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"Subscription figures for the Japan Zone grow and grow, second
only to the 2 million people signed up for Lionheart, PM Koizumi's
e-magazine." (Well, not quite)
Once again, if you have a second to spare, you can vote for the
Japan Zone at the newly updated Topsites Japan rankings page by
just clicking on this link:
http://www.japanref.com/cgi-bin/in.cgi?id=tokyoguy
The click registers as a vote "in" and pushes the site up the
rankings, bringing more votes "out" to the Japan Zone. Much appreciated!
I will soon be contacting Japan Zone subscribers to give you a
chance to win one of those giveaways I promised. It won't be much
because it comes out of my own pocket (no, I don't mean genuine
Japanese lint!) but might just be something you'll actually want.
Yes, summer's officially here. July 1st marked the opening of
the year's swimming season (yes, there is an official swimming
season) and the sun turned up the heat right on cue, to almost
37 degrees in Tokyo. Media in the US and Europe have been eagerly
awaiting the arrival of Japan's new swashbuckling PM, while at
home the numbers of his schoolgirl fans just keep on swelling.
Read on.
Mark McBennett
Webmaster, Japan Zone
Contents
1. What's going on in Japan
2. True crimes
3. Gei-noh news
4. Sports news
5. Kwest for kawaii
6. The car is not a machine
7. Japan Zone updates
8. I stiiiiiill haven't found what I'm looking for...
9. Unsubscribe
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1. What's going on in Japan
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PM Koizumi Junichiro is currently on the UK leg of his first foreign
trip. He seemed to hit it off with George "Dubya" Bush, cracking
jokes in "Eigo" as well as Japanese at their informal Camp David
summit. The normally Italian-suit clad Koizumi dressed down for
the occasion in Ralph Lauren shirt and Chinos. President Bush
gave him a leather jacket and a signed baseball and got a video
camera in return. At home, sales of Koizumi good from posters
to mobile phone straps and subscriptions to Lionheart, his e-magazine,
continue to go through the roof, especially among the trend-setting
highschool girls (see the two Time magazine articles linked below)
It's gonna be a hot one! Temperatures soared on the first day
of July. Chiba residents saw their thermometers hit 37.1 degrees,
the highest ever in that city in July. Myself and the missus braved
the heat and the vast crowds of Shinjuku and it was a relief to
get inside a movie theater in the mid-afternoon.
In the June 24th Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, the Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP) rode their current wave of popularity to
win an extra 5 seats. This takes their seat count to 53 in the
127-member assembly. Their government-level coalition partners
New Komeito retained their number of 23 seats, while the Minshuto
party gained strongly, from 13 to 22 seats. The biggest losers
were the Japan Communist Party. They had been the second-strongest
in the assembly with 26 seats but this number was reduced to 15.
The LDP has long been a party of special interest groups with
a lot of support in rural areas. This election showed that they
are gaining ground among urban voters, too. Once again, this turnaround
can almost unilaterally be attributed to the "Koizumi factor".
Japan and China have been engaged in a series of tit-for-tat retaliation
in the form of import tariffs. The dispute started in April when
Japan put tariffs of up to 266 percent of various Chinese farm
products. At the end of June, China responded with 100 percent
tariffs on cars, mobile phones and air conditioners. No resolution
of the issue, which is believed to be highly political, is seen
before Upper House elections to be held in Japan at the end of
this month.
On the morning of June 25th, a self-defense forces F-4E Kai fighter
on a training drill accidentally strafed about 180 bullets into
a golf course and car park near Sapporo in northern Japan. A couple
of vehicles were damaged but no-one was injured. The incident
has been a major embarrassment to the Air Self-Defence Forces,
which have been using the fighter for 30 years.
A long-lost painting by Claude Monet will make its world debut
at the Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art from July 5th. "Le
Tranchee des Batignolles" depicts steam trains running at full
speed and is one of a famous series of 12 paintings. The painting
was recently discovered by the curator of the Luxembourg Museum
in Paris and had been considered the most mysterious of Monet's
works.
