Japan Subculture Research Center – Page 2 – A guide to the Japanese underworld, Japanese pop-culture, yakuza and everything dark under the sun.

Bloodshed, Firecrackers and Tears–The Best Japanese Movies Of The Heisei

By Kaori Shoji

Want to talk about movies?
From the vantage point of a film writer, the Heisei Era (January 8, 1989 to April 30, 2019) felt like a relationship that neither party had the courage to end. You know – the one where the occasional moments of joy are almost enough to blot out the periodic outbursts of blah. On the plus side, the collapse of the studio system and the rise of the PIA Film Festival’s indies support system enabled young directors to go from “mom, I think I’ll make movies for a living” to getting listed on imdb.com in an unprecedented short span of time.
On the minus side, budgets dried up as the economy sank into the mires of a 20-year recession. Japanese movies lost the clout points earned by the cinematic giants of old, like Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi. The films that came out were drastically reduced in scale. In the meantime, rival filmmakers in China and South Korea emigrated to Hollywood and stunned the world with grandiose, mythical stories funded by mega-budgets.

Still, we kept slingin’ that hammer because deep down in the recesses of our souls, we suspected that this is as good as it gets. Here’s a guide to take you through the most memorable movies (including the bad, the good and the ugly) that adorned the Heisei era – in random order.

1) Spirited Away『千と千尋の神隠し』2001
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

In many ways, Heisei belongs to Hayao Miyazaki, who at 78, remains Japanese anime’s biggest influencer. As co-founder of anime production company Studio Ghibli, Miyazaki’s works have always been gorgeous to look at but not always easy to understand; he has always avoided there feel-good formulaic plots favored by of Disney, designed to make everyone feel special and loved. Instead, the grand master of Nippon Anime has loftier plans. Part of it comes from his love of flying – Before WWII, Miyazaki’s family owned and operated a small aircrafts manufacturer and apparently, he was drawing airplanes before he could walk. What Japanese film critics describe as the “soar factor” is prevalent in almost every one of Miyazaki’s films, a sensation of flight, freedom and autonomy as the characters aim for the sky and struggle to gain control over their destinies. In Spirited Away,the soar factor is embodied by a flying dragon, and an impossibly high staircase that 10-year old protagonist Sen must navigate several times each day, if she is to survive and rescue her parents who have been changed into pigs. Spirited Away is a great piece of entertainment but it’s also classic Miyazaki – philosophical and stoic to the very last frame.

2) Minbo『ミンボーの女』1992
Directed by Juzo Itami

In the west, Juzo Itami is best known for Tampopo, a hilarious and sensual celebration of food. Minbo is far less light-hearted.

As the son of eminent prewar filmmaker Mansaku Itami, Juzo had always banked on his rich-kid image and a man-about-town snobbishness, both of which he deployed to full advantage in his films. But Minbo was a different breed. The story of a lawyer specializing in organized crime (played by Itami’s wife and leading lady Nobuko Miyamoto) hired to deal with yakuza (Japanese gangster) thugs, Minbo is dark and accusatory. The yakuza are depicted for what they are: childish, insecure bullies protected by clans interested only in profit (not honor, as most Japanese movies would have us believe). To prove his point, Itami swaps out Miyamoto’s trademark buoyancy for a rigid and sometimes leaden performance and the some of the action sequences seem over-the-top silly. Still, Minbo is probably Juzo Itami’s most important work, not least because it marks a crossroad in both his career and his life. After the release of Minbo, Itami was attacked by yakuza henchmen sent from the notorious Goto clan and got his face slashed up. Five years later, he jumped to his death from his office window. Whether Itami’s death was voluntary or enforced (by Goto’s men) remains an open mystery.

3) The Shoplifters『万引き家族』2018
Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda

1) One Big Happy Family – clockwise from right, Mayu Matsuoka, Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Jyo Kairi, Miyu Sasaki and Sakura Ando. Title: The Shoplifters ©️2018 Fuji Television GAGA AOI Pro. Distributed by GAGA

One out of 7 children in Japan are living below the poverty line, with school lunches as their main source of nourishment. In Hirokazu Koreeda’s The Shoplifters, that number feels like more. Starring the always watchable Lily Franky and Sakura Ando as a down and out couple raising a 10 year old son in the ramshackle house of an elderly ‘obaachan (grandma),’ The Shoplifters won Koreeda the Palme D’Or at Cannes – the first ever for a Japanese director. The Abe Administration took offense at how Koreeda took the nation’s dirty linen and washed it in public so to speak. But The Shoplifters did wonderfully well at the box office, soaring to number 4 in the list of Japan’s highest grossing films of all time. One of the takeaways of this film is that in spite of their shoplifting, hand-to-mouth existence, the family is united by a fierce loyalty and is somehow, amazingly content – a rarity among Japan’s urban families mired in stress and societal pressure. A poignant and ultimately tragic film, The Shoplifters makes you want to see it again and again.

4) Ichi『殺し屋イチ』2001
Directed by Takashi Miike

Does Takashi Miike have nightmares and if so, what can they possibly look like? As the master portrayer of Japanese stab-and-slash violence, Miike is notorious for his unflinching dedication to drenching the screen in blood and gore. Ichi remains his most memorable work, not least because it stars the internationally respected Tadanobu Asano and the deadpan Nao Omori as rival yakuza henchmen ostensibly bent on revenging the death of their boss. The duo’s real objective however, turns out to be the high savored from killing as many human beings as possible, in the most gruesome of ways. The backdrop is Kabukicho, Shinjuku at the turn of the century, and Ichi’s glamorized violence makes the whole place look dangerously alluring. Present day Kabukicho has turned into a staid tourist trap with surveillance cameras placed in every nook and cranny, to nip violent incidents in the bud, apparently. No worries – even the yakuza go around with eyes glued to their phones.

5) Kamome Shokudo『かもめ食堂』2006
Directed by Naoko Ogigami

Heisei was an era in which many Japanese women categorically refused to get hitched and even more to give birth. The birth rate plummeted to an all-time low of 1.43. In 10 years, one out of five women (and one out of four men) are expected to live out their lives without ever having a partner which may strike the casual observer as a spectacularly tragic statistic. For director Naoko Ogigami however, the numbers are fodder for her particular genre of filmmaking. Kamome Shokudo is her breakthrough work that deal with a trio of single women who come together in Helsinki. One of them, Sachie (Satomi Kobayashi) runs a local diner and the other two (played by Hairi Katagiri and Masako Motai) decide to work there as well. The utter absence of emotional drama (but an abundance of great food) is incredibly healing as you realize that Japanese women may have more freedom and control over their lives than we thought. Best line: “Onigiri is the soul food of Japan.”

6) Zan『斬』2018
Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto

Shinya Tsukamoto is a weird and wonderful film buff. For the entirety of the Heisei Era, he has acted, produced and directed his own films – always on a minuscule budget and a minimal number of staff. He even nabbed a part in Martin Scorsese’s Silence (for which he auditioned along with everyone else), prompting the great Scorsese to seek Tsukamoto out on set and shake his hand.

Last year, Tsukamoto came out with Zan which he shot in less than a month and starred as a wandering samurai in the last days of the Edo Period. The film is brilliant for two reasons: 1) it highlights the samurai class as reluctant murderers who must cut people up to prove themselves, and 2) it shows up the brutally labor-intensive, muck raking poverty of late 19th century Japan. In the midst of the shit-logged ditch water however, you can almost glimpse that gem of hope. An unforgettable cinema experience.

7) Tokyo Sonata『トウキョウソナタ』2008
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Years have passed since Kiyoshi Kurosawa replaced Akira as the pre-eminent Japanese filmmaker with that surname. Though Kurosawa’s main turf is horror, (Cure, anyone?) Tokyo Sonata is arguably his best and most accessible work, drawing an unexpectedly stunning performance from former pop idol Kyoko Koizumi.

Koizumi plays housewife Megumi, who is ambivalent about her stay-at-home existence in the burbs while having no idea how to break out of her shell. Her husband (Teruyuki Kagawa) is a sarariman (salaryman) who has recently been fired from his job, but pretends to go to work every morning in his suit and tie. The couples’ two reticent teenage sons have plans and desires of their own, of which their parents know nothing. Each of the family members seem to be dancing to a different tune, audible only to themselves until one day, their hidden urges come tumbling out. A haunting beautiful story that amply illustrates the dreariness of Japan’s two-decade long recession.

