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» The Tokyo high court has rejected claims for compensation brought by 10 Chinese on behalf of their relatives who they say were used in germ warfare experiments conducted by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army during the second world war. All the victims were prisoners of war at Pingfan prison, near Harbin, where experiments with cholera, typhoid, plague and other diseases were carried out on living victims. Some were dissected while still alive without using anaesthetic.

The rejection of the case added to tensions between China and Japan over the new, government-approved Japanese history textbooks, which China claims gloss over Japan's wartime atrocities. One of the main objections is that the textbooks refers to the 1937-38 Nanking Massacre, in which up to 300,000 Chinese died, as merely an "incident".

Tensions spilled out into huge anti-Japanese demonstrations in a number of Chinese cities. In Shanghai protestors attacked the Japanese embassy. Tempers were calmed to some extent by an apology made by Prime Minister Koizumi at an international summit. "In the past Japan caused tremendous damage and suffering for the people of many countries, particularly those of Asian nations, through its colonial rule and aggression", he said. "Japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility."

Some commentators say the problem over the textbooks reflects a continued shift to the right by the Japanese government, which they say has adopted a more nationalistic tone in recent months. They argue Japan fears China's increasing economic might and also likely competition in the region over scarce resources such as oil. For its part, China is worried about moves in Japan to amend its anti-war constitution and the greater role Japanese troops are playing in international peacekeeping missions. Japan is also lobbying hard to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a move opposed by China, which already has a permanent seat.

On a more optimistic note, economic ties between the two countries are strong and likely to increase. A growing number of Japanese companies have opened factories in China, and Japanese exports to China now exceed those to the US.
[Jan Dodd; April 2005]

» Since 2003, pupils and teachers at schools in Tokyo must stand up in front of Japan's national flag and sing the national anthem (Kimigayo) according to a municipal decree. At the end of the 2004 school year nearly 200 teachers were sanctionned for refusing to do so. They argue that the practice harks back to WWII, when people were exorted to die for the emperor.

Several teachers have taken the Tokyo government to court, saying the rule contravenes a citizen's right to freedom of thought as guaranteed under the Constitution. On the whole, though, the opposition has been fairly muted and the ruling Liberal Democrats are proposing schools should devote more time to developing aikokushin (patriotism) among their pupils.

Apparently, the emperor is less enthusiastic. According to reports, he said he doesn't think it should be compulsory for school children to raise the flag and sing the national anthem.
[Jan Dodd; March 2005]

Pop culture & technology

» A host of new robots at World Expo 2005, which opens in Aichi Prefecture on March 25. Apparently, Toyota's "i-foot" robots will stage a show, including robots playing various musical instruments, such as the trumpet, tuba or drum, and dancers. Multi-lingual robots will be welcoming visitors, others accompanying children and the elderly.
[Jan Dodd; March 2005]

Environment

» On Dec 10, Ms Shiotani Yoshiko, governor of Kumamoto Prefecture, expressed her will to totally remove the Arase Dam in Sakamoto Village after the water rights expires in 2010. This is going to be the first case of the total removal of an existing dam in Japan. Sakamoto Village, the village assembly, and the LDP forces within the prefectural assembly has been demanding the removal, as local residents have complained of vibrations during the discharge of water and the quality of water has deteriorated in and around the dam lake.
[Tada Taku, Tokyo; Dec 2002]

» The UK-based Centre For Sustainable Design reports that Japan will run out of landfill by 2007. As a response to the problem there is a drive to increase recycling funded by a £140 billion technology programme, backed up by new laws on recycling (for example, at present at least 50% of all home appliances must be recycled, with higher targets being introduced gradually) and "green purchasing". Apparently, Japanese companies have exceded the first year targets of recycling 50-60% of televisions, air conditioners, fridges and washing machines by up to 78%. New materials, which can be recycled more easily, are also being developed, such as a material made of plastic mixed with wood.
[Jan Dodd; Nov 2002]

» According to Asahi Shimbun, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is considering a law which would force factories and offices in the capital to cut their CO2 emissions in order to achieve the reductions agreed to under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (ie. Japan pledged to cut average annual CO2 emissions from 2008 to 2012 to a level at least 6 percent lower than the figure in 1990). About 1000 facilities would be affected (those consuming over 1,500 kiloliters of fuel or energy annually when converted to crude oil, or those that use more than 6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually), which between them account for 40% of Tokyo's total CO2 emissions. However, if carried out, these cuts would only lead to a 2% reduction in annual emissions over the next 3 years.

