Tom Jacobsen writes about a often misunderstood issue in Japan: 

“Millions of young men live their lives entirely on the Internet, unable to leave the house, in fear of human contact. In response to this troubled niche, an entertainment company has come up with a possible cure. Videos of girls that stare into the camera…. and occasionally say good morning…

A “Hikikomori“, according to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, is “an individual who refuses to leave their parents’ house, and isolates themselves away from society in their homes for a period exceeding six months”. It’s hard to estimate how many have fallen prey to this anti-social depression, but some estimate it at around one million in Japan alone.

Avex, one of the largest independent entertainment-related subsidiaries in Japan, has managed to come up with a product for the unusual audience. They believe the “Just Looking” collection, will help those “young males who aren’t used to socializing with women (…) become more accustomed to making eye contact and/or handle the fact that a sentient being sits across from them and awaits interaction.” A former sufferer tells us whether he thinks it will work, and how he escaped the solitude of a hikikomori lifestyle.

Despite the apparent lack of activity during the running time, the videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times since they were posted at the end of May. The full collection of 50 is available on Avex’s website. There are a variety of models, including twins and an elderly woman.”

View the original post and comments here.

An interesting discussion on why foreigners have bipolar views of Japan:

“Living here in Japan has really opened my eyes to the hearts and minds of the minorities here in Japan (myself included), and the immigrants back home in the States.

Before living here in Japan, I would from time to time make a wise crack or two about certain minorities back home due to how they always “stuck together” and always spoke their foreign language in the presence of “us Americans”. “How rude of them to speak that language so loud in public when we can’t understand”, I remember myself saying to my friend in that grocery store line not too long ago. Now I am in the “ethnic minority” category, and I find myself doing the exact same type of things that those minorities were doing in the U.S. which annoyed me and my friends so.

When I realized this, I felt terrible, and decided to alter my thinking to a more proactive and positive disposition. Only through blood and sweat can one realize fluency in reading, writing, and speaking Japanese. Once one has come to terms with this unalterable reality, then half the battle is won. Effective communication in all its forms within the Japanese construct is the only key for 99% of those who strive for a fruitful life here.”

Join the discussion here!

Here is an interesting and problematic read on Japan’s Koseki System:

“This may be common knowledge, but it wasn’t for me (admittedly due to my own failure to properly research the issues), the lesson being that you should never take anything for granted — not even something as simple as your child’s last name.

My wife and I have separate last names; she kept her maiden name when we married. Yesterday, we took the Notification of Birth form for our recently-born daughter to the city hall to file it. Naturally assuming that our daughter would take on my last name, we filled it out with my last name and her chosen name. Fifteen minutes later, we were waved over to be told that because my wife’s maiden name is still on her koseki — and as we all know, my name is just a footnote on her koseki — we cannot use my last name, and our daughter would have my wife’s last name. The only way around this is to have my wife file for a change of name at court, whereupon her name will officially be changed to mine, and thus our daughter will be able to take on my last name.

While it’s a quick fix for the time being, the horrendous legal and familial limitations put on foreigners by the koseki system finally really hit home. I’ve never felt my existence was negated quite so much as the instant where we were informed of this rule. I guess I’m just offering this anecdote as a warning to people considering marrying/having children because this is what you will face if you opt to go with different last names, and as an example of why the koseki system needs a serious overhaul, particularly with respect to foreigners.” 

Read the rest of the story here.

Additional information on the Koseki System.

     Japan Times: Foreigners will have a much better opportunity to move to, or continue to live in, Japan under a new immigration plan drafted by Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers to accept 10 million immigrants in the next 50 years.

      ”The plan means (some politicians) are seriously thinking about Japan’s future,” said Debito Arudou, who is originally from the United States but has lived in Japan for 20 years and became a naturalized citizen in 2000. “While it is no surprise by global standards, it is a surprisingly big step forward for Japan.”

     The group of some 80 lawmakers, led by former LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa, finalized the plan on June 12 and aims to submit it to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda later this week.

The plan is “the most effective way to counter the labor shortage Japan is doomed to face amid a decreasing number of children,” Nakagawa said…

However, the immigration plan calls for the goal to be achieved soon and for the government to aim for 1 million foreign students by 2025. It also proposes accepting an annual 1,000 asylum seekers and other people who need protection for humanitarian reasons…

Arudou, a foreigners’ rights activist, noted the importance of establishing a legal basis for specifically banning discrimination against non-Japanese.

“Founding a legal basis is important because people do not become open just because the government opens the door,” he said…

But wait, there’s even more to this excellent article here.

Here is the link to the Japanese Immigration page.

