#NUMBER 1 Shimbun

1993 10 15 1 Vol. 43 1 No.
1 Shimbun 2011 1 1
January 2011 Volume 43 No. 1 400

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Japans poli tical classes get social
+ #Dangerous dispatches from the North #Antique FCCJ correspondents in Portugal #Embarrassing journalistic moments #Rebooting Ryoma Sakamoto
Number 1 Shimbun | January 2011
Contents
Presidents message Letters 2 3
Presidents message
AKEMASHITE OMEDETO GOZAIMASU. Best wishes for a healthy and productive new year. The FCCJ Board is certainly hoping for a productive first half in 2011 because we have many important items on our agenda. And one very high priority is the future of our Club as a shadan hojin. One unique feature of the FCCJ is that we are among the few nonprofit organizations in Japan that sell alcohol. As a club for foreign journalists founded in the postwar occupation we were able to incorporate as a shadan hojin, a nonprofit association. In subsequent decades this status became very difficult to acquire, but due to our grandfather status we have been able to continue as an historical anomaly at least until now. Shadan hojin regulations have been revised in order to allow the creation of more civil organizations. Consequently, existing nonprofits are obliged by the government to meet new criteria. If we fail to comply with the new regulations by November 2013 the Club will be dissolved and its public-interest funds turned over to the municipal government. This deadline lends a certain urgency to the deliberations of our Shadan Hojin Panel, comprised of former FCCJ President Kaz Abiko and former Treasurer Yoshisuke Iinuma (co-chairs) plus Treasurer Jonathan Soble and Haruko Watanabe. We have two options under the new setup a public-interest shadan hojin or a general shadan hojin. Public-interest status would give us greater prestige and donations to the Club would be tax-deductible. But our activities would be subject to an extra level of scrutiny by the authorities. General status, on the other hand, would allow us greater flexibility in our operations. To obtain public-interest status, among other things we must show that more than 50 percent of our total expenditures go to public-interest purposes. Going by 2009 financial results, the best we can now claim is less than 30 percent. The Japan National Press Club (JNPC) gives us a useful benchmark to follow. They have already applied for publicinterest shadan hojin status and are now awaiting official approval. Although JNPC is effectively a very close cousin to the FCCJ, they have outsourced their food and beverage (F&B) operations while we continue to operate our own. So when government bureaucrats look at our financial results the extensive detail on F&B operations they contain hardly paints a portrait of public interest. Still, this is by no means proofpositive that outsourcing is the right decision. But my personal view is that in addition to our consistent long-term failure to manage F&B effectively, shadan hojin status is one more reason not to dismiss outsourcing out-of-hand. As I now spend perhaps 30 minutes daily listening to member concerns about F&B outsourcing (and I hope it is evident that I
The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan Yurakucho Denki Building, North Tower 20F, 1-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006. Tel: (03) 3211-3161 Fax: (03) 3211-3168 www.fccj.or.jp Published by the FCCJ Art Director: Andrew Pothecary www.forbiddencolour.com Cover design by Andrew Pothecary All opinions contained within Number 1 Shimbun are those of the authors. As such, these opinions do not constitute an official position of Number 1 Shimbun, the editor or the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. Please pitch and send articles and photographs, or address comments to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
SOCIAL MEDIA JAPANESE POLITICS AND THE SOCIAL MEDIA MAZE Martin Koelling NORTH KOREA PEERING INTO THE HERMIT KINGDOM David McNeill JOURNALISM INTERVIEW MISCUES Peter McGill, David McNeill, Steve McClure HISTORY PUTTING THE BOOT TO THE SHOGUNATE Geoff Tudor CLUB NEWS STAND AND DELIVER Douglas W. Jackson
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Rush Hour: from the FCCJ exhibition by Kaku Kurita and Mumuryk. See also the back page.
JOURNALISM PORTUGAL OFFERS SAFE HAVEN AMID MEDIA STORM Andrew Horvat LANGUAGE LUDDITE Guy Stanley
New members New in the library Professional contacts
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listen with sincerity) I know how controversial this is. Our current plan is to apply for general shadan hojin status. We can then perhaps apply to upgrade at some point in future. But even this more limited target may be a challenge for us to meet. Getting F&B off our books is one possible way to make the Club more eligible for public-interest shadan hojin status. We can also revise our activities to better serve the public interest. Both No.1 Shimbun and our website, for example, have historically served only our membership. So the Publications Committees current effort to focus more on external audiences will support our claim. In fact, we have been advised that if our website clearly fulfills a public-service function we will be in a much better position. Let me now repeat my current mantra: F&B outsourcing is not a fait accompli. It must be ratified by a General Membership Meeting. But through studying this option we are gaining valuable insight into the workings of our current F&B operations. So even if the membership rejects the idea, we will not have wasted our time. In any case, I look forward to full and frank debate on this and other issues over the next six months. In this Year of the Rabbit I hope we can make rapid progress. Georges Baumgartner
Volume 43, Number 1 no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
January 2011
Editor Doug Jackson Publisher John R. Harris Assistant Editor Steve McClure Editorial Assistant Kanako Nishimura Photo Coordinator Akiko Miyake FCCJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Georges Baumgartner, Swiss Radio and Television 1st Vice President Martin Koelling, Financial Times Deutschland 2nd Vice President Steve McClure, McClures Asia Music News Secretary Lucy Birmingham, freelance Treasurer Jonathan Soble, Financial Times Directors at Large David McNeill, The Independent Yozo Hasegawa, BS Japan and Radio Nikkei News Yoshio Murakami, The Asahi Shimbun Kenneth Cukier, The Economist Newspaper Ltd. Kanji Haruko Watanabe, Media Report to Women Ex-Officio Monzurul Huq, Prothom Alo FCCJ COMMITTEE CHAIRS Associate Liaison Joan Anderson Entertainment Sandra Mori Exhibition Bruce Osborn Finance Jonathan Soble Food & Beverage Mark Gresham Freedom of the Press Tetsuo Jimbo Governance Monzurul Huq, Grady Loy House & Property Martin Koelling Human Resources Steve McClure Improvement Mary Corbett, Ed Merner Information Technology Martyn Williams Library, Archives and Workroom Suvendrini Kakuchi Membership Catherine Makino Membership Marketing Orlando Camargo, Kjell Fornander Movie Edwin Karmiol, Karen Severns Professional Activities Mure Dickie, Beryl Tung Professional Development Tomoko Hosaka Publications John R. Harris Shadan Hojin Panel Kazuo Abiko, Yoshisuke Iinuma Special Projects Yozo Hasegawa Sports Duke Ishikawa Swadesh DeRoy Scholarship Suvendrini Kakuchi Toastmasters Doug Jackson Foreign Press in Japan David McNeill
1993 10 15 1 Vol. 43 1 No. 1 Shimbun 2011 1 1
OF
J A PA N
Japans polit ical classes get social

+ #Dangerous dispatches from the North #Antique FCCJ correspondents in Portugal #Embarrassing journalistic moments #Re-booting Ryoma Sakamoto
Please send your story ideas to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp, and be sure to note whether you have (or have access to) visuals. Our rates are 20 per word, 20,000 for a cover photo, and 15,000 for the back page. Photo essays: 15,000 for full-page photos and 5,000 for smaller shots. All payments will be made in chits to your member account.
