Japan Atomic Safety Rules May Keep Reactors Closed for Years

By Tsuyoshi Inajima & Yuji Okada - Jan 31, 2013 6:34 PM GMT+0800

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority approved safety standards for atomic power plants that may require years of reinforcement work for some reactors idled after the Fukushima disaster.
Nuclear power plants will need to build secondary control centers at least 100 meters from reactor buildings to manage emergency cooling systems and radiation filter vents, according to the rules. They also stipulate tougher tsunami defenses.

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Restarting the Kashiwazaki Kariwa reactors is key to reviving Tokyo Electric, which was taken over by the government because costs stemming from the Fukushima disaster threatened it with bankruptcy. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg 

All but two of Japan’s 50 reactors are idled for safety assessments after a record earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011, caused meltdowns and radiation leaks at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima plant. The NRA was set up after Fukushima to provide reviews independent of the trade and industry ministry that oversees nuclear power.

“Some plants may have to undergo large reconstruction” to meet NRA requirements, Tomoko Murakami, a nuclear analyst at the Institute of Energy Economics Japan, said by phone today. For those sites, “it may take several years before they can restart.”

A group of scientists led by Toyoshi Fuketa, the regulatory agency’s commissioner, approved the requirements today in Tokyo, said Tatsuya Taguchi, an NRA official who attended the meeting. The rules will be implemented in July after inviting public comment, according to the NRA.

Quake and Tsunami

Earlier this week, another NRA panel led by Kunihiko Shimazaki, a seismologist and agency commissioner, approved rules for assessing earthquake and tsunami risk.
Currently, power companies are required to assess geological faults using rock and earth samples from the last 120,000 to 130,000 years, or the Late Pleistocene era. The new rules require investigation of faults going back 400,000 years if study of Late Pleistocene geology is inconclusive.
The NRA is investigating quake faults under nuclear plants owned by Kansai Electric Power Co., Tohoku Electric Power Co., Japan Atomic Power Co., Hokuriku Electric Power Co. (9505), and Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The widened definition may prompt the regulator to investigate faults under other nuclear power plants, Murakami said.
Geological faults under Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant, the world’s biggest, could be judged active, Kyodo News reported last week, citing the NRA’s earlier draft of the safety rules.

Tepco Future

Restarting the Kashiwazaki Kariwa reactors is key to reviving Tokyo Electric, which was taken over by the government because costs stemming from the Fukushima disaster threatened it with bankruptcy.
On tsunami defenses, utilities must estimate tsunami risk based on the latest scientific assessments, according to rules approved by the Shimazaki panel. Tsunami defenses such as seawalls and watertight doors must be able to withstand the largest estimated tsunami, under the rules.
After Fukushima, it was revealed Tokyo Electric’s own research showed the plant could be hit by a tsunami more than 10 meters (33 feet) high, while its defensive seawall was only 5.6 meters high. The March 11 tsunami that wrecked the plant reached 13 meters.

Yokozuna Taiho 大鵬幸喜 1940-2013

Statue of Yokozuna Taiho
Personal information
Born	Kōki Naya May 29, 1940 Shikuka, Karafuto, Empire of Japan
Died	January 19, 2013 (aged 72) Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 1 1⁄2 in)
Weight	153 kg (340 lb; 24.1 st)

Taihō Kōki (大鵬幸喜, born Kōki Naya, Ukrainian: Іва́н Бори́шко Ivan Boryshko; May 29, 1940 – January 19, 2013) was the 48th Yokozuna in theJapanese sport of sumo wrestling. He is generally regarded as the greatest sumo wrestler of the post-war period.^[1] He became a yokozuna in 1961 at the age of 21, the youngest ever at the time, and he won a record 32 tournaments between 1960 and 1971. His dominance was such that he won six tournaments in a row on two separate occasions. He is the only wrestler to win at least one championship every year of his top division career,^[2] and he has the highest career winning percentage of any wrestler in the modern era. After his retirement he was the head coach of Taihō stable.

Taiho, Dominant Postwar Sumo Champ, Dies at 72

Jiji Press/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Taiho in 1966. He won the Emperor’s Cup, sumo wrestling’s top prize, a record 32 times.

By MARGALIT FOX

Published: January 22, 2013

Taiho, widely considered the greatest sumo wrestler of postwar Japan despite the fact that he weighed scarcely more than 300 pounds, died on Saturday in Tokyo. He was 72.

Enlarge This Image

Kyodo News, via Associated Press

Taiho after winning the Emporer's Cup in  1960.

His death, of heart failure, was announced by the Japanese Sumo Association. Taiho, who made his debut in the mid-1950s, dominated his sport until the early ’70s. Standing about 6 feet 1 and weighing about 220 pounds at the start of his career, he was a sylph of sumo, relying on skill more than heft to win matches.

Later on he competed at about 320 pounds, a figure that was then unremarkable and is today, in an era when sumo wrestlers can exceed 500 pounds, negligible.

A ruggedly handsome man adored by a generation of Japanese women and girls (Emperor Hirohito was also said to be a fan), Taiho retired in 1971 with a career record of 746-144-136.

Taiho, whose Japanese name was Koki Naya, won the Emperor’s Cup 32 times. The cup, an immense silver trophy awarded to the champion of sumo’s top division, has long been the most coveted prize in Japanese sports.

The son of a Japanese mother and a Ukrainian father, Taiho was born Ivan Boryshko on May 29, 1940, on Sakhalin Island, off the east coast of Siberia. Sakhalin had been colonized by both the Soviet Union and Japan; at the end of World War II, the Soviets gained control of the island and Ivan and his mother were repatriated to Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s major islands.

His father, an anti-Communist who had fled his homeland for Sakhalin after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, was apparently arrested. The family never learned his fate; years later, touring the Soviet Union as a sumo star, Taiho reportedly sought his father’s whereabouts to no avail.

He began his sumo career in 1956 and soon afterward took the ring name Taiho, which roughly translates as “Great Phoenix.” In 1960, when he won his first Emperor’s Cup at 20, he was believed to be the youngest champion in sumo’s 2,000-year history.

The next year Taiho became a yokozuna, or grand master; at the time he was the youngest sumo wrestler to do so. Other highlights of his career include a 45-match unbeaten streak in the late 1960s.

After retiring from the sport, Taiho ran his own sumo stable. At 36 he had a stroke, but he recovered with intensive rehabilitation.

His record of 32 Emperor’s Cups remains unbroken to this day.