Below is additional information on Captain Tomoaki Iishiba the Army 0-3 Indicted for Military Tech Export:

Lt. Tomoaki Iishiba is something of a celebrity among the Japanese troops he’s working with here in Sendai.

A policeman’s son who grew up in Tokyo, he left his native country in 1993 and moved to the United States to pursue his dream of becoming a soldier.

He wrote a book about his experiences in Afghanistan as an infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division. It speaks directly to the kind of guys he’s working with now as an I Corps intelligence liaison to Japan’s Northeastern Army at Yama Sakura.

Some of them come up to him “two or three times a day” and ask for his autograph, he said.

Iishiba said his book, “A Japanese Lieutenant from the 82nd Airborne,” appeals to Japan’s young soldiers who, like him, feel stymied by its pacifist constitution.

In deploying to Afghanistan to fight his adopted nation’s enemies, he did what his former countrymen cannot.

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Are you an English teacher with a  year or two left on your working visa, a USGOV civil servant looking for a change, or a US military veteran overseas looking for employment that counts towards retirement? Maybe you are just looking for a change, wondering how life in Japan is under SOFA status, or just want benefits. At any rate, check out the job announcement below:

ESL INSTRUCTOR, YA-1701-02 / SALARY: $39,407 – $89,217 PER ANNUM 

OPEN DATE: 07-03-08 / CLOSING DATE: 08-01-08 

LOCATION: US NAVAL SRF & JRMC, YOKOSUKA, ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT, LANGUAGE TRAINING DIVISION 

DUTIES:

1. Prepares daily lesson plans using programs of instruction and instructor texts/guides which prescribe course and unit objectives. 
2. Incorporates varied text coverage and specialized training aids and materials such as: reading, writing, speaking and grammatical skills development, daily language laboratory exercises, and computer-assisted language learning. 
3. Identifies daily classroom activities consistent with the objectives of the program of instruction to be taught. 
4. Develops quizzes and ad-hoc tests as needed, administers tests, and records student progress.
5. Provides employees with a basic working knowledge of English to enable them to use technical manuals, job orders, and other materials written in English, and more importantly, to understand and follow orders and directions given in English. 
6. Emphasizes clarity and continuity in classroom instruction. 
7. Controls the decorum of classroom, acting upon routine instances of distraction or disturbances, referring repetitive disciplinary situations to the supervisor. 
8. Motivates students to maintain interest and obtain participation. 
9. Counsels students in areas of performance, deportment, attitudes, and participation.

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Received this from Lord Phat, our resident Chinese linguist and MIT Sloan School of Management graduate that has lived and worked in China:

“I originally got this from the webmaster of Afroshanghai.com. It is from the South China Post, a reputable Hong Kong based newspaper. The webmaster is asking the Africans living in Beijing to confirm this and if it is completely true it is very disturbing.” Read below. 

“Authorities order bars not to serve black people” reported 18 July 2008 in the South China Morning Post by
Tom Miller

In our series looking at preparations for the Games, Tom Miller reports on plans to crack down on “undesirables” in the bars of Beijing

Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city’s bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, “One World, One Dream”.

Bar owners near the Workers’ Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises. Read the rest of this entry »

Kikiandlala posted the following comment regarding netto cafes:

“The following article talks about temp workers using net cafes as a living space. They didn’t have it before, but these cafes are starting to have P.O. boxes for those who need to give an address for potential employers.

BT reader, Kikiandlala, informed me that the The Japan Times reported:

” U.S. federal prosecutors have charged a former Japanese citizen who is now a captain in the U.S. Army with conspiring to export military equipment to Japan without obtaining U.S. government approval.

Capt. Tomoaki Iishiba, 34, who served as an intelligence liaison officer at Fort Lewis in Washington state, allegedly conspired with a partner from around 2006 through last February to purchase night-vision sights and gun parts from a firm in Illinois and export them without a license to Japan. 

“Iishiba committed numerous overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy, including purchasing 60 EoTech 553 sights from a business known as Optics Planet, and mailing the sights to coconspirators in Japan without first obtaining an export license. All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371,” according to the indictment.

The prosecutors filed the indictment with the U.S. District Court in Seattle on July 16.

The names of the importers in Japan were not disclosed.

Iishiba, who left Japan in 1993, joined the U.S. Army after graduating from college and obtaining U.S. citizenship.

Iishiba, who participated in military operations against Taliban militiamen in Afghanistan as a member of an army airborne unit, wrote a book titled “A Japanese Lieutenant from the 82nd Airborne” in 2005. In 2007, he wrote a book on the M-4 carbine rifle used by U.S. forces.” LOS ANGELES (Kyodo)

The link to the story is here.

Zurui’s comments: It is possible that the night vision googles and gun parts could have ended up on the streets of Japan, in some foreign country that desires or seeks to improve existing military technology, or even in the hands of terrorists.

