JAPANTODAY’S PREMIER ENGLISH DIGITAL WEEKLY MAGAZINE ISSUE 07 / VOLUME 01 / SEPTEMBER 2012

OPINION Roles of wives in politics, Japanese rice, and Japan’s Nuclear issues

ENTERTAINMENT Zombies, mutants, the paranormal and Jammin’ for ‘Q’

TORO: DIGGING INTO JAPAN’S ANCIENT PAST

Step back in time to a Yayoi period farm village in Shizuoka.

Read the review on INSIGHT: TRAVEL

TRAVEL

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Editor in ChiefChris Betros

Art Director/DesignerThong Van

ContributorsVicki L. BeyerJohn MatthewsMakoto RexrodeJustin Velgus

Account ManagersKieron CashellPeter Lackner

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Schools and Family NewsTokyo International School (TIS)

Health and BeautyTsuruki Mita Clinic

Hotels and Japanese InnsANA InterContinental TokyoHotel Okura TokyoOriental Hotel HiroshimaThe Peninsula Tokyo

Outdoors and SportsTokyo Sail and Power Squadron (TSPS)Tsutsujigaoka Country Club

Restaurants and BarsBulldog BBQHei Fung TerraceKimono Wine and GrillPeterSuji’sThe Irish TimesWhat The Dickens!

Professional OrganisationsItalian Chamber of Commerce in JapanLanguage Teaching ProfessionalsThe British Chamber of Commerce in Japan

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TRAVEL TORO: DIGGING INTO JAPAN’S ANCIENT PASTBY VICKI L. BEYER

The word archeology makes most of us think of dusty digs in the Middle East or the adventures of Indiana Jones, but there’s plenty of archeological history available in Japan, too.The Toro site in the city of Shizuoka is a fine example of a Yayoi period (300 BC to 300 AD) farm village. During the Yayoi period people living in Japan shifted from hunting/gathering to cultivating crops and storing food, making it a significant period developmentally.

First uncovered in 1943, during excavations for the purpose of constructing a munitions plant, the current site is 33 hectares and contains the remains of several pit houses, as well as several reconstructed pit houses and a number of paddy fields. There is an excellent museum on the edge of the site as well.

Toro is actually the first Yayoi period site in Japan where the remains of paddy fields were discovered. Inside the museum is a display of the wooden palings that enabled the archeologists

to determine that what they had found was in fact paddy fields, as well as to carbon date the site. Also on display are tools and other artifacts recovered at the site, as well as a documentary film and other information on how the digs of the site have been conducted and what has been learned about the lives of the people of the period. Many of the tools are made of iron or bronze; the Yayoi period is regarded as Japan’s Iron Age.

The ground floor of the museum includes an interactive area where children can enter replica houses and storage huts and try their hand at planting rice, chopping wood, weaving cloth and even playing the musical instruments of the day. Even for adults this area can be an interesting one.

On a clear day, Mt. Fuji can be seen from the roof-top observation platform of the museum, which also affords a bird’s eye view of the entire Toro site. It is interesting to think that during the Yayoi period, Mt. Fuji’s famous silhouette would not have been visible to the villagers, simply because it wasn’t there yet.

In the village area of the site, many ring-shaped mounds can be seen, the excavated foundations of pit houses. A few pit

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houses have been reconstructed on their original foundations, along with some of the storehouses. It’s interesting to note that the roofs of the storehouses are peaked in a way that is similar to that of many thatched structures of southeast Asia. Many archeologists theorize that the Japanese of today migrated from southeast Asia to the Japanese archipelago and slowly supplanted the indigenous Ainu people.

While it’s not possible to enter the storehouse, the houses can be entered. Every morning in the summer, each house is filled with smoke using ancient methods as a means to keep mosquitoes and vermin at bay.

On week-ends, volunteers in traditional Yayoi period clothing also demonstrate how to light a fire (similar to the way children in Scouts are taught) and how rice was cooked, as well as providing detailed explanations of what is known—and not known—about the lives of the people of the village. For instance, while much is known about their agrarian practices, the arrangements of their houses and the tools they used, and it is believed they had domesticated chickens, it is not clear whether they had domesticated pigs or whether they simply captured the local wild boar from time to time

and fattened them for slaughter. It is interesting to note that while the floors of most of the pit houses seem damp, the floor of the one house where rice is cooked regularly is hard and dry. This phenomena makes it easier to understand how and why the “pit” architecture was effective in its time.