In a decision by the World Intellectual Property Organization,
the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper won a dispute over the rights to
the domain name, mainichishimbun.com. The domain, along with those
of the Asahi Shimbun, the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Sankei Shimbun,
had been registered by a South Korean.
The recession continues, and yet... fashion brand Hermes opened
a huge 11-storey store in Ginza, Tokyo on June 27th. It is one
of their biggest stores worldwide. The opening ceremony was attended
by the governor of Tokyo, members of the imperial family and a
smattering of celebs.
A wide-show report last week told of how the former ambassador
from Congo has been living in the embassy since being relieved
of the post in May of last year, and refuses to leave. It seems
he has not been paid for several years. There have also been huge
upheavals in his home country since he came to Japan in 1991.
A record 2,800 people in 15 countries took the Japan External
Trade Organization's sixth annual business Japanese language test
last month. Information on the test is available at the JETRO
site:
http://www.jetro.go.jp/it/e/bj/test.html
I watched a news/variety feature last night on the No.1 bar hostess
in Shinjuku, one of Tokyo's entertainment areas. According to
the report, this 29 year-old pulls in, between salary and gifts
from generous (male) customers, some 20-25 million yen a year,
though the actual figure is probably about double that. The report
made no attempt to condemn or even criticize this way of making
a living and with that kind of money waiting for any girl with
good looks and a passable personality, why wouldn't today's young
"material girls" be tempted? Of course, there's nothing illegal
about it but it's hardly a high standard to aim for.
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2. True crimes
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In a follow-up to the story in the last issue about the Tokyo
kindergarten teacher stabbing, it turned out that she had fabricated
the story after being reprimanded for poor work performance.
Takuma Mamoru, currently under investigation for the killing of
eight schoolchildren last month, has fully confessed to the crime
and expressed his desire to be given the ultimate punishment.
"I fully admit to this incident and I am ready to take responsibility
for what I did. I'm prepared to receive the death sentence. I
really regret from the bottom of my heart having killed primary
schoolchildren whom I didn't know and am thinking I will go up
to the gallows. I do not intend to plead for my life." Police
believe that Takuma can be held criminally responsible and
that his claimed mental disorder was a fabrication. On July 2nd,
in what appears to be a standard procedure in this kind of case
in Japan, Takuma was taken to the Ikeda Primary School by police
in order to retrace his steps at the crime scene.
In a related story, the city of Urayasu, Chiba prefecture is to
introduce one or two portable tear gas sprayers at each of 20
primary and middle schools. The sprayers have a range of 4-7 meters
and can blind someone for 30 minutes.
A total of almost 19,000 cases of child abuse were reported in
2000, 1.6 times the number of the previous year and a 17-fold
increase from when the current Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry
started collecting information in 1990. Physical abuse made up
almost half of the cases, cases of neglect about 36 percent and
sexual abuse around 4 percent. These of course are only the reported
cases and the growing numbers largely reflect the increased media
attention given to the issue, as well as that of domestic violence,
in recent years.
A sergeant posted at Kadena Air base in Okinawa was questioned
by police for several days and later released, following the rape
of a local woman on June 29th. Under the Japan-US Status of Forces
Agreement, the US doesn't have to hand over military suspects
until they have been formally indicted by Japanese prosecutors.
Police have indicated they will arrest the man and the case is
bound to raise tensions on the island prefecture even further.
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3. Gei-noh news
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You can tell I've been hiding from the sweltering summer heat
and humidity - 36 degrees in Tokyo yesterday! - from the amount
of news from the gei-no-kai (entertainment world) I've gathered
up this time.
Sakai Masaaki (54), one of the most established and popular stars
of the entertainment world and wife Okada Miri (39) announced
their divorce. Reasons cited included the stress of a miscarriage
and a lack of love between the couple. Sakai is said to have given
around 100 million yen of his estate to his ex with a further
million a month in alimony.
