Seoul officials plan to ask the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) to adopt the Korean name of East Sea along with the Sea of Japan when the organization holds a general meeting in Monaco on April 23-27 to update its global charts this year. Currently, the IHO’s sea maps only refer to the waters as the Sea of Japan.

“We will never tolerate the sole use of Sea of Japan,” said the foreign ministry official handling the issue.

“The Korean government is preparing to cope with the upcoming IHO meeting with various scenarios in mind,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.

As I noted in a recent post, this policy is influenced by anti-Japanese sentiment. South Korea already uses “East Sea” on its maps, but some can’t stand the idea that foreign countries are using “Sea of Japan.” Although historical records show widespread international use of the name predates Japan’s opening to the world in the 1850′s, these Korean ultra-nationalists insist that the sea must be renamed because Japanese imperialists are responsible for the name.

They suggest that the entire world adopt the translation of their Korea-centric term for the sea. They’d probably want “Sea of Japan” totally removed from maps, but they’ve got to fight their battles one at a time. So the first step is to demand equal recognition of the English translation of the name that Koreans already use.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, another group of idiots wants a new name for a body of water. Mississippi Legislator Steve Holland (D) has answered the requests from voters and submitted a bill that will rename the Gulf of Mexico:

For all official purposes within the State of Mississippi, the body of water that is located directly south of Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties shall be known as the “Gulf of America.”

[Hat tip to Matthew]

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Somebody has translated an Japanese TV documentary about Sea Shepherd’s activities in Taiji and uploaded the video to youtube:

Part 1

The documentary mentions how “The Cove” won the Academy Award for best documentary “last year,” so this probably aired on Japanese TV some time in 2011.

The network that created the documentary, Asahi TV, is considered politically liberal/left. However, even a liberal network has great difficulty feeling any sympathy for the SS members, who harass both fishermen and documentary filmmakers.

The fishermen are pleased to receive attention from legitimate journalists, and even tell the TV crew about a hill where they can film the dolphin hunt. In the early days of the filming, SS members were also willing to be interviewed, but they later decided to sop doing so. ( It’s probably not good PR to have your people make asses of themselves on Japanese TV by talking about how “fun” it is to harass fishermen. )

They also interview Peter Bethune, a former member of Sea Shepherd who resigned after he was arrested and jailed for illegally boarding a Japanese ship. Bethune thinks that Paul Watson and other leaders of Sea Shepherd are dishonest and do more harm than good. Examples of this dishonest include scuttling a ship and claiming that the Japanese whalers “sunk” it, as well as Watson’s infamous “I’ve been shot” episode.

We are also shown activists who oppose the dolphin hunt but do not support Sea Shepherd’s tactics. One is Ady Gil, a former donor to Sea Shepherd who thinks that people should help Taiji develop and eco tourism business. And there is a Japanese woman (formerly a member of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling crew) and a group of foreign activists who are protesting without hatred towards the people of Taiji.

Here are a few links to additional information about this issue:

• Researchers Find Taiji Residents Have No Mercury-related Health Problems
• Sea Shepherd’s Paul Watson: Tsunami That Killed Thousands of Japanese Was Divine Punishment
• Peter Bethune: Sea Shepherd is Dishonest & Morally Bankrupt
• Remember World War II: Sea Shepherd Depicts Japanese As Uniquely Cruel & Dishonest
• “Divine Wind” – Sea Shepherd Leader Praises Typhoon That Killed Over 45 People
• Anti-Whaling Groups Display “Open Prejudice” Towards Japanese
• Profitable Activism: Sea Shepherd’s Skyrocketing Income
• Sea Shepherd’s Paul Watson – Interview With an Eco-Terrorist
• Japanese Professor Denounces “The Cove”

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A video shows a group of babies Tohoku receiving a gift of wooden chairs from a Hokkaido-based project:

All of the babies were born on March 11th 2011, the day of the great earthquake and tsunami. Each oak chair was engraved with the name of the child and a message wishing them strength in the future.

According to the news report, a total of 104 babies were born in Iwate, Fukushima, and Miyagi prefectures on that day.

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Former Tokyo-based freelance journalist Christopher Johnson has been sending Cease and Desist letters to JapanProbe. In these letters, he claimed that his journalism “been beyond reproach for 25 years,” and implies that my recent blog posts pointing out inconsistencies in his “gaijin gulag” article are tarnishing his reputation. This prompted me to look further into his past work.

Freelancer hired by JVA in 2010, but rejected in 2011

In late 2010 Japan hosted the Volleyball World Cup. The Japan Volleyball Association (JVA) paid Canadian freelance journalist Christopher Johnson to write articles about the event.

The 2011 Volleyball World Cup was also hosted in Japan. Although Johnson once again applied for a job with the JVA, he was rejected.

The exact reasons behind the JVA’s decision are unknown. However, we do know Johnson’s side of the story. In a blog post dated November 11 2011, Johnson viciously attacked Hiromi Suzuki of the JVA, claiming that she unfairly blocked his assignment after he received the endorsement of a press officer of the International Federation of Volleyball (FIVB):

“…she cancelled Johnson off the list. ((Last year, though he wrote lengthy, detailed semi-final and final reports, he insisted on also doing a story for a newspaper I never heard of (the New York Times.) That was weird. Even worse, he went home from Hamamatsu on his day off to take care of his dying dog. And when I made mistakes calculating his travel expenses of 14,800 yen, he asked me to do the math again. He’s a troublemaker.))

[...]

“Before Johnson could conclude a deal potentially worth about 1.2 million yen, however, Suzuki seized the chance to get revenge on Johnson for causing “meiwaku” (trouble) by going home on his day off to take care of his dying dog. Over the phone, she told Baker that Johnson threatened to take her to court, and he still owed the JVA 1820 yen (about $25) in transport costs from last year.”

Johnson, who is writing about himself in the third-person, was clearly unhappy about missing out on the deal. The article seems to characterize Suzuki as a lazy idiot who disliked foreigners (“sent by her parents to ESL programs in London, she learned to hate English and distrust foreigners”). Rick Martin, the freelancer who was hired for the position the Johnson had hoped to fill, is characterized as someone hired because he “didn’t ask ‘difficult’ journalistic questions at press conferences.” Other JVA employees are also characterized as anti-foreign, and Japanese journalists are described as showing up drunk to volleyball matches.

[Update(Feb. ]: Johnson has since deleted his original blog post and replaced it with a NYT article. Knowing Johnson’s history of such behavior, I set up a Version tracking page. The cached version of the article is also still up. ]

Rejected freelancer writes articles slamming the JVA (without disclosing past employment)

A few weeks later, Johnson found two media outlets that were willing to publish articles that were intensely critical of the JVA:

• Japan Tobacco accused of marketing to girls at World Cup volleyball (Washington Times / November 24, 2011)
• Is Japan’s 2020 Olympic bid going up in smoke? Rest of the world fuming over tobacco sponsorship of sports in Japan. (CNN GO / December 6, 2011)

Japan Tobacco(JT)’s sponsorship of the JVA had been mentioned in Johnson’s earlier anti-JVA blog post. These two articles take that complaint a step further, framing it as story about anti-smoking campaigners who disapprove of JT.

Both articles failed to disclose Johnson’s past relationship with the JVA/FIVB. It is unlikely that any readers knew that Johnson had once worked as a JVA writer, and had just recently blogged about his intense frustration over having not been re-hired for JVA’s 2011 writing gig. From an ethical standpoint, this seems like a pretty massive disclosure failure. Shouldn’t readers have a right to know that they’re reading something written by a person that could be characterized as a disgruntled former JVA writer?

It is not clear if Johnson had disclosed his past work for the JVA/FIVB when submitting the article to the editors of CNN Go and the Washington Times.

Were cigarettes really being marketed to children?

Near the end of the Washington Times article it is revealed that the products being advertised were beverages:

“JT is a multi-products company and they are our sponsor as the beverage category for this World Cup.”

Readers are informed that the company in question, Japan Tobacco, has a beverage division. They are not informed that JT sells many very popular beverages such as Roots Coffee, Tsujiri Tea, Hot Lemon, and bottled variations of Doutor coffee and hot chocolate.

The JT name and logo are often used in coffee commercials:

It is possible that the articles mentioned in this post may be altered or deleted in the future. For the sake of posterity, here are some cached copies:

• Cached copy of Johnson’s November 2010 blog post about writing for the JVA
• Cached Copy of Johnson’s November 2011 Blog Post Attacking JVA Employees
• Cached Copy of November 2011 Washington Times article about JT’s sponsorship of JVA
• Cached Copy of December 2011 CNN Go article about JT sponsorship of JVA

Megalodon.jp is an automated site that creates cached copies of web addresses. Keeping track of what Journalists write on public blogs is not abuse. I do not understand why Johnson has tried to remove all traces of his volleyball blog entry. Why does he not confidently stand behind his past work?

[A huge thanks goes out to several anonymous cyber sleuths, who were kind enough to inform me about these volleyball articles. And, most of all, thanks to Christopher Johnson. ]

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• Christopher Johnson Under Fire For “Gaijin Gulag” Article
• “Gaijin Gulag” Victim Christopher Johnson Discloses Visa Information ( Work Visa Application Paperwork, But No Approval? )

Johnson is now trying to intimidate me into deleting those blog posts. He wants my criticism of his article to disappear from the internet. I will not be threatened or bullied into silence.

Many people were skeptical about Johnson’s extraordinary story. When people asked legitimate questions about his visa status, he was evasive. When critics pointed to parts of the personal account that they thought were inconsistent or false, those parts would disappear from Johnson’s story. Johnson has edited his blog post numerous times.

In my blog posts, I tried to deliver reasonable analysis and commentary about Johnson’s article/blog post. The edits to the story, Johnson’s comments on Twitter and Debito.org, and Johnson’s refusal to disclose the full details of his visa status made me skeptical. I found it difficult to accept everything he wrote at face value. And I made my views about that rather clear.

I did not claim to know the full facts of Johnson’s case. So when I blogged about his article and his online comments, I did not try to present my commentary as the absolute truth about his situation. I commented on how the situation “appeared” and how things “seemed.”

Moreover, the two blog posts directed readers to Johnson’s own version of the story, as well as several outside sources, at which they could read various viewpoints on Johnson’s story.

I believe that the freedom of speech is a fundamental human right. And that human right extends to the internet. On this issue, I agree with the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s view of bloggers’ rights:

“Bloggers are entitled to free speech…..Internet bullies shouldn’t use copyright libel or other claims to chill your legitimate speech.”

Unfortunately, Christopher Johnson does not appear to share my belief of what constitutes free and legitimate speech.

Here is a copy of a threatening e-mail that Johnson sent to Japan Probe:

Tokyo-based freelance correspondent for the Washington Times, New York Times, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail Report on Business, CTV Canada, CBC Canada, DW-TV Berlin, France 24, Asia Times, Japan Times, CNNGO, CNN.com and others

Johnson’s threats are ridiculous. It is not cyber bullying or defamation when a blogger writes analysis and criticism of articles and public statements made by a public figure.

My response to the accusations Johnson makes in his threatening e-mail can be found below.

Claim 1: I took Twitter conversations “out of context” to slander Johnson

Answer: My observation was based on the entire Twitter conversation. I was not taking remarks out of context. Twitter conversations are not private. Both Johnson and Adelstein know this, as their profession quotes and republishes tweets all the time. Their conversation took place on a public forum and I was expressing my view of that conversation.

Johnson apparently does not want anybody else to get a look at the context of the conversation. He has deleted most of the tweets. (A couple survive as screencaps: Johnson compares himself to a rape victim / Johnson is more important than TokyoReporter )

Claim 2: There is “no evidence” to support my claim about “highly unlikely and possibly wrong parts of the article.”