8) 北野武監督
HANA-BI 1997年

Say what you like about comedian and filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, but there’s no denying that for about 20 years in the Heisei period, the man was the closest thing Japan had to a living deity. The man has a violent streak, as demonstrated in the 1986 attack on the offices of papparazi rag “Friday” for which he was arrested and found guilty (but got off with a suspended sentence). In 1994, a motor bike accident that would have killed another man landed him in the hospital for 6 months but before he got out, he went on the air and cracked jokes about his horribly disfigured face.

In the Heisei era, Kitano made some unforgettable movies but HANA-BI, (meaning ‘fireworks’) is a masterpiece. He directed, co-wrote and starred as Nishi, a cop who has just lost a young son. The tragedy causes Nishi’s life to spin out of control, as his wife (Kayoko Kishimoto) is hospitalized and his buddy Horibe (Ren Osugi) is shot by a perpetrator. Later, Nishi quits the police force to takes his wife on a trip, intending to kill her before putting a bullet in his own head.

Though Kitano has always worked in comedy, he is rarely verbose and HANA-BI is amazingly reticent. The absence of explanatory dialogue matches the extraordinarily lovely visuals, drenched in dark blue and gray tones as the story traces the graceful arc of Nishi’s downfall.

9) “Helter Skelter” 『ヘルタースケルター』2012
Directed by Mika Ninagawa

Mike Ninagawa may have been born with a silver spoon but her talent (and personal struggle) is achingly real. As the daughter of Japan’s foremost theater director Yukio Ninagawa, Mika’s life was both charmed and cursed. Dad’s glorious reputation preceded her everywhere she went so perhaps it was natural for her to choose photography and film instead of the stage. Helter Skelter is her second feature and stars the enfant terrible of the Japanese film industry Erika Sawajiri, as a nymphomaniac actress who lives in fear of losing her beauty. To prevent this from happening, the actress periodically goes under the knife, endangering not just her health but her sanity as well. Helter Skelter is audacious, brilliant and gorgeously shot – and an astute observation of fame and celebrity-dom in Japan’s youth-obsessed media industry.

10) Still the Water 『2つ目の窓』2014
Directed by Naomi Kawase

Naomi Kawase had a chaotic upbringing –her parents more or less abandoned her when she was a baby and the filmmaker was subsequently brought up by a relative. In interviews, Kawase has said she has tried to understand her life by making films about families and indeed, her works show a special fascination (or obsession) with the family dynamic. Still the Water feels especially intimate – a coming of age tale set in gorgeous Amami Oshima island off the coast of Kagoshima prefecture. Two teenagers (Junko Abe and Nijiro MurakamiI) struggle with their roots as their parents fumble about, trying to come to terms with their own identities and personal desires. Miyuki Kumagai plays the island ‘yuta’ (shaman) who must face her own imminent death by cancer, as her family resents her apparent powerlessness over her fate. A film that feels like an solitary, introverted vacation by the beach.

Meet The Beast! A night with Bob Sapp This Friday

I’ve known Bob since back in those K-1 Days. He’s a survivor.

Bob Sapp, Pro Fighter and Actor will speak at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan this Friday!

18:30-20:00 Friday, June 7, 2019
(The speech and Q & A will be in English)

Cocktail Party: 18:30-19:00
Speech: 19:00-19:20
Q&A session: 19:20-20:00

“Being a Foreign Entertainer in the Japanese TV Industry”

To MMA fans all over the world he’s known as “The Beast. Bob Sapp is a former American NFL player, WWE professional wrestler and World Champion kickboxer. Bob has appeared on an episode of HBO Real Sports and has been featured in magazines all over the world and once was ubiquitous in Japanese Television. Bob has appeared on the big-screen as well in ‘Conan the Barbarian’ and with Adam Sandler in ‘The Longest Yard’. No one knows the business and entertainment and MMA world in Japan than Bob Sapp.

If you’d like to meet and greet The Beast. Please reserve in advance, 3211-3161, says the FCCJ.

*Due to space restrictions, please note there will be a limited number of reservations to attend. Reservations will be limited to the first 40 applicants and Reservations cancelled beyond 18:00 Thursday, June 6 will be charged in full. Those without reservations will be turned away once available seats are filled. Reservations and cancellations are not complete without confirmation. FCCJ members, including TV cameras, will have priority for the reservation and seating/setting positions and one TV camera for affiliate networks.

Fee: FCCJ members: 2,000 yen / non-FCCJ members: 3,000 yen (Two Drink Tickets included).

PAC イブニングミーティング
ボブ・サップ、プロファイター、俳優

6月7日（金）18：30-20：00
スピーチ、Q&A：英語
費用：会員様2,000円、非会員様3,000円（2ドリンクチケット付）
　　　　非会員の方々の参加費は、現金またはクレジットカードでお支払いいただけます。

Review: Teach me Enma-sama

In the children’s picture book Teach me Enma-sama, written and illustrated by Hiromi Tanaka, Enma who is the King of Hell in Buddhist mythology teaches children how to behave in a “proper” way by scaring the living shit out of them. The picture book is intended for 5 to 8-year-olds and is partly formatted as a guide for parents to discipline their children as well. The book teaches children what they shouldn’t do and how society works through at times humorous but more often horrifying descriptions about Enma and hell.

“Ogres will cut you up [etc.]… for food and then after you die they will revive you and repeat this process endlessly.” (p. 26)

Some of the book can be a surprisingly thoughtful approach for children to think about bullying, cheating, lying – things many children tend to do without noticing or understanding the moral implications and consequences.

The book itself is inspired by Hokku-kyo, which is the oldest Buddhist scripture, and Buddhism itself drops many tips about raising children. It furthermore, introduces things to teach one’s children, such as why they shouldn’t be doing “bad” things, social codes, and etiquette.

The book covers 31 topics within three chapters, with roughly one subject per page, with a speech from Enma-sama, following explanation for kids, a message for parents when reading with children as well as the original untranslated sentences from Buddhist scriptures such as the Hokku-kyo.

Bad things children tend to do without noticing is addressed in chapter 1. From not having likes and dislikes about food or leaving unfinished food, to being quiet in public places. It teaches them to become aware of others and that they are not the center of the universe.

Chapter 2 covers topics about the evil that lives in people’s minds, such as jealousy and hatred. It puts a great emphasis on not comparing oneself to others and recognizing that others are not objects but human beings with feelings, just like ourselves. It also mentions that people should stay positive.

Finally, in chapter 3, the evil that dwells in words. Such as that one should be careful when speaking, as once a person says something, it is impossible to unsay it. Thus is tell the reader not to lie, verbally abuse others, as well as to stay true to oneself.

“You will have a skewer inserted up your rectum into your body and then be roasted” (p. 81)

All of this is generally well good, except for the glaring fact that some of the pictures and descriptions provided in the book wouldn’t be out of place in a Saw or similar horror movie, yet are in a book that is intended for young children…………

In conclusion, the book gives a somewhat universal idea of what is good and what is bad, abet in a very black and white fashion, while accompanied by nightmare inducing depictions.

Heisei to Reiwa ≠ Heiwa?

On April 30^th, Emperor Akihito became the first sitting Japanese Emperor to abdicate the throne in over 200 years. Then, the following day on May 1^st, his son Naruhito ascended the throne, becoming the 125^th emperor thus marking the official start of the Reiwa (令和) Era.

In recognition of this momentous occasion, that PM Abe described to Trump as being “100 times bigger [than the Super Bowl],” many stores and companies released new products. Such as Reiwa branded sake and beer, a ¥100,000 truffle wagyu burger, foie gras and gold dust toped 3kg wagyu burger, gold dust seasoned potato chips and cans of Heisei Era air from Heinari in Gifu Prefecture, heisei branded bottles of water costing ¥2000. While many other stores simply opted to hold special time-limited sales.

At the same time, many Japanese consumers enjoyed an extremely long holiday (by Japanese standards) of 10 days and many went on spending sprees with some economists estimating there to be a nationwide spike in spending by tens of billions of Yen.

Meanwhile, many in China reportedly were baffled and disappointed that the new era name wasn’t based off of Chinese classics like many past era names and instead was instead allegedly derived from a collection of classical Japanese poetry from the late 7^th to 8^th centuries known as The Manyoshu.

