Fans of Japanese manga may be familiar with the genre gekiga (劇画), a term coined by renowned artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi in an attempt to demonstrate that not all comics are for children. Literally meaning “dramatic pictures,” the gekiga style is characterised by its realism and often-shocking plot twists. It started as an underground movement, but has since made its debut as an alternative style of manga.

Tatsumi is an animated gekiga film of sorts, inspired by and based on Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s life. In order to create the film, director Eric Khoo had his animators reproduce specific scenes from Tatsumi’s autobiographical work, A Drifting Life. Viewers are treated to an intimate view of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s life as a struggling artist, his failed relationships with members of the opposite sex, and an inside look into his journey to becoming one of the greatest manga-ka in Japan.

The manga of Yoshiro Tatsumi were used to create a worthy film.

Tidbits from Tatsumi’s short stories are interwoven between actual recollections about Tatsumi’s life, an inclusion that is initially confusing but eventually helps viewers understand more about Tatsumi’s thought process and the ideas that influenced him to push the boundaries of what was considered traditional in the manga world.

The 94 minutes of this film will be easier to follow if you are familiar with Tatsumi’s works already, but even if you aren’t, you probably won’t find it too difficult to differentiate experience from fictional narration. So if you’re interested in post-Occupation Japan and what life was like for artists back then, this just might be the film for you.

Tatsumi premiered in Japan during the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival, and is currently being screened at film festivals around the world. It’s slated for a 2012 release in the UK.

** This film is narrated in Japanese with English subtitles and may not be appropriate for young viewers **

Even if you estimate the number of yakuza members in Japan at 80,000–that still seems like a hard quota to fill, especially in smaller cities in Japan where the yakuza presence may be slim.  Police officers in Saitama, while not confirming the exact number,  said about the quota, “It’s not an easy number to fill. It almost makes you wish there was a gang war between the Sumiyoshi-kai and the Yamaguchi-gumi again….just kidding. Sort of.”  However, officers in Osaka said, “20? We could do that in a week. This town is infested with yakuza. On loan sharking charges alone we can round up twenty.”

The National Police Agency allegedly set a quota for yakuza arrests nationwide. First the exclusionary ordinances, and now this. Life isn't easy for the nine-fingered guy. (Illustration from the Shizuoka Prefecture PD)

The National Police Agency would not comment and it is unclear whether the quota is actually for the police headquarters of each Tokyo, Hokkaido, Osaka, Kyoto and the other 43 prefectures or the police stations within each Police HQ’s turf. One thing is for certain, when the NPA starts establishing quotas on cracking down on something, they’re very serious about it.

One thing that hasn’t changed though is the tradition of designating certain months of the year Special Concentrated Crackdown On Organized Crime Month(集中取り締まり月間). In the old days, the organized crime control cops (known as マル暴刑事・marubokeiji) would call up the local crime bosses and warn them to be on their best behavior. In the last two years, that practice has ceased almost completely. The days when crackdowns on the Japanese mafia were done with civility and decorum appear to be a thing of the past. Even raids on gang headquarters are now often done without advance warning. Times are changing.

This door to the shrine is seldom used but worth walking through. On the other side, the land of the gods.

The first visit to a shrine at the start of the New Year is important in Japan. We went and filled out a votive tablet (絵馬) for you. Good luck and best wishes in 2012!

This is our way of saying thanks for sticking with us and the blog for 2011 and expressing our best wishes for 2012. Even if you don’t believe in the Shinto Gods, it can’t hurt to have them on your side.

あけましておめでとうございます！

Ms. Stucky Post Power-Spot. "I feel like I'm floating on air!"

Jake feels the power.

The Kiyomasa Well (清正井), located in the Meij Jingu (明治神宮) Inner Garden is believed to be one of Tokyo premier power spots. No one is sure when the rumors began but around 2010, Japanese celebrities began whispering that if you took a photo of the well and used it as your cell-phone mainscreen that your good luck would bubble over, like the pure water that continues to bubble from the Kiyomasa well for many decades. We know that not everyone can make it to “the pond of power” so we decided to go for you guys. We’re so glad we did.

The well of Kiyomasa. It brings great luck to all those who visit it and carry a photo of it in their cell-phone. Please use it as you please. (Japan Subculture Research Center 2012)

It’s easy to miss the magic well of Kiyomasa, since the Meiji Jingu Inner Garden is a little off the beaten path to the main shrine. According to Meiji Shrine, the garden first belonged to Lord  Kiyomasa Kato and later Lord Li during the Edo Period. (When was the Edo period? Look it up. ) In the reign of Emperor Meiji, who was quite the radical reformer in his day, it was passed over to the Imperial Estate.

