Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival

by Pilling, David

  36.Jonathan Soble, ‘In Search of Salvation’, Financial Times, 5 January 2012.

  37.Ibid.

  38.Kaoru Yosano, interview with author, Tokyo, April 2006.

  39.Soble, ‘In Search of Salvation’.

  40.Christian Oliver, ‘Samsung Poised to Overtake Rival HP in Sales’, Financial Times, 29 January 2010. Note that the decline of Japan’s electronics industry has become so commonplace that Samsung’s extraordinary profit compared with that of its Japanese peers did not even strike the headline writer as worthy of note.

  41.Michiyo Nakamoto, ‘Scrutinising Stringer’, Financial Times, 22 June 2006.

  42.Yasuchika Hasegawa, ‘Toward a Lasting Recovery’, in Clay Chandler et al. (eds.), Reimagining Japan: The Quest for a Future that Works, p. 49.

  43.In fairness, the same lament could be made of the UK or even Germany.

  44.Some Japanese scientists may be at a disadvantage because their papers tend to be written in Japanese, meaning they get fewer citations.

  45.Interview with author, Tokyo, July 2011.

  46.Daisuke Wakabayashi, ‘How Japan Lost its Electronics Crown’, Wall Street Journal, 15 August 2012.

  47.Masayoshi Son, ‘Beyond Nuts and Bolts’, in Clay Chandler et al. (eds.), Reimagining Japan: The Quest for a Future that Works, pp. 57–8.

  48.Figures supplied by Dealogic.

  49.Norihiro Kato, ‘Japan and the Ancient Art of Shrugging’, New York Times, 21 August 2010.

  50.On a purchasing power parity basis, which takes into account the cost of goods across countries, China had overtaken Japan many years before.

  51.It blipped up again in 2006 before beginning a steady, if so far gradual, descent in 2007.

  52.The UN Human Development Index is, as it happens, a fairly simple combination of per capita income, life expectancy and education/literacy.

  53.Per capita income measured on a purchasing power parity basis. In dollar terms, it has a per capita income of less than $2,000.

  54.Natsumi Iwasaki, ‘What Would Drucker Do?’ in Clay Chandler et al. (eds.), Reimagining Japan: The Quest for a Future that Works, pp. 133–7.

  55.Stephen Miller, James Abegglen Obituary, Wall Street Journal, 12 May 2007.

  10. THE PROMISED ROAD

  1.Interview with author, Tokyo, January 2003.

  2.Yutori is also applied to education, meaning a system that places less emphasis on rote-learning and a crammed curriculum and more on critical thinking. Many older Japanese see the adoption of ‘yutori education’ as one reason for falling standards and continued economic difficulties.

  3.Masahiro Yamada, ‘The Young and the Hopeless’, in Clay Chandler et al. (eds.), Reimagining Japan: A Quest for a Future that Works, pp. 176–80.

  4.Ibid.

  5.The survey was produced by the Japan Productivity Center.

  6.Interview with author, Tokyo, July 2004.

  7.‘Held Hostage to Public Opinion’, New Zealand Herald, 1 May 2004.

  8.Yoshio Sugimoto, ‘Class and Work in Cultural Capitalism: Japanese Trends’, The Asia-Pacific Journal, 40-1-10, 4 October 2010.

  9.Camel Cigarettes, cited in Jeff Kingston, Japan’s Quiet Transformation: Social Change and Civil Society in the Twenty-first Century, p. 38.

  10.Mure Dickie, ‘Osaka Mayor Has Old Guard Running Scared’, Financial Times, 19 May 2012.

  11.Eric Johnston, ‘Hashimoto Admits Affair, Doesn’t Deny “Cosplay”’, Japan Times, 20 July 2012.

  11. FROM BEHIND THE SCREEN

  1.These two articles were written by Beate Sirota Gordon, a translator for the administration of General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. She later said that it was vital to institutionalize women’s rights, since traditionally women had been ‘treated like chattel; they were property to be bought and sold on a whim’.

  2.‘Women’s Economic Opportunity: A new global index and ranking’, Economist Intelligence Unit, 2010.

  3.The Gender Inequality Index (2011) seeks to measure women’s disadvantage in the areas of reproductive health, empowerment and labour practice. The empowerment sub-category measures women’s representation in parliament and access to secondary and higher education. The labour element is measured by women’s participation in the workforce, which may not adequately take into account the type of work performed.

  4.The authors of the Gender Inequality Index report, for example, are careful to mention the limitations of the index, pointing out that much data is difficult to collect and that it makes no attempt to measure gender-based violence, participation in decision-making or even asset ownership.