Emperor Hirohito, 昭和天皇

January 7, 1989

OBITUARY

Hirohito, 124th Emperor of Japan, Is Dead at 87

By SUSAN CHIRA, Special to the New York Times

Emperor Hirohito, the last of the World War II leaders and Japan's longest-reigning monarch, died today at the Imperial Palace. He was 87 years old.
In his 62-year reign, the Emperor presided over the most tumultuous era in Japan's modern history, although like most of the 123 emperors before him, he watched more than he acted. During his reign, his nation embraced militarism, conquered much of Asia, waged war on the Allied Powers, suffered the world's first atomic bombing, and painfully rebuilt, rising in just four decades to become the world's most vibrant economic power.
Hirohito's death came at 6:33 A.M. (4:33 P.M. Friday, Eastern standard time) after more than a year of declining health. He had been confined to his bed for more than three months.
Akihito Becomes Emperor Because Japanese tradition decrees that the Chrysanthemum Throne may not be empty, Crown Prince Akihito, Hirohito's 55-year-old son, became Japan's 125th Emperor. In a ceremony as ancient as his title, Akihito received two of the Imperial treasures - a sword and a jewel - and received the Imperial seal and the seal of state.
Shoichi Fujimori, the grand steward of the Imperial Household Agency, announced the Emperor's death at 7:55 A.M. and revealed for the first time that Hirohito had been suffering from cancer of the duodenum, a section of the small intestine.
''The whole nation is deeply saddened by his death,'' the steward said, using a special honorific verb reserved for the death of an emperor. ''Despite the concerted efforts of medical treatment, finally today His Majesty passed away from a tumor in the duodenum.''
The Emperor's chief physician, Akira Takagi, told reporters this morning that doctors had known Hirohito had cancer in September 1987, after they had operated on his pancreas. But, he said, the doctors lied about that fact to prevent the Emperor from learning that he had cancer. In Japan, cancer patients are usually not told that they have the disease.
Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, dressed in a black suit with black armbands, said: ''The sad news of the passing of His late Majesty the Emperor has left me grief-stricken. Our sincere prayers for his recovery were in vain, and I am at a loss for words.''
There has been no official announcement of the date of the funeral, but Government officials have decided that it will be held 40 to 50 days after Hirohito's death. This morning, the Cabinet decided to call a six-day official mourning period, during which all Government agencies will refrain from music and dancing and will fly flags. For private citizens and private companies, the Government is suggesting a two-day mourning period. This morning, the flags outside the Imperial Household Agency were draped with black bunting.
As news of Hirohito's death spread, many Japanese throughout Tokyo put flags outside their homes and businesses. An elderly woman hoisted a flag to half-staff outside a sushi shop, radio stations played classical music and a crowd gathered near the Imperial Palace. A large contingent of riot police officers were deployed to guard against anti-imperial demonstrations or the possibility that avid followers might commit suicide.
No Shinto Rites Planned According to the Japanese television network NHK, the state funeral will not follow the Shinto rituals performed when the Emperor Taisho, Hirohito's father, died. Because Japan has since adopted a new, democratic Constitution, the Government wants to distinguish all the ceremonies surrounding Hirohito's death and Akihito's ascension from the past, when Shinto was the state religion.
But many traditions are being honored. This morning at the Imperial Palace, Mr. Takeshita, members of his Cabinet, the speakers of both houses of the legislature and other officials, clad in morning coats, watched the brief and ancient ritual that passes to the new Emperor two of Japan's three sacred treasures.
As Akihito stood on a white rug in front of a white and gold throne, Imperial Household Agency chamberlains bowed twice, then held up a sword and a jewel, wrapped in embroidered cloth and tied with a purple cord.
Another chamberlain then placed the Imperial and state seals, wrapped in purple coth and stamped in gold with the Chrysanthemum crest, before Akihito. He bowed, and then stood as Mr. Takeshita and other Government officials bowed deeply before him. Then a chamberlain picked up the sword with both hands and walked out, followed first by Akihito and then by other chamberlains bearing the jewel and the imperial and state seals wrapped in purple cloth and stamped in gold with the chrysanthemum crest.
Japanese are now mourning the end of an era: Showa, or Enlightened Peace, the title by which Hirohito will henceforth be known. That was the title chosen for Hirohito's reign when he succeeded his father, the Emperor Taisho, at the age of 25 on Dec. 25, 1926.
This afternoon, the Government said the new era name will be Heisei, which roughly translates as ''the achievement of peace.'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Keizo Obuchi, explaining the choice, said the new coinage expressed the hope that ''both within the country and outside, on heaven and on earth, peace will be achieved.''
When Hirohito ascended the throne, his subjects revered him as a descendant of Amaterasu, the sun goddess who, according to Japanese mythology, created the Japanese archipelago from the drops of water that fell from her spear. Fueled by militarist propaganda that drew on these myths, more than two million soldiers died in his name. 'Endure the Unendurable' But on Aug. 15, 1945, that myth was shattered as his subjects heard Hirohito's voice for the first time. He announced Japan's surrender on the radio and called on the Japanese to ''endure the unendurable.'' Now, he told his countrymen in a second precedent-shattering announcement five months later, the people were sovereign and the Emperor was not divine.
Thus Akihito becomes the first Emperor to be installed since Japan was transformed into a constitutional democracy under the American Occupation at the end of World War II. Eleven years old at the end of the war, the young Crown Prince diligently prepared himself to become Emperor in the new democratic era, studying English with an American tutor and becoming the first heir to the throne to marry a commoner.
The new Emperor is only the fourth in 120 years since Japan opened itself to the world, abandoned feudalism and began its industrial drive under his great-grandfather, the Emperor Meiji.
Hirohito's long illness left his nation prepared for his death. Until the last two years, he had been vital, pursuing his avocation as a marine biologist, walking in his garden, and waving at the public a few times a year from the balcony at the Imperial Palace. Surgery in 1987
But in September 1987 he underwent surgery on his pancreas, the first operation ever performed on a Japanese emperor. He appeared to rally from the operation successfully. But last year, he began to grow thinner and had to cancel several public appearances. On the night of Sept. 19 he vomited blood, and the nation began a tense, televised vigil. Crews of reporters camped out at the Imperial Palace, reporting his temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and respiration rate throughout his final illness.
As the Emperor's condition worsened, Government officials canceled trips abroad, public figures put off weddings and other celebrations, and cities around the country canceled autumn festivals. For a while, Japan seemed suspended in time, forced to face the prospect of life without the only emperor most of the nation had ever known. As Hirohito lingered, receiving blood transfusions almost daily, his erratic blood pressure and other vital signs dutifully reported several times a day, the public's initial wave of emotion subsided somewhat.
This morning, Mr. Takeshita said: ''Our country has since pursued the realization of peace and democracy under the new constitution. It has achieved remarkable progress by virtue of the untiring efforts of our people and has now become an important member of the international community. I feel most keenly that these achievements have been made possible by the presence of His Late Majesty as the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people.''
REAGAN SENDS CONDOLENCES WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (Special to The New York Times) - President Reagan tonight extended condolences to the Emperor's family and to the people of Japan after Hirohito's death was announced.
''His Majesty's 62-year reign spanned one of the most tumultuous, and yet at the same time constructive, eras in the history of mankind - an age of unprecedented economic collapse, and most vicious war, astonishing scientific achievement, and dramatic political and social changes throughout the world,'' said Mr. Reagan, who added that he had enjoyed several meetings with the Emperor, most recently in Tokyo in 1986.
Saying the Emperor played a ''truly heroic role'' in bringing an end to the war, Mr. Reagan added, ''We shall long remember him for his contributions which strengthened the United States-Japan relationship and set a future course of continued close and friendly relations.'' The statement was issued after the President entered Walter Reed Army Medical Center for surgery.
Marlin Fitzwater, the White House press secretary, said no decision had been made on who would represent the United States at the Emperor's funeral. He noted that the funeral would probably be scheduled for ''some period that would take us into the next Administration.''

