When Japan tries to say No

Godzilla has been considered a filmographic metaphor for the

United States, as well as an allegory of nuclear weapons in

general. Godzilla represented the fears that many Japanese

held about the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and

the possibility of recurrence.

One can hear many more things from DPJ politicians nowadays

and it' easy to see that something has changed here. If

nothing guarantees that the reform of Japan Prime Minister

Hatoyama party, the Democratic Party of Japan, will work out

if it confines into symbolic destruction of past LDP regime.

Some more straightforward policies are now designed to show

that after all, yes, it happened, Japan can say No. *

For instance Hatoyama party has long advocated tighter US

Japan economic ties and collaboration on nonmilitary areas

such as energy and the environment. "Japan's relations with

the U.S. have been heavily biased toward defense," Hatoyama

recently said. "Now it's time to shift our focus to economic

ties." In other words, message abroad is clear: stop bashing,

from the US, but also the EU, the Chinese.

One example is Afghanistan. After war brought destruction,

it is time to reconstruct and polish. Here is how the

archipelago diversifies its int'l cooperation, huge by the

way, in helping the... Taliban!

First answer to the Obama administration, regarding the war

in Afghanistan, Japan does not want to continue the

refueling in the Indian ocean but offer a comparative

advantage that is less "war machine" motion. Cash and

training, economic push up.

"The Japanese government has decided to provide vocational

training to former Taliban soldiers to support reconstruction

efforts in Afghanistan as an alternative to the refueling

mission by the Maritime Self-Defense Forces in the Indian

Ocean, whose legal mandate will expire in January.

Vocational training has heretofore not been offered to former

Taliban soldiers, and has the benefit of highlighting Japan's

"new contribution to the international community" as a

fitting alternative to its current refueling mission.

While several hundreds of thousands of Taliban soldiers are

said to be in Afghanistan, many join the movement for money.

The purpose of Japan's newly proposed mission is to rectify a

system that forces citizens to join such groups by

alleviating poverty, thereby providing support to the US

which has been troubled by deteriorating public security in

the country."

Instructors are be selected from among Afghans, but how Japan

(NDAG: the MOFA) will secure staff to train the instructors

themselves as well as whether the training will take place

within Afghanistan or a third country has yet to be decided.

"Japan has announced approximately 2 billion dollars' worth

of aid to Afghanistan, which includes half a year's salary

for the 80,000 or so police officers in the country and

support for rice farming. It is also considering expanding

its agricultural support activities based primarily around

Kabul to the country's northern regions, where public order

is relatively stable." (quotes mainichi, agencies, wikipedia,

reports)

✍ It is not the panacea for all insecurity ills but it's a

beginning.

* Reference to the pamphlet "The Japan That Can Say No: Why

Japan Will Be First Among Equals" By Ishihara Shintaro with

contributions by Sony cofounder Morita Akio .

http://tinyurl.com/yfw73w6

"The Japan That Can Say No" is a 1989 essay co-written by

Sony co-founder and chairman Akio Morita and current governor

of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara, in the climate of Japan's

economic rise. It was famous for its critical examination of

United States business practices, and for advocating Japan's

taking a more independent stance on many issues, from

business to foreign affairs. The title refers to the

authors' vision (Ishihara's in particular) of a Japanese

government that is more than a mere "yes man" to the United

States.

Vitória!! 2016 Brazil Olympics Carnival

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won the 2016 Olympics to

Rio de Janeiro and gives South America its first Games.

International Olympic Committee members voted for Rio, Tokyo,

Chicago lost immediately, followed by suspense and the defat

of Madrid “It’s time to address this imbalance,” Lula told

IOC members in Copenhagen. “The Olympic Games belongs to all

people, all continents, all humanity.”

Brazil plans $11 billion of investment as host, more than any

other of the bidding cities. Lula said he was representing

190 million Brazilians with his speech. “For the others it

will be just one more Games, for us it will boost the

self-esteem of Brazilians,” Lula said.

After images of Rio’s beaches and Carnival celebration were

shown to IOC members, Central Bank President Henrique

Meirelles said Brazil’s economy was ready to host the Games.