At the same time, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures agreed to encourage the use of "low-pollution" vehicles and to reduce emissions from diesel-powered vehicles.
[Jan Dodd; Nov 2002]

» Acorrding to CNN, Japan's waste-disposal problem will come to a crunch in 2006 at the latest. The Ministry of the Environment issued a report stating that disposal sites are becoming increasingly hard to find and illegal dumping is on the rise. Japan burns 75% of its garbage, much more than in other developed countries. The country produced 400 million tons of industrial waste in 2000, of which rubble and other waste from building sites accounts for a whopping 15%.
[Jan Dodd; Jan 2002]

» Niigata Prefecture has decided to start returning the endangered ibis species to the wild in fiscal 2007, when the birds are expected to exceed 100 in number. 18 ibises currently live at the Sado Ibis Protection Center.
[Tada Taku, Ibaraki; June 2001]

» On May 5 the Japan Times reported that Japan and America will establish a joint project studying the short-tailed albatross, an endangered species. The project will use satellites and electronice tagging to study the flight patterns and routes the birds take across the Pacific. At present the birds are only known to breed on two remote Japanese islands - Torishima and Minamikojima. The population fell to under 50 (they were slaughtered in massive numbers in the early twentieth century for their feathers), but has since risen to around 1000 thanks to conservation measures.
[Jan Dodd; May 2001]

» According to the May 7 evening edition of Yomiuri Shimbun, the Ministry of the Environment launched, in Oct 2000, a 5-year-old plan to exterminate the mongeese on Amami Ôshima Island which number 5,000 to 10,000. 2,813 of them were captured by March 2001, but the program is facing a difficulty as hunters are growing reluctant to take the trouble of setting up traps.
[Tada Taku, Ibaraki; May 2001]

» As of Mar 31, the number of nuclear power plants planned to be newly built by fiscal 2010 is 13, down 7 from spring last year. The postponement of nuclear plant construction plans is due to (1) the public aversion to nuclear power triggered by the Sept 1999 nuclear accident, and (2) the slowdown of the increase in electric power demand due to the economic recession.
[Tada Taku, Tokyo; April 2000]

Books
(The links below takes you to the relevant page of Amazon)

» My Mother is a Tractor, Nicholas Klar (Trafford Publishing)
The wry insights of a former JET make required reading for anyone thinking of teaching English in Japan.
[Jan Dodd; August 2005]

» Haruki Marukami and the Music of Words, Jay Rubin (Harvill Press; Vintage)
A self-confessed fan and translator of Marukami, Jay Rubin provides a wealth of fascinating insights into the works and, to a lesser extent, the life of the intensely private Haruki Marukami. Rubin charts a chronoligical course, tracing the author's development from early stories such as The Girl from Ipanema via the classics Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and Norwegian Wood, all the way up to his latest novel Kafka on the Shore (2002). It will inspire you to go and re-read them.
[Jan Dodd; April 2005]

» The Devil of Nanking, Mo Hayder (Atlantic Monthly Press). Published in the UK as Tokyo (Bantam Books).
Mo Hayder's deeply disturbing thriller (not for the fainthearted) is composed of two tales interlocking and resonating off each other, one set in contemporary Tokyo, the other during the Nanking Massacre in 1937. Hayder, who worked as a hostess in a Tokyo for a spell, focuses on the dark underbelly of the city, its yakuza gangs and its horrific, secret perversions.
[Jan Dodd; Feb 2005]

» Kimono, Liza Dalby (Vintage).
Lisa Dalby's book, originally published in 1993, traces the history of kimono from its Chinese origins to its current status as Japanese national dress. She looks at the social context of kimono, including issues of gender and class, discusses changing fashions and gives a fascinating insight into how to "read" the subtle (to non-Japanese eyes at least) nuances of colour, pattern and style, even down to how the kimono is worn.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2001]

» Geisha, Lesley Downer (Headline).
Building on the geisha "craze" inspired by Arthur Golden's book, Lesley Downer traces the history of geisha and investigates their hidden world. A fascinating and extremely readable account of a disappearing world.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2001]

» Hokkaido Highway Blues, Will Ferguson (Canongate).
Even if you don't plan to hitchhike, this account of Will Ferguson's journey from Kyushu to Hokkaido is a great read. One of the best travel books on Japan.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2001]

