japan
This job stinks
Jul 28th
As a photographer, I have the privilege to encounter rare glimpses of the strange and unusual. Most of the time I am thankful to get such an assignment but this particular one turned out to be a mixture of delight and displeasure.
The subject was a Titan arum, or Amorphophallus titanium, one of the world’s largest and rarest plants, which was blooming for the first time in nearly 20 years at a botanical garden in Tokyo. The first visitors lined up from 6:30 am and by the time the gate opened at 10 am, 1600 people had formed a long queue despite the sweltering Tokyo summer heat. The excited crowd was attracted by extensive TV coverage and in the newspaper about this unusual flower that only blooms for two days after taking 16 years to grow from a seedling.
Press were allowed special access to skip the long line and duck under the ropes surrounding the flower to get a close-up shot. At first glimpse, I was surprised to see the 1.5 meter (4.9 feet) tall flower, as it was nothing like any flower I had ever seen before. However, the next moment I stood atop the ladder to get a close up shot, the surprise turned into dismay as a foul odor emanating from the blossom stung my nose. The flower’s rotten garbage-like smell was enhanced by the high humidity and the hot temperature. I quickly snapped a few shots as I held my breath and then put some distance between myself and the flower to catch my breath. I repeated this dance a few times: Hold breath, approach flower, take shots, and retreat. Meanwhile, the gate opened and visitors who’d been waiting for hours flocked towards the gigantic flower. They pushed and shoved to take pictures of the plant and sometimes shouts were heard as people squashed each other.
After looking at the enthusiasm of the visitors and thinking that it would be another 20 years before I could photograph this flower blooming again, I forgot about the bad smell and muggy heat and came to think I was very lucky to have encountered this odd plant.
Japan voters seek change, may get chaos
Jul 12th
Five years ago, Japanese voters seeking change from stale politics and a stagnant economy backed maverick leader Junichiro Koizumi’s calls for reform, handing his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a huge win in an election for parliament’s powerful lower house.
Two years, several scandals and one incompetent prime minister later, they dealt the same LDP a stinging setback in a 2007 upper house election, creating a “Twisted Parliament” where the upper chamber could stall bills and delay policies.
The gridlock toppled the LDP’s Shinzo Abe and his successor, each after about a year in office, and finally last summer the same electorate — still longing for something new and better — swept the novice Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) to power, ending more than half a century of almost non-stop LDP rule and ejecting Taro Aso from the PM’s seat. The DPJ, voters hoped, would make good on promises to change how Japan was governed, ending bureaucratic control of policies, and somehow ensuring that Japan emerged from two decades of the doldrums.
Now, after less than a year of chaotic policymaking, indecisive leadership and more scandals under DPJ premier Yukio Hatoyama, followed by sudden talk of a sales tax hike from former grassroots activist Naoto Kan, who took over when Hatoyama suddenly quit, frustrated voters did it again.
On Sunday, they delivered a harsh rebuke to the DPJ and a tiny ally, depriving them of an upper house majority and setting the stage for another bout of deadlock as Japan struggles to engineer growth in a fast-ageing society and curb a gigantic public debt.
“Voters were not trying to create political confusion, but that is the result,” said independent political analyst Hirotaka Futatsuki, adding that calls for a snap lower house election that might not solve anything would grow. No lower house poll need be held until 2013.
Scenarios abound for possible ways out of the political bind.
Among them are a tie-up between the DPJ and the small, pro-reform Your Party (even that would be a few seats short of a majority), a “grand coalition” between the Democrats and the LDP, or a sweeping rejig of party allegiances that would magically create policy coherence out of chaos.
Not many experts seem optimistic.
“Japanese politics is back to talking, not acting,” said Jesper Koll, director of equity research at JP Morgan Securities Japan. “We’re likely to have lost another two years stuck in parliamentary gridlock rather than action.”
Some commentators, though, suggested an upside: no policies might be better than bad ones.
Remembering Hiro’s gentle smile
Apr 13th
As Hiro Muramoto headed out the door of the Tokyo newsroom last week, weighed down with TV equipment on his way to Bangkok to cover demonstrations, he flashed a smile at a Reuters colleague.