發動貨幣戰爭的不是日本 (尼亞爾•費格森 )

發動貨幣戰爭的不是日本

哈佛大學勞倫斯•A•蒂什歷史學教授尼亞爾•費格森 為英國《金融時報》撰稿

 

在經濟學中沒有哪個問題像匯率這樣易於受到政治上錯誤表述的影響。近日的事實正是對這一觀點的又一個完美證明。

上週二，由於日本新任首相安倍晉三(Shinzo Abe)的壓力，日本央行(BoJ)投票決定將通脹目標從1%上調到2%，並要“儘早”達成這一目標。為此，日本央行將在一年後開始每個月購買數額為13萬億日元（合1400億美元）以短期國債為主的資產。

日本這一舉措引發了一輪警告，稱有可能會立即導致“貨幣戰爭”。率先發難的是俄羅斯央行第一副主席阿列克謝•烏盧卡耶夫(Alexei Ulyukayev)，緊隨其後的是德國央行(Bundesbank)行長延斯•魏德曼(Jens Weidmann)和韓國財政部長樸宰完(Bahk Jae-wan)。

魏德曼暗指日本央行的舉動是一次“驚人的違規行為”，代表著“央行獨立性的終結”。對此日本人迅速做出回應。日本經濟財政大臣甘利明(Akira Amari)回擊說：“德國是出口受益於歐元區固定匯率制度最多的國家，他沒資格做出這種批評。”

 當然在達沃斯(Davos)眾人並沒因為這事大打出手——這也不太可能發生，不過還是讓我們從歷史的角度來探討一下這件事。先考慮如下四個事實。

首先，回到上世紀30年代，很明顯誰發動了貨幣戰爭。在大蕭條(the Depression)之前，多數國家都實行金本位，也就是貨幣與黃金的兌換率固定。1931年9月英國脫離金本位時引發了一波競爭性貶值的熱潮。正如經濟學家巴里•埃森格林(Barry Eichengreen)指出的那樣，脫離金本位是從大蕭條走向復甦的第一個必要步驟。英鎊採取浮動匯率不僅令英國出口商品更廉價，更重要的是它使得英國央行(BoE)能夠採取關注國內需求的貨幣政策。

然而，如今我們生活在法定貨幣時代，匯率多數是浮動的。1971年8月份，當理查德•尼克松(Richard Nixon)終止美元與黃金的自由兌換之時，金本位的最後遺跡也被掃除乾淨。從這點來說，2013年一個國家指責另一個國家發動貨幣戰爭是荒謬的。實際上這場戰爭已經進行了逾40年，它是所有人對所有人的戰爭。

其次，我們應思考日本的形勢有多麼嚴峻。這個國家自上世紀80年代末以來一直處於近乎停滯的狀態。以日元計的日本名義國內生產總值(GDP)仍然與20年前的水平差不多。日本的公共債務處於極高的、難以為繼的水平。日本的人口狀況是世界上最糟的。因此，別再為難他們了。

第三，日本央行的措施根本算不上革命性。日本央行行長白川方明(Masaaki Shirakawa)2013年沒有提出新的資產購買計劃，2014年的資產購買計劃淨影響也將有限，因為計劃購買的大部分資產都將是即將到期的短期債券。2014年資產購買淨增額將僅為10萬億日元，相當於日本GDP的2%左右。

比較一下美聯儲(Fed)的政策。自金融危機開始以來，美聯儲的政策一直比日本央行的極端。上上週，美聯儲的資產負債表規模首次超過了3萬億美元。如果美聯儲在2013年剩餘的時間裡繼續以每個月850億美元的速度購買資產，它的長期資產將進一步增加1萬億美元，相當於美國GDP的6%至7%。這還只是今年的數字，不包括明年的。

第四點（也是最重要的一點），政客和公眾往往關註名義匯率短期變動，這可能製造很大響動，但卻沒有多少效果。誠然，日元對美元的名義匯率自去年9月以來顯著走弱。那時，1美元僅能兌換77日元。如今，1美元可兌換90多日元。但回想上世紀90年代初，1美元還可兌換158日元，另外除1995年一段短暫的時期之外，1美元只能兌換不到90日元的日子自2010年中期才開始，那麼如今日元這17%的貶值似乎也沒什麼大不了的。

無論如何，單單一種貨幣的名義匯率實際上並不十分重要。國際清算銀行(BIS)編制的各種實際匯率要重要得多，這些匯率的編制考慮了與一國進行貿易的所有不同經濟體，尤其關鍵的是，還考慮了相對價格的變化。

考慮這些因素，日本的情形就迥然不同了。自上世紀90年代以來，通縮效應已經使日元的實際有效匯率走弱。從1994年至2007年年中，日元實際有效匯率下跌幅度超過三分之一。但隨著全球金融危機的爆發，日本不得不把之前所獲的競爭力優勢部分拱手讓出。從2007年8月至2011年10月，日元實際有效匯率累計升幅27%。日本近來的政策只是部分逆轉了這一趨勢。

根據國際清算銀行的資料，韓國和英國一直是過去5年半時間裏動作最大的貨幣鬥士（自2007年8月以來，韓元和英鎊分別實際貶值了19%和17%）。因此，韓國人成為了上周的虛偽獎得主。至於英國人，難怪乎英國首相大衛•卡梅倫(David Cameron)把歐洲貨幣聯盟的危機視為一個巨大的政治機會。有些聰明的保守黨成員反對英國加入歐元區，卡梅倫正是其中之一。此外，正因為英國央行一直實施寬鬆貨幣政策，才緩解了卡梅倫政府實施緊縮政策的痛苦。

