60 And Sitting Pretty: The 'Kanreki' Rebirth

Kitty in vestments. Via.

It’s been said that old age is a kind of second childhood. How about a second spring? Japanese tradition celebrates both of these ideas in the form of a kanreki, or sixtieth birthday.

The kanreki tradition stretches back to Japan’s adoption of the Chinese zodiac calendar and includes its own particular vestments for the occasion. Those lucky enough to reach 60 receive the traditional red cap, chanchanko vest, and seat cushion that mark them as having completed a full cycle of the twelve-pronged zodiac calendar. Achievements are celebrated and a lifetime’s troubles are forgotten as the celebrated individual enters a new stage of life with all the joy and possibilities of a newborn.

The red coloring of the vest and cap (available for humans and felines alike) is intended to promote a spirit of youth (the Japanese word for baby, akachan, is composed of aka, meaning “red,” and -chan, a suffix often used for children). Furthermore, many visitors to Japan can attest to the ubiquitous presence of the red-bibbed ojizosama statues, which are thought to protect the spirits of children.

In the past, reaching kanreki would have signified a person’s transition from a lifetime of gainful employment to comfortable dependence on the eldest son. In the Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, Mary L. Dol describes the tradition:

The 60 year old man “retired” from active work and from the responsibilities of household representation and management. His successor, typically the oldest son, assumed control of the family enterprise and took care of his parents in their old age. The retiree’s wife… passed the rice paddle to her son’s wife to symbolize the transfer of responsibility for the internal management of household affairs.

In reality, many men and women continued to provide some degree of labor in the form of caring for children or carrying out household chores. Even today, a quick drive through the countryside of Japan and many other Asian nations will reveal a large number of spritely, aged individuals looking after gardens and crops.

Though some might think 60 years to be no more than middle aged in a country that boasts the world’s longest life expectancy, it’s important to remember that anything beyond 40 would have been considered long-lived a century ago. We can see this reality in the old Japanese concept of yakudoshi, or "calamitous ages," the most significant of which occurred at the age of 33 for women and 42 for men. The age of 60, on the other hand, was a positive yakudoshi signaling a return to the beginning of the zodiac calendar, and the other yakudoshi of age 70, 77, 87 and 99 would have involved some sort of celebration. One can only wonder how many Japanese men and women have gone on to reach the Dai Kanreki, a sort of kanreki-plus known in Buddhism as the Greater Kanreki.

Tonight Japan Society's Performing Arts Program launches its kanreki season featuring a spate of international cross-cultural collaborations, encompassing beloved encore performances, world and U.S. premieres, legendary performers and emerging artists. With the Program going strong after 60 years and over 600 productions, it looks like the Greater Kanreki is still very much within reach. Whether the caps and chanchanko vests will make an appearance remains to be seen.

-- Andres Oliver (additional research by Matt Jefferis)

Learning Japanese: Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself

Image via "Learning Japanese the Exciting Way". 

Susan Berhane, a senior at Old Dominion University studying international relations, marketing and Japanese, and a summer intern for Japan Society’s Communications Department, reports from her first Japanese language class outside academia. 

When I was asked to observe a Japan Society language class, I was beyond thrilled. I had known about the Society’s Language Center for some time, but because I live out of state it was impossible to attend. Fortunately through Japan Society’s YouTube page, I was able to take part in the unique language learning the Society offers through the online full lessons series and the less formal Waku Waku series.

My thrill dipped into terror however when I discovered my level of Japanese comprehension would be assessed before being placed in a class to observe.

Although I have been studying Japanese for three to four years now, my fear of speaking to adults in Japanese has not subsided. The idea that I would need to speak formal, polite language terrified me. For one thing, keigo--the use of honorific language when speaking Japanese--had not been taught to me. Also, no matter how much I know the vocabulary, grammar and tone to use, the minute I speak in front of a fluent adult, I freeze up. What if I forget a certain term? What if I use casual short form instead of the proper long form? These questions always persisted even though I was at a higher intermediate level.

The minute the evaluation began, my fears disappeared. I was immediately put at ease by Kamimura-sensei, the interim director of the Language Center. Her presence was the opposite of intimidating. She was easy to talk to and made me feel as if we had known each other for some time. She, accompanied with a Language Center instructor, asked me various questions about my Japanese course work and before I knew it I was placed in a class to observe: Level 7!

The day came for class. The classroom was small yet each individual student had a good amount of space. The tables were arranged in a large square, with the front open to the dry-erase board. As I took my seat I saw maybe 13 students of all different ethnicities and ages. I sat beside a young woman who was from Eastern Europe who looked to be no more than 25. She asked me if I was new and we immediately began a nice conversation in Japanese.