He cited 8 percent growth in the second quarter and a record

employment rate in July. Pointing out a white-suited female

officer in the audience that he called Captain Priscilla, Rio

Governor Sergio Cabral said a new generation of police was

improving security in the city. The 2007 Pan American games

showed Rio can organize a major sports event.

"Uncertainty" for 41st Tokyo Motor Show

Big doubt indeed that the market can recover this year. Quotes : "The shock waves from the global economic crisis have reached this year's Tokyo Motor Show. The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Tuesday that only two foreign automakers will participate in the 41st version of the exhibition, which starts Oct. 23, down from 26 at the previous show in 2007.

While major Japanese automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., will attend, foreign firms such as General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Co. and Daimler AG will not participate, the association said. The only foreign companies showing off their cars will be Lotus of Britain and Alpina of Germany. South Korea's Hyundai officially notified JAMA it will not attend.

In all, 108 auto and auto parts companies will take part, the fewest since the show was first held in 1954. "The economic environment starting last year affected the makers' (decision) whether to attend the event this time," Satoshi Aoki, chairman of the association, told the press.

In 1995, the show attracted a record 361 companies and lots of visitors!

At the previous version in 2007, 241 companies took part. The 41st Tokyo show is also being eclipsed by China. Foreign automakers decided to participate in the Shanghai motor show, which took place in April, even though the financial crisis stroke markets, because the Chinese auto market is growing rapidly and people there have strong interest in automobiles like the Japanese market decades ago. This year's Shanghai show attracted 77 automakers, while only 10 are expected to participate in Tokyo's event.

"Uncertainty" and perfume of defeat? Premature but the trend is

worrying as lots of people expected to discover new "environment

friendly car industry". (Quotes Agencies, JTimes)

Dolphins slaughter of Taiji, Japan

And then the movie came about the dolphins slaughter in Taiji : "The Cove" *

Here, VDO http://tinyurl.com/bpndl7

I saw the movie and interviewed Ric O'Barry (who pays a late tribute to dolphins after using them for his business and popularity and trained "Flipper") I nevertheless think that even though the film is a show with technical talents and is made as a good documentary, there are a lot of discriminating concerns vis a vis the Japanese society. Now, is it really necessary to slaughter such a cleaver mammals as the dolphin and why don't they use dolphins for other human related friendly and environmentally correct activities? Also what a budget : 3 to 5 million $ paid by a sponsor related to an electronics and IT company.

Still, the director of an award-winning documentary about Japan's dolphin slaughter said that he plans to attend the screening of "The Cove" at the Tokyo film festival, early October even though he could be arrested. Japanese police say American director Louie Psihoyos and other members of his crew violated trespassing laws when they documented the hunt in the seaside town of Taiji, where 2,000 dolphins are killed every year, mostly to be sold as meat.

The film shows fishermen on small boats banging on poles to frighten the dolphins into a cove, where they are then killed with spears. The cove is closed off by barbed wire, and the film crew had to film much of the footage covertly. The film has won more than a dozen awards and led to an outpouring of outrage at the hunt.

Initially, it wasn't part of the program for the Tokyo International Film Festival (which opens Oct. 17) but was added partly because of pressure from abroad. Psihoyos said he wasn't concerned about getting arrested if it was for the right cause, saying he sees covert filming as a form of civil disobedience. He also says he disagrees with how Japanese authorities were defining trespassing, because the cove is in a national park.

Taiji, Wakayama, Shikoku

Taiji is a town located in Higashimuro District, Wakayama, Japan. As of 2007, the town has an estimated population of 3,444 and a density of 577.85 persons per km 2 . The total area is 5.96 km². Taiji is the smallest local government by area in Wakayama Prefecture because, unlike others, it has not experienced a merger since 1889 when the village of Moriura merged into Taiji. Taiji shares its entire overland border with the town of Nachikatsuura and faces the Pacific Ocean.

Taiji has been well-known as a whaling town and is considered as the birth place of Japan's traditional whaling method. Taiji is a major center for dolphin drive hunting. 2.000 Dolphins are slaughtered every year or sold to the Marine entertainment business. Dolphin meat was sold in food markets and given to school children when it contains very high levels of mercury and is not fit for human consumption. The Japanese government has been doing it's best to hide this slaughter form public view and keep a needless fishing tradition alive. Help stop the needless slaughter of the worlds dolphins.

pics by strokesonfilm via Google http://www.panoramio.com/user/728061

"The Cove" : "La Crique" in French language. Actually I already talked about this dolphins massacre in January 2008 in a post "Whales, dolphins, tuna exhaust: what is wrong with Japan's taste?" Here http://preview.tinyurl.com/y9frb8p

LDP leader election: back together again...?