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Vol. 43 No. 1 Shimbun ( )
SUPPORT to YOUR alk e CLUB MAGAZINE

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January 2011 Volume 43 No. 1 400

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SOCIAL MEDIA
Japanese politics and the social media maze

By Martin Koelling
t the turn of the millennium, Japan was an Internet backwater. Two things then happened. First, in 2000, the government announced a program to transform Japan into the worlds leading Internet society. It made huge investments in the deployment of optical fiber networks and a massive push to bring all its ministries online. Second, NTT Docomo decided to base its i-mode mobile Web access service on the Internet protocol and e-mail, rather than the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and short messaging service (SMS) used by European carriers. Japans PC-based and mobile-based Internet spaces were therefore less separated than in other countries and reinforced each others growth. The choice of e-mail instead of the very restrictive SMS had a tremendous impact, because it allowed users to both send longer messages and effortlessly send e-mail to and receive e-mails from computers. A few years later, Japanese netizens were enjoying transmission speeds of up to 100 Mbps, which even today Internet users in most other countries can only dream of. The two-pronged approach of private investment in the mobile Internet and government-induced development of the PC-based Internet laid the groundwork for the worlds first ubiquitous Internet society. Broadband Internet service coverage here now ranks among the highest globally, and bandwidth prices are among the lowest. And only a few other countries use the mobile Internet for entertainment, music downloads, sharing information and shopping as much as Japan does.
THE INTERNET AS BLUNT POLITICAL INSTRUMENT After the switch in attitude that marked the new millennium, Japans government bodies even became innovative pioneers. In 2001, for example, reformist Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi became one of the first world leaders to start a successful personal weekly online newsletter to communicate directly with the people and garner support for his fight with mighty
vested interests in his party, the bureaucracy and the public. He followed up with online video appearances, news and features on the home page of the Kantei, the Prime Ministers Office. After taking power in September 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) even transmitted meetings of its high-level cost-cutting tribunal with top bureaucrats live on the Internet, (including live commentary from citizens via Twitter). Yet Japans political parties still mainly operated in Web 1.0 mode, viewing the Internet as a one-way avenue to inform the public. They posted their political manifesto, articles, videos and live video broadcasts of some events online. The amount and depth of public information available online in Japan is greater than in most nations. Ministries and local governments not only disseminate key statistics, white papers and other reports online, they also post meeting agendas and even many transcripts of discussions once held behind closed doors. According to San Francisco-based research firm Technorati, Japan also has the worlds most active blogosphere there are more blogs in Japanese than in English. Social networking services (SNS) have likewise grown in importance. Mixi, the Japanese equivalent of Facebook, surpassed 10 million users a few years ago, with most members accessing the service on their mobile phones. Despite all the chatter and information in the virtual public sphere, until recently the Internet and social media did not play a big role as a space for political discourse and mobilization. Even Michael Anti, one of Chinas leading bloggers, was puzzled by this situation, which differed radically from his experience in the United States and China. In the United States, for example, Anti found the Internet was a place where antimainstream groups vent their ideas and frustrations. In China, the Internet is considered the space of civil society, where
people have relatively open discussions, even concerning controversial topics that in the official media are taboo. A Western diplomat acknowledges that he successfully scouts the Internet in China for discussions on the death penalty, Tibet, AIDs and other hot-button topics. But in Japan, Anti sees the Internet as a grassroots forum where people can exchange ideas with close friends. This explains the failure of South Korean news site OhmyNews to take root in Japan. OhmyNews was founded in 2000 as a platform for citizen journalism and became one of the first worldwide successes of Web 2.0 and the age of user-generated content. The site initially gained fame by influencing the outcome of the 2002 South Korean presidential election.
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The winner, left-leaning Roh Moo-hyun, even chose to give his first interview to OhmyNews in recognition of its contribution to his victory. OhmyNews set up shop in Japan in 2006, but failed miserably, closing down in 2008 despite the support of Softbank, a major Internet investor and operator of Japans third-largest mobile-phone network. Japan has also never seen an Internet campaign like the one U.S. President
ANDREW POTHECARY
ACCORDING TO RESEARCH, THERE ARE MORE BLOGS IN JAPANESE THAN IN ENGLISH. MIXI, THE JAPANESE EQUIVALENT OF FACEBOOK, SURPASSED 10 MILLION USERS A FEW YEARS AGO.
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Barack Obama mounted to collect microdonations and votes in the 2008 presidential election. In Japan, private blogs are often microblogs or online diaries, mostly written on mobile phones. Companies are also using user-generated comments as a marketing tool. The blogs of famous people and CEOs are in high demand, and some bloggers have gained fame as food or fashion critics. Political blogs, however, are few and far between. Other empirical evidence and various studies also reveal the Japanese publics lack of appetite for political discussions. In a 2009 poll conducted by Tokyo-based Web tracking firm goo Ranking, neither male nor female respondents ranked politics among the top five topics for their blogs. Ranked first was the blog as diary (using what I did today as a source), followed in slightly differing order by impressions of food, TV/movies/animation, prod-
the motivation of bloggers and the political activities induced by blogs. Whereas 40 percent of the English-language bloggers polled wanted to raise visibility as an authority in my field, only 5 percent of Japanese said the same. Furthermore, Japanese were the least prone to act politically after reading blogs. In Japan, only 18 percent of the general population and 29 percent of the influencers would act after reading a blog, compared to 18 and 41 percent in South Korea, 28 and 48 percent in the UK, 27 and 32 percent in France, and 28 and 49 percent in the United States. At the same time, far more Japanese were reading blogs than people in any other country (74 percent compared to 43 percent in South Korea, 27 percent in the United States, 23 percent in the UK and 22 percent in France); they were also reading more often (4.5 times per week in Japan, 2 times in South Korea, 0.9 times in the United States, 0.7 times in
the other hand, and maybe more importantly, the situation mirrors Japans political culture. The Japanese public seems to be the world champion in absorbing information, but that is not translated into taking positions, says Koeder. In fact, in the analog age Japans national dailies had a total daily circulation of around 40 million copies, serving a population of 126 million. Even today, many households subscribe to two newspapers. They also read magazines, weekies, tabloids and books. But the size and strength of public protests have died down since the violent demonstrations of the 1960s and 1970s. The Japanese people seem to have internalized the old proverb that the nail that sticks out must be hammered down. Only a few feel comfortable enough to voice their political opinions publicly. And if they do, they focus on the micro-level, their own community or livelihood, or
The video leaked to YouTube of the clash between a Chinese fishing boat and the Japan Coast Guard; Mixi the Japanese equivalent of Facebook.
