Tour Groups Allowed at Tsukiji Tuna Auctions
It looks like a solution has been found to the crowds of foreign tourists who used to disrupt tuna auctions at Tsukiji fish market:
Tsukiji fish market, part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, on Monday once again began accepting visitors to its popular frozen tuna auction–but with a significant new rule. The Tokyo metropolitan government, which oversees the market, now limits the number of auction visitors to 140 a day on a first-come, first-served basis.
A magnet for foreign tourists, Tsukiji market has been in the headlines recently over some visitors’ obstructive behavior, such as using flash photography in prohibited areas and touching fish–some people have even kissed them. In 2008, the metropolitan government began allowing sightseers to view the auction only from a designated area.
Nevertheless, the auction continued to be plagued by its growing popularity. Metropolitan authorities finally decided to temporarily close it to the public after more than 500 people crowded into the makeshift observation spot, which has a capacity of only 70, on April 5.
As you can see from the FTV spot embedded in this post, the visitors were given special multi-lingual instructions to make sure they followed the rules. Although one guy accidentally found his way through the barriers and a few people seem to have violated the “no flash photography” rule, there were no outrageous acts of rudeness, such as licking fish.
While this will probably solve the problem of tourists disrupting auctions and generally annoying workers, it won’t solve Tsukiji’s bigger problems. Recent years have seen a decline in sales for Tsukiji, with supermarkets and other stores preferring to skip the middleman and make direct supply deals with fishermen. Foreign tourists like to take pictures, but they they don’t buy much fish.
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan, Japanese Food
Researchers Find Taiji Residents Have No Mercury-related Health Problems
The test results are in: the National Institute for Minamata Disease has found higher than average mercury levels in hair samples from Taiji residents, but not a single person tested was found to have any mercury-related health problems.
The Japan Times‘s had an informative article on the subject:
TAIJI, Wakayama Pref. — Researchers have found extremely high methyl mercury concentrations in the hair of some residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, where people have a tradition of eating whale and dolphin, but none have developed any related illnesses.
The researchers said Sunday that of 1,137 residents tested, the methyl mercury density in 43 exceeded the level recognized by the World Health Organization as capable of causing neurological damage. The tests covered roughly a third of the town’s residents.
Of that tiny portion of residents who had mercury levels above the WHO warning level, none were found to have mercury-related health programs.
While there is no conclusive proof as to why those with high mercury levels had no health problems, the possibility that consuming naturally occurring mercury is different from consuming industrial waste mercury is mentioned as something that warrants further research:
“At this point, (eating whale and dolphin) has had no impact on residents’ health, but we will continue to ask the National Institute for Minamata Disease to research further,” Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen said in a press release.
Okamoto couldn’t explain why some of the residents had high mercury levels but no symptoms.
“It may be because Taiji people accumulate methyl mercury by eating natural food, while other cases (in Minamata, Niigata and Iraq) were caused by chemical substances containing methyl mercury that were leaked into nature by human error,” he said. “That is my speculation without scientific evidence. We will continue to research that.”
So there you have it. Residents of the town that consumes large amounts of whale and dolphin meat do tend to have higher levels of mercury in their bodies than the average Japanese person, but only a tiny percentage of them have levels exceeding the WHO danger level. Of that tiny group, none have yet developed mercury-related health problems. Further research is needed on why there are no such health problems occurring among these people, who have supposedly been eating whale and dolphin meat for decades. The residents of Taiji seem to be breathing easy now, with some telling the media they are happy to continue eating whale and dolphin meat.
The Associated Press seems to have reported the story with a stronger emphasis on the dangerous nature of the mercury,
Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in Oscar documentary “The Cove” have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, a government lab said Sunday.
It is not until several paragraphs later that the AP mentions that the study found no ill effects from mercury:
Despite the high mercury levels found in the Taiji tests, institute officials said neurological tests on the 182 citizens who wanted them found no problems. Follow-up tests are planned by March of next year, with outside experts possibly invited, and a separate study is under way to track mercury levels in the local catch.
At a presentation for the press on Sunday afternoon, many reporters questioned how there could be no health effects despite such high mercury levels, with some challenging the competency of the lab.