One of the most odd effects of the new Reiwa era name, however, is the celebration of many Tibetans living in Japan due to the new era’s name sounding similar to the Tibetan word for “hope”. There are many people who hope and believe that the new era’s name is an auspicious sign for the Tibetan people; May 10^th marks the 60^th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule.

Boy’s Love: A Dynamic Expression of Sexuality

By Taylor Drew

Introduction

The decades following the end of the Second World War marked a significant period of development for Japanese manga. The genres of manga became divided between two primary genres, shounen, and shoujo, for boys and girls respectively, and the art of telling longer running stories became mainstream practice. As well, women began to enter the manga industry rapidly during the 1950’s and 1960’s, which would cause a significant shift in the stories that were told and how they were presented within shoujo manga that was released (Prough 2011:46-48). The stories that were produced in this new style followed patterns of using exotic locations outside of Japan as the main setting and expressing the emotions involved in human relationships, often love triangles between the main character, the heroine, and two boys that she was close to. They also employed a drawing style that remains recognized as a style for shoujo manga. Despite the many changes that took place, it was not until the 1970’s that female manga artists would begin to experiment with the portrayal of kissing and sex in shoujo manga for older teenagers (Prough 2011: 53). However, these initial intimate scenes were not between two people of the opposite sex but rather between two boys.

This new genre of shoujo manga, known as yaoi, shounen ai, and/or boys love depending on time period and context, offered a new type of story to be consumed by the girls that were reading manga at that time. Even though this new genre of shoujo manga was about the love between two boys, it was not about portraying a realistic and loving relationship between two men. Instead, the relationships within boys love manga were symbolic of things desired and things experienced by Japanese girls and women; they were a way for restricted individuals to express their sexuality in text. While the genre has gone through many stylistic changes, especially in recent years, this symbolism can still be seen even in more recent works of boys love manga. By understanding the thematic and stylistic origins of boys love manga and by analyzing some more recent works, it will be possible to see how this symbolism continued on through various dynamic changes in the genre while also developing into something new to accommodate for continuing critic from the gay community and its allies in Japan.

The Origin of Boys Love

The boys love genre saw its origins in the early 1970’s as a type of mainstream shoujo manga. At the time known as shounen-ai, these stories followed the romance between two beautiful boys. The appearance of these beautiful boys is striking because of the androgynous nature of their appearances; with their long flowing hair and slender bodies their gender appears as ambiguous to the untrained eye. In addition to their genderless appearances, when engaging in intimate activity, the panels of the manga were placed in a way that made their sexual actions even more ambiguous by never directly showing insertion of a penis or other obviously male occurrences (Prough 2011:53). While the appearance of these beautiful boys may bring to question the true nature of their sex, interviews with artists of the genre suggest that in their eyes at least, there is no doubt that these beautifully drawn androgynous boys are male (Welker 2011: 213). None the less, it is likely that the ambiguous appearances of the boys likely helped facilitate an understanding of the characters for the readers.

Additionally, the early settings of these shounen-ai manga were placed in exotic locations just like other shoujo manga of the time. Not unlike other shoujo manga, these exotic locations were typically historical Europe in aristocratic families, all-boys boarding schools, or both. Again like other shoujo manga of the time, the focus was on the emotions and connections made by the main character to others around him.The combination of foreign location and androgynous boys allowed for the mainstream shoujo manga readers to enjoy these early shounen ai stories by distancing them from the sexual content but also by being relatable which was an overall important accomplishment for manga because intimacy had never been expressed in such a way in manga before (Prough 2011: 54).

By the 1980’s, shounen ai had left mainstream shoujo manga magazines and began publishing in specialty magazines for the genre. With this new vein of publishing the genre took on a new name courtesy of the publishing industry, becoming the English “boys love” that is primarily used in this essay. Stories about the love between two boys also began to thrive in another market, that of doujinshi, or self-published fanfiction (Prough 2011: 54). In this instance, these self-published works were manga though doujinshi as a term refers to all fan-published material. Within these fan-made works, the genre was known as yaoi, an acronym that stands for “no climax, no ending, no meaning.” This terminology represents the way that these stories were written without much thought or plot. In this case of boys love doujinshi they were typically a quick and steamy after between the two main characters. These fan-made works were often much more sexually explicit than their counterparts in shounen-ai were originally and as already stated, their sexual encounter was overall the main point of the story. Many of these fan-made works are now often based off stories in shounen manga, with those released in the Weekly Shounen Jump magazine being especially popular (Saito 2011: 180). Some of these titles include Gintama, Naruto, One Piece, and The Prince of Tennis. The authors of these particular doujinshi displayed and still do display a special ability to shift the friendly bonding of shounen manga and turn it into a romantic encounter between two teenage boys. The development of these doujinshi as separate to published boys love is important because of the way they influenced setting and also sexual content in commercially published works. Boys love manga was already evolving continuously right from the start based on competition between the producers and the consumers.

Experiencing Sex in Boys Love

The boys love manga that was produced from the 1990’s until today has been able to become much more sexually explicit in part due to the influence of the market of self-published manga (McLelland 2000: 19). While not all boys love manga has sexually explicit content it is very common and much more common than it was in the past. The role of the beautiful boy has also changed. While most of the boys shown in boys love manga, there is less emphasis on androgynous features than there was before; there is little doubt by anyone that the characters are male, even without clear display of a penis. A result of this is a division between roles that have become more clearly visible to the readers, a division of roles that is essential to understand current boys love narratives about sex more clearly.

In the vast majority of boys love manga, the relationship between the two boys is understood in terms of their individual roles as either the uke or the seme. The seme is recognized as the dominant, aggressive, male role in the relationship and the uke is seen as the passive feminine role (Saito 2011: 184). In this dichotomy, while both boys are more clearly masculine in their features, the uke typically has more feminine features such as longer hair and larger eyes as well as being more emotional while the seme shows more masculine traits. The manga The World’s Greatest First Love, by Shingiku Nakamura, is a good example of this type of character description. The story follows two men that reconnect ten years after a high school love gone wrong in the editing department of a publishing company where they are now both employed. The seme, Masamune, has a squared chin and always remains relatively expressionless even in some of their more steamy encounters.

On the other hand, the uke, Ritsu,has a more triangular chin and easily blushes in romantic situations because of embarrassment (Nakamura 2015). While not all boys love manga change the appearance between the two roles to such an extent, it is usual for the features of the uke to be more cute and feminine than those of the seme both in appearance, mannerisms, and even personal skills and interests. These personality traits as assigned by role are prominent in most boys love manga that has been published in recent years by commercial publishers.

These appearances and personality traits also translate to what sexual role each character performs. The more masculine and dominant seme plays the role of the penetrator, and the more passive and feminine uke plays the role of the penetrated (Saito 2011: 184). By framing the relationship between the two boys is this way, the authors of the manga are placing them within a very stereotypical heterosexual relationship structure. The more masculine and dominant seme is almost exclusively the character that initiates a relationship and then sexual contact, sometimes initiated by platonic teasing or despite his insecurities about his sexuality. When the two boys inevitably have sex, the uke will be on the bottom, usually facing the seme and laying underneath him. The story No Touching At All by Kou Yoneda is an example of a story that follows this format. The main character Shima is a closeted gay man that has moved from his old company to a new company after a relationship with a straight man gone sour. He is therefore timid and shy because of his past experiences and catches the attention of the laid back and apparently straight section chief Togawa. Togawa is initially interested in Shima platonically because of his cute behavior but eventually falls in love with him (Yoneda 2011). The first time they have sex is somewhat of an accident and uses sexual actions that are stereotypical to heterosexual sex. The seme, in this case, Togawa, is the dominant role in the relationship that is leading on the relationship despite Shima’s hesitations. None the less it is clear that even though their first sexual experience happens largely by mistake, the experience was still pleasurable for both people involved.

By placing boys love relationships into the frame of a heteronormative relationship, the readers are able to understand what is happening between the two characters on an emotional level, but in a sense, the couple is not understood within traditional heterosexual relationship values. Instead, the boys love couple is seen as functioning within a loving and equal relationship that cannot be experienced outside of their world (Saito 2011: 180). While the roles between the uke and the seme may seem to be quite strict for determining character personality and sex roles, the fact that they are both able to feel immense pleasure from sex is an important aspect of sex that is presented in boys love manga. As a genre that is directed to straight women, the perceived equality portrayed within the boys love genre is said to be a response to traditional sexual restrictions for Japanese women (Welker 2014: 267). Therefore the narratives in boys love manga became a place for both the authors and readers to express their sexuality freely. In a society that there is still great pressure for women get married and have children within a certain time frame which puts a heavy restriction the sexual liberty of women who are expected to be primarily mothers and wives within a limited frame of time.

