Archive for September, 2009

Update on Noriko Calderon

An update on Noriko Calderon, the girl born in Japan to illegal immigrant parents whose fight for special residency became a big news story in Japan:

Several months have passed since Noriko’s parents were deported and Noriko was granted special residency. Noriko is now living with her aunt, a legal resident of Japan whose husband in Japanese. Noriko is still attending school, but her friends say she seems very sad and depressed. Sometimes Noriko doesn’t want to go home and asks to stay the night at her friends’ houses.

Noriko says she is very lonely, but she is replacing that loneliness with a drive to succeed. Life is difficult for her right now, but she must carry on and not give up.

The news grew travels to Manila to interview Noriko’s parents. The streets of their neighborhood are full of unemployed people and street children. Her father would like to see his daughter, but he still hasn’t found a job in the Philippines. They do not want to show their daughter the poverty in which they must now live.

Later in August, Noriko flew to Manila to see her parents for the first time in 4 months. They speak Japanese to each other and Noriko presents them with a bag of natto she brought from Japan. Noriko is happy to see them, but she’s also feeling down about having to leave them again.

At the time the news report was filmed, Noriko’s parents were still unemployed. Perhaps to emphasize their situation, they took the Japanese reporter on a walk that included the nearby slums. It is the first time that Noriko has witnessed the poverty that exists in the Philippines and what kind of a situation she would have been forced to live in if the Japanese government had not decided to grant her permission to stay in Japan.

They interviewed Noriko again when she returned from her 2-week stay in the Philippines. Her trip made her realize that being born in Japan and growing up here has made her consider herself Japanese.

At the end of the report, the news anchors discuss what they have just seen. They note that illegal immigrants should be deported, but that the children of such illegal immigrants have not knowingly broken laws. Such cases deserve special attention and the government should carefully consider the circumstances of the children in each individual case.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Indian smashes through 100 fluorescent light bulbs

A Japanese TV show travels to India to witness a karate instructor named Sanjay who is confident that he can charge through 100 fluorescent light bulbs [apparently a world record]:

A quick Google search reveals that Sanjay appeared on Japanese TV in the past to set a 70 bulb record.

Note: To prevent waste, they only used old burned out fluorescent light bulbs.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Animal cruelty on Japanese TV

The infamous clip of a bear cub being tormented for amusement on Korean TV network SBS’s “Animal Farm” was shown on FTV this week, so that a studio audience of Japanese celebrities could laugh at the animal writhing in mortal fear:

There are a few expressions of pity for the bear, but it’s mostly laughs from the audience. The bear’s experience is presented as an opportunity for him to “learn” how to be strong. At the end of the clip, we can see the results of one month of “training”: the bear is now able to torment the monkey that it once feared.

According to a post over at Korea blog ZenKimchi, a representative of MoonBears.org reported that the South Korean zoo apologized for ethical violations (a fact conveniently left out of FTV’s broadcast):

Dear All,

I am MD of an organization aimed at preserving bear welfare in South Korea, and I have the privilege of acting as the contact point between SBS, Samsung Everland (the zoo), and WAZA, who regulates zoos worldwide. It is noteworthy that this zoo is a WAZA member. This clip has been acknowledged as disgraceful by the zoo, who admits that the behavior displayed in the clip is unprofessional, unethical and in poor taste. As the zoo is in violation of several WAZA codes of ethics, an inquiry was sent and the zoo responded with an apology. We are requesting a formal written stance be posted on the website of the zoo. For those who see this as ‘educational’: This is a zoo. There is no ecological situation in which a bear and a lion co-exist, and animals in captivity are required (by law), to be treated in a manner that mimics nature. No, there is no relevant training occurring, and assigning a human, emotional characteristic to an animal for the sake of entertainment is both ridiculous and ignorant. We find the zookeeper to be unqualified and we regret the positive reception of the clip in South Korea.

As someone who has the luxury of understanding the Hangul and the context, it saddens me that trained professionals would make such poor decisions.

The Show’s creators are still profiting by re-selling the segment, and FTV is apparently happy to pay them for it.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

New Yorkers talk about Hatoyama & America

Another edition of FTV’s segment in which they ask people on the street in Manhattan to comment on Japan-related news:

This time they were asked for their thoughts on how Japan’s relationship with America would change under the leadership of Yukio Hatoyama, who was visiting the United States this week. As usual, they tried really hard to sound like they knew something about the issue.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Japanese media coverage of the Tokyo Game Show

If you were wondering how the Japanese media has been covering the Tokyo Game Show, check out this video of NTV and FTV news segments about it:

The first part is a general look at the show from NTV. They visited the show on a media-only day and were impressed by how many foreign reporters had come to experience Japan’s newest video games. They pointed to the evolution of home gaming systems as the highlight of this year’s show. Project Natal for the XBox 360 is given special attention, with the reporter joining the game’s creator for some wacky dance moves. Later, we are given a look at the presentation of the PS3′s new motion controller and the PSP GO. Towards the end of the clip, the reporter plays around with the gravity grabber, a projector game called Twinkle, and a object grabbing game that is supposed to help with medical rehabilitation.

Six and a half minutes into the video there is a FTV segment about the Tokyo Game Show. FTV places its emphasis on portable games for the PSP GO and mobile phones. Game companies are noticing that many people are now iPhone and iPod Touch owners, so they are trying to break into that market. The number of mobile phone games featured at the show has grown from 110 in 2008 to 168 this year.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Chanting down the mountain

This is a short video (sorry about the bad quality) I took during a climb of Ontake-san 御嶽山 on September 21st.  Ontake-san is one of the holiest mountains in Japan, having been opened for religious practice around the 16th century.

Even now worshipers from all over Japan come to climb the mountain and pray at its many shrines.  These practioners are part of the Shingon sect (真言宗) of Buddhism, which is associated mainly with Mt. Koya.

Shingon practicioners view Ontake-san as their spiritual mother, which they symbolize through the red cords they wear at their hips to represent an umbilical cord.

This group had come from a temple in Ibaraki prefecture.

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Contributor Bio: I am a doctoral student of environmental anthropology currently living and conducting research in a mountain village in Nagano. In my research I explore modernity as it is expressed in a rural mountain community. Specifically I look at national management structures, as well as social discourses, related to forests and probe the impacts these have on local human communities. I have lived and worked in Japan for 5 years. My interests also include Buddhism, literature, music, and mountaineering. Read more at my personal blog: In the Pines.
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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)