過去的兩周裏，卡梅倫收穫了許多稱號，唯獨沒有“貨幣鬥士”。但他入住唐寧街10號以來所推行政策的部分內容就是悄悄地讓英鎊貶值。英國央行行長默文•金爵士(Sir Mervyn King)向來樂於助人。他的繼任者馬克•卡尼(Mark Carney)更是如此。

天真的評論人士認為，卡梅倫承諾在下一次大選之後舉行是否退出歐盟的全民公決，是一種魯莽的舉動。其實，這不但具有政治意義，也有經濟意義，因為它是英鎊悄悄貶值策略的一部分。我要給日本提個醒：匯率戰的勝利屬於採取秘密行動的人。

本文作者是哈佛大學(Harvard)勞倫斯•A•蒂什(Laurence A. Tisch)歷史學教授，著有《大退化》(The Great Degeneration)。

日本學童的健康新鮮營養午餐On Japan’s school lunch menu

On Japan’s school lunch menu: A healthy meal, made from scratch

View Photo Gallery — In Japan’s schools, a homemade meal for lunch: Japan does struggle with childhood and adolescent eating disorders. Schools in Japan give their students the sort of food they’d get at home — not at a stadium, as in the United States. The meals are often made from scratch. They’re balanced but hearty, heavy on rice and vegetables, fish and soups, and they haven’t changed much in four decades. Here’s a look at a day in the lunch-break of third-graders at Tokyo’s Umejima Elementary School.

By Chico Harlan, Published: January 27

In TOKYO — In Japan, school lunch means a regular meal, not one that harms your health. The food is grown locally and almost never frozen. There’s no mystery in front of the meat. From time to time, parents even call up with an unusual question: Can they get the recipes?
“Parents hear their kids talking about what they had for lunch,” said Tatsuji Shino, the principal at Umejima Elementary School in Tokyo, “and kids ask them to re-create the meals at home.”

 

 

Japan takes seriously both its food and its health and, as a result, its school lunches are a point of national pride — not a source of dismay. As other countries, including the United States, struggle to design school meals that are healthy, tasty and affordable, Japan has all but solved the puzzle, using a system that officials here describe as utterly common sense.
In the United States, where obesity rates have tripled over the past three decades, new legislation championed by Michelle Obama has pushed schools to debut menus with controversial calorie restrictions. But even the healthiest choices are generally provided by large agri-food companies, cooked off site, frozen and then reheated, and forced to compete in cafeterias with all things fried, salty and sweet.
Schools in Japan, by contrast, give children the sort of food they’d get at home, not at a stadium. The meals are often made from scratch. They’re balanced but hearty, heavy on rice and vegetables, fish and soups. The meals haven’t changed much in four decades.
Mealtime is a scene of communal duty: In both elementary and middle schools, students don white coats and caps and serve their classmates. Children eat in their classrooms. They get identical meals, and if they leave food untouched, they are out of luck: Their schools have no vending machines. Barring dietary restrictions, children in most districts can’t bring food to school, either, until they reach high school.
Japan’s system has an envious payoff — its kids are relatively healthy. According to government data, Japan’s child obesity rate, always among the world’s lowest, has declined for each of the past six years, a period during which the country has expanded its dietary education program.
Japan does struggle with childhood and adolescent eating disorders, and government data show a rise in the number of extremely skinny children. But there is virtually no malnutrition resulting from poverty. Japan’s children will live on average to 83, longer than those in any other country, according to the World Health Organization.
When it comes to food, Japan has some deeply ingrained advantages. Children are taught to eat what they are served, meaning they are prone to accept, rather than revolt against, the food on their plates. But Japan also invests heavily in cultivating this mind-set. Most schools employ nutritionists who, among other tasks, work with children who are picky or unhealthy eaters.
Though Japan’s central government sets basic nutritional guidelines, regulation is surprisingly minimal. Not every meal has to meet precise caloric guidelines. At many schools, a nutritionist draws up the recipes — no bureaucratic interference. Central government officials say they have ultimate authority to step in if schools are serving unhealthy food, but they can’t think of any examples where that actually happened.

 

 Funding for lunches is handled locally, too: Municipalities pay for labor costs, but parents — billed monthly — pay for the ingredients, about $3 per meal, with reduced and free options for poorer families. Notable is what’s lacking: You don’t see low-fat options. You don’t see dessert, other than fruit and yogurt. You occasionally see fried food, but in stark moderation. On a recent day at Umejima, kids were served the Japanese version of fried chicken, known as karaage. Each child was allowed one nugget.
Restaurant-worthy meals
Officials at Adachi Ward, in northern Tokyo, say they run a “fairly standard” school lunch program in the ward’s 71 elementary schools and 37 middle schools. And because this is food-obsessed Japan, those standard meals are restaurant-worthy; in fact, the ward publishes a full-color cookbook based on its best school meals.
District officials allow themselves to brag for just one reason, their success in cutting food waste to 5 percent. This follows the “Oishii Kyushoku,” or “Delicious School Lunch,” program they created five years ago to get kids more interested in what they were eating.
At Umejima, one of Adachi Ward’s schools, the hallway walls look like the pages of Bon Appetit magazine. Hand drawings of healthy lunches dreamed up by students hang near the principal’s office. There are charts of beans and spices. Then there’s the real food, which is chopped, diced and simmered every morning, beginning at 8 a.m., by a staff of 12. Shortly after noon, they’ll have meals for 760 students.
“Everything is cooked on site,” school nutritionist Kimii Fujii said. “We even make our own broth.”
Fujii has an expansive job — part educator, part chef and the point person for parent questions. Because of concerns about food contamination in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Fujii gives a daily account on the school Web site of where the lunch ingredients are coming from: the sardines from Hyogo, the carrots from Chiba, the bean sprouts from Tochigi.
She writes the recipes, changing them to reflect seasonal ingredients, and she’s realized, over the years, that kids will eat almost anything if you serve it to them right. They’ll eat hijiki, an earthy black seaweed, if you mix it with rice. They’ll eat small whole fish, heads and all, if they are lightly fried. Tofu is an easier bet, but just to be sure, it sometimes comes with minced pork.
Fujii doesn’t teach a class, but three or four times a year, classrooms come visit her for lunch — meaning they eat in the cafeteria, rather than their classrooms. This field trip comes with a small price: After the kids have served themselves the food, but before they can eat, they get a five-minute lecture about the items on their plates.
Lunchtime, on this particular day, begins with a call from the teacher.
“People in charge, please come up.”
Six third-graders put on their white sanitary smocks and caps and take their positions behind serving trays. One child eyes the thick reservoir of Sichuan tofu and wiggles his right arm, as if to warm up his ladling hand. A teacher shows the girl serving rice how much to give each of her classmates — between 160 and 180 grams.
“Is this okay?” the girl asks as the first student comes by.
When everybody sits back down, the lecture begins.
“Today’s meal is made up of various ingredients, but to fill you up, you have to eat everything fully,” Fujii told the class of third-graders. “If you finish this whole lunch, it means you are taking in 21 ingredients.”
One child interrupted.
“You have to eat a balanced meal.”
“That’s right,” Fujii said. “You can get full without vegetables, but we still need them. Why do we need them? Because they have Vitamin C, which makes you stronger.”
Eating as education
Japanese food, contrary to the common perception, isn’t automatically healthy; it includes crispy chicken, rich bowls of salty ramen with pork belly and battered and deep-fried tempura. But, like most cuisines, it can be healthy.
Japan began emphasizing healthy food for its students in the aftermath of World War II, when the government prioritized education and health as a way to catch up to the modernized West. For a decade after the war, school lunch food was still coming from international donations. Many older Japanese remember postwar school meals of powdered skim milk, bread and daikon radish. But by the 1970s, the school meal came to look much like the modern-day standard. These days, ethnic food (such as Korean or Italian) is mixed in once or twice per week.
Japanese government officials say no other country has copied Japan’s system of made-from-scratch meals eaten in classrooms, or even tried to.
“What is most difficult for me to explain is why we can do this and other countries cannot,” said Masahiro Oji, a government director of school health education.
Oji mentioned that last year he attended an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation workshop in Moscow on school lunch programs. Japan sent members of its education ministry, Oji said. Most other nations sent members from their agriculture or farm ministries.
“Japan’s standpoint is that school lunches are a part of education,” Oji said, “not a break from it.”