In comparison, men have more freedom sexually in Japan even though they are also expected to get married (McLelland 2000: 14). In this sense, the boy becomes the perfect canvas for describing the ideal sexual situation, that of mutual pleasure, for women because men traditionally have more sexual freedom than women. While it is true that the appearances of the boys have become less ambiguous, the placement of the panels in the manga still leaves a lot to the imagination. That with the combination of the more feminine features of the uke makes it easy to imagine how a woman could relate to and desire what this character may experience. A sexual experience between the two partners as portrayed in many boys love manga is, therefore, able to illustrate the possibility of giving and receiving pleasure without fear of shame. This sex acts as an extension of love as well as a confirmation of feelings and is a very important aspect of sexuality in boys love manga.

While many interactions in boys love manga are focused on the mutual development of feelings between the seme and the uke through normal means, there are also works that are much more violent in nature that seem to work in contrast to this image of pure and mutual love. These aggressive sexual situations occur within a variety of different scenarios that usually involve the negative emotions of the seme or an outside individual that has enacted some type of violent act, psychological and/or physical towards the uke. For example, in No Touching At All, Shima’s initial fear of being in a relationship with Togawa and people discovering that he is gay stems from the sour relationship that he experienced at his previous workplace because of his love for a straight man. There is also a point in the manga where this fear does not allow him to trust Togawa’s love and the two have rather aggressive sex for the “last time” in which they do not face each other in mutual pleasure but instead Shima is used as a release for frustration and violently taken from behind (Yoneda 2011). Another much more graphic and violent example of aggression in boys love manga can be seen in the series that in English known as Caste Heaven by Chise Ogawa. As the title of the manga alludes to, the main characters of the series attend a Japanese high school that the students run using a caste system. The main character Azusa has always been the King of the caste but when the next caste game begins he is tricked by the Jack, Karino, and plummets to the lowest level of the caste after being pulled from the game by a situation where he is gang-raped by a group of boys at the school. His subjugation continues as he is targeted by students who could not go against him when he was King. Karino, who has become the King, promises to protect him on the condition that Azusa will become his personal sex slave (Ogawa 2015). Put into this role Azusa is subjugated over and over again to the whims of Karino who simultaneously protects him and sexually abuses him as his own personal public toilet. In this type of situation, the dominance of the seme towards the uke is exaggerated and intensified, but they still fit into the general guidelines of the roles, even though Azusa is originally portrayed as being dominant.

Albeit disturbing to certain readers, this type of story is also essential in understanding sexual narratives in boys love manga. Unlike the example of Shima and Togawa who symbolized sex that was desired, the type of violence experienced by Azusa acts as a way for readers to become spectators of violence rather than be victimized by such an incident (McLelland 2000: 20). The acts committed against Azusa by Karino can be seen as a method of revenge as well as a way to subjugate an inferior to elevate status. While Azusa begins by appearing more dominant, he gradually gains more and more characteristics that are associated with women, and his new status as subjugated may reflect the way that certain Japanese women feel about the possibility of their position. By being the viewer instead of the victim, reading about these actions becoming committed against a boy in the story may provide the readers with comfort or some type of twisted empowerment by acting as a fictionalized revenge against a system that works against them in cases of sexual violence. As Caste Heaven is an ongoing series, it is hard to say how the story will end, but if using other manga of this style and by this author as a guide, the story will end in either a mutual love or it may really just be a case of sexual abuse with no alternative motive by Karino. These options bring to question the feelings of the authors as they write these types of stories; are they merely a kink or is there some deeper and darker frustration that fuels their creation? Regardless of what the answer may be, the portrayals of aggressive sex in boys love manga as violent, and abuse can be seen as symbolic of the suppression felt by many Japanese women in Japan.

Boys Love Moving Forward

With increasing popularity and stories that reach out to many types of female readers, the boys love genre has been able to expand far beyond being a subgenre of shoujo manga. While unstable, the market has expanded to include many different forms of boys love narratives including anime adaptations, novels, PC and video games, voice-only drama CD’s, live action movies, and other boys love related character merchandise as sold in stores such as Animate in Ikebukuro. As already explained, sexually explicit content as also moved out of doujinshi and into publisher released boys love manga. While boys love films are not new, there has been a great about of recent success, especially with the release of the movie adaptation of No Touching At All last year that this year was rereleased for additional screening (Taiyou Garden 2015). This level of success has likely contributed to an increased released of live-action adaptations of manga such as Seven Days and Wait for Me at Udagawachō. With the release of live action films that are more popular, the fans and genre of boys love will only become more visible from now on. None the less, these fans remain to stigmatize in Japanese society until today because they are essentially seen as consuming gay pornography. This stigmatization makes a full evaluation of the boys love market impossible because many fans consume boys love in secret as not to be shamed by their acquaintances that are also not fans (Saito 2011: 176). This expansion also represents an increased importance of the symbolism and representations of perceived equality in boys love manga as well as approaching issues of gender fluidity.

This increased attention has also affected the types of narratives that are seen within boys love manga today. It was already shown how the development of doujinshi influenced the amount of explicit sexual activities shown in boys love manga, but the exposure to critics also affected the narratives that were being told. These types of criticisms can be cited as far back as the early 1990’s to both gay men in Japan and their supporters criticizing what they claimed as completely fictional and unrealistic representations of homosexual relationships (Nagaike 2015: 65). More and more often, the main characters of boys love manga are openly gay from the start, such as Shima who was previously described. Shima’s situation also shows an increased representation of some of the problems and fears that gay men in Japan may have to face such as alienation at the workplace (Yoneda 2011). Previously published stories often diminished or ignored the seriousness of these issues real life and important issues. While No Touching At All displays some of these improvements, other works have taken it a step further, perhaps as the pioneers of something completely new. One such work is called Koi Monogatari, meaning “love story” in English. This story is told through the perspective of Hasegawa, a high school student who discovers that one of his classmates, Yamato, is gay when he catches him stroking the hair of one of his friends. Given his carefree personality, Hasegawa is initially shocked because his friend is the subject of interest but gradually gets to know Yamato and starts to wish for his happiness (Tagura 2015). In becoming friends with Yamato, Hasegawa is able to learn more about some very real struggles and insecurities that gay young men have and comes to realize that there is nothing wrong with being gay because that is just the way they are; they cannot do anything to change it even if they want to. This narrative suggests that there are authors in the boys love community that are starting to take the lived experiences of gay men very seriously and are being to incorporate that narrative into the genre through an understandable shoujo manga style lens.

Conclusion

From the beginnings of shoujo manga following the Second World War and the introduction to shounen ai narratives in the early 1970’s, boys love as a genre has gone through many dynamic changes since its creation. The genre that began sexual expression in shoujo manga developed over the years from ambiguously gendered boys that participated in equally ambiguous sex, to some less ambiguous and much more sexually explicit. Even with that level of change, boys love as a genre was still able to maintain the symbolism that it originated with, the narratives of expressing restricted female sexually and subjugation. These narratives have remained relatively unchanged as since through Shima and Togawa, Ritsu and Masamune, and Karino and Azusa. Boys love has always been a way for women to voice their dissatisfaction and also a way for them to experience their desire through fiction. More recently, the genre has expanded the way that it has reached its audience, making boys love have even more influence over the way in which participants express their sexuality through fiction. However, the dynamic changes of the boys love genre are not stopping with just increased styles of expression but also increasing the type of narratives that are being told. While the genre may not be and may never be able to be completely embraced by gay men in Japan given its shoujo feeling, this does not discount the fact that more and more narratives that express the sexuality of gay men in Japan are being released such as the story of Yamato by Tohru Tagura. All of these narratives, regardless of homophobic tones or not, are an important representation and expression of realities and desires of sexual equality in Japan. While it cannot be understood now how far the influence of boys love will expand, the genre is without a doubt an important place for those that are restricted to express sexuality without worry or fear.

References Cited

McLelland, Mark J.