Answer: It is not illegal to express a view about something being “unlikely” or “possibly wrong.” The content of my blog post corresponded with what other critics were already writing on other sites (Tepido.org, FG, Debito.org, and the Economist).

Claim 4: In fact, temperatures often reach minus 40 C in Alberta.

Answer: Pretty funny, coming from a person who accused me of taking information out of context. In Johnson’s original article, he complained about being expelled from Japan “onto a flight to Canada without much winter clothing for minus 40 temperatures in Alberta.” As I wrote in the post, temperatures that day in Alberta were not anywhere close to minus 40. And he had just arrived in Japan on a flight from Seoul, where it was actually colder than Alberta. (Johnson’s original statement sure sounds like an exaggeration to me, and I’ve visited Canada in winter too.)

Claim 5: The quotation about authorities having “acknowledged the receipt” of a work visa application was a fabrication.

Answer: The quotation is accurate. It is not a fabrication. I copy-pasted it directly from Johnson’s article. There is nothing wrong with commenting on what the passage seemed to say about his visa status.

The fact that he later edited the post and removed that passage does not mean that line never existed. The changes to Johnson’s blog post were well documented by several sources.

Perhaps Mr. Johnson has changed his story so many times that he has become unable to keep track of what he has and has not written. That’s Mr. Johnson’s problem.

Claim 6: To “support” my “malicious claims” I cited a defamatory comment by [personal info].

Answer: Johnson made some very strange comments on Debito.org about NHK and Serbian propaganda. The quote from FG Forums makes a humorous observation about public comments from a public figure.

Claim 7: Bringing up Johnson’s March 2011 report about having fled Tokyo “has no point or relevance, other than to tarnish my professional reputation.”

Answer: It is relevant because Johnson’s Narita article contained a passage emphasizing that he had not fled Japan after the disaster.

I believe the transcript is accurate. I am quoting Johnson’s own words. There is nothing unreasonable about remarking that news reports about people fleeing Tokyo encouraged other people to flee.

It is odd is that quoting him verbatim is “tarnishing” his professional reputation. Does he no longer stand behind his work?

Claim 8: The Japan Probe “articles make no attempt to balance your slanderous attacks against me with the facts of the case.”

Answer: I am under no obligation to include the information that Johnson insists I should have included in the posts. Johnson has a very odd idea of “the facts of the case,” since they mostly appear to be facts about entirely different incidents. And, as I have already mentioned, I directed readers to visit other sites to learn more about Johnson’s case.

Claim 9: Johnson is facing “slanderous attacks in the comments section of The Economist and other sites, including Japanprobe.”

Answer: Johnson doesn’t specify any comments. Generally, I support the idea of readers freely expressing their opinions about public figures, even if those opinions may be negative.

So, there you have it. The letter doesn’t appear to contain any other claims worth answering.

Should you be publishing this?

Johnson’s e-mail contained a header declaring that it was “confidential” and prohibiting “distribution, copying, disclosure or modification” of its contents. While such a header might be an effective scare tactic against some people, I know it to be invalid:

Question: Is a cease-and-desist letter confidential?

Answer: There is ordinarily no expectation of privacy or confidentiality in a letter sent to an adversary. Unless you have made a specific promise of confidentiality beforehand, such as in a protective agreement or NDA, a letter demanding confidentiality doesn’t bind you.

And so Johnson’s C & D letter has been published here and has been submitted to Chilling Effects’ database of C & D letters, where it will soon be archived.

Aside – Johnson thanks his critics?

Yesterday morning, Level3 wrote a comment on how Johnson’s critics had pointed out holes in the original Narita story. Johnson’s subsequent edits and deletions seemed to reflect this. It was almost as if Johnson had been altering his account to be more believable. Questionable sections suddenly disappeared and new details were miraculously discovered to fill holes in the story. Level3 wrote that “us evil stalkerz at tepido, and FG, and Japan Probe served as editors” for Johnson’s story.

Soon afterwards, Johnson wrote this on his Twitter account:

Note: This website is not located in Japan.

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Taiwan’s NMA news reports on how Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish has been “dating” adult film actress Kirara Asuka:

Even though baseball season hasn’t started just yet, Japanese baseball star Yu Darvish has generated US$258 million in advertising revenue in January alone — the same amount generated by the 2nd and 3rd most popular Japanese stars, an advertising research company has calculated.
He is also reportedly dating a Japanese adult video star known for her “electric tongue.”

More recent tabloid reports have claimed that Darvish is in a relationship with golfer Miho Koga.

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They think he’s the same person as this ruffian who clashed with police outside the offices of Chongryon (Chosen Soren), an organization of pro-DPRK Korean residents of Japan:

They both share some facial features:

Those that see the “Korean Wave” in Japan as a fabrication are claiming that this is yet another example of how Korean pop culture’s popularity in Japan is part of an anti-Japanese conspiracy. They are not at all surprised that KARA would be seen associating with North Korean agents.

According to an article on the Rakuten/Infoseek Woman news site, the entertainment company that handles KARA has stated that the man is a “schedule manager” for the music group. They are looking into the accusations that he is a member of Chongryon.

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The Tokyo Gate Bridge will open to traffic next week. To celebrate the opening of a new Tokyo landmark, a special running event was held there yesterday.

Here’s a video of about 5,500 runners crossing the bridge:

Some specs:

The bridge, which links Wakasu district in Koto Ward with the central breakwater, features a unique shape, which resembles two dinosaurs facing each other.

Located at a height of 87.8 meters, it is 2,618 meters long, of which 1,618 meters are above the sea. It is longer than the 798-meter Rainbow Bridge, also in Tokyo Bay, the 860-meter Yokohama Bay Bridge and the 1,020-meter Tsurumi Tsubasa Bridge, also in Yokohama.

And its purpose:

The road is expected to serve as a bypass for Tokyo Wangan Doro (Tokyo Bay coast road), a main transportation artery, which is often jammed with vehicles.

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Italian tennis player Sara Errani has confessed that she skipped the September 2011 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo because she was afraid of radiation:

Sara Errani has admitted fears of a radiation leak after last year’s tsunami in Japan forced her to withdraw from a tournament in Tokyo.

Errani…..had previously cited only personal reasons for missing the event.

Had the tournament taken place in March or April, one might have been able to sympathize with her decision. Fearing a trip to Tokyo in September, however, was ridiculous.

Update: Christopher Johnson, the Canadian freelancer responsible for the infamous “Gaijin Gulag” article, has used his Twitter account to lash out at JapanProbe:

The sensational reports he filed after fleeing Tokyo in March 2011 were bad enough. Now he’s insisting that a short term visit to Tokyo in September would have been dangerous. And, just as he did back in March, he’s trying to insult those of us who stayed in Tokyo instead of fleeing. What an astounding display of stupidity.

It’s no surprise that event organizers asked reporters not to ask players about the radiation: the tennis tournament was not being held in a contaminated area and had nothing to do with Fukushima.

Update 2: Johnson has continued public tantrum about this post.

If you’re critical of a tennis player’s decision to avoid Tokyo because of radiation fears you are: a coward, a sexist, a dweeb, a geek, and a tool of the older male authorities.

VK has commented about this on Tepido.org:

Mr Johnson has been going off on one on Twitter about JapanProbe. They reported on an Italian tennis player who refused to play in Tokyo last September because of radiation fears.

Johnson retorted: extreme cowardice: blame healthy young female athletes for fearing nuclear radiation during meltdown.

“Nastiness” I could understand as a coherent comment, whether or not I agree with it. “Patronising wankiness” would pass the sense test. But “cowardice”? About people who didn’t flee, talking about someone too scared to come, said by someone who fled? Shaky grip on the language. And he’s quite clearly got a phenomenally loose grip on sciencey things. I’m surprised he’s got the courage to touch his computer.

Stay classy, Mr. Johnson.

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A Japanese news report about a group of 15 Chinese “trainee” workers who survived the March 11th tsunami, went back to China, and are now coming back to Tohoku to once again work in factories:

Among the group are five workers whose lives were saved by Sato Mitsuru, who was commissioner with the Sato Fisheries Corporation on March 11th. After leading Chinese trainee workers to safety, Sato went searching for his family and was swept away by the tsunami. The story of Sato’s death was major news in China, where he was hailed as a hero.

According to the Yomiuri, the number of Chinese trainee workers in Japan dropped dramatically after March 11th. Thousands fled the Tohoku and Kanto regions due to radiation fears. Although numbers are slowly increasing, some are apparently steering clear of Tohoku.

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If you watch Nihon TV’s Zip! morning show, you probably recognize the dog in the picture above. It’s Zippei (ジッペイ), a cute and fluffy Samoyed dog that travels around Japan as the television show’s mascot.

Every day, Zippei visits a different area, interacting with locals and spreading awareness about the show. The clip below shows a typical Zippei segment:

As you can see, Zippei is extremely well-behaved and never seems to make any noise. This bizarrely unnatural lack of barking gave rise to internet rumors that the Zippei had undergone surgery to remove his vocal cords. Some netizens who claim to have attended Zippei events said they saw the dog trying to bark, but not making any actual bark sounds.

The Asahi Shimbun is now reporting that the internet rumors were true: Zippei had a vocal cordectomy. The procedure took place before Zippei appeared on TV. It was supposedly not a pre-condition for the dog’s participation on the program. NTV is not commenting on whether it approves or disapproves of such surgical procedures .

According to Wikipedia, some people in the United States and Europe consider it cruel. It has even been outlawed in some areas:

The procedure is outlawed as a form of mutilation in the United Kingdom and all countries that have signed the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals. In the United States, devocalization is illegal by state law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and by city ordinance in Warwick, Rhode Island. Efforts to ban devocalization are underway in other states.

If the 2channel comments picked up by Itai News are any indication, it seems that quite a few Japanese people also strongly disapprove of de-barking surgery and are disgusted by NTV [むごい話だ / 動物虐待じゃん / ひどいね / 日テレは動物をオモチャにするのが好きだな ] .

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The Chairman of the UNSCEAR has announced that the health effects from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster will be relatively small because radiation was leaked into the sea instead of the air, and because evacuations of residents were carried out promptly:

The fact that some radioactive releases spread over the ocean instead of populated areas also contributed to limiting the consequences, said Wolfgang Weiss of the U.N. Scientific Committee on the effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR).

“As far as the doses we have seen from the screening of the population … they are very low,” Weiss told Reuters. This was partly “due to the rapid evacuation and this worked very well.”

[...]

Asked whether he was optimistic that the overall health effects would be quite small, Weiss said: “If we find out that what we know now is representing the situation, then the answer would be yes … the health impact would be low.”

More information from the American Council on Science and Health:

(Weiss) remarked that the situation in Fukushima was not at all comparable to Chernobyl — the nuclear reactor whose specter has created unduly fearful expectations in many people.

ACSH’s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan remarked on the U.N.’s sound approach to its assessment. “When you’re looking for effect,” she says, “you look first at the high exposure groups to see if you can determine any impact. Not even right there, in Japan, have they discovered any kind of health impact from the wrecked plant.”

ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom is not surprised by UNSCEAR’s initial findings. He recently addressed the wildly disproportionate health fears of the American public following the nuclear plant damage in Japan. Much of that concern stems from an uninformed, outdated reaction to the entire concept of nuclear radiation, he says.

A few weeks ago, Dr. Bloom wrote a great piece addressing some fear-mongering pseudoscience: “Garbage In, Anti-Nuclear Propaganda Out: The 14,000 Death Fukushima Lie“

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For the last several years, South Korean ultra-nationalists have been lobbying publishing companies and governments around the world, demanding that “East Sea” replace or be written alongside “Sea of Japan” in maps and books. They are angry about how people in other countries call the sea to the east of Korea by a
“pro-Japanese” name.

