it, the first episode of I Survived A Japanese Game Show can be viewed online at ABC.com (American IP addresses only).

Wolves in Hokkaido

Hokkaido’s ultra-popular Asahiyama Zoo has opened a new wolf area:

The new area is supposed to simulate the habitat of the wolves that once inhabited Hokkaido’s forests. A special tunnel has been constructed so that visitors can experience an unique view from domes inside the wolf enclosure.

Investors buy plots of land on Okinawa military bases

Kyodo News reports on the popularity of buying and selling privately owned plots of land within military bases on Okinawa:

The plots, rents for which are paid by the Japanese government, are becoming popular as a safe investment vehicle because their rents increase steadily despite growing concern about the health of the economy, the brokers said.

Plots in the bases which are not scheduled to be returned are popular and are traded at higher prices, they said.

Although local landowners are generally reluctant to sell their plots in the bases, which have been owned by their families for generations, several hundred plots are sold each year on inheritance.

The rent of the plots has increased at an average of about 0.5 percent each year over the past several years. The steady rise in rents stems from landowners’ calls for the government to return their land or the increase in rents during the postwar era.

According to the real estate brokers, plots in the bases are traded at prices about 20-30 times annual rents.

Private land plots located in the U.S. Kadena Air Base, which are not scheduled to be returned, or those in Naha airport, which is used by the SDF, are sold at more than 30 times their annual rent.

Anti-G8 protest in Tokyo

People turned out in Tokyo yesterday to protest the upcoming G8 summit:

The protests, which have become a fixture at Group of Eight summits, came as Japan tightened security ahead of this year’s July 7-9 gathering in Hokkaido, northern Japan.

Two separate rallies in the nation’s capital gathered over 1,000 people, including anti-capitalists, labour union members and protesters from abroad, such as Spain and South Korea.

Security was heavy with hundreds of anti-riot police guarding the streets as protesters walked down Tokyo’s central shopping districts, carrying signs proclaiming various agendas such as “shut down G8 summit” and “G8=hunger”.

Some protesters scuffled with the police. Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi said two people were arrested. Police could not confirm the report.

“Issues like environmental destruction and poverty in Africa, these are all caused by the G8 governments,” said Yu Ando, a 31-year-old working for a municipal government in western Japan.

“I can’t stand that they are proclaiming to solve these issues.”

Elementary schoolers take field trip to watch whale meat processing

Japanese kids tend to enjoy watching a delicious tuna fish be cut apart, but what about whales? One small town sends groups of schoolchildren to watch whalers cut and prepare Baird’s Beaked Whale* meat:

As pro-whaling and pro-conservation countries square off on the other side of the globe, curious Japanese schoolgirl Yuna Suzuki, 10, got a vivid first-hand look at the issue.

Yuna and a few dozen classmates from local elementary schools visited the whale slaughterhouse in Wadamachi, one of Japan’s four coastal towns allowed to catch a small number of the ocean giants.

Clutching a notebook and a pencil, Yuna and her classmates occupied the front row of the crowd Wednesday, bending forward to watch a 10-metre (33-foot) animal — the town’s first catch of the three-month season — be dismembered.

“Look! That’s her heart!” Yuna said to her friends with her face half covered by her hand. “Oh no, so much blood is gushing out.”

Another schoolgirl, Honami Shoji, 11, said, “I feel bad for the animal.”

“But we also eat the meat and appreciate it,” she said calmly. “We’re lucky to be born in this town.”

Schoolchildren of Wadamachi, about 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Tokyo, have watched the whale slaughter since 1999 in this town which is allowed to catch 26 Baird’s beaked whales each season.

If the picture at the top of this post grossed you out, it might be a good idea to stop reading this post before you see these next few photos.
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