Till Love Do Us Part

A scene from Minazuki. © 1999 Nikkatsu Corporation

Internal and external forces pull at the lovers in the final films of the Love Will Tear Us Apart series. Rokuro Mochizuki's Minazuki is an "equal parts sad and tooth-crushingly violent story" that follows a down-on-his-luck office worker in search of his wayward wife, and 2002's multi-award winning masterpiece Oasis has been called "one of the most deeply felt love stories of the screen" as Korean society stacks the odds against a young couple.

The series picked up where Valentine’s Day left off, featuring 24 films that according to the Wall Street Journal took "a look back at themes of star-crossed romance, forbidden lust, sublime heartbreak and other tortured misadventures of the heart as imagined by Japanese and Korean filmmakers, primarily over the past decade."

Ranging from the controversial oldie In the Realm of Senses to world premiere of Petrel Hotel Blue, which opens in Japan later this month, the series kicked off with Shinya Tsukamoto’s Kotoko and the short film Romance whose star Hyunri hosted the evening's Make Love after-party--"a red-and-pink mini-gown, hot-pant extravaganza". Film scholar John Berra introduced films including the bizarre and fantastical Air Doll and a dark, voyeuristic romp in A Snake of June, while film historian Go Hirasawa made an appearance for the screening of The Woman Who Wanted to Die.

As the series trailer suggested, it takes two tango. With films from both Korea and Japan, the the two it took were perhaps best exemplified by directors Kim Ki-duk and Koji Wakamatsu. Both men have extensive filmographies with their fair share of critical acclaim as well as controversy.

Kim Ki-duk, well-renowned art-house filmmaker from South Korea, began his journey into movies by starting as a screenwriter after studying fine arts in Paris for some years. Since Crocodile, the first film he directed in 1996, Ki-duk has gone on to create over 15 more, which have caught on in both South Korea, thanks to a strong local movie industry, and internationally more so for their often visceral imagery and, on the controversy side of things, occasional animal cruelty.

Japan Society's series featured three of his films back-to-back. Time brings up the everlasting question of whether the love between two people can really last forever. The female main character, out of jealousy, suddenly leaves her boyfriend one day only to return with a completely new face from plastic surgery. The boyfriend finds himself falling in love again, unwittingly with the same woman he’s always been with. In the much darker Bad Guy, a young college student finds herself accosted by a pimp and turns the table on him through public humiliation. However the next day, she finds herself set up by and at the mercy of the pimp from the other day who forces her into prostitution. The film continues with unexpected twists within the interactions between girl, the pimp, and the criminal underworld they are caught up in. Finally, Ki-duk’s most recent film, Dream, features Japanese star Joe Odagiri and Lee Na-young in which two strangers find themselves inexplicably linked through a dream involving a car crash. Whatever Odagiri’s character dreams of, Na-young’s character seems to act it out.

Koji Wakamatsu had his beginnings in Japan’s pinku eiga (pink films--softcore Japanese movies popular in the 60s through 80s) industry, where he gained notoriety for many exploitation films. When reactions to his submission to the 15th Berlin International Film review in 1965 were not so enthusiastic, Wakamatsu left the industry to pursue his own vision. The result of such decision led to the creation of haunting, super sexual, and experimental works that all have a sense of longing between their characters.


Petrel Hotel Blue marks Wakamatsu triumphant return. The story involves plans of revenge by an ex-con being foiled with the introduction of a young lady played by actress Hitomi Katayama (who introduced the film at Japan Society's March 10 world premiere). Everything seems to go wrong for a policeman, his wife, and his brother hiding out from the Tokyo street riots in Running in Madness, Dying in Love. When a fight breaks out between the two brothers, the policeman’s wife ends up killing her husband with his own gun. The surviving brother and the wife flee north from the city and end up romantically involved with each other despite the guilt of the murdered husband on their minds. Wakamatsu’s last piece in the film series is The Woman Who Wanted to Die, the tale of an unexpected meeting between two couples who may be familiar with each from another time.

