JAPANTODAY’S PREMIER ENGLISH DIGITAL WEEKLY MAGAZINE ISSUE 08 / VOLUME 01 / SEPTEMBER 2012

LIFESTYLE English teacher leaves behind textbooks to clean up Tohoku

OPINION Obama and Romney urgently need to zero in on foreign policy / What is a Westerner?

TRAVEL Tokyo’s eclecticism in focus: Koishikawa Korakuen & Tokyo Dome City

FOOD Dramatic dining experiences

The Beat Goes OnENTERTAINMENT

https://www.ana-cooljapan.com/#/japanfare

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Editor in ChiefChris Betros

Art Director/DesignerThong Van

ContributorsVicki L. BeyerPatrick BudmarAndrew HammondJustin Velgus

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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

Koishikawa Korakuen & Tokyo Dome CityBY VICKI L. BEYER

Start with a visit to Koishikawa Korakuen, the remnants of a 17th century strolling garden, one of the earliest built in Edo and one of only two such gardens still in existence in modern Tokyo.

Construction of this garden was commissioned in 1629 by Yorifusa Mito, the ninth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu and the first in the line of the Mito branch of the Tokugawa clan. The original garden, comprising 63 acres, was finished by Yorifusa’s son, Mitsukuni, approximately 50 years later. The garden’s name literally means “enjoy after”, and is derived from a Chinese principle of government, that a ruler should worry before the people do and enjoy after the people do.

Today, just 16 of the original 63 acres remains, but it is more than enough to provide a pleasant stroll and a perspective on the life of a feudal lord.

The garden’s design was strongly influenced by Chu Shun Shui, a Chinese scholar who fled his homeland in the waning days of the Ming dynasty. Thus many of the garden’s features echo famous Chinese scenery, including Lushan Mountain and Hangzhou’s famous West Lake. Yet, the garden is not an imitation of a Chinese garden; it is distinctly Japanese.

TOKYO’S ECLECTICISM IN FOCUS

The best way to explore the garden is to move in a clockwise circle from the entrance at the southwest corner of the garden. In spite of the size of the garden, the design often requires you to explore it a very little bit at a time. The garden does not reveal itself all at once.

Among the interesting features of the garden are its various bridges, including Tsutenkyo--a vermillion wooden bridge that crosses high above a ravine, Engetsukyo--a half-circle stone bridge which when reflected on the water beneath it shows up as a full circle and Yatsuhashi--bridge made up of 8 large flat stones arranged in an off-set pattern.

At the highest point in the garden there was once a miniature copy of Kyoto’s Kiyomizu-dera, but no trace of it remains today. Across Tsutenkyo from this site is Tokujin-do, a shrine built by Mitsukuni to honor Boyi and Shuqi, two Chinese brothers who lived a thousand years before Christ and are revered for their pacifism and virtue. The shrine contains statues of the brothers.

Engetsukyo—the name means “round moon bridge”—spans a stream which is actually a remnant of the original Kanda Josui (also known as the Kanda River), a man-made canal building at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate to bring water from Inokashira Pond into Edo.

The northern corner of the garden, where you’ll find the Yatsuhashi bridge, is more rustic and even has a rice paddy. Korakuen is the only Tokyo garden with such a feature. The paddy is planted and harvested by primary school children every year. Apparently Mitsukuni added the rice paddy because he wanted the pampered wife of one of his sons to understand the hard life of farmers.

Let’s explore one of those neighborhoods where one can experience modern Tokyo and old Edo in close proximity, the Koraku neighborhood of Bunkyo-ku.

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As with many Japanese gardens, there is always something blooming, no matter which season you visit. Spring and summer are a riot of pinks and purples as the cherry blossoms (the weeping cherry next to the lake as you enter the garden is particularly famous), wisteria, azalea and iris each take their turn, but then the late summer water flowers, like water lilies and lotus take over, eventually giving way to the autumn leaves, particularly the fiery Japanese maple. Then in the coldest part of winter, the plum blossoms defy the low temperatures and portend spring.

