2012年2月28日 星期二

Japanese film shown in the west




西方人眼中的日本电影
Foreign relations




There are three main strands of Japanese film shown in the west: animation, sex and horror. None of these owes much to traditional Japanese film, but what are niche titles in their own country are often taken as examples of national cinema when they move abroad.

在西方放映的日本电影主要有三大题材:动画片、性爱以及恐怖片。它们都与传统的日本电影没什么关系,但这些在日本国内的细分类影片“转战”国外后,却常被视作代表了整个日本电影。

“I think what film distributors select for release in Britain is mostly based on how we like to view Japan, rather than any reality about the country itself,” says Jasper Sharp, author of The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema, and contributor to Whose Film Is It Anyway?, the Japan Foundation’s touring programme of recent Japanese film.

“我觉得发行商选择在英国上映的影片主要基于我们希望如何看待日本,而非日本这个国家的真实状 况,”加斯帕•夏普(Jasper Sharp)说,他是《日本电影历史字典》(The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema)一书的作者,也是《这究竟是谁拍的电影》(Whose Film Is It Anyway)日本电影周的发行人,这是由日本国际交流基金会(Japan Foundation)组织的系列活动,巡回放映该国近一阶段所摄影片。

Pokémon (1998) and Dragon Ball Z (1989) at one end of the spectrum, and Audition (1999), Ichi the Killer (2001) and The Ring (1998) at the other, have come to define Japanese cinema for western viewers. These are films that comfortably reinforce the perception of two opposing extremes of Japanese culture. At one pole there is what Donald Richie, a US-born critic of Japanese film, calls the “frivolous Japan”; at the other, the Japan of dark, often fetishistic or sadistic horror and ­pornography (in its own way just as frivolous). The only middle-ground films we encounter come from Studio Ghibli, such as Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001), and even those, though often excellent, are of limited variety in style or content.

《宠物小精灵》(Pokémon, 1998年)与《龙珠Z》(Dragon Ball Z, 1989)是整个电影周的开场影片,而《切肤之爱》(Audition,1999年)、《杀手阿一》(Ichi the Killer,2001年)以及《午夜凶铃》(The Ring,1998年)则是电影周的闭幕影片,它们一步步为西方影迷诠释何为日本电影。这些影片充分强化了日本文化中水火不容的两个极端概念,一端是美国 出生的日本影评家唐纳德•里奇(Donald Richie)所谓“琐碎无聊的日本”,另一端展示的则是日本阴暗的一面,常常充斥着迷信、虐待狂式的恐怖以及大量情色描写(同样琐碎无聊)。我们看到 的、介于两者之间的影片来自吉卜力工作室(Studio Ghibli),如宫崎骏(Hayao Miyazaki)的《千与千寻》(Spirited Away,2001年),而那些影片(通常情况下虽说很棒)在风格与内容上变化实在乏善可陈。

Whose Film Is It Anyway?, which runs at the ICA before touring the UK, consists of nine works from the past decade, each demonstrating a departure from what we have come to expect from Japanese film. The most famous filmmaker in this season, Masayuki Suo, is represented by I Just Didn’t Do It (2006), a sombre, sincere examination of the Japanese legal system in which a young man is arrested and charged with groping a schoolgirl on the public underground. It offers an engrossing look at injustice and human relationships under pressure.

《这究竟是谁拍的电影》电影周在英国全国巡回展前,先在伦敦当代艺术学会(Institute of Contemporary Arts,ICA)进行了放映,共放映了过去10年所拍的9部影片,每一部的内容都背离了西方人对日本电影的固有期望。这次电影周最知名的导演是周坊正行 (Masayuki Suo),他执导的影片《正义之裁》(I Just Didn’t Do It,2006年)冷峻诚挚地审视了日本的司法制度,影片拍摄的是一位年轻人遭到逮捕,罪名是在地铁上猥亵某初中女生,生动地展示了司法不公以及重重压力 之下的人际关系。

A common characteristic of the films in the season is the nuanced interactions between characters. In Yoji Yamada’s About Her Brother (2010) a mother and daughter are forced to break with the mother’s juvenile middle-aged brother, later finding him dying of cancer in a hospice. It’s a sophisticated, suitably unsentimental film – were it made in Hollywood it would almost certainly ruin the effect of its pathos with sugar. All Around Us (Ryosuke Hashiguchi, 2008) follows a couple struggling to move on from the death of a child. Set over the course of 10 years, it’s simultaneously sweeping in narrative scope and minutely detailed in its depiction of human relationships amid tragedy. Bad Company (2001), the oldest film and winner of the jury and international critics’ prizes at Rotterdam Film Festival, mixes the pragmatism and naivety of childhood and the pains of growing up.

本次电影周影片的共同特点是各个角色之间的微妙关系。在山田洋次(Yamada Yoji)执导的影片《弟弟》(About Her Brother,2010年)中,母亲与女儿被迫与母亲不成熟的成年弟弟一刀两断,最后却发现弟弟在收容所里因罹患癌症将不久于人世。这部影片情节曲折、 情感控制拿捏到位——若是在好莱坞拍摄,几乎肯定会用甜言蜜语的东西破坏整体悲情效果。桥口亮辅(Ryosuke Hashiguchi)执导的影片《幸福的彼端》(All Around Us,2008年)讲述的是一对夫妇如何在孩子夭折后风雨同舟的故事。整个故事情节历时10年,既实现了叙事范围的包罗万象,又细致入微地刻画了悲剧笼罩 中的人际关系。夺得鹿特丹电影节(Rotterdam Film Festival)最佳影片及影评人奖的《恶童日记》(Bad Company,2001年)则是这个系列中最早拍摄的影片,夹杂着童年时代的天真烂漫、爱管闲事以及成长的烦恼。

The selection also includes two excellent comedies (a particularly under-represented type of Japanese film in the west). The Dark Harbour (Takatsugu Naito, 2009), in which a lonely fisherman records a video introduction for a dating service, features a very funny scene in a clothes store. Searching for an outfit that will impress city women, the fisherman is offered Johnny Depp’s tasseled cowboy jacket as well as the flowery shirt that Neil Armstrong left on the moon and that Nasa subsequently recovered. Arriving at the dating party, another fisherman is wearing the same shirt. But it is a deeper film than this suggests; full of pathos and understated emotion. A Stranger of Mine (Kenji Uchida, 2005), which won the screenwriter’s prize at Cannes that year, is an expertly structured crime comedy of errors, consisting of well-rounded characters who cross paths during one night in Tokyo. In comedy, as in drama, the force of these films comes from the varying aspects of human experience they depict.

这个系列还选了两部非常上乘的喜剧片(在西方尤其不受待见的日本影片)。内藤隆嗣 (Takatsugu Naito)的《不灯港》(The Dark Harbour,2009)讲述了一位寂寞的渔民录制了一段自我介绍的视频去相亲,其中一段在服装店的场景让人忍俊不禁。渔夫想买一套能打动城市姑娘的衣 服,结果售货员给他看了一件约翰尼•德普(Johnny Depp)带流苏装饰的牛仔夹克,还有一件尼尔•阿姆斯特朗(Neil Armstrong)不慎落在月球上、后由美国国家宇航局(Nasa)找回的花哨衬衫。到达相亲地场后,他发现另一位渔民也穿着一模一样的衬衫。但电影的 蕴意则要深刻得多,充满了忧伤以及尽在不言中的情感。内田健二(Kenji Uchida)的《遇人不熟》(A Stranger of Mine,2005年)获得了当年的戛纳电影节的“最优秀剧本奖”,这部犯罪类的喜剧片结构安排巧妙、到处充斥着阴差阳错,刻画了诸多多才多艺的角色,他 们在某一天晚上在东京不期而遇。与舞台剧一样,喜剧影片的震撼力来自各个角色刻画的多样人生经历。

These films show the continuance of an older, more character-driven, humanist tradition of Japanese film.

这些影片展示了对日本电影历史更为悠久、由角色带动情节的人文主义传统的传承。

Yasujiro Ozu, one of the three Japanese directors most revered in the west (Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi being the others), was above all interested in people. When beginning a film, he and co-screenwriter Kogo Nada worked backwards: they would sit down and write dialogue first, before even the characters were conceived or the story decided.

