Not really anthing to do with Asia, but click here to see Celine Dion as you’ve probably never seen her before. . .

Years ago, ping-pong diplomacy was credited with bringing the U.S. and China closer together. Now it looks as if a little pedophile diplomacy may be working its magic on Sino-Japan relations.

According to Japan’s Shukan Bunshun, someone posted photos of 11-year-old Saaya Irie in a bikini on a Chinese forum, which had been a hotbed of anti-Japanese rhetoric, along with the following message:

“An 11-year-old Japanese girl with large breasts has a proclamation for all Chinese people! Dear elder brothers, a beautiful young Japanese girl is beseeching you.

Please stop these anti-Japanese hijinks. If you don’t, I won’t like you anymore.”

At the end of the message, she states that her breasts would “rise up” if the people “unite for the sake of China’s democracy.”

The photos were an immediate hit among the Chinese participants, and the number of Japan-bashing postings declined. One writer exclaimed, “This is one Japanese import I won’t be boycotting!”

What does Saaya have to say about all this?

“I would like to see good relations between Japan and China. If relations are good, I think everyone will be happy.”

Here are more additions to the various products available to lonely Japanese men who experience problems with establishing and maintaining relationships with members of the opposite sex — pillows and bed sheets with images of popular personality Waka Inoue.

It is hard to turn on the TV or open a magazine these days without running into Ms. Inoue, whose main claims to fame are a 90 cm chest, 90 cm hips, and a pair of lips that bring to mind superhuman feats involving a garden hose and golf ball.

The sheet is being sold for 8,000 yen and the pillow for 5,300 yen. Or they can be purchased as a set for 12,800 yen. These and other Waka Inoue goods are available at this Japanese site.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that both Amp and I have become buried under separate avalanches of work from our day jobs, which is severely limiting the time we can devote to JAPUNDIT articles.

Personally, I would like to quit my day job and just write for JAPUNDIT, but Mrs. JP won’t let me. . .

We expect to get back to a more regular posting schedule when work clears up, but for now posting may become a bit spotty.

JP

A man was arrested in Nagano after he climbed a 27-meter tower for high-voltage electrical lines with the intent of committing suicide.

After being talked down by police and asked why he wanted to kill himself, the man said, “I’m not getting along well with others and my worries got me thinking about suicide.”

Seeing as how his little stunt caused about 10,000 homes in the area to be without electrical power for about 90 minutes, there is little doubt that it will probably make him even more unpopular than ever before.

A new book claims that high divorce rates is not a modern phenomenon in Japan, but is actually more of a tradition.

In DIVORCE IN JAPAN: Family, Gender and the State 1600-2000 (Stanford University Press: Stanford, 2004, 226 pages), which was reviewed recently in The Japan Times, Harold Feuss claims that divorce rates in 19th-century Japan were actually higher than they are today.

Elevated divorce rates are nothing new to Japan; indeed, 19th-century rates have been exceeded only by those in the post-1970s United States. As recently as the late 19th century, there was little stigma attached to divorce and multiple marriages were common. A civil code and new laws on family registration introduced in 1898, however, led to a sharp decline in divorce rates. Fuess notes that “Industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, broad trends often blamed for an increase in divorce, had the opposite effect in Japan during the first four decades of the twentieth century.”

Fuess also says that spouse testing was the norm long ago in Japan, with both men and women remarrying.

How did Japan get a reputation for low divorce rates?

The anomalous period in Japanese divorce history spanned the period 1898-1940 when divorce rates declined. Why? According to Fuess, there was a strengthening of the institution of marriage because the Japanese “valued economic and social stability in marriage above romance and affection.” In addition, a new sexual morality developed that criticized divorce as a national disgrace and a poor reflection on women’s rights.

More than 57% of Japanese people who responded to a Kyodo New poll are of the opinion that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should not visit Yasukuni Shrine this year.

Those who gave that answer totaled 57.7%, marking an increase of 16.9 percentage points from a survey conducted in December, while those who said he should pay a visit decreased by 16.7 points to 34.3%.