Although there are mountains of historical evidence that show widespread international use of the name predates Japan’s opening to the world in the 1850′s, these Korean ultra-nationalists insist that Japanese imperialists are responsible for the name.

As an alternative, they suggest that the entire world adopt the translation of their Korea-centric term for the sea: “East Sea.”

Their misinformation campaign appears to have gained some ground in areas of the United States with large ethnic Korean populations. Several days ago, they tried to trick the state of Virginia into requiring the use of “East Sea” in its textbooks. Luckily, the State Senate rejected their plan.

As reported by Korea’s Arirang News:

The Senate’s Education and Health Committee voted down the legislation 7 to 8, brought to a vote by Democrat Dave Marsden representing a constituency with a large Korean-American community.

The bill was strongly opposed by Republicans who called the measure “micromanagement” and raised concerns over possible strife and disorder that could arise from the legislation.

Korea argues that historically the more common name for the body of water between Korea and Japan is “East Sea” and NOT the “Sea of Japan.”

If you live in Virginia and would like to express your displeasure with Senator David Marsden’s blatant pandering to foreign ultra-nationalists, contact him via Twitter, Facebook, or his website.

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It’s supposedly due to mismanagement of funds. The bread in the photo is made from rice flour, making it significantly more expensive than typical bread. It’s basically a subsidy for rice farmers. The leftover money is spent on very simple foods.

Over at Itai News, we can see that Japanese netizens were pretty surprised by the sad-looking school lunch, which looks far worse than meals served in Japanese prison cafeterias. Adult males require more calories than little kids, but the prison food still looks a lot nicer.

Note: The photo does not show a typical Japanese school lunch. It’s received a lot of attention in Japan because Japanese people think it looks abnormally meager. As a former ALT, I can tell you that Japanese school lunches tend to be very nice. Schools usually have monthly menus with new and healthy foods every single day. (No nasty frozen pizza)

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The video has already been taken down, but caused much consternation when it was discovered early in the morning on Jan. 30.

According to Nishida’s representatives, it is believed that someone hacked into Nishida’s YouTube account — which the Diet member uses to post videos related to his political activities on his website — and posted the obscene material.

Screencaps and backup videos are available via 2channel aggregate blogs (maybe NSFW – although women appear to be fully-clothed).

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A man brings coffee and a gramophone to Tohoku (video by Mackenzie Sheppard):

A short vignette of Yoshi Masuda–a coffee enthusiast who is sharing his passion for coffee with victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

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Just stumbled upon Castle Tintagel, a business near Mejiro station in Tokyo that offers lessons in medieval European swordfighting. Here’s a YouTube video about it:

Ever wanted to be a medieval knight? To learn how to fight with sword and shield? To armor up and fight upon the field of honor? Or perhaps to learn how to dance, sew, and write like they did in medieval Europe? Then Castle Tintagel is the perfect place for you! We are Tokyo’s one and only medieval Western martial arts and cultural center. Here you can learn anything from 15th century German longsword to Renaissance dancing.

Event photos can be seen on their blog.

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As human beings, we need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids. Luckily, the Japanese Diet is moving to protect this nation’s water supply from potential threats:

The legislation to be sponsored by lawmakers of both parties aims to prevent the purchase and uncontrolled development of reservoir areas by foreign capital.

The move comes amid increased purchases by foreign funds of forest areas that serve as sources of fresh water.

[...]

The bill would stipulate that water is a precious, shared national resource, and the central and local governments have a responsibility to devise and implement water-related policies.

News articles mention foreign investors buying forest areas, but the exact country of origin of the investors and the purpose of such purchases is not entirely clear.

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Remember Kevin Maher, who lost his position in 2011 as director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Japan Affairs after American students told the Japanese media that he had called Okinawans “masters of manipulation and extortion” who were “too lazy” to farm fruit?

Now that he’s no longer employed by the U.S. government, Maher has been strongly denying the accuracy of media reports about his remarks and criticizing both the Japanese government and the Obama administration. He’s released a book in Japanese, called “The Japan That Can’t Decide“(決断できない日本), and it’s supposedly been selling pretty well.

He’s also found an audience in America. Here is a video (1 hour 35 minutes) of Maher giving a speech about the main ideas of his book at the Heritage Foundation, one of America’s most influential right-wing think tanks:

At the beginning of the speech, Maher gives his side of the story about the students and his remarks about Okinawa. He states that the media reports were based on notes taken long after his actual speech and implies that the students had political motives. He also says that the State Department offered him a position in Australia after his dismissal from service in Japan, but he refused to accept “hush money” from them. He wanted the freedom to speak freely to the public.

A Heritage Foundation blog post has summarized his critical views of Japanese politics:

Japanese officials have become so fraught with indecision, he said, that Japan is mired in a perennial policy stalemate. Maher identified several reasons for this situation, including a consensus-building parliamentary system that empowers small minorities to block major decisions, a loss of confidence among politicians resulting from Japan’s lost decades of economic stagnation, and an aversion to taking risks and assuming responsibility.

Maher blamed Japan’s consensus-building approach and emphasis on domestic political concerns for the ongoing stalemate over the planned U.S. military realignment on Okinawa, particularly the Marine Corps Futenma Replacement Facility. Japan has passed the buck on implementing the previously agreed-upon plan of relocating Futenma’s air assets to Camp Schwab, transferring 8,000 Marines to Guam, and reducing the burden on the local population.

Maher emphasized that Japan’s populace and political leadership must take security issues more seriously—a weakness underscored by the meager 1 percent of GDP spent on defense. Maher condemned proposals to relocate Futenma’s helicopters off Okinawa, noting that Marine Corps units must constantly train with integrated air, ground, and logistics assets. In his words, “if they don’t train together, they die, and we will not sacrifice Marines’ lives for Japan’s domestic political concerns.” Japan must simply wake up to its security environment and understand why U.S. Marines on Okinawa are essential to peace and security in the Pacific.

The AFP also had a story about him, in which focus was placed on his view of the Kan Administration’s weak response to the Fukushima crisis:

Maher said that the US government was privately terrified over the unfolding crisis. He accused Japan’s then prime minister, Naoto Kan, of evading responsibility and trying to pass the problem over to the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co.

“I remember sitting on a task force many a time thinking, ‘Who the hell is in control in Japan?’ The government’s not doing anything. Kan made one trip and flew up and got in the way and came back,” Maher said.

Maher said that he watched in horror as he saw television footage of a sole helicopter dropping water on the stricken plant.

“Is that the best Japan can do?” Maher said. “Frankly what happened is the US government called in the Japanese ambassador and said, look, you have to take this stuff seriously. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Maher said that the United States was even looking at whether it would have to evacuate some 100,000 Americans, although it soon became clear that Tokyo was not in harm’s way.

Maher thinks that in the early days of the crisis, there was nobody at the government level who wanted to take responsibility for the Fukushima crisis. The Kan Administration wanted it to be “Tepco’s problem” instead of the government’s problem. This was “irresponsible” behavior. After about March 16th, the crisis management increased greatly.

Some of the points he makes in the speech:

• The scandal about his alleged remarks took place was top news the day before the earthquake/tsunami. After March 11th, newspapers on the mainland devoted their attention to the gigantic disaster. But the Okinawan press supposedly thought Maher’s scandal was more important, and gave it more attention than the disaster.
• The Okinawa base issue is just like the issue of hold-out houses in the middle of Narita Airport: Japanese politicians try and fail at consensus-building, so a small minority can spoil policies that should help the entire country.
• When Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashed in 1985, Japanese SDF helicopters could not send down rescue crews because it was dark and they lacked night vision equipment. The American military offered assistance, but were rejected. As a result, injured survivors died while rescuers waited until sunrise. Maher thinks that bureaucrats turned down the American offer because they thought that it would take too long to build a consensus for its approval.
• Because Japan’s crisis management system relies on consensus-building, it basically has no effective means to deal with a crisis. (He doesn’t know how one would translate the idea of OBE into Japanese.)
• Japan needs to understand that “not deciding is deciding.”
• The real problem is that politicians do not want to take responsibility for tough decisions. If you build consensus before making a decision, everyone is responsible for it. But if you have to decide something without consensus, you’ve got to take responsibility.
• People in America who tell the Japanese to “put aside” the North Korea abductee issue are wrong. If American citizens were kidnapped by Cuba, America would probably go to war. How can you tell Japan to just ignore such a problem?
• Japan and America should not ignore the fact that China is a “totalitarian dictatorship.” China is a “real threat” to Japan.
• The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force should aquire nuclear-powered submarines to counter China’s growing naval strength.
• Japan needs to face security issues head-on and make the difficult decisions that need to be made. This involves explaining the necessity to the Japanese public.
• The relocation of Futenma Air Station to Henoko is the best solution available. Unfortunately, it will probably not be implemented. (But the security relationship between America and Japan is still functioning well. )
• Keeping Futenma’s helicopters near the other Marine bases on Okinawa is vital for their training. And adequate training is a matter of life and death to the marines. Unlike the Japanese, they face the realistic possibility of being sent to a war zone. (Unnamed Democrats criticized him after he said this to Hatoyama’s advisors in 2010.)
• Noda has the potential to be a stronger leader than Hatoyama or Kan. But it is difficult to look forward and predict how things will turn out.
• Japan needs to restart most of its nuclear reactors. Otherwise, electricity shortages will seriously damage the economy.
• The population is declining because many people aren’t optimistic about the future of Japan.
• He isn’t criticizing traditional Japanese culture. Japanese politicians in the 1950′s and 1960′s knew how to make decisions. Japan’s current problems are brought on by a lack of confidence, possibly due to economic stagnation.
• “The Japanese people deserve better politics.”

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The cover-up has come to an end! Prime Minister Noda has removed his eye patch:

He’d been wearing the patch for the last two weeks:

Complete with patch – more surgical than piratical — the premier later explained to reporters that the self-inflicted blow came in the dark as he rushed to try to pick up an unexpected call.

“The phone suddenly rang in the middle of the night,” the prime minister explained, “so I got up and rushed to get it, and then bumped into a pillar.”

Now he’s just wearing makeup to hide the bruises.

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The trailer for “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom,” a short documentary about the aftermath of the March 11th disaster:

Survivors in the areas hardest hit by Japan’s recent tsunami find the courage to revive and rebuild as cherry blossom season begins.

A stunning visual poem about the ephemeral nature of life and the healing power of Japan’s most beloved flower.

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The preliminary calculations conducted by a team from the university’s Earthquake Research Institute were based on intensified seismic activity in the area after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11.

The findings are more dire than a similar estimate by the central government’s Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion, which states there is a 70 percent chance a quake of the same scale will hit the southern Kanto region, including the metropolitan area, within 30 years.

Sounds pretty scary. Should we believe the forecast? Not necessarily.

In April of 2011, Nature published “Shake-up time for Japanese seismology” by Professor Robert J. Geller of Tokyo University (Japanese version available here). Geller argues that earthquakes cannot be reliably predicted.

When one compares the Japanese government’s national seismic hazard map to the actual areas where large earthquakes have occurred in the last 30 years, one notices the problem:

“Although such maps may seem authoritative, a model is just a model until the methods used to produce it have been verified. The regions assessed as most dangerous are the zones of three hypothetical ‘scenario earthquakes’ (Tokai, Tonankai and Nankai; see map). However, since 1979, earthquakes that caused 10 or more fatalities in Japan actually occurred in places assigned a relatively low probability. This discrepancy — the latest in a string of negative results for the characteristic earthquake model and its cousin, the seismic-gap model — strongly suggests that the hazard map and the methods used to produce it are flawed and should be discarded.”