I was surprised to learn that she was learning Japanese in hopes to bring her family to Japan from their home country. Apparently her time spent in Japan was impacting enough to inspire total relocation.

There were so many interesting and varied reasons other students were taking classes at Japan Society. One student enjoyed reading Japanese literature and wanted to be able to read in the original Japanese. Another student wanted to watch anime and read manga without subtitles or translations. One even told me they were treated so kindly by a Japanese person that it made them want to be able to show their gratitude in Japanese. After they had learned to do that, they developed a fondness of the language and decided to continue learning.

The age range of the students in class went from 17 to mid 60s. The younger students all had some sort of interest in Japanese general culture and pop culture. The middle aged students were there for work or to further their careers. The older students said they were studying Japanese simply for the sake of learning.

The lesson of the day introduced Japanese honorifics, which is polite Japanese language especially used in business-level Japanese. This was my first real lesson on the subject, and I was slightly overwhelmed, but as the lesson progressed I was able to catch on easily. The instructor’s constant referral back to previous lessons helped connect things, and the pace gave enough time for total comprehension before moving on.

Partner work was vital in helping me understand what I was being taught. After each point the sensei would allow students to practice with each other. This way we were able to develop a rhythm and some form of familiarity with the topic. Afterwards, we would practice out loud, which helped us build confidence in our speaking, and also allowed the students to help each other. It was a very encouraging environment in which teachers and students helped build the confidence level of the class as a whole.

I think another part of what makes this program work so effectively is the nature of the teachers. The instructors at Japan Society are some of the best teachers I have come across while learning Japanese. They are extremely kind with a very nurturing and positive attitude. They allowed students to make mistakes, and then took great care to help them understand the mistake.

My sensei related to the students on many different levels. She taught with references to Japanese popular culture, connected the language with practical situations where it would be of use, and always smiled. Sensei was able to take a difficult subject and make you feel as if you could definitely learn it. “Patience and practice everyone” were her words that gave students constant strength and reassurance.

Though only a class of 13, my sensei was accompanied by an assistant sensei throughout the class. They were a good team, building off of each other and dividing their attention evenly between the students.

A great thing about having two teachers in the class is the ability to hear the current material being used between native speakers. The students were able to get a sense of the tone and speed a native speaker uses, thus giving them better immediate aural comprehension. It was refreshing to receive grammar, vocabulary and listening lessons at once.

Before I knew it class was coming to an end. Two hours had flown by in what felt like 45 minutes. All the students were actively engaged, the atmosphere was warm and friendly, and we left feeling a sense of accomplishment from learning something new.

When I went back and looked at my notes and paper work, we had covered a substantial amount of work. With this being my first class on keigo, the material, although difficult, didn’t seem impossible for me anymore.

As students were leaving, many spoke to both sensei not just about class but about their personal lives, exhibiting a certain familiarity and friendliness. Even though class had ended, the sensei listened attentively to each student on their struggles that week from previous lessons, or their accomplishment at their job. Words of encouragement flowed between student and teacher and any doubts or troubles disappeared. Everyone said their goodbyes and made vows to come back next week with the material learned and ready start anew. I was amazed at how confident everyone had become (including me!) after just one class.

This experience made me yearn to take more classes. I wondered if perhaps with the teaching and encouragement here, my fear of speaking to adults in Japanese would disappear altogether. The opportunity presented itself when sensei and I spoke soon after, and I was able to communicate with an ease I had never experienced before, and even use some things I had learned in class.

バイトがんばるぞ！

--Susan Berhane

The ‘Moe’ You Know: 'three' Opens Figurine Disfiguring Studio To The Public

'Mike' cubicized by the artist collective 'three'.

UPDATE: three's exhibit three is a magic number 7 opened Aug. 27.

The Japanese concept of moe (pronounced MO-EH) is a connection one has with a manga or anime character somewhere between first love, a priest’s eternal devotion and an otaku’s obsessive infatuation. A footnote from the catalogue to Little Boy, Japan Society's massive 2005 exhibition that was wall-to-wall moe, explains that it means "literally, 'bursting into bud'; a rarefied pseudo-love for certain fictional characters and their related embodiments."

Anyone suffering from a deep case of moe might not survive a visit to three’s temporary studios at Japan Society.

JapanCultureNYC described the scene in graphic detail in their recent article about the Fukushima-based artist collective:

One room of Japan Society’s gallery is an organized mess. There are plastic figurines everywhere. Miniature representations of manga, anime, and pop culture icons, five hundred are from Japan, with a small but growing collection from the US. The action figures are waiting to be assembled, photographed, meticulously categorized, unapologetically dismembered, and melted into rectangular “bits.”