I hope this lays to rest the view that the Japanese are bunch of robots whose minds have been numbed by a lifetime of history distoring textbooks, manga, and corrupt politicians. . .

Pick up any book about Japan and you’ll read that the country consists primarily of the four main islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido. But even the Japanese sometimes forget about the part of the country that fans out over a large area southwest of Kyushu. This is the Ryukyu archipelago, of which the primary island is Okinawa. The islands in this archipelago comprise Okinawa Prefecture, which is remote enough from the rest of the country to have developed its own traditions and a dialect that other Japanese can’t understand.

The Ryukyus were nominally independent until 1879, when they were made an administrative unit of the Japanese government. Despite becoming a prefecture, Okinawa did not become part of the Japanese political mainstream until after the United States returned it Japan in 1972. The islands retain a strong sense of regional identity: they were independent for so long, given short shrift by the national government, burdened by heavy taxes, suffered terribly during the war, and were occupied the longest by the United States. American installations still occupy almost a fifth of Okinawa Island, and roughly three-fourths of US bases and more than half of the American troops stationed in Japan are on Okinawa, which accounts for 0.6 percent of Japanese territory. It’s no surprise that many Okinawans quietly nurse the dream of independence, but few expect it to happen.

These feelings are heightened by the archipelago’s distance from the rest of Japan. The flight to Naha Airport from Tokyo is 2 1/2 hours, and about an hour from Fukuoka in Kyushu. They are tropical islands, making them a perfect spot for a vacation in the fall, winter, and spring. (I’ve been told that it’s so hot in summer only the natives can handle it.)

But as Dr. Seuss found more letters in the alphabet in On Beyond Zebra, there is more to Japan and Okinawa Prefecture on beyond Okinawa Island. At the extreme southwest of the Okinawan chain lie the Yaeyama Islands. This is the spot in Japan where people really go to get away from it all without having to use a passport.

One of these islands is Taketomi, six kilometers square, where 90% of the island’s income is derived from tourism. How far is it from the rest of Japan? Taiwan is closer than Okinawa Island and The Philippines are closer than Kyushu. Getting there requires another hour-long flight from Naha and a 10-minute ferry ride. An excellent article about Taketomi in today’s Japan Times explains just how remote it is:

Of all the places in this country, the Yaeyamas are the one where you feel least like you are in Japan. And this perception of otherness is certainly felt by the Taketomi islanders themselves: On the huge map in the visitor center “Japan” is written over distant Honshu in the same script and style as “China” is inscribed below Beijing, as though signifying some foreign land.

I’ve wanted to visit these islands ever since I first heard about them more than 20 years ago, and after reading this article I was ready to pack my swimming trunks and buy a plane ticket. There’s one serious obstacle, however—our household has the classic seashore/mountains split when it comes to vacation spot preferences. I could easily live in a beach community, but my wife, who grew up on a riverbank, yearns only for the cooler mountains.

I’ll get there eventually, but there’s nothing stopping you from getting there first!

Princess Sayako, Emperor Akihito’s daughter, is going to be married this fall. Since her husband-to-be is a commoner, she will lose her royal status. But for all that she will ostensibly be losing, Sayako, who is 36, will be gaining the privilege to do some things she’s never done before. These include getting a drivers’ license, having the right to vote, having a last name, getting her own telephone, and going shopping for herself.

Here is an official’s explanation as reported by Reuters on the difficulties presented by a member of the Japanese Imperial family getting a driver’s license:

“In general, members of the Imperial Family, such as the Emperor, do not drive outside the palace grounds because they might cause bother for the public,” said a spokesman for the Imperial Household Agency. Providing security for royals on wheels would also be a problem, he added.

To put that less diplomatically, it’s not that their driving would bother the public, it’s that the response by others to their driving that would bother the public. The Japanese media is among the world’s most tenacious and obnoxious, and the number of useless people assigned to follow the royal family wherever they go would soar from the current horde to an unmanageable mob tailing the unfortunate driver even on the most mundane of errands.