Yuki Oda contributed to this report.

Nagisa Oshima (大島 渚 1932-2013)

Nagisa Oshima, 1932-2013

Japan’s Enfant Terrible of Cinema Dies

By DENNIS LIM

Mr. Oshima, who challenged Japanese society with his movies, gained international notoriety with “In the Realm of the Senses.”

大島渚|1932-2013

大島渚先生一直在扮演離經叛道的淘氣鬼

DENNIS LIM 報道 2013年01月24日

Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

日本導演大島渚（左）與夏洛特·蘭普林（中）和安東尼·希金斯(Anthony Higgins)出席1986年戛納電影節《馬克斯我的愛》一片放映式。

以反傳統著稱的導演大島渚(Nagisa Oshima)於周二（1月15日）在東京附近一家醫院逝世，卒年80歲。他的電影挑戰並顛覆了日本社會的虔誠傳統，以及日本電影的慣例。1976年露骨展現性慾的影片《感官世界》(In the Realm of the Senses)為他在國際上獲得惡名。
據日本媒體報道，大島渚的辦公室宣布他的死因是急性肺炎。自1996年中風以來，他的健康狀況一直欠佳。


對於大島先生那一代導演來說，藝術上與政治上的叛逆是統一的。在事業的高峰期，他以瘋狂的節奏工作，在20世紀60年代尤為高產，徹底重新變換風格對他來說好像理所當然之事。他的電影激進卻從不武斷；儘管他毫無保留地堅持電影是政治工具，但他的影片卻始終拒絕意識形態。
《感官世界》一直都是他最著名的代表作。該片根據20世紀30年代一樁震驚日本的真實事件改編，講述一個女僕愛上僱主，兩人陷入虐戀關係。片中有真實性愛場面，並在生動逼真的閹割場景中達到高潮。
該片成了轟動話題，在好幾個國家陷入與審查制度的鬥爭。在美國，海關總署稱其為淫穢物品，禁止它在1976年紐約電影節上公映；一個月之後，這項決定被一位聯邦法官推翻。
甚至在這樁確鑿無疑的醜聞之前，大島先生就喜歡扮演離經叛道的淘氣鬼角色。他是日本新浪潮運動的創始人，但卻聲稱自己憎惡這個作為群體的概念，並對一個採訪者說：“我憎恨日本電影的一切東西。”他1994年的紀錄片《日本電影百年》(100 Years of Japanese Cinema)以一個希冀作為結尾：日本電影應當去除自身的“日本氣質”。
但在一部又一部電影之中，“日本”仍是大島先生的重大主題，特別是關於日本的精神氣質，乃至它在幾個世紀以來的封建制度乃至“二戰”中所受的損害。他曾經說過自己電影的目的在於“逼迫日本人凝視鏡子深處” 。
大島先生於1932年3月31日生於京都一個富裕的家庭，有武士血統。他在京都大學學習法律期間成了學生政治活動的活躍分子。
畢業後，他到松竹映畫擔任助理導演，很快獲得提升。他的最初兩部電影分別是1959年的《愛與希望之街》(A Town of Love and Hope)，一部關於堅強少年的情節片；以及1960年的《青春殘酷物語》(Cruel Story of Youth)，一個關於問題青少年的瘋狂故事，甚至在那個時候，大島先生對青年和無依無靠者的同情便已顯露無遺。
“在這個世界上，拍電影就是一種罪行，”大島先生在1966年的一篇隨筆中寫道。他的主人公大都是不法之徒，他的電影經常揭示出犯罪行為是社會造成的，或者是反抗社會的結果。
1960年日美續簽共同合作和安全條約事件成為日本學生抗議運動的導火索，同時也刺激了大島先生的電影事業。
1960年的《日本夜與霧》(Night and Fog in Japan)是他第一部具有明顯政治意味的影片，詳細描繪了一群學生激進分子之間的內訌。該片放映期間，一場政治暗殺運動發生後，松竹映畫把這部影片撤下 院線。為示抗議，大島先生從公司辭職，開辦了自己的公司。
和《感官世界》一樣，大島先生的很多影片靈感都來自真實事件。1966年的《白晝的惡魔》(Violence at Noon)講述一個連環強姦犯與兩個試圖保護他的女人之間的三角關係，它改編自真實事件。1969年的《少年》(Boy)講述一個家庭中的兒子被迫在欺詐活動中擔任假裝撞車並詐傷的角色，同樣也是根據真實事件改編。
1968年的《絞死刑》(Death by Hanging)是關於一個因強姦和謀殺被判死刑的朝鮮人，探討日本的朝鮮少數民族受到的不公正待遇。
作為一個永無休止的創新者，大島先生在多種電影類型之間任意轉換，有時甚至創造出屬於他自己的類型。《絞死刑》從反對死刑的紀錄片風格片斷開始，最後變成滑稽劇風格。1968年的《歸來的醉鬼》(Three Resurrected Drunkards)是一部鬧劇式的喜劇，在中間戛然而止，然後重演前半部，但卻帶有重大變化。
大島先生從未發展齣電影風格上的獨有特性，而是在各種極端風格之間轉換。100分鐘的《白晝的惡魔》有2000餘個剪輯鏡頭，而《日本夜與霧》則是以長鏡頭拍攝，不超過50個鏡頭。
大島先生出道14年來導演了18部影片（以及許多電視紀錄片），20世紀70年代，他開始放慢腳步。人到中年的他成了日本電視脫口秀上的常客。
大島先生回憶，《感官世界》來自他與製作人安納托爾·道曼(Anatole Dauman)的會面，道曼曾與許多法國新浪潮導演合作，他主動提出同大島先生合作，說 “咱們拍個色情片吧”。大島先生邀請了同事若松孝二（他是一位高產的導演，拍攝帶有政治意識的軟色情片）擔任聯合製作人；他們合作拍出了這部電影，為了規 避日本的色情製品相關法律，剪輯工作是在法國完成的。
道曼先生還擔任《愛的亡靈》(Empire of Passion)的製作人，這部1978年的影片是《感官世界》的續作，但比前者要剋制得多。這也是一部關於通姦情侶的古裝戲，它為大島先生贏得了戛納電影節最佳導演獎。
大島先生晚期的另一部電影，1983年的《戰場上的快樂聖誕》(Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence)由大衛·鮑依(David Bowie)和坂本龍一主演，該片主要在新西蘭拍攝。此外他還與路易斯·布努埃爾(Luis Buñuel)的御用編劇讓-克勞德·卡瑞爾(Jean-Claude Carrière)合作，在1986年的《馬克斯我的愛》(Max Mon Amour)這部法國性愛鬧劇中玩了一次新花樣，片中夏洛特·蘭普林(Charlotte Rampling)和一隻黑猩猩是一對兒。
他的最後一部電影是1999年的《御法度》(Taboo)，這是一部19世紀的武士片。他在導演該片過程中第一次中風發病，該片延續了他晚期一貫的禁忌之戀主題，令《戰場上的快樂聖誕》中的同性戀潛流浮出水面。
大島先生的家人包括他的妻子小山明子（她是一個演員，曾在他的若干影片中露面），以及他們的兒子大島武和大島新。2011年，小山女士出版了回憶錄《女人與演員》(As a Woman, as an Actor)講述她與大島先生共度的生活。
自從減少拍片以來，大島先生的名氣有所下降，但是隨着近年來舉辦的巡迴回顧展以及他的影片DVD可以方便地買到，情況有所好轉。
在一個日本法庭上為《感官世界》辯護時，大島先生的辯護詞可以應用到他所有的作品中去：“能表達出來的不是淫穢。隱藏着的才是淫穢。”