ucts and services. Only male respondents showed any interest in writing on political, financial and sports news (ranked 6th to 8th); these topics didnt even make it into the top 10 among female respondents. SNS user patterns show another difference: Japanese avoid speaking out under their own names. So far they have shied away from services like Facebook and LinkedIn, for which people have to use their real names. Instead, they prefer Mixi, where they can pose under any fantasy name or abbreviation. In another opinion poll by goo Research, 40 percent of respondents said they had used Mixi, but only 5 percent were on Facebook, and fewer than 1 percent had registered with LinkedIn. the UK and 0.6 times in France). Japanese are thus the worlds most active readers and producers of blogs and have strong opinions, but they care less about politics than people in other countries and are the least willing to take a stance under their own name or to act. Marco Koeder, Japan-based coauthor of the book The Six Immutable Laws of Mobile Business, isnt surprised by this result. The digital world reflects the real world, he says. For one thing, an antiquated legal framework hampers the usage of the Internet for collecting donations for political purposes. Japan is much less of a donation culture than the United States, mainly because donations are for the most part not tax-deductible. And the Election Law forbids changes in printed or online contents during election campaigns. Politicians and parties therefore have to stop the use of blogs and Twitter during the crucial final weeks of campaigning. On the meta-level, questions of national sovereignty, but not so much on the macrolevel, observes Koeder. This explains the lack of political debate that puzzles many foreign observers of Japan. The Hegelian dialectical process of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis is less marked in Japan. Instead there is more of an expert democracy, with a high reliance on the opinions of people considered important enough to sit on expert panels and government councils. In addition, the national dailies and TV stations (which are often part of the same media group) set the agenda, create the space for public discussion, and massage public opinion. In effect, they often converge not only in setting the agenda in terms of what is considered to be relevant, but in many cases in their opinions on certain topics as well. Differentiation is far less a tool in media competition than in the West.
THE WELL-INFORMED BUT SILENT CITIZEN In 2007, a comparative study of five countries by the public relations agency Edelman shed some light on the differences in
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In addition, morning TV shows repeat the main points, thereby forming a kind of majority opinion. Japan is a chatter society a lot of talk, with very little action. However, Chinese blogger Anti says the realm of Japanese civil society is limited, because the Internet and the traditional media generally look down on user-generated content, considering them to be highly subjective and unreliable. Maybe this is why Japanese media until recently treated their home pages almost like print newspapers. In most cases, readers found it impossible to leave comments even if they wanted to, because the newspapers didnt provide such a function. For Koeder and other experts the only notable exception seems to be the Internet forum 2channel, which as of 2007 hosted 2.5 million posts per day. With its policy of anonymous posting, 2channel is popular with those who want to express their position on a given subject. But it has
for example, are set to revise the Election Law to allow some forms of Internet campaigning. There is virtually no opposition to an amendment of the election law, says an official of the ruling DPJ. But the political parties themselves are also looking more actively at social media. They feel the pressure from below and also see benefits like having unfiltered, real-time access to public opinion. Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama started the Hatocafe, an online blogcum-Twitter feed, and real coffee-table meetings with citizens in the Kantei, on Jan. 1, 2010. This was a big event for social media in Japan. Internet experts consider the endeavor a success, although it didnt help Hatoyama much: a few months later he had to hand over the government to Naoto Kan because of his plummeting popularity. Since then, however, Twitter use has increasingly become the norm for Japanese politicians.
Japans netizens arent standing still, either. The situation is changing, says Hiroki Eda, incubation manager of Tokyobased Internet business-development company Digital Garage, which represents Twitter in Japan. After a slow start, Twitter now hosts around 10 million Japanese accounts. Thats still not as many as Mixi, but after YouTube, Twitter has become the first foreign social media service to gain real traction in Japan, despite being based on a concept imported from abroad. Experts say that Japanese dont like the idea of one-to-many broadcasts, preferring the more limited chat in controlled networks like Mixi. But 90 percent of Japanese Twitter users ignore the private mode that the service offers. People are getting used to expressing their opinions in public on the Internet, Eda explains. That they still can hide behind fantasy names might add to their online courage. Another factor: Twitters 140-characters-
JAPANS POLITICAL PARTIES ARE SET TO REVISE THE ELECTION LAW TO ALLOW SOME FORMS OF INTERNET CAMPAIGNING
Prime Minister Kans Twitter page, the New Komeito Partys website alphabetically lists members Twitter feeds.
gained a reputation as the virtual hangout of otaku (people with strange hobbies or obsessions) and right-wing activists that are socially stigmatized as fringe elements of society. The public, the mainstream media and established political parties therefore consider 2channel unworthy of mention and dont touch it. The forums wild discussions arent really part of mainstream civil society. The Internet is not only for one-way distribution of information, but requires an interactive discussion, the DPJ official says by way of explaining the change in attitude. It will become increasingly necessary to listen and respond to the opinion of the citizens, to use it for the implementation of policy and to show determination in publicizing the process. New Komeito, the political arm of lay Buddhist group Soka Gakkai, seems to have even more concrete plans. The party went online with a home page in 1995, added a newsletter in 2000, video streaming in 2002, a blog in 2003 and a YouTube channel in 2007. But only with the launch of its Twitter channel in 2009 has the party begun to embrace social media. New Komeito also plans to use the Internet to solicit donations when electronic money and the use of credit cards for such donations become more widespread. per-message limit is far less restricting in Japanese than in Western languages, because Japanese uses Chinese characters and hiragana and katakana. That allows Japanese to squeeze more information into a tweet or comment on re-tweets. In China and South Korea, political activists were seeking ways to express their opinion publicly, and the Internet was the answer. Japanese society has plenty of means, but little inclination to use them. Despite the developments noted above, social media in Japan will only become a serious forum for public discussion after major changes in political education, understanding of the media, and the deeply rooted belief that individuals cannot change anything
Martin Koelling is the East Asia correspondent for Financial Times Deutschland. He also writes a weekly blog about technology from Japan for the online version of the German edition of Technology Review.