Very general predictions are possible:

“If global seismicity and the historical record in Tohoku had been used as the basis for estimating seismic hazards, the 11 March Tohoku earthquake could easily have been ‘foreseen’ in a general way, although not of course its particular time, epicentre or magnitude.”

But the Japanese government continues to rely on methods that attempt – and apparently fail – to predict earthquakes of specific magnitudes taking place in specific regions.

“All of Japan is at risk from earthquakes, and the present state of seismological science does not allow us to reliably differentiate the risk level in particular geographic areas. We should instead tell the public and the government to ‘prepare for the unexpected’ and do our best to communicate both what we know and what we do not. “

Much of Geller’s article focuses on the Japanese government’s official Tokai earthquake prediction. However, the general message is clear: there is no reliable method for forecasting earthquakes.

The latest forecast for Tokyo does not appear to represent a sudden new breakthrough in the field of earthquake predictions. What’s new about it is that heavy emphasis is placed on the increase in seismic activity that occurred in the 6 months following the March 11th disaster. [For a detailed analysis of the forecast - see this post. ]

Some of the articles about the new Tokyo prediction have presented it alongside the highly questionable Tokai earthquake prediction. Both predictions are based on methods that have not been verified as accurate.

Don’t trust the hype. Big earthquakes do happen in Japan, but experts do not know where and when the next big one will occur. If you live in Japan, be prepared for earthquakes, even if you’re outside of what have been deemed high risk areas.

[gigantic hat tip to Steve]

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Are you wondering how a group at the Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) calculated a 70% chance of a Magnitude 7 quake occurring in the Tokyo area within the next four years? If so, take a look at the above plot of historical Japanese earthquake data that compares the number of quakes per year to the total energy released by each quake.

First of all, ERI didn’t do this from scratch. They started with a potentially flawed government calculation and suggested a new value based on recent observations. This new value is 98% chance within 30 years, which translates to 70% in 4.

Now to the plot. let’s consider the filled symbols, which represent data spanning as much as the past 55 years, up to 2010. The frequency of earthquakes rapidly and predictably decreases with magnitude, meaning larger quakes happen much less often than smaller ones. The relationship between frequency and magnitude is shown by the dashed lines. One line doesn’t fit the entire dataset. Rather, the occurrence of quakes in excess of M4 decreases more rapidly with size (and therefore plot along a different line).

Next, let’s look at the open blue circles, which are about 6 months worth of data, from March 11 to August 1, 2011. As you can see, these data exhibit a similar slope but plot significantly higher than the pre-3/11 data. This indicates that higher-magnitude earthquakes have occurred more frequently since 3/11, a fact of which anyone living in eastern Japan is keenly aware. There appear to be too few occurrences of quakes larger than M4 to calculate a robust fit, (i.e., no corresponding dashed line) though it appears that the slope for the larger quakes is also similar to the pre-3/11 data.

Finally, we come to the new prediction. In the bottom right of the plot, the government’s official prediction of a M6.7 – 7.2 quake occurring in Tokyo is overlain as a yellow star and horizontal solid line. The folks at ERI simply recalculated this based on the  equation for the extrapolated fit between earthquake frequency and magnitude since 3/11.

There you have it. That’s how they did it. But is it correct?

I’d argue that this analysis, while interesting, contains several important flaws.

1. The new prediction is based on extrapolation from a perturbed state. That is, the frequency of earthquakes is currently elevated but likely to drop to normal over time.
2. It is based on very few observations.
3. It is based on extrapolation beyond the limits of the data.
4. It appears to be based on an inappropriate equation (the M4 and smaller frequency/magnitude relationship).
5. It does not account for uncertainty.

Most importantly, the correlation between frequency and magnitude breaks down for large quakes in the pre-Tohoku dataset, and if calculated, would be significantly lower for the M4 and greater quakes since 3/11. Could this increased uncertainty yield a result that is statistically indistinguishable from the government’s prediction? Maybe, but without the raw data, I can’t  say for sure.

—

Contributor Bio: Steve has been splitting time between the US and Japan for the past 10 years or so and is now a researcher at a Japanese university.

—

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Kentucky Fried Chicken has brought its famous Double Down sandwich to Japan. Who needs bread when you can have healthy pieces of fried chicken instead?

It’s currently available only at the KFC near Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. Double Downs will be available at stores across Japan starting on February 2nd.

[hat tip to J.L. Gatewood]

Here’s a TV news report about it, which also mentions that McDonald’s Japan is offering 100 yen chicken nuggets until January 26th:

As you can see from the video, the promo branch near Sunshine City has been totally redecorated to celebrate the Double Down. The sandwich will be sold under the name “Chicken Fillet Double.”

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Part I: Visa status announced, then deleted

A quick update on the ongoing tale of Christopher Johnson, a freelance journalist whose Narita Airport “Gaijin Gulag” story has been picked up by several major news websites (The Economist, Boing Boing, Reddit).

In my last post, I noted that Johnson’s refusal to disclose his visa status had created considerable controversy about his account of detention and deportation.

Johnson’s article is an ever-evolving work. He has been constantly editing his blog post, changing the wording of old passages and adding new information. His latest edit may have answered the big question about his visa.

It now has a new passage (emphasis added):

Though I had work visas dating back to 1989, and papers saying the government had acknowledged the receipt of my application to renew my work visa, I was detained at Narita airport and expelled.

If this is correct, it seems to confirm what many people had suspected: Johnson did not have a valid work visa. Paperwork stating that the government had received an application does not grant permission to enter the country. Should immigration officers have assumed that the application would be accepted? [UPDATE: Less than two hours have passed since I made this post, and Johnson has DELETED the above-mentioned passage from his blog post! Just how are we supposed to explain that? ]

I have been in similar situation. I applied for a visa renewal but during the month that it took to process the paperwork, my previous visa expired. I was told that I could remain in the country until I received the results of the renewal application. The validity of the re-entry permit in my passport was tied to the date of the previous visa. So if I left the country during that week of “limbo” between visas, there was a high risk that I might not be allowed back in. I was also not supposed to engage in work during the period between visas. If Johnson’s case was the same, it is baffling that he left the country before the new visa had been approved.

Oddly enough, Johnson has not changed an older passage about the visa situation:

I first had a work visa for Japan in 1989, and my last renewal began in 2008. I have never overstayed, and never broken laws in Japan.

Did he apply for a renewal in 2008 and not receive a response until 2011? I might be safe to assume that one of the two passages is wrong. Maybe the most recent one? It sure is hard to fully understand a situation when the details keep changing…

Johnson also added a passage about a “similar” case (taken from a credible source – an anonymous internet comment):

In an account similar to my own, a Canadian using the pseudonym “mxlx3″ explained his ordeal in a comment to The Economist’s Banyan blog. After 11 years working legally and paying taxes in Japan, he lost his $125,000 per year job, all his possessions in his apartment, and his Japanese fiancee, because bureaucrats messed up his renewal for a work permit. After his sponsored work visa expired, immigration officers told him to leave Japan and come back on a tourist visa while his new employment visa was being processed. But upon returning from Guam in 2002, he was detained and expelled.

Johnson has stated today that his visa status “has been explained,” but questions remain: had the previous visa expired? Why had he left the country before the renewal was processed?

Part II: Johnson Changes His Story Again

Update [Jan. 26]: For the past several days, a user called “imcanjapn” had been leaving comments on the Economist’s website, closely mirroring Christopher Johnson’s statements on other sites. After several users claimed to have “outed” him as Johnson’s sockpuppet account, he disappeared.

Now, Johnson himself has appeared on that comment thread, making new claims about his visa status:

Those who accused me of doing “visa runs”, “over-staying” or “gaming the system” for 22 years have been proven false. I had work visas dating back to 1989, and documents from the immigration department regional office in Tokyo in 2011 that acknowledged they were processing my application to renew my visa to continue working legally in Japan as a freelance journalist. Under new regulations, I was allowed to keep my passport during this time. Immigration officers in Tokyo kindly told me several times I could leave and return to Japan during this process, thanks to new procedures. I had no problem returning to Japan, on this same basis, from trips to Canada and Germany in 2011.

Commenting on the older version of his article, which stated that he several beers on the short morning flight, Johnson claimed that he was “not drunk or high upon arrival at Narita.”

He continues to claim that officials did not tell him the reason why he was given an expulsion order. Once again, he has implied that the Japanese government was out to get him because of his heroic truth-telling. Supposedly, Johnson used to work for NHK World, but was “blacklisted” by them because he started spreading the word about how NHK was “squandering of millions of yen of taxpayers funds on cash-cow programs which can’t be seen in Japan.” (Isn’t that the whole point of NHK World – to make programs for an audience outside Japan?)

If his latest claim about visa status is true, one wonders why he has evaded answering questions about his visa. Why would he hide that information, and lash out at people who asked about it? Why in the world would he leave such critical details out of the original version of his story. It makes no sense at all. Few of his critics are likely to trust him now.

One user on the FG forums responded to Johnson’s new claims with the following:

“Maybe Chris Johnson was lucky on his earlier entries, maybe they were during the life of the previous visa, or maybe the decision not to allow his renewal was made coincidentally during his time in Korea. Maybe he misunderstood what Immigration were telling him, and looked at it all a bit too optimistically.

Or maybe it is a global world conspiracy by NHK, Serbians and the nuclear industry specifically targetting him. I wonder which is more likely.”

Extra: Unlike those other foreigners…..

Update: Reading over Johnson’s article, I noticed one interesting passage in his blog post (emphasis added):

But I didn’t flee Japan like thousands of foreigners after the March 11 disasters. I made personal sacrifices to tell the world about the plight of disaster victims, to generate sympathy for Japan. I earned income from sources outside Japan, and spent it inside Japan.

I thought this whole “flyjin” issue was behind most of us, but since Johnson wants to bring it up, let’s take a look at the record. Some quick Googling found that Johnson did indeed stay in Japan after the disaster. However, while millions of us stayed at our homes and workplaces in Tokyo, Johnson joined the panic-stricken and got the got on a bullet train.

On March 16th, Canada’s CTV network aired a telephone interview with Johnson, who has bravely decided to stay in the city of Hamamatsu..which he claims could still be in harm’s way. Johnson implies that the people who didn’t flee Tokyo were the ones who had given in to fear.

(In the video, CTV has erroneously included “On the line from: Tokyo” at the top of the screen.)

—-Begin Transcript——

News anchor asked him how close he is to the exposed areas.

CHRIS JOHNSON: “…I’m not sure if I’m in the exposed area or not…..[explains that Hamamatsu is "a little over a hundred kilometers" southwest of Tokyo]…I decided to come here so that I could still be close to Tokyo but…uh…I wanted to get out before there was any sort of mass attempt at an escape…[mentions strong winds near Hamamatsu]….But if…if there is a meltdown, I am going to try to get down to Osaka or anywhere south, if I can.”

News anchor asked him if he is personally concerned.

CHRIS JOHNSON: “I think everybody is…COUGH excuse me..I am one of the LAST people I know to leave Tokyo. All my friends left earlier. Basically anybody that had small children we-were leaving. When I took the bullet train, the high speed Shinkansen bullet train here, it was just full of Japanese mothers with their babies. While their husbands were still working in Tokyo today. But even…uh…Sony for example..uhm..normally has 6,000 people working at their headquarters. They only had about 120 today. Everybody else has left.”

News anchor asks where people are going.

