Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | japan & asia
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December 8, 2009

Graphic from the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, showing how the victim was forced off her motorbike by a rope strung across the road. I should just shake my head and mutter, "Kids these days, what were they thinking." But I have deeper feelings than that, and I'm terribly saddened by the ongoing news coverage out of Japan, where four teen-aged dependents of U.S. military personnel were arrested over the weekend for attempted murder. The three boys and a girl, aged 15 to 18, are charged with an August attack in Tokyo, when a woman was knocked off her motorbike when she ran into a rope that had been tied across the road, and fractured her skull and broke her neck, leaving her hospitalized for three months. The rope was moved from its position across the driveway entrance to a business, and re-tied to a post across the road. The graphic above from the Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan's huge national daily newspapers, illustrates what happened. After the woman crashed, one of the assailants reportedly flagged down a passing motorist and asked the person to call for an ambulance, then the attackers fled the scene.Police questioned the teens after viewing footage from a nearby security camera. The arrests came Saturday, aftr negotiating with U.S. officials. Two of the teens live on Yokota Air Base, an American Air Force facility, close by in Tokyo; the other two live off-base with their families. This attack, or prank, or stupid act, whatever it turns out to be, if it was committed by teenagers, would make the news in the U.S., but it's especially grabbing attention in Japan because there's an ongoing debate within that country about the need for, and level of, U.S. military presence there.
December 4, 2009

The bow seen We attended a birthday party of sorts last night, except there was no cake. Ever since Japan stationed a Consulate General in Denver, there has been an annual gathering of invited guests to mark the birthday of Akihito, the current Emperor of Japan. Royal birthdays are probably celebrated in the few countries that still have a monarch. For instance, the Queen of England's birthday is April 21 and it's officially celebrated on the third Saturday of June. But Japan is the only country in the world that has an Emperor as its titular head of state. The role of Emperor is hugely important in Japan -- so much so that after World War II, when many wanted to prosecute then-emperor Hirohito, the Allied Occupation Forces led by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, who's still fondly remembered by many Japanese as the "Gaijin (Foreigner) Emperor," decided to allow Hirohito to remain in power even though the country was drafting a new, democratic constitution. Abolishing the royal structure and prosecuting Hirohito would have been too deep a disruption of Japanese society at a time when they needed to unite and pull the country out of the postwar ruins. So the Emperor became a symbolic head of state, with no actual ruling power. That's in the hands of the Diet, or parliament, and the prime minister. Hirohito died in 1989, and Akihito, his son, succeeded to the throne the same year. Japan's Imperial Household is the oldest continuing hereditary monarchy in the world, with a straight line drawn from Emperor Jimmu in 660 AD to Akihito today.
November 30, 2009

Sho Kosugi, who plays the masochistic master in Ninja Assassin, played ninjas in movies through the Ninja Assassin is an entertaining film full of bloody action.The new movie "Ninja Assassin" just might spark a new wave of fascination with Asian martial arts, but instead of kung fu, the fad will be for ninjutsu, the art of the ninja warrior. The film updates the image of the silent, stealthy assassins from Japanese history, and suggests that ninja clans still exist, sending out mercenaries all over the world to kill off targets for gold. It's an enticing concept, and one that's in line with the tradition of the ninja in both Japanese history and Japanese pop-culture mythology. During my childhood, I didn't really fantasize about being a cowboy. Oh sure, I had the requisite cowboy outfit -- western hat perched cockily to one side like a young John Wayne, a real leather holster belt with a pair of shiny Mattel cap pistols hanging down my side (I tied them to my thighs with strips of leather) and a silver sheriff's star on my chest. I played cowboys and Indians like American boys did back then. But not all the time. In Japan, there was another, more romantic character that boys could play -- the ninja. They were lots cooler than cowboys. They were able to leap incredible heights over palace walls, walk silently through a sleeping castle, and noiselessly kill their prey with their samurai swords (which they wore across their backs instead of hanging on their sides) or shuriken, razor-sharp steel stars like many-sided daggers that ninja could throw with deadly accuracy. Ninjas even looked cool -- instead of fancy, bulky, multi-layered samurai outfits (or battered and sweaty cowboy hats), ninjas were clad in a simple outfit of midnight-black fabric (better to skulk around in the dark) just loose enough to allow freedom of movement in martial arts hand-to-hand combat. They covered their heads with a black hood, and only their eyes were visible through the veil. Although the ninjas were, like the cowboys of America, a romanticized icon of an earlier, "frontier-era" spirit, they also made sense for the early 1960s. They were precursors of spies in a modern world deeply divided by the Cold War. With James Bond and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. looming just around the pop-culture corner, I was ready-made for sneaking around my small yard in Tokyo, fantasizing about being a ninja.
November 25, 2009