CRACKS IN THE SYSTEM The dynamic is starting to change, however. The most visible proof was the controversial leak of videos on YouTube in November by a member of the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) that showed how a Chinese trawler rammed a JCG vessel in the waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands, which both Japan and China claim as part of their territory. The system is actually fracturing on multiple fronts. Japans political parties,
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NORTH KOREA
Peering into the Hermit
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NORTH KOREA
Broadcasting harsh truths and wishful thinking
Kingdom
Technology is revolutionizing reporting on North Korea
By David McNeill
ong before the world finally got a glimpse last September of Kim Jong Un, heir apparent to the Hermit Kingdom, the plump autocrat-in-waiting had been tipped for the top. Newspapers and TV reporters around the world had already built up sketchy profiles of North Korean leader Kim Jong Ils youngest son, including accounts of his posh Swiss education, his alpha-male personality and his fondness for the movies of Belgian martial artist Jean-Claude Van Damme. The profiles were almost invariably illustrated with a now wellknown photo of the 11-year-old Kim junior sporting a pudding-bowl haircut, taken by Kenji Fujimoto, Kim seniors former personal chef and one of the only reliable sources for what little we know about North Koreas first family. So Jong-uns official induction into the halls of official military and political power can be seen in hindsight as a vindication of diligent, careful reporting except for the string of reporting misfires that preceded it. Many journalists, including myself, had at one time or another profiled all three Kim sons as possible heirs. North Korea is famously one of the worlds deepest journalistic black holes, a vast sealed experiment in information
MOBILE PHONES, MINI-CAMERAS AND RECORDING DEVICES ARE INCREASINGLY BEING SMUGGLED OUT
control. According to Reporters Without Borders, just 4 percent of the population have access to the countrys heavily censored Internet, which is completely under state control, along with all newspapers, radio and television. Visitors must surrender cell phones and mobile transmitters at the border. Naturally, that makes verifying the scant information that trickles out a vexing matter. You could write a book or at least a doctoral dissertation on the lies that have been written about North Korea, says Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia correspondent for the London Times. For years, says Lloyd Parry, it was assumed that Kim Jong Il was mentally ill, or an alcoholic, a sex maniac or a psychopath. Then during the InterKorea forum in 2000, there he was on TV, obviously fond of a drink but making sense and in control of the situation. Over the years reporters have used strategy, ingenuity and plain subterfuge to get an accurate picture of life inside the country. Some have piggybacked in with governmentlevel visitors, or visited in the guise of tourists. LA Times correspondent Barbara Demick two years ago elevated another approach interviewing defectors into something of a high art in her book Nothing to Envy. Continued on next page
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NORTH KOREA
Continued from previous page
SMALLER, SMARTER TECH = NEW SOURCES Until recently, employing North Koreans as reporters was considered far-fetched, even revolutionary. But technological developments in the last few years have made that a possibility. Mobile phones, mini-cameras and recording devices are increasingly being smuggled out, and the dissenting voices of North Koreans themselves broadcast back in. The implications are potentially profound, says long-time Pyongyang watcher Bradley K. Martin: A stepped-up campaign of providing accurate news about their own country and the rest of the world to a people who are no longer hermetically sealed off from such news could over time threaten the regimes domestic control. Thats certainly the goal in life of Kim Seong-Min, a defector who now runs Free North Korea Radio (FNKR) in Seoul. He wants to bring democracy to his former homeland, one person at a time. The world would be a better place without Kim Jong Il, of course. But the most important thing is not him, its the people he rules. Kim pays 10 freelance journalists inside North Korea including a university professor, a teacher and at least two soldiers a retainer of about $100 a month to file reports. FNKR provides them with small digital recorders for recording interviews, and mobile phones with signals that work across the Chinese border, since Pyongyangs fledgling mobile-phone system was bought from Egypt and is incompatible with the South Korean network. The recordings are spirited across the Chinese border and transported back to Seoul via a network of spies. The results detonate on air during Voices of the People, where the raw views of the Norths citizens electronically distorted are broadcast back into their own country. Kim Jong Ils wealth comes from the sweat and blood of the people, says one. Another vows to protest government policies. A defector interviewed by the station once vowed to shoot the Dear Leader. The aim of the clandestine recordings is simple, says Kim: Changing the consciousness of ordinary North Koreans ahead of the generational transition of power. When power moved from Kim Il-sung [father of the nation] to Kim Jong Il, it was considered a natural development. But people know far more about the outside world now and theyre more skeptical of the leadership, so anything could happen. Another defector, Choi Jin I, runs six reporters and four assistants inside North Korea, and at least three more across the border in China from his tiny office in Seoul. Over the last three years, the report-
ers have filmed over 200 hours of video footage, which is smuggled out on tiny SD cards and has ended up on TV screens in South Korea, Japan and much of the rest of the world. Stills from the reporting are printed in the bimonthly magazine Rimjingang, published in Korean and Japanese. The thing is, digital media have completely transformed how we gather information, says Jiro Ishimaru, chief editor of Rimjingang in Japan. A decade ago if you gave a North Korean a video camera they wouldnt know what it was. Now, cameras are small and anyone can use them. The footage can be copied and even edited inside the North, he explains. People have their own PCs. Its printer drivers that are banned, to stop distribution. He says that mobile phones can now be used to send text and possibly more. Were very close to being able to send photos.
independence, he explains. For the networks, the advantage is that there is little or no risk to them. NK News runs on a minuscule budget of perhaps $1,000 a year, but is searching for more regular support; Daily NK relies on fundraisers, donations and subscriptions. Much of the money that keeps North Korea Free Radio on air comes from the U.S. State Department but at no cost to editorial independence, insists Kim. Im asked about interference a lot, but its not an issue. There has been just one clash. We ran a program carrying testimony by defectors who spoke of their treatment being beaten by guards at the Chinese border and so on. One defector said he was going to shoot Kim Jong Il. The Americans told us to delete that program or they wouldnt pay.
THE NEW MEDIA MEAN ITS EASIER TO BE A PYONGYANG-OLOGIST, TO ACCESS INFORMATION THAT USED TO BE THE PRESERVE OF A FEW EXPERTS.
REVELATIONS AT A PRICE The dangers of such clandestine reporting are obvious: Rimjingangs journalists live in fear of being discovered. In 2007 many of FNKRs original team of stringers were caught and tried as spies, then sent to labor camps or perhaps executed. We dont know what happened to them exactly, says Kim, adding that their capture devastated him. Web-based publishers and blogs are also helping to build a picture of life inside the North. NK News, run by Washington-based researcher Tad Farrell, aggregates articles, opinion pieces and travelogues from outside Pyongyang. It gets about 500 hits a day and claims to have been the first outlet to break the news that Pyongyangs famous traffic girls had been retired. News website Daily NK, overseen by Park In Ho, publishes translated propaganda and has been sourcing stories from stringers and defectors since 2004, with some correspondents working along the border with China. Money is a headache for all these outlets. Its a major struggle, admits Ishimaru of Rimjingang, which sells its footage to the big TV stations, especially in Japan, where 3-4 million for an exclusive is not uncommon. Our policy is to maintain strict editorial
CAN WE BE OBJECTIVE HERE? This spate of new outlets has added detail to what we know about the North, but how reliable are they? Lloyd Parry says: We all perhaps share the desire to see an end to the government, but some of the North Korea news sites have very stark and obvious agendas their whole raison detre is to bring down Kim Jong Il. But he accepts that websites and blogs increasingly supplement the knowledge of reporters working the North Korea beat. The science of Pyongyang-ology largely depends on the scouring of official propaganda, and looking at photos, he notes. Even if you had time to immerse yourself in all that, its difficult to get hold of the material. (The new media mean) its easier to be a Pyongyang-ologist, to access information that used to be the preserve of a few experts. He cites the example of a Times reader who recently analyzed propaganda photos of post-stroke Kim Jong Il and in the newspapers comments section, described how they were faked. But Farrell doubts that the new media will replace print or broadcast TV. I dont agree that old media is in decline, because people are essentially using NK News as a portal for old medias online presence and, I hope, for our own content from time to time as well. Ishimaru also believes his organization plays a niche role for now. They just dont have people like us working in the big Japanese TV stations. In that sense, were unique and very useful to them.
David McNeill is the Japan/Korea correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education and also writes regularly for The Irish Times and The Independent newspapers. He teaches at Sophia University and is a coordinator of the e-journal www.japanfocus.org.
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JOURNALISM
Pardon me while I take my foot out of my mouth

A short collection of embarrassing journalistic moments from FCCJ members.