Takizawa Hideaki (19), a member of popular boy band V6 and Suzuki
Ami (19) the now-she's-hot-now-she's-not singer, had the rumormongers
in a frenzy when they were seen vacationing together at a hot
spring resort in Hakone.
In what seems to be an even more dramatic news story (though I
haven't seen it mentioned on TV yet), Hamasaki Ayumi (23) and
Tokio member Nagase Tomoya (23) are said to be in the thralls
of a passionate affair. Both Tokio and V6 are with the Johnny's
Jimusho agency that almost single-handedly controls the boy-idol
market.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/hamasaki_ayumi.shtml
TV personality Tashiro Masashi made his first hesitant appearance
in a TV interview describing his misery since he was arrested
at a train station for using a hidden camera to film up a girl's
skirt. 6kg frailer and looking suitably repentant after nine months
of home confinement (no prison time), no doubt his career will
soon be back on track.
Miyazawa Rie (28) also continues on the comeback trail, winning
the Best Actress award on June 30th at the 23rd Moscow Film Festival
for her role in "Yuuen Kyomu" a Hong Kong movie. She also stirred
up some memories with a series of nude photos in a weekly magazine.
It is her first such "work" since she created a huge sensation
with the bestselling nude photo book "Santa Fe" ten years ago.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/miyazawa_rie.shtml
Singer and until recently one of Japan's great playboys Saijo
Hideki (46) and his wife Miki, at 28 eighteen years his junior,
held a surprisingly low-key and inexpensive wedding ceremony on
July 1st at a shrine in Shimoda City, Shizuoka Prefecture. The
wedding is said to have cost only
70,000 yen, a fraction of what even an average couple pays, around
two or three million. (Addendum: later in the month, the couple
had the usual, extravagantly expensive "Hirou-en" or reception,
costing hundreds of millions and with all the usual celebs in
attendance)
Actress Kikukawa Rei (23) has been chosen to play the lead in
the forthcoming Steven Spielberg film "Sayuri: Memoirs of a Geisha".
The film is based on the recent bestseller of the same name.
TV personality and onetime porn star Iijima Ai (28) held a party
on June 30th to celebrate her tell-all book "Platonic Sex" becoming
a million seller. The movie version is already in preproduction.
Another party that generated a big fuss was the 30th birthday
celebration for actress Fujiwara Norika. The chipmunk-featured
Norika cooed about her desire to get married and have kids. With
all her TV shows, movies and lucrative commercial deals, she should
be able to afford childcare.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/fujiwara_norika.shtml
Top 5 movies
1. Hamanaputra 2 (The Mummy Returns)
2. Hotaru
3. Minna no Ie
4. JSA (Joint Security Area)
5. The Gift
These are the latest movie rankings I could find but Spielberg's
AI just opened to full houses and will probably jump to the top
spot. Hotaru stars veteran actor Takakura Ken. Minna no Ie is
a lightwieght comedy with some familiar faces from TV. JSA is
a Korean Hollywood-style blockbuster about friendships and tensions
at a North-South border post. The other two are Hollywood movies.
Apart from AI, most of the big publicity these days is going to
Planet of the Apes, which opens at the end of the month.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/takakura_ken.shtml (Takakura Ken)
On the music scene, the big event is the 2001 Fuji Rock Festival
at the end of this month. Big names playing for 3 days below the
slopes of the beautiful Naeba alpine ski resort include Neil Young,
Oasis, Eminem and Alannis Morissette. Meanwhile Beck, Marilyn
Manson, Primal Scream and lots more will take to the stage at
Summer Sonic 2001 at several venues in Chiba and Osaka in mid-August.
Or if Slayer and Pantera are more your cup of tea, you'll be heading
for the juicily-named Beast Feast 2001 in Yokohama at the end
of August.
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4. Sports News
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Japan beat Paraguay 2-0 in their opening game of the annual three-nation
Kirin Cup on July 1st at the Sapporo Dome, which opened with a
baseball series between the Giants and the Dragons just a few
days before. Kashima Antlers striker Yanagisawa Atsushi scored
both goals. Japan take on Yugoslavia on July 4th.
