News Blast: Hostel Hotels, Dogged Champ, Dutiful Dads, Obama's Matcha Mouth And More!

For hot politics and hot days: matcha ice cream! Image via.

Some Japanese Hospitality Biz is Anything But

In his regular column in The Japan Times, controversial American-born Japanese civil-rights activist Debito Arudou (AKA David Schofill) alleges racial discrimination in the hotel industry. He points out that "Japan has no national civil or criminal legislation outlawing and punishing racial discrimination, meaning businesses with 'Japanese only' signs aren't doing anything illegal." A minority of ryokan (traditional-style Japanese inns), as well as modern hotels, insist on only serving Japanese clientele. Stated reasons for this vary. A manager of a ryokan points out that because foreign guests may be unfamiliar with Japanese customs and amenities (for example lack of Western-style beds and toilets) they could be uncomfortable. Other hoteliers' excuses are more xenophobic, claiming that foreign guests "steal hotel goods or cause trouble for other guests, thus making it a crime issue."

Arudou has made it his business to call out these hotel managers, and many of them have changed their policies after protests from activists and other guests. In a related article, the travel resource CNNGo reveals statistics from a survey conducted by the Japanese government where 27% of hotels did not want foreign guests staying with them.

Hot Dog Eating Champ Arrested

Citing contractual dispute, onetime six-time champ Takeru Kobayashi didn't compete in Coney Island's annual Fourth of July hot dog eating contest this year. He then spent a night in jail after rushing the stage to try to compete at the last minute.

This is all very sad news, as Kobayashi was a gracious and amiable guest at our j-CATION fest a few month back.

Bite-sized News

►The invaluable Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, which subsidizes people from around the world to study Japanese in Japan, may go to the budget cuts chopping block.

►Kumiko Makihara's International Herald Tribune op-ed tells how being tall and tan in Japan can lead to racial profiling.

►Japanese fathers, who reportedly spend less time on domestic duties than any other developed country's dads, are encouraged to "swap their desks for diapers" with new government initiatives.

►A new play, staged in replica 1945 streetcars in Hiroshima, commemorates the courage of female operators and conductors when the atomic bomb struck. Actual operators, who served during and survived the attack, were invited to the premier. Naoko Hata, 81, said: "I am pleased that young people will pass along what we did then."

►After a record year of on-the-job attacks, Japanese railway companies offer staff martial arts training.

►The diplomatic ties between President Obama and new Japanese PM Kan were strengthened by Kan’s promise to prepare some matcha (green tea) ice cream for the American head of states’s next trip to Japan this November. Apparently, matcha ice cream is one of Obama’s favorites.

►About a dozen monkeys escaped a Kyoto University research center in Aichi Prefecture on Monday. They climbed up trees and "used the branches as slingshots to propel them over the fence." Since the escape, seven have been apprehended and five remain at large.

►Author superstar Haruki Murakami has gone on the record to say that there is a slight possibility for sequels to his newest novel, IQ84. The wildly popular novel, published over the past year in three parts, spans over 1,500 pages, though Murakami says that there are still stories left to tell with the characters. The first two parts of IQ84 are due next fall in the U.S. In the meantime, appetites can be sated with Neojaponisme's in-depth, thoughtful review.

►Teachers Gone Wild! Follow the exploits of the Japan Society Educators’ Study Tour to Japan on tumblr or at their Twitter page.

►A rave for Lincoln Center's presentation of the Japanese play Musashi from The New York Times.

►It was a hot one in NYC this week, which means it’s time to try some Japanese summer recipes! Cold somen noodles are great and super quick, or make your own  diplomacy-strengthening matcha ice cream.

►Osaka celebrated Tanabata (Star Festival) with 50,000 water-tight lights. The Japanese annual fest takes place on the seventh day of the seventh month (July 7),  but Japan Society invites families to celebrate Sunday, July 11.

►We missed this in-depth article from April featuring kamishibai storytelling, as well as the work of master storyteller Tara McGowan, who appears at our weekend Tanabata festivities.

►Everything you wanted to know about four months at Japan Society, but were afraid to ask!

N.O., S.J.

Japan and Friends: Foreign Relations

There has recently been some friction between Japan and the United States over the Futenma base in Okinawa and over the existence of secret Cold War-era agreements with Washington that, among other things, had allowed American nuclear-armed warships to sail into Japanese ports in violation of Japan’s non-nuclear policies. Martin Fackler for The New York Times summed the issue up succinctly:

"The existence of the pacts, known in Japan as the “secret treaties,” has long been known from declassified documents in the United States and the testimony of former American and Japanese diplomats. But successive prime ministers denied their existence, turning the agreements into a symbol for many Japanese of how Liberal Democratic governments had turned their country into a stunted democracy run without full consent by the public."