It is often said that Japan is safe due to the lack of guns on the streets. Japan has also said that it takes the higher “moral” ground by not manufacturing guns. However, in reality the fact is that Japan actually conducts a thriving small arms export trade. Read the rest of this entry »

Sista in Tokyo recently posted:

“Where Can I Have My Hair Done in Tokyo?”– Braids

Today is a national holiday in Japan, Marine Day I do believe. My husband and I spent yesterday and today at the beach in Onjuku. He surfs and I simply go in and out of the water or watch him catch waves. One day soon I plan to hop on the board along with him… Having braids make going to the beach and spending all day in the water a wonderful thing.

I initially came to Japan (Sendai, remember?) and I rocked a natural twisted out afro for a few months. Until things began to break off whenever I so much as ran my fingers through my hair. Some say it’s the water, shampoo, conditioner, humidity, some say it’s the change of environment, diet, etc. that one goes through when living in a new country and I say it’s all of the above. Whatever the cause, a sista had to do something about her constantly dry hair and breakage (and I tried everything!).

Read the rest here!

The Tokyo High Court yesterday ordered the government to pay approximately 194 million yen in compensation for noise damage to residents living in the vicinity of the U.S. Air Force’s Yokota base located across Fussa and other municipalities in Tokyo. A group of some 260 residents living near the base filed a class action lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court at its Hachioji branch against the state, seeking to suspend U.S. military aircraft’s late night and early morning flights and to pay compensation for noise damage. The Tokyo District Court’s Hachioji branch ordered the government to pay about 160 million in compensation for noise damage in the past. The Tokyo High Court rectified this court ruling of first instance. The high court upheld the district court’s ruling that turned down the plaintiffs’ demand for flight suspension and future damages.

Presiding Judge Hidetoshi Munemiya acknowledged the residents’ right to claim for damages, noting that the noise damage is beyond the limits of tolerance and is unlawful. The high court ruling added about 34 million yen for noise damage during the period of time from the first instance trial’s conclusion through the second instance trial’s conclusion.

The high court ruling confirmed the district court’s decision to dismiss the plaintiffs’ appeal for flight suspension, stating that the U.S. military has base operational authority and it is inappropriate to demand state action for suspending U.S. military operations that are beyond the scope of Japan’s claim.  

TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 27) (Abridged); July 18, 2008

Could rising prices kick-start the world’s second-largest economy?

Talk to almost any Japanese consumer, and you’re likely to hear a litany of complaints about skyrocketing food and energy prices. Though such bellyaching might be common enough in other parts of the world, in Japan rising prices are something altogether new after a decade-long struggle with deflation.

So why, then, do some economists think a shift to inflation could boost Japan’s economy? At first glance, the idea might seem far-fetched. The Japanese consumer is now paying nearly $1.70 a liter ($6.40 a gallon) for gasoline and has seen prices for staples such as soy sauce and bread go up 10% to 30% since last year. You would think people would be cutting back on spending.

But economists who see benefits in rising prices for Japan base their prediction on consumer expectations. When the country was struggling with deflation, consumers assumed prices would continue to fall. So they squirreled away cash and put off buying a new car or washing machine in anticipation of lower prices to come. Now that prices are going up, consumers might take the opposite tack, since they could end up paying more the longer they wait to buy something. “Inflation is Japan’s dream come true,” says Jesper Koll, an economist and CEO of Tantallon Research Japan.

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 Black Tokyo Hiroko Mima Tribute: Play Now | Play in Popup | Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Omedeto to Hiroko Mima, Miss Japan 2008 for making it into the 2008 Miss Universe Final 15. She did a great job representing her country. She should serve as an inspiration to women here to be confident, get a degree, and to work to make their dreams become reality. 

Click here to read the Hiroko Mima interview. Enjoy the video tribute!

Oh yeah, a big shout out to Miss USA, Crystle Stewart of Texas and to Miss Denmark for rockin’ the ‘fro!

Courtesy of Japan, Inc. Magazine, Terrie Lloyd reports the following scoop:

” It is common knowledge in the expat community that the three Oji Real Estate condominium complexes in Minami-Aoyama:  Oji Palace, Oji Homes, and Oji Green Hills are extremely popular with out-of-town CEOs and their young families. Oji Homes in particular draws a long waiting list of young families thanks to its 20m outdoor swimming pool and it’s convenient location right in the middle of fashionable Omote Sando. There are approximately 20 apartments in that complex, and over the last 25 years, we imagine that more than 200 families have lived there.

That’s 500+ tenants who rented their luxury apartments in the knowledge that they had a rock-solid landlord and the building was safe — or so they thought.” Read the rest of this entry »