Visitors can also wander among the 30 excavated and restored paddy fields, some of which are actually hand planted with rice every spring by volunteers and local school children. A number of the water canals that carried water through the site and into the paddies have also been restored and run with water most of the year. The sites of two wells have also been excavated.

General InformationSite admission: FreeMuseum admission: ¥200

The museum is open from 9 am to 4:30 am every day except Mondays and the year-end holidays.

Getting there:Bus #22 outside the south exit of Shizuoka Station terminates at “Toro Iseki”, about a 20 minute ride.

By car – from the Shizuoka exit of the Tomei Expressway, turn right and follow the signs for “Toro Ruins”; about 5 minutes.

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ENTERTAINMENT ZOMBIES,

MUTANTS AND THE PARANORMALPHOTO BY JUN SATO

Meanwhile, Sutherland, 46, said he also felt at home during his visit to Japan where he has an enormous following after his eight years as counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer in the TV series “24.” “Japanese fans have been great in their support for me ever since I began ‘24.’ In fact, I get called Jack Bauer more than my own name,” he admitted.

However, Sutherland has put Bauer aside for awhile to concentrate on his new TV series “Touch,” which begins airing on WOWOW on Oct 5. Blending science, spirituality and emotion, the series follows seemingly unrelated people all over the world whose lives affect each other in ways seen and unseen, known and unknown. Sutherland plays a widower and single father, haunted by an inability to connect to his emotionally challenged 11-year-old son who has the ability to predict events before they happen through his fixation with numbers.

Sutherland attended a talk show event for about 240 fans in Tokyo and said that he hadn’t planned to do another TV series so soon after finishing “24.” “But every so often, you get a script that you can’t say no to. It is a father and son story that really struck a chord with me. Plus, my character is very different from Jack Bauer.”

Jovovich, 36, got the biggest reception when she and her film director husband Paul W. S. Anderson attended the Japan premiere for their latest horror film “Resident Evil: Retribution,” the 5th in the series. They were amused when they were joined on stage by Japanese comedians Miyuki Torii and Yoshio Kojima, dressed like flesh-eating zombies.

Jovovich has been battling the flesh-eating zombies for the past 10 years in the “Resident Evil” movies (titled “Biohazard” for Japan). “The zombies are almost part of the family now,” she joked. “The character has become a big part of my life.”

“Resident Evil” debuted as a game for Sony’s PlayStation in 1996. Since then, it has become a media franchise, consisting of a video and PC game series, comic books, novellas, action figures and, of course, five films – “Resident Evil” (2002), “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” (2004), “Resident Evil: Extinction” in 2007, “Resident Evil: Afterlife” in 2010, and now “Retribution,” which open sin Japan this weekend.

The films deal with the desperate struggle of a small band of humans to battle a mutant virus accidentally unleashed by the sinister Umbrella Corp that threatens to turn the whole world into flesh-eating zombies. Jovovich plays Alice,

a former Umbrella security agent and one of the few survivors of the virus outbreak. As the virus threatens to make every human being undead, Alice must kick zombie butt and elude Umbrella goons in her quest for justice and salvation. The last film was particularly amusing for Tokyoites since it had hordes of zombies overrunning Shibuya crossing (no salaryman jokes, please).

Born in Kiev, Jovovich moved to California with her family when she was five. She did some modeling as a child for Revlon and tried her hand at professional singing before making her film debut in “Return to the Blue Lagoon” (1991). She joined the ranks of action heroes in 1997 with “The Fifth Element,” and then followed that with “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc” (1999) and “Zoolander” (2001), before starting the “Resident Evil” series, all four of which have been produced by her husband. “These movies are so much fun. We’re all like big kids at an amusement park with monsters and explosions.”

“I love Japan,” Jovovich told fans. “I’ve been coming here since I was a child and bringing this movie here feels like I am coming home. I think we have raised the bar with this film and we really put our heart and soul into it.”

Tokyo was host to three movie stars earlier this month – all in the same week, which is unusual. Milla Jovovich, Kiefer Sutherland and Hugh Jackman were out and about.

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There are no such differences for Australian actor Jackman, 43, as he reprises his role of Logan, the mutant and future X-Man, in “The Wolverine.”

Thestory sees Logan going to Japan train with a samurai warrior. While there, he begins a forbidden romance and must face a mysterious figure from his past in an epic battle.