N THE EARLY 1980S, NOT LONG after I had started writing for The Observer, I was commissioned to write my first story for the Observer Magazine. It was to be about Yukio Mishima, pegged on a film director Paul Schrader was making about him. With help from Henry Scott Stokes, who had penned a posthumous biography of Mishima, I managed to secure interviews with several former associates, including a member of his private army, the Tatenokai. I also had lunch at the Palace Hotel with Mishimas younger brother, a Foreign Ministry diplomat who had been seconded to the Imperial Palace as vice grand master of the ceremonies. I dont know whether I found his job or appearance more surprising. Yukio Mishima had pumped up his muscles in an attempt to look macho. His kid brother had a florid face and a pinstriped waistcoat that barely contained a spreading paunch. Officiating at the residence of Emperor Showa was also an intriguing occupation for the brother of one who had committed ritual suicide after failing to persuade soldiers to carry out a Showa Restoration through a coup detat. In any case, Mishimas widow was determined to stamp out rumors swirling around her husbands sexuality. In support of my entreaties for an interview, the editor of the Observer Magazine had promised in writing that our coverage would be in good taste, so she finally relented. We did the interview in her lawyers office. After some dull warm-up questions and equally dull replies, I eventually summoned up the courage to breach the taboo, wrapped in the most delicate of euphemisms. At times, wasnt married life rather difficult for you? She glared at me and shot back, One more question like that and I walk out of this room! When the story finally appeared in the magazine, my editor chose to splash an archive photograph across two pages. It showed Mishimas severed head in the commandants room of the Ichigaya camp of the Ground Self-Defense Force Eastern Army. I was mortified. Peter McGill
BOUT FIVE YEARS BACK, I WAS almost kicked out of Japan for failing to renew my residency permit. In a fit of righteous pique, I penned an article for The Irish Times ranting about the countrys restrictive immigration polices and including the line: It was with a shock I realized that my status in Japan depended entirely on the flick of a bureaucrats pen. It was with another shock sometime after, while talking to a Nigerian in Dublin, that I realized Irelands immigration polices are not much better. Anyway, the piece ran a few weeks before I interviewed then-Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi. To my mortification, when I was ushered into her office I spotted it sitting on top of a pile of cuttings, half turned in my direction. Throughout what turned out to be a frosty and uneventful interview, it stared at me accusatorily. To this day, I have no idea if Kawaguchi was making a point or had just absent-mindedly tossed it on the table. David McNeill
Throughout what turned out to be a frosty and uneventful interview, it stared at me accusatorily. At times, wasnt married life rather difficult for you? She glared at me and shot back, One more question like that and I walk out of this room! you might think, but to my puzzlement I found that it was often followed by a pause and then a sharp intake of breath on the other end.
A perfectly routine question,
N A PREVIOUS INCARNATION I wrote the Events column for the now-defunct monthly giveaway mag Far East Traveler, in which I listed and described holidays, festivals and other noteworthy events taking place in the region. Nowadays it would be a simple matter to find all the information I needed online, but in that pre-Internet era I had to phone the Tokyo branch offices of each countrys tourism authority to find out when National Vegetable Awareness Day and other days of import were scheduled and what they entailed. Since those offices were mainly staffed by Japanese, my inquiries were phrased in that language, my command of which was (if such a thing is possible) much worse than it is now. I usually started out by asking what national holidays were scheduled in each country for the month in question. A perfectly routine question, you might think, but to my puzzlement I found that it was often followed by a pause and then a sharp intake of breath on the other end. My interlocutor then usually switched to English and asked me to rephrase my question in that tongue. How dare they insult my flawless Nihongo, I thought, my pride wounded. I nonetheless persevered in Japanese. When it was time to make my next monthly round of calls, I again leapt into the breach by first asking the helpful folks at the South Korean tourism office what national holidays were scheduled for August, viz. Kankoku de hachigatsu ni wa donna jisatsu ga arimasuka? Again the pause and sharp intake of breath, but this time followed by a question to me in English: I beg your pardon, but is it possible you meant to say saijitsu? It was then my turn to pause and take in a major quantity of oxygen as I realized with a mounting sense of horror that I had been asking the tourism offices what suicides (jisatsu) were scheduled each month, as opposed to national holidays (saijitsu). Rev. Spooner would have been proud Steve McClure
If you have a face-palm incident of your own to share, please send your submission to no.1shimbun@fccj.or.jp
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HISTORY
Putting the boot to the shogunate
By Geoff Tudor
yoma Sakamoto, hero of the yearlong NHK television epic Ryoma den, is one of the most famous samurai ever to have lived. In the mid-19th century, as a long-secluded Japan awakened to the call of the outside world, Sakamoto was a significant behind-the-screens player in promoting fundamental changes in the nations government and economy. He was a man of vision, convinced that Japan should modernize and compete with the industrialized countries of the West. He was instrumental in influencing people and changing the course of events. A low-ranking samurai from Tosa, known today as Kochi, Sakamoto broke away from his clan to lead an independent and exciting life in the tumultuous times leading up to the restoration of Imperial rule. Although he was an expert swordsman, he carried a Smith and Wesson six-shooter (which he was not afraid to use) and he wore Western-style boots. It is this latter habit that intrigued me, sending me on a journey of discovery to
Kochi and Nagasaki in Sakamotos footsteps. History tells us that among his achievements was the forging of a major political alliance between the two powerful feudal clans of western Japan, Satsuma and Choshu, a link which played a significant part in the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate. One of Sakamotos major ambitions was to expand the nations maritime clout by developing a navy. He was a pioneer of commercial shipping and trading activity. His original venture, founded in Nagasaki in 1865, was later associated with the creation of the Mitsubishi business empire. Sakamoto also drafted a blueprint for Japans future government during a voyage on one of his merchant ships. His Senchu Hasaku (Eight-Point Program) advocated the development of a strong military power, the abolition of outdated government posts, the introduction of a merit-based system for selecting officials and a standard currency-exchange rate to facilitate international trade. Sakamoto changed society in other ways than politics and economics. After
his marriage in spring 1866, he took his new bride from Kyoto to Kagoshima on what was later called Japans first honeymoon. This was not a usual custom at the time, but was characteristic of Sakamotos unconventional approach to life. Sadly, he did not live to see his new Japan. In 1867 at the age of 33, just before the new government he had worked to install came to power, Sakamoto was murdered. But his memory lives on in modern Japan, and he is held in high regard from captains of industry to college students. Today he is admired for his foresight, his determination and dynamism, his selfless energy and his boots. Sakamotos Western-style footwear is clearly shown in one of the few photographs of him, taken in Nagasaki in 1866. Apart from the photographic evidence, the boots are immortalized in Nagasaki. In a pocket park close by the site of the Kameyama Shachu, Sakamotos first commercial undertaking and Japans first foreign trading company, where now stands a small museum, a giant pair of bronze boots were
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installed in 1995 to mark the 130th year of the founding of the enterprise. There is no hard evidence, such as diary notes or a receipt, but the general opinion is that Sakamoto acquired the boots not long after he established his business in Nagasaki. The boots he is wearing in the photograph are clearly Western-style and could either be imports or the product of a locally based boot maker. It is possible that he acquired them in Kobe, while he was involved there from 1863 in a naval-training establishment organized by Katsu Kaishu, a significant figure of the age, who saw the need for reforming Japan and creating a navy. In the mid 1860s, foreign traders were established in Kobe and foreign boots and shoes were available. But there is no evidence that Sakamoto bought his boots there. Katsumi Ogura, director of the Sakamoto Memorial Museum in Kochi, told me in 2000 that the general consensus among Sakamoto scholars was that he had acquired his fancy footwear in Nagasaki. We know Sakamoto was in Nagasaki on and off from about May 1865, when he established Kameyama Shachu. The photograph of the booted samurai, taken at the studio of pioneer Japanese photographer Ueno Hikoma, probably by Uenos assistant and Sakamotos fellow Tosa-han member Inoue Shunzo, was taken in 1866, although the exact date is unknown. So if Sakamoto obtained his boots in Nagasaki, it must have been between May 1865 and whenever the photograph was taken in 1866. Nagasaki is also a likely place, because there was a well-established foreign settlement in the Oura district, in Higashi and Minami Yamate. Here there were ships chandlers, merchants, hoteliers, bar owners, butchers, bakers and bordellos. To this day we can visit the famous Glover Garden, named after general merchant and gunrunner Thomas B. Glover, where some of the old settlement houses have been preserved, including Glovers mansion, where he entertained and protected some of the young anti-Tokugawa samurai, with whom he conducted an arms supply business. The case for Nagasaki as the place where Sakamoto acquired his boots becomes more compelling after examination of an 1867 map of the foreign settlement, which lists the owners or renters of the plots of land leased to the foreigners. This valuable
document produces an interesting candidate for the possible source of Sakamotos boots. Plot 42B, rented by G.J. Colthrup and G. Curtis, appears to be sublet to two other tradespeople: W. Nelson, a watchmaker, and Pieters Thompson, shoemaker. Could Thompson be the source of Sakamotos boots? We have no concrete proof, but the possibility is strong indeed one might say very strong. He is the only Western shoemaker listed in the directory. The shoemakers shop was close to the Glover residence, where Sakamoto was a regular visitor, and he must have walked past the premises many times.