It was, she remembers, a “Hiro” smile. It was gentle, rather than a broad grin, and it showed the 43-year-old was pleased once again to take his expertise on the road to do his job telling the world what was going on.
It was doing that job that cost him his life as he was killed, along with 20 others, during a sudden burst of violence during the protests in central Bangkok on Saturday night.
Hiro was not the gung-ho war correspondent of the movies. He was a careful, loving married Dad of two and a gentle mentor for young colleagues and an expert story teller.
He took his concern for those around him beyond the newsroom to complete two 100-km charity walks (with a third planned this month), raising thousands of dollars for Oxfam along with teammates from Thomson Reuters.
At Reuters for more than a decade and a half, Hiro was witness to many of Asia’s biggest stories. His work brought to viewers around the world the sounds and images of events ranging from Asian financial crises to political protests and the 2002 World Cup.
He was trained and experienced in operating in hostile environments, including the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Philippine military operations against insurgents on Jolo island.
Greg Beitchman, who took Hiro on as a staff member in 1995, remembers how Hiro eluded government minders during a reporting trip to North Korea, to get out to the world what was really happening in the secretive state.
“While the minders chatted away at me in English – mostly about how the Dear leader ‘loved journalists’ – Hiro pretended not to understand and slipped away to work,” Greg recalls.
“On the surface much of the city looked like a 60′s Godzilla movie set , but underneath Hiro found evidence of poverty and hunger amidst government attempts to show off a ‘flourishing’ free trade zone,” recalled Greg, who is now the global editor of our news agency business.
Hiro’s sense of humour and his gentle personality also made him a natural for coverage of the quirkier side of life. Stories that showcased his professionalism and his sense of fun remain viral hits on the Internet, including pieces on a pair of monkeys working as waiters outside Tokyo (2008) and the first-ever wedding between a man and a Japanese video game character (2009).
“Hiro was a trusted and dear colleague who quietly made those around him better through tremendous gifts as a story-teller, cameraman and editor,” remembers another long-time TV colleague, Dan Sloan. “He visualised the finished product while still shooting — how it would flow from shot to shot to make a better story.”
From my own memories and talking to colleagues who have known Hiro much longer than me, it was his calming, professional influence that comes through again and again — along with that subtle smile.
“Emotions often run high at the scene of news, between the media and authorities, among competing media or even among ourselves,” recalls colleague George Nishiyama, who saw Hiro as his senpai, a Japanese term of endearment for a senior colleague who guides a newcomer. “But Hiro was always there to prevent the situation from getting out of hand.”
“Hiro would somehow diffuse the confrontation at the end, get us into that news conference, through that gate so we can report the news,” said George. “And at the end of the day, when we gathered over drinks and let off steam, sometimes unleashing harsh words at others, Hiro always listened and at the end told us to forgive, saying that no one means harm, that everyone’s doing their best to cover the news.”
Rodney Joyce is Reuters’ Tokyo bureau chief
Another dreadful loss in the Reuters family
Apr 13th
The following is the text of a staff email sent this morning by Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger.
Once more the cause and profession of journalism has claimed a life.
He died for the story. That is not a price we ever want to pay.
There is no more important cause for us as a company and for us as professionals than journalistic safety.
To have Hiro die just after we watched on the newly leaked video the 2007 deaths of our colleagues Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh is devastating to me; I’m sure most of you feel similar emotions.
We know that covering the story forces us to rush towards danger when others rush away. We know that death can come from anywhere. We know how dangerous the places we cover are.
Yet, we’re never prepared for the dreadful reality when a colleague loses his life. Nor should we be. Nor should we ever just accept it.
If death is caused by military action, then we must work tirelessly to influence the generals and the civilians who command them to recognise the vital work journalists do, to provide full investigations and transparency whenever tragedies occur, and to enable true justice and accountability.
If death occurs in the midst of chaotic rioting, then we must strive to review our procedures and training again to make sure we are doing absolutely everything we can to make the dangerous work safe.