CHRIS JOHNSON: “They try to go to where they have relatives in other parts of the country that are outside the disaster zone. Or a lot of them go to Osaka, stay in hotels. In fact, I am told the Austrian embassy has relocated to Osaka. A lot of foreign journalists have moved down there too. So everybody is just sort of waiting and watching…and uh..fearful about the situation. But there are a lot of people still in Tokyo and a lot of people are not able to leave. They don’t know where to go. They don’t have a lot of money and a lot of people are sort of paralyzed with with shock and fear…”

—-End Transcript——

Small Update: Johnson’s own Twitter posts have directly contradicted the claims he made on Canadian television:

So on TV in March he claimed that all his friends had fled. On Twitter in January 2011, he’s saying that a large number of his friends did stay. So, which is it? They can’t both be true.

There you have it: Christopher Johnson did not flee Japan like thousands of other foreigners. No way. He only contributed to the English language news reports that exaggerated the exodus from Tokyo and encouraged others to flee. For his heroic service, he apparently deserves special treatment at immigration checkpoints.

For the latest information, check out these discussion threads about Johnson’s article:

• Forum thread on F-cked Gaijin.
• Discussion on Tepido.org
• Discussion on Debito.org
• Discussion on Reddit
• Discussion on the Economist website

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In early 2011 Japan was treated to the heartwarming story of “Tiger Mask”, an masked hero who donated dozens of randoseru backpacks to orphanages across the country. Randoseru are tough, super-expensive backpacks that all elementary school students are expected to own. The anonymous donations, apparently mostly from old men and women, were unusual in a country where people usually like to take credit for their good works and sparked conversations at water coolers across the country.

One year later, it’s randoseru season again, and anonymous philanthropists have returned… with a weird twist. At 4pm on Friday the 13th, two men in their 40s walked into a police station in Yokohama and asked for assistance with donating 10 randoseru (roughly 200,000yen, or $2600) to orphan kindergarteners. When the police asked for a name, the men responded that they’d rather be anonymous, and perhaps thinking of the slasher film series “Friday the 13th,” one of the men shyly replied, “Say they came from Jason.”

The police department said that they were very grateful to receive the gift and that the backpacks would be distributed to social welfare groups in the area. No word on whether the children will be informed of their donors’ questionable choice of pseudonym.

–

Contributor Bio: Avery teaches English somewhere near Takeo. When he is not translating things, he is probably visiting haikyo or researching weird footnotes in Japanese history. He can be reached on Twitter at @ahm.

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What’s a bit more unusual is the unattended stand shown in this video:

The stand in Mie prefecture offers lobster (which fetches up to 5000 yen a head in Japan) and conch, or sazae (about 2000 yen each) for anyone who happens to drive around this bend to stop off and take. What’s more, the anonymous vendor asks for only 500 yen from the locals. On most days, the stand is totally sold out by the end of the day, but it is always replenished.

Soon enough, the vendor walks by to replenish his stand. It seems that he runs an Internet service selling lobster and sazae, and these are the extras he can’t sell. The man with a red jacket and green-rimmed bifocals (an ordinary guy who e-mailed Japanese television about his find) is overcome with gratitude to see such a selfless person and asks to shake his hand. “You’re really a very good person.”

–

Contributor Bio: Avery teaches English somewhere near Takeo. When he is not translating things, he is probably visiting haikyo or researching weird footnotes in Japanese history. He can be reached on Twitter at @ahm.

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Kyoto’s famous statue of Takayama Hikokuro (1747-93) has been vandalized:

At around 5:50 p.m. on Jan. 20, a woman spotted a man standing on the plinth of the bronze statue of Takayama Hikokuro in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, and pouring white paint on it. The man fled the scene by bicycle. The woman alerted officers at a nearby police box.

Police are searching for the man, who is believed to be around 30 years old, on suspicion of damaging property.

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A couple days ago, pitcher Yu Darvish signed a $60 million deal with the Texas Rangers. When he arrived in in Texas, he was wearing a very strange shirt:

Darvish arrived about three hours earlier at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, where he was greeted by a large group of media cameras and a handful of Rangers fans.

There was a bit of a stir created by the photos of the arrival, when Darvish wore a T-shirt with the phrase “I Will Survive” surrounding the image of a Japanese Maple Leaf, which looks similar to a marijuana leaf.

“In Japan, anything that’s like a T-shirt with English words on it,” he said. “We just tend to wear it, we don’t really actually know what it means.”

It’s true, shirts like that are sold all over Japan. And most people don’t really see them as a bad thing. To them, it just looks neat.

Related video: With its usual wackiness, Taiwan’s NMA reports on Yu Darvish.

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2011 saw a gigantic decrease in the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan:

The number of foreign visitors to Japan in 2011 totaled an estimated 6,219,000, down 27.8 percent from the existing record of some 8,611,000 in 2010.

There was also a drop in non-tourist foreign nationals entering the country:

According to government figures released Tuesday, the number of foreign nationals entering Japan dropped 24.4% from a record of 9.45 million in 2010 to 7.14 million in 2011.

New entries of foreign nationals – a figure that excludes working or studying expatriates that may have returned after home leave – made a similarly dismal showing. The Immigration Bureau of the Justice Ministry said new entrants fell from 7.92 million in 2010 to 5.45 million in 2010, slumping 31.2%.

The reasons are obvious: the March 11th disaster and the strength of the yen. People were worried about damage from the disaster and fearful of radiation from Fukushima. And the exchange rate makes vacationing in Japan far more expensive than it would have been several years ago.

NHK notes large drops in the number of tourists from neighboring countries that make up the majority of foreign visitors to Japan. There was a 32% decrease in Korean tourists, a 26.1% decrease in Chinese tourists, and a 21.6% decrease in tourists from Taiwan. Since November, the number of Chinese visitors has begun to recover to pre-disaster levels.

South Korean tourist numbers have not shown as great a rebound. The commissioner of Japan Tourism Agency recently visited Seoul to speak to the media and convince people that it is safe to visit Japan. He ended the press conference by singing the Korean national anthem:

It was kind of weird, but it helped draw attention to his mission…

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A TV news report about the arrest of a Thai “new half” (ladyboy?) who was arrested for scamming Japanese tourists:

Nice t-shirt!

The suspect approached a Japanese tourist on the streets of Bangkok, claiming to be a Korean tourist who had lost her passport and money. She said she would soon be receiving money from family in Korea, but needed to use the Japanese man’s bank card. After taking a considerable amount of money from the man’s account, she disappeared.

Thai police arrested her for a similar scam, in which she had told another Japanese man that she was a tourist from Singapore. It was later determined that she was also responsible for the “Korean” scam. In both instances, she had used broken English to convince the unsuspecting Japanese tourists that she was a non-Thai person who needed their help.

The Japanese embassy in Bangkok has warned that this kind of scam is not rare.

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On January 18th, the Economist’s Banyan column copy-pasted Christopher Johnson’s sensational account his detention and deportation from Narita Airport. According to Johnson, immigration authorities may have singled him out unjustly because he was a journalist that wrote articles critical of the Japanese establishment:

“As a freelance journalist in post-meltdown Japan…..I was taking risks more than most foreigners. I wondered if I was being blacklisted due to my critical coverage of TEPCO, Japan Tobacco, Olympus, JAL, the yakuza, fascists, and state neglect of tsunami survivors and nuclear refugees.”

Johnson never specifies his visa status in the article. The Economist states that “his lawyer advised him not to discuss it.” This has made Johnson a target of strong criticism on the internet. Why write such an article and leave out one of the most important pieces of information?

—————–

Update:

More details have emerged about the visa.

—————–

And all this just so happened to occur when he was about to release a novel – which is an “uncompromising look at the inner turmoil behind the stoic face of Japan.” Quite a profitable coincidence.

Several of Japan’s expat blogs have been commenting on the case. One of the best posts is “How Bad is Japanese Immigration?” by Hiko Saemon. I encourage you all to read the full post, but here is a very short excerpt about visas:

I do not believe that Mr. Johnson would have been pulled up and deported from Japan for writing articles critical of Japan. I also don’t believe that he would be deported for no reason. I don’t believe that Mr. Johnson spent a day in detention, speaking to numerous English speaking staff and never understood why he was being deported.

The fact Mr. Johnson is not sharing his visa status also speaks volumes to me. Again, the Economist doesn’t add anything to this, but it seems to me, his visa status was very likely the reason he was not allowed to reenter Japan. That is to say, it was most likely known that he was violating the terms of his visa and his entry was denied. This comes back to my earlier point – IF that is the case, and Mr. Johnson was “trying his luck” at getting in and out of Japan working without a proper visa, he was asking for trouble.

Mulboyne (at the FG forums) has also commented on the importance Johnson’s visa status:

What comes across in his account is a total disbelief that Immigration had any right to deny him entry. If he had a valid status of residence then that would be understandable. Even if he later exaggerates, we would know he’s writing his account from a position of genuine and justified outrage.

If he had no valid status of residence then his account is in a parallel universe. As onlookers, instead of justified outrage, we see an unjustified sense of entitlement. Anger, which should be partly directed towards himself for his predicament, is entirely directed elsewhere. When he blames everyone except himself, his overall credibility is in question.

Johnson has not been friendly towards people who have asked him about his visa status. His display of rude arrogance in a public Twitter conversation with Jake Adelstein and Tokyo Reporter has done little to inspire confidence in his story.

The article has changed considerably since Johnson first posted it online. The latest update has added some information about visa status:

I first had a work visa for Japan in 1989, and my last renewal began in 2008. I have never overstayed, and never broken laws in Japan.

But it is still not specific, and has failed to end speculation about whether Japanese immigration authorities had a valid reason to deny him entry. As some have pointed out, a 3 year work visa issued in 2008 could have expired while Johnson was out of the country.

There are also some highly unlikely and possibly wrong parts of the article. His most shocking claim – that security guards threatened him to sign papers at gunpoint – is extremely unlikely because gun control laws in Japan do not allow private security guards to carry firearms. The article seems full of exaggerations, like his complaint that he was forced “onto a flight to Canada without much winter clothing for minus 40 temperatures in Alberta” ( he had been visiting Seoul, where temperatures were much lower than those in Alberta). Johnson also states that he had a “few beers” on the 9:00AM flight from Seoul to Narita, a trip that typically takes about 90 minutes.

For the latest information, check out these discussion threads about Johnson’s article:

• Forum thread on F-cked Gaijin.
• Discussion on Tepido.org
• Discussion on Debito.org
• Discussion on Reddit
• Discussion on the Economist website

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In response to yesterday’s blog post about the existence of racism and prejudice among opponents of Japanese whaling, some readers complained that I was focusing too much on the words of a anonymous internet lunatics. Why should Sea Shepherd be mentioned in connection with these extremists?

Paul Watson and his organization do not openly resort to racism. But they do use arguments that stir up ugly racism and hatred. As Brendan O’Neill mentioned, anti-whalers have revived “World War II propaganda that tended to depict the Japanese as a uniquely wicked people.” The Sea Shepherd website is full of material that tells readers that the Japanese have a long history of brutality and dishonesty.

Below are a few quotations from Sea Shepherd founder and president Paul Watson. All are taken from official articles posted on Sea Shepherd’s homepage.

Paul Watson in November 2007:

The Japanese say that whaling is a matter of national pride. What kind of sick perverse culture can take pride in the cruel and bloody slaughter of whales and dolphins? oh yes, I almost forgot, the same culture responsible for the Rape of Nanking and the beheading of Australian, American, Canadian and Dutch soldiers and civilians.

Paul Watson in June 2006:

The brutal killing of whales has become an icon for the Japanese identity. This is not unusual. Japan has always closely identified with blood and slaughter. From the decapitations by the Samurai upon innocent peasants to the suicidal insanity of the Kamikaze, violence and self destruction have been a part of Japanese culture.