Ryoma Sakamoto in close up, and full length (booted) with the author (bootless)
BY ALL ACCOUNTS, SAKAMOTO WAS A VERY PRACTICAL MAN AND WOULD NOT HAVE WORN BOOTS UNLESS THEY WERE USEFUL
Thompson appears to have moved away from Nagasaki at some later date. Confusingly, he is listed just as W . Pieters in the British consular directory of foreign residents in the settlement in 1866 and 1867 only, which overlaps with Sakamotos presence in the port city. There is no record in the burial records of Nagasakis foreign cemeteries. International trade in Nagasaki was in decline at this period and many foreigners moved away to Kobe,Yokohama and Shanghai. Lack of customers may have persuaded the shoemaker to move his cobblers last and seek new opportunities in other ports. Nagasaki foreign settlement Plot 42B (in area, 267 tsubo) lay on the western side of the Oura River, now and then a dirty canal. A bus terminal and car park now cover
the site. In 1867 it was next to the Nagasaki Port tax office. Today, you can imagine where it was, if you turn right at the front of the former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building and walk towards the Oura. A famous Chinese restaurant, Shikairo, allegedly the origin of Nagasaki champon, a famous local noodle dish, stands close by. More research needs to be done on the provenance of the boots, but the Pieters theory seems reasonable. Why did Sakamoto wear boots? Were boots his way of making a fashion statement? Western clothing and footwear were beginning to be popular among the upper and military classes. The soon-to-be Emperor Meiji wore lace-up Western-style shoes (and did not take them off when standing on tatami). Personal appearance doesnt seem to have been important for Sakamoto. He was of average height -- about 173 cm and probably took a size 25. His portraits show him to be rather unkempt in appearance, so I think we can rule out fashion. Sakamoto was a great traveler. Boots would be practical equipment for a man constantly on the move, especially when traveling at sea. According to the late Murray Sayle, a noted yachtsman whom I consulted on the matter, good strong boots would be useful to a sailor like Sakamoto and were more suitable than native Japanese footwear. By all accounts, Sakamoto was a very practical man and would not have worn boots unless they were useful. Sakamoto lived in turbulent times and his life was often in danger. In one 1866 incident, at the Teradaya inn in Fushimi, near Kyoto, he and a colleague were attacked by enemy swordsmen. Sakamoto used his revolver to good effect but in the melee suffered wounds to his hands. They managed to escape to a friendly compound. But his luck finally ran out. In Kyoto on Dec. 10, 1867 (Nov. 15 by the then lunar calendar still in use at the time and his 33rd birthday) a band of thugs assassinated Sakamoto and close friend and fellow Tosa-han member, Nakaoka Shintaro. Sakamoto was nursing a cold. He failed to draw either his sword or his six-shooter and was fatally wounded. History does not record if he died with his boots on.
Geoff Tudor is Japan representative for Orient Aviation magazine and writes for other aviation industry publications. An FCCJ life member, he was formerly international PR director for Japan Airlines, retiring in 2007.
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CLUB NEWS
illions of people who are confident and assertive in their daily lives view the prospect of speaking in public with fear and loathing. That acute performance anxiety, usually coupled with a lack of preparation, often results in an on-stage fiasco that justifies their attitude. But giving a wedding toast, acting as an event emcee or making a presentation should never produce the real-life disasters that end up in comedy routines or digitally enshrined on YouTube. Heres why: Theres an organization called Toastmasters International that has been dedicated to helping people become more poised in front of audiences since 1924. Besides covering every facet of public speaking, Toastmasters shows members how to evaluate what they hear and enhances their leadership skills. The organization has more than 260,000 members in over 12,500 clubs in 113 countries. There are dozens of clubs in the Tokyo area alone. The FCCJ established its own club, FCCJ Toastmasters, in 2009 (see box). You may believe that you can get by just fine without these career skills, but Dan
How Toastmasters can enhance your life and career By Douglas W. Jackson
Stand and deliver
TOASTMASTERS TEACHES HOW TO PUT MORE THOUGHT INTO WHAT THE AUDIENCE NEEDS TO HEAR RATHER THAN WHAT THE PRESENTER WANTS TO SAY
Schawbel, the international bestselling author of Me 2.0 and publisher of the Personal Branding Blog, disagrees. When enough people have similar talents and are competing for the same positions and opportunities, the real differentiator is your interpersonal skills, Schawbel states in his predictions for 2011. The way you present yourself, how you communicate with other people, whether its in an interview or with management at work,
The chief storyteller of Fresh Eyes Communications, Douglas W. Jackson is also the president of FCCJ Toastmasters and the editor of Number 1 Shimbun.
can make or break your personal brand. With all the uncertainties in the working world that have appeared recently, it also makes sense to grab opportunities to push your earnings envelope and make yourself invaluable to current and potential employers. The same goes for independent professionals, executives and business owners. To illustrate why people join Toastmasters, lets hear from several current TM members, including a few from the FCCJs new club.