» Little Adventures in Tokyo, Rick Kennedy (Stone Bridge Press).
This slim volume contains 39 ideas for slipping underneath the skin of Tokyo. Rick Kennedy makes an engaging, and knowledgeable, guide. He gives you the low-down on pachinko, takes you hydroplane racing and tells you where to find Tokyo's best jazz joints - among other things.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2001]

» Japan Made in USA, Zipangu (ed)
This book should be required reading for anyone contemplating penning an article about Japan - or anything dealing with cross-cultural issues, for that matter. Consisting of interviews and essays, Japan Made in USA was produced by a group of Japanese based in New York in the late 1980s who were anxious to correct the "exaggerated and distorted" coverage of Japan. (Though they concentrate on coverage in the New York Times and other American papers, many of the points raised could also be applied to media in other countries.) Arguments from both sides and comments by a broad range of Japanese and American "experts" give the book a good balance.
[Jan Dodd; Nov 2001]

» The Donald Richie Reader: 50 Years of Writing on Japan, Arturo Silva (ed) (Stone Bridge Press).
One of the most observant Western commentators on Japan is celebrated in this impressive compilation. It provides the perfect sampler for those not already familiar with the full breadth of Richie's work, from film critcism, Zen musings, novels and travelogues to previously unpublished extracts from his private journals. Richie, now aged 77, first came to Japan in 1946 as a typist in the Occupation forces. He has lived in Tokyo since 1954, with a short break from 1968-73 when he served as Curator of Film at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
[Jan Dodd; Oct 2001]

» On April 16, Prof Herbert P. Bix's book Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan won an 85th Pulitzer Prize in the United States. The book depicted Emperor Shôwa (Hirohito) in a light far removed from the popular image of a pacifist and of a passive leader in the militarist age.

Last year, Prof John Dower had won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II.
[Tada Taku, Ibaraki; April 2001]

» Looking for the Lost (Kodansha International) & Roads to Sata (Penguin) Alan Booth.
In these classic pieces of travel writing, Booth makes an engaging and perceptive companion as he walks along the backroads of Japan.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» Travelers' Tales Guides: Japan, Donald W George & Amy Greimann Carslon (eds) (Travelers' Tales, Inc.).
A necessarily selective sampler of the best writers who ever penned a Japan travel piece. From Lafcadio Hearn to Donald Richie, Alan Booth and Pico Iyer.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» Tokyo, Donald Richie (Reaktion Books).
The inimitable Richie captures the essence of the city he has lived in for more than fifty years. One of the best introductions you could read.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» The Shôwa Anthology, Van C Gessel & Tomone Matsumoto (eds) (Kodansha International).
This collection of short stories is essential reading if you want to get up to speed with the best in contemporary Japanese fiction. The anthology covers the Shôwa era (1926-1989) and includes a number of stories not previously translated into English.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» Confessions of a Yakuza, Saga Junichi (Kodansha International).
This life-story of a former yakuza boss, beautifully retold by a doctor whose clinic he just happened to walk in to, gives a rare insight into a secret world. Saga also wrote the award-winning Memories of Silk and Straw (Kodansha International), a collection of reminiscences about village life in pre-modern Japan.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» Legless in Ginza, Robin Gerster (Melbourne University Press).
Associate Professor of Australian Studies at Tokyo University in the late 1990s, Gerster is a keen and witty observer of modern Japan. His experiences as a new foreigner in Tokyo will resonate with anyone who's spent time in Japan.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» San'ya Blues, Edward Fowler (Cornell University Press).
Fowler's experiences living and working among the casual labourers of Tokyo's San'ya district makes fascinating reading. He reveals the dark underbelly of Japan's economic miracle and blows apart a few myths and misconceptions on the way.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» Giants of Japan, Mark Weston (Kodansha International).
Mark Weston puts flesh on the bones of history with these short, lively biographies of the movers and shakers - including a handful of women - who helped create the Japan of today. The thirty-seven portraits range from emperors to industrialists and poets to film directors.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» Flight Paths of the Emperor, Steven Heighton (Granta).
Thought-provoking tales from an award-winning Canadian author, many of them set in Ôsaka where Heighton worked as an English teacher.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» The Mountain is Moving, Patricia Morely (New York University Press).
Though a bit heavy going in places, this study of the changing role of women in Japanese society is best for its interviews with and portraits of women who have broken with tradition.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» A Ride in the Neon Sun, Josie Drew (Warner Books).
At nearly 700 pages, this isn't a book to pop in your paniers, but full of useful tips for anyone planning to tour Japan by bike.
[Jan Dodd; Dec 2000]