The southern part of the garden is dominated by a large pond, full of fish and turtles and attractive to bird life. On the northwest lakeshore, also look for the large stone lantern that broke during the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake and was then reconstructed, its cracked pieces cemented back together again. Between the 1923 earthquake and the 1945 air raids, many of the garden’s structures were damaged or destroyed and have never been reconstructed.

The southwest corner of the garden features another, smaller pond and a Chinese gate, that is, unfortunately, not in use. The Mito family once kept their library on this site.

Koishikawa Korakuen sits just west of the Tokyo Dome, which can be a little distracting when you’re trying to capture that perfect photograph of a Japanese garden, but once you’ve had enough of the garden, wander over to Tokyo Dome City, the amusement park and shopping area that sits to the east of the Tokyo Dome.

The Tokyo Dome itself is Tokyo’s first all-weather multi-purpose stadium. Opened in 1988, its soft top, kept up by air pumped into the stadium, is rather unique and has earned it the nickname “The Big Egg. The Tokyo Dome

is home to the Yomiuri Giants baseball team but also hosts numerous other sporting events, as well as cultural events, exhibitions and most major bands whose concert tours bring them through Tokyo. SMAP will be appearing at the Tokyo Dome at the end of September.

Also housed in the Tokyo Dome is the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The entrance is at street level near Gate 21. The exhibits here commemorate Japan’s greatest baseball moments, as well as its best players, both professional and amateur.

The remainder of Tokyo Dome City surrounds the western half of the Tokyo Dome. There is no charge to enter, but there are day and night passes that provide unlimited access to the various rides and other attractions.

There are rides for the kiddies and a large indoor playground called ASOBono! as well as a few rides for adults. Unfortunately the Thunder Dolphin roller coaster that runs along the rooftop of the LaQua building has been “temporarily” closed for more than a year. Combined with rolling skating, bowling, and a men-only sauna that specializes in pampering athletes (this is the Tokyo Dome after all!), one hardly even feels the need for the restaurants and shopping that are also available. Or maybe the men-only sauna is just a place for wives to drop their husbands while they enjoy the shopping… On a hot afternoon, relax in the LaQua courtyard and be refreshed by the Water Symphony fountains.

To thoroughly explore the Koraku neighborhood would be a full day’s effort. But it offers such a wide variety of entertainment

options, from history and nature to sports and thrills, even without the roller coaster ride.

Necessary Details

The Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is open 10 am to 5 pm (6 pm during the summer months) Tuesday through Sunday.

Admission is ¥500 with discounts for children and senior citizens.

Website:http://english.baseball-museum.or.jp

(Look for the discount coupon)

Tokyo Dome City is a 5 minute walk from any of JR Suidobashi station, Suidobashi subway station, Kasuga subway station, Korakuen subway station.

Ride tickets can be purchased individually, or purchase a day pass (¥3,800) or a post-5 pm night pass (¥2,800).

Koishikawa Korakuen 3 minute walk from Exit C3 of Iidabashi Subway station

or an 8 minute walk from JR Iidabashi station

Open from 9 am to 5 pm every day except December

29 through January 1

Admission: ¥300

http://teien.tokyo-park.or.jp/en/koishikawa

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LIFESTYLE

On that very day, El-Banna had left work early and gone to meet a friend for lunch, as it was the graduation day for the third graders at the junior high school where he was employed.

“I wasn’t aware that there had been an earthquake until I got on Facebook when I was heading home,” he says. “At that time, I didn’t know anything about a tsunami except there had been a big earthquake near Tokyo.”

The limited scope of the news El-Banna received through status updates on Facebook meant that he did not know the true scale of the disaster.

“Apparently some people felt it in the Kansai region too, but I hadn’t,” he says. “I phoned a friend in Tokyo to check if he was OK and then didn’t really think anything of it until I got home and turned my TV on and saw how big it was.”