小津安二郎(Yasujiro Ozu)是西方社会最推崇的三位日本导演之一(其他两位是黑泽明(Akira Kurosawa)与沟口健二(Kenji Mizoguchi)),他最为关注的是人。每次开拍电影时,他都会与编剧Kogo Nada在后台工作:坐定后先拟好对话,进而再构思角色及故事情节。

In an interview with Sharp, Richie pointed out the effect of this process: “There’s a rightness, there’s a logic, there’s an inevitability, there’s a reality about the characters.” Tokyo Story(1953), Ozu’s most famous film, shows an elderly couple who make their first trip to the capital to visit their family, only to find them not much interested in a reunion.

一次采访夏普时,里奇指出整个过程如此处理的效果:“这样的角色贴切、符合逻辑、不可避免以及 具有现实意义。”《东京物语》(Tokyo Story,1953年)是小津安二郎执导的最著名影片,讲述了一对老夫妻第一次到首都东京去看望自己的儿女,到头来却发现他们对自己的到来不为冷不热。

For Kenji Mizoguchi too, working at the same time as Ozu, humanity is a primary theme; Ugetsu Monogatari, which came out in the same year as Tokyo Story, and Sansho the Bailiff, which followed in 1954, are stories of betrayal, loyalty, family and friendship. Only Kurosawa, the most famous in the west and the most western of the three, could be accused of having other concerns. Kurosawa is a master of dramatic storytelling; Mizoguchi and Ozu are masters of dramatising human experience.

与小津安二郎同时代的沟口健二也是如此,所拍影片最大的主题是人性;《雨夜物语》 (Ugetsu Monogatari)与《东京物语》同一年公映,《山椒大夫》(ansho the Bailiff)则是于1954年公映,它讲述了背叛、忠诚、家庭及友谊。只有黑泽明(三位导演之中在西方社会最知名,也是最具西方风格的导演)被视为还 关注其它问题。黑泽明是讲述曲折动人故事情节的大师:而小津安二郎与沟口分健二则是生动描述人类经历的大师。

Yet western viewers watching Japanese cinema often can’t get past the kimonos, the slippers and the bowing, to the film itself. This has a lot to do with the way westerners see eastern artworks, “rather passively assuming their mysteriousness”, writes Adam Mars-Jones in Noriko Smiling (2011), the critic and novelist’s brilliant essay on Ozu’s Late Spring (1948).

然而观看日本电影的西方影迷通常无法越过和服、木屐以及鞠躬而直达影片内容本身。这与西方人看 待东方艺术品的方式有很大关系,“颇为顺从地接受神秘玄虚的东西”,影评家兼小说家亚当•马斯-琼斯(Adam Mars-Jones)在评论小津安二郎所执影片《晚春》(Late Spring,1948年)的鸿文Noriko Smiling中如此写道。

Many critics suffer from a more intellectualised version of this wood-for-the-trees syndrome. One of the aims of Noriko Smiling is to recover Late Springfrom critics such as Paul Schrader (screenwriter of Taxi Driver and director of a biopic of Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima) who, prioritising style over content, insisted on its “transcendental” qualities. Referring to a famous shot of a vase intercut with shots of the heroine crying, Schrader says the tears themselves have little meaning – he subtracts all emotion, or as Mars-Jones puts it, robs the tears of “all possible moisture content”. It seems, then, that a film being Japanese is the cue for western viewers to not look hard enough, and for some western critics to look too hard.

许多评论家陷入了纯理性化的因小失大综合症。评论文章Noriko Smiling的目的是为《晚春》正名,保尔•施雷德(Paul Schrader)这些说三道四的评论人士认为风格的重要性优于内容,坚持这部电影的先验性,施雷德是影片《出租车司机》(Taxi Driver)的编剧,并执导了日本小说家三岛由纪夫(Yukio Mishima)的传记电影。在谈及影片中花瓶镜头切换与女主人公哭泣的那个著名镜头时,施雷德说眼泪本身并无意义——他把所有的情感都剔除掉,或者正如 马斯-琼斯所言,把眼泪从“所有可能触发动情的内容中”去除掉。所以,日本风格的影片似乎就是暗示西方观众不要凝神细看,却让有些西方影评家不放过任何细 枝末节。

The importance of all the films in the Japan Foundation’s season lies not in their “Japanese-ness” but in their worldliness, their humanism. Of course, we can’t, and shouldn’t, separate a film from its country of origin. But film is a human medium and its roots (pathos, empathy, joy, anger, fear) are universal elements. “That’s what I think they mean when they say that films cross borders,” director Masayuki Suo suggests. “What do we call a film? If we call it the art of light and shadow reflected on a screen, I think that’s universal. Continuing to stir up the existence of human beings themselves – that’s what film is.”

日本国际交流基金会组织的本次电影周所有影片的重要性不在于它们的“日本特色,而是其全球视野 与人文精神。当然,我们不可能,也不应该把电影与拍摄国隔绝开来。但电影是人类交流的媒介,它的本质要素(痛苦、移情、欢乐、恐惧)是普世通用的。“这就 是当别人都说电影可以跨越国界,其所指意义所在,” 导演周坊正行说。“何为电影?如果称它为反射至幕布上的灯光与阴影艺术,我觉得全世界都一样。不断拨动人类自身的生存状态——我想那就是电影的本质。”

‘Whose Film Is It Anyway?’ runs at ICA, London, until February 16 and tours the UK until March 28 www.jpf.org.uk

《这究竟是谁拍的电影》在伦敦ICA放映至2月16日结束,然后在全英国巡回放映直至3月28日,具体详情请浏览网址:www.jpf.org.uk。


译者:常和

2012年2月27日 星期一

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Japan's Last DRAM Maker Files for Bankruptcy
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Japanese Chipmaker Elpida Files for Bankruptcy
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Japanese computer chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc. filed for bankruptcy Monday after amassing debts from nose-diving prices, longtime competition from Samsung and the flooding in Thailand last year that stagnated demand. Elpida, the only maker in Japan to ...

空海密宗

由於唐代空海等人引入密宗
所以這是相關的書


くうかい【空海】

    [774~835]平安初期の僧。真言宗の開祖。讚岐(さぬき)の人。俗姓、佐伯氏。諡号(しごう)、弘法大師。延暦23年(804)入唐、翌々年帰朝。高野山金剛峰寺(こんごうぶじ)を建立し、東寺(教王護国寺)を真言道場とした。また、京都に綜芸種智院(しゅげいしゅちいん)を開いた。詩文にもすぐれ、書は三筆の一。著「三教指帰(さんごうしいき)」「十住心論」「文鏡秘府論」「篆隷(てんれい)万象名義」「性霊集」など。遍照金剛。

唐代密宗


  • 作者:周一良譯者:錢文忠
    出版社:上海遠東出版社

  • 出版日期:1996/2012年

本書為周一良先生的佛教研究成果,分唐代密宗和佛學論文選兩部分,收錄相關論文20余篇,所收論文均按《周一良簡歷及著述年表》,基本依照寫作時間的先後為序,以見學術之風尚。

唐代密宗
 導論
1.早期中國佛教中的密宗
2.贊寧及其材料來源
 唐洛京聖善寺善無畏傳注
 唐洛陽廣福寺金剛智傳注
 唐京兆大興善寺不空傳注
 附錄二十則
 譯後記
佛學論文選
宋高僧傳善無畏傳中的幾個問題
中國的梵文研究
佛家史觀中之隋煬帝
讀唐代俗講考
跋隋開皇寫本禪數雜事殘卷
 ……
附記



這是一篇哈佛的博士論文頁1-120

附錄20篇更有意思 譬如說 還說到茶 日榮西和尚引入

えいさい【栄西】

    [1141~1215]平安末・鎌倉初期の僧。備中(びっちゅう)の人。字(あざな)は明庵。日本臨済宗の祖。はじめ比叡山で天台密教を学んだ。二度宋(そう)に渡って禅を学び、帰国後、博多に聖福寺、京都に建仁寺、鎌倉に寿福寺を建立。また、宋から茶の種を持ち帰り、栽培法を広めた。著「興禅護国論」「喫茶養生記」など。千光国師。葉上房。ようさい。

2012年2月26日 星期日

“極鋒噴流”和“副熱帶噴流”向311大震週年南移動,

最近,日本的天氣是寒冷的日子一天連著一天。據日本氣象廳分析,
這種寒冷天氣是因流過日本附近上空的兩股強偏西風——“極鋒噴流”和“副熱帶噴流”向南移動,來自北方的寒流乘勢南下所致……


----



四張臉見證日本重生


2012-02 天下雜誌 491期 作者:謝明玲

相關關鍵字:

311大震週年  四張臉見證日本重生 圖片來源:劉國泰

三一一大震週年前夕,東京街頭忙碌依舊,對強震和核災的驚懼,藏在東京人看似淡定的表情背後,和匆匆腳步裡。


一年了,災區東北的宮城和岩手縣,許多房子依舊泥濘未清、更別說重建。垃圾堆疊成山,被沖刷過的城市,房子像被突然襲來的怪獸挖空了,留下黑黑窟窿的門窗,甚至只剩地基。

災區尚未復原,驚懼尚未褪去,但日本人價值觀、行為和商業模式的巨大改變,已經發生。

疏離的東京人,變得無比珍視家人,卻也無比徬徨。從岩手到東京工作的記者,失去了包括兄長在內的十多名親戚,讓他變得珍惜每一個瞬間,積極寫書、投身家鄉重建。原本保守拘謹的仙台人,對白人義工敞開心胸。災民住在小組合屋裡,卻發現「家」變大了。

四個地方,四張面孔。有不安、迷惘,也有重生與開放。

個案一:石卷

家庭主婦 淺野仁美:今天想做的,今天就要做完。

開著車,淺野仁美回到宮城縣石卷市鹿妻南丁目的家,四周一片寂靜,幾乎沒什麼人居住了。

門前草已枯黃,看不出庭園花草昔日的美麗。被沖壞的櫥櫃已經移走,只剩下捨不得丟掉的碗盤,集合在寫著「救援物資」的紙箱裡。牆壁上,無情地刻著一百六十多公分高的海嘯水漬。

客廳的日曆,靜靜地一直停留在二○一一年三月十一日。

摸著廚房裡的菜刀,淺野總想著哪一天洗乾淨再用吧,畢竟是結婚時帶過來的。災前,她常用這些菜刀料理生魚片給家人享用,但海水帶來的鹽分,卻讓菜刀鏽得不可能再用。

過去,她每年總依著祖母教的方法醃梅子,等著幾年後打開吃。但海嘯沖走了存放的梅子,現在住的新公寓,日照不夠,也沒辦法做了。

海嘯來時,她和女兒從曬衣服的地方爬到屋頂。房子一樓,二五○公分以下的地方都被淹了。

整個晚上水都沒退,下著大雪,也沒有電。有的地方,還發生小火災。夜裡很安靜時,就會聽到在水裡流動的汽車等東西撞來撞去的聲音,還有人的叫聲。

去年,她女兒只是小五生。女兒只在爬上屋頂時,講了「很害怕」,之後都沒再說,一直忍著。

在屋頂上,她抱著女兒,「我告訴她,只要看著媽媽,不要看別的地方。」水一直升上來,她一心想著,要怎樣保護女兒的生命。

第二天,水退到剩下五十公分,她們走到鹿妻國小的避難所,一待就是半年多。

淺野是避難所的小領隊,帶領一百個人。剛開始時,淺野既不喜歡跟別人在一起,更不喜歡為那些根本不認識的人做事。跟父母見面,都是海嘯兩三個月後的事了。「我覺得好像在犧牲自己。愈這樣想,我就愈不能發自真心為人做事。」

但漸漸地,大家彼此加油的情緒出來了。

在避難所裡,沒有抽選到房子,是最辛苦難過的。「很多人會生氣,吵來吵去,讓我也很生氣,」她回憶。

對不起,謝謝你。

有個淺野不認識、常發脾氣的老伯伯,有一天卻來找她,說他抽到房子了,就要離開這裡。

他對她說,「一直對妳發脾氣,對不起。」說完兩人抱在一起,互相說謝謝。淺野也對他說,「請你一定要長壽。」

她開始覺得,人其實不是壞人,要有彼此信賴的感覺。「例如,有人把廁所弄髒,我們會想,是因為門很小,進去不方便,或是因為他腳痛,才蹲不好,不是故意弄髒。」

正面思考,體諒別人,她慢慢變得不再那麼急、那麼氣。

「到最後,我們都像大家庭一樣,要離開,大家反而都離不開了,大家都說謝謝,彼此說加油。」

「對我來說,『家』的意義擴大了。以前日本有句話:『一個家同吃一鍋飯』,那是家庭的『絆』。真正能這樣一起吃飯的,就是真正的朋友。避難所裡,大家一起吃一大桶飯,就是一個大家庭。」

震災前,她是一個平常的主婦。但到了避難所,女性就會想讓廁所乾淨,把資源回收做好。「我是一個母親,現在就算看到不認識的小孩不讀書,也會罵他。我會做、能做的,就盡量做。」

以前,淺野覺得時間很多,什麼時候都可以做。「但現在我覺得,每一天都非常重要。今天想做的事,今天一定要做完。」

以前覺得自己是很平常的人,很多事其他更有心、更有能力的人來做,就可以了,「但現在我一定說,『我要做。』」


搬到臨時組合屋後,早上醒來,有家的溫暖,晚上能洗澡,房子裡有瓦斯、有電器、有水,好像回復了原來的生活。


但這裡非常窄,很多人住一起,牆壁又薄,連講話、煮菜、走路都聽得到,即使女兒很喜歡彈鋼琴,也不能彈。「對我來說,這樣就等於沒有回到原來的生活。」

生活水準遠不比從前,但是「經過那麼大的震災,每天都要珍重自己的生活,接下來的人生,一定會有很大的收穫。」

以前以「家」為天地的平凡主婦,淺野的世界變大了,家也變大了。

個案二:東京

科技工程師 山根悠一:回家見父母的次數更多了。

三十三歲的山根悠一是科技工程師。拎著公事包,抵達新宿時,剛過七點。通常不到九點,他是不下班的。

震災發生時,公司正在東京台場辦展示會。正當他在和客戶說明時,突然劇烈搖晃,大家倉皇往外跑。

之後,電車停駛,他原想到東京車站搭公車回家,但車站前排了上千人。到任何商店,也都買不到東西吃。他只好回到公司,住了一晚。

震災結束後的一週內,公司希望大家不要出門,都用DHL運送物資到員工家裡。

他的生活似乎一切如常,但這一年來,他和父母見面的次數卻變多了。

山根的父母,住在離東京一小時車程的千葉縣柏市。「以前一個月見不到一次面,現在是一個月一到兩次,」他說。週末,他會坐電車、再轉公車去看父母,住個一晚再回東京。


他移居海外的想法,也愈來愈強烈,「對未來還是會不安,」他說。

地震後的福島核災,輻射外洩又發生爆炸,讓他質疑政府是否有處理能力。他現在買米,只買產自關西地區的,如九州和京都。這些地方以北出產的米,他都不敢吃。

在震災以前,他曾想,如果有機會,就買間房子,「現在完全不考慮。」

政府靠不住

除了輻射的問題,小地震之後就有大地震,大地震完就有小地震。「反正地震已經發生了,日本房價只會一直跌,沒有必要去買房子。」

撇開天災不談,現在的日本社會也沒有太大的吸引力讓他留下。

「就算你很努力,能得到的東西也沒太大變化,」他說,因此,就算「草食男」愈來愈多,他也不意外。「只要跟著自己的腳步就行了,這樣也滿快樂的。」熟女/草食男

他覺得,自己畢業時,將就了一個不怎麼好的工作。二○○八年進了現在的公司,到現在都沒有加薪,也沒有拿到績效獎金。

「父母那輩學習到的經驗,是只要努力,就會往上走,」他說。「但到我們這年代,曲線不是往上,也不是平行,而是往下了。」

可以的話,他想換個薪水好點的工作、想試試看到海外工作、想休息一陣子到國外生活……。站在夜深依舊熙來攘往的新宿街頭,山根的步伐,依舊迷惘。

個案三:陸前高田

新聞總編輯 上部一馬:每一瞬間都是很珍貴的。

這個月,時近三一一大震一週年,五十八歲的《健康情報新聞》編集長上部一馬,打算回老家——岩手縣的陸前高田市一趟。

去年,震災後一週,災區還在限制進出、路也不知道通不通時,他曾藉新聞記者的身分,從東京坐了二十小時的公車,回到故鄉。

在這之前,儘管他在電視上看到陸前高田發生大海嘯,卻無法和家人取得聯繫。當天,他喝酒到清晨。

回到家鄉,陸前高田海邊,七萬多株防洪水的松樹,在海嘯侵襲中倒塌。他過去住的街道,有八○%都進水了。他也失去了十多名親戚。

海嘯時,大水來得又急又猛,沖到體育館,只有三個抓住屋樑的人活下,眼睜睜看著底下的七十個人被沖走。
大上部兩歲的哥哥,在陸前高田市公所工作。水沖進來時,他勸導大家疏散到市民會館。後來,他也在海嘯中罹難了。