2000 The Love Between ‘Beautiful Boys’ in Japanese Women’s Comics. Journal of Gender Studies 9(1): 13-25. EBSCOhost. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.library.smu.ca

Nakamura, Shingiku

2015 The World’s Greatest First Love. Adrienne Beck, trans. San Francisco: SuBLime.

Ogawa, Chise

2015 Kasuto hevun. Tokyo: Libre Shuppan.

Prough, Jennifer S.

2011 Straight from the Heart. United States of America: University of Hawai’i Press.

Saito, Kumiko

2011 Desire in Subtext: Gender, Fandom, and Women’s Male-Male Homoerotic Parodies in Contemporary Japan. Mechademia 6: 171-191. Project Muse. http://muse.jhu.edu/

Tagura, Tohru

2015 Koi monogatari. Tokyo: Gentosha Comics.

Taiyou Garden

2015 News. http://www.doushitemo.com/news.html

Welker, James

2011 Flower Tribes and Female Desire: Complicating Early Female Consumption of Male Homosexuality in Shōjo Manga. Mechademia 6: 211-228. Project Muse. http://muse.jdu.edu/

2014 Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: “Boys’ love” as girls’ love in shōjo manga. In Gender and Japanese Society: Critical Concepts in Asian Studies Volume IV. Dolores P. Martinez, eds. Pp. 256-281. New York: Routledge.

Yoneda, Kou

2011 No Touching At All. Jocelyn Allen, trans. California: Digital Manga Distribution.

Parade the Penis: Kanamara Matsuri

Text & video by Phoebe Amoroso, cover image courtesy of Kanamara Shrine

Our roving reporter, Pheebz, visited the annual Kanamara Festival on April 7th, which involves a lot of phalluses. The Kanamara Shrine (literally, “Metal Penis Shrine”) is where people pray for sexual health and fertility.

The annual festival – informally known as “penis festival” – has been growing in popularity, with 30,000 visitors in 2016, 60% of those coming from overseas. Could watching the phallic parade be something of a release?

What’s the story behind this upstanding event? Watch the video below to peel back the mythological foreskin and get to the root of the matter.

The festival has its roots in local sex workers praying for protection against sexually-transmitted infections, but in recent years, it has come to represent LGBTQ and diversity with profits going towards HIV research.

Quite rightly, however, many have pointed out the hypocrisy inherent in a country, which made international headlines for condemning vagina art by Megumi Igarashi, better known as Rokudenashiko. Who was arrested on obscenity charges for distributing 3D data of her vagina that she used to 3D print a vagina canoe as part of her work.

Yet the obscenity of the flagrant double standards provokes discussion, and an event that promotes inclusivity is worth celebrating in a notoriously conservative society.

Many festival attendees are likely satisfied with pure spectatorship and sucking on phallic-shaped candy, and that’s fine too. But for maximum enjoyment, it’s worth digging a little deeper into the legend of a SAVAGE VAGINA DEMON (you read that right).

One legend has it that a beautiful woman was plagued by a jealous demon, who hid in her vagina and killed Husband Number 1 by biting off his penis. Husband Number 2 met a similar fate. Dismayed, she enlisted the help of a local blacksmith who seems to have been really chill about dealing with vagina demons. He made her a metal phallus, which she inserted. The demon, of course, bit it, but he broke his teeth and fled. Presumably she lived happily ever after, especially since she had her own personal metal phallus.

Come along for the ride – watch our report. ↑

The Art of The Inkstone (硯石）

You can’t make blood from a stone but you can make ink with a stone, and beautiful artistic ink. That is, if you’re using as 硯石(suzuri-ishi), a traditional Japanese ink-stone, which in and of itself can be an art object. I went to Daigo-machi in Ibaraki Prefecture to see one be made by a traditional craftsman and try one out for myself. If you’re an amateur calligrapher (書道家）but aspire to greatness, you need one of these in your life.

It’s cold up in the mountains where the ink-stones are made. Warm tea makes the trek better.

Daigo-machi located in Ibaraki Prefecture is one of the few places where traditional suzuri are still made. There is a particular kind of stone that is perfect for making suzuri and the town still has a limited supply. The stones are able to grind down the solid materials used for making ink to do calligraphy, but are also resistant to being ground down as well. As far back as the Tokugawa era, the stones from Daigo and the suzuri produced there were considered natural treasures.

The stones were treasured by Japanese artists like Hoan Kosugi, noteable authors such as Saneatsu Mushanokōji (武者小路実篤) and even Japanese Prime Minister Tsuyoshi (話せばわか) Inukai*.

Taizan Sato became fascinated with the process of making ink stones after attending a workshop conducted by the man who would later become his master, Taiseki Hoshino.

He opened his own workshop in the town in the year 2002. He has learned over time to touch a stone and know immediately whether or not it is suitable to be an ink-stone. It can’t be too hard and it is helpful if it has some claylike qualities, but not to the point of being absorbent.

Other stones and materials are used to smooth the basin

The master uses his own proprietary powder for the finish.

In an effort to combine the town’s traditional lacquerware with the ink stones, he uses only lacquer painstakingly handscraped from the urushi trees to paint the outside edges of the stone, and ads design, to turn them into works of art on their own. Many of Japan’s living national treasures use his stones in their artwork and calligraphy.

The finished ink-stone (on the left) is coated with urushi (lacquer) to give it a shine and transform the object into art itself. The rough-edged version is considered even more elegant (渋い).

Sato-san has one disciple (弟子) to follow in his footsteps.

As an amateur calligrapher, I can tell you that the feel of the one of his hand-made stones compared to the cheap ones sold in stationary stores is a world apart. The smoothnesss of his hand-made suzuri are extraordinary and yet the part of the stone used to grind down the ink is so subtly raised that you can barely feel it with your finger. The ink has to be ground very slowly, almost as if you were gently rubbing the ink stick against a bare nipple—-a bare nipple with razor stubble. The right amount of water and delicate friction produces a finite level of ink which pools in the “ocean” of the ink-stone (suzuri).

The detailed structure of the ink-stone makes it possible to vary the lightness and thickness of the ink; the results are brush strokes that are not uniform and subtle on the paper. For Sumi-e paintings, it is also a wonderful tool to have. Admittedly, such a majestic tool is slightly wasted on a person like myself who as my calligraphy teacher points out, “Lacks all delicacy and does not follow the proper stroke order” but maybe someday…..

I purchased one of the stones for someone much more qualified than me to make use of it (list price 30,000 yen but I only had 23,000 yen in cash so he generously cut me a deal). I gave it to a curator at the Met who is an expert on calligraphy. In another decade, I may be worthy of owning one myself. Which means another trip to Daigo…..a town with many charms.

As long as you’re in town…..

Japan is a famous for lacquerware known as urushi, and to make it the authentic way, you need organic sap from the urushi tree. Daigo provides much of the quality organic urushi needed for Japan’s traditional crafts.

Due to the cold climate and soil composition Daigo produces what some say is the finest raw urushi in Japan. It is clear, dries quickly, and has a fragrance reminiscent of Japanese cypress. If you make arrangements in advance, you can go to the serene Urushi tree forest and see how the sap is extracted. The master urushikaki (person who scrapes urushi) is Yuzo Tobita, who is 84. There used to be a hundred people doing the work. Now there are, including Tobita, five or six people continuing the tradition. It’s hard work. It takes up to ten years to grow an urushi tree and from one tree, at best you can extract 200 milliliters, basically a small bottle of Shiso Pepsi Cola.

Fortunately for the tradition, there are young apprentices like Yuma Watanabe who is 26 and now learning the art. If he sticks with it, traditional urushi may last another few generations.

After you’ve seen the urushi drawn from the sap, and maybe tried your hand at the work yourself—take a visit to Kijian, where you can see lacquerware being made and buy some souvenirs. The master , Toru Tsuji, has his own style of creating lacquerware, Yamizonuri, which results in elegant and zen-like austere utensils.

*Prime Minister Inukai was assassinated on May 15, 1932 starting the dark age of Japanese Imperialism

Book Review: Japanese Tattoos

By Taylor Drew

Coauthored by Brian Ashcraft, a senior contributing editor for the website Kotaku, and Osaka based tattoo artist Hori Benny, this book Japanese Tattoos: History * Culture * Design was written with the goal with the intention of helping those that are thinking of getting a Japanese style tattoo (perhaps most commonly known outside of Japanese as irezumi・刺青). Both authors use extensive knowledge of Japanese style tattooing and personal interviews to guide the novice away from committing any cultural faux pas in a work that spans 158 glossy pages.