Time for renovation : A picture of the 3 LDP candidates taken

at FCCJ on Friday 25th. LDP leadership election will be only the

second presidential election to be held while the party is

out of power, following the 1993 leadership race, in which

Kono's father, former lower house Speaker Yohei Kono, was

chosen. I emceed this FCCJ event with the 3 top LDP, impressed

by the strong attention from the party elders like Takeshi Noda,

13 times re-elected and 1 of the top chiefs of the election

campaign.

Emceeing the event with a 130 passionate audience I felt that

the LDP kept a lot of supporters, and again came to my mind

the idea that LDP lost the last election not because of its

inner factions conflicting views but because it kept too long

time the control over the country's policy making with an

delusive inner vision while ignoring the political reality

that the world was changing and moving on. In this regard, a

page was turned August 30. More inter action between present

Japan, its neighbor and world challenges is required now.

Regarding the agenda and "the forces in presence":

The Liberal Democratic Party will choose its new party leader

on Monday to revitalize itself in the wake of its severe

defeat in the August 30th election. 3 candidates : the

former Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, 64, and two

younger LDP members, former Senior Vice Justice Minister Taro

Kono and former Parliamentary Vice Foreign Minister Yasutoshi

Nishimura, both 46 years old.

Tanigaki, a party heavyweight whose past portfolio includes

minister of finance and chairman of the LDP Policy Research

Council, is ahead in the race and likely to capture about

half of the 199 ballots allotted to party Diet members

,according to LDP quoted by the Kyodo agency : "I’ve been

surprised by how many people say they want to see the LDP

back in the sumo ring grappling with the DPJ," Tanigaki told

at FCCJ conference.

Tanigaki, a distinguished and mild-mannered policy expert,

appears to be increasing his support among local party

members and maintains an overall lead, Kono, quoted as being

a maverick and fiery critic of the LDP old guard and their

faction-based politics, appears to be gaining more favors

with party members as a new generation type, outspoken,

clear, with a message and a reflection of why LDP got lost at

last month election. Nishimura appears to be rivaling Kono

with regard to Diet members' votes but lags behind the other

two among local party members due partly to his low name

recognition.

Kono and Nishimura tried to paint the race as a choice

between the younger and older generations, calling for a

clean break with faction-based politics, which has defined

the LDP for decades. Tanigaki, in contrast, calls for LDOP

fiefdom and generation's gap conflicts reconciliation and

unity within a party often prone to internal strife, calling

on all party members, both young and old, to come together to

forge a path toward a new LDP party.

Whoever wins the leadership race, the LDP faces the task of

reviving a party that has lost almost two-thirds of its

members in the 480-seat House of Representatives. The

crucial test for the new LDP leader will be the House of

Councillors election next summer 2010.

In the 242-seat upper house, the DPJ retains a majority with

the help of its two junior coalition partners -- the Social

Democratic Party and the People's New Party. If the LDP can

increase its presence in the chamber as the largest

opposition party and force the DPJ-led ruling coalition to

lose its majority there, it will be able to block or delay

the coalition's legislative attempts.

The immediate test for the new leadership will come Oct. 25,

when by- elections for the upper house are to be held in two

constituencies, in Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures.

One comment on LDP with Tobias Harris, an american specialist

of Japan politics who worked for a DPJ member of the upper

house of the Diet 2006-2007.

http://tinyurl.com/yetpphh

"One factor that I find worth exploring is the role played by

the LDP's virtual abandonment of bread-and-butter issues —

pensions especially — to the DPJ. The 2007 upper house

election and the 2009 general election were contested over

issues on which the DPJ's positions were overwhelmingly

favored by the voting public, insofar as the elections can be

said to have been concerned with policy. While voters may

have had their doubts about various DPJ proposals, the DPJ

managed to tell a convincing story of how LDP rule had

faltered and why "regime change" was necessary. Central to

this story is the LDP's yielding livelihood issues in the

years since the end of the bubble economy. In short, the LDP

did not have to lose, at least in the manner in which it lost

this year. A critical factor in explaining the LDP's

collapse is, I believe, a shift in how the LDP presented

itself to the public. Despite having been the party that

presided over the economic miracle and guided Japan — with

the bureaucracy, of course — to a position of global economic

prowess while maintaining social equality, by 2007 the LDP

had abandoned this legacy."