十八歲時,上部就離開家鄉。過去,每次在夏、秋兩次回家鄉時,總會和哥哥吵架。吵架後,他總賭氣說,「我以後不回來了。」

但後來,兩個人都愈來愈年長,漸漸不吵架了,卻突然發生地震。

「覺得不可思議,懷疑是不是真的發生了。到現在,也是這樣的感覺,」上部說。低沈的語調,沒有太多變化,眼眶卻泛紅含淚。

被遺忘的傷痕

去年四月,他決定將家鄉的事寫成《奇蹟的生還》一書,記錄這千年一次的大震。

經過一年,他感觸很深的,是像東京和大阪等大都市的人,好像已經快忘了去年的大震。

他覺得大家的關心降低了。現在,他面對兩百人的演講,會購買的,有時也不到十本。

儘管最近有人預言,四年內關東會再發生大地震的機率,達七○%以上,但他感覺,大家都認為,「不會發生在自己身上。」

許多人會忘卻,但對他來說,這個江戶時代就存在、被稱為「日本最美的百景之一」的城市,有他許許多多的回憶。像是以前,每年夏天,都會和朋友們到大船渡市的?齒橋,一起放煙火。

他持續地採訪和寫作,想辦法改善家鄉。他採訪當地工作與失業的狀況,並向市長建議,如現在,陸前高田市每天要處理三百噸垃圾,就可以雇請當地人來處理。

「每一瞬間都是很珍貴的,每一個人都要覺得幸福,」他說。「自己可以做的事情要努力去做,才對得起這次死亡的人。」

個案四:仙台

教會義工 佐藤由子:其實神一直都在心中。

早上九點不到,仙台市外,三本塚區的空屋裡,已經傳來工作的歌聲,和木頭的敲打聲。

四周,只有被海嘯沖刷過而鹽化、再無法耕種的稻米田,居民搬離後的空屋,以及遠處活動中的怪手。

善普施國際救援(Samaritan’s Purse International Relief)的麥克、凱爾和賈斯汀,陸續上工,準備修復山口悅子的地板與樓頂。已經修補好的屋樑上,有著日式雕刻。

善普施的志工,在震後陸續到達日本。他們來的時間不一,也不一定會講日文。但目前為止,靠著教會的資金與動員,他們已經在宮城縣的仙台市、氣仙沼和七濱町等災區,修復了三百多間房子。

山口悅子自己也參與修復。她穿著運動風衣,拿起鑽子,幫忙鑽木孔、削木片。

每天上午十點和下午三點,日本的午茶時間,山口還會準備點心,和這些志工坐下來,一起喝茶、分享。

高濃度的愛

擔任他們翻譯的,是三十一歲的佐藤由子。在仙台出生長大,她到美國讀音樂,嫁給美國人。兩年前才回到仙台,沒多久就遇上三一一大震。

以前佐藤從來沒做過救援工作,因為震後到石卷,幫朋友清理家中泥濘,開啟她的志工生涯。

對佐藤來說,成為義工後,她不僅感覺到,在一次次修補的互動中,高濃度的愛,也看到向來拘謹自持的日本人,對前來協助的外國人,變得比較能夠敞開心胸。

「這也是我人生中,最美好的一段時光,」她說。

佐藤觀察到,日本是一個相對保守、傳統的社會,以前面對外人,總是以一扇扇關起的門回應。

但在震後,許多義工進來協助、救援,也分享、關懷。她發現,許多日本人漸漸打開心房。

山口悅子則坦承,要讓美國的木工來幫忙修補日式、黑頂白牆的屋子,她有點緊張。但漸漸地,木工的專業、還有熱心,讓她開始接納並感恩。

過去,她是從別人的手上,買來這間房子,感覺好像是「別人的房子」。現在,她跟著一起修補房子,似乎可以看見,這裡是廚房、那裡是客廳的慢慢成形。「這真的是我的房子,」她開心地說。

佐藤說,有一對夫妻,一開始也對國外的義工有所保留。一次在修補房子時,發現地震掉下來的石頭砸壞了神壇。這對夫妻非常悲傷,以為神離開了自己。

後來,善普施的義工告訴他們,「其實,神一直都在心中。」鼓舞了他們。

現在,房子已經修補好,但每天中午,他們還是會準備濃湯、蔬菜給附近工作的義工,然後一起吃中飯、一起唱首歌。企業裡的林書豪

自助、利他的快樂,在這個惡水侵襲的地區,蔓延開來。

2012年2月25日 星期六

美國商務部懲罰日本的"組織犯罪"集團Yamaguchi-gumi 等

U.S. Treasury Dept. Penalizes Japan’s Largest Organized-Crime Group


WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Japan’s biggest yakuza group, an organized-crime syndicate that operates with relative impunity there and whose far-ranging criminal activity has become a significant concern in Washington.

In an announcement on Thursday, the department said it would freeze the American-based assets of the group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, and two of its leaders. It will also bar any transactions between Americans and members of the penalized crime syndicate. Yakuza have been tied to drug trafficking and other crimes in the United States, with particular prominence in Hawaii and California. The Treasury did not elaborate on the dollar value of United States-based accounts that might be frozen under the new sanctions.

In a statement, the Treasury said the group made “billions of dollars” every year around the world. Its criminal activity includes prostitution, money laundering, fraud and trafficking in humans, weapons and drugs.

The action “casts a spotlight on key members of criminal organizations that have engaged in a wide range of serious crimes,” David S. Cohen, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

“We will continue to work with our international partners to target those who deal in violence, narcotics, money laundering and the exploitation of women and children,” Mr. Cohen said.

The Treasury is using sanctions authority created by a 2011 executive order. In the order, President Obama said he had determined that criminal organizations — including the yakuza, the Camorra crime syndicate in Italy and Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel — “constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the United States.”

Yamaguchi-gumi; its reputed “godfather,” Kenichi Shinoda; and its “deputy godfather,” Kiyoshi Takayama, are the first to be penalized under the order.

The Treasury also announced sanctions against a major crime syndicate called the Brothers’ Circle, along with several of its top members. The Brothers’ Circle, formerly known as the Family of Eleven or the Twenty, is a multiethnic umbrella organization for criminal groups operating across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The yakuza gangs, which boast about 80,000 members, have deep historical roots in Japan and have operated for more than a century. They recently have been tied to a wide range of businesses, including the nuclear industry and Olympus, the Japanese camera manufacturer mired in a major accounting scandal.

According to a 2009 report by Japan’s National Police Agency, the Yamaguchi-gumi had 19,000 members and 17,400 associates, making it the biggest yakuza group. Recently, Japanese authorities have been cracking down on the yakuza, with citizens becoming increasingly intolerant of the criminal underworld. But local authorities have struggled to scrub the groups from industries where they hold considerable influence, like construction.

亞洲城市愛用日貨 (Made in Japan)


「メイドinジャパン」志向の強いアジア都市、1位に「台北」

博報堂『Global HABIT』より

博報堂『Global HABIT』より

オリコン

 台湾といえば日本文化に関心が高く、親日として知られる国。同国内では、日本製品が市場にあふれているというが、今月10日に博報堂が発表したアジア14都市における「メイドinジャパン志向指数の都市比較」で、台湾の“日本好き”が形となって表れた。

  同調査は、2011年実施の生活者調査『Global HABIT(グローバルハビット)』のデータをもとに行われたもので、日本製の商品を求める傾向がもっとも高かった都市に、台湾の「台北」(198ポイン ト)が輝いた。以下は、「ソウル」(158ポイント)、「香港」(151ポイント)、「シンガポール」(131ポイント)と続いた。

 製 品別の「メイドinジャパン」志向指数においても、「自家用車」部門で「台北」が1位に。しかし、「日本から連想するモノ・サービス・エンタテインメン ト」として「自家用車」を選んだ割合が高かった都市をみると、「クアラルンプール」(77.2%)や「ジャカルタ」(58.2%)が上位を占め、総合指数 でトップの「台北」は全都市の中で最低ランクとなった。このことから、「台北」では、日本車が消費者からの信頼を獲得しているうえ、同国内ですでにブラン ドイメージが浸透しきっていることがうかがえる。

 住商アビーム自動車総合研究所の本條聡さんは、「日本車のブランドイメージが高い国で は消費者の評価も高い。背景には日本の自動車メーカーがアジア諸国に力を入れていることがある」と分析。同調査は、この結果が「日本企業がグローバル企業 と戦っていくためのヒントを与えるもの」とした上で、「『メイドinジャパン』という付加価値がすでに認められている都市では、このアドバンテージを守り ながら最大限に活用していくべき」としている。今後も日本車のブランドイメージが浸透した地域で高い指数を維持するためには、企業側もこれまで以上に努力 が必要なのかもしれない。

 同調査は15~59歳の男女計11,908人に各都市で面接を実施して集計。

(根岸達朗/プレスラボ)

'Japanese Madoff' Flagged/ AIJ Investment Advisors 老本23億美億美金蝕光 下次不會了

'Japanese Madoff' Flagged
Wall Street Journal
By KANA INAGAKI, ATSUKO FUKASE and PHRED DVORAK TOKYO—A small Japanese asset-management firm suspected of losing billions of dollars in investor money was flagged as a potential "Japanese Madoff" as early as 2009 by an industry newsletter.