Our mission as journalists is to tell the story.
Our mission as a company is to make sure our journalists can tell that story safely.
This is a time of great sadness. But it is also a time of great resolve to redouble our efforts for journalist safety throughout the world.
Photo: Reuters television cameraman Hiro Muramoto.
Former Estonian bouncer adds Baltic spice to sumo
Mar 29th
Baruto throws his weight around
After the nightclub fracas that toppled a Mongolian grand champion from grace who would have thought it would take a former bouncer from Estonia to help clean up the mess in the troubled world of sumo?
The soft-spoken giant Baruto gave the ancient Japanese sport a shot in the arm after sealing his promotion to the sport’s second highest rank of “ozeki” with a 14-1 showing at the spring grand sumo tournament less than two months after “yokozuna” Asashoryu quit in disgrace amid a “booze rage” probe.
The 1.98-metre tall, 190-kilogram Baruto narrowly missed out on his first Emperor’s Cup as yokozuna Hakuho went unbeaten to claim his 13th major title in Osaka. “I was happy about the 14 wins but the one defeat hurt more,” said Baruto, who will formally become the second European after Kotooshu in 2005 to ascent to the ozeki rank.
When the baby Kaido Hoovelson was born in the northern Estonian town of Rakvere, near the Gulf of Finland in 1984, his country was still part of the Soviet Union. He later worked as a nightclub bouncer and he still demonstrates textbook “security guard” firmness in shoving out rivals with the no-nonsense sumo “yorikiri” (force out) technique.Asashoryu’s sudden exit left a bad taste and the 25-times Emperor’s Cup winner said he was hounded out of the sport by ultra-conservative forces within sumo’s closeted world who feared a non-Japanese wrestler breaking former yokozuna Taiho’s record of 32 set between 1960 and 1971.
Certainly sections of the Japanese media would report on the slightest breach of protocol, from his fist-pumping victory celebrations to his choice of flowery Hawaiian shirts, although picking a soapy punch-up with a rival while both soaked in a communal bathtub and forging a sick note to get out of a regional tournament did Asashoryu few favours either.
His flair, however, will be missed.
“Asashoryu left a big hole to fill,” Hakuho said of his fellow Mongolian after winning in Osaka. “But sumo has a new ozeki and I expect him to be a major rival.”
Doubtless there will be factions within sumo who bemoan the promotion of yet another overseas wrestler to the upper echelons.
Historians agree sumo dates back some 2,00 years but foreigners have stolen the limelight over the past 15 or so. There has not been a Japanese yokozuna since Takanohana’s retirement in 2003.
Baruto’s rapid rise should not be cause for alarm. The Estonian has two feet firmly on the ground.
“I want to repay the faith the Japan Sumo Association has shown in me when I am ozeki,” he said. “Then I want to do something to help improve Estonia when I finish sumo.”
Changing China and Raw Japan join Global News Forum
Mar 29th
We’re merging our Changing China and Raw Japan pages into Global News Journal, our main forum for analysis and discussion on international news. You’ll find entries on China here and Japan here. Please join us in our new home.
Small is beautiful
Mar 9th
It’s been over two weeks since the final puck was walloped and the last skin-tight lycra suit was hung up at the Vancouver Olympics.
And while Japan’s poor performance still rankles, the passage of time has given me the chance to find some bright spots in the country’s measly haul of three silver and two bronze medals.
Not least of which is the role played by small Japanese companies in supporting our athletes at a time when corporate behemoths, such as carmaker Nissan Motor and Seibu Holdings, an operator of hotel chains and train systems, have severed ties with teams including baseball and ice hockey squads.
Two of the three women in the team that won silver in the ladies’ pursuit speed skating belong to a skating club formed by tiny surveyor Daichi Corp in Toyama Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo.
Daichi, which employs only 40 people and posted $11 million in sales in the last financial year, spends about $220,000 annually on its skaters. Its president and its founder even took a pay cut to make more funds available for the club, a company spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, Keiichiro Nagashima and Joji Kato, who won silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the men’s 500m speed skating, are members of a team at Nidec Sankyo, a maker of ATM card readers.