The well is fountain head of Nan-Chi (South pond) and the pure water bubbles out in a steady flow all year round. Apparently, it was a lucky strike when Lord Kato started to dig a basement. The well is famous for its simplistic design and the excellence of the well-water. Unfortunately, since the triple-meltdown in March, the shrine now asks people to refrain from drinking the water. However, photos are still okay!  You can even dip your hands into the relatively warm water. Swimming: not allowed. Enjoy the luck while it lasts!

The well is still so popular that lines form to take a picture of it.

Assistant editor and staff writer Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky tests out the power of the well. "冷たい！”

FUCKIN' SALE. In flashy Osaka the use of English for decorative purposes in Japanese advertising reaches a new peak of perfection.

There are some stories that explain themselves pretty f*ckin’ eloquently.

God knows what the people in this Department Store in Osaka were thinking when they came up with this advertising slogan but Zarina Yamaguchi, a friend of a friend, was thinking “pretty damn funny” when she snapped this picture on January 4th. Zarina explains:

Well, a childhood friend of mine and I were strolling along the local street in Shinsaibashi, Osaka. Being around the extra-genki Osaka-jins and salesladies screaming ‘Irashaimasse’ from every direction for the ongoing New Year Sales has never made us feel more at home. On our way to catch up over coffee, I walked into this store to check some things. Truth is, I didn’t even notice the posters. When I looked around, each corner had posters that printed ‘fucking sale’. I didn’t know how to react but what caught me by surprise was that none of the people around me seem to understand the profanity. My friend Sarah and I, both of mixed Japanese descent, both bilingual in Japanese and English, were struck with the comical twist. Pretty sure I would have never seen this elsewhere, I had to snap a shot. 

The store is located in Shinsaibashi right next to Hearton Hotel Shinsaibashi and Planet 3rd cafe, she adds.

I should note that Zarina’s childhood friend is Sarah Kashani, my friend and one of the most knowledgable scholars on Koreans in Japan. Sarah verified the authenticity of the signage and the sale, although neither side has disclosed whether they actually bought anything at the sale.

2012 is going to be a fuckin’ awesome year in Japan. You can’t help but feel that way. Our thanks to Ms. Yamaguchi-sama for her contribution. We’re f*ckin’ grateful. 超感謝ですよ。

These cats are all dressed up for the fuckin' sale, dude.

What 2011 means for Japan in 2012 and beyond

I have a jaded opinion of what Japan needs to do in the future is as follow after this, but I’d like to know what you think Japan needs to do this year as a nation to improve itself.  Suggestions welcome.  Here is my take:  Japan needs government agencies with the autonomy to do their jobs, where whistle-blowing is rewarded and a free and independent press to serve as a fail-safe device when the watchdogs fall asleep on the job.

Japan’s biggest problems are not disaster readiness or dealing with the nuclear meltdowns. The biggest problems Japan faces are encapsulated in Tepco and Olympus: systematic corruption, lack of real regulation, and lack of oversight by independent bodies on the companies that have so much influence on the nation. The nuclear disaster at Fukushima was foreseen and nothing was done; mounting evidence suggests that the earthquakes alone caused enough damage to one reactor to start a meltdown. The Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency, instead of sanctioning Tepco, has been a cheerleader. The financial fraud at Olympus should have been uncovered years ago. Corruption is a cancer that eats at Japan and for the country to grow, those cells need to be removed.

I celebrated the 1st of the year with family back in the USA.  I moved three containers of stuff out of my old home. It made me think a little about the new year and the past. Not that the past is ever really over, it just fades into the background, but haunts our lives like a ghost or a very surly poltergeist.  I know what my resolutions are for the year but going back over all old blog entries I realize what I wish for 2012.

These aren’t my words but I wish I had the power to make these benedictions come true. Have a good year! (From tomorrow we will return to our usual caustic and black humor.)

無縁地蔵尊-Bodhisattva Muen-Jizo, Patron Buddha of The Forgotten and Unmourned

 May those who go in dread

have no more fear.