Japan watchdog halts fund on fears over lost assets

Yen notes There are fears that losses at the firm may run into billions of dollars

Japan's financial watchdog has told an investment firm to halt its operations on suspicion that it has lost most of the $2.3bn (£1.5bn) funds it manages.

Operations at AIJ Investment Advisors, which manages group pension funds for more than a hundred firms, have been suspended for a month.

It came after reports in Japan alleged that the firm may have covered up losses for years.

Authorities said they would also probe all other investment firms in Japan.

"The Financial Services Agency (FSA), together with the labour ministry, will take every possible step to prevent this kind of incident from happening again," said Shozaburo Jimi, the head of the FSA.

'Very difficult'

The report has taken analysts and industry watchers by surprise.

"It is very difficult to understand how they were able to hide all these losses," Yuuki Sakurai of Fukuko Capital Management told the BBC.

"They should have had accounting firms checking all their balance sheets."

At the same time, analysts said that investment firms also provided their clients with reports of how and where their money had been invested.

Analysis

Financial regulators have been examining the books of AIJ Investment Advisors since January.

They now say most of the $2.3bn in pension funds it manages is missing - one of the biggest scandals of its kind in Japan.

AIJ manages pension schemes for more than a hundred small and medium sized Japanese companies.

It attracted clients by offering what it said was stable profits from stock options trading.

Japanese pension funds have traditionally been invested mostly in safe but low yielding bonds.

But more than a fifth of the population is now over the age of sixty-five and some funds have been diversifying to try to increase returns.

They said it was difficult to believe that none of the firm's clients has raised any concerns.

"It is a case of negligence at various different levels," Mr Sakurai added.

The financial watchdog said that it was still investigating the extent and scale of losses at the firm.

"AIJ cannot explain its asset management situation. The size and cause of the losses are now under investigation," an FSA official told a news conference.

'Will get sorted'

The news of AIJ's losses comes just months after another Japanese firm Olympus admitted that it hid $1.7bn in losses for as long as 20 years.

Analysts said that scandals may see changes being made to corporate laws in Japan.

"I am sure this will lead to a review of the checks and balances in place," said Gerhard Fasol of EuroTechnology.

However, industry experts believe that while these cases have been high-profile and may have raised concerns about corporate governance, it would be unfair to draw too many conclusions about the state of Japan's corporate culture.

"This has nothing to do with Japan's business culture. The reality is that not every person is true and honest," Mr Fasol said.

He added that once the investigations had taken place, those responsible would be held accountable.

"It may take time, but things will get sorted out," he said.

2012年2月23日 星期四

The Bank of Japan 目処


The Bank of Japan

Time for action

Another set of measures to tackle deflation

CONSERVATIVE, cautious and cowardly: the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has endured all manner of insults over the years. Among the complaints from critics is the charge that the central bank could have boosted Japan’s economy if it had increased its balance-sheet more rapidly during the financial crisis.

The BOJ believes there is only so much a central bank can do if businesses won’t borrow and banks won’t lend because growth prospects are meagre and firms are already stuffed with cash. But politicians are threatening to introduce laws to dilute the bank’s independence. And its counterparts are being embarrassingly dynamic. In January the Federal Reserve set an inflation target of 2% and promised near-zero interest rates until the end of 2014; the European Central Bank is lending money to euro-zone banks like there’s no tomorrow. Inaction is not an option.

So on February 14th the BOJ tried to disprove its critics. First, it changed its wording on price stability. Instead of calling it an “understanding” among the nine individual policy-board members, it now refers to price stability as a “goal” of the institution. Importantly, the term in Japanese, medo, does not mean “target” but implies a vaguer aspiration, unsurprising given that Japanese bureaucrats must “take responsibility” if formal targets are not met. Nonetheless, it still marks progress.

Noun

medo (hiragana めど)

  1. 目処: aim; outlook
  2. 針孔: eye of a needle
  3. 馬道: (obsolete) long roofed passageway
  4. : Chinese lespedeza; fortune-telling using divination sticks

Second, the BOJ increased its ongoing credit-easing programme by agreeing to purchase an additional ¥10 trillion ($130 billion) in long-term Japanese government bonds by the end of 2012. That triples the amount of its monthly purchases and brings the overall amount of credit easing to ¥65 trillion. The increase is meant to spur bank lending and create modest inflation—the BOJ said it wanted annual consumer-price increases “at 1% for the time being”.

The stockmarket leapt to a six-month high following the BOJ’s announcement. Yet the economy still faces some severe headwinds: a declining population, sluggish global growth and a still-strong yen that eats into corporate profits. Fourth-quarter GDP figures released on February 13th show that the Japanese economy shrank by an annualised 2.3% from the previous quarter, the fourth decline in five quarters.

So critics will again complain that the BOJ is doing too little. That charge will be less fair than it used to be. And, as the gentlemen of Nihonbashi subtly stated in their communiqué, it is up to banks, firms and the government to play a role in revitalising the Japanese economy, too.

2012年2月22日 星期三

敢死隊工廠 Factory wheels are turning in the Fukushima evacuation zone

Smoke rises from one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

Economy

Factory wheels are turning in the Fukushima evacuation zone

Workers in one village in the evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima power plant have started clocking in again. They carry personal Geiger counters to make sure their radiation levels do not exceed the limit.

Iitate is like a ghost town. The village lies within the emergency evacuation zone, as it is only 40 kilometers away from the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant that was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 last year. The houses are empty and the town deserted, with many of its former inhabitants still living in temporary shelters, mostly in Fukushima City.

But there is life in one part of the village - at the local Kikuchi factory, where parts for mobile phones, cameras and photocopiers are made. Some 240 workers come here every morning to work.

Kikuchi received permission to continue producing in Iitate under strict conditions. Hiromi Sato, the factory's deputy head, is pleased about this, even if he now has a longer commute.

“There was some uncertainty among the people but we were able to give them stable employment. This is very important in times such as these,” he says, adding there have been no production losses.

A Geiger counter displays radiation levels

Radiation levels have decreased in Iitate but are still high


Health measures

He explains that the factory has taken a series of measures to dispel some of the employees' fears and address health issues, such as installing an air shower at the entrance to minimize contamination.

The halls have also been sealed off and special air conditioning units are used to ensure no radioactive particles can penetrate the building.

Each worker has been given a Geiger counter to record daily personal radiation levels. If measurements surpass 20 millisieverts per year, the employee is sent to another factory in Nihonmatsu. This has already happened to five people. So far, Hiromi Sato's counter is at 8 millisieverts.

“It will be set to zero on March 11. The levels are calculated anew every year,” says Sato.

But this means that the 20 millisieverts limit can be exceeded significantly over a number of years. The government has not imposed any regulations regarding the products made by Kikuchi but the company has negotiated limits with its customers.

Tens of thousands of protesters at an anti-nuclear demonstration in Japan

The anti-nuclear movement is growing in Japan


“The products were not the problem, but the storage area was,” says Sato. “We used to use wooden pallets, but they absorb a lot of radioactive particles. Now we've switched to using plastic pallets.”

The radiation levels within the factory area are now only 0.3 microsieverts per hour, which is equivalent to levels just north of Tokyo.

Outside, the levels are higher but they have also decreased considerably, according to Sato, “thanks to a state decontamination project in December and January that removed and replaced the asphalt.”

“Five centimeters of topsoil were also removed. Before there were two to three microsieverts per hour in the air but it's gone down to 0.7.”

Nonetheless, he says, it's still not the best place to go for a walk.

Author: Peter Kujath, Iitate / act
Editor: Sarah Berning

南京大屠殺Nanjing Massacre之虛實

Chinese City Severs Ties After Japanese Mayor Denies Massacre
New York Times
TOKYO — The Chinese city of Nanjing has suspended its sister-city relationship with Nagoya in Japan after the Japanese city's mayor expressed doubts that the Japanese army's 1937 Nanjing Massacre actually took place, the Nagoya city hall said ...