Paul Watson in October 2007:

Almost half a million dolphins have died in the annual dolphin death drives. The bays run red with the hot blood of these screaming creatures as Japanese fishermen slash, stab, spear, and club the animals to death. Witnessing the slaughter and watching innocent children being fed poison is reminiscent of another era, a time that many of us thought had long past-the time of the Rape of Nanking, comfort women, medical experiments on humans, the Bataan death march-a time when Japanese ruthlessness shocked and horrified the world. And now this! This unimaginable horror! Every bit as disturbing as the events of a generation ago. And yet just like in pre-war Japan, the media are complicit, the public apathetic, and the politicians compromised.

Paul Watson in May 2008:

I guess we can add it to the long list of major conspiracies at the heart of Japan’s government like the rape of Nanking that apparently did not happen and “dolphins, what dolphins are being killed in Taiji?”

Paul Watson in May 2006:

This level of imperialist exploitation has not been seen since the Japanese army swept in and slaughtered the Chinese people and invaded their lands.

Paul Watson in March 2008:

this is the nation that still denies the Rape of Nanking, that still denies enslaving Korean and Chinese women as “comfort women,” that still denies torturing POW’s during the war, that still denies destroying the rainforests of Indonesia and over-fishing the world’s oceans. Japanese history is a chronicle of deceptions.

Those interested in the Japanese government’s stance regarding war atrocities can check its official statements online: Rape of Nanking / Comfort Women / Prisoners of War

Paul Watson in January 2010, comparing the wartime sinking of an Australian hospital ship to sinking of a Sea Shepherd ship:

Nothing has changed much. The sinking of the Centaur, a hospital ship in 1943 was deliberate and it was a war crime that killed 278 Australians, yet Japan still to this day refuses to acknowledge responsibility in the face of overwhelming evidence. The same holds true for the sinking of the Ady Gil, no matter what evidence or the results of Australian and New Zealand investigations, Japan will refuse to acknowledge responsibility.

( It later came to light that Sea Shepherd members had deliberately scuttled the Ady Gil to “garner sympathy” towards their cause. )

Paul Watson in April 2010, comparing Pete Bethune’s arrest for illegally boarding a Japanese ship to the wartime treatment of Allied POW’s:

Bethune was not brought back to Japan as a criminal. He was brought back as a prisoner on the ship that had so viciously attacked him and when that ship arrived it was greeted with a nationalist rally of cheering and jeering Japanese right-wingers in the same manner as they cheered the marching of POW’s down the Kokoda Trail or through the streets of Tokyo in 1942.

This was the first time since the Pacific War with Japan that an ANZAC soldier (Pete is a veteran) was transported back to Japan from the Southern Ocean after the sinking of his ship, and the first time that a prisoner was greeted with such jingoistic hatred. They treated him as a prisoner of war and that is exactly what he is.

Paul Watson and Sea Shepherd will, of course, say that they do not condone racism and do not mean to denounce all Japanese people. But, whether intended or not, Sea Shepherd’s persistent use of World War II atrocities is extremely effective in encouraging the revival of old hatreds that existed in the 1940′s.

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The Australian has printed an excellent opinion piece by Brendan O’Neill (“Shades of open prejudice in war on whalers“). He argues that prejudice and racism are behind the views of some anti-whalers:

The attempt to transform Sea Shepherd’s cynical seafaring shenanigans, this overblown act of adrenalin-pumping adventure tourism, into a clash between the Australian and Japanese authorities shows what lies behind concern for whales today: a desire to exert the moral authority of what are presumed to be Good People (in this case Australia) over Bad People (Japanese).

One of the key driving forces behind much international animal rights activism is not so much love for animals as disgust and disdain for wicked human beings especially human beings with dark or “yellow” skin.

So Australia’s anti-whalers have successfully rehabilitated what many of us considered to be long-dead prejudices against the Japanese.

Echoing World War II propaganda that tended to depict the Japanese as uniquely wicked – far more weirdly sadistic than the Germans, say – the Sea Shepherd website informs us that the whaling carried out in the Southern Ocean is “cruel and barbaric, a gross sadistic perversion”.

A columnist for The Courier-Mail once lamented the “uncivilised barbarity” of that whaling nation of Japan, in contrast to Australia, which is “a civilised nation of pet-lovers”.

Here, the issue of whaling is openly used to advertise the decency of white folk who own puppies over yellow people who scoff whale meat.

Sea Shepherd has also referred to Japanese whalers as “viciously cruel” and as “terrorists”. On one eco-website, a contributor to an online debate about Japanese whaling said explicitly what other people generally only hint at – that the Japanese kill whales because they are “f . . king evil bloodthirsty amoral wankers”.

Sometimes, there’s a very thin line between international animal rights activism and xenophobia. Often, expressing concern for God’s creatures is a cover for communicating disgust with ungodly human beings.

Over the last few days, I had a chance to experience the prejudice of some of Sea Shepherd’s most fanatical supporters. Several SS members stumbled upon last week’s post about the Australian government having to spend “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to pick up activists who illegally boarded a Japanese ship as part of a SS-directed operation. They noticed a poll asking JapanProbe readers whether the activists should reimburse the Australian government for the expense of the rescue, so they used tweets to send hundreds of supporters to spam the poll with pro-SS votes.

I altered the poll to void their spam votes. I don’t know what they expected to achieve by changing the results of an unscientific poll on a blog post that was already off the front page of this blog. After the poll was voided, I figured it might make them go away and could reduce the number of racist comments that were flooding the post. Judging from some of the death threats I received, it seems that quite a few of them thought that I was a Japanese government official or part of the “yakuza-controlled” Japanese media. Many of them seem to think that people in Japan get their news from English language blogs that occasionally translate Japanese media reports. So, by altering the results of a poll that had been skewed by Sea Shepherd spamming, I was hiding the “truth” from the Japanese people.

Below are a few excerpts from e-mails and comments I received this week. Several clearly reflect the kind of prejudice that O’Neill mentioned in his article.

From Maria, a “Proud Resident of Fair Australia” who assumed that I was a Japanese person who worked for the “jap government” and was announcing her intent to report my blog to the Australian government:

“I understand what type of a lying and hateful breed of people the Japanese people are….

[...]

….It will be a very happy day when Japan is brought to its knees for their crimes and the world will be rejoicing because finally Japan has shamed themselves for the last time. I hope one day that all Japanese people are banned from entering my wonderful, caring and honest country. I dont want my children to grow up with your terrible children.“

A line from an e-mail from Sonya McNerk:

“You lot are such idiots….I have yet to meet and honest and honourable Japanese person.“

And a comment from Celeste:

“…if you have family like i do and you care about their future please donate to Sea Shepherd so they can fund these very important campaigns and hopefully save the planet and keep the disgusting japanese race out of our beautiful and caring country.“

A comment from Martinguest, who thinks that “under evolved” Japanese are killing whales, and that SS should “research” the Japanese (or, in other words, kill the Japanese):

“How can anyone condemn Sea Shepherd? These are people merely carrying out ‘research’ on lowlife that carry out cowardly attacks on whales! Sea Shepherd would gladly accept the handing over of their ‘kidnapped’ crew members so they can continue their ‘research’! There is obviously a number of under evolved humans that think chasing families then hacking to death (a long agonising death) the adults of the family is acceptable behaviour. However this is not the view of civilised people so, unfortunately Sea Shepherd will have to continue its’ highly valuable ‘research’!“

There are, of course, plenty of non-prejudiced people who oppose whaling. However, a great many of Sea Shepherd’s most loyal supporters seem to carry outrageously ugly prejudices against the Japanese.

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Tommy Lee Jones has been cast as General Douglas MacArthur in an upcoming film about the American occupation of Japan:

“Tommy will bring strength, intelligence, and gravitas to the portrayal of, a legendary American hero,” producer Gary Foster (“Ghost Rider,” “Daredevil”) said in a statement.

“Emperor” is set in the days following Japan’s surrender in World War II, when MacArthur effectively presided over the country as the supreme commander of the Allied forces.

Mathhew Fox will also appear in the movie:

Fox will portray General Bonner Fellers, an attaché to the General, who is given the responsibility of deciding the fate of Japan’s Emperor Hirohito. The film has been scripted by David Klass and Vera Blasi.

According to Variety, the film is a combination of historical drama and post-war romance. Fox’s character is in the midst of a great love affair with Aya, a Japanese exchange student from his past. At the same time, he struggles with the decision of whether or not to try Hirohito as a war criminal. In true Hollywood fashion, the two stories will intersect and force Fox’s character to make a monumental decision.

And here’s a short line about Bonner Fellers’ role in the war crimes trials, from Wikipedia:

Fellers played a major role in the occupation of Japan. He met with the major defendants of the Tokyo tribunal. According to historians Herbert Bix and John W. Dower, Fellers—under an assignment by the code name OPERATION BLACKLIST—allowed them to coordinate their stories to exonerate Emperor Hirohito and all members of his family. This was at the direction of MacArthur, now head of SCAP, who wanted no criminal prosecution of the Emperor and his family.

Perhaps Hollywood will alter history, and blame the Japanese girlfriend for Fellers’ controversial actions?

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A search is underway for Matt Johnson, an American man who disappeared after apparently going on a hiking/camping trip to Mt. Fuji:

Johnson has been an engineer in Eaton Corp.’s vehicle business unit in Galesburg since 2003, according to a company statement published on the website for television station WOOD-TV 8. He went to Japan on a business trip on Jan. 8.

Johnson’s car was found at the base of the mountain, the highest peak in Japan at 12,385 feet, but rescuers were unable to begin searching for him until 5 p.m. Tuesday, local time, because 16 inches of snow had fallen.

Friends and family have set up a “Please Pray for Matt Johnson” Facebook group. Over 900 people have joined the group.

Most travel guides warn against visiting Mt. Fuji in the winter months. There are also numerous warnings issued by Japanese authorities, such as this one on the Fuji-Yoshida city homepage:

Mt. Fuji is 3776m above sea level and has conditions that kill climbers every year. The official climbing season is limited to two months, July and August. It is considered very dangerous to climb during the off-season.

Winter conditions on the mountain are similar to those found on 8000m Himalayan peaks and are dangerous for even the most professional alpinists.

Three Deadly Reasons to Stay off Mt. Fuji in the off-season:
● Avalanche. Mt. Fuji is the perfect domain for avalanches due to its steep slope and lack of vegetation. When a slab of ice breaks free, hikers are pummeled against snow, ice, and trees and buried as if encased in wet concrete.
● Winds. Strong winds literally blow climbers off the slippery slopes. There have been several cases of tents flying off of the slopes with their occupants onboard.
● Hypothermia. Though not limited to the off-season, hyperthermia is a life-threatening condition that proves fatal if not diagnosed and treated properly. It is the result of a hiker’s core body temperature dropping and internal organs succumbing to the cold.

Those wishing to climb Mt. Fuji in the off-season face considerable danger and a lack of:
●Rescue Personnel
●Mountain Huts. Most mountain huts close at the end of season, but some stay open into September. After September, there is no lodging, food, or water on Mt. Fuji.
●Transportation. The road to the 5th Station is closed for most of the year. Buses, if running, are infrequent and thus climbers become stranded on the mountain over night.

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The Korea Times has printed a very interesting article by Fyodor Tertitskiy, a student at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. Entitled “First Korean member in Japan’s Cabinet,” it examines the career of a prominent Korean-Japanese politician:

He was born on Dec. 10, 1882 in the small village of Naeshirogawa in the Kagoshima Prefecture. His name was Pak Mu-dok. Three years later, the Japanese government implemented census reforms requiring all subjects of the empire to take official surnames. Mu-dok’s father took the new surname Togo and his son’s name became Shigenori, according to the Japanese pronunciation of the characters Mudok. This is how Shigenori Togo acquired his new name name.