When we visited the studios, the dismemberment was well underway, and you could barely make out recognizable figures [figyua in Japanese, a transliteration of "figure"] within the heaps of plastic cartoon and human shaped characters dissembled and spread all over.

But what three lacks of moe’s typical reverence, they more than make up for in obsessive, painstaking devotion. These hundreds of figurines are being melted into cubes of plastic perfection, identifiable only by familiar color schemes and the very occasional flattened body part. As the JapanCultureNYC article noted, three creates “a kind of interactivity between the sculpture and the viewers to see which characters stand out and to capture the reactions.”

This Saturday people will have a chance to meet the artists at a free open studio, and see some of the work-in-progress before 555 sculptures go on display in Japan Society A-Level in late August.

As the artists were rushing to get work done for the open studio, we had the chance to speak with them about their work and also how their first time in America has been. Shy but effortlessly cool and concentrated, the anonymous three artists that comprise three had much to say about their experience.

How did you feel before you came to New York?

It was around 3-4 months before coming to Japan Society when we were officially invited to be a part of the residency. While getting ready, we couldn’t believe we would actually be going to New York and America for the first time. We felt very honored to be a part of the program especially since there are three of us. We have heard it is quite unusual to accept more than one artist at a time. The fact that as a group we could go together really made it hard for us to believe. Our feelings were more disbelief than excitement.

Have you noticed big differences between the Japan and the U.S.?

Through the process of finding animation figures we realized there are certain differences between Japan and [the U.S.]. First of all, their form is totally different. What’s interesting about American figures is that they all have joints to allow people to bend their legs and arms to create their favorite pose. Also, the texture of the American figures are much harder than ones in Tokyo. This makes it easier to bend and position them in the ways you want.

What were some difficulties in finding figurines here?

There were so many different types of figures from the same animated series. It was difficult for us to find standard Spongebob figures for example. There are so many different versions of this one character based on different episodes and special stories. There were so many different types of Spongebobs!

Where did you find the figurines?

We went to Midtown Comics, Forbidden Planet near Union Square, another store around Union Square but we forgot the name (please forgive us). Oh we also went to Toys"R"Us! It was the first store we went to in New York. Amazing and full of toys!

Have you seen any good exhibits or discovered new artists?

We have only been to MoMA so far. We have not had much time to experience anything [besides work]. However we are very excited to do so after the residency!

What do you want people viewing your art to feel?

We want them to feel delight. We want them to have fun thinking what the cubic figure was like before. For the exhibition, we are using a minimalistic approach by getting rid of the wall text descriptions and using QR codes. [People can scan it and see the original figure on their smart phones.] There are also some American figures mixed with the Japanese, so we hope some people can also have an “AHA! I know this” type moment.

Another thing is we want Americans to take note of is the difference between Japanese and American animation. The difference in color (color compression) is quite notable between Japanese and American figures. In Japanese figures the color of skin is dominant. What this means is that most figures are likely to expose their skin more than American figures. Also the Japanese figures that we use are mostly female. Some of their clothing is also removable (and surprisingly they wear underwear). When we melt them down into cubic form, the skin tone is much more prevalent than with melted American figures.

Why do you think Japanese figurines show more flesh?

The purpose of buying figures is different for Japanese and Americans. Let’s just say that the Japanese figure industries produce with moe in mind.

Are you excited about your open studio at Japan Society on July 27th?

It’s quite rare that we "three" interact with people individually because we have been anonymous. This will be our first time to meet with people and discuss our work. We think this is a great opportunity for us to explain our working process and are very nervous but excited.

--Interview by Susan Berhane. Translation assistance by Reika Horii. Special thanks to three and the Japan Society Gallery team for their assistance.

[UPDATED 7/29/13]

Revived Residency Program Sends Ripples Of 'three' In NYC

Detail of three’s Tokyo Electric.

A piece of Japan Society’s history is being restored this summer with the return of the long-dormant artist residency program. Throughout the month of July Japan Society hosts the Japanese artist collective three, which reshapes popular and mass culture into three dimensional sculpture, installations and video.

For much of their craft, three utilizes found plastic materials, from anime and video game figurines to soy sauce containers, to create dynamic, large-scale works of art. Highlighting many of three's recent works, design site Spoon & Tamago noted the social consciousness of their art:

Hailing from Fukushima, the artists were direct victims of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear fallout. In fact, their latest work "Tokyo Electric" was created for the 2nd anniversary of the earthquake. The imposing cubic structure stands over 3 meters high and is built to the same scale of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, explains the artists. It was made from 151,503 soy sauce containers – another symbolic number that happens to represent the number of displaced citizens.