本文最初發表於2013年1月16日

翻譯：董楠

Nagisa Oshima, Iconoclastic Filmmaker, Dies at 80

By DENNIS LIM January 24, 2013 

 

Nagisa Oshima, the iconoclastic filmmaker who challenged and subverted the pieties of Japanese society and the conventions of Japanese cinema and who gained international notoriety in 1976 for the sexually explicit “In the Realm of the Senses,” died on Tuesday at a hospital near Tokyo. He was 80.
His office said that the cause was pneumonia, the Japanese news media reported. He had been ill since having a stroke in 1996.

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Cinematheque Ontario/Film Society of Lincoln Center

Eiko Matsuda atop Tatsuya Fuji in Mr. Oshima’s 1976 film, “In the Realm of the Senses.”

Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Nagisa Oshima in 2000.

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Cinematheque Ontario, via Film Society of Lincoln Center

A scene from Mr. Oshima’s “Death by Hanging” (1968), which addressed the prejudicial treatment of Japan’s Korean minority.

Mr. Oshima belonged to a generation of filmmakers for whom artistic and political rebellion were one and the same. At the height of his career he worked at a furious pace, most productively in the 1960s, reinventing himself as a matter of course. Radical but never dogmatic, his films rejected ideology even as they insisted implicitly that cinema was a political tool.
He remains best known for “In the Realm of the Senses.” Based on a true story that scandalized Japan in the 1930s, it tells of a maid who falls into a sadomasochistic affair with her employer. It features unsimulated sex and culminates in a graphically depicted castration.
The film became a sensation and the subject of censorship battles in several countries. In the United States, the Customs Service barred it from being shown publicly at the New York Film Festival in 1976, calling it obscene; the decision was overturned about a month later by a federal judge.
Even before this defining scandal, Mr. Oshima relished the role of enfant terrible. He was a founding figure of the Japanese New Wave but claimed to detest the idea of such a grouping and told an interviewer, “My hatred for Japanese cinema includes absolutely all of it.” His documentary “100 Years of Japanese Cinema” (1994) concludes with the hope that Japanese cinema rid itself of its “Japaneseness.”
But in film after film Japan was Mr. Oshima’s great subject, specifically the Japanese psyche and the damage it had endured from centuries of feudalism and later from World War II. He once said that the goal of his films was “to force the Japanese to look in the mirror.”
Mr. Oshima was born on March 31, 1932, to an affluent family in Kyoto with samurai ancestry. He studied law at Kyoto University and became active in student politics.
After graduating he worked as an assistant director at the Shochiku studio and was soon promoted. Even in his first two films, “A Town of Love and Hope” (1959), a tough-minded adolescent melodrama, and “Cruel Story of Youth” (1960), a feverish tale of troubled teenagers, Mr. Oshima’s sympathy for the young and dispossessed is evident.
“To make films is a criminal act in this world,” Mr. Oshima wrote in a 1966 essay. Most of his protagonists were outlaws, and his films often showed criminal behavior as a product of society or as a reaction against it.
The event that ignited the Japanese student protest movement — the 1960 renewal of Japan’s mutual security treaty with the United States — also galvanized Mr. Oshima’s filmmaking.
“Night and Fog in Japan” (1960), his first explicitly political film, details the infighting among a group of student radicals. Days into its run, in the wake of a political assassination, Shochiku pulled the movie from theaters. In response Mr. Oshima quit the studio and set up his own company.
Like “In the Realm of the Senses,” many of Mr. Oshima’s films were inspired by real-life events. “Violence at Noon” (1966), about a triangle that forms among a serial rapist and two women who protect him, was based on an actual case, as was “Boy” (1969), about a family whose son is forced to fake traffic injuries in an extortion scheme.
“Death by Hanging” (1968), about a Korean man sentenced to death for rape and murder, addresses the prejudicial treatment of the Korean minority in Japan.
A restless innovator, Mr. Oshima switched genres at will and sometimes created his own. “Death by Hanging” goes from a documentarylike tract against capital punishment to absurdist farce. “Three Resurrected Drunkards,” a 1968 slapstick comedy, stops midway through and replays the first half, with crucial variations.
Mr. Oshima never developed a stylistic signature and in fact veered between extremes of style. The 100-minute “Violence at Noon” includes some 2,000 edits, while “Night and Fog in Japan,” filmed in long takes, is composed of fewer than 50 shots.
After directing 18 features (and many television documentaries) in 14 years, Mr. Oshima slowed down in the 1970s. In middle age he also became a fixture on Japanese television talk shows.
Mr. Oshima recalled that “In the Realm of the Senses” had originated in a meeting with the producer Anatole Dauman, who had worked with many French New Wave directors and who proposed a collaboration, saying to Mr. Oshima, “Let’s make a porno flick!” Mr. Oshima asked his colleague Koji Wakamatsu, a prolific director of politically minded soft-core erotica, to serve as a producer as well; together they had the film processed and edited in France to circumvent Japanese pornography laws.
Mr. Dauman also produced “Empire of Passion,” the more subdued 1978 follow-up to “In the Realm of the Senses.” Another period piece about adulterous lovers, “Empire” won Mr. Oshima the directing prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Among other later films, “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” (1983), a prisoner-of-war drama starring David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto, was shot mainly in New Zealand. Mr. Oshima, collaborating with Luis Buñuel’s frequent screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, also put a twist on the French sex farce with “Max Mon Amour” (1986), which paired Charlotte Rampling and a chimpanzee.
His final film, the 19th-century samurai drama “Taboo” (1999), which he directed after suffering his first stroke, continued his late-career theme of forbidden love, bringing to the surface the homoerotic currents of “Mr. Lawrence.”
Mr. Oshima’s survivors include his wife, Akiko Koyama, an actress who appeared in some of his films, and their sons Takeshi and Shin. In 2011 Ms. Koyama published a memoir, “As a Woman, as an Actor,” about her life with Mr. Oshima.
Mr. Oshima saw his reputation somewhat eclipsed as his productivity dwindled, although that had changed in recent years with traveling retrospectives and the increasing availability of his work on DVD.
Testifying in a Japanese court about “In the Realm of the Senses,” Mr. Oshima formulated a defense that could apply to almost all his work: “Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden.”