» Legless in Ginza, Robin Gerster (Melbourne University Press).
Associate Professor of Australian Studies at Tokyo University from 1996-98, Gerster is a keen and witty observer of modern Japan. His experiences as the new foreigner in Tokyo will resonate with anyone who's spent time in Japan. But there's also a lot more to this book: observations on Japanese (and Australian) culture and society, and on relationships between the two countries, as well as an examination of the travel experience in its broader context and how it changes one's notions of "home".
[Jan Dodd; July 2000]

» On the Narrow Road to the Deep North, Lesley Downer (Jonathan Cape; O/P).
Gentle journey in the footsteps of Japan's most famous poet on his 1300-km trek through the remote north. Downer, whose love of Japan shows through, finds pockets of traditional life, climbs Dewa-san and pens a few haiku along the way.
[Jan Dodd; February 2000]

» Fish of the Seto Island Sea, Ruri Pilgrim (HarperCollins).
The story (in novelised form) of three generations of the author's family, starting with her great-grandparents in the 1870s. The book's greatest interest lies in its dramatic backdrop of the war - which the family comes through remarkably in tact, albeit in very straightened circumstances - and the deep-seated changes taking place in Japanese society as a result of both the war and the subsequent American Occupation.
[Jan Dodd; September 1999]

Films

» The latest in the recent spate of Hollywood remakes of Japanese hit movies is said to be Kurosawa Akira's "Shichinin no Samurai" (The Seven Samurai). The movie was already the inspiration for 1960's The Magnificent Seven, but the latest project is said to be happening under the Disney umbrella. Another movie in the works is a version of "Shall We Dance?" with Richard Gere in the lead.

As expected, "Tasogare Seibê " (The Twilight Samurai) swept the boards at the 26th Japanese Academy Awards, winning Best Movie, Best Director (Yamada Yoji), Best Actor (Sanada Hiroyuki) and Actress (Miyazawa Rie), Supporting Actor (Tanaka Min), Best Music and a bunch of others, 12 in total. Miyazawa received the award for Sanada, who is currently in New Zealand filming the new Tom Cruise movie, The Last Samurai.
[japanzone.com; March 2003]

» On March 23, the Japanese animated film Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kami-Kakushi), directed by Mr Miyazaki Hayao, 62, won the "Best Animated Feature Film" award at the United States' 75th annual Academy Awards. The movie, which lacks a clear-cut scheme of distinction between Good and Evil, had been slow to make a start in the American film market.

The mysterious town which the heroine of the film wonders into was modeled on the "Shitamachi Naka-dôri" street within the "Edo Tôkyô Tatemono-En (Edo Tôkyô Buildings Park)" located in Koganei City, western Tôkyô Prefecture.
[Tada Taku, Tokyo; March 2003]

» Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kami-kakushi), directed by Miyazaki Hayao, won the coveted Golden Bear award at this year's Berlin International Film Festival. The digitally-mastered animation film broke box office records when it opened in Japan last year. Over 21 million people went to see it.

Spirited Away is the second Japanese film to win the Golden Bear (after Imai Tadashi's "Bushidô Zankoku Mono-gatari, A Cruel Story of the Warrior's Way, in 1963) and the world's first animated film to win a highest prize in one of the three major international film festivals (Berlin, Cannes and Venice).

The plot revolves around 10-year-old Chihiro. She and her family are suddenly transported into a world of gods and spirits when they stumbles across an onsen resort patronised by Japan's eight million gods. When the gods, who can't abide the stench of humans, turn Chihiro's parents into pigs, she tries to rescue them ...
[Jan Dodd & Tada Taku, Ibaraki; Feb 2002]

» Sanma no aji (An Autumn Afternoon/The Widower; 1962). Ozu Yasujirô's last film (and one of only two shot in colour) revisits familiar themes: an ageing father viewing the impending marriage of his daughter with mixed emotions, and the inexorable decline of traditional family life (and of national identity) in the face of modernisation/westernisation.

Ukigusa (Floating Weeds; 1959) follows the (mis)fortunes of a failing kabuki troupe playing a one-horse town on the coast of southern Kyushu.