Once El-Banna became aware of the size the disaster, it had a profound effect on him.

As a result, in May, only two months after the earthquake, El-Banna made his first trip to the Tohoku region and visited Higashi Matsushima City in Miyagi Prefecture.

“Someone I play basketball with went to volunteer during Golden Week, but

there wasn’t room for me to go too, so I went on the next trip,” he says.

Although El-Banna had seen the shocking images of the destruction on television and on the Internet, it still did not prepare him for the sight that greeted him.

“When I arrived in Higashi Matsuhima, I saw what it was really like,” he says. “Some areas had shops, but some looked like something out of a movie set in a dystopian future.”

At that moment, El-Banna inexplicably found himself thinking that it would “take forever to clean up.”

While for many people, a trip to Tohoku may have seemed like risky decision in those early months after the disaster, especially since news about the nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture was well publicized at this point,

ENGLISH TEACHER LEAVES BEHIND TEXTBOOKS TO CLEAN UP TOHOKUBY PATRICK BUDMAR

When the earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, Jamie El-Banna was working as an English teacher in Osaka.

Jamie El-Banna (top center) with members of the INJM team at a charity futsal event for kids in Ishinomaki.

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radiation in Higashi Matsuhima was not one of El-Banna’s concerns at the time.

“Several months had already passed and the nuclear power plant was quite a distance away from where I was,” he says. “Plus there are many people living in Sendai City, which is much closer to the affected area than Higashi Matsuhima.”

The trip to Higashi Matsuhima was not in a tourist capacity but to volunteer to help with recovery efforts in the area. El-Banna had made the trip to Tohoku with a group of like-minded people he had met on Facebook to assist with clean-up for one week.

“I then tried to go back to my normal teaching job in Osaka, but after one day I decided that I could make more of a difference by volunteering,” he says. “So I quit my job and went back to Tohoku to volunteer again.”

As a result of that decision, the non-profit organization, It’s Not Just Mud (INJM), was formed.

Initially, El-Banna only set up an online blog to keep track of the work he was doing in Tohoku, what it was like there, and the challenges he was facing, and shared the updates with a worldwide audience.

“Interest grew and I threw it out to people that if they wanted, they could come and join me,” he says. “To my surprise, people came and they kept on coming.”

The reason why El-Banna gave his volunteer organization the simple yet memorable name could be traced back to his initial visit to Higashi Matsushima. “On that first trip, I spent a lot of time shoveling sludge and mud,” he says.

While he admits that it was “really simple work” that may seem “pretty mindless” on the surface, he did not view it as pointless.

“To someone whose home is filled with this foul smelling mud, the act of removing it has real meaning,” he said. “To them, ‘it’s not just mud.’”

As to why the Tohoku disaster in 2011 prompted El-Banna to set up INJM, he attributes it to wanting to give back to a nation that had already given to him.

“Although we might always be considered as outsiders to many living here, Japan is our home,” he says. “It’s natural to want to do something.”

El-Banna also adds that he did not have any intention of founding an NPO. “If it wasn’t for someone telling me that it was possible to go and volunteer, I wouldn’t have gone,” he says.

Following the disaster, El-Banna had spent time looking on the Internet for groups to volunteer with, but instead found that they were all discouraging amateurs from joining up.

“Once I was here in the thick of it, I saw there was a need for something such as INJM,” he says. “Not only that, I saw that I was able to make a difference, so turning INJM into an official NPO seemed like the logical next step.”

→

“Interest grew and I threw it out to people that if they wanted, they could come and join me,” he says. “To my surprise, people came and they kept on coming.”

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Since that low-key beginning, INJM has grown quickly in scope and membership, which El-Banna attributes to flexibility.

“We allow volunteers to come on their schedule,” he says. “We did this because most people living in Japan have very fixed schedules, and they can’t come and volunteer on a set time frame.”

As such, volunteers who can only come for just one day or two are openly welcomed by the organization.