  5.Mariko Sanchanta, ‘Japan Weighs Female Quotas in Politics’, Wall Street Journal, 24 June 2011.

  6.Mineko Iwasaki, interview with author, Kyoto, September 2003.

  7.Gail Lee Bernstein, quoted by Kenneth Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, pp. 152–3.

  8.Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama, p. 112.

  9.Mari Yamaguchi, ‘Japanese Rape Scandal Puts Spotlight on Club’, Los Angeles Times, 14 September 2003.

  10.Yumi Wijers-Hasegawa, ‘Gang Rape Ringleader Gets 14 Years’, Japan Times, 3 November 2004.

  11.William Pesek, ‘A Failure to Innovate’, Bloomberg News, 13 February 2007.

  12.The rate went from 1.28 per 1,000 in 1990 to 2.27 in 2001. It has since fallen back to around 2.0. That compares with 3.6 in the US. Interestingly, Japan had a very high divorce rate in the late nineteenth century. This then fell consistently until 1964 when, along with rapid industrialization, it started to rise again.

  13.Jeff Kingston, Contemporary Japan, pp. 67–70.

  14.Ibid., pp. 69–74.

  15.Remark to author, Nara, March 2012. In fact, more Japanese men marry foreign women, though such marriages often involve men in rural parts of Japan finding brides from poorer Southeast Asian countries.

  16.Machiko Osawa and Jeff Kingston, ‘Japan Has to Address the “Precariat”’, Financial Times, 1 July 2010.

  17.Yoshio Sugimoto, ‘Class and Work in Cultural Capitalism: Japanese Trends’, The Asia-Pacific Journal, 40-1-10, 4 October 2010.

  18.Kingston, Contemporary Japan, p. 71.

  19.Not her real name. A few minor details have been changed.

  12. ASIA EX-JAPAN

  1.Remarks to author, Manila, December 2012.

  2.‘Beijing and Seoul Denounce Visit’, International Herald Tribune, 14 August 2001.

  3.Interview with author, Tokyo, July 2002.

  4.John Dower, Embracing Defeat, p. 28.

  5.Ian Buruma, The Wages of Guilt, p. 92.

  6.Interview with author, Tokyo, July 2012.

  7.Buruma, Wages of Guilt, p. 143.

  8.Ibid., p. 64.

  9.Interview with author, Tokyo, November 2003.

  10.In Japanese the word she used for god was kami, which could be translated as ‘spirit’. It can be used as much for the gods that are said to inhabit the rivers and trees as for the spirits of soldiers who died serving the emperor.

  11.After its defeat of Russia in 1905, Japan took over the administration of the South Manchurian Railway, which gave it a foothold in Manchuria. Its influence spread after the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1931, in what has become known as the Mukden Incident, the Japanese military staged an attack on the railway as a pretext for invading all of Manchuria. It went on to establish the puppet state of Manchukuo under Puyi, the ‘last emperor’ of China’s Qing Dynasty.

  12.Kenneth Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, p. 201. The fact that Vichy France allowed Japan to occupy its colonial possessions in Indochina because of Japan’s alliance with Nazi Germany rather undermines the argument of Japan as liberator. The French continued to administer the area, the rough equivalent of modern Cambodia, Laos and Vi
etnam, under Japanese military occupation.

  13.For a detailed account of Saburo Ienaga, see Buruma, Wages of Guilt, pp. 189–201.

  14.Remarks to author, August 2004. In 2006, a Tokyo court ruled that it was unconstitutional to oblige teachers to stand in front of the national flag or sing the national anthem. But subsequent rulings by the Supreme Court quashed similar cases, saying it was not illegal to require teachers to stand. See David Pilling, ‘Japanese Teachers Freed from Singing National Anthem’, Financial Times, 22 September 2006.

  15.Interview with author, Tokyo, December 2006.

  16.Kenneth Pyle, Japan Rising, p. 373.

  17.Koizumi did attend the inaugural Boao Forum, intended to become a sort of Chinese Davos, in April 2002.

  18.Hugh Williamson and Ray Marcelo, ‘United Nations Warns on Asian Tensions’, Financial Times, 12 April 2005.

  13. ABNORMAL NATION

  1.Kokka no Hinkaku or ‘Dignity of a Nation’ was the title of Masahiko Fujiwara’s 2005 book.

  2.John Dower, Embracing Defeat, p. 454.

  3.David Pilling, ‘Abe to Work Towards New Japanese Constitution’, Financial Times, 31 October 2006.

  4.David Pilling, ‘To Befit the Reality’, Financial Times, 1 November 2006.

  5.Interview with author, Tokyo, August 2006.