“Over the course of researching, interviewing, and writing this book, we consulted numerous friends, colleagues, experts, and total strangers with the goal of introducing and decoding the most prevalent motifs so that English speakers can have a better understanding of their meaning and hopefully get Japanese tattoos that can be worn with pride – as they should be”

The book begins with an introduction to the history of irezumi in Japan, from punitive tattoos, to prohibition, and all the way back to modern times. This first section also covers briefly some reasons why Japanese tattoos have changed over time. The book is then divided into six additional chapters based on the different styles and motifs found in irezumi, with numerous sections in each chapter that clearly divide different motifs in that style. A tattooist and client profile are also included at the end of every chapter, giving life to the theme of that particular chapter. There are also information boxes that provide additional information to support the content within the main body of the work. All of this is supported with high quality, full colour images of tattoos and virtually every single page of the book.

What I found extremely impressive about this book was the sheer quantity and quality of the accompanying images. Not only are specific motifs and their meanings clearly explained, but the authors have also provided imagery and explanations of the images themselves. The reader is able to enjoy each and every motif – usually in more than one style. Both Ashcraft and Hori Benny did an exceptional job collecting the various photographs of irezumi for the book.

Perhaps my favourite aspect of the book though, was the addition of the Tattooist Profile and Tattoo Client Profile at the end of every single chapter. While the majority of the book reads, to an extent, like an irezumi dictionary of sorts, these sections brought extra life into the vast amount of information being provided. We, as readers, are given the opportunity to hear the voices of individuals that are not the authors. These sections are personal and provide a real solid look into the minds of the tattoo artists and their clients. We are able to see their views on irezumi and what they mean to them personally. The extra insight brought in by these sections is a crucial component in what makes Japanese Tattoos work – it makes the “foreign” content relatable.

That being said, the large amount of information that the book contains is also a weakness. There were certain sections that I found difficult to read. There are extra text bubbles of information throughout the book, but in some places their existence takes away from the overall flow of the work. The reader is obligated to both stop midsentence to go read the “extras” or move on and hope they don’t forget to go back and read them again. Such as,

“The fox (kitsune in Japanese) is associated with the formless Shinto deity Inari, who is sometimes depicted as male, other times as female and sometimes as gender-less. Inari is not only the god of rice, sake wine, and fertility, but also the god of metal workers and commerce. Stone fox statues often appear at the more than ten thousand officially recognized Inari shrines in Japan, and because the fox guards these shrines, the animal is often confused with the god. The pure white foxes, however, aren’t simply the god’s messengers, but also guard and protect the shrines. These foxes also carry connotations of wealth and fertility, due to Inari’s rice associations.” (pg. 57)

The Fox (Kitsune/狐) Tattoo is a joy to behold.

I found sections like this rather disjointing and it did affect my reading experience. Definitely not a problem for many readers, but something that I wish would have been laid out a little better, especially considering the high quality of the content on every single page.

Overall, Japanese Tattoos was a fascinating read and I would recommend it enthusiastically to anyone interested in tattoos or keen to learn more about specifically about irezumi. While perhaps the academic might find the content a bit shallow in terms of the historical content, it is important to remember that that is NOT the goal that Brian Ashcraft and Hori Benny set for this book. They wanted to create a resource for English speakers who wanted to get Japanese tattoos. A goal that I would say they accomplished with flourishing colours.

Taylor Drew is a new contributor to JSRC she is a Canadian living in Tokyo since 2015. (Almost) fluent in Japanese. Loves Iwate and cats.

The Past Present

Everyone knows there is a dark side to journalism. If they don’t, they just haven’t worked the job long enough. It’s even darker when you work for a Japanese newspaper that still has morning and evening editions. That means six deadlines a day, since each regional version has its own deadline. I don’t miss those days.

When you’re on the police beat, you essentially live within the police press club. There’s at least one 24-hour shift a week, in which you may or may not catch a couple hours of sleep between 2 and 5:30 a.m., when you have to check the papers to see if the team has been scooped and notify the boss and the reporter in charge of the division.

You’re never home. You’re never not on call. Most of us end up divorced or legally separated. You will not be able to avoid hounding the friends, families and victims of a horrible crime for their statements and photos of the deceased. It’s a hyena-like task that I still do and will always dislike.

The darker side of the police beat or investigative journalism in Japan, especially when covering the yakuza, or as the police call them boryokudan (暴力団), or violent groups, is that eventually you’ll meet with violence. And I have several times. It’s left me with a litany of injuries – a weekly regimen of physical therapy, chronic post-traumatic stress and some brain damage.

As it stands, the head injury I suffered in 2010 has been both a blessing and a curse. It has resulted in temporal lobe seizures, less frequent as time goes on. I have a lesion in my brain, located around the temporal lobe – the product of a two-story fall, I suppose that was the initial injury (1986). In January 2010, an angry source – an ex-yakuza high as a kite on some very good crystal meth – kicked me in the head after I set him off and what was a conversation turned into a knock-down brawl. I believe he was in the midst of meth psychosis so it was hard to hold it against him.

It took a few days to realize that I wasn’t quite the same after that. I think that’s when things started going wrong on the temporal level; time was out of joint.

You might think that being able to relive the greatest moments of your life would a wonderful thing. You would be wrong. A few times a week, I have the displeasure, usually at random, but sometimes triggered by a sound or scent, of re-experiencing a past event in my life. Often they are very mundane. I wouldn’t call them memories, they’re stronger than that – they’re more than flashbacks. For me, they constitute a temporal dislocation; a disruption in the chronology of life; identity; of who I am and how I feel.

These re-experiences are things like laying down on a futon, beside a window on a rainy day. A woman I used to love, putting her hand on my neck and whispering something into my ear about the growth of oak trees in the summer. I lose myself for a minute, maybe just a few seconds. When I sleep, it’s worse. Sometimes, I relive violent events in my life—with all the fear, adrenaline, anger and pain that came with it. I feel the glass in my feet and I can’t stand up. When I calm down and check the soles and see that there’s nothing there–then I’m fine. It feels just as real as it did back then. I know that there’s no threat but my body doesn’t listen, so going back to sleep isn’t really much of an option. I could take a sleeping pill but that’s also another world of troubles.

I write a lot at night. I know many cafes and bars that are open at 3am; it’s good to have a place to go when it happens.

Generally, I’m very good at covering up my temporal disorder. I slip up now and then. I used to buy picture books for my children and then realize it has been years since they read books without words. My daughter when she was ten once horrified me by telling me that she was going to need a sports bra. Because in my head, I can remember reading to her Alice in Wonderland, the pop-up book, just last night. That was probably six years ago at the time. Everything seems like yesterday.

At least I’m blessed with faculties that tell me my sense of time and chronology is out of whack. But when I’m tired or sleep- deprived, it’s much harder to remember what was past and what is present. After a flashback, I have this strange feeling that time should have stopped where it was; that I should be walking into work at The Yomiuri Shimbun and filing an article on the latest hit- and-run. Right after one ends, I feel myself right back where I was at the time. It’s as if the world had been rebooted and put back to factory-shipped state.

After my temporal clock resets, I find myself feeling about a person I once loved exactly as I did – at what were wonderful little moments in the relationship. Weren’t we dancing together last night in a seedy bar in New York? Why can’t we just start at that point in time again? Because what happened after that doesn’t feel like it happened. It feels for a few moments as if that’s where time stopped.

I feel like I could go back to any point in time and pick up where things were. The rest of the world doesn’t function like that.

I’ve lost a lot of friends over the years. My mentor and sort of second father, Detective Chiaki Sekiguchi died of cancer in 2008. A colleague at the newspaper killed herself. People who were good friends and sources have gone missing. In 2010, lawyer and mentor, Toshiro Igari, was probably killed in the Philippines after taking on my case against the publisher of a yakuza boss’ biography. After obtaining the autopsy report from the Manila police, it’s clear that suicide was not the cause of death. A source, but not a friend, was shot to death in Thailand in April of 2011. I miss him as well, despite myself. My BFF, Michiel Brandt, passed away due to complications from leukemia in 2012. She was 30. I’m now 50. I keep waiting for the pain of that loss to be a little less but it stays. Even when you are well aware that life is impermanent and death comes to us all, sometimes it just seems too soon. There’s a part of you that doesn’t expect you to outlive your friends, especially when they are so much younger than you. Sometimes, I see her in dreams as well.

