World Cup fever is well and truly upon us. There's still a couple
of days to go before a ball is even kicked but hooligans, real
or imagined, are already in the news. I'm lucky enough to be going
to the three Ireland games and look forward to seeing a "Keane-free"
team progress to the second round. I hate to think of the national
gloom that will hit the country here if Japan don't manage it,
especially if archrival Korea do.
In politics, the government showed its usual lack of leadership
in the North Korean asylum-seekers incident. Also investigations
into Diet members and the arrests of bureaucrats continue unabated.
More mad cows and food scandals are making us think twice about
what we eat. And in the entertainment world, it's been a busy
month, with awards, trauma and sadness.
Mark McBennett
Webmaster, Japan Zone
Contents
1. Japan Zone Updates
2. What's going on in Japan
3. Sports news
4. Gei-noh news
5. Links we like
6. Unsubscribe
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1. Japan Zone Updates
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Profile: He's fat and has a huge afro. But he also has the dance moves
and the girls just love him. Papaya Suzuki, the unlikely star.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/papaya_suzuki.shtml
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2. What's going on in Japan
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General:
In the incident involving a North Korean family seeking asylum
at the Japanese Consulate in Shenyang, China, the five were sent
via Manila to Seoul. They had sought to go to the US via Japan.
There was a lot of bickering between the Foreign Ministry and
the Chinese government over whether or not armed Chinese guards
had permission to enter the consulate and remove the two men who
had got past them. The Chinese decision not to return the family
to their home country was made, probably more than other reason,
because of the media attention given to footage of the incident.
Especially as the focus was placed on the fate of the family's
young girl, the Japanese government's inaction meant that they
came out of the whole thing looking very heartless. Politics and
avoiding a confrontation were the order of the day.
Japan's representatives believe they made some progress though
they failed to achieve their goals at the International Whaling
Commission assembly held last week in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture.
Japan had sought to resume commercial whaling and import whale
meat from abroad. A proposal to allow pro-whaling Iceland to join
the organization was narrowly voted down. Japan's number two man
Komatsu Masayuki, who is a bureaucrat with the Fisheries Agency,
made a name for himself with his outspoken style. Though he studied
at Yale University, his English still needs some work!
Smokers may face a fine of up to 10,000 yen for smoking in public
places. A new bill has been proposed to alter the Minor Offenses
Law, following cases where people, especially children, have been
burned by cigarettes held by passersby.
A 23-year old university student from Kobe became the youngest
person and the sixth Japanese to climb the great peaks of the
seven continents. Yamada Atsushi accomplished the feat when he
scaled Mt Everest.
The most popular web sites in Japan in April were Yahoo! (17.09
million visitors), @nifty (10.1 million) and Biglobe (just under
10 million), all up by over 60% from last year.
Another cow was found to be infected with BSE, or mad cow disease,
during testing in Hokkaido. It is the fourth infected animal found
so far. This time, the government was quick to reassure the public
that it was nothing to worry about.
Government:
A House of Representatives steering committee voted down a motion
calling for a vote on the fate of scandal-tainted Diet member
Suzuki Muneo. The 25-member committee was evenly divided and the
chairman, Hatoyama Kunio of the ruling LDP, made the casting vote.
Ironically, he is the younger brother of Hatoyama Yukio, leader
of the Minshuto opposition party and one of Suzuki's biggest critics.
PM Koizumi has told the panel preparing a report on the privatization
of the postal service to forget the deadline originally set for
the end of June. The decision mirrors the general belief that
the plans, a cornerstone of Koizumi's reform efforts, are in serious
danger of falling through. Koizumi's threats to dissolve the Diet
and call a general election were enough to persuade senior LDP
members to support him, but probably only in the knowledge that
even if the bills pass, the plan is unlikely to succeed. The other
bills receiving most media attention are the ones which they fear
will reduce the freedom of the press and prevent investigations
into the affairs, business or otherwise, of politicians.
Crime:
A 33-year old company employee was arrested for killing another
man with an umbrella in Hiroshima Prefecture. The 55-year old
man died of blood loss from a 9cm-deep wound in his cheek. The
two men got into a fight when both refused to yield right of way
when their cars met on a narrow street at 7am.
Two senior Foreign Ministry bureaucrats, one closely associated
with Suzuki Muneo, were arrested for misappropriation of funds.