Chinese City Severs Ties After Japanese Mayor Denies Massacre


TOKYO — The Chinese city of Nanjing has suspended its sister-city relationship with Nagoya in Japan after the Japanese city’s mayor expressed doubts that the Japanese army’s 1937 Nanjing Massacre actually took place, the Nagoya city hall said Wednesday.

The falling out began on Monday when Nagoya’s mayor, Takashi Kawamura, told a visiting delegation of Chinese Communist Party officials from Nanjing that he doubted that Japanese troops had actually massacred Chinese civilians. Most historians say that at least tens of thousands of civilians were slaughtered in Nanjing, in one of the most infamous atrocities of Japan’s early 20th century military expansion across Asia.

The falling out underscored how history remains a potential flashpoint in Japan’s ties with the nations that it once conquered. While such denials are common by Japanese conservatives like Mr. Kawamura, they are rarely raised in such a public manner, and directly to Chinese officials. But there is also a widely shared perception in Japan that China’s communist government plays up the massacre for its own propaganda purposes, with many serious historians dismissing the official Chinese claims of 300,000 dead as exaggerated.

Still, the Japanese government scrambled to head off a full-blown diplomatic incident. The top government spokesman restated Japan’s official position that the massacre did, in fact, take place.

“This is a problem that should be appropriately resolved between the cities of Nagoya and Nanjing,” said the spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura.

The city hall of Nagoya, an industrial city in central Japan, said it received what it described as a short and business-like e-mail on Wednesday morning from the city government of Nanjing saying that the Chinese city was temporarily halting all exchanges.

On Wednesday, Mr. Kawamura remained unrepentant, saying that did not intend to retract the statement or apologize. He explained that his father had been a solider in Nanjing in 1945, and was treated kindly by city residents, which he said would have been impossible had an atrocity taken place there just eight years earlier.

“There are many opinions about the so-called Nanjing incident,” he told reporters, using the Japanese term for the killings in December 1937. “I have said I want to have a debate with people from Nanjing.”

Such disagreements between Japan and its neighbors have quieted from the early 2000s, when then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi angered many in China and South Korea by visiting the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo that honors Japan’s war dead, included executed war criminals.

However, questions of history can still disrupt relations. In December, Japan’s prime minster, Yoshihiko Noda, was rebuffed by the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, during a trip to Seoul when he asked for removal of a statue in front of the Japanese Embassy there to remember women forced to work as sex slaves for the Japanese military during World War II.

The South Korean leader responded by asking for compensation for the surviving former sex slaves, most now in their 80s. Japan says war-related reparations were settled when it established diplomatic ties with South Korea after World War II.

2012年2月18日 星期六

The spirit of Japanese poetry (1914)

此書為Williams 女友回國前送胡適的 她覺得是好書
胡適讀後 說英文很好 不過太誇張
胡適日記全集 , 第 2 卷 1915-1920
(不過我們從此套日記 可知當時日本人遠比清國人更活躍於西方文藝界)

The spirit of Japanese poetry (1914)


Author: Noguchi, Yoné, 1875-1947
Subject: Japanese poetry -- History and criticism
Publisher: London : J. Murray
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT
Language: English
Call number: AZQ-9018
Digitizing sponsor: MSN
Book contributor: Robarts - University of Toronto
Collection: robarts; toronto

Full catalog record: MARCXML

[Open Library icon]This book has an editable web page on Open Library.


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2012年2月16日 星期四

日本官方坦承過去忽視核安 Japan Ignored Nuclear Risks, Official Says

Japan Ignored Nuclear Risks, Official Says


TOKYO — In surprisingly frank public testimony on Wednesday, Japan’s nuclear safety chief said the country’s regulations were fundamentally flawed and laid out a somber picture of a nuclear industry shaped by freewheeling power companies, toothless regulators and a government more interested in promoting nuclear energy than in safeguarding the health of its citizens.

Itsuo Inouye/Associated Press

In his testimony on Wednesday, Haruki Madarame, Japan's nuclear safety chief, described a complacency with lax standards.

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The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, stricken by an earthquake and a tsunami last March, has led to widespread criticism of nuclear officials for their lax approach to safety, as well as for a bungled response that allowed meltdowns to occur at three of the plant’s six reactors.

The scale of the accident, which forced almost 100,000 people from their homes and contaminated a wide area of northeastern Japan, has put pressure on the government to explain why warnings about the plant’s safety went unheeded and global safety standards were ignored, even as officials promoted nuclear power as the country’s most reliable source of electricity.

Haruki Madarame, head of a panel of nuclear safety experts who provide technical advice to the government, told a Parliament-sponsored inquiry on Wednesday that Japanese officials had succumbed to a blind belief in the country’s technical prowess and failed to thoroughly assess the risks of building nuclear reactors in an earthquake-prone country.

For example, officials did not give serious consideration to what would happen if electric power were lost at a nuclear station, because they believed that Japan’s power grid was far more reliable than those in other countries, he said. The March earthquake and tsunami cut off the Fukushima plant from the grid, leaving operators unable to keep the reactor cores from overheating.

“Though global safety standards kept on improving, we wasted our time coming up with excuses for why Japan didn’t need to bother meeting them,” Mr. Madarame said.

Officials also gave too little attention, he said, to new studies raising the possibility of large earthquakes off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture. Mr. Madarame said he was to blame for some of the lapses, but that the Nuclear Safety Commission had a culture of complacency long before he took over in mid-2010.

His candid testimony comes at a time when the government is pushing to restart reactors around the country that were shut down following the accident. Only 3 of Japan’s 54 reactors are operating; the rest have been kept idle by local governments worried about safety.

To quell opposition, the central government has ordered new “stress tests” to assess whether the plants can withstand a major natural disaster. But the investigative commission’s hearings could undermine efforts to restart more reactors.

Mr. Madarame said the government should go far beyond the lax safety checks that Japanese regulators performed for years, which he said were still being carried out in some cases using “technology three decades old.” He said that regulators had been too cozy with the industry. Mr. Madarame also criticized Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the Fukushima plant, for saying that it could not possibly have prepared for a tsunami as strong as the one last March, which killed 20,000 people along Japan’s northeast coast.

Tokyo Makes Arrests / Olympus Sues Executives/Ford Challenges Japan

Tokyo Makes Arrests in Olympus Scandal
Tokyo prosecutors arrested three former Olympus officials, including ex-chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, over their alleged role in the company's loss-hiding scandal.


Olympus Sues Present, Past Executives Over Cover-Up, Nikkei Says
BusinessWeek
The Japanese camera maker submitted the claim yesterday, according the Nikkei and Yomiuri newspapers. It wasn't possible to confirm the lawsuits because today is a holiday in Japan. While Olympus spokesmen weren't available to comment, the Tokyo- based ...
See all stories on this topic »

Ford Turns to the Midsize Car to Challenge Japan
New York Times
The new look is just one aspect of Ford's all-out bid to gain share in the competitive midsize car segment dominated in recent decades by the Japanese automakers. To further differentiate the Fusion, the company will offer four engine options, ...
See all stories on this topic »

New York Times

2012年2月12日 星期日

call for the abolition of atomic energy 廢核

Thousands march against nuclear power in Japan
CBS News
People march a street, demanding Japan abandon atomic power in Tokyo Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012. Thousands joined the march against nuclear power as worries grow about the restarting of reactors idled after the March 11, 2011 disaster in northeastern ...





WE'VE GOT THE POWER

Feb. 12, 2012

Antinuclear protesters march Saturday in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, to call for the abolition of atomic energy. About 12,000 demonstrators gathered the same day for a rally in the capital's Yoyogi Park to voice their opposition to nuclear power, organizers said.

KYODO PHOTO

2012年2月3日 星期五

立春、恵方巻

TOKYO | Fri Feb 3, 2012 5:21am EST

Feb 3 (Reuters) - Gobbling down a huge sushi roll in one go on Japan's February 3 end-of-winter festival is thought to bring good fortune -- just as long as you don't speak while you eat and remember to face the right way.

"Ehomaki," or "Lucky Direction" sushi rolls, are mammoth versions of the toothsome, seaweed-wrapped rice rolls that are a popular part of sushi meals. Roughly 6 cm (2.3 inches) in diameter and 20 cm (8 inches) long, they contain everything from egg, fish and vegetables to slices of fried pork cutlet.

The important thing is to take them in hand and eat, silently, while facing the proper direction -- this year, north-northwest.