During their residency they will gather materials from around NYC to create new works of art. The public will have an opportunity to visit the group’s onsite studio and see the works in progress and meet the artists on July 27, before the final work is displayed on Japan Society’s A-Level in August and September.

Beginning in the 1950s Japan Society supported a handful of Japanese artists during their influential developmental stages, expanding American understanding of Japanese art and culture and providing an outlet for Japanese artists to hone their talent.

In 1959 one of the first such artists was Munakata Shiko, an illustrious printmaker who produced amazing, expressionistic woodblock prints. A grant from the Rockefeller Foundation allowed Japan Society to sponsor Munakata in the U.S. for six months, during which he gave four exhibitions and twenty lecture-demonstrations, according to the Society’s 1959 annual report. That same year he opened Munakata Shiko Gallery.

When the Japan Society Fellows Program was established in 1965, Kusama Yayoi became another artist supported by the Society. With a four month grant for study, exhibitions and travel, she created some of her iconic infinity series of paintings. In 2012 the Whitney presented a highly acclaimed and broad sweeping retrospective of Kusama’s work.

Japan Society’s Gallery Director, Miwako Tezuka, is passionate about the reappearance of the residency program and its continuation for years to come. “In my own experience,” she says, “any hands extended to help people learn and experience the broader world create ripple effects that can result in amazing accomplishments and lasting influence.”

--Susan Berhane

Choice Cuts: The Bleeding Heart And Soaring Soul Of JAPAN CUTS 2013

AKB48 spreading music and hope in Japan.

While JAPAN CUTS is known for action packed, manga-inspired and genre-twisting blockbusters, especially those co-presented with NYAFF, there is another side to the festival encompassing impacting films that pull at heartstrings with their depth and far reaching soulfulness.

As the New York Times wrote in a feature about the more emotionally harder-hitting films this year:

A well-made bummer can be a beautiful thing, and while many countries have distinguished histories in the genre, none currently outdo Japan when it comes to outdo Japan when it comes to malaise and depression.

One of the more quietly devastating films in the lineup is Japan’s Tragedy. Directed by Masahiro Kobayashi and sharing the concept of the 1953 work of art, A Japanese Tragedy, the film focuses on an elderly father (played by  legendary Akira Kurosawa actor Tatsuya Nakadai), who while pain stricken by the death of his wife must cope with terminal illness. His son, who suffered major losses in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, remains lost emotionally and struggles to aid his father in recovery. Through his own affliction, the father tries to help his son one last time, deciding it best if he were allowed to die.

Shot mostly in black and white, the gravity of the themes and anguish of the characters are palpable and timely. In the tsunami that struck the northeastern Japan, some say “Japan’s elderly were hardest hit by the crisis” and even over two years later are displaced from their homes and not getting the care they need. When BAFICI first screened Japan’s Tragedy, they called the film “a profound analysis of the human condition and its unpredictable derivations” and noted that the titular tragedy is never pinpointed, stressing “the imprecision of that discomfort that afflicts Japan”. This silent yet pertinent theme is beautifully, painfully illuminated in Japan’s Tragedy.



Another powerful story is the documentary Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story. After being exposed to its language, culture, and history by her elementary school teacher, Taylor developed a love for Japan, ultimately taking part in the Japanese government’s Japan Exchange Teaching Programme (JET), which supports non-native Japanese to teach English in Japan. Tragically, Taylor is lost to the tsunami, but her life and legacy--shown through pictures, home videos, and heartwarming personal accounts within the film--offers a sense of hope that can only come by following one’s dreams.

Today the devastation from the tsunami can still be felt by the families of the 19,000 people dead or missing in Tohoku and the hundreds of thousands displaced, many still without permanent homes. Amidst slow recovery there are pleas to not forget those affected and still suffering. Live Your Dream shows us that even through loss, the memories we leave behind can never be forgotten.

For the JAPAN CUTS screening of Live Your Dream Taylor’s father and the documentary’s director will be on hand to introduce the film and take part in a Q&A it afterwards. Knowing many JET participants and hoping to apply for the program in the future, I see this film as a testament to Taylor and her family’s resilience. It’s a very moving portrayal and inspires people that despite everything one should never give up on their dreams.

Touching on similar themes, JAPAN CUTS presents the North American premiere of DOCUMENTARY OF AKB48: Show must go on. Japan’s pop music phenomenon AKB48, which boasts nearly 100 members, finds ways to give back to those in need in the months after 3/11. With some members hailing from Sendai (the largest city in the Tohoku region), the group tours the area and establishes the “A Project for Someone”, where they donate funds to the Tohoku region.