The funds, totaling over 30 million yen, were used to pay for
official and unofficial trips to Israel. Meanwhile, Suzuki's home
and office were both searched by police regarding allegations
that his secretary Miyano Akira falsified accounting records for
Suzuki's political fund group.
In another development in the Snow Brand Foods false-labelling
case, two more senior executives were arrested. The two were held
on charges of defrauding an industry body of 195 million yen.
More than six years after the trial began, the defense of Aum
Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult leader Matsumoto Chizuo began last
week. Matsumoto, who faces 13 charges including murder, hasn't
spoken in the trial since 1998.
It was revealed that the Mister Donuts chain, owned by cleaning-equipment
rental company Duskin, sold some 13 million tainted nikuman (steamed
meat buns) at the end of 2000. In a move reportedly ordered by
the company's president, Duskin is said to have paid 63 million
yen to a firm to keep the matter quiet.
The 54-year old mayor of a village in Aomori Prefecture hung himself
after being questioned by police on suspicion of taking bribes
related to local construction projects.
The Economy:
The government announced that the economy has bottomed out but
failed to predict whether it was now headed for a recovery. Optimism
is slowly increasing, with over half of western companies in a
recent poll saying they expect a recovery in Japan over the next
12 months.
Toyota became the first Japanese company to exceed the trillion
yen mark, with consolidated recurring profits (whatever that means)
for the fiscal year ending in March of 1.11 trillion yen. On the
other end of the scale, NTT reported the biggest after-tax loss
ever of 812 billion yen. But the groups main businesses, including
the DoCoMo mobile phone company, recorded huge profits.
Japan told the WTO that it plans to impose 100% tariffs on US
steel and steel products from mid-June. The retaliatory step is
reportedly unprecedented in Japan and was taken to avoid a trade
war with the US.
The bad-loan problems of the country's major banks is not getting
any better. The combined loans increased in the last fiscal year
by 8.75 trillion yen to almost 27 trillion. You get the impression
that, rather than take hard measures to deal with the problem,
the banks are waiting for an economic turnaround to deal with
the problem for them.
The biggest taxpayer in the country last year was Unimat president
Takahashi Yoji (59). The head of the company that supplies coffee
to offices across Japan paid some 6.8 billion yen. The 170 million
yen he paid in local taxes to the village where he lives was more
than double the amount paid by the other 3,200 residents combined.
The Foreign Community:
I've already heard several reports of foreigners being stopped
by police, with the reason given being the fears about football
hooligans. Now, if we were talking about hordes of drunken foreigners
chanting their way through town, I could understand. But these
people, long-term residents in Japan, have been guilty of nothing
more than wearing a team shirt or having a shaven head. And the
majority of fans are only arriving now! I worry about the nervy
police causing more incidents than they prevent.
World Cup
The National Police Agency have asked fans to get to stadiums
on game day up to three hours before kickoff. This is to allow
body searches and two separate ticket inspections. Somehow I doubt
that this is actually going to happen, given language barriers,
ticket distribution delays and inevitable problems.
The exodus of the Cameroon team on a charter jet from France was
one of the big stories over a whole week. The team finally arrived
several days late at Fukuoka airport and made it to their camp
in the remote village of Nakatsue after 3am. Even at that late
hour, about a hundred of the village's 1,300 residents turned
out to welcome the popular African champions.
If you're in Japan and act quickly, you might get to see Boys
II Men and local diva Koyanagi Yuki perform at an invitation-only
pre-final event in Yokohama. Five thousand pairs of tickets are
available by lottery only for the event to be held on a floating
stage on Yokohama Pier. The application deadline is May 31 and
winners will be notified on June 14th. The address is:
2002 FIFA World Cup Pre-Final Event, Box 338, Tokyo Central Post
Office
An official in charge of organizing the training camp for the
Senegal team committed suicide. The 52-year old official hung
himself in his barn, leaving a note saying he couldn't handle
his job. In an unrelated story, a member of the Senegal team was
arrested yesterday in Korea for shoplifting.
Crix Yasuda, a 70-year old Tokyo-based sporting goods firm that
sold items featuring the World Cup mascots, has gone bankrupt.
I'm not in the least surprised that the mascots have not proven
popular as they have to be the least "cute" I've ever seen.
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3. Sports news
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Soccer
The national team continued their less than confident build-up
to the World Cup. They lost away 3-0 to Norway and just managed
a 1-1 draw at home against Sweden. Defensive weakness was hugely
apparent again in both games, though Morioka Ryuzo made a welcome
return for the last warm-up game. In yet another indication of
the team's problems up front, their only goal was put in the net
by a hapless Swedish defender.