Love Will Tear Us Apart is one of three film series at Japan Society in March. In addition to the sold out documentaries that were part of the March 11 day of reflection in One Year Later programming series commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, As Cherry Blossoms Fall: Films and Scenes of Sakura showcases 10 films that capture Japanese cinema's unique beauty of transience, commonly known as mono no aware, from March 23 to April 14. Featuring films such as Dolls, Taboo, and Sakuran, the films are part of the Sakura — Spring Renews, Beauty Blooms series held in conjunction with the National Cherry Blossom Festvial, this year marking the 100th Anniversary of the Japan's famous gift of cherry trees to the U.S.

--Sean Tomizawa

Japan & Korea: Decades Of Geopolitical Musical Chairs

This is not the sound of silence. Via.

Up and down--one chair pulled and the music continues. The players are Japan and South Korea, playing for decades in an international arena with their neighbor who has had an amazing growth spurt, China, and their cantankerous cousin North Korea. The music is the never ending (and often dissonant) song of diplomacy.

If we chronicle Japan and Korea’s quandary from 1990s to the present, it has been a continuing game of musical chairs. 720 miles apart, Seoul and Tokyo have faced economic strife and regional security detriments. Although many of the crises were similar, the two countries chose different paths with different geopolitical and domestic consequences.  

South Korea, historical and regionally, has always been at the mercies of their neighbors and the international community. Currently they are rekindling their relationship with the U.S. and cooling to China since the sinking of the South Korean Cheonan. They faced many of the same economic, political and demographic problems Japan now faces. They made strong and bold reforms, created a robust economy, strengthened a vigorous and interactive democracy—all to enhance their geopolitical weight so they are no longer at the mercies of the world. Yet despite these accomplishments, they remain at an impasse with North Korea, where things have heated up of late.

Japan’s game change happened in 2009, when the Democratic Party of Japan defeated the more conservative Liberal Democratic Party, ending the latter's near unbroken rule since World War II. This was celebrated as a major step in Japan’s democratic system, but has so far created risks in every level of Japanese life: political, bureaucratic, economic and public. The situation now threatens the efforts of Japanese leaders and their allies to promote economic recovery and ensure stability in the region.

On December 8, Japan Society welcomes Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s William Overholt to lead the hard-hitting discussion Japan & Korea: Domestic Reform & Geopolitical Shifts. Overholt is a one-time investment banker who has become a prominent Asian policy expert over the last few decades, planning studies at one time for the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of State, National Security Council, and Council on International Economic Policy, as well as penning six books (most recently Asia, America and the Transformation of Geopolitics).

In the discussion, Overholt poses the question: can Japan revive without crisis amidst unstable internal power structures and with such alarming international security issues unfolding in East Asia? He also addresses Japan's importance for Asia and South Korea’s management of a deteriorating North Korea.

The lively and timely discussion is presided by Robert Fallon, a professor at Columbia Business School, who also serves on the boards of Japan Society and Korea Society. Chairs will be provided, and the music has already begun to play.

S.H.

News Blast: South Korea Apology, Japan's Gay Pride, Japanese Reggae, Panda Babies, Lightning Mushrooms And More

Gay pride march in Shibuya via.

Japan’s Korea Occupation Centennial Sparks Conflict

In advance of the 100th anniversary of Japan’s colonization of the Korean Peninsula, Prime Minister Naoto Kan addressed South Koreans in a public speech: "For the enormous damage and suffering caused during this colonial rule, I would like to express once again our deep remorse and heartfelt apology."

While such speeches have been made by previous Prime Ministers, the reactions from all sides on this historic occasion run a similar vein. Some South Koreans point to the Japanese government’s failure to acknowledge the extent of the brutality of their colonial rule. A Korean advocacy group for Comfort Women said, "The Japanese government comes out once again with more lip service," and is pushing for further reparations. The Japanese government maintains that reparations were paid in full in 1965 when relations between South Korea and Japan were normalized.

Though the occupation covered the entire Korean Peninsula, formal apologies have only been addressed to South Korea. Even though there are no diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea, Japan Today reports the North Korean government slammed Kan shortly after the speech. "We can only judge that Japan wants to keep the division of the peninsula," said an unnamed North Korean official in charge of Japanese affairs.