  6.Japanese military officials explained that if, say, North Korea launched a missile, Japan would need to shoot it down before it knew for sure whether it was headed for Japan or another country. If the missile turned out to have been headed for the US, then, by shooting it down, Tokyo would have engaged in collective self-defence. If, on the other hand, it waited until it was sure the missile was going to land on Japan, it might then be too late to attempt to shoot it down at all.

  7.David Pilling, ‘Abe Assumes Command of “Pacifist” Forces’, Financial Times, 1 May 2007.

  8.Interview with author, Tokyo, March 2004.

  9.Gavan McCormack, Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, p. 198.

  10.Norimitsu Onishi, ‘Abe Rejects Japan’s Files on War Sex’, New York Times, 2 March 2007.

  11.Yukio Hatoyama, ‘The Wrong Memorial’, Financial Times, 13 August 2001.

  12.Martin Fackler, ‘Cables Show US Concern on Japan’s Readiness for Disaster’, New York Times, 4 May 2011. The cables in question were leaked by Wikileaks.

  13.Interview with author, Tokyo, July 2006.

  14.Troop numbers have gradually dwindled from about 50,000 when Koizumi was in office.

  15.Steve Rabson, Okinawa: Cold War Island, p. 79.

  16.Interview with author, Naha, Okinawa, January 2006.

  17.Interview with author, Tokyo, January 2006.

  18.Edwin Reischauer, former US ambassador to Japan. Recounted in Yoichi Funabashi, Alliance Adrift, p. 129.

  19.Quoted in Kenneth Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, p. 233.

  20.See McCormack, Client State.

  21.Shintaro Ishihara co-wrote the book in 1989 with Sony co-founder Akio Morita, arguing that Japan should be more than a mere ‘yes man’ to the US.

  22.Martin Fackler, ‘Japanese Leader Gives in to US on Okinawa Base’, New York Times, 24 May 2010.

  23.Martin Fackler, ‘US Relations Played Major Role in Downfall of Japanese Prime Minister’, New York Times, 3 June 2010.

  24.Japan had other territorial disputes with both Russia and South Korea. In both cases, the situation was the reverse of that with China. Japan claimed what it called the Northern Territories, but these had been administered by Russia, which called them the Southern Kuriles, since the end of the war. It also claimed what it called Takeshima island, which was administered by South Korea as Dokdo.

  25.Taipei, which also claimed the islands as part of Taiwan, called them Daioyutai.

  26.Quoted by Han-Yi Shaw, ‘The Inconvenient Truth Behind the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands’, http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/the-inconvenient-truth-behind-the-diaoyusenkaku-islands

  27.Mure Dickie and Kathrin Hille, ‘Japan’s Arrest of Captain Angers Beijing’, Financial Times, 8 September 2010.

  28.Yoichi Funabashi, ‘Japan–China Relations Stand at Ground Zero’, Asahi newspaper, 9 October 2010.

  14. FUKUSHIMA FALLOUT

  1.The Official Report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, Survey of the Evacuees (Appendices).

  2.Ibid.

  3.Gerrit Wiessmann, ‘Germany to Scrap Nuclear Power by 2022’, Financial Times, 30 May 2011.

  4.Hiroko Tabuchi, ‘A Window into Chaos of Fukushima’, International Herald Tribune, 11 August 2012.

  5.Some of the following description is taken from Jonathan Soble and Mure Dickie, ‘How Fukushima Failed’, Financial Times, 7 May 2011.

  6.Martin Fackler, ‘Evacuation of Tokyo Was Considered After Disaster’, International Herald Tribune, 29 February 2012. In practice the evacuation of such a massive city would take weeks or months, rendering such an exercise, to all practical purposes, impossible.

  7.Tabuchi, ‘A Window into Chaos of Fukushima’.

  8.Evan Osnos, ‘The Fallout: Letter from Fukushima’, New Yorker, 17 October 2011.

  9.Tabuchi, ‘A Window into Chaos of Fukushima’.

  10.Soble and Dickie, ‘How Fukushima Failed’.

  11.Norimitsu Onishi, ‘Safety Myth Left Japan Ripe for Nuclear Crisis’, New York Times, 24 June 2011.

  12.Interview with author, Tokyo, August 2011.

  13.Onishi, ‘Safety Myth Left Japan Ripe for Nuclear Crisis’.

  14.Hiroko Tabuchi, ‘Braving Heat and Radiation for Temp Job’, New York Times, 10 April 2011. Also see, Jake Adelstein, ‘How the Yakuza Went Nuclear’, Daily Telegraph, 21 February 2012.

  15.Interview with author, Tokyo, March 2012.

  16.Onda Katsunobu, interview with author, Tokyo, March 2012.

  17.Tabuchi, ‘A Window into Chaos of Fukushima’.