All eyes were on the media May 17th when the Japanese 23-man World
Cup squad was named. There were a couple of surprises, the biggest
being the omission of talented midfielder Nakamura Shunsuke (23)
and the inclusion of veteran Nakayama Masashi (34). Jubilo Iwata
striker Nakayama scored Japan's only World Cup goal, against Jamaica
in France 98.
Baseball
In the Major Leagues, Shinjo Tsuyoshi became the first Japanese
player to hit a grand slam. The popular SF Giants player's arch
was his third home run of the season. Doing even better, though
without a home run as yet, is Suzuki Ichiro. The Seattle rightfielder
is currently top of the batting charts with a .361 average.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/shinjo_tsuyoshi.shtml
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/suzuki_ichiro.shtml
The Central League battle between the archrival Yomiuri Giants
and Hanshin Tigers is still neck and neck, with the Tigers currently
holding a slim, half-game lead. Fans of the game can only hope
that Hanshin keep up the challenge and live up to the huge expectations
generated by their flying start to the season.
https://www.japan-zone.com/omnibus/baseball.shtml
The Orix Blue Wave and the Daiei Hawks split their two-game series
in Taiwan. It was the first time Pacific League games had been
played outside Japan.
Eight of last year's top ten sporting taxpayers were baseball
players. The top spot was taken by Yomiuri Giants slugger Matsui
Hideki.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/suzuki_ichiro.shtml
Other Sports
Yokozuna (Grand Champion) lived up to his rank in winning his
11th Emperor's Cup in the Tokyo summer basho. "Moose" took the
lead midway through the event and never looked in danger of losing
it. But his laid-back character showed through yet again when
he dropped a couple of bouts along the way, once again losing
on the final day after having secured the yusho the day before.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/musashimaru.shtml
Maruyama Shigeki became the first Asian player to win two PGA
tour events when he won the Byron Nelson Classic. The so-called
"Smilin' Assassin" beat a strong field that included Tiger Woods
by two strokes to take the $864,000 first prize. Maruyama played
to the crowd and after his win said "I was born like this. If
I could speak English, I could make you laugh even harder!" He
placed seventh in the Memorial Tournament two weeks later. Incidentally,
among sports people Maruyama ranked No.2 on the Japanese taxpayer
list for last year.
On the US Senior Tour, Aoki Isao (59) won his first title in four
years and his ninth in all, taking the Instinet Classic in New
Jersey. He is the third oldest tour winner ever.
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4. Gei-noh news
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Actor Ito Toshihito died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage. He was
taken ill and underwent surgery, which was believed to have been
successful. However he died the next day. Ito, who was only 40,
recently appeared in several popular TV series, including "Shomuni".
Among the 300 show business people who attended his wake, "Shomuni"
star Esumi Makiko (36) was clearly in shock.
She may have only ranked 39th on the nation's top taxpayers for
last year, but Hamasaki Ayumi topped the rankings among musicians,
having earned almost 1.2 billion yen. As a group Morning Musume
made the top ten - though none of the 13 individual members appeared,
on average they paid about 16 million yen. Remember, two of them
are still in junior high school. The biggest-paying TV personality
was Tunnels comedian Ishibashi Takaaki (40) for the fifth straight
year. SMAP member Nakai Masahiro (30) was top of the Johnnys Jimusho
pack.
Ishibashi and his wife, actress Suzuki Honami (35) are expecting
their third child in August. Meanwhile, a member of the all-girl
teen band ZONE made a sexual harassment claim against Ishibashi
after appearing on his "Utaban" TV show.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/comedian2.shtml
Unsurprisingly, Hamasaki Ayumi won the Best Female Artist award
at the MTV Music Video Award Japan 2002 show, beating Britney
Spears and Janet Jackson. The Best Video Award went to Mister
Children. Best R&B Artist went to Utada Hikaru.
And one more Ayu story. She will be one of several Avex "uta hime"
(song princesses) on a ten-date summer stadium tour. Others include
Every Little Thing, Do As Infinity and BoA (15), the first Korean
to reach the top of the J-Pop world. BoA recently played in a
New York event along with rising star Koda Kumi (19).
Former sumo giant Konishiki (38) is to make his acting debut in
the popular NHK 15-minute drama series "Sakura". The series is
about a Hawaiian-Japanese girl who comes to teach at a junior
high school in Japan. Konishiki will play the vocalist of a Hawaiian
band that appear at the school's summer festival. The two episodes
will air in mid-July.