(end of comments, reports and ap, kyodo, harris news)

The Great Wave of Yukio Hatoyama

"According to Katsushika Hokusai, there is an abyss of

cultural differences between Western souls and Eastern

crowds" (o-shoku-jin-shu", in Japanese), quotes of early

20th century painter Henri Riviere.

In 1914, author Henri Focillon published his Hokousai,

whom, he wrote, "conserves in himself some of the permanent

and profound traits of Asiatic soul, takes them up to the

highest degree of their expressive power, and makes them

communicable to the whole of humanity.

Hokusai is not only one of the greatest creators of the

living forms in history, but he belongs to the heroic

order, he is one of the artists who, being visible from all

the points of the horizon, lets us know simultaneously his

own singular genius, and the genius of his race, as well as

something of the eternal man."

One would say in a more 21st century politically correct

formula that there are myriad of diversities, concepts and

dogmatic views between a Western mind and an Eastern mind,

and as a stone remains impermeable to fresh water, the idea

of Asia “as a common heritage" never made its way to... the

Western world. Not yet.

Needles to say that the West often enters into confusion

when placed in front of “outdated Japanese principles”; and

more than once I was asked by Westerners "what are the

ideals and values of the East?" A specific continuity? An

organic thinking of the idea of Asia as a common heritage,

eternity symbolized by the Phoenix or the Dragon?

I was often tempted to answer, unconvinced : "Harmony?"

Hokusai was one of the greatest artist of Edo era, ukiyo-e

painter, printmaker of the Edo period and expert on Chinese

painting and had a great influence on the Impressionist

movement, he was maybe the greatest master in Japanese art

history.

"A simple Japanese ukiyo-e print craftsman transfigured

into the ultimate oriental master, Inaga Shigemi of the

International Research Center for Japanese Studies said,

comparable to such giants as Michel Angelo, Rubens, and

Rembrandt, and why was he so much admired by such great

figures of modern art as Edouard Manet and Vincent Van

Gogh?"

Because "If we study Japanese art, we see a man who is un-

doubtedly wise, philosophic, and intelligent who spends his

time doing what? In studying the distance between the

earth and the moon? No. In studying Bismarck’s politics?

No. He studies a single blade of grass ("un seul brin

d’herbe.") But this blade of grass leads him to draw every

plant, then great views of the countryside in every season,

then animals, then human figures" as Vincent Van Gogh wrote

about Hokusai.

And maybe with such new perception of nature, human

figures, countries and history is the power to be of Prime

Minister Hatoyama who will be reckoned with from now on.

Question is : Has the new Prime Minister of Japan the habit

of sketching policies from life or from the 90's and

memories of petulant old friends?

Will the new Japanese leader be able to penetrate the

policies' essential nature and the arcane of international

relations with such powerful "friend" as the United States,

the Europeans, Asia, and will every dot and every stroke of

his speeches be authentic guidelines for future redesign of

Japan diplomacy, economical role, and international

cultural contribution?

Four years after Hokusai's death, an American fleet led by

a sailor called Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and

forced Japan to open its arms to the west...

First diplomatic test

Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, faces his first

diplomatic test on Wednesday when he meets President Barack

Obama in New York, Hatoyama will also seek attend a U.N.

climate change conference and pledge new targets for cuts

in greenhouse gas emissions and offer more environmental

help to developing nations.

The new Japanese Prime Minister is trying to show that

there are now 2 different (1 conservative and 1 liberal)

parties in Japan. Hatoyama wants to forge a more equal

partnership with Washington, revising policies on U.S.

forces based in Japan or on the wars engaged in Middle East

and Afghanistan.