After ending the Liberal Democrats’ nearly unbroken 54-year grip on power last summer, the new Democratic Party government opened an investigation into the pacts as part of their promised housecleaning of Japan’s postwar order. Exposing the truth about their nation’s secret dealings with the United States was also part of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s pledges to put Tokyo on a more equal footing with Washington. This fed concerns among some in Washington, particularly conservatives, that revealing the treaties was part of an effort by Mr. Hatoyama’s administration to push away from the United States."

Tobias Harris contributed some much-needed perspective on both situations in his essay Japan: The importance of open diplomacy for East Asia Forum, which was posted today. Here is a snippet:

"The Hatoyama government deserves some blame for not being clearer about why it wanted a review in the first place, which enabled some to paint the government as anti-American. But those who see the Futenma dispute in the worst possible light have misinterpreted the Hatoyama government’s position. I think that the Hatoyama government is approaching Futenma less as a foreign policy issue than as a domestic policy issue, because a bilateral agreement as complicated the realignment plan involves too many actors within Japan to be simply a bilateral matter for governments in Tokyo and Washington. Indeed, if the 2006 agreement has a flaw it is that the Koizumi government acted without the full approval of Okinawan constituents, which explains at least in part why subsequent LDP governments did little but drag their feet on implementing the agreement."

According to The New York Times, by March 3rd the Japanese government had approached United States officials with a tentative proposal for resolving a festering dispute over the American air base in Okinawa. The proposal would relocate the Futenma Marine Corps air station, a busy helicopter base, from a crowded city in southern Okinawa to a less populated area in the island’s north, but would be smaller and have a diminished impact on local residents and the environment than previously agreed upon.

It is unclear whether the proposal is going to be acceptable to Washington, or indeed to members of Prime Minister Hatoyama’s own coalition, particularly the Social Democratic Party, a tiny leftist group that wants the base removed from Japan altogether. Harris concludes:

"But whether or not the Hatoyama government succeeds, it is important to recognise that it is acting on the basis of an old idea, that a democratic foreign policy must necessarily be conducted in the sight of the people in whose name it is being conducted. In its pursuit of this aim, the Hatoyama government has also implicitly suggested that an alliance conducted behind closed doors is inappropriate for a more democratic Japan, that the alliance will not endure if it continues to rest upon secret agreements and understandings."

News Blast

In Japan, U.S. Losing Diplomatic Ground to China

When Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates visited Japan's new leaders in October, not long after their historic election, he pressed so hard and so publicly for a military base agreement that the Japanese news media labeled him a bully. The difference between that visit and the friendly welcome that a high-level Japanese delegation received just two months later in China, Japan's historic rival, could not have been more stark.

Slime Mold Grows Network Just Like Tokyo Rail System

When presented with oat flakes arranged in the pattern of Japanese cities around Tokyo, brainless, single-celled slime molds construct networks of nutrient-channeling tubes that are strikingly similar to the layout of the Japanese rail system, researchers from Japan and England report Jan. 22 in Science. A new model based on the simple rules of the slime mold’s behavior may lead to the design of more efficient, adaptable networks, the team contends.

Poverty in Japan (Editorial)

Now that the administration has announced its base figure for the first time, it will have a clear, public benchmark. Once ministries start announcing statistics, academic researchers, independent organizations and the press can check these figures. That will help to hold the current and future administrations accountable. Admitting the problem is the first, big step, but finding solutions is the more important second step.

Japan-China Relations & Japan-US Relations

“For the Japanese, there is a feeling that somehow bilateral problems will be resolved because both sides agree about the importance of a good relationship for their own national interests,and that China will always seek a compromise. The Japanese believe China needs Japan for a number of reasons, be it to protect its foreign image as a peacefully developing country, to maintain its export- and FDI-dependent economy, to cope with its environmental problems, or to reduce its energy consumption. Prime Minister Hatoyama has stated that the creation of a good atmosphere and a strengthening of an East Asian community will allow the solution of even the most difficult problems. But are such views too complacent? Do they actually reduce Japan’s options in the medium and long term while China’s overall power is growing?”

[ A new start for Japan-China relations? on the East Asia Forum ]

This is a really hot topic right now. This Thursday (January 14th), we’re having former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hitoshi Tanaka shares his view of changes in Japan’s foreign policy since the DPJ came to power last fall and implications for U.S. – Japan relations now that the DPJ is shifting its attentions to its Asian neighbors.

Learn more about the event