Back home, many conservative Japanese feel tighter diplomatic ties with South Korea have led to an unfair bias for Koreans living in Japan. This week several members of a right-wing activist group, Zaitokukai, were arrested for harassing a Korean school in Kyoto. The alleged assaults happened December 2009, when activists disrupted classes by protesting with a loudspeaker against Korean schools, and cut power to some parts of the school.

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Anniversary

After last week's memorializing of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, this week marked the anniversary of the atomic bombing at Nagasaki. A ceremony was held at the peace memorial the southern coastal town, attended by survivors, foreign dignitaries and activists of many ages and nationalities. PM Kan says he’ll consider making three non-nuclear principles proposed by survivors and activists into law, as well as pressuring foreign countries, especially India, to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement.

To mark the occasion, Gizmodo has a collection of interviews with survivors from the Hiroshima attack, painting a harrowing picture of the day the bombs fell. Pink Tentacle posted graphic artist Isao Hashimoto’s new work 1945-1988--a mesmerizing video representation of every nuclear bomb detonated between those years. As of 1988, America led with 1,032; Japan: 0.

Japanese Gay Pride

With California's ruling on the unconstitutionality of the state's ban on same-sex marriage grabbing headlines this week, people may have missed Reuter's report that Japan's LGBT pride parade returns this weekend after a 3 year hiatus.

Same sex relationships have a long, varied history in Japan, which has led to complicated contemporary social mores. Japan has little protection for discrimination based on sexuality, and the 2009 political shift gave hope towards equality. It's a long road to understanding let alone acceptance (such as being out in a Japanese the office), and some in Japan resist what they see as the West's 'Rainbow Imperialism'.

But times they are a changin'. Seminal gay tv blog AfterElton's commentary on how Japan's gay stereotypes play out in the media demonstrates a refining of gay representations in Japan, from early yaoi manga geared towards female readers, to the once wildly popular and bizarrely macho wrestler Razor Ramon HG, to more current (and sophisticated) anime such as Junjō Romantica. And if there's one thing we've learned, media trends pave the way to social acceptance!

Bite-size News

►Japan takes a break for the national high school summer baseball tournament, Koshien.

►The Times' Paul Krugman supports the idea that stagnation is responsible for effete young men in Japan.

►The governor of Okinawa rejected Japan's plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Nago.

►Why Hiroshima is a place where everyone should visit at least once.

►Examiner examines a slice of Japanese and Asian culture in small town North Carolina.

►According to Japanese folklore, mushrooms struck by lightning multiply faster. Zap: this was recently proven a scientific fact.

►Photo of the week: Giant panda gave birth to her second set of twins at Japan's Shirahama city Adventure World animal theme park in Shirahama city. (More Japan photos from the WSJ).

►JET Programme update: This week Japan assesses if the government's three decades old English teaching program should survive budget cuts. The program has long been considered a cornerstone of ‘soft power’ in Japanese democracy, and JET alumni are protesting the potential cuts.

►Japanese centenarian update: 200 of 40,000+ now missing.

►Show us the (ancient) money! A wooden tablet marked with the date "May 4, year 2 of Tenpyo" (730 C.E.) shed's light on Japan’s first mint in Yamaguchi and the 8th century wadokaichin currency.

►Wall Street Journal lists lessons from Japan for U.S. train operators.

►The New York Times style magazine profiles Japanese reggae, mon.

►Over at BoingBoing, Tokyo Vice author Jake Adelstein invites his Yakuza contacts to review the new videogame, Yakuza 3.

►Drama! Japan Society announced its 2010-11 season of music, dance and theater.  Broadway World has full details.

►In news roundups roundup news: Japan Times' JapanPulse Pulsations "links to fresh stories and visuals about Japan, shout-outs to fellow bloggers, and highly clickable stuff that we think you might enjoy." You bet we will!

N.O., S.J.