LUCY BIRMINGHAM Im a fairly confident person but always got the jitters before I had to speak in public, says Lucy Birmingham, a longtime photojournalist based in Japan. Ive been a member of FCCJ Toastmasters for about six months now and have made a huge improvement. I still get nervous but Im learning effective techniques to overcome that. What spurred her to get into Toastmasters? I decided to join after I was elected as the secretary of the FCCJs board of directors, since I knew I would have opportunities to emcee events and speak in public, Birmingham answers. Im
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also hoping to start a business, and knew that I would have to make presentations to potential clients.
GRAHAM HARRIS Graham Harris is a veteran Toastmaster, certified executive coach and president of The Harris Consultancy, which among other services provides advice on leadership and communication in a crosscultural environment. Harris also coauthored Obei ryuu speechi no susume (How to make and deliver speeches in a Western style), a book designed to help Japanese business leaders improve their communication and leadership skills. Toastmasters teaches how to put more thought into what the audience needs to hear rather than what the presenter wants to say, says Harris. It puts emphasis on the spoken word with slides as support rather than the other way around. Harris adds: The most relevant part of Toastmasters to my business was learning how to give good feedback. I got better at evaluating my subordinates and motivating them. DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT David Meerman Scott had no speaking experience or training when he joined the Breakfast Toastmasters club 21 years ago. John Harris, a founding member of both that club and FCCJ Toastmasters, was instrumental in encouraging Scott. I began doing presentations for my job as Asia marketing director for Knight-Ridder Financial, so my Toastmasters training helped, Scott says. After I moved to Boston in 1995 and began working at NewsEdge Corporation, I was speaking about six or eight times a year. In 2002 I started consulting, speaking and writing books. In the early days I did about a dozen presentations a year and was paid a small amount usually just enough to cover travel expenses. Then in 2007, Scotts book The New Rules of Marketing and PR jumped onto the BusinessWeek bestseller list. His most recent book, Real-Time Marketing & PR, just hit #2 on the Wall Street Journal list. His value as a speaker shot up. Toastmasters training has been absolutely essential to where Ive taken my business since 2007, Scott states. Im now a professional speaker, and have about 50 engagements a year all over the world. My current base rate is US$25,000, plus business-class travel expenses, for a onehour presentation. I would not be as skilled a speaker if I had not done Toastmasters, and there is no doubt that Id command lower speaking fees, he concludes. I can also say with
confidence that my TM training has been worth over a million dollars. Without the encouragement and support of Toastmasters as I was learning to present, Id probably still be working for a living.
ROSLYN HAYMAN Roslyn Hayman has gone from careers in journalism and securities analysis to helping to run her husbands chemical company. Before joining FCCJ Toastmasters, shed considered herself a writer and not a speaker, being a natural introvert. I hated giving speeches which Ive had to do more of as my career has progressedand was putting more energy into struggling with my sense of inadequacy than with the actual speech. So what has she gotten out of Toastmasters so far? Something I would never have believed speaking is becoming fun! Hayman responds. Toastmasters is a great support group, like the soft landing for a polevaulter, and the feedback and the progress I see in others has been enlightening. My nervousness is now the accompaniment to a challenge, rather than the crippling handicap it was. Hayman has even given speeches in Japanese one at a formal dinner at the Imperial and another at a PR event, each in front of around 200 people. You could have heard a pin drop, she says. On both occasions I was interrupted by applause, and I now realize the exhilaration you can feel when a whole roomful of people is listening to your every word. For me, Toastmasters is a business necessity, she concludes. It takes priority in my schedule, and the benefits far outweigh the time commitment required. BURTON BLUME Burton Blume, executive strategy director for Interbrand Asia Pacific, got into Toastmasters in 1989 when a friend brought him to a meeting. Id been working in Japan for ten years at Japanese advertising agencies and felt that my English-language presentation skills and powers of persuasion were get-
ting rusty, Blume says. The opportunity to interact with other skilled speakers within the structured format of TM meetings was exhilarating. I realized that Id stumbled on something that would be very important in my life and career. I joined right away and never looked back. Blume mentions two other aspects of Toastmasters that attract many members. The skills Ive acquired have proven invaluable in my professional life, where Im frequently called on to talk with clients, present proposals and speak at seminars, he notes. Ive also made some wonderful friendships through Toastmasters, many of which have lasted decades and form a major part of my personal network.
KUNIO HAMADA When he was a Supreme Court judge and global business lawyer, Kunio Hamada had many opportunities to hold forth in Japanese. What made him decide to get into an English-speaking club like FCCJ Toastmasters? I was curious about the term Toastmasters, and after finding out what it is decided to join to brush up my communication skill in English, which I thought could be usable in Japanese contexts as well. I used to be very nervous when I had to speak in public in English. I still am, but to a lesser degree. Ive also learnt how to organize my speech within a prescribed framework and the importance of not getting upset by someone elses conduct while speaking. Graham Harris also pointed to an ongoing business opportunity that anyone with proven talent to speak and evaluate would be wise to investigate. In my executive coaching business for newly promoted Japanese executives I see a common need for better presentation skills, he says, including how to make presentations to a foreign audience. As foreign companies in Japan localize more senior positions, these newly promoted Japanese executives need to know how to make good presentations to senior executives visiting from the head office. That will reflect well on the presenter and the local subsidiarys image.
ABOUT FCCJ TOASTMASTERS

FCCJ TOASTMASTERS WAS ESTABLISHED IN 2009 TO GIVE CLUB MEMBERS THE OPPORTUNITY to gain effective speaking, evaluation and leadership skills. Our members hail from several countries, including Japan, Holland, Germany, Canada, India, the Philippines, Italy and the United States. We hold two programs each month (with the exception of August), generally on the second and fourth Mondays from 12:15 to 1:45 p.m. The initiation fee is 4,000, and annual membership dues are 12,000. To attend as a guest or to learn more, please email club secretary Roslyn Hayman at rehjp@gol.com. Note: Only Club members in good standing may join FCCJ Toastmasters.
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JOURNALISM
Portugal offers journalists safe haven amid media storm

By Andrew Horvat
Seen here at the highest lookout point on the line of fortifications built by Wellington 200 years ago to defend Lisbon from Napoleons armies are, from left to right (with correspondents Japan-era media affiliations in parentheses), Philippe Ries (AFP), John Harris (CBS), Andrew Horvat (The Independent), Fernando Mezzetti (La Stampa), Yun Hyun Sook, Adelia Ries, Dada Mezzetti, Noriko Horsley, William Horsley (BBC).