The Internet also played a big part in the organization’s success, as word of mouth through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter meant a grassroots movement built up.

“If it wasn’t for the blog and social media, I think it would have been impossible to do even one tenth of what we’ve managed,” El-Banna says.

As a testament to this, El-Banna points out that out of all the people whom he knew before the earthquake, five have come to volunteer with INJM.

The other 500 or so volunteers who have participated were total strangers.

As to why random people have banded together to volunteer with INJM, El-Banna attributes it to the relaxed approach of the organization.

“We have a friendly family feel to things and we aren’t super strict with a million rules,” he says. “Instead, we’re more like a group of friends doing what we can to help.”

INJM has been engaged non-stop with volunteer activities in Tohoku, with house repairs, playground construction and local businesses support being some of the more recent efforts on top of all the “dirty work” the group does.

Although El-Banna is unable to single out which activity has been the most important to INJM, his chance interview with a local deaf woman was the most memorable for him on a personal level.

El-Banna was able to sign with her because he had studied Japanese sign language a few months earlier.

“She said that she hadn’t had anyone to talk to for a long time because no one in the temporary housing where she lives knows sign language, so she was really happy to be able to have a conversation without using a pen and paper,” he says.

As a result of this encounter, the owner of the sign language school, deafjapan.com, visited the Tohoku area to volunteer and was joined by a bus load of people who were deaf and wanted to do the same.

“They were not only doing physical work, but also community work with the deaf community in Ishinomaki City,” El-Banna says.

The repairs done on major roads in Tohoku have fortunately meant that there are now fewer challenges facing potential volunteers wanting to help out in Tohoku.

“You can get on a bus from Tokyo and be in Ishinomaki in under seven hours,” he says.

However, there are still some people in Japan and overseas who continue to show reluctance to go and volunteer in the Tohoku, mainly due to radiation fears stemming from the crippled power plant in neighboring Fukushima Prefecture.

While El-Banna does not feel he is in a position to convince people to come or not based on this fear, he does suggest they do some research and come to their own conclusion about the safety of the region.

“A lot of those fears are born from ignorance,” he says. “Radiation levels in the majority of Tohoku are basically the same as anywhere else, barring certain parts of Fukushima.”

While 18 months have passed since the 3.11 disaster, El-Banna admits that the Tohoku region is still “a long way away” from recovery.

He has seen the word recovery be “thrown around a lot,” but realistically, he feels that anyone who talks about recovery as something that will take “less than decades” is being irrational.

“Many areas are cleaner than they were, but there are still thousands of people living in temporary housing and without work,” he says. “INJM has done a lot, but I always feel like it’s not enough.”

El-Banna does not see it as a slight on his group, but rather as a fact that emphasizes the large amount of work that still needs to be done.

“It’s not obvious like before, when there were cars in the street and mud everywhere, but it’s still there,” he says.

While the situation in Tohoku is always changing, the one constant according to El-Banna is that INJM will continue to help people and communities in the affected region.

As such, the offer to come and join the volunteer effort is always there for those who are willing.

“All you need to do is to make the decision to help out, and then act upon that decision,” he says. “The hardest part is leaving and then readjusting to your normal life after all that you’ve witnessed.”

For more info on It’s Not Just Mud (INJM), visit their website.http://itsnotjustmud.com

“A lot of those fears are born from ignorance,” he says. “Radiation levels in the majority of Tohoku are basically the same as anywhere else, barring certain parts of Fukushima.”

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RESTAURANTS & DINING DRAMATIC DINING EXPERIENCES

The restaurant’s renowned steakhouse The Oak Door has a new cut of beef, the Tomahawk. Diners can enjoy a ribeye on the bone weighing up to 1.6 kg from a Japanese F1 beef.

The Tomahawk steak, so-called because of its resemblance to a tomahawk, is a ribeye cut on the bone in a way that enhances the flavor of the meat. Japanese F1 is a cross breed of a Wagyu bull from Tajima from the Hyogo Prefecture and a Holstein cow, a breed of cattle known today as the world’s highest-production dairy animal originating in Europe.