Japanese theatrical poster
Directed by	Nagisa Oshima

In the Realm of the Senses (Japanese: 愛のコリーダ Ai no Korīda^?, literally Bullfight (Spanish: Corrida) of Love;^[1] French: L'Empire des sens) is a 1976 French-Japanese romantic drama film directed by Nagisa Oshima.^[2] It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of an incident from 1930s Japan, that of Sada Abe.^[3] It generated great controversy during its release;^[3] while intended for mainstream wide release, it contains scenes of unsimulated sexual activity between the actors (Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda, among others).







Nagisa Oshima (大島 渚 Ōshima Nagisa ^?, 31 March 1932 – 15 January 2013) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His films include In the Realm of the Senses and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.

Contents 1 Early life 2 1960s 3 1970s 4 1980s and beyond 5 Filmography 5.1 TV documentaries 6 Awards 7 Notes 7.1 References 8 External links

Early life

After graduating from Kyoto University, where he studied political history,^[1] Oshima was hired by film production company Shochiku Ltd. and quickly progressed to directing his own movies, making his debut feature A Town of Love and Hope in 1959.

1960s

Oshima's cinematic career and influence developed very swiftly,^[2] and early watershed films Cruel Story of Youth, The Sun's Burial and Night and Fog in Japan all followed in 1960. The last of these 1960 films explored Oshima's disillusionment with the traditional political left, and his frustrations with the right, and Shochiku withdrew the film from circulation after less than a week, claiming that, following the recent assassination of the Socialist Party leader by a right-wing extremist, there was a risk of "unrest". Oshima left the studio in response, and launched his own independent production company. Despite the controversy, Night And Fog In Japan was placed tenth in that year's Kinema Jumpo's best-films poll of Japanese critics, and it has subsequently amassed considerable acclaim abroad.^[3]
In 1961 Oshima directed The Catch, based on a novella by Kenzaburō Ōe about the relationship between a wartime Japanese village and a captured African American serviceman. The Catch has not traditionally been viewed as one of Oshima's major works, though it did notably introduce a thematic exploration of bigotry and xenophobia, themes which would be explored in greater depth in the later documentary Diary Of Yunbogi, and feature films Death By Hanging and Three Resurrected Drunkards.^[4]
Oshima then embarked upon a period of work in television, producing a series of documentaries; notably among them 1965's Diary Of Yunbogi. Based upon an examination of the lives of street children in Seoul, it was made by Oshima after a trip to South Korea.^[3][5]
One of Oshima's more formally unusual films was Band of Ninja (1967), an adaptation of the popular manga by Sampei Shirato, Ninja Bugei-chō, a 16th-century saga of oppressed peasants and deadly ninja. It is not a live-action film, or even an animated one; Oshima simply photographed close-ups of Shirato's drawings and added voices. Oshima had used the technique previously in some documentaries, and a willingness to make use of unorthodox techniques was an indication of the mature period of experimentalism which would soon surface in Oshima's work. The film was a modest critical and commercial success in Japan.
Oshima directed three features in 1968. The first of these - Death By Hanging (1968) presented the story of the failed execution of a young Korean for rape and murder, and was loosely based upon an actual crime and execution which had taken place in 1958.^[6] The film utilizes non-realistic "distancing" techniques after the fashion of Bertold Brecht or Jean-Luc Godard to examine Japan's record of racial discrimination against its Korean minority, incorporating elements of farce and political satire, and a number of visual techniques associated with the cinematic new wave in a densely layered narrative. It was placed third in Kinema Jumpo's 1968 poll, and has also garnered significant attention globally.^[7] Death By Hanging inaugurated a string of films (continuing through 1976's In the Realm of the Senses) that clarified a number of Oshima's key themes, most notably a need to question social constraints, and to similarly deconstruct received political doctrines.^[8]
Months later, Diary Of A Shinjuku Thief unites a number of Oshima's thematic concerns within a dense, collage-style presentation. Featuring a title which alludes to Jean Genet's The Thief's Journal, the film explores the links between sexual and political radicalism,^[9] specifically examining the day-to-day life of a would-be radical whose sexual desires take the form of kleptomania. The fragmented narrative is interrupted by commentators, including an underground noh performance troupe, a psychoanalyst, and an impromptu symposium featuring actors from previous Oshima films (along with Oshima himself), all dissecting varied aspects of shifting sexual politics, as embodied by various characters within the film.
Boy (1969), based on another real-life case, was the story of a family who use their child to make money by deliberately getting involved in road accidents and making the drivers pay compensation.