Nobody really knows why or how the tradition evolved, though, only that it seems to have first appeared in the western city of Osaka.

"One of the theories for where Lucky Sushi Day came from is, well, men would make prostitutes in Osaka eat large sushi rolls and they'd watch that for a laugh," food analyst Minako Murakoshi told Reuters.

"There's some evidence for that but of course there are other theories as well."

A more likely explanation is that they were first whipped up by food stalls in Osaka in the mid-1800s. Then, a century later, a local seaweed retailer turned that into a regional tradition through sushi-eating contest and prizes for the largest sushi roll as a way to kick-start sales.

In more recent years, they've been seized upon by Japanese convenience store chains as a seasonal money spinner to fill the gap between Christmas and Valentine's Day.

Prior to this, February 3 -- or Setsubun -- was celebrated mainly by people throwing beans to chase demons out of their house, chanting "Out with demons, in with happiness."

But in 1989, retailer Seven Eleven launched a Lucky Sushi Day at one of its Osaka-area stores. The celebration was rolled out nationally in 1998.

"The Japanese are pretty keen on events associated with the seasons, like eating cake at Christmas or giving people chocolates on Valentine's Day," Murakoshi said.

"After Lucky Sushi Day, there'll be loads of chocolates for Valentine's Day out on the shelves, and consumers will be pulled in by that and end up buying lots of chocolates too."

At the top of Tokyo Tower, a popular tourist spot resembling the Eiffel Tower, people gathered to eat Lucky Sushi -- and struggled to say why.

"I think the tradition originally came from western Japan, but it's been promoted in all sorts of ways in Tokyo. Gradually everyone's started doing it," said Keiko Fuji, a Tokyo mother.

Others had more mundane concerns, such as how to actually eat the massive rolls.

"We cut it into smaller pieces and eat it that way," said 65-yea-old Yasuhiro Irie.

Traditionally, Lucky Sushi were filled with seven lucky ingredients, including egg, cucumber and eel. But the modern version includes some stuffed with spongecake, or even with bread in place of rice. (Editing by Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)

Setsubun: The Day Before Spring, Demons, How to Eat Eho-Maki and Throw Your Beans

Setsubun: The Day Before Spring, Demons, How to Eat Eho-Maki and Throw Your Beans (節分: 立春、恵方巻、炒り豆、豆撒き)

Setsubun 節分

On February 3rd, people in Japan celebrate Setsubun, the coming of spring. Special sushi rolls called Eho-maki (恵方巻) and eaten while facing the auspicious direction for that year. After dinner, roasted soy beans, or iri-mame are thrown out the front door of the house to cast out demons (oni), disease and bad fortune and welcome spring and and a new year of good fortune.

Paku did some shopping at one of the major department stores in Kyoto and came over with some tasty Setsubun goodies.

Setsubun is associated with The Chinese New Year, or Lunar Calendar which was used for centuries in Japan, so this is a coming of spring festival as well as the traditional new year. It is still an important event in Japan. Setsubun properly refers to the day before the coming of any of the four season. So, this is actually, risshun (立春) , spring Setsubun.

Setsubun dinner is simple, sushi rolls (makizushi). The proper way to eat this dinner is to face a certain direction, this year it was south-east, and eat the entire sushi roll without stopping. Don’t speak, just make your wish! This takes longer than you might think, so you have time to wish for a lot!

Eho-maki, Iri-mame and Oni (demon) MaskSetsubun 節分

Eating the entire makizushi in one go is quite difficult and I would imagine that more than a few people have choked to death while eating their makizushi according to the rules.

This makizushi is called ehomaki (恵方巻) literally, ‘direction of blessing roll’, wrapped in egg is quite an innovation to my eyes. The oni is branded (yaki-in) on the sheet of egg that is used to wrap the sushi. While it is common to see a single yaki-in on various foods in Japan, usually egg based creations, we had never seen one like this where it covers the entire thing like this.

Someone must have invented a new machine, I thought!

Setsubun Sushi Rolls, Eho-maki – detailSetsubun 節分

Machine-made or not, it was one of the best damn makizishi I have ever had, and fun to eat!

It came packed in a cute little box to boot. Japanese put lots of energy and effort into packaging.

About those beans. The beans are roasted soybeans. They taste just fine if you are in to roasted soybeans, nothing to get real excited about, taste-wise.

What to do with the beans:

Iri-mame and an Oni (demon) Mask – detailSetsubun 節分

What you do here is put all the beans in a big bowl then each person counts out the number for your age, placing them in your own blog or plate. This is done after dinner.Then, together you count, one, two, three.. and eat one bean for each year.

This was actually the first time I had done this properly as Paku is a real traditional Japanese girl. Seeing my life as a plate of beans was strange.

As Paku was counting and we were eating beans, I was thinking in my mind the landmarks in my life that came to mind when I picked up each bean. First memories, first pet, t-ball, golden birthday, first kiss, — Paku was born –, lost my virginity, traveled abroad, graduated uni, came to Japan, turned 30.

As Paku was eating her last bean, she said out loud, “How long I have known you, darling!” Oh, sweet!

Some people eat one more bean, this is said to protect your from getting a cold and others say that it ensures a year of happiness.

Then with the remaining beans, you take them to the front door and say “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (鬼は外! 福は内!) Literally, “Oni out, good fortune in!” Then throw them out in the street. As this is the beginning of spring, some people say “Out with the old and in with the new!”

According to Wikipedia, in one region of Japan, they say something like “Oni‘s eyeballs — SMASH! SMASH!” I like that one!

I tried it out on Paku right away. As she was quietly reading after dinner I blurted out, “Paku’s eyeballs — SMASH! SMASH!”

Terrified, she looked at me like I was pointing a knife at her. I thought she was going to run away or call the police, maybe both! (The Japanese words are really scary.) I retorted, that I was just trying out what I learned on Wikipedia and that IS what they say in up in Fukushima Prefecture.

The throwing of beans, called Mame-maki (literally, bean scattering) dates back to ancient Japan. A Heian-era monk is said to have driven away a demon by throwing roasted beans at him/it. Ah, life must really have been simpler back then.

So there you have it, Setsubun. Ehomaki and roasted soybeans. Another fun Japanese festival intricately intertwined with food.

Eho-maki, Iri-mame and Oni (demon) Mask
Setsubun 節分
notice the box in the background.

Japanese Entrepreneurs Aim for Silicon Valley

Japanese Entrepreneurs Aim for Silicon Valley

For an emerging generation of Japanese innovators, the dream isn't a job for life at a big company. They have new ambitions, and they're determined to go places. Especially Silicon Valley.

Small but growing numbers of Japanese entrepreneurs are jumping into the startup scene in northern California, particularly since the earthquake and tsunami last March. They include Naoki Shibata, who took the plunge by giving up the sort of life many Japanese in past decades spent their lives trying to attain.

Only 30, Shibata had an executive-level position at online retailing giant Rakuten Inc. and an assistant professorship at the prestigious University of Tokyo, where he earned a Ph.D. Last June he launched AppGrooves, an iPhone application discovery tool.

"I wanted a global company from the first moment," he said. "If you want to reach a global market, then you have to start from Silicon Valley."

Shibata and others say they are seeing a major uptick in Japanese entrepreneurs migrating to Silicon Valley or seriously contemplating a move, as their country struggles with two decades of economic stagnation and a rapidly shrinking and aging population.

Some venture capitalists believe the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear disaster that followed compelled many Japanese to take an increasingly uncertain future into their own hands.

null
AP
In this Dec. 1, 2011 photo, Noaoki Shibata, a... View Full Caption

"Whenever there's a natural disaster, people are pushed and pressed against the wall," said Annis Uzzaman, one of the founders of San Jose, Calif.-based Fenox Venture Capital. "And they want to come out as number one."

Attorney Yoichiro Taku, a partner at Silicon Valley firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, has taken on AppGrooves as a client, as well as Japanese-founded social network startups Wondershake and Mieple. Taku, who has among the most active startup practices in the U.S., said it's the most Japanese startup traffic he has ever seen in his Silicon Valley career.

More than the earthquake, Taku believes the trend has more to do with the sprouting seeds of entrepreneurship back in Japan, cultivated by the emergence of Tokyo-based incubators like Open Network Lab and Samurai Incubate. Some will naturally want to aim bigger.

"It's like Ichiro Suzuki wanting to play in Major League Baseball," Taku said.

Shibata also suggested that it's just easier to be offbeat in the U.S.