May captives be unchained and now set free

And may the weak now receive their strength

May beings help each other in kindness

May the lonely no longer be alone

May travelers upon the road

Find happiness no matter where they go

And may they gain, without the need of toil,

The goals on which they set their hearts

--benediction from Shantideva, Buddhist scholar

During the last Year Of The Dragon (2000), Godzilla caused almost as much damage to Japan as TEPCO. Happily, recent earthquakes did not awaken him.

A solid earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 shook up a wide area in eastern and northeastern Japan on  Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There was no Godzilla Warning issued and no Nuclear Safety Inspection Agency staff hurt themselves fleeing from the nuclear reactors where they were stationed.

The Government of Japan has assured the populace that Godzilla did not waken from his slumber to herald in the Year Of The Dragon. Prime Minister Noda assured the public that Godzilla was not in fact a dragon, while admitting that because Godzilla is a fire-breathing, gigantic, destructive reptile–”he does bare similarities to a dragon but Godzilla cannot fly. Thus he’s not a dragon. We have everything under control this time.” The Godzilla & Mothra Management Agency (GMMA) also said that they had checked the ear plugs inserted in Godzilla’s head and were certain that the ruckus had not caused any serious changes in his REM measurements. “He’s sound asleep,” sources said.

The agency noted that quake measured an intensity of 4 on the Japanese scale of 7 in many locations in downtown Tokyo, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures–but only 1.2 in the underwater dungeon in which Godzilla has been imprisoned since the previous Year Of the Dragon.

Happy New Year 2012

It was a hell of a year. Literally, for the last surviving editor of this blog, at least. 2011 was the year that an earthquake devastated Japan, followed by a triple nuclear meltdown courtesy of the corrupt and possibly criminally negligent folks at TEPCO. Tadamasa Goto, the former yakuza boss allegedly turned Buddhist priest, was “lucky” enough to have one of his former henchmen shot to death in Thailand, thus basically destroying a five year investigation into him on murder charges. He united with the Kyushu Seido-kai and began working as a gangster again, prompting the police to reunite a “Goto Squad” and making me very uncomfortable.

Olympus, the optical equipment maker brought into focus the extent of corruption and lack of governance in Japan’s corporate world. Stephanie Nakajima, our chief editor took off to Occupy New York. Sarah Noorbaksh continued to be our tech support but began to focus on new projects.

On a personal level, I discovered that no natural disaster seems to trump the natural disaster that is my own body. Years of drinking and smoking too much probably took their toll and I came back to Japan after 3/11 to find a note from the doctor that no patient wants to read. I survived illness #1 only to get knocked down again with illness #2.  I got better. I got smarter. On October 1st, the same day the organized exclusionary clauses went on the books nation-wide, I quit smoking. Except for one binge, I’ve stayed nicotine free. I’m not expecting a pat on the back. As my daughter says, “Not smoking is no big deal. Do we congratulate people for not slamming their fingers in a door for six months or say ‘Hey, congratulations, it’s been two weeks since you walked into a wall!’”  She has a point.

This year we have a new staff, a bigger budget, and hopefully some guest contributors.  Look forward to more articles, more entries and more photos as well. Before burying 2011, I’d like to say a special thanks to Stephanie Nakajima, Sarah Noorbakhsh, Ikuru Kuwajima, Mari Kurisato, and everyone who wrote into this blog and has continued to read it. It is appreciated and hopefully edifying for you as well. If not edifying, at least entertaining. And if neither, hopefully a pleasant waste of time.

May 2012 bring you good fortune, happiness, health and contentment. May the wicked be punished, the just rewarded, TEPCO dismantled, Japan revitalized,  the corrupt imprisoned and may the 99% learn to share a little bit better with the 1%, may I be free from mild dyslexia and may the 1% share a little bet better with the 99%. 合掌！

Wishing you all the best for 2012!

My personal favorite buzzword of the year was 想定外 (soteigai) which literally means, “outside what we could conceive” or “unforeseeable.”   It was used often by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to explain their failure to prevent a triple nuclear meltdown. We hear the word less from the TEPCO flacks as it turns out that for years they were aware that a large earthquake could cause critical damage to the plant and a plant and that a tsunami might wipe out their electrical systems and back-up systems for dealing with damage to the nuclear reactors.  Perhaps, 想定外  in the TEPCO play books means this, “We don’t foresee anyone holding us accountable for our criminal negligence.” They may be right. I’m using it as my excuse for anything poorly planned, for example, when ordering Christmas gifts from Amazon the day before Christmas. “Gee kids, I don’t know why that Lego set didn’t arrive. 想定外ですね”

Gakuranman, has an encyclopedic feature on the 60 buzzwords for the year, including 超可愛い (super-cute) photos. Click on these happy (ageopoyo) girls for the feature. 