Production of the popular and long-running "Mito Komon" samurai
drama on TBS has been postponed while star Ishizaka Koji (60)
is hospitalized with rectal cancer. 23 of the planned 26 episodes
had been filmed. Veteran actor Ishizaka is also a presenter on
a TV Tokyo show that evaluates antiques and collectables.
Nishina Takashi (31), son of the late actor Kawatani Taku, was
given a two year sentence, suspended for four years, on drugs
charges. Meanwhile, the drugs-related trial of Terauchi Akira
(39), former vocalist in his father Terauchi Takeshi's band Blue
Jeans, has begun. Prosecutors are seeking an 18-month prison term.
The latest addition to the "Naked Series" by soft porn company
Soft On Demand, is a performance by a naked orchestra at a Tokyo
hall. Company president Takahashi Ganari is a regular on the "Money
Tiger" TV show, where budding entrepreneurs interview to raise
money.
Disgraced TV personality Tashiro Masashi (45) appeared at a press
conference for the new video movie he directed. Many have questioned
the speed at which he has returned to the entertainment business.
He angered one particular movie director by saying that, as "just"
a director, he was "staying in the background".
You can't keep the woman down. After recently being given a suspended
sentence for tax evasion and saying she would not return to entertainment,
the woman we love to hate Nomura Sachiyo (70) is to give a "talk
live" in Tokyo at the end of June.
More Bits and Bobs
The wake held for rakugo storyteller Yanagiya Kosan, who died
of heart failure at the age of 87, was attended by 1,300 people.
Kosan was the first rakugoka to be named as a living national
treasure.
Boya Saburo, who became a popular comedian in the 1940s, died
of heart failure. He was 92.
Rock guitarist Hotei Tomoyasu (40), who fractured his skull after
taking a spill on the way to his father-in-law's funeral, has
left hospital.
https://www.japan-zone.com/modern/hotei_tomoyasu.shtml
TV personality Mukai Aki (37) and husband pro wrestler Takada
Nobuhiko (40) returned from the US, where Mukai is in the process
of having a child with a surrogate mother.
Miura Risako, wife of J-leaguer "King" Kazu, has just had a baby
boy.
Another injury suffered by a competitor on the popular TBS show
Muscle Ranking led to the cancellation of the show due to be broadcast
on the 18th.
Kyogen "Prince" Izumi Motoya (27) and wife Aki (33) have named
their recently born daughter Ayame.
TV personality Henmi Emiri has broken up with her boyfriend, ex-Kome
Kome Club guitarist Takeshita Kotaro.
TBS announcer Ando Hiroki (34) has been taking a lot of flak for
not being able to keep his hands off his female costars. Ando
appears on the "Wonderful" late night show.
Wedding Bells
Many hearts were broken when Nishida Hikaru (29) finally got married
last weekend. The popular actress, who spent her first 13 years
in LA, married a 32-year old US-based businessman; Kurosawa Kaoru
(31) of the pop group Gospellers is to marry 24-year old fashion
model Mizuno Kaori in Tokyo in July; actress Ishiki Sae (25) is
the latest to have a "dekichatta" wedding. Ishiki is four months
pregnant and will marry a 25-year old former model and entrepreneur
next month; TBS announcer Ogasawara Wataru (29) is engaged to
a 26-year old flight attendant.
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
As usual with the gei-noh crowd, news of marriage or divorce often
doesn't leak for months after the event. We've some catching up
to do...Actor Shimojo Atomu (51) and his wife of 23 years Kanako
(46) divorced, having waited until their children had grown up;
singer/songwriter Shiina Ringo (23) and guitarist husband Yayoshi
Junji (34) divorced in January after only 14 months; popular TV
weatherman Morita Masamitsu (52) and wife Yamada Kuni divorced
in April - of last year!
Oricon Daily Single Chart (May 28th)
1. Various Artists - 2002 FIFA World Cup Official Album
2. Shiina Ringo - (I give up - can't read the title of this album!)
3. Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Stompin' On Down Beat Alley
4. Yamazaki Masayoshi - Transit Time
5. Various Artists - The Japan Gold Disc Award 2002
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5. Links We Like
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Drill the Kanji
Test and improve your kanji skills with the easy-to-use Java applet
on this site. Very nicely done. In English and French.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ik2r-myr/kanji/kanji1a.htm
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