Japan and Friends: Foreign Relations

The Editor-in-Chief of the Asahi Shinbun in Tokyo,Yoichi Funabashi, published an article for East Asia Forum called Japan-Korea FTA cornerstone of the East Asian Community, which makes several valid points. One example:

"A Japan-South Korea FTA would be instrumental in pushing for a further opening of the global trade system. It would also help Asian regional integration. Integrating the markets of the closest neighbors in Asia will become the cornerstone of the East Asia community."

Japan Society held a panel discussion on April 20th entitled The Japan – China – US Triangle: Competing Partners, which discussed the obstacles in navigating mergers and other alliances among China, Japan and the U.S. due to the nations' completely divergent cultures, histories, and legal systems. Japan and South Korea likely face many of the same issues thanks to their difficult history with one another. To quote from Funabashi's piece:

"During a visit to South Korea in March, farm minister Hirotaka Akamatsu was told by Yu Myung-hwan, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, that since this is the 100th anniversary of Japan’s annexation of Korea, many South Koreans consider it to be a ‘year of humiliation.’ Yu urged caution, noting that emotions were again running high over the territorial issue."

The relationship betweem these two nations is one that will spell out the future of East Asia's relations not only in trade but in cultural respect. It's a relationship that will be worth watching in the coming years, especially as China's economy pulls ahead of Japan's.

News Blast

Déjà vu in Japan’s agricultural policymaking

The Hatoyama administration has approved a fiscal 2010 budget containing ¥561.8 billion in expenditure on a new ‘individual household income compensation system’ (kobetsu shotoku hoshō seido) for farmers, to be launched in April. This income subsidy will compensate farming households for losses incurred as a result of higher production costs and lower market prices. The scheme will begin with a ‘model project’ targeting rice farms nationally.

Google's China exit means Asian success hinges on Korea, Japan

Google Inc.'s looming withdrawal from China adds to pressure to expand in South Korea and Japan, where the Web-search company has won a fraction of the popularity it enjoys in the U.S. and Europe. There is little doubt that Google's Chinese search engine will be shut down after a two-month standoff with Chinese authorities. Efforts to gain traction have paid off for Google elsewhere in Asia, including Japan, where it took the top spot from Yahoo Japan Corp. Google had 48 percent of Web searches in Japan in February, up from 40 percent a year earlier, according to ComScore. Yahoo had 43 percent.

S. Korea, Japan inch closer to shared perception of history

History scholars from South Korea and Japan have wrapped up a 30-month study aimed at reconciling widely differing views of their shared past, producing one modest agreement and reconfirming that the formerly bitter rivals have a long way to go before resolving all points of contention, including Japan's colonization of Korea. Still, the study was significant in that the two sides clearly identified their differences and provided the basis for future discussions that the neighboring nations hope will lead to a joint history textbook, South Korean researchers in the joint committee said Tuesday.

News Blast

Japan PM in a bind as upper house election looms

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, his party flagging in polls ahead of a mid-year election, promised on Monday to find a way to regain public backing but said he was not considering a cabinet reshuffle now. Only one in four voters plan to cast their ballots for his Democratic Party in an upper house election expected in July, a Yomiuri newspaper survey showed on Monday, as funding scandals and doubts about the premier's leadership erode his support.

U.S. sees 'critical role' for Japan on Iran

A top U.S. official said Friday Japan has "a very critical role" to play in international efforts to limit Iran's nuclear ambitions as the West pitches new sanctions against Tehran. Japan -- which relies heavily on Middle Eastern oil and, unlike its chief ally the United States, maintains relatively cordial ties with Iran -- next month takes the rotating chair of the U.N. Security Council.

Korea, Japan to sign e-government deal

Korea is set to export its e-government systems to Japan a hundred years after it was forced to adopt Japan's administrative system and rules under its colonial occupation. Korea and Japan will sign an agreement on e-government cooperation and technological exchange later this month, according to a government source. Korean IT companies have sold electronic government systems to Japan's local governments since 2004, but it will be the first such deal between the central governments of the two countries.