With three of JAPAN CUTS’ 24 feature films this year focusing on 3/11, it is evident the impact the devastation continues to have on Japan, from hardship to hope (related: Japan Society maintains regular updates of the recovery work funded by the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund). These films offer an opportunity to immerse oneself in the heartrending, often painful, but ultimately transforming stories that come from those experiencing and ultimately overcoming tragedy.

--Susan Berhane

Taylor Anderson and friend.

Images: (Top) DOCUMENTARY OF AKB48 No flower without rain © 2012 AKS Inc. / TOHO CO., LTD. / AKIMOTO YASUSHI, Inc. / North River Inc. / NHK Enterprises, Inc.  All Rights Reserved. (Bottom) Live Your Dream: The Taylor Anderson Story © 2012 Global Film Network All rights reserved.

JAPAN CUTS Cool With Hot-Hot Sellers

Helter Skelter hot, yes, but apparently this photo means nothing out of context.

With two weeks left before this year’s JAPAN CUTS film festival heats up midtown east July 11-21, there are already a handful of screenings close to selling out (spoiler alert: they probably will this weekend, so get tix now!) We asked the fest’s curator Samuel Jamier (who also co-curated the New York Asian Film Festival, which launched today), why these films are so hot.

“Of course the opening night screening of I'M FLASH! is not to be missed,” says Jamier. “Not only is it a hard, fast and fantastic gangster thriller, but festival fave director Toshiaki Toyoda will be on hand to talk about his latest UFO (Unidentified Film Objects, as I call his brand of cinema), and it is followed by one of our legendary Sapporo-sponsored after parties. The theme is bordello, and the dress is 'flashy'. Just no flashers, please.”

Helter Skelter (pictured above) is hot. “Like HOT hot,” says Jamier. “And it also contains one of the sexiest psychotic breakdowns captured on film.” The 'plastic surgery horror movie' follows a youth-obsessed, Gaga-esque pop star’s descent into hell. Apparently, a hot-hot hell.

Japan's number one box office hit of the year Rurouni Kenshin, getting its U.S. premiere screening as part of JAPAN CUTS and NYAFF, is based on manga that has sold 55 million copies and spawned several popular animated adaptations. “They couldn’t have missed if they tried,” says Jameir. “And boy didn’t they. Miss that is. It is pure manga sword-swinging bad-assery with girls in kimono. Period.”

Another near sellout is Yuichi Fukuda’s off-the-wall Hentai Kamen--a topsy-pervy twist (hentai basically means “pervert” or “perverted” in Japanese) to the superhero genre about a man who gains special powers when donning ladies underthings. The trailer alone received over 50,000 views in the first five days after it was uploaded to YouTube. When asked why, Jamier just shook his head baffled. “Because crotch jockeying action heroes is the genre we need?”

Here’s the trailer. Some might find it NSFW, but if that’s the case, you probably need to get a job somewhere with a sense of humor. Silly, earnest, epic. Enjoy!

Koji: Mother of Japan’s Miracle Marinade

No amount of Photoshop can mask the ick-factor of raw shio-koji. Via.

Raw koji looks grotesque and has an odor of vaguely “sweet smelling socks”, according to the Los Angeles Times. Despite its superficial unpleasantness, the taste and usefulness surprises and delights.

What is koji exactly? It is a mold (Aspergillus oryzae, Japan’s national fungus), which is used to ferment rice to create items such as miso, sake, soy sauce, mirin, shōchū, and rice vinegar--all staples of Japanese cuisine.

These items come from kome koji (literally “rice koji”), in which the rice starches are broken down into sugar (a process known as saccharification), releasing fatty and amino acids.

Adding sea salt (shio) or soy sauce (shoyu) to the mix before alcohol begins to form creates what the LA Times calls a “miracle condiment”. Shio- and shoyu-koji are used to bring out the natural salt flavor in food without using as much salt, while keeping a hint of sweetness from the sugar within. The result is pure umami--a burst of savory, sweet deliciousness in every bite.

The health benefits of koji are numerous and the taste that accompanies it is an even bigger bonus. It can be used as a marinade for meats, fishes, and vegetables and also a total replacement for salt. Easy to make while enhancing the natural umami flavor, it’s no wonder that koji is now making its way into global pantries, especially in the United States.

While the koji demonstration and tasting at Japan Society tonight is sold out, there are many simple and delicious ways to use koji at home. Chopsticks New York has a handy instructional on how to make shio-koji, and the San Francisco Chronicle recently ran several shio-koji recipes, including Sauteed Lemon-Koji Asparagus, Grilled Koji-Marinated Hokkaido Squid With Ponzu Mayonnaise, and Koji Shira-ae With Favas and Tomatoes.

Itadakimasu!

--Susan Berhane

Taiko Vs. Shamisen: Ancient Instruments Intertwine In Performance First

Kenny Endo (left) rehearses with Agatsuma before the big concert.