Beef from Tajima is known for its high quality with large eye muscles and fine marbling. Known to be the ideal production line of F1 cattle, the Tajima bloodlines are regarded as the best quality meat in all of Japan.

With a thick center, delicate marbling, hand-cut and trimmed to perfection, the Tomahawk will be grilled in the signature oak wood-burning ovens for a tender and juicy finish. The cut accommodates from 2 to 4 diners, augmenting a “share experience at The Oak Door, appropriate for any occasion, whether it be a power lunch or an elegant evening dinner.

“I am very excited for the launch of our new product which I believe our guests will truly enjoy,” commented Frederic Kolde, manager of The Oak Door. “The Tomahawk is a great addition to our line-up of quality products at The Oak Door as we continue to develop our offers to new heights”.

The Oak Door, located on the sixth floor, features premium-quality meats and seasonal produce prepared in dramatic oak wood-burning ovens. The wine cellars house a large variety of international boutique New World wines. An open kitchen, terrace seating and a private dining room complete this neighborhood steakhouse.

Foodies will be in for another treat when the hotel hosts guest chef David Rathgeber from Paris from Oct 25 until Nov 4 for a promotion at The French Kitchen. Chef Rathgeber is owner and chef of l’Assiette restaurant in Paris and has worked with world-famous chefs such as Gerard Vie (Les Trois Marches, Versailles)

The Grand Hyatt Tokyo is offering some exciting dining experiences over the next few weeks.

Grand Hyatt Tokyo6-10-3 Roppongi, Minato-Ku,Tokyo, Japan 106-0032

Tel: +81 3 4333 1234Fax: +81 3 4333 8123

Email: tokyo.grand@hyatt.com

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and Alain Ducasse, with whom he worked for 12 years.

Rathgeber launched l’Assiette as owner and chef in 2008 when he transformed the restaurant into a Bistro Chic venue from an old pork butcher shop in the 14th district of Paris. Over the years, l’Assiette has become one of the icons where founders and entrepreneurs of Parisian gastronomic movement gather to dine.

Special recipes reviving authentic Auvergne is popular at l’Assiette such as traditional Terrine de campagne,

as well as bourgeoise cuisine crafted in a bistro style such as Hot pie of French duck, cooked and raw chicory, rouennaise sauce. Rathgeber enjoys communicating with his guests and does not hesitate to go out onto the restaurant floor to ask guests’ favorites and share recommendations.

A specialist in traditional bistro cuisine, Rathgeber will be sharing his artistry of French cuisine during his visit, giving diners the illusion of being transported to Paris.

The French Kitchen, located on the second floor, offers breakfast, lunch and weekend brunch buffets and is open all day, serving classic French bistro dishes from Pâté de Campagne and Sole Grenobloise to Beef Bourguignon.

The restaurant features an open kitchen, bar, outside terrace and the Chef’s Table, a private dining room equipped with its own kitchen ideal for special dinners, private parties and company celebrations.

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ENTERTAINMENT

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Comedian, actor and director “Beat” Takeshi Kitano is back to doing what he does best – making violent gangster films.Takeshi, 65, and 12 of the cast of his new gangster movie “Outrage Beyond” attended the film’s Japan premiere in Tokyo this week. The cast includes Toshiyuki Nishida, 64, Tomokazu Miura, 60, Ryo Kase, 37, Katsumi Takahashi, 47, and Akira Nakao, 70, among others. All the actors play gangsters in the film, which is a sequel to the 2009 film “Outrage.”

A complex tale of warring yakuza families, “Outrage Beyond” tells the story of the boss of a family once crushed by the Sanno crime clan, who gets out of prison and goes on a bloody revenge spree.

“Every single actor in my film has the quality to be a main character, so I paid whatever it took to get them,” Kitano told the audience.

The film was highly rated at the recent Venice International Film Festival.