Sometimes, I have flashbacks to moments where I was a total jerk. Where I was rude or insensitive and I feel the same pangs of regret in the present that I felt in the past. I relive the mistake with no possibility of correcting it.

I have keys to apartments to where I can never go back in the physical universe. But in my own mindscape, I was just there and will be there again. Everything should be just where it was. The peanut butter in the cupboard, my toothbrush in a drawer, the balcony door open. The computer would be on the desk where I used to keep it. My desk in the Metro Police Headquarters should still have my stack of yakuza fanzines on top, stuffed into a cheap cardboard box. I wish I could throw away the old keys but I have this irrational belief that I will need them—even though the locks must have been changed and there is no reason to go back and no one there I know anymore.

Some of the memories are horrific. And they come with all the pain and horror of the time: photos casually shown to me that I never wanted to see; the smell of rusty iron from a bloody body, laying cut to shreds on a train track; or the sensation of burning, when a thug stubbed out his cigarette on my shoulder.

In general, maybe it’s because I’ve spent so much time in Japan, I try to take a stoic approach to things. The idea of seeing a psychotherapist to resolve mental issues seemed like a waste of time. But I finally went to see one in 2010, to try and do something about my insomnia. After a couple of sessions, the diagnosis was chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. He recommended anti- depressants to deal with the hyper-vigilance issues. I didn’t take them. I stopped going. I need to be hyper vigilant at times. It’s a survival mechanism.

I don’t want to turn it off; I just want to control it better. Meditation helps. Sleep helps. Exercise helps.

I thought that diagnosis would explain the strange flashbacks that were happening, but all I could find in the literature were references to people having flashbacks to traumatic events, not mundane or pleasant moments. It took a scan of my head and a visit to a neurologist to finally get diagnosed correctly.

There has to be a reason why we forget things. If we could recall the past too vividly, the present might pale in comparison. If we can’t forget, we can’t move on. Maybe our minds would explode with the complications of retaining memories of the past and awareness of the present at the same time.

I have anxiety about sleeping. I never know what time of my life I’ll wake up in. The persistence of the past both helps and hinders my relationships in the present. It helps because I get to relive mistakes and am thus reminded not do them again. It hinders because I’m able to forgive and then forget I’ve forgiven someone in the first place. Or forgive myself.

I’d like to walk on; I just keep treading water.

There’s a weariness that comes with covering violent crime, fraud, and human trafficking. There’s a sense of futility. You keep covering the same story, over and over – only the characters change. The narrative remains the same. In recent years, I’ve moved away from crime reporting and covering the yakuza. Bitcoin, politics, social issues, corruption, financial news. There’s a whole other world of things to report on–and just as important to know as well.

These days I’m in a good place mentally and physically. I am, if not happy, quite content with where I am and what I’m doing. But sometimes when I wake up, especially after having a disorienting flashback, I find myself strangely detached from life itself. I can only explain it by borrowing the words of Qoheleth, in the Book of Ecclesiastes:

What has been is still happening now

What has been will be again and be as it is

just as it was

There is nothing new under the (Iand of the rising) sun.

[令和]は暗黒時代の幕開けか

ニッポンの新時代『令和』は大嘘と大騒ぎに包まれ、5月1日に幕開けを迎えました。奇遇なことに、新しい元号の発表日はエイプリルフール(April Fools’ Day) と重なりました。エイプリルフールとは毎年4月1日には嘘をついても良いという西洋の伝統で、政府にとっては「令和」が「美しい調和（Beautiful Harmony）」を意味するというインチキ仮説を国内外で広める絶好の機会でした。文字通りに解釈するならば「命令と平和」。ついジョージ・オーウェルの陰鬱な小説を連想してしまいます。

もちろん、国民の大半は政府説明の胡散臭さを見抜いているばかりか、驚きもしませんでした。2019年1月の時点では、日経新聞の世論調査で、「政府の統計を信用しない」と答えた人は79％でした。　

政府統計「信用できない」79%

つまり、日本人の五人に四人は政府が発表する統計が事実だと思っていません。オオカミ少年政権といえるでしょう。その背景には、安倍政権が2014年5月30日の内閣人事局設置以来、官僚を手懐けてきたことが挙げられます。また飴と鞭でマスコミを支配しているだけでなく、公文書の廃棄·改ざんなども許しています。いや、「許している」というよりも共謀者にご褒美を与えて出世させています。この時勢で、不正を嫌って自殺する官僚は英雄です。森友学園関連の文書改ざんを倫理的に許せなかった英雄ですが、政府に全く賞賛されない英雄ですが。真実とともに葬られた被害者です。全面的に違法行為に加担し、偽証までしてくれた財務省の佐川宣寿・元理財局長は処罰されるどころか、隠蔽工作の腕前が認められ、出世の階段を早々と登りました。

しかし、安倍総理と右腕の管官房長官らが不都合な事実の隠蔽工作を全部官僚に任せっきりというわけではありません。仲間のためなら強姦容疑の捜査も中止したりするなどして（ご参照→安倍総理の太鼓持ちジャーナリスト・山口敬之氏による伊藤詩織さんレイプ疑惑なぜ逮捕状は中村格刑事部長によって止められたのか――？超党派の国会議員が警察庁・法務省を徹底追及！）「上級国民」の防衛に奔走しています。安倍総理内閣の人々は自己利益及び仲間の利益を死守するには、「嘘も方便」と弁えている勇者です。

確かに人間は嘘をつく生き物だといいますが、いくら自分自身に嘘をつき、さらには国民にまで騙せたとしても、いずれは現実という不都合にぶち当たるでしょう。

『クールジャパン』改め『クルールジャパン”Cruel Japan”』

非情な国の行く末

ここ数年日本政府は“クールジャパン”の名の下観光大国のイメージを全面に押し出してきました。しかし現実はといえばヒトラー狂の金持ちらが国を操り、報道の自由は勢いよく右肩下がり、蔓延る貧困問題、公的文書改ざん、あとを絶たない過労死、腐敗しきった官僚主義、そして中世から変わらない司法制度と、まるでパンドラの箱の開けてしまったかのような惨状が広がっています。そこに追い打ちをかけるかのように、福島のメルトダウンをものともせず原発再稼働を急ぐ政府はあっぱれとしか言いようがありません。

もちろん、人口減少に高齢化も忘れてはなりません労働環境はといえば、低賃金、産休もろくに取れず（父親の育休など論外）、慢性的な保育園不足に過度の長時間労働。そんな生活では男女ともに恋愛、結婚ましてや子育てなど望めるはずがありません。

シングルペアレントとして子育てなどもってのほかです。もし女性がシングルマザーとなった場合、50％の確率で貧困ライン以下の生活を強いられるでしょう。人手不足で倒産を余儀なくされる企業も後を絶ちません。

人手不足ともなれば女性の躍進を期待しそうになりますが、男尊女卑大国ニッポンではそうもいきません。世界経済フォーラムの2018年の男女平等格差調査で149ヵ国中、日本は110位でG7最下位です。

今後ますます深刻化する人手不足への対策として政府は外国人労働者受け入れを拡大する計画を推し進めています。しかしこれまでに沢山の外国人労働者が搾取されてきた技能実習制度の問題点を置き去りにしたこの政策は、根強い外国人嫌いが蔓延する日本では失敗に終わること間違いありません。

令和のハイライトとなる2020年東京オリンピックですが、安倍首相は自身のレガシーに華を添えてくれると期待しているのでしょう。

そんなオリンピックですが、賄賂で招致した上、ヤクザも絡む堕落っぷり。さらには誘致時想定予算の7,000億円が、いつの間にか「3兆円」まで膨れ上がっています。極めつけに開催は真夏の8月、酷暑の中日射病による死者、さらには対応に追われる病院を襲う数々の危機は計り知れません。

また、トリクルダウン理論に則ったアベノミクスも失敗とみなされ始めていいます。東京商工リサーチによれば、中小企業の倒産は上昇傾向にあり、アベノミクス成功論はそもそも改ざんされたデータを根拠にしている可能性も否めません。