The article reports that Sayako is learning on the palace grounds. Most Japanese go to a driving school before getting their license, but that would be unimaginable for the Emperor’s immediate family, no matter how much they might enjoy mingling with the common folk. The media would camp out in tree houses to film every second the princess spent behind the wheel and broadcast it endlessly on television, with groups of self-proclaimed experts and third-rate showbiz personalities commenting on her skills when shifting from first gear into second.

She will not be the first among her siblings to get a driver’s license, however. The first was her older brother, Prince Akishino (also widely known as The One Who Doesn’t Comb His Hair; see photo below). Akishino fancied himself quite the lad, and in his younger days used to tool around Tokyo in a yellow Volkswagen beetle. (The choice of a foreign car is significant; he couldn’t drive a Japanese car and therefore seem to favor one domestic automaker over another.) Akishino was filmed taking his father, the Emperor, for a spin.

Commonplace stuff for most people, but this was a bold new step for the Japanese Imperial family. It is difficult to comprehend their lack of personal freedom. Emperor Akihito was adamant that he wanted to be involved with his wife, the Empress, in rearing their children. He, as his ancestors before him, seldom saw his parents growing up, as he was essentially raised by palace functionaries. Akihito made a point when playing with his children of letting them jump off the lower step of an exterior staircase to the ground. He had not been allowed to play games like that for fear that he might get injured, and he certainly wasn’t allowed any time for frivolities with his father. Nevertheless, his son and heir, Crown Prince Naruhito, likely isn’t allowed to drive as his brother and sister are.

The Imperial Household Agency, part of the Japanese government, controls every aspect of the public life of the Imperial family, and a large part of their private life. The agency determines how their time is spent in official duties, where they go, what they wear, who they see, and, for the most part, what they say. This is exacerbated by the conservative and secretive nature of the agency and its members. One look at their mugs and you can see the little cartoon balloons sprouting over their heads containing the words, “You can’t do that.”

Crown Prince Naruhito caused a tsunami last year when he hijacked a press conference, usually a dull affair, to complain that his wife Masako wasn’t permitted by the Imperial Household Agency to take a more active role in promoting Japan overseas. (Before her marriage she worked in the Foreign Ministry; she also speaks several languages.) As most public statements from the Imperial family are the very definition of bland, Naruhito’s open criticism of the Agency was almost shocking and was dissected in detail by the mass media. It definitely shocked his parents, the Emperor and Empress, because he hadn’t discussed it with them beforehand. Father and son have some difficulty communicating, regardless of how well they get along; they have to make appointments in advance to see each other, and they just can’t pick up the phone and call because they don’t have personal telephones.

The members of the Imperial family themselves would like to lead a more modern lifestyle, and many Japanese share their wish. The distance they have to travel to approach the modern age must seem enormous to them, however, as they deal with constraints that are tantamount to confinement in a Medieval dungeon. Here’s hoping that Sayako will adjust to her new status as a commoner with a minimum of fuss and thrive–and drive–in relative anonymity. While she might be losing her royal status, she just might be gaining her life.

A man in Fukuoka, Japan who is on trial for murdering his wife’s niece during a confrontation with police has been spending his time in detention sending threatening letters to the judge.

The man, Tadashi Kawamura, 39, is due to receive a ruling on his case in the Fukuoka District Court on Thursday. During his trial he had shouted at witnesses, and he reportedly sent the letters because the case hadn’t proceeded as he expected it would.

Sources close to the case said about 100 letters were sent from Kawamura’s detention cell to the court and other places from December 2002. In statements he made to a judge in the letters, Kawamura said he would earn provisional release even if he received a life sentence and that if the ruling went against his will he would not forget it and there would be “trouble.”

During his trial, Kawamura has also been known to yell out suddenly during testimony of his family members, and has had two lawyers resign from his defense.

A panel of nine anti-corruption commisioners in Thailand were found guilty of corruption recently for awarding themselves illegal extra payments.

“They were guilty of misusing their authority to benefit their own interest, which has caused damage to the National Counter Corruption Commission,” a judge said in reading the hour-long verdict.

However, the court suspended their two-year jail terms, saying their convictions should not overshadow the good work they had done in the past.

Nothing like sending a strong message that corruption with not be tolerated. . .

There is nothing that excels the drive.