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Photo credit: film press plus

“Outrage Beyond” has the usual Takeshi quotient of grisly death scenes, including murders using a drill and baseball throwing machine. He admitted he sometimes goes overboard with the gore but said it is done for comic relief. “Audiences laugh at those kinds of scenes,” he said.

Takeshi said he fears for the future of art house cinema in Japan. In a recent interview with AFP, he said: “You have to make a film like ‘The Avengers’ to get recognition. ‘Outrage Beyond’ is as close as you can get to an ‘Avengers’ kind of movie, so I am hoping to get a big audience with this one.”

He said that he has already started working on a third “Outrage” film. But he’s not sure how much longer he can stay in the business. “Young people these days would rather watch movies on their smartphones or on a computer,” he told AFP. “Maybe you don’t need a filmmaker to make films any more. Maybe you just need a computer programmer.”

“Outrage Beyond” opens in Japan on Oct 6.

“When I made the first film, the reaction was love-it-or-hate-it,” Kitano said. “I had to make Part II because I was furious about all the mindless recent violent movies. I am relieved that the audience liked this one.”

Some members of the cast said it was a dream come true to be in a Takeshi Kitano movie.

Kitano said one thing he learned at the Venice festival was that his films have a cult following abroad, while his Japan fan base appears to be dwindling. “I’m not a director who is appreciated in Japan a great deal, but I thought abroad I could get greater visibility with a sequel,” he told a press conference.

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OPINIONS

Obama and Romney urgently need to zero in on foreign policyBY ANDREW HAMMONDAndrew Hammond is associate partner at Reputation Inc. He was formerly America Editor at Oxford Analytica, and a special adviser in the British government of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Since the early years of the Cold War, foreign policy has generally ceased to be the biggest issue for American voters in presidential elections. Instead, the economy is what matters most.

November’s presidential ballot will -- probably – continue this pattern. Voters remain most concerned by the sluggish economic recovery which last week prompted the Federal Reserve to begin a new, third round of quantitative easing.

Nonetheless, Americans are still thinking about foreign policy. In recent days, for instance, many will have reflected upon the tragic murder of four of their countrymen in Libya, and the ongoing protests in numerous Muslim-majority countries at an anti-Islamic film originating in America.

More than a decade after 9/11, a critical mass of the electorate believes America should engage more cautiously in international affairs, with the possible exception of Iran. Here, some polls show sizable public support for efforts to prevent Tehran developing nuclear weapons,

even if that necessitates American military action.

Iran is just one of the international issues on which Republican nominee Mitt Romney has articulated a more assertive posture than Democratic incumbent President Barack Obama. Others examples include Russia which Romney has declared Washington’s “number one” geopolitical foe. And, China, which the Republican nominee has accused of stealing U.S. technology and intellectual property, and of currency manipulation -- with the implicit threat of sanctions should he become president.

Given the apparent differences between the two candidates, and the large stakes in play, many international audiences beyond the American border are showing a keen interest in the election outcome. According to a Pew Global Attitudes Project report from June, more than a third of populations in countries as diverse as Britain, Germany, Jordan, Lebanon, China, India and Japan are either “closely or somewhat closely” following the campaign.

As in 2008, international publics tend to favor Obama’s

election in 2012. But there has been a marked decline in international approval of his policies since he took office.

According to Pew, the fall-off in support for the president’s policies has been a massive 30 percentage points between 2009 and 2012 in China (from 57% to 27%); in several key European countries including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Poland, the average reduction in support is 15 percentage points (from 78% to a still high 63%); and in numerous key Muslim-majority countries (including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan and Turkey), the average fall-off is 19 percentage points from an already low 34% to 15%.

At least part of the decline in Obama’s numbers since 2009 was inevitable in as much as international expectations about him were unrealistically high when he entered the White House. Two of the main international criticisms of his foreign policy (as was the case with the Bush administration’s) are over-reliance on “hard power” and also unilateralism.