Tonight two masters of modernizing ancient Japanese instruments while retaining their classic vitality converge on stage for the first time ever.

Kenny Endo is a legendary contemporary percussion and rhythm artist. Over his forty year career, he has taken the genre of taiko (traditional Japanese drums) to new heights, blending classical elements with global rhythms and original melodies and improvisations. 

Endo warming up his skins. "Taiko" is Japanese for “fat drum” (although the drums vary in size) and usually played in a set called kumi daiko.

Hailing from Hawaii, where he has his own "Kenny Endo Day" as proclaimed by the Mayor of Honolulu, Endo originally trained as a jazz musician in California. He honed his taiko skills at the renowned San Francisco Taiko Dojo, then embarked on a decade-long odyssey through his ancestral Japan in the 80s, studying and performing with the masters of ancient techniques. He has recorded and performed around the world and has the honor of being the first non-Japanese national to have received a natori (stage name and masters degree) in hogaku hayashi (classical drumming).

Hiromitsu Agatsuma is a young and boundary busting virtuoso on the shamisen, a three-stringed banjo-like Japanese instrument performed with an aggressive style developed over centuries in northern Japan. He has been playing the instrument since he was a child, winning his first major competition at 14. After garnering much acclaim in the traditional Japanese music world, Agatsuma began infusing other instruments with beat-driven rock, attracting young and enthusiastic audiences.

Since his U.S. debut at Japan Society in 2003, Agatsuma has toured the world extensively. Like Endo, he explores traditional aspects of his instrument, while constantly experimenting with sound and incorporating diverse musical genres.

Performing together for the first time tonight at Japan Society, these two greats promise music magic, combining classical Japanese sounds with a 21st century feel.

If you cannot make it, check out this exclusive Spotify playlist or see more pictures from the historic rehearsal.

--Susan Berhane

Endo gets some shamisen tips from Agatsuma.

Japan News Roundup: Elections This Weekend, N. Korea's 'Sucessful' Launch, Japanese World's Healthiest People

N. Korea's missel trajectory over Okinawa. Via.

• “Japan's voters go to the polls on Sunday in elections that look set to deliver a painful setback to the governing Democratic Party of Japan, only three years after it ended decades of nearly unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party” (BBC). Some call it “one of the most complex and confusing general elections in the country's history” (NBC), in which “a circus-like myriad of parties spans a spectrum of views from the super-patriotic, calling for a more hawkish Japan, to those linked to the grass-roots movement demanding an end to nuclear power, a call that has grown following the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant meltdowns last year” (AP). Though “voters appear more disenchanted with all parties” (Economist), the most important issue for all seems to be “how to jolt Japan out of its 20-year economic slump” (AP).

The Washington Post explains Japan’s election process: “The election is largely local, with the country divided into 300 constituencies and voters in each district selecting their preferred candidate. The remaining 180 seats are filled proportionally, based on each party’s share of the vote. The party that controls the lower house — the more powerful of the chambers in Japanese legislature, called the Diet— then installs its party president as prime minister.”

Ahead of elections, citizens from areas ravaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami ask for leaders to “put together a faster and more robust reconstruction effort” (Kyodo News). “According to government figures more than 320,000 people remain in temporary housing across the affected region” and a recent report said “of the nearly 24,000 housing units set to be constructed in three prefectures, only roughly 13,700 will be completed by March of 2015. That's four years after the tsunami hit” (CNN).

Complicating matters for candidates, self-censorship on Twitter and other social media platforms “stems from a 1950 law that lays out—in great detail—what candidates for public office can and can't do in the official campaign period before election day” (WSJ), though ‘rad’ manga campaign posters offer a solution (Kotaku). Among the many candidates are a sprightly 94-year-old (Yahoo), a vocal environmentalist (Deutsche Welle), and ‘flamboyant’ fringe politician Shintaro Ishihara, who once opposed diplomatic ties with China in a pact signed in blood, and who “published a book at the height of Japan’s economic power that lectured his countrymen on the need to end what he considered its postwar servility to the United States” (NYT).

• Days after announcing a delay, North Korea fired a long-range rocket (TIME):

The launch, which allowed Pyongyang to test its ballistic-missile capability in defiance of U.N. restrictions, angered the U.S. and its Northeast Asian allies. The White House called the launch “a highly provocative act that threatens regional security.” South Korea Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan called the launch “a threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula and around the world,” the Yonhap News Agency reported, while Japan called it “intolerable.” The U.N. Security Council passed resolutions banning North Korea from such launches after its nuclear tests in 2006 and ’09.