It succeeds only by it.

An official of Yokohama, Japan was charged with professional negligence when an earth mover was knocked off the back of a truck by a post at a tunnel entrance and killed a pedestrian walking near by.

The post had been installed at an angle, causing it to be hit by loads on the back of trucks coming into the tunnel. People had been complaining about the problem post, but city officials did nothing.

Police sent documents to prosecutors on the official in charge of roads who had talked with local residents, on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death after he failed to authorize having the post repaired.

When a truck was entering the tunnel in Yokohama’s Totsuka-ku on Nov. 30 last year, a 1.5-ton excavator on the vehicle hit the post and was knocked off. The excavator hit and killed a 65-year-old man who was walking nearby.

The official who was charged claimed that responsibility for the accident should lie with the driver, saying, “The accident occurred because the driver of the truck didn’t look carefully. I did not feel that fixing the post deserved high priority.”

The post was fixed following the fatal accident.

The Niigata prefectural government has warned the crew of Mangyongbong-92, a NORK ferry that makes regular trips between North Korea and Japan, to turn down the music when anchored at the Japanese port.

The government said that the music played through the ship’s loudspeakers during its last visit was too loud, and that future port calls may be denied if “the volume of sound emitted from loudspeakers, etc., at Niigata Port [is not] kept within the socially acceptable range.”

Now as far as I know, North Koreans are really not known as people who boogey down all that much, so I wonder exactly what type of music it is they are playing. Is the Korean version of Baby Got Back or some of that if the Motherland is attacked our brave soldiers will push the enemy into the sea rock and roll that is sung by NORK high school girls on their way to morning class?

Yesterday, Mr. Pink commented on our Scandinavia’s Smell image by telling us about a bagel shop in the building where he works that advertises “the smell of old New York.” Well, the mighty Mr. P was kind enough to run down there today and snap a picture of one of the shop’s bags.

I remember going to New York once, and it smelled like exhaust fumes and rotten cigarette butts. . .

Thanks, Pink!

What’s the best way to achieve cross-cultural communication? Here’s a hint—it’s not an international tea party.

As the Shukan Post reports and the Daily Mainichi passes on, South Korean men are conducting their own international exchange programs in Tokyo soapland establishments. A soapland is where young women are paid a fee to play rub-a-dub-dub, two in a tub. Years ago, they used to be called toruko, after Turkish baths, until the Turkish ambassador complained. Then, as if by magic, they became “soaplands” overnight throughout the country.

Despite the friction in Japanese-Korean relations, these guys seem intent on creating a different kind of friction when in Japan. The influx of Korean customers into Tokyo’s soaplands is attributed two factors—the waiving of visa requirements for Koreans in March, and the crackdown on the sex industry in South Korea. Reportedly, the men either visit on a break from an ordinary business trip, or they come specifically to get soaped.

The article also reports that the Internet in Korea provides a lot of useful information for people wanting to patronize these establishments, including detailed information on pricing and services.

They say the grass is always greener in the other fellow’s back yard, but I wonder—authorities may be getting tough with the South Korean sex industry, but it was reportedly such a thriving trade that it’s hard to believe they put that much of a crimp in the business. Then again, when Japanese men have talked to me about patronizing establishments of this sort, they never mention the ones at home. One doctor, for example, was rapturous when he told me about his visit to Taiwan. Perhaps it’s not that the grass is greener elsewhere–maybe it’s that the suds are soapier.

In the end, however, I have to feel sorry for the Korean visitors. Here’s what one of the female workers had to say.

“I suppose the biggest impression left on me is that all the time we’re going at it, they keep asking me in broken Japanese, ‘Am I better than a Japanese guy or what?’”

The poor guys can’t even forget themselves and enjoy the pleasure that they paid for. They have to prove themselves—to sex workers—and worry about how they measure up against the Japanese. Now I see what the foreign bloggers in Korea mean when they talk about the Korean inferiority complex, especially when it comes to Japan and the U.S.

I wonder if they think the girls actually give them an honest answer.

It was not really that long ago that the Japan police department was considered to be among the best in the world. But now. . .