Despite Obama’s withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, and his commitment to a similar military pull-out in Afghanistan, there has been much international criticism for instance of his administration’s use of unmanned, remotely-flown aircraft to kill terrorists. In 17 of the 20 countries surveyed by Pew, more than half of

pollees disagree with the use of these drone attacks.

These international numbers can only be expected to fall further if Romney wins in November and follows through on his assertive foreign policy rhetoric. This could be amplified by the fact that he enjoys less personal popularity overseas than Obama.

A key question is whether Obama and Romney should care about what the rest of the world thinks. After all, no foreign citizens will vote in November.

The short answer is yes.

Some in America completely dismiss the importance of international opinion. Such short-sightedness neglects the crucial role it can play in facilitating foreign policy co-operation and information sharing with Washington, both overt and covert.

Many of the diverse foreign policy challenges facing America today require extensive international collaboration, especially at a time of budgetary cutbacks. As key members of the Obama team have asserted, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, such cooperation can be enabled by American policy demonstrating a better combination of soft power (including diplomacy that generates admiration rather than antagonism) and prudent use of hard power.

Combining hard and soft power more effectively (into what is now called smart

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power) was well understood by previous generations of American policymakers. For instance, Washington skilfully used both assets after World War II to cultivate support for a system of alliances and institutions, such as NATO, the IMF, World Bank and the UN, that subsequently became a cornerstone of Western success in the second half of the century.

To be sure, today’s world is very different from that of the Cold War. But the need for smart power endures.

Given the mood of the American electorate, the development of a comprehensive, coherent and well resourced smart power strategy will not win many votes for Obama nor Romney in November. Nonetheless, this should be a pressing concern for both candidates if they are to fulfill their similar pledges to renew the country’s world leadership for a new generation.

Andrew Hammond is associate partner at ReputationInc. He was formerly America Editor at Oxford Analytica, and a special adviser in the British government of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

What is a Westerner?BY JUSTIN VELGUSProfessional writer and blogger of Japanese culture.

When you arrive in Japan, it doesn’t take long to find out you are a little different. Sure in Tokyo, Osaka, and the bigger cities, you’ll see some people that might speak your native language or look similar to you, but you’re basically on your own in the countryside. You are not Japanese, so what are you?

Authors, expats living in Japan, and even myself have been guilty of calling these people “Westerners.” However, when examining the word, it is not synonymous with words like “foreigner,” “non-Japanese” and “outsider.” Literally, a Westerner comes from the Western hemisphere. That is anything west of the International Reference Meridian in Greenwich London, England and east of the International Date Line, which snakes its way through the Pacific Ocean. This area includes the Americas, Europe, and parts of Africa as the Western hemisphere, while most of Russia, Australia, China, and more are in the Eastern hemisphere. Nonetheless, the term “Westerner” has a commonly believed definition in and of itself.

Too many people see a Westerner as Japanese often do: an English-speaking, most likely white, individual. This ignores that there are people from Western countries, such as Mexico, France or Russia that may or may not know any English, but still reside in Japan. No, the term “Westerner” is not politically correct, nor is it even logical. However, Japan is the Land of the Rising Sun and is often referred to be in the Far East. Therefore everything is arguably west from a Japanese point of view.

“Westerner” is a convenient word that people throw around too often without considering its meaning. It is perceived to include groups of non-Japanese, while excluding other Asians. On the other hand, words such as “foreigner” or “outsider” may be more descriptive yet leave connotations that we are at ends with the Japanese as we describe ourselves as different. So what should we call ourselves, and what do we want others to call us? I just want to be known as Justin, thanks.

sujis.net

Live Music Schedule:Sep 21: KK Overdrive

Sep 22: The Mootekkis

Sep 23: Chris Grundy Sep 25: Simon collective

Sep 26: Steve Gardner & Mississippi Blues (or greens!)

Sep 27: Sean Tait Lounge Groove Trio

Sep 28: The Conductors

Steve GardnerMississippiBlues

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