News Blast

L.A.'s Little Tokyo looks to save struggling newspaper

Mickey Komai opens one of the leather-bound books stored in his Little Tokyo office and delicately turns the yellowed pages filled with Japanese and English script. Here in the pages of the bilingual newspaper his family has run for most of a century is the tumultuous story of Japanese Americans in Southern California. The Rafu Shimpo covered acts to ban Japanese from owning land, bringing over brides and eventually immigrating at all. "Why do people hate the Japanese?" the paper plaintively asked in one 1926 issue. The Rafu declared its "100%" allegiance to America after Japan's 1941 Pearl Harbor attack even after its publisher, H.T. Komai, was one of the first Los Angeles Japanese leaders taken into custody by the FBI.

Japan's jobless rate falls, spending increases

Japan's unemployment rate fell for the second straight month in January and household spending posted solid growth despite a decline in wages -- further signs of recovery in the world's second largest economy. The jobless rate fell to 4.9 percent from a revised 5.2 percent in December, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said Tuesday. The result was better than the 5.1 percent expected by economists in a Kyodo News agency survey. "At least in the labor market, the worst is over," said Hideki Matsumura, senior economist at the Japan Research Institute.

Culture Bridges Korea-Japan Relations

Some foreign news outlets have shed light on the alleged bad blood between Koreans and Japanese based on Japan's annexation of Korea a century ago to interpret why Koreans were so attached to the 19-year-old. They said Koreans were overjoyed because Kim outperformed her Japanese rival, Mao Asada. But evidence supports the claim that the "Yu-na fever" has little to do with Koreans' deep-seated nationalistic antagonism against Japan. Some evidence indicates that Korea-Japan relations are improving.

News Blast

Japan eclipses China as top US Treasury holder

China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December, allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government debt, according to Treasury data released Tuesday. China's bond holdings dropped substantially to 755.4 billion dollars in the last month of December from 789.6 billion in November, said the Treasury's international capital data report. Japan's holdings increased to 768.8 billion dollars in December from 757.3 billion dollars in November, according to the data.

South Korea wants Japan to also introduce daylight savings time

South Korea hopes that Japan will join its push to introduce daylight saving time this summer in a move aimed at saving energy, Yonhap News Agency reported Wednesday. "It is true that Japan's stance is one of various factors in deciding whether South Korea will adopt the system," an unidentified official at the presidential office was quoted as saying. South Korea is contemplating whether to set the country's clocks forward an hour in summer, probably from April until September.

Japan's solar power capacity more than doubles in 2009

Solar power capacity in Japan rose to 483,960 kilowatts in 2009, 2.1 times more than the 2008 total, according to the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA). The new total -- based on shipments of solar energy systems -- marked a record jump in the nation's installed solar power base, with the previous highest increase coming in 2005.  

Japan and Friends: Foreign Relations

Senior Fellow at the Japan Center for International Exchange, Hitoshi Tanaka, who spoke at Japan Society on January 14th about changes in Japan's foreign policy, recently published an insightful article on East Asia Forum about the state of the relationship between the United States and Japan entitled The US-Japan alliance: beyond Futenma. Here's a brief exerpt:

"The benefits for Japan are clear. The alliance was conceived during the Cold War as a mechanism to protect Japan from a single looming threat—the Soviet Union—that has since disappeared. However, the end of the Cold War has not eliminated Japan’s need for some sort of deterrence capacity. Nearby countries such as China and Russia have nuclear capabilities and North Korea is developing its capability. Japan cannot ignore this."

Also making an appearance on East Asia Forum's lineup was Tobias Harris of MIT, who we featured in an earlier post, with a piece on Okada Katsuya’s first time visiting South Korea as the foreign minister for meetings with President Lee and other senior officials. Here's a quote from his article, entitled Okada acknowledges past wrongs in Seoul:

"Japan has apologized to South Korea before, and many — not only conservatives — will wonder why Japan has to apologize again. Okada’s remarks provide some hint as to why Japan still has work to do on historical reconciliation. Rarely has a Japanese statesman shown that he is apologizing because he has looked at his country’s behavior through the eyes of its victims and come to appreciate just how destructive Japan’s actions were."