The latest store of bungling by the Nippon boys in blue comes from Saitama, Japan where police answered a call from a 42-year-old woman’s husband who claimed that she is using drugs. When the cops arrived, they found the woman laying on a futon, “bleeding from the head and making strange sounds.”

The woman had been arrested on suspicion of drug use in the past in August 2003, and at the request of the sergeant, the woman accompanied him to the police station to be tested for drug use.

The simple drug test failed to produce a positive result, but based on the woman’s actions and her husband’s report, police decided that she had been using drugs and arrested her.

Unfortunately for the arresting officer, a subsequent test turned in a negative result for drugs, leaving the police with no alternative but to release the woman with their apologies.

Check out the website of David Meyer (a.k.a. Papa) for some up-close and personal comments about dress codes of Japanese companies.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Once again, Japan makes a fashion discovery thirty years behind the United States. Casual clothes are comfortable. At least this time it is a good idea we are borrowing.

Salaryman fashion is much in the news these days as the government urges businessmen to chuck their coats and ties during the muggy summer months in an effort to reduce energy (air conditioning) needs.

By the way, I have noticed recently that global warming is gradually being replaced by climate change in reports about what it is we are facing. I wonder how the government fashion gurus will deal with that one. . .

Seoul, Korea restaurant owner Keum Taek-hoon must have felt pretty terrible last month as she watched three crazed elephants that had escaped from a zoo crash into her restaurant and destroy her place of business. If you have not seen the footage of the attack yet, click here.

After collecting an 18 million won ($18,000) insurance payment to cover the devastation wrought by the crazed pachyderms, however, Ms. Keum decided to treat the event as a business opportunity. She reopened her restaurant under a new name: “Restaurant Where Elephants Have Been” and a new logo based on three elephants. The menu now features an “Elephant Set,” which includes seven vegetable dishes and hot soup.

Ms. Keum says that her business has doubled since the elephant attack, adding, “What can I say about the elephants? Thank you for causing the trouble? Well, that just might be right.”

Journalist Richard Halloran spent 10 days in Japan talking to government officials, diplomats, business executives, military officers, scholars, journalists, and private citizens, and came away with a conclusion that really should surprise no one at all. If the recent anti-Japanese protests in China and South Korea were intended to influence Japanese attitudes and behavior, he notes in this article in the Japan Times, they succeeded—by hardening Japanese attitudes against both those countries.

He reports that the Japanese have now developed a “deep-seated” anger toward the Chinese and a sense of disdain toward the South Koreans.

Here’s a selection of some of the attitudes he encountered:

A diplomat referring to the Koreans: “They have gone over to the Chinese side.”

After US$30 billion in aid to rebuild Chinese infrastructure and similar aid to South Korea: “No matter what we do, the Chinese and Koreans will always demand more.”

A musician: “Among my friends, the general feeling is ‘enough is enough’.”

Halloran cites how apparent Chinese and Korean intentions have backfired to create the opposite effect.

• The demonstrations in China and South Korea were intended to “intimidate Japan into diplomatic submission. Instead, the Japanese have become defiant.”
• Chinese demanded that the Japanese reflect on their actions in WWII and the recent textbook revisions. Instead, this exposed them as hypocrites in Japanese eyes for ignoring the millions of deaths caused by the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and their own standard textbooks that are even less forthcoming than the optional one offered in Japan.
• The Chinese and the Koreans wanted to prevent Japan from gaining a seat on the U.N. Security Council. Instead, the Japanese have allied with India, Germany, and Brazil asking for joint admission.
• The Chinese wanted to prevent Japan from strengthening its military forces. Instead, their efforts gave impetus to efforts to revise the peace clause in the Japanese Constitution. They also have caused more people in Japan to seriously consider developing nuclear weapon capabilities.

Halloran didn’t note that the Chinese demonstrations have accelerated moves in Japan to cut off Japanese ODA to China. The Japanese have been very generous over the years, and the financial assistance surely helped fuel rapid Chinese economic growth. For their part, the Chinese (when they were aware of it) considered the aid as postwar reparations. Their myopic demagoguery is about to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

Hope they’re happy in Beijing and Seoul.