CEO Shigenobu Nagamori inherited the club as part of a merger and decided to keep it as he wanted a common goal to to help unite his employees. Indeed, Nagamori will pay 8 million yen ($88,500) out of his pocket to the two medallists, in addition to another 8 million yen from the company itself, according to a Nidec Sankyo spokesman.
Without this support, Japan’s medal tally would no doubt have been even more dire. Let’s just hope these guys can afford to keep up their good work in the run-up to Sochi 2014.
Photo credit: Jerry Lampen/REUTERS
Orix takes aquarium plunge
Mar 8th
What do blubbery elephant seals, frail old folk and tranquil Japanese inns have in common?
They’re all things that one Japanese real estate developer has become familiar with as it tries to expand its business from more traditional areas.
In a bid to shake off the economic downtrun, Orix Real Estate is looking beyond sleek office buildings and swanky apartments, diversifying into properties such as aquariums, old people’s homes and “ryokan“.
“Don’t ask me about cap rates or development sites because I’m clueless,” Etsuaki Morikawa, who oversees the company’s business in these new sectors. “But you can ask me how to make fish tanks look more natural or attractive.”
The firm is preparing to open its second aquarium inside the New Tokyo Tower, hoping to repeat the success of its New Enoshima Aquarium in the south of the Japanese capital.
”We’ve had unexpectedly big sales from the (first) aquarium’s souvenir shop … small plastic figurines of creatures such as the southern elephant seal and lionfish have been a big hit,” Morikawa said.
Morikawa has also led the turnaround of an old ryokan in the famous hot spring area of Beppu, while the company has been busy building a raft of homes for the aged as well.
Japan’s property market has been hit hard as the country’s economic downturn saps demand for houses and office space and as banks rein in lending to the highly indebted sector.
And if the market remains listless, maybe more property firms will take the plunge into aquariums?
Photo credit: Rickey Rogers/REUTERS
Give me my allowance back!
Mar 4th
Kids these days can’t get a break. They cop flack from the older generation for their manners, the way they dress, and having it too easy compared with in the good old days.
And now their pocket money has taken a hit.
High school students in Japan saw their allowances fall 11 percent last year to an average 6,045 yen ($68) a month — the lowest since 1990 — according to a recent survey by the Central Council for Financial Services Information.
The drop came as overall cash earnings in the country fell every month in 2009, indicating parents were skimping on their children’s allowances as the fragile economy hurt their own paycheques.
That bodes ill for the service industry, which is already plagued by a shrinking population and deflation, and which needs teens to spend on clothing, food and entertainment.
Still, the latest wage data have offered a glimmer of hope: incomes edged up in January for the first rise in two years, suggesting kids could be living large again if moms and dads start opening their wallets.
Of course, I know what my dad would say, just as he told me when I was a teenager: You’re too old for an allowance, get a job!
Photo credit: REUTERS/Eriko Sugita
You’re late, minister!
Mar 3rd
Forget about funding scandals, budget debate or rifts over foreign policy: the big to-do in Japan’s parliament this morning was over three tardy cabinet ministers.
The upper house budget committee meeting had been scheduled to begin at 8:50 a.m. but had to be delayed until the three showed up, leading to an uproar from the opposition and a short recess.
When the trio – transport minister Seiji Maehara, internal affairs minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi and national strategy minister Yoshito Sengoku — arrived, they bowed before the committee and apologised.
Haraguchi, who media say was tweeting at 8:52 when he should have been in parliament, blamed his assistants for a scheduling error.
“I was following my schedule, like this,” he said, removing a crumpled sheet of paper in front of reporters and TV cameras and pointing at the 9 a.m. entry. “It said nine o’clock so that’s when I came … However, even if it is an administrative error, in the end it is the minister’s mistake.”
All three were later reprimanded by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano.
Still, all’s well that ends well: the minsters seem to have learned their lesson and in the afternoon were in their seats by 12:54 — six minutes before the committee was scheduled to reconvene.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Kim Kyung Hoon