[...]

In 1910, Korea was officially annexed by Japan. Togo, however, became a resident of Japan proper and thus escaped discrimination, along with every Korean who acquired Japanese citizenship before the annexation.

Tertitskiy goes on to describe Togo’s career in a very positive light. Although he served as ambassador to Nazi Germany, Togo “had no love for national socialism.” Although he served in Japan’s war cabinet, Togo was one of the few “sane” politicians who opposed the plan to attack the United States.

At the end of the article, we are told about what happened to Togo after the war:

Despite his efforts to stop the war, Shigenori Togo was still a part of the Japanese Empire’s war machine. He was found guilty on charges of waging an aggressive war against the Allies ― including, ironically, the United States ― but innocent of any part in the inhumane treatment of prisoners’ of war.

Interestingly, the author does not use the word “war criminal” and does not specify that Togo was a Class A war criminal. Another very relevant piece of information is left out: Togo, who died while serving his prison sentence, is one of the 14 Class A war ciminals enshrined among the war dead at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine.

Because of South Korea’s bizarre official stance regarding the validity of post-WW2 war crimes trials, it was good that the author pointed out that Togo was not involved in the mistreatment of POWs. In 2006, the South Korean government officially cleared a large number of Class B and Class C war criminals who were convicted of torture, mistreatment, and murder of Allied prisoners. According to the South Korean government, those convicted war criminals were “victims,” while men like Togo were not.

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A year ago, Japanese pop star Ayumi Hamasaki married Manuel Schwarz, an Austrian model/actor who had appeared in one of her music videos. At the time, Japan Probe readers were quite skeptical about the marriage:

“I give it 3 months…” – Yom

“I smell another Kevin Federline” – Franco

“The marriage could be an ‘arrangement of convenience’ sponsored by Hamasaki’s yakuza-linked/controlled talent agency, Avex, designed to get her a boost of positive coverage & publicity. If so, expect it to last a year or two tops.” – Jean Bapiste Pluie

She’s announced that she is filing for divorce. It lasted more than 3 months, but it was a short marriage. And she is apparently blaming the March 11th disaster:

“I am the reason (for the divorce.) We decided to live in the U.S. upon our marriage, but the Great East Japan Earthquake struck two months after we married, and I began to have a strong feeling that I don’t want to leave Japan,” the Fukuoka Prefecture native said on the website.

“I could not think of living in the U.S., and thus I left him alone for many days,” she went on. “We discussed (our future) a lot. I thought physical distance can be overcome by visiting each other, but the physical distance has turned into mental distance.”

From a PR standpoint, “I can’t abandon my country after such a disaster” is probably one of the best excuses available.

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A news report about beautiful cloth Jizo figures that have been put on display at a Buddhist temple in Kesennuma:

They are on display at Jifuku-Ji, a temple that stands amid the rubble of a city that was devastated by the March 11th tsunami. A mark on one of the wooden beams of the building shows that it was almost entirely submerged when the tsunami hit. Most of the statues and graves that had been outside the temple building were washed away or destroyed.

There are over 120 handmade figures. The Jizo figures were made from fine cloth and kimonos donated by tsunami survivors. Some of the materials belonged to people who died in the tsunami.

The first of these Jizo figures was created by a woman who lost her brother-in-law in the tsunami. Like many of the people lost that day, his remains have not been found. There was no grave site at which his family could offer prayers. The woman created the figure as something to which prayers could be offered.

After she completed the first figure, she began to receive requests for others. It eventually became a neighborhood project. The figures now on display at the temple will eventually be placed in the homes of people who lost loved ones.

Here’s some background information on Jizou statues (from Wikipedia):

In Japan, Ksitigarbha, known as Jizō, or Ojizō-sama as he is respectfully known, is one of the most loved of all Japanese divinities. His statues are a common sight, especially by roadsides and in graveyards. Traditionally, he is seen as the guardian of children, particularly children who died before their parents. Since the 1980s, he has been worshiped as the guardian of the souls of mizuko, the souls of stillborn, miscarried or aborted fetuses, in the ritual of mizuko kuyō (水子供養, lit. offering to water children). In Japanese mythology, it is said that the souls of children who die before their parents are unable to cross the mythical Sanzu River on their way to the afterlife because they have not had the chance to accumulate enough good deeds and because they have made the parents suffer. It is believed that Jizō saves these souls from having to pile stones eternally on the bank of the river as penance, by hiding them from demons in his robe, and letting them hear mantras.

Jizō statues are sometimes accompanied by a little pile of stones and pebbles, put there by people in the hope that it would shorten the time children have to suffer in the underworld. (The act is derived from the tradition of building stupas as an act of merit-making.) The statues can sometimes be seen wearing tiny children’s clothing or bibs, or with toys, put there by grieving parents to help their lost ones and hoping that Jizō would specially protect them. Sometimes the offerings are put there by parents to thank Jizō for saving their children from a serious illness. Jizō’s features are commonly made more babylike to resemble the children he protects.

As he is seen as the saviour of souls who have to suffer in the underworld, his statues are common in cemeteries. He is also believed to be one of the protective deities of travelers, the dōsojin, and roadside statues of Jizō are a common sight in Japan. Firefighters are also believed to be under the protection of Jizō.

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Professional motorcyclist Hiromi Sakai has died in a speedway accident:

Sakai came off her motorcycle at about 4:20 p.m. on Jan. 15, and hit a fence. She died shortly afterward in a medical office at the venue. Officials said her cause of death was a fractured skull, and police are investigating the cause of the accident.

Sakai made her professional debut last July. At the time, she was the first woman to compete in the sport in 44 years.

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The following video is near the top of YouTube Japan’s most viewed ranking for today (with over 150,000 views):

The video compares footage from two events held in Tokyo: a Thai food festival and a Korean food festival. Apparently there were some press reports claiming that over 200,000 people attended the Korean food festival, but the video shows otherwise. The Thai festival, on the other hand, was packed with visitors.

The video is meant as evidence that the media is fabricating the “Korean Wave” in an effort to shove Korean culture down the throats of the Japanese people. The uploader also states that Koreans in Japan are more likely to commit crimes than Thais in Japan.

The 200,000 claim does seem to be an exaggeration. The media could have been deliberately distorting the truth, or could have just been lazy and accepted whatever the event organizers told them. But is it evidence that the whole “Korean Wave” has been manufactured by the media? I would argue that this video tells us very little about the popularity of Korean culture in Japan because:

• The Thai festival was held in summer, when people like to visit outdoor food tents. The Korean festival was held in the freezing cold of January.
• Thai food is less common in Japan, making it more exotic and special. I attended the Thai festival in 2010 because I don’t have many opportunities to eat Thai food. Korean restaurants, on the other hand, are almost as numerous as McDonald’s or Yoshinoya: they’re everywhere.
• If one were to visit Shin Okubo, the center of the “Korean Wave” in Japan, one would find huge lines outside of its Korean restaurants. Even in winter.

The crime claim may also be exaggerated. Thai people in Japan commit less crimes than Koreans because there are far fewer Thais in Japan. The actual rate of crime, however, may be different from what the video uploader claims.

If the conspiracy theorists want to prove that Korean pop culture and food are not actually popular in Japan, they’re going to need better evidence than this video.

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Video of fossils found in Nagasaki prefecture that are believed to be about 18 million years old:

The remains were found on the coast of Matsuura’s Takashimacho district, and are thought to be among the oldest of their kind in Japan.

There are five species of rhino living in Asia, Africa and other regions, including the black rhinoceros and Sumatran rhinoceros. Their ancestors are thought to have first appeared some 23 million years ago, and the latest find is seen as important in understanding the evolution process of the animals.

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The Asahi recently scaled down the content on its regular English articles and started directing readers to its Asahi Japan Watch (AJW) section for the full versions. Unfortunately, they are limiting free access to AJW articles. After hitting the limit (which seems to be around 20 article views a month), readers will have to pay about $12 a month for a subscription.

The Yomiuri and Mainichi are still providing free access to their English language sites. The three newspapers tend to overlap a bit in their coverage of major stories, so I doubt many people will be willing to pay for the Asahi when free alternatives are available.

Important Note: Clearing or disabling cookies will allow you to bypass Asahi’s article viewing limit.

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CNN’s InAmerica blog has an article that discusses the fact that upcoming American remakes of Japanese films are going to cast white American actors to play characters that were originally Japanese:

Tom Cruise is rumored to be in talks to play the lead role in the Warner Bros. adaptation of Japanese novel “All You Need is Kill,” replacing a Japanese main character. Warner Bros., which is owned by the same parent company as CNN, is also in the pre-production stages of making a live-action version of “Akira,” a graphic novel that was made into a landmark 1988 animated feature film in Japan. All of the actors rumored to be in consideration for the upcoming film’s main characters are white Americans, although casting calls invited actors of “any race” to audition.

That’s troubling to both the series’ devoted fans and advocates of diversity in casting.

Similar things happen in the Japanese film industry, as some of you may remember from a recent post about Hiroshi Abe playing an Roman in the “Thermae Romae” movie. And “Sideways” was remade with a Japanese cast.

For those who have missed it, here is Harry Partridge‘s hilarious take on the issue of American remakes:

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Japanese comedian Yoshio Kojima performs Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love”:

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A 40-year-old Chinese inmate escaped from a prison in Hiroshima on Wednesday:

Li Guolin was sentenced to 23 years in prison after firing a handgun at a police officer after breaking into a house during an attempted burglary in 2005.

Elementary and junior high schools around the prison were on high alert in the morning, with children walking to school accompanied by parents or other guardians.

The Hiroshima city board of education has instructed elementary and junior high schools, as well as kindergartens in the vicinity to organize children into groups when going to or leaving school.

“Children seem worried. I hope the case will be resolved without anyone getting hurt,” said Yukio Kubo, the principal of Yoshijima Elementary School, which is about 500 meters south of the prison.

According to the police, Li was only in his underwear when he made his escape by scaling a 5-meter-high outer wall.

Footholds were recently attached to the wall for construction work, and the sensors and alarms on the wall had been switched off, the police said.

A security guard said he saw a man jump off the wall at around 10 a.m. Wednesday. “He fell on his rear and turned over. Then he ran off at a steady trot,” he said.

As noted by the BBC, it is Japan’s first jail-break in over 20 years.

Many of the English language reports about the escape are emphasizing how the convict was wearing underwear. Some, such as the AFP, have used stock photos of underwear. However, as the images from the Japanese media show, this prisoner was not nearly nude. It was white-colored long underwear. If somebody saw him, they may not have realized that he was an escaped criminal.

Li is no longer believed to be wandering around in his undies. Through a DNA test on an empty beer can , police have confirmed that he broke into a house 1.5 kilometers from the prison, had a meal, and stole a North Face jacket and some Uniqlo clothing.

UPDATE: He has been captured.

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Last week, the Yomiuri reported that JR was planning to open a new station on Tokyo’s Yamanote loop line. It would be the first new station on the line in 40 years, and would be combined with a redevelopment planned aimed at attracting international businesses:

The planned station will be the 30th on the Yamanote Line. The last station to open on the line was Nishi-Nippori in Arakawa Ward in 1971.

Because the area to be developed is close to Haneda Airport, which is handling an increasing number of international flights, it was last month designated by the government as “a comprehensive special zone for international strategy.”

The central government plans to ease immigration regulations for foreigners who work at companies in the zone, and the Tokyo metropolitan government will try to attract foreign companies by reducing or eliminating the corporate enterprise tax imposed on firms establishing offices there.