Rufus, our black and white mutt cat, when he was younger a triple Maneki Neko, for triple the good fortune On our recent trip to LA, and a previous trip to San Francisco, I've been obsessed with buying various versions of the Maneki Neko, the iconic Japanese cat statues with upraised paw, holding on to a gold coin with the other paw. "Maneki Neko" translates literally to "welcoming cat," and its paw beckons to people in the Asian style, palm out and fingers moving down to say "yo! come here!" I grew up seeing these cat statuettes everywhere in Japan, so they're a part of my childhood memories. I always liked seeing them in Japaneses businesses here in the U.S. But in recent years, the Maneki Neko, which is supposed to bring good fortune, wealth (if the right paw's raised) or more customers (if the left paw's raised), has become a familiar site at all sorts of Asian businesses from Korean restaurants to Asian gift stores and souvenir shops. There are a dizzying array of neko styles, shaoes and sizes. I keep buying tiny porcelain ones, but this time in LA, I had to have a silly plastic one that's solar-powered with three cats -- one large one and two kittens -- whose heads bob back and forth. Some solar powered ones wave their paws, but something about the bobbing heads makes me smile, so I have it on my cube wall at the office.
October 26, 2009

In Japan, people wear face masks as matter of courtesy when theyWhen President Obama officially declared the 2009 H1N1 outbreak a national emergency over the weekend, I thought, "good. Now it'll force Americans to wear masks when they're sick, or if they don't want to get sick, like in Japan. The Japanese (and other people throughout Asia) have always worn face masks to prevent the spread of illness. It's partly out of personal interest -- so they won't have to breath in allergens, pollutants or other peoples' yucky germs. But it's also out of plain politeness and consideration -- to keep your own damn germs to yourself. H1N1, or as lots of people still call it, Swine Flu, is the first time in my memory in the U.S. that everyone is being reminded of simple ways to stay healthy with hygiene (wash your hands often) and even told how to sneeze or cough (into your elbow). At my office building, hand sanitizer dispensers have magically appeared everywhere from the lobby to the bathrooms. And, there are signs and poster everywhere, including on the door to the bathroom and on the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom, with diagrams showing people how to sneeze into their elbows, and to wash their hands. I always thought it was gross when someone sneezed or coughed into their hands, which was what our parents taught us when we were told to "cover your mouth," but then extended their hand in greeting.
October 23, 2009

tetsuwan_atomu_1_21Astro Boy," the new American computer-animated version of the Japanese comic and cartoon that launched the revolution we now call anime, opens today. I'm more than a little nervous about seeing the movie, since it may not resemble the Japanese cartoon I grew up with, and because Hollywood really screwed up "Speed Racer" when they decided to turn that classic anime into a big live-action spectacle. (The following text is a re-worked version of a pre-blog Nikkei View column I wrote back in 2003.) Astro Boy, called "Tetsuwan Atomu" in Japan, was originally introduced in 1952, as a manga, or comic book character, and later turned into an animated television series. Created by the pioneering Japanese comic and anime (animation) artist Osamu Tezuka, his name stands for "The Mighty Atom," an image still vivid in the minds of millions of Japanese who had lived through the end of World War II just seven years before, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The cartoon character is best-known in the US for the English-dubbed versions of the "Astro Boy" series that first aired in 1963 and then was re-launched with a new series in 1982 and resurrected in a computer-animated film opening today, featuring the voices of Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Bill Nighy and Samuel L. Jackson. The story line is a spin on Pinocchio and superhero comics, mixed with a dose of Steven Spielberg's film "A.I." (actually "A.I." borrows more than a dose from Astro Boy). When the kindhearted Dr. Boynton's (Professor Tenna in the Japanese original) son is killed in a car accident, he invents an atomic-powered robotic replacement only to discover that there's no way that the android can truly be human. The mechanical boy was born on April 7, 2003 -- the far future -- in the original manga.
October 21, 2009

Kabuki is one of the most dynamic and interesting theatrical forms in Japan.Like any school kid, I loved going on field trips when I was young, But, since we lived in Japan until 3rd grade, my earliest memories of field trips weren't the typical ones that American kids remember. I remember looking out of a school bus and seeing steaming lumps of sticky rice being pounded into mochi for New Year's celebrations, for example (I think we were on the way to a shrine where we learned about Oshogatsu, or Japanese New Year, traditions). And, I have a distinct memory of going from Green Park Elementary School, on a U.S. Army base in Tokyo (it's no longer there), to a grand old theater in the heart of Tokyo to see a form of traditional Japanese theater, kabuki. A lot of Americans probably know the word "kabuki" because it's been used for restaurants and hotels and other products. Like "Sukiyaki," "Mikado" and other words, they've become shorthand for "something Japanese." But many Americans who've heard the word probably don't know that kabuki is a cultural treasure in Japan, an artform dating back to the early 1600s that's a bit like a mix of stylized Chinese opera and melodramatic Western-style opera. The Japanese government is hoping to change that, and make more Americans aware of the traditions of kabuki. They're sponsoring a U.S. tour of a lecture/performance called "Backstage to Hanamichi," starring two of Japan's kabuki masters, Kyozo Nakamura and Matanosuke Nakamura (no relation) from the world-renowned Shochiku Company. Denver gets its introduction to kabuki this Saturday, Oct. 24, at the June Swaner Gates Concert Hall at Denver University, 2344 East Iliff Ave. (303-871-7720 for the box office). The performance costs $25. I have vivid memories from my childhood field trip:
August 20, 2009

Turnabout is fair play, right? It's karma. In Japanese, it's a bachi coming back -- basically, you reap what you sow. McDonald's in Japan has started using a laughable nerd who doesn't have a clue in its ads, mangling Japanese, looking all uptight in glasses and ill-fitting khakis. You'd think it's how an Asian would be cast in American commercials...