  18.Gerald Curtis, ‘Stop Blaming Fukushima on Japan’s Culture’, Financial Times, 10 July 2012.

  19.Account by Jonathan Soble, Financial Times correspondent, Tokyo.

  20.Peter Landers, ‘Japan Snaps Back with Less Power’, Wall Street Journal, 29 July 2011.

  21.Interview with author, Tokyo, June 2011.

  22.Tepco announced its intention to raise electricity prices in Tokyo and the surrounding area to compensate for the cost of compensation and the nuclear clear-up.

  23.Ben McLannahan, ‘Japan Deficit Rises to Record in January’, Financial Times, 21 February 2012.

  24.Martin Fackler, ‘Japanese Leaders, Pressed by Public, Fret as Nuclear Shutdown Nears’, New York Times, 5 May 2012.

  25.Interview with author, Tokyo, August 2011.

  26.Interview with author, Tokyo, March 2012.

  27.Interview with author, Tokyo, July 2012.

  28.Andrew Dewitt et al., ‘Fukushima and the Political Economy of Power Policy in Japan’, in Jeff Kingston (ed.), Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan, pp. 156–71.

  29.Rebecca Bream, ‘GE Chief Warns on Nuclear Prospects’, Financial Times, 3 August 2012.

  30.At Y42 per kilowatt hour for solar, the tariff was twice that set by Germany and three times that of China.

  31.Mariko Yasu, ‘Softbank’s CEO Wants a Solar-powered Japan’, BloombergBusinessweek, 23 June 2011.

  32.Mari Iwata, ‘Renewable Hopes in Japan Fall Short’, Wall Street Journal, 3 July 2012.

  33.Kaneshima Hironori, ‘Feed-in Tariff Energy System Gets Under Way’, The Daily Yomiuri, 3 July 2012.

  34.Landers, ‘Japan Snaps Back with Less Power’.

  35.Jonathan Soble, ‘Japan to Phase Out Nuclear Power’, Financial Times, 14 September 2012.

  36.Inevitably, police and organizers’ estimates of crowd sizes differed grea
tly.

  37.‘Japan’s Anti-Nuclear Protests’, The Economist, 21 July 2012.

  38.Correspondence with Jeff Kingston.

  39.Landers, ‘Japan Snaps Back with Less Power’.

  40.Kyung Lah, ‘Former Japanese Leader: “I Felt Fear” During Nuclear Crisis’, CNN.com, 28 May 2012.

  41.‘Nuclear Leaks Hit Marine Life’, Metro, 17 June 2011.

  42.‘Butterfly Mutations Found Near Fukushima’, Associated Press, 16 August 2012.

  43.Hiroko Tabuchi, ‘Japan: Estimate of Cancer Toll’, New York Times, 18 July 2012. Original study: John E. Ten Hoeve and Mark Z. Jacobson, ‘Worldwide Health Effects of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident’, DOI 10.1039/c2ee22019a www.rsc/org/ees

  44.Pico Iyer, ‘Heroes of the Hot Zone’, Vanity Fair, 1 January 2012.

  45.Hiroko Tabuchi, ‘Inquiry Sees Chaos in Evacuations After Japan Tsunami’, New York Times, 23 July 2012.

  46.Mure Dickie, ‘A Strange Kind of Homecoming’, Financial Times, 10 March 2012.

  47.Osnos, ‘The Fallout: Letter from Fukushima’.

  48.Translated by Hiroko Tabuchi, http://www.zerohedge.com/article/letter-fukushima-mother

  49.David Pilling, ‘Japanese People Make Mandarins Feel Nuclear Heat’, Financial Times, 31 July 2011.

  15. CITIZENS

  1.Gerald Curtis, talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Tokyo, September 2005.

  2.Jeff Kingston, ‘The Politics of Disaster, Nuclear Crisis and Recovery’, in Jeff Kingston (ed.), Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan, p. 192.

  3.Ibid., pp. 188–9.

  4.Simon Avenell, ‘From Kobe to Tohoku’ in Kingston (ed.), Natural Disaster, p. 60.

  5.Figure provided by Kiyomi Tsujimoto.

  6.Avenell, ‘From Kobe to Tohoku’, p. 54.

  7.Telephone interview, February 2012.

  8.Jeff Kingston, Japan’s Quiet Transformation: Social Change and Civil Society in the Twenty-first Century, p. 3.

  9.Email correspondence, August 2012.

  10.Remarks to author, Tokyo, June 2005.

  11.David H. Slater, Nishimura Keiko and Love Kindstrand, ‘Social Media in Disaster Japan’, in Kingston (ed.), Natural Disaster, pp. 94–108.