What's
New: July 2005
Ryooyaku kuchi ni nigashi
Literal: Good medicine tastes bitter in the mouth.
Meaning: Good advice is often unpleasant and difficult to accept.
Sometimes the bitter truth is the best medicine.
Reviews:
A JRN review of Theodore C. Bestor's
Tsukiji:
The Fish Market and the Center of the World
"Today, fat marbled tuna belly (o-toro)
may be considered as the height of luxury as a sushi topping in
Japan. However, Bestor notes that it was not popular until the
advent of mechanical refrigeration in the mid-twentieth century:
in fact, it was given away as cat food in Japan."
Essays:
A
JRN essay, Fish
and Rice in the Japanese Diet
"Abstract:
This paper analyzes the importance of seafood and rice to the
Japanese diet by looking at an array of metrics in both a cross-sectional
and time-series format. Data are sourced from the Food and Agricultural
Organization of the United Nations, where the annual food balance
sheets from 1961-2002 are used. The conclusion is that "rice
appears to have given way to other grains (such as wheat) as well
as increased intake in meat products. However, fish products appear
to have maintained their standing as a constant in the Japanese
food supply."
What's
New: June 2005
Reviews:
A JRN review of William Johnston's
Geisha,
Harlot, Strangler, Star
"At
the end of the day, we will never really know what drove Abe to
strangle her lover and how she justified these actions in her
head. Johnston argues that heightened love and passion led to
her moment of madness. Indeed, this is an interesting assertion,
but it does not lead anywhere."
Interviews:
Howard
French, Journalist & Shanghai Bureau Chief,
The New York Times
"I
was wined and dined for weeks, no, for months, by Gaimusho
["Foreign Ministry"—JRN eds.] types in
a way that made me uncomfortable from the very beginning. They
seemed to want three things: that I portray Japan sympathetically,
which is normal, if a bit naïve (I don't approach any country
thinking in these terms); that I attend Gaimusho briefings,
which would have meant flattering their own image, but getting
very little work done in Japan; and finally, that I regard them
as the conduit of information or indeed spokesman for all of Japan.
..The relationship, if one can call it that, broke down finally
when I reported during the Lucy Blackburne summer that Japan's
sex industry is huge and omnipresent. Gaimusho folks
took strong exception. Some time later, my case agent, meaning
the man whose job it was to stay on my case, called repeatedly
to complain about my coverage of Tuffy Rhodes thwarted home run
record drive. I finally told the man off, saying I failed to see
the connection between baseball and foreign policy. They stopped
calling (and inviting me to lunch.)"
Ioannis
Mentzas, Editorial Director, Vertical
Inc.
“Let me be
very biased and tell you that Saying Yes to Japan by
Tim Clark and Carl Kay, our first non-translation, non-fiction
title, due out this April, is the most refreshing book on Japan
in a while. It’s a business book by entrepreneurs that doesn’t
feel at all like other books about the Japanese economy that I’ve
read. Its stance toward Japan is exceptionally mature and responsible.
Worst book on Japan: it’s not a book, but I have long found the
New York Times’ sketches of life in Japan to be as disappointingly
wrong-headed as their coverage of the WMD issue in the run-up
to the Iraq war."
Andrew
Horvat, Journalist & former Representative,
The Asia Foundation 
"As
a reporter, I recall becoming very passionate about the sufferings
of Koreans under Japanese rule. I remember making a visit to Korea
and hearing stories of appalling atrocities committed by Japanese
marines after the uprising of March 1, 1919, only to find out
virtually the same day that the brother-in-law of my Korean teacher
had been invited to Hiroshima to take part in a high school reunion.
His trip was being arranged by his former classmates, all of whom
were Japanese... visceral writing can lead to inaccuracies because
when you write you really hope that your adversary is truly wicked.
Unfortunately for the visceral writer, it is rather rare that
we come across people who are thoroughly evil. Usually, they contain
all the human failings including arrogance and hubris, faults
for which Japanese are now paying a very high price."
Robert
C. Neff, Executive Communications Consultant,
Kikkoman Corporation
“As I have told Debito Arudou, I think much of his campaign
is faux because most of the places he is going after are in
Hokkaido trying to protect themselves from drunken Russians.
I have bathed and/or stayed at well over 200 onsen
establishments and been stopped only once. People, including
me, are fascinated by Debito Arudou because we wonder why he
wanted to become Japanese in a country where he finds so many
wrongs. He would almost certainly argue that he can better move
for change from within, but he's actually doing it from without.
I admire his gumption."
Peter
B. E. Hill, Sociologist, University of Oxford
“I think that the long-term future of the yakuza is bleak.
The reasons for this are more profound than medium-term economic
vicissitudes. On one hand, both the law and its enforcement are
getting progressively tougher as far as the yakuza are
concerned (this is one factor behind Watanabe’s recent decision
to stand down as head of the Yamaguchi-gumi). On the
other hand Japanese society is changing in all sorts of ways that
make many of their existing economic activities harder: transparency
is increasing; there is an increased use in alternative formal
channels of dispute resolution; society is becoming more tolerant
of alternative lifestyles and marginal groups (making both recruitment
and retention more difficult). The yakuza will adapt
to these changes (historically, they always have, and rapidly)
but the economic and social space within which they can operate
is shrinking."
Letters:
The
Letters Page (June 2005)
Change
in Policy: The Note on Letters Page
Change
in Policy: Newsletter Guidelines
Accessibility
in Web Design:
JapanReview.Net
(JRN) is currently undergoing some modifications in web design
in order to be more accessible to non-Microsoft users. Our internet
traffic statistics indicate that a small, but important minority
of JRN readers in 2004 (10%) continue to use non-Microsoft products.
Thus, to ensure that JRN conforms with the Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (WCAG), we are now in the process of:
- Converting
fonts to the standard sans-serif (e.g., Arial, Helvetica, Verdana)
for guaranteed accessibility on most operating systems.
- Creating
image attributes and discriptions for text only browsers (e.g.,
Lynx).
- Switching
to relative sizing.
- Making
JRN documents XHTML compliant.
As
we update, some pages may not stylistically or structurally conform
to others on our website. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience
this may cause. Thank you for your continued support and understanding.
Link to like:
Japanese
Baseball
Instead of shameless JRN
self-promotion:
Please
donate to the Red Cross