Ozu films don't exactly race along, and there's very little in the way of plot, but their characterisation, simplicity, bitter-sweet nostalgia and subtle sense of humour are compelling. Donald Richie describes them as "simply layered stories of simple, haiku-like cause and effect" (The Donald Richie Reader, ed Arturo Silva; Stone Bridge Press).
[Jan Dodd; Oct 2001]

» Ichigensan, Morimoto Isao
Based on the award-winning semi-autobiographical novel written in Japanese by Swiss-born David Zopetti. The theme of this romantic tale is the common experience of so many foreigners in Japan: the barriers are let down for a tantalising glimpse before closing shut again.
[Jan Dodd; February 2000]

» Kikujirô no Natsu (Kukujirô's Summer), Kitano Takeshi (1999)
Once again "Beat" Takeshi directs and stars in this touching, semi-autobiographical tale of a young boy's search for his absent mother.

The boy in question, Masao, lives with his grandmother in Tokyo's Asakusa district. His father is dead and his mother nowhere in sight. Come the summer holidays, all Masao's friends leave for the seaside with their families, the football club is deserted and even his grandmother is out working all day.

Things start to look up, however, when Masao finds his mother's address and sets off to find her. He doesn't get very far before having to be "rescued" by Kikujirô (Kitano), a gambling, thieving, somewhat brutal yakuza-member who happens to be married to a friend of Masao's grandmother.

This odd pair set off on the search for Masao's mother - though in fact the film is more about Kikujirô than Masao. On the way, in true Kitano fashion, they meet a bizarre assortment of characters - paedophiles, poets, bikers and buffoons. This, combined with Kitano's off-beat humour and cynicism, keeps the film from becoming too sugary, despite a rather cloying score.
[Jan Dodd; November 1999]

» Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke), Miyazaki Hayao (1999)
There's not a Bambie in sight in this complex, beautifully crafted feature-length cartoon which is, in essence, a plea for humankind to live in harmony with nature.

Set in 15C-Japan, the film tells the story of Ashitaka, a young boy who saves his village by killing a malevolent god. In the process he receives a fatal curse which only the great Deer God - protector of the forests, giver of life and death - can remove. On the edge of the sacred forest where the Deer God lives, Ashitaka encounters San (Princess Mononoke), a spunky young girl raised by a giant wolf-god (Mononoke means a supernatural being which can both harm and help mankind). San and the animal-gods are pitted in a life-or-death struggle against Lady Eboshi - another of Miyazaki's typically strong female characters - who is destroying the forest to feed her iron ore furnaces and produce guns. Lady Eboshi is also after the Deer God, but she wants its head. Her accomplice in crime is a crafty monk, Jiko, who believes possession of the god's head will confer immortality. Meanwhile, Lady Eboshi's mountain hideout is under attack by a band of samurai.

A shifting web of allegiances and betrayals keeps the action rolling along. Gods, humans and demons battle it out in a fairly gory finale, until in the end .....
[Jan Dodd; October 1999]

Language

» On Dec 6, the Diet approved a bill to unify the word for the nurse as a profession to the sexually neutral kango-shi. For a long time, nurses have been called kango-fu, and in fairly rare cases in which they were men (ban lifted in 1968), they were called kango-shi. Similarly, the words hoken-fu (public health nurse, opened to men in 1993) and josan-fu (midwife) will be changed to the sexually neutral hoken-shi and josan-shi, although men are still not allowed to become midwives. The new law will come into effect in spring next year.
[Tada Taku, Ibaraki; Dec 2001]

» I noticed on your Forum that someone asked about basic Japanese on the Web. Here are a few useful sites:

http://www.gatewayj.com/ (various Japanese on-line courses, free)
http://www.trussel.com/f_nih.htm (Japanese/English dictionary)
http://members.aol.com/writejapan/index.htm (animations of Japanese writing)
http://linear.mv.com/~jfriedl/www/pub/jap.guide.txt (quick and dirty guide)
[Kimiye Tipton; May 2001]

Snippets

» 10 years have passed since the stricter legislation for the containment of mafia groups was enforced on March 1, 1992. Regular mafia members have decreased from about 63,800 at the end of 1991 to 43,100 at the end of 2001, but quasi-members have increased from 27,200 to 41,300. Collecting money from drinking establishments and sex industry outlets was the central method of fundraising before the legislation, but interference in real estate and stock dealings on the verge of legality is getting more popular as a measure for fundraising. Cooperation with crime syndicates of foreign nationals is also increasing in number of cases.
[Tada Taku, Ibaraki; March 2002]