一方、政府が年金資金を用いて日本の株式市場を底上げしようとした結果、高齢化する国民が年金を受給できなくなる危険性が浮上しています。　公的年金を運用する年金積立金管理運用独立行政法人（ＧＰＩＦ）は今年2月、昨年１０～１２月期で１４兆８０３９億円（うち半分は国内のシェア）の運用損が出たと発表しました。このような損失が続けば、高齢者への年金支給への支障をきたすと見られています。

令和の未来はそう明るくありません。

名前に込められた意義

　令和時代は4月30日、平成天皇陛下の生前退位によって始まりました。安倍政権は平成天皇の生前退位に反対されていましたが、遂に阻止することはできませんでした。

平成天皇が生前退位の意志を表明した結果、安倍政権の改憲運動に歯止めがかかりました。天皇は国の象徴として力強い存在です。天皇が日本人の日常生活に登場することも多く、天皇にまつわる祭日は5つもあります。使い勝手が面倒臭くても「元号」は意義深いものです。

一方、安倍総理と仲間らは神道的カルト集団でも右翼系圧力団体でもある「日本会議」に支えられています。日本会議が米国の”押しつけ憲法”

を排除して帝国時代の憲法を復活させたいのです。日本会議の息が掛かった政治家にとって、一番気に喰わない現代日本の思想といえば「基本的人権」「平和主義」「国民主権」です。安倍総理と彼が任命した大臣らが信仰としていることは基本的に５つです。

①日本は神の国である

②第二次世界大戦で防衛戦であり、日本に戦犯はない

③再び天皇を元首にして神様として崇拝すべき

④ 少子化の悪因は男女平等主義である

⑤米国の押しつけ憲法が日本をだめにしている

皮肉なことに平成天皇は80歳の誕生日記者会見で、米国へ感謝の意を述べて憲法·平和主義の大切さを訴えました。平成25年12月18の宮殿石橋の間で次のように話しました。「戦後、連合国軍の占領下にあった日本は、平和と民主主義を、守るべき大切なものとして、日本国憲法を作り、様々な改革を行って、今日の日本を築きました。戦争で荒廃した国土を立て直し、かつ、改善していくために当時の我が国の人々の払った努力に対し、深い感謝の気持ちを抱いています。また、当時の知日派の米国人の協力も忘れてはならないことと思います」。

平成天皇は30年の公務の中で繰り返して平和憲法を守る重要性をアピールしてきました。「押しつけ憲法」解体を企む安倍総理らとは対照的です。安倍総理だけでなく、日本会議と自民党の一部にとっては、天皇陛下の存在そのものが邪魔者だったようです。安倍総理らが天皇陛下を神様と崇拝しながら、その神様の発言が彼らの政策に反対しているので、困っていたでしょう。続く令和天皇（徳仁天皇陛下）も平和主義者のようです。「歴代の天皇のなさりようを心にとどめ、自己の研鑽に励むとともに、常に国民を思い、国民に寄り添いながら、憲法にのっとり、日本国及び日本国民統合の象徴としての責務を果たすことを誓い、国民の幸せと国の一層の発展、そして世界の平和を切に希望します」（令和元年5月1日）

非常に不思議なことです。日本会議や安倍総理らは天皇陛下を神様と崇拝しながら神様のいうことを聞かぬのです。それは一種の冒涜ではないでしょうか。

安倍総理が理想としている国を知りたければ、このビデオを見て下さい。戦慄を覚えるはずです。平成24年5月10日、憲政記念館にて行われた自民党内の「創生日本の研修会」での様子です。

その中で、第一安倍政権（消化が悪かった第一安倍政権）の長勢甚遠元法務大臣が憲法から「平和主義、国民主権、基本的人権削除しよう！」と言っています。素朴な疑問ですが、憲法の精神と基本的人権を否定する輩を法務大臣に任命する安部総理には果たして良心というものがあるのでしょうか。

ビデオを見ると、元法務大臣らが「国民主権、基本的人権、平和主義…この３つを無くさなければ、ほんとの自主憲法にならない」と叫び、出席者からは拍手が鳴り響いています。平和憲法を守ろうと誓った平成天皇が拍手するはずがあるでしょうか。

余談メモ·この会議で、「尖閣諸島を取り戻せ」と叫ぶ人もいたようです。それは基本的には賛成です。不当にも「反日」と後ろ指を指される私からしても、個人的には尖閣諸島を中国から守ることは大切だと思います。明らかに尖閣諸島は日本の領土ですから。それだけは間違いないでしょう。

「令和」誕生まで

令和という元号はどのように決定されたのか明らかではありません。しかし文字通りに解釈するのが妥当といえるでしょう。「令」は「命令」の「令」です。複数の文献をみると次のような意味でよく知られています。

①「命ずる」、「いいつける」

②「法令などを世の中に広く知らせる」

③「みことのり(天皇の命令)」、「君主(国を治める人)の命令」

また「令和」の「令」は「箝口令」の「令」でもあり、「逮捕令状」の「令」でもあります。「和」は表向きに「平和」の「和」で「穏やか」「なごむ」などの意味です。口の部首と米の穂先が茎の先端に垂れかかるイメージから出てきた漢字といわれてます。また、もう一つ「やまと(日本)」の意を持ち合わせています。つまり、「日本人よ、命令に従えば平和ですよ」というような意味合いではないでしょうか。「万葉集から引用された」という説明はおそらく後付けでしょう。一部の新聞報道を読んでみると、実際、新しい元号を「令和」と決めたのは安倍総理です。彼のまったくの独断で「令和」となったのです。しかしここまでくれば、それも想定内のことでしょう。この記事を御覧ください。

↘安倍首相が統計不正追及に「だから何だってんだ！」と逆ギレ野次！「私が国家」とまた独裁発言もポロリ

本題に戻りましょう。「命名」という行為にはどれだけ意味があるのでしょうか。確かに安倍政権は命名の達人です。特に名前と全く反対の意味を持つ法律の作成·立法化には腕が成るようです。危険すぎるとして何回も見送られた「共謀法」を「テロ対策特別措置法」と名前を変えて無理矢理議会を通しました。この法律によって捜査·逮捕の対象となる「共謀罪」対象犯罪は277種類に上ります。やはり、「無資格スポーツ振興投票」などのテロ行為を厳密に処罰しなければ、この国は終わりですね。SNSも対象となるので、「テロ関連情報」と見なされる呟きを拡散しただけでもアウトかもしれません。

しかし、安倍政権流のダブルスピーク（受け手の印象を変えるために言葉を言いかえる修辞技法）は日本製のウイスキーのように毎年、質が上がります。「働き改革」法は数千人から残業代の権利を奪い、一ヶ月の残業時間を100時間と限定したものです。しかし、それは厚生労働省の過労死ライン（80時間）を20時間も超えているのです。また、安倍政権のダブルスピークの中では、戦争行為を可能にした安全保障関連法「戦争法」がやはり傑作でした。

安倍政権の「令和」の世界では、まるでジョージ·オーウェルの小説「1984年」内で描かれた社会が現実となりまそうです。もうそろそろ学校の教科書では「戦争は平和である(WAR IS PEACE)。安保法は平和主義の法律」「自由は屈従である(FREEDOM IS SLAVERY)。残業代は鎖」

「無知は力である(IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH)。自由民主党は報道の自由と国民主権を大事にしている」とか明記されることでしょう。

詰まるところ、安倍政権のこれまでの言動を考慮すると、安部総理が「令和」の意味を「綺麗な調和」（Beautiful Harmony）」と語るならば、まず疑ってみた方が良いのではないでしょうか。

「綺麗な調和(Beautiful Harmony)」よりも「暗闇の虐政(Stark Tyranny)」の意味合いが込められているかもしれません。

あまり知られていませんが、令和天皇は歴者学者です。歴史から学び、二の舞いを演じないよう平和主義と基本的人権を肯定的に考えているわけです。安倍総理は戦犯として逮捕された故·岸信介元総理大臣の孫だけでなく岸元総理の生まれ変わりのような歴史修正主義者です。だからこそボンボン総理は歴史から何も学べずに原発を再起動させてひたすら日本を暗黒時代へ取り戻そうとするわけです。このままいけば「令和」は「美しい日本」の暗黒時代の幕開けとなるでしょう。

メモ・この記事一部はThe Daily Beast 5月1日付け「Japan Has a New Emperor and a New Era, but a Dark Future」を引用しているが、直訳ではありません。ご了承下さい。