Considered a 'success' by North Korea, the launch sent the missile over Okinawa into sea (Japan Times). A chronology of North Korea's missile programs (AP).

• Japan scrambled jets to intercept a Chinese military surveillance plane over the disputed islands in what the ministry is calling the “first known violation of Japanese airspace by a Chinese plane since it began keeping records about 50 years ago” (NYT). The U.S. is eager to stay out of the dispute, even as it “sends aircraft carriers to reassure its allies and develops an ‘AirSea Battle’ doctrine aimed at defeating China” (AOL):

"We don't take sides anywhere in the world on these things," said Pacific Command chief Adm. Samuel Locklear, repeating the administration's mantra in a talk to the Asia Society during his visit to Washington last week. That said, he went on, "I don't think these [conflicts] are going to go away, and we have to figure out how to get through them without miscalculation, without bringing warships and warplanes in."

• “As Japan gropes for a way to deal with its problems—a prolonged recession, a leaderless political system, the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and a rapidly aging population that the economy struggles to support—the photographer Shiho Fukada has been looking at the symbiotic relationship between Japan’s current political turmoil and its unemployment crisis.” (New Yorker)

• “No one knows whether it’s their great diet, good health care or just great genes, but after two decades Japanese citizens are still the healthiest people in the world, according to a decades-long study on population health published today.” (ABC)

• After pleading guilty, Okinawan authorities sentenced U.S. marine to four years in prison for molesting and assaulting a woman in August. (Kyodo)

“The U.S. Navy in Japan says it will ease one of its new behavioral restrictions Wednesday, letting sailors once again drink alcohol at home after 10 p.m…. Sailors are still prohibited from consuming alcohol outside their private residences or off-installation between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., regardless of leave or liberty status.” (Stars and Stripes)

• A 1400 year-old warrior was found still wearing his armor during an archaeological at the ‘Pompeii of Japan’. (io9)

• “How Japan's murky underworld became the patron and power broker of the ruling party that intended to clean up politics.” (Foreign Policy)

• Huffington Post will partner with Japan’s major newspaper Asahi Shimbun to launch its first effort in Asia. (AllThingsD)

• Oscar-winning Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's (Spirited Away, Ponyo) is working on his first film in five years. Based on one of Japan’s oldest novels, Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), the film will be released in 2013. (Telegraph)

• With artists as teachers and fans as students (and an industry that generates 400 billion yen per year domestically), manga studies become more prominent in Japanese colleges. (Yomiuri)

• Though lessons “are potentially quite thorny”, the Washington Post asks what the U.S. can learn about gun control from Japan, which had 11 gun-related murders in 2008 when America had over 12,000.

• Why the ‘Fukushima 50’—actually hundreds of workers who stayed at the crippled nuclear power plant to bring the reactors under control—remain largely unknown. (BBC)

• Scientists believe Japan's samurai caste may have been toppled by women’s makeup.

• Actor Jeremy Irons speaks out for the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, a Japanese boxer on death row for 44 years. (The Guardian)

• “Gold” chosen as 2012’s Kanji of the Year; runners up were were “ring” and “island.” (WSJ)

• “The average score of Japanese elementary school students in global achievement tests in mathematics and science last year showed a marked rise from the previous survey in 2007.” (Japan Times)

• “Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae visited the National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism on Nov. 21, within one week of his arrival in Washington, D.C. He paid his respects to the Nisei who died in U.S. military service during World War II and to the 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated in internment camps.” (Rafu Shimpo)

• “Japan's mythological account of the world on the brink of annihilation is in a class by itself. Other stories of its kind are tragic, terrifying. Japan's is comic, even bawdy.”

• The Guardian caught up with Mariko Mori just before her exhibition Rebirth opened at the Royal Academy. ArtInfo has a slideshow.

• Tis the season: Japan’s snow monkeys head to the onsen. (Windsor Star)

--SJ

UPDATED: 12/17/12

Japan News Roundup: North Korea Missile Launch, Election's 'Third Force', Japan’s Only Male Geisha, Kobe Luminaire

Kobe Luminaire commemorating victims of the 1995 earthquake. Via.

• A major tunnel collapse near Mt. Fuji saw “about 270 concrete slabs each weighing 1.4 tons fall and cause the deaths of nine people” (BusinessWeek), after which "Japanese officials ordered the immediate inspection of tunnels across the country” (WSJ). BBC recaps reports from major Japanese media, with Yomirui writing the tunnel "has been inspected every five years” and officials saying “'no problem was found with the ceiling panels' during the last inspection between September and October.”