For the top ten buzzwords, Sandra Barron, of the Japan Times Japan Pulse, has a great article. Here’s an excerpt.

The news in Japan in 2011 was dominated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of the Tohoku region (and proved the worth of Tokyo’s earthquake-resistant architecture). It’s only natural that words related to the disaster and its aftermath made up a good portion of the top buzzwords of the year as chosen by Jiyu Kokuminsha, publishers of an annual book of new and newly important words. However, the mundane and the downright silly mix with the serious in this list, whittled down from an initial 60 nominees, as life did go on for most of Japan, albeit with a new sense of gravity. In descending order, here are the top 10 buzz phrases of 2011 in Japan.

Legendary investigative journalist and fired General Manager of the Yomiuri Giants discusses compliance problems at a press conference on November 25th

The Yomiuri Newspaper　(読売新聞) is the largest newspaper in the world (10,000,000 circulation) and Mr. Watanabe is the de facto ruler of the paper. He is the Rupert Murdoch of Japan, combined with the power of Richard Nixon in his prime. The Yomiuri Giants, one of Japan’s most popular baseball teams, are part of the Yomiuri Empire that includes its own amusement park, Yomiuri Land. It is wholly owned by Yomiuri Holdings, of which Watanabe is also the chairman.

Watanabe Tsuneo: Media and Power--an expose of "The Rupert Murdoch of Japan" which was highly critical of the Yomiuri Chairman

The Giants fired Kiyotake, 61, on Nov. 18, saying his actions were inappropriate because he was told not to go to the press by other executives inside the Yomiuri group and disclosed sensitive information on personnel matters.

Kiyotake’s press conference on Nov. 11 criticized Watanabe, who allegedly ignored all rules of management in place and accused him of “serious violation of compliance.”

Mr. Kiyotake noted, “I was a reporter of the social news department of the Yomiuri Shimbun. And in those days, I attacked the noncompliance of other companies and strongly criticized the leaders of the companies who violated compliance,”

“Therefore, if I had condoned this serious noncompliance that would betray the fans, players, coaches, field managers and honest employees in order to save myself, it would have been an immoral act,” said Kiyotake. He has represented the Giants in some capacity since 2004. Kiyotake was the former number two in the Yomiuri’s Social (National) News Department (社会部) which does most of the investigative journalism at the newspaper. After he was transferred to the Giants, the entire Social (National) News Department was moved from a secluded corner of the Yomiuri building into the middle of the floor, where the reporters came under the scrutiny of middle-management, essentially put on “a watch-list.”

 According to this book and other sources, Watanabe, a former political reporter, has always regarded the Social (National) News Department (社会部) with disdain since they have exposed corrupt acts by politicians he was particularly friendly with.  In many circles, it is joked that the Yomiuri was the official newspaper of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) which had a stranglehold on the Japanese government for more than four decades.  (The Democratic Party of Japan ruling coalition took over in 2009 after winning the support of Japan’s largest criminal organization, the Yamaguchi-gumi and affiliates in 2007.)

 Kiyotake also told the assembled press on Friday that Watanabe tried to get him to cancel the press conference just before he was about to hold it.“By the end of our call he was threatening me by saying things like ‘You are going to ruin yourself. You are waging all-out war against the Yomiuri Shimbun,’ ” Kiyotake said in his statement.

It is an interesting threat, if true, in that it seems to indicate Chairman Watanabe sees both the newspaper and the baseball team as his personal property and suggests that he is able to and willing to use the Yomiuri Newspaper as a tool in personal vendettas. This could call into question the entire credibility of the newspaper.  The Hidetoshi Kiyotake Statement In English and 清武さんの声明文 can be read here.

*Editor’s note: Due to an inability to contact the public relations department of the Yomiuri Shimbun today, a revised version of this article will be posted later in another forum.  The author (that’s me), was a reporter at the Yomiuri Shinbun from 1993-2005 and  worked under Mr. Kiyotake as a reporter and therefore is not completely objective. From personal experience and other sources, I believe he is telling the truth. I contributed an article on recent events at the Yomiuri to a daily newspaper in the Sankei Group, Yukan Fuji (夕刊フジ), which I will translate here, if given permission.