“The Wolverine” was supposed to be filmed in Japan last year, but the March 11 disaster and the August typhoons forced the plan to be abandoned. Then Jackman went off to Europe to film “Les Miserables.” Production finally got under way a few months ago in Australia.

A few lucky visitors to Tokyo’s Zozoji Temple caught a glimpse of the cast and crew filming a funeral scene on a tightly restricted set. Afterwards, Jackman went for his first ride on Tokyo’s subway and tweeted about it. Then production moved to Hiroshima. “The Wolverine” is set for a July 2013 release.

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When musicians arrive in Japan they immediately seek out fellow musicians to get information, play with, and strike up friendships within a tightly knit community where everyone certainly knows each other.Certain musicians are the guys who are band leaders, the guys who get people and events together and create the lifeblood of the Ex-pat and session musician scene here in Tokyo.

Herb ‘Q’ Kendricks is one of those people; a singer, songwriter, session musician actor and entertainer, Q came to Japan 8 years, originally from North Carolina in the U.S. Q quickly established himself as one of the great front men on the Tokyo music scene, fronting bands such as The Conductors and Q theory, featuring regularly around Tokyo live houses, clubs and all big social events on the ex-pat calendar graced by his soulful, cheerful and wonderfully unique voice. He also appeared numerous times acting on Japanese TV and voiceovers and performances for radio.

In July this year, Q suffered a serious and almost life threatening accident when he fell from his 3rd story apartment. He broke two bones in his neck, bruised a lung, broke his shoulder, two ribs and fractured his lower back, was in hospital for 5 weeks. The good news is the doctors say Q will make a slow but full recovery. To show support for their friend and to help with his extensive medical costs, the cream of Tokyo’s music scene will gather on Monday September 17th at What the Dickens to hold a a benefit gig for Q: ‘Jammin for Q’. Among the performers will be The conductors, Kinlay, the Spazmatics, Gray area and Stuart O (Who will be hosting) as well as plethora of individuals, small sets will start from 5pm all the way

QEx-pat musicians

rally for one of their own.

JAMMIN’FOR

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sujis.net

Live Music Schedule:

Sep 14: The Dirty T’s

Sep 15: Disco Inferno

Sep 16: Pirates of Tokyo Bay (Comedy Show Y1,500 with 1 drink)

Sep 17: Jammin for Q Benefit Concert & Party

Sep 18: Derek Short Jazz Funk Trio

Sep 19: Rock-Star open Mic

Sep 20: Delta blues project9

ENTERTAINMENT

til`midnight finishing with a monster Jam at the end which promises to be the local music event of the year.

This will be intimate while electrifying and a whole lot of fun - not to be missed. There is a ¥1,000 cover charge at the door, and various T-Shirts designed by Q will be on sale as well as a raffle, all proceeds will be presented to Q, so if you’re looking for a happening event this bank holiday Monday and want to support the kind and worthy soul that is Q, please head down to What the Dickens.

Special tribute should also be paid to ‘What the Dickens’ who will open their doors on what is normally the staff’s day off! A corner stone of expat life in Tokyo and also for its musicians who perform there. We wish Q a speedy recovery and can’t wait to see him back on stage were he belongs!

Check out more info at the following event page on facebook and the ‘what the dickens’ website.

www.facebook.com/events/363421093727180/www.whatthedickens.jp

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OPINIONS OPINIONSPolitics: The role of American wives vs Japanese wives in their husbands’ campaignsBY MAKOTO REXRODEBlogger at East Meets West (www.eastmeetswestblog.com)

Recently, I was watching a part of the GOP convention in Florida and saw Ann Romney’s speech. How impressive it was. She stood in front of the podium and made a speech “for her husband.” Yes, I admit she could talk more about policies or what her husband could do for the country instead of talking about how he has risen to the level where he is now.

I always admire those ladies who stand with their husband and support him for his political career. You know, politics is a very tough place and as all we know, many politician’s wives, especially first ladies, take an enormous amount of heat from the public.

This is the big difference I have noticed between American wives and Japanese wives. I never saw prime ministers’ wives when I lived in Japan. They may be seen on TV, accompanying their husbands a few times but they never take an active role to show their support for their husbands in front of the nation. In Japan, a man’s job and his wife’s supportive role are clearly divided: a wife is supposed to take care of the home while he is out there working his

butt off. A man’s workplace is not a wife’s place.