Joanna Tempowski, a scientist who works on chemical safety at the World Health Organization in Switzerland, said the Minamata institute was a respected institution that was trusted to provide technical assistance. Without seeing the Taiji results, she said that some damage from mercury might not appear immediately.
“At some point in the future they might start to show health effects,” she said.
The AP also included a quote from an animal rights activist who believed that the residents of Taiji were eating “poison.” The AP includes plenty of speculation about how the residents of Taiji may suffer health problems in the future, but Okamoto’s theory about natural vs. industrial pollution is omitted. The article gives one the impression that the research results or flawed, or worse – the Japanese researchers may be hiding something. After all, “some” reporters thought the researchers lacked competency.
From a Japanese perspective, this may be significant in disproving the claims of the animal rights activists behind the Academy Award-winning documentary, “The Cove,” who have repeatedly claimed that Japanese people who eat dolphin meat are in serious danger of developing Minamata disease. However, those who read the AP version of the story will likely walk away thinking that “The Cove” has been proven right.
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Categories: Japanese Food
Japanese Naval Cuisine
A Japanese TV show opens up a popular new cookbook of Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force recipes[海自レシピ お艦(かん)の味 元気が出る! 安くて美味しい力めし
] and makes some curry, paella, and tomato stew:Japan’s Navy is known for its good curry, and the studio guests agree that it tastes pretty good. [If you're too lazy to buy the book and cook it yourself, you can buy Navy Curry anywhere around Yokosuka.]
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Categories: Japanese Food
The Vienna Boys’ Choir in Japan
A short clip about the current Japan tour of the Vienna Boys’ Choir, including a short interview with a Japanese member of the choir:
The Vienna Boys’ Choir is popular all over the world, and it apparently accepts talented singers from a variety of countries. The report says that there are currently 4 Japanese members of the choir, one of whom, Keiji, is participating in the Japan tour.
Keiji’s mother bought him a Vienna Boys’ Choir CD when he was in kindergarten, and he wanted to be a member ever since. Three years ago, he was given the opportunity to audition for the choir when they were touring Japan. He was accepted and now lives in Vienna and says that he’s more comfortable speaking German than Japanese.
Near the end of the clip, the boys are shown performing a pop song by SMAP [a full version can be seen 5 minutes into this YouTube video]. Past visits to Japan by the choir have included other songs in Japanese.
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan
Should US Military Bases in Okinawa be Named After Men Who Killed Japanese Soldiers?
Last Wednesday, a weekly edutainment news program on ATV spent a considerable amount of time discussing the recent news about Prime Minister Hatoyama breaking his promise to relocate a US Marine Corps base outside of Okinawa.
At one point in the program, one of the celebrity panelists wondered why one of the Marine Corps bases on Okinawa was named “Camp Schwab“:
The host, journalist Akira Ikegami, explains that the base is named after an American Marine. He reminds the audience that American Marines played a major role in the battle to capture Okinawa from the Japanese, so their bases in Okinawa have been named after war heroes who died in action after “killing many Japanese soldiers.”
The celebrity panelists react with shock. How could the Americans be so insensitive? Even Ikegami agrees that the Americans should probably think more about Japanese people’s feelings. One comedian wonders if the people living nearby Camp Schwab could include some descendants of the very soldiers killed by PFC Schwab.
This practice of naming bases after war heroes is used in all the camps that fall under the umbrella of Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler. Here is a list with Wikipedia links to the biographies of each war hero:
Camp Schwab was officially given its name in the 1950′s, a period when Okinawa was under American rule, and the case is probably the same for the other bases. When the islands were returned to Japan, the names were not changed.
Is it insensitive for the Americans to retain the use of such base names? From the perspective of Japanese outside of Okinawa, this probably seems so. For Okinawans, who tend to view both the Imperial Japanese Military and U.S. Military in a very negative manner, I suspect the issue of base names is relatively unimportant when placed next to the overall question of whether the bases themselves are desirable.
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan, Politics
Silly Chimpanzee Facial Expressions
Last night’s episode of “Shimura Zoo” had performing chimpanzee Pan-kun showing off his ability to make silly faces:
After a few flashbacks of moments in the past when Pan-kun had some funny reactions, he and Ken Shimura review how to make angry, surprised, and silly faces. He then learns the “henna ojisan” dance.
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Categories: Animal Videos