1970s

The Ceremony (1971) is a satirical look at Japanese attitudes, famously expressed in a scene where a marriage ceremony has to go ahead even though the bride is not present.
In 1976, Oshima made In the Realm of the Senses, a film based on a true story of fatal sexual obsession in 1930s Japan. Oshima, a critic of censorship and his contemporary Akira Kurosawa's humanism, was determined that the film should feature unsimulated sex and thus the undeveloped film had to be transported to France to be processed. An uncensored version of the movie is still unavailable in Japan.
In his 1978 companion film to In the Realm of the Senses, Empire of Passion, Oshima took a more restrained approach to depicting the sexual passions of the two lovers driven to murder, and the film won the 1978 Cannes Film Festival award for best director.^[10]

1980s and beyond

In 1983 Oshima had a critical success with a film made partly in English, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, set in a wartime prison camp, and featuring rock star David Bowie and electronic musician Ryūichi Sakamoto, alongside future director Takeshi Kitano. The movie has become a cult classic.^{[citation needed]} Max, Mon Amour (1986), written with Luis Buñuel's frequent collaborator Jean-Claude Carrière, was a comedy about a diplomat's wife (Charlotte Rampling) whose love affair with a chimpanzee is quietly incorporated into an eminently civilised ménage à trois.
For much of the 1980s and 1990s, he served as president of the Directors Guild of Japan.^[11] (He actually won the inaugural Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award in 1960.^[12])
A collection of Oshima's essays and articles was published in English in 1993 as Cinema, Censorship and the State.^[13] A critical study by Maureen Turim appeared in 1998.^[14]
In 1996 Oshima suffered a stroke, but he recovered enough to return to directing in 1999 with the samurai film Taboo (Gohatto), set during the bakumatsu era and starring Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence actor Takeshi Kitano. Ryūichi Sakamoto, who had both acted in and composed for Lawrence, provided the score.
He subsequently suffered more strokes, and Gohatto proved to be his final film. Oshima died on 15 January 2013 of pneumonia.^[15][1] He was 80.

Filmography

Year	English title	Japanese title	Romaji	Notes
1959	Tomorrow's Sun	明日の太陽	Ashita no taiyō	Short (7 min), color.
1959	A Town of Love and Hope	愛と希望の街	Ai to kibō no machi	62 min, B&W.
1960	Cruel Story of Youth	青春残酷物語	Sēshun zankoku monogatari	96 min, color.
1960	The Sun's Burial	太陽の墓場	Taiyō no hakaba	87 min, color.
1960	Night and Fog in Japan	日本の夜と霧	Nihon no yoru to kiri	107 min, color.
1961	The Catch	飼育	Shiiku	105 min, B&W.
1962	The Rebel	天草四郎時貞	Amakusa Shirō Tokisada	101 min, B&W.
1963	A Small Child's First Adventure	小さな冒険旅行	Chiisana bōken ryokō	60 min, color.
1964	It's Me Here, Bellett	私はベレット	Watashi wa beretto	60 min, color.
1965	The Pleasures of the Flesh	悦楽	Etsuraku	90 min, color.
1965	Yunbogi's Diary	ユンボギの日記	Yunbogi no nikki	24 min, B&W.
1966	Violence at High Noon	白昼の通り魔	Hakuchū no tōrima	99 min, B&W.
1967	Tales of the Ninja/Band of Ninja	忍者武芸帳	Ninja bugei-chō	131 min, B&W.
1967	Sing a Song of Sex (A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs)	日本春歌考	Nihon shunka-kō	103 min, color.
1967	Double Suicide: Japanese Summer	無理心中日本の夏	Muri shinjū: Nihon no natsu	98 min, B&W.
1968	Death by Hanging	絞死刑	Kōshikē	117 min, B&W.
1968	Three Resurrected Drunkards	帰って来たヨッパライ	Kaette kita yopparai	80 min, color.
1969	Diary of a Shinjuku Thief	新宿泥棒日記	Shinjuku dorobō nikki	94 min, B&W/color.
1969	Boy	少年	Shōnen	97 min, color.
1970	Man Who Left His Will On Film	東京戰争戦後秘話	Tōkyō sensō sengo hiwa	94 min, B&W.
1971	The Ceremony	儀式	Gishiki	123 min, color.
1972	Dear Summer Sister	夏の妹	Natsu no Imōto	96 min, color.
1976	In the Realm of the Senses	愛のコリーダ	Ai no corrida	104 min, color.
1978	Empire of Passion	愛の亡霊	Ai no bōrē	108 min, color.
1983	Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence	戦場のメリークリスマス	Senjō no merī Kurisumasu	123 min, color, UK/Japan.
1986	Max, Mon Amour	マックス、モン・アムール	Makkusu, Mon Amūru	97 min, color. France/USA/Japan.
1999	Taboo	御法度	Gohatto	100 min, color.

TV documentaries

• Kōri no naka no sēshun (Youth on Ice, 1962, documentary, 25 min) (TV)
• Wasurerareta kōgun (The Forgotten Army, 1963, documentary, 25 min) (TV)
• Sēshun no ishibumi (The Tomb of Youth, 1964, documentary, 40 min) (TV)
• Hankotsu no toride (A Rebel's Fortress, 1964, documentary, 25 min) (TV)
• Gimē shōjo (1964) (TV)
• Chita Niseigo taihēyō ōdan (Crossing the Pacific on the Chita Niseigo, 1964) (TV)
• Aru kokutetsu-jōmuin (A National Railway Worker, 1964) (TV)
• Aogeba tōtoshi (Ode to an Old Teacher, 1964) (TV)
• Aisurebakoso (Why I Love You, 1964) (TV)
• Ajia no akebono (1964) (TV)
• Gyosen sonansu (The Trawler Incident, 1965) (TV)
• Daitōa sensō (The Pacific War, 1968) (TV)
• Mō-takutō to bunka daikakumē (Mao Tse-Tung and the Cultural Revolution, 1969) (TV)
• Kyojin-gun (The Giants, 1972) (TV)
• Joi! Bangla (1972) (TV)
• Goze: Mōmoku no onna-tabigēnin (The Journey of the Blind Musicians, 1972) (TV)
• Bengal no chichi laman (1973) (TV)
• Ikiteiru nihonkai-kaisen (1975) (TV)
• The Battle of Tsushima (1975, documentary, 50 min)
• Ōgon no daichi Bengal (The Golden Land of Bengal, 1976) (TV)
• Ikiteiru umi no bohyō (The Sunken Tomb, 1976) (TV)
• Ikiteiru gyokusai no shima (The Isle of the Final Battle, 1976, documentary, 25 min) (TV)
• Denki mō-takutō (The Life of Mao, 1976) (TV)
• Yokoi shōichi: guamu-to 28 nen no nazo o ou (Yokoi and His Twenty-Eight Years of Secret Life on Guam, 1977) (TV)
• Shisha wa itsumademo wakai (1977) (TV)
• Kyōto, My Mother's Place (1991)
• 100 Years of Japanese Cinema (1994) (TV)