As for the emperor’s wife, she accompanies her husband when he attends events. I have seen her talking in front of cameras, but I have never seen her standing in public and making a speech “for her husband.” It was more like she always stood a few steps behind her husband, smiled and nodded when needed.

Before I moved to the U.S., I always had an image of American women being very independent and having their own career going on separately from their husbands. So it was a surprise for me to see those political leaders’ wives totally involved in a supportive role. It’s like a full-time job to be someone’s wife: hosting luncheons, getting involved with charities, going on a campaign tour, etc.

It’s admirable to see a husband and a wife working together as a team. But I don’t know if I want my identity to be defined as only someone’s wife. I enjoy sharing life with my husband and I respect him for what he does. But I enjoy our life together more by his bringing life, my bringing life, and our children’s bringing life into the family.

Japan without rice is not JapanBY JUSTIN VELGUSProfessional writer and blogger of Japanese culture

It was almost 5,000 years ago when a Chinese emperor proclaimed there would forever be 5 sacred grains. With China being the dominant superpower for centuries, all other nations were left in the dust playing catch up.

For anyone who has studied about Japan, you will undoubtedly know how much Japan borrowed from China, often via Korea, to build and enhance their own empire. Although wheat, barley, soybeans, and millet were important to Japan, rice was the game changer.

Agriculture changed to accommodate rice paddies. Rice was consumed with nearly every meal. In fact, the word for rice in Japanese, “gohan” or “meshi” translates as both rice and meal. Rice is food for the poor and the rich. Ground up up rice flour could be made into crackers or noodles, and fermented rice will produce the tasty rice wine saké. But rice is so much more than a foodstuff in Japan.

Rice has cemented itself into Japanese religion in both Shintoism and Buddhism. Inari is the god of rice and is still honored today through Kagura. This ancient form of Japanese theater involves a slow dance bound with symbolic clothes and hats made of rice straw. Sweeping feet and movements that

mimic dropping seeds into the ground praise Inari for his help with past harvests and show that humans still recognize we need to be one with nature and the natural gods in order to live our own lives in harmony.

Rice or saké are common offerings at Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, or for relatives who have passed away. Perhaps it was the near living gods of the Tokugawa period that solidified rice into Japan’s history.

The shogun and daimyo of feudal Japan were the rulers of kingdoms large and small. Each maintained their own armies, paying the soldiers in rice. In fact, rice was the currency of the day. Taxes were in rice, payment was in rice, and wealth was calculated by how many sacks of rice you owned; assets were noted in the number of rice fields under your control. And today, the government still holds rice as sacred.

The Japanese government subsidizes rice, paying farmers to ensure that their aging population cranks out more rice. Akita Prefecture even produces its own special rice because of a unique mix of soil, clean water, and coastal location. It is quite

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tasty and once you have had the “komachi” brand, you’ll never be satisfied with regular rice.

In reality, though, with rice eaten on a daily basis by the majority of the population, the Japanese cannot produce enough rice for themselves. Even my home California exports rice to Japan. And the rice diet is not likely to change, though more imports may be necessary as fewer generations are willing to take up the risky business of rice farming.

So enjoy your rice in Japan. It takes a while to learn to eat with chopsticks, but you’ll get the hang of it. You’ll see rice referenced in festivals, in art, and on your dinner plate. And if you have some time, be sure to check out Hirosaki’s (Aomori Prefecture) rice field art (pictured above) which has new designs every year.

The road ahead – will Japan really make it to zero-nuclear by 2030?BY JOHN MATTHEWSNational Public Radio (NPR) Reporter and creator of The Japan Show (thejapanshow.com)

Note: As of this editorial’s writing, Mainichi Shimbun had just quoted anonymous government insider sources as saying Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is to aim for zero nuclear reliance sometime in the 2030s. It assumes that the weekend announcement will happen.

The story so farThe landscape of Japanese politics when it comes to nuclear policy has been leveled since last year’s disaster. A largely popular proposal designed to send nuclear power’s share of energy provision up past fifty percent now looks like one of the most gung-ho ideas of the past decade. Government and utility spokespeople, including Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, continue to push the claim that as long as nuclear power exists in Japan, it will be made as safe as can be reasonably expected.