"The biggest difference between Silicon Valley and Japan is when I hack something in Japan, I'll be punished first," Shibata said of making unscripted modifications. "But in Silicon Valley, when I hack something, I will be encouraged to do more."

Technology and innovation have long been sources of pride in Japan. The country's phenomenal economic development in the 20th century was fueled by visionary entrepreneurs and industrialists whose ventures are now some of the country's most well-known brands like Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp.

But as Japan grew into one of the world's biggest economies, it seemed to lose its pioneering spirit. Business leaders, officials and academics in recent years have blamed the country's dearth of entrepreneurship on a mix of social and structural factors that constrict new innovators.

The Japanese, they say, have become risk-averse, opting to stick to the safety of lifetime employment at established companies. Venture capital is scare. Exits in the form of mergers and acquisitions or initial public offerings are too difficult.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which measures attitudes toward starting new businesses around the world, found in its 2010 report that Japan ranked lowest among 22 advanced economies. The same survey found that Japanese citizens were least likely to consider entrepreneurship a good career choice.

This reality, however, has spurred new action among individuals and groups trying to rekindle the country's entrepreneurial ambitious and build a viable startup ecosystem.

"There's a lot more startup companies, and there's probably more support for them now," said Taku, the attorney. "Just mathematically, some percent of them have some aspiration to go the U.S. because they speak English or they studied in the U.S."

The demographics of applicants to Open Network Lab, a Tokyo startup incubator, shifted dramatically after the earthquake, managing partner Hironori Maeda said. Before the disaster, applications tended to come from recent university graduates or freelance programmers. But now, Maeda said, they're coming from employees at large Internet companies who are willing to quit their jobs if accepted.

"Japan was all about harmony and longevity," he said. "Then the earthquake hit them, and everyone is all of a sudden put into uncertainty. That kind of woke everyone up. It probably made a lot of people consider what they should do with their lives."

Hironori Maeda, Satoshi Suzuki
AP
In this Dec. 21, 2011 photo, Hironori Maeda,... View Full Caption

Open Network Lab, a joint effort among listed tech companies Digital Garage Inc., netprice.com and kakaku.com, launched less than two years ago with the aim of finding startups with the potential to go global. Teams accepted into its three-month seed accelerator program are given 1 million yen ($12,800) in funding, office space, mentoring and access to its extensive network of entrepreneurs and partners.

Interest has soared since its first class, when it received 47 applications. For its fourth class that started in January, nearly 100 teams applied.

Other initiatives are also sparking change.

William Saito, a Japanese-American entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Tokyo, has made it his personal mission to reinvigorate Japan. He co-founded Impact Japan to serve as a hub and clearinghouse for innovation, helping organize local events for the annual Global Entrepreneurship Week and launching scholarships for study abroad.

For the past three years, he has taken groups of about 30 Japanese students, researchers and would-be entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley to expose them to the global marketplace.

"I think we're finally turning a curve," Saito said of entrepreneurship in Japan.

Along with Saito's efforts, journalist Lisa Katayama and designer Tomo Saito launched the Tofu Project in San Francisco last year. The unique initiative brought 10 young Japanese entrepreneurs to California in late October for a weeklong boot camp in Silicon Valley-style design thinking and innovation.

Satoshi Suzuki, the 22-year-old president of a social networking startup called Wondershake, took part in the program. He, too, is determined to make it in Silicon Valley.

He describes Wondershake as an icebreaker for the real world, designed to facilitate immediate face-to-face connections at events, schools and other venues. As soon as visas are approved for him and his four partners, Suzuki plans to move to the San Francisco Bay Area.

"No one expects me to succeed, and 99 percent of people don't succeed, so a lot of people could just give up," he said. "But the main reason I'm doing this is because the product is really something I want to create for the world."

Suzuki said the broader issue isn't that Japanese people are afraid of risk, but that they lack mentors and examples of success to encourage them.

That can be overcome if there are actually people who've done it and can say, 'You can do it too,'" he said.



Yamaguchi Genbee (山口源兵衛)血の記憶を再現する傾奇者

我昨天在NHK 看到專訪Yamaguchi Genbee (山口源兵衛)
才可以一窺日本織物設計的面貌
帶の精神/精神の飾
禪問答について
蝶蝶の文樣---不死深
漆縞

底下的資訊只是其中的一兩項

山口源兵衛
血の記憶を再現する傾奇者

山口源兵衛
写真 加藤昌人
今年3月、若い世代の支持を集めるセレクトショップのユナイテッドアローズと組み、「傾奇者達之系譜(かぶくものたちのけいふ)」と名づけた男物の着物ショーを仕掛けた。
レッド・ツェッペリンや和太鼓に乗って闊歩する、ロッカーの内田裕也に舞踊家の田中泯。個性豊かなモデルたちが纏(まと)ったのは、紅や紫といった鮮やかな色と、存在感のある金や銀の光沢、奇抜で大胆な柄や文様だった。
「江戸時代の奢侈禁止令以前、桃山時代には傾奇者、室町時代には婆娑羅(ばさら)という風潮があった。戦渦に生き、死を求めさ迷う宿命にある男たちは、時代を挑発するように競って着飾った」。大地のエネルギーを吸い上げ、血のにおいを漂わせる奔放な生を再現したのだ。
京都に270年続く老舗の帯問屋「誉田屋源兵衛」に生まれた。西陣に帯がなくなるまで現金で買い付け高値で売る。十代目を襲名すると、そんな先代の商売を覆すように帯の制作に乗り出した。
その独創性は際立ち、日本原産種の幻の蚕「小石丸」の糸を復興するなど伝統美を追求する一方で、原始布や螺鈿や箔など、従来にない材料を織り込む 革新に挑む。270年の血の記憶をたどるように、溢れる好奇心に突き動かされるままに、想像のなかの色や質感を表現する素材を求め、世界中を飛び回る。
目の前に広げられた新作の帯には、長良川の古い魚網が織り込まれ、黒蝶貝とオパールが埋め込まれた勝虫(かつむし)(トンボ)がそれを突き破り、飛び立とうとしていた。源兵衛の血が傾(かぶ)いている。
(『週刊ダイヤモンド』編集部 遠藤典子)
山口源兵衛(Genbei Yamaguchi)●帯制作プロデューサー 1949年生まれ。80年、元文年間(1736~41年)創業の帯問屋「誉田屋源兵衛」十代目襲名。 2002年「かぐやこの繭小石丸」展で日経優秀賞受賞。03年日本文化デザイン大賞受賞。現在は文様の体系化に挑む。


Yamaguchi Genbee (山口源兵衛) / Genbee ... - Cool Japan Guide


http://www.transit-web.com/issue/kimonodego/UA%E6%B8%9B%E7%B1%B3.JPG

Genbee Yamaguchi is one of the most respected kimono makers. In 1981, he became the head of “Kondaya”, a long-established wholesale store of obi sashes that was founded in Kyoto in 1738. As the tenth head of Kondaya, he devoted himself to advancing obi making. His recent works, however, have been more involved in designing and making the whole kimono. He also takes an active role in revitalizing the dyeing and weaving technologies through such measures as the revival of Koishimaru - a specific type of silk worm cocoon found in Japan and the preservation of a unique village in the Philippines called “Dreamweaver”. In 2003, Yamaguchi received the Japan Culture Award. After successful collaborations with Kengo Sumi, an architect, and Hiroko Koshino, a designer, he released a new kimono line called Kabukimonotachi-no-keifu, in collaboration with UNITED ARROWS, a specialty retailer. It is an exciting and bold kimono collection for men.

http://shgeking.up.seesaa.net/image/B5C0B1E0BAD7A4CEC9F7B7CA_1.jpg

Kabukimonotachi-no-keifu is inspired by the men of the Momoyam period (approximately 1568 to 1603) who loved to live a wild and flamboyant life-style. Japanese men in those days were respected as the toughest of the world. Kabukimono is expressive of that type of man who pursued an extraordinary and “cool” life style. The fashion of Kabukimonotachi-no-keifu evokes masculinity and the true “rock and roll” spirit of the time.

http://art57.photozou.jp/pub/539/173539/photo/89501160.jpg

“If you keep on pursuing the basics, there will be a moment when you will suddenly see limitlessness revealed to you, as once Zeami (the greatest playwright of the Noh theater) said. Mastering the basics is the shortest road to freedom”
The vital life force and sexiness in Yamaguchi’s designs come from the inner depth of his creative process.

By TS on Oct 14, 2011

2012年2月1日 星期三

朝日新聞英文版

http://ajw.asahi.com/ 朝日新聞英文版
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