"That could lead to "a diplomatic mashup," according to

Brad Glosserman of Pacific Forum CSIS, a think tank based

in Hawaii. "I don't think the DPJ has thought through the

implications. It strikes me as a dangerous position. It's

one thing to expose the hypocrisy of your predecessors,

it's another to be faced with punishing dilemmas." Building

trust is Hatoyama's goal for his first meeting with Obama

but it may be hard to pull off, some analysts said. "By

supporting one another through policies, you create good

ties. If your policies are at odds, you can't form a good

relationship," said Fumiaki Kubo of Tokyo University.

(Reuters Tokyo)

Enter the realm of action

"For change to have any real meaning, it has to exit the

realm of rhetoric and enter the realm of action" Philip J.

Cunningham,Professor of media studies in Japan, writes on

his blog.

http://icga.blogspot.com/2009/09/time-for-change.html

Quotes : "Prime Minister Hatoyama would be wise to take

note of how US President Obama, who started out with so

much promise, and such a huge mandate for change, only to

end up tacking to the right and frittering much of his

mandate away, betraying his own reform-minded base in the

hopes of placating Wall Street, the Pentagon and America's

implacable right wing.

Mr Hatoyama and the DPJ face a comparable test, and early

indications suggest they too will compromise and bend and

revive existing patronage patterns, perhaps until the day

that they are not recognizably different from the "fat

cats" and the complacent ruling party that they have

ostensibly replaced.

If the DPJ, with Mr Hatoyama at the helm, and former LDP

stalwart Ozawa Ichiro navigating at his side, keep their

promise to help Japan become a more normal nation - less

dependent of the whims of US foreign policy, less beholden

to Japan's own elite with its malignant, murky roots in the

last world war, and more responsive to ordinary citizens

and taxpayers, then Japan is indeed entering a period of

change that people can believe in.

If, instead, however, the new government avoids friction by

continuing along the beaten-down path created by the LDP,

and in doing so sustains the unholy marriage between big

business and an entrenched bureaucracy and concomitantly

inflates its own military reach while hiding in the shade

of the US security umbrella, then the demise of the LDP has

been greatly exaggerated." End of quotes.

Japan relations with US, as with Europe and Asia could well

end into a "Fireworks at Kantei" or a "Bonfire on the Fuji"

if diplomatic oscillating estimations and differences

remain between Mr Hatoyama, sophisticated connoisseur of

the Japanese policies, and the world way beyond the

archipelago.

Internationally acclaimed Hokusai was obsessed with the

Fuji-San, what is going to be The Great Wave of Yukio

Hatoyama and how is Japan new Prime Minister going to print

out his governance on his nation, on Western and Eastern

mind as good as a simple print craftsman achieved with a

single blade of grass and a woodblock?

"Japan historic change" Part 2 : Now, they take vacations !

Shonan Beach, 90 minutes from Tokyo

Crowded with kids and teens

Japan's first-ever "Silver Week" holiday, resulting

from a few days of continued public holidays in

September this year, jammed expressways, flights and

shinkansen bullet trains, crowded with people heading

to their hometowns and resorts under clear skies

almost across the nation.

Respect for Senior Citizens Day on Monday, observed

each year on the third Monday of September, Autumnal

Equinox Day on Wednesday, astronomically determined

but usually observed Sept 23 and the Kokumin no

Kyujitsu holiday added between them on Tuesday

Expressways were congested from the morning, with

vehicles backed up for tens of kilometers on

Expressways. Stations and airports are crowded with

travelers, including families with large bags, with

many people wearing masks as a preventive measure

against the new type of influenza H1N1.

Some choose culture and nourish their leisure time

with philosophy as these tourists I met in Kyoto late

15th century Ryoanji "Temple of the Peaceful Dragon".

The temple's main attraction is its rock garden, the

most famous of its kind in Japan. The simple Zen

garden consist of nothing but rocks, moss and neatly

raked gravel. The meaning of the garden's arrangement

is unknown and up to each visitor's interpretation.

Ryoan-Ji, Kyoto

Others, true fans of Mickey, go to Tokyo Disneyland

with children, many others go back hometown take care

of their parents with such a long spell of holidays in

autumn only this year.

Shonan Beaches are always jammed.

Temperature today: 20 to 27 °C, maybe more.

(Images from raretr. blog)

Good weather announced in many parts of Japan during

Silver Week event though a typhoon flies far south in

the Pacififc ocean, unlikely to approach the Japanese

archipelago, according to the Japan Meteorological

Agency.

See you next week.