However, an underlying apathy towards politics amplified

by a blunder-filled disaster response has kept a large portion of the populace skeptical of the party line. Confirmation by a recent government-level investigative panel that information was widely suppressed in the aftermath of Fukushima only adds to the mistrust of “the man.” Being blamed for a lack of safety protocols at nuclear plants, TEPCO and by extension other utilities have little reputation in the eyes of the people. Major broadcasters keeping quiet on anti-nuclear or anti-utility talk immediately post-disaster for fear of losing valuable sponsorship money only added fuel to the fire.

The social unrest that grew out of 3.11 has slowly stoked a new fire among the grassroots, one that the powers that be are now struggling to deal with. Only a year ago, the idea of permanently shuttering all of the nation’s nuclear plants within a couple of decades as espoused by the

Social Democratic Party was considered ludicrous by most in the establishment. Now, it looks like the protesters that walked politely down one lane of traffic cordoned off by police and watched by public security officers may be getting their wish.

Economic precipiceFast-forward eighteen months to September 2012. Still only a year and a half past a nation-defining moment, Japan is still cobbling together a plan for what it wants to do with its lost innocence. The Japanese public consciousness is drifting steadily toward an anti-nuclear stance largely founded on the premise of public safety as business and utility lobbies fight to spread the message that Japan is doomed without atomic energy. In all fairness, bigwigs at the Keidanren, or Japan Business Federation, do have a lot to worry about; Japan’s export-led economy has continued to bear the brunt of a painfully strong yen (remember that we’ve been below 90 JPY/USD for two years now and below 80 for one year), and taxes are set to increase to help pay for this costly disaster.

The average age in Japan is still extraordinarily high and supporting old age pensioners is putting a major drag on the nation’s finances that is extremely unpopular to remove. Many fear that an increase in power costs from the lack of what was Japan’s only hope for cheap electricity before 2011 will be the nail in the coffin for Japan’s post-3.11 recovery, leading to as many lost decades as you can count. The Keidanren is not shy about emphasizing that Japan currently has no cost-effective option outside of nuclear energy due to lack of available natural resources. Although the anti-nuclear camp points to this past summer’s lack of blackouts, utilities like TEPCO have had to restart gas turbines using largely imported fuel to keep Tokyo safe. Energy reliance and pollution issues aside, trillions of yen in sunk costs are lying fallow across the nation as older turbines run at relatively inefficient levels.

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Where to now, Yoshi?Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and the DPJ have been presented with a quandary with enormous implications. Either they can show tough love to the grassroots and preserve a significant portion of the nation’s nuclear reactors, or throw caution to the wind and make a stand for a nuclear-free Japan. Neither option is particularly appealing; even only limiting nuclear will not delay a loss to the conservative LDP and its coalition or even to a camp led by rising but untested star Toru Hashimoto. Eradicating nuclear completely, as Noda and company have chosen, risks an immediate and harsh backlash from domestic businesses looking to counter rising energy costs by moving jobs overseas. The economic implications of a nuclear-free Japan may not be well-quantified, but they are certainly not insignificant.

The solution politically for the DPJ is clear. Taking Japan nuclear-free is the only way to maintain enough popularity to survive the next election and potentially restore some faith on the ground floor in the political process,

whether or not Japan suffers economically as a result of the decision. Unfortunately, achieving non-reliance will be tough to achieve and maintain over the short to medium term. Business lobbies will doubtlessly continue to lobby hard against the decision; if the DPJ buckles or another party takes over and nullifies the policy, what little faith is left in the Japanese government would doubtlessly crumble. The bitter pill of Noda’s tax hike is proving to be a hard one to swallow for all parties involved, but the coming years will see if the DPJ and Japan by extension can handle such an ambitious energy policy.

In for a penny, in for a poundThe goal of ending nuclear reliance “by 2030” being changed to “in the 2030s” is the first sign that the DPJ may not be fully committed to more than moving the goal posts at this stage. Unfortunately, there are very few viable options in the eyes of anti-nuclear proponents. The Liberal Democratic Party (the relatively conservative party here in Japan, which as an American confused

me quite a bit at first) is largely mired in decades-old historical disputes and sticks more closely to farm and corporate interests. Questionably wacky Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s new Japan Restoration Party is poised to field hundreds of candidates nationwide, but his policies and performance as a major mover are untested to say the very least. Even if it manages to drive the Japanese economy into the ground, the DPJ has now been charged with restoring Japan’s faith in the system.

http://www.sevenbank.co.jp/soukin/en/