A Japanese TV report takes a look at the plan:

The beginning of the video shows a large area where many trains are parked when not in use. This area will be redeveloped.

The land used was owned by JR and didn’t really contribute much to the economic well-being of the area. Local residents and restaurant owners are looking forward to the creation of a booming new business zone.

At least one business will have to make some very big changes if a new station is opened. The reporter visits a Yamanote-themed karaoke parlor at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel, where all the rooms are named after stations. There is no extra room between the Tamachi station room and the Shinagawa station counter. They’ll have to name their waiting sofa after the new station.

An expert from the Daiwa Institute of Research says that the zone will benefit from its proximity to both Haneda Airport and the Shinkansen stop at Shinagawa station. Real estate agents are also expecting that property values around the area are going to rise.

Construction of the station could begin in 2013, with the opening sometime in 2014.

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Here is a follow-up on the three animal rights activists who illegally boarded a Japanese whaling ship a few days ago. The Japanese have agreed to the Australian government’s request that the men be released, but an Australian customs vessel will have to come pick them up. Attorney-General Nicola Roxon is making it clear that Sea Shepherd’s antics are going to be expensive for Australian taxpayers:

The mission to retrieve the men would cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars” and bad weather could increase the taxpayers’ tab further, Ms Roxon said.

“I would very much like these three men to consider what contribution they would make, or the Sea Shepherd (environmental group) for that matter,” Ms Roxon said.

“I’m not going to be holding my breath. The truth is the taxpayer will foot the bill for this sort of action.”

Sea Shepherd has insisted that there is no need for an Australian ship, since they can accept the direct return of the men. The Japanese are, of course, will not hand over criminals to the organization directly responsible for their illegal act (especially since the organization has a history of ramming whaling ships).

Meanwhile, even Prime Minister Julia Gillard has expressed her lack of approval for Sea Shepherd’s activities:

“People might want to make their views heard, and they should, but people need to make sure they stay on the right side of the line and engage in legal activity.”

Update: The men who illegally boarded the Japanese ship are glad that Australian taxpayers will be paying for the costly rescue mission. The stunt, which did not save any whales, was “worth it.”

The Sydney Morning Herald has a printed a very good letter to the editor:

Although my wife and I have for many years been lovers of whales and avid supporters of measures to protect them, we strongly object to Australian taxpayers bearing the cost of thousands of dollars to assist the three Australians who committed stupid and illegal acts against a sovereign Japanese ship (”Whalers gain upper hand in protest boat chase”, January 11). We should never reward criminal behaviour.

The actions of these so-called ”activists” have damaged Australia’s international image and our efforts to protect whales. They and their supporters should be forced to pay for their release.

David Harris, Clifton Grove

Note to the people being directed to spamvote: Listen to Mr. Harris.

Note: I noticed a huge increase in racist and bigoted comment posts this morning, and found that Sea Shepherd twitter accounts have been calling on their loyal fanatics to spam this poll. Prior to calls from SS Twitter accounts to spamvote, the poll results overwhelmingly called on SS to pay back Australian taxpayers. The poll answers have been altered to reflect the spamming. You guys are welcome to spam the poll some more, but flooding an online poll with votes won’t change anything.

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Glass balancing expert Richardo performs on Japanese TV:

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In 2011, a campaign by 2channel posters against Fuji Television for its perceived pro-Korean bias intensified, culminating in a large protest outside Fuji TV headquarters on August 21. No mainstream Japanese news organization reported on the protest, but in a mysterious coincidence, on August 24 Fuji TV aired a special report on a scary underground website called 2channel used for selling illegal drugs. Their evidence for the drug trade was a single post from 2010 that used code words to refer to MDMA, marijuana, and cocaine.

Police, frightened by Fuji’s report, launched an investigation into 2channel, which seems to have become quite serious in recent days. Today, the newsweekly Shuukan Asahi reported that items have been seized from 2channel-related businesses and that founder Hiroyuki Nishimura, who no longer has any ties to 2channel, was called in for questioning. Police hoped to extract from Hiroyuki the real names and locations of the website’s anonymous moderators. According to the magazine, a publication of the Asahi Shinbun newspaper, investigators are calling 2ch a “hotbed of crime” because moderators did not delete the single post from 2010. (Over 1,800,000 posts are made on 2channel every day.) It is not yet clear whether the moderators will be arrested or if these police scare tactics will affect 2channel’s day-to-day operations, despite Shuukan Asahi calling the probe an “extermination mission”.

In related news, at midnight on January 9, 2channel’s anonymous moderators set up a new forum with special copyright restrictions. 2channel is used as a source by hundreds of blogs, which reprint news articles and the posts of 2channel users without any acknowledgement of copyright. Remarkably, in a country where copyright is taken very seriously, these outlaw blogs are not only quite popular but have acquired corporate sponsorship and ad dollars that 2channel itself has never been able to get, which makes the message board’s users quite mad.

Since 2004, when publishers ran into serious trouble securing copyright permissions from the anonymous posters on the Densha Otoko threads, copyright on posts has been owned by 2channel. Because 2channel’s legal operations were moved to Singapore in order to avoid libel suits from angry Japanese celebrities, it now lacks the means to easily file lawsuits itself. That doesn’t change the fact that copying people’s posts violates copyright. These blogs exist in a legal gray area, but that doesn’t stop them from getting corporate sponsors. The gaming blog Hachimaki, which is often the source of breaking news on Kotaku and other American blogs, is quietly funded by Sony and Kadokawa Shoten. The anime blog Yaraon is affiliated with the anime production house SHAFT, the producers of Hidamari Sketch among other popular shows. Paranoid 2channel users accuse these affiliate blogs of posting articles to 2channel itself in order to generate fake articles and make money for their corporate masters, a much speculated-on activity called “stealth marketing”, i.e. viral marketing.

In order to address the incessant arguments over viral marketing, moderators opened a new board, “Breaking News (Non-Commercial)“, which explicitly forbids reprinting, and therefore would not be profitable for Japan’s corporate overlords. Of course, it remains to be seen whether affiliate blogs will actually follow these rules. They currently seem to be limiting themselves to mocking non-commercial activists and boasting about the continued use of the old forum, which has in fact drastically fallen off.

Both of these stories are likely to drastically affect how news reaches the English-speaking Internet from Japan in the years to come.

Contributor Bio: Avery teaches English somewhere near Takeo. When he is not translating things, he is probably visiting haikyo or researching weird footnotes in Japanese history. He can be reached on Twitter at @ahm.

Back in May of 2011 I blogged about Shouzou Takenami, a 93-year-old resident of Aomori prefecture who has kept an illustrated diary since 1955. In my post, I wrote that I hoped that the diaries would be published. It seems that a lot of Japanese television viewers had the same idea. A compilation of some of Takenami’s most interesting diary entries has been published as a 191 page book:

Although it only contains a limited selection of entries from Takenami’s set of 2,300 diary notebooks, Customers reviews on Amazon.co.jp are overwhelming positive. According to Wikipedia, over 120,000 copies have been sold.

Here is a follow-up TV segment about his book:

In a diary entry about the publishing deal, he has an illustration of himself offering the book as a gift to his deceased wife (who is watching over him from heaven).

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Japanese police found the Taiwanese student who was apparently responsible for the brutal murder of two of his classmates:

Chang Chih-yang, a student at a Japanese language school in Tokyo, is suspected of having killed Julia Chu, 25, and Lin Chih-ying, 23, both of whom were also students at the school.

Chu and Lin were found covered in blood in the dormitory of the Intercultural Institute of Japan at around 10 a.m. Jan. 5. One of them died at the scene and the other died a short time later in hospital.

Police found Chang earlier today at the SKE48 theater in Nagoya. According to the latest press reports, when police were driving him to a station for questioning, he took out a knife and stabbed himself in the neck. He died before they could get him to a hospital. Police officers had supposedly searched him beforehand, but had failed to find the knife.

Chang is said to have confessed his guilt shortly before his suicide.

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Japan may soon have a new definition of fatness:

The Japan Society for the Study of Obesity (JASSO) is considering including women with a body mass index (BMI)–a measure of weight relative to height–of below 25 but a waist circumference of above 80 centimeters as excessively fat.

People with a BMI of less than 25 are not considered overweight under current guidelines.

The government-set conditions for being obese include a BMI of 25 or more, health problems such as a lipid abnormality and high-blood pressure, and having an abdominal girth of 85 centimeters or more for men and 90 centimeters or more for women.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry uses these figures when deciding whether a person has metabolic syndrome in a special health check program for people aged from 40 to 74.

However, experts have pointed out that the risk of arteriosclerosis and other health problems increases for people with excessive visceral fat even if their BMI is below 25.

I am not sure what percentage of the Japanese population would be considered obese under the JASSO or Japanese government standards, but a recent English language news article states that Japan’s rate of obesity is 2.9 percent for men and 3.3 percent for women.

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Three members of the radical animal rights groups Sea Shepherd and Forest Rescue Australia have been detained after illegally boarding a Japanese whaling ship. The incident took place 40 kilometers offshore, outside Australian territorial waters.

Here is Sea Shepherd’s version of the story from the West Australian (one of the many media outlets that uncritically acts as a PR outlet for SS):

“Some of our crew members with experience in boarding the Japanese ships met them in two of our inflatable boats in waters off Bunbury,” Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said.

“We (The Steve Irwin) stopped, called in that we were having engine trouble and also posted that on our website, because we know the Japanese monitor our website.

“Our vessel was 12 miles away, and I think being boarded was the last thing the Japanese thought would happen.

“It was total darkness on that ship and they had to climb around razor wire, we also know they carry military equipment.”

Forest Rescue Australia spokeswoman Amy Flee said the three men were well aware of the risks involved when they volunteered.

“They knew full well that they would probably be arrested,” she said.

As the activists note, the people who did this were fully aware that they could be arrested. They were certainly aware of the case of Pete Bethune, who was arrested in 2010 after acting under the orders of Sea Shepherd and carrying out a similar “raid” on Japanese ships. Bethune was convicted, but released with a suspended sentence.

The men were carrying a note that said “Return us to shore in Australia and then remove yourself from our waters.” But, as Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon has admitted, the incident did not take place in Australian territory:

”If this vessel is close to Australian waters, you’d think there was a possibility that [they] would promptly have discussions with us about a safe and immediate return,” Ms Roxon said.

But Ms Roxon expressed no confidence this would happen, saying the government’s options were restricted because the incident happened outside territorial waters.

”It is likely that these three Australians may be taken back to Japan,” she said.

Sea Shepherd, which has a consistent record of outright dishonesty, has claimed that they boarded the vessel within Australian territorial waters. (Don’t take my word for it, just ask Pete Bethune, who says the organization is dishonest and morally bankrupt.)

This latest act of illegal boarding seems to show that Japan was being too lenient when it gave a suspended sentence to Bethune. The same organization has repeated the same crime, fully aware of its illegality, and probably thinks that its members will not face actual prison sentences.

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South Korean police have detained a Chinese man who threw several Molotov cocktails at the Japanese embassy in Seoul:

The man from Guangzhou, who came to South Korea on a tourist visa on Dec. 26 via Japan, claimed he also set fire to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine before leaving that country, Park said.

Before entering South Korea, Liu had stayed in Japan for two months since October as a volunteer to help victims of March’s massive earthquake and tsunami, the officer added.

“We discovered Liu is the one who claimed to have set fire to the door of Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine last month,” Park said.

Much like the fire set at the Yasukuni Shrine, no serious damage was inflicted and nobody was hurt.

The man told police that his grandmother had been a “comfort woman” during the war and he threw the firebombs “to protest Japan’s refusal to apologize for its war crimes.”

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