• Campaigning kicked off this week in “nuclear crisis–hit Fukushima, where more than 100,000 people remain displaced from their homes" (AP). With with polls showing more than 40 percent of voters are undecided, the Wall Street Journal gave a rundown of the political players, and, in separate article noted "a record number of parties—12 in total—are expected to register more than 1,400 candidates to compete for the 480 seats in the lower house" with 'third force' minority parties possibly tipping support from the larger conservative LDP and democratic DPJ parties. The nationalistic impetus of some popular candidates “could give not only Asian neighbors but also Washington cause for concern” (Reuters).

• In addition to the economy, a major platform this election is energy. The ruling party wants to “end Japan’s reliance on nuclear power by the 2030s, using a combination of energy conservation, a shift to renewable energy sources and greater use of cogeneration, which captures heat emitted as a byproduct of electricity generation.” The country is also "pushing ahead with ambitious smart city plans." (Financial Times)

• A 7.3 earthquake struck northeastern Japan--an area still recovering from 2011--injuring several people and “generating small waves but no immediate reports of heavy damage.” (L.A. Times)

• “North Korea is proceeding with plans to test a long-range rocket this month in defiance of international condemnation that included Japanese warnings to shoot it down if necessary" (BW). Japan issued a shoot-down order and “called for close cooperation with the U.S., China, South Korea and Russia in preparation (WSJ). The U.S. Navy began moving ships into the western Pacific in preparation for the planned launch of a long-range rocket by North Korea (SCMP).

• The Senate unanimously amended the 2013 Defense Authorization Bill, committing the U.S. "to defend Japan should the Senkaku Islands come under attack by a third country" (Washington Times). Noting the “Chinese navy and military presence is expanding day by day” around the islands, the Globe and Mail bigs a bird’s eye view of the proverbial chess game unfolding:

The Japanese surveillance plane is an hour into its flight when it spots the first Chinese flags of the day… [the] craft are mere pawns, pushing forth in groups to test the response from the Japanese side as Beijing tries to assert its claim to a quintet of islands, and their surrounding waters, that Japan has controlled for decades. Later that day, the rooks and knights appear – China Marine Surveillance craft, sent nearly every day to police the area as if it were Beijing’s to patrol. They are cautiously matched ship for ship by boats from the Japan Coast Guard, the two sides often closing to within 100 metres of each other but never – yet – colliding.”

• U.S. Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka and Representative Colleen discussed why remembering Pearl Harbor matters 71 years later. (Morning Sun)

• "Japan wants to encourage the world’s two biggest emitters [China and the U.S.] to take part in a global climate-protection system that would be agreed to before 2015 and to include both developing and industrialized nations… The nation will pursue voluntary policies rather than binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol beginning in 2013." (Bloomberg News)

• An essay debate wages over at Council on Foreign Relations: Is Japan in decline?

• "For years Yoshinori Watanabe (aka ‘Mr. Gorilla’) ran Japan’s most powerful and successful yakuza group. Jake Adelstein on his mysterious death over the weekend—and his legacy of modern and ruthless management of the crime syndicate." (Daily Beast)

• Helping to bring kabuki to contemporary audiences around the world, actor Nakamura Kanzaburo died this week at age 57. His 100-strong all-male company Heisei Nakamuraza troupe is “noted for productions that respect kabuki's centuries-old heritage yet burst with contemporary energy and humor that are evocative of the early days of kabuki theater in the 17th century.” (Japan Times)

• With the passing of jazz legend Dave Bruebeck, some pick his "Jazz Impressions of Japan" as a top album--"a kind of musical journal of the Dave Brubeck Quartet's tour of Japan"

• “Eitaro is Japan’s only male geisha who performs in the role as a female dancer. He is the master of an ‘okiya,’ a geisha house in Tokyo’s Omori port district.” The articlenotes: “In modern Japan, geisha performers have become a rarity… One hundred years ago, there were over 80,000 geisha in Japan. Today the number of working geisha is estimated to be around 1,000.” (Daily Mail)

• Fast Company posted some incredible images from MoMA's Rise of Tokyo Avant-Garde exhibition, noting "the show has an auspicious (and telling) relationship to the architecture housing it, designed by Yoshio Taniguchi, an architect who came of age in Tokyo during the same period. Taniguchi’s restrained white walls couldn’t be more different than the sometimes frightening surrealism and utopian fervor of his one-time peers." The Wall Street Journal shared highlights of some 70 Japanese films of the period screening in conjunction with the exhibition.

• Winner and runners up from this year’s annual Japanese mascot Grand Prix. “6,500,000 votes were cast to rank the 865 official mascots who entered." (RocketNews24)

• The Kobe Luminarie is under way--a 12-day light festival that commemorates victims of the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 (BesuDesu). More images from Getty Images here.

• From bottles to boxes: how to giftwrap Japan-style. (ChopsticksNY)

--SJ