In US baseball, the final voting figures for the All Star game
are due out soon, and the last I heard the Seattle Mariners' right-fielder
Ichiro was the No 1 vote getter. He's currently also narrowly
leading the American league batting averages and in front in numbers
of hits and stolen bases.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/suzuki_ichiro.shtml
Isao Aoki (58), the only Japanese golfer to make a real impression
outside his own country, narrowly missed taking the US Senior
Open. After having led coming into the last day, Aoki ended up
in joint second place to winner Bruce Fleisher.
http://www.isaoaoki.com/index.html (Japanese only)
Japanese WBA lightweight champion Hatakeyama Takanori lost his
title in a unanimous decision to Julien Lorcy of France on July
1st. It was Hatakeyama's third defense of the title he won a year
ago.
Top tennis females Sugiyama Ai and Asagoe Shinobu were both knocked
out at Wimbledon. Asagoe lost to last year's winner Venus Williams
in the first round while Sugiyama made it to the third, where
she lost to Sandrine Testud of France. She palys on in both the
women's and mixed doubles. Japan continues to fail to produce
any decent male players.
As I mentioned before, Hanada Masaru (former sumo Grand Champion
Wakanohana) is trying out for the NFL, most recently with the
Atlanta Falcons. He is being trained at the Phoenix, Arizona organization
Rehab Plus and has impressed many with his speed and strength.
A lack of experience, unfamiliarity with the rules of the game
and poor English remain hurdles to be overcome. "I'm here to learn
everything about American Football," he said "Things I've only
seen before, I'm now actually experiencing with my own body."
https://www.japan-zone.com/omnibus/hanada.shtml
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5. Kwest for kawaii
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TIME Magazine
Always includes features on Japan in its Asian edition.
Kwest for kawaii - Why Tokyo teenyboppers are now Asia's most
sought-after designers
http://www.time.com/time/asia/arts/magazine/0,9754,131022,00.html
The country's lionhearted Prime Minister ventures into e-publishing
with his own online magazine
http://www.time.com/time/asia/digital/column/0,9754,131006,00.html
Japan Today
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=home
Updated twice daily. You can have the latest news emailed to you.
Japan Reference
http://www.japanreference.com
An English-language directory site that lists thousands of Japan-related
sites. Well organized and pretty comprehensive.
ELT News: the site for English teachers in Japan
http://www.eltnews.com/
If you're an English teacher in Japan or one of the thousands
thinking about becoming one, this site is an invaluable resource.
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6. The car is not a machine
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A current TV commercial for "Whisper" sanitary napkins ends with
the voiceover (cue macho voice): "If this doesn't do the job -
sorry!" (kore ga damenara, gomennasai!). But the first time I
saw the commercial was a while back, at a cinema. The copy for
that version was: "If this doesn't do the job - stay the hell
at home!" (kore ga damenara, ie ni iro!)
Current TV copy for the new version of the hugely popular Nissan
Skyline car: "The earth is flat. The human has wings. The car
is not a machine. Only the Skyline." I wonder how much they paid
for that one?
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7. Japan Zone updates
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Uh, well, actually there haven't been any. BUT, with one week
to go before I start my summer vacation/holidays, I do plan to
add some stuff over the next few weeks. Any requests?
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8. I stiiiiiill haven't found what I'm looking for...
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The site has such a wide variety of content that there's most
probably lots you haven't seen. If ever you don't find what you're
looking for, let me know. It might be on the site somewhere or
I may be able to help you track it down. I've recently been able
to help out people looking for info on fertility festivals and
Godzilla posters. I have no idea how to track down the answer
to the following question from a Russian guy. Any ideas?
Very good site and information about Japan movies, but I try find
very
good, strong movie about Japan army which in manouvers time change
and go
to samurai time and fighting with samurai and died all. Maybe
you can help
me find this movies. I look in Russia in 1988 this movie.
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9. Unsubscribe
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