n Nov. 21, Portuguese national daily Publico published a series of articles by and about six past and present FCCJ members. Sixteen inside pages were devoted to the opinions and careers of the antigos correspondentes de Toquio, all but one of whom had taken part in an eight-day grand tour of Portugal in the latter part of September. (Bill Emmott, the sixth correspondente, not quite as antigo as the others, joined the movable feast midstream.) Although the trip was first conceived as a get-together of former FCCJ colleagues to celebrate the 60th birthday of Philippe Ries, AFPs former Tokyo bureau chief, who now spends part of each year tending an olive farm in central Portugal, his wife Adelia saw to it that the tour would serve to educate her husbands friends about the culture, history and society of her country. Publicos special on the FCCJ veterans,
complete with a full-page color photograph taken at a flattering upward angle, marked the culmination of a year of preparation by Adelia. The itinerary included a stay at Lisbons Palacio Belmonte, a 15th-century noblemans house converted into a hotel described by Conde Naste Traveler as one of the 21 coolest places to stay in the world, a meal under the Norman arches of an ancient convent reborn as a spa, a sea excursion to the fortress-residence of former dictator Antonio Salazar, and a panoramic view from the highest lookout on the Torres Vedras, the network of recently restored fortifications built 200 years ago by Wellington to defend Lisbon from Napoleons armies. As if this was not enough, there were tours to museums and stately residences, dinners hosted by local officials, and a four-course meal lasting as many hours in the courtyard restaurant of Lisbons Clube
de Journalistas, where the visitors exchanged views with Portuguese colleagues on everything from a new law limiting press freedom in Portugal to the success of French Internet journal Mediapart in upsetting French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Ries contributes regularly on economic issues to Mediapart from his home near his olive grove. The other antigos correspondentes attending were John Harris (ex-CBS News Tokyo, later Miami and London), William Horsley (ex-BBC bureau chief in Tokyo, later Bonn and Berlin), Fernando Mezzetti (La Stampa Tokyo 1986-90 and earlier in Beijing and Moscow for Il Giornale), as well as Ries and this writer. According to my Portuguese dictionary, one common meaning of antigo is antique, which at least in the case of this antigo correspondente is accurate. But the word also triggers thoughts of bons
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tempos antigos (better times in the past) when bylines mattered more than bottom lines at news organizations. Those times appear alive and well in Portugal in a number of ways. As the treatment given the six antique journalists by Publico amply shows, Portugal is a country where the media and its practitioners are still respected. The Iberian nation is often criticized for failing to function at the leading edge of change, but when such change means the taking over of newspapers by buyout artists who fire reporters to pursue short-term profits, perhaps it is better to be a bit behind the times. Portuguese newspapers have not been totally unaffected by declining readership, but surprisingly enough the country has 112 papers, a dozen of which are distributed nationally. Moreover, two papers (including Publico) were founded in the past 20 years by journalists and remain solvent. That journalists are still influential in Portugal is amply evident in that the countrys political leaders are trying their best to punish them even when (or rather especially when) they write the truth. Earlier this year, weekly magazine Sol and its reporters received stiff fines for publishing material about a government attempt to buy a failing TV network with tax money. The network had been critical of the government. The journalists had run afoul of a new law pushed through parliament by the majority Socialist Party which made it illegal to disseminate information obtained through a judicial wiretap. Journalists without Borders condemned the case as judicial harassment. But respect for journalists is also evident in Portugal in more positive ways. At the dinner at Lisbons Clube de Journalistas, diners at distant tables in the restaurants inner garden cast furtive glances in the direction of TV news anchor Jose Rodrigues dos Santos, who joined the Tokyo group after a broadcast. Dos Santos carries on the European tradition of journalists as writers of literature. He is the author of eight novels with combined sales of well over a million copies, an astonishing feat in a country of 10 million people, some 15 percent of whom are illiterate. Joaquim Vieira, president of the Clube de Journalistas, who served as chief host of the Tokyo six, is no slouch either. Vieiras name is on the cover of 21 books, including biographies of Salazar and fado singer Amalia Rodrigues. By way of contrast, among the six antique foreign correspondents, the three who continue to write do so as successful independent authors (Emmott, Mezzetti and Ries). Harris and this writer have left full-time journalism, while Horsley works
on behalf of journalists as international director of Sheffield Universitys Center for Freedom of the Media. Horsley combines the role of writer and activist, contributing pieces to the BBC News website and other publications, while recording the sad state of press freedoms in countries such as Turkey, Georgia, the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia in his capacity as media representative of the Association of European Journalists He was responsible last year for preparing a extensive report on threats to press freedom for the Council of Europe. Emmott has been traveling a lot lately. After releasing Rivals on the rise of just about everyone in Asia except Japan, about which he spoke at an FCCJ Book Break, he
PORTUGUESE NEWSPAPERS HAVE NOT BEEN UNAFFECTED BY DECLINING READERSHIP, BUT THE COUNTRY HAS 112 PAPERS, A DOZEN OF WHICH ARE NATIONAL
traveled the length and breadth of Italy, in search of, as he put it La Buona Italia. The result has been Forza, Italia, a book which so far is available only in Italian but may soon be translated into Japanese. Emmott can be seen and heard talking about his book, which has met with very positive critical acclaim in Italy, on www.billemmott.com. As for Mezzetti, his career since leaving Japan should dispel all doubts as to whether there is life after the FCCJ. His 600-page magnum opus, From Mao to Deng (one of six books he has published since leaving Tokyo), has been recently updated and reissued as From Mao to McDonalds. He has been asked to testify in front of the Italian Senate on foreign affairs and is a much sought-after lecturer and commentator. Ries is the only one of the three antique journalists not writing in Italian. He writes in French (but fortunately his writings are translated into both English and Japanese). His book on how Carlos Ghosn turned Nissan around has been recently reissued in paperback. As for how each of the antigos correspondentes view Portugal, perhaps the most dramatic lead was provided by Mezzetti, who recalled an interview conducted by Indro Montanelli, his mentor at Il Giornale, with Salazar, the dictator who gave Portugal nearly half a century of stability but at a great price: isolation, backwardness and
the lowest literacy rate in Western Europe. On leaving Salazars office after the interview, Montanelli was approached by one of the dictators aides, who told him: Dont be too hard on the man. He is struggling to save Portugal from its future. Isolation versus openness was the theme of Emmotts contribution to Publico. As a long-time advocate of free markets, he predictably argued for the benefits of the latter option. Horsley wrote about Anglo-Portuguese relations, including the fact that at one time he could have opted for Portuguese citizenship, having been born in Macau. Harris lamented the ignorance of most Americans about Portugal (and admitted that in 25 years as a CBS reporter and later producer, he had handled no story on the country). He also noted with no less sadness the unavailability of Portuguese wines at American supermarkets. Ries, as a resident of Portugal, was the most critical of all the contributors: he wrote of the sad decline in the environment due to rapid and often unplanned development. But while Portugal has not been able to escape environmental degradation, the sad state of its government finances and the small scale of its economy have probably saved the country from the kind of massive projects that might have destroyed its attractiveness as a tourist destination. Portugals failure to keep up with the times has spared travel writers having to sing the praises of Olympics and Disneylands. The one-time colonial power not only lacks the concentration of capital necessary for leveraged buyouts of newspapers, neither government nor business has the funds with which to ruin the landscape. The stone-paved roads leading to Wellingtons Torres Vedras have been excavated with archeological attention to detail; the Palacio Belmontes private investor has seen to it that his hotel is identified only by its large red gate but not with a huge neon sign; and on the square of Chiado, in front of the Caf Brasileira, sitting on a wrought iron chair next to a table is the seated black metal figure of Fernando Pessoa, placed there by his admiring readers. One of the 20th centurys greatest poets and literary critics, Pessoa also contributed regularly to newspapers. Portugal may not be in the best books of the financial industry today, but a country that celebrates journalists possesses values that cannot be undermined by a mere financial crisis.
A former president of the FCCJ, Andrew Horvat has worked for the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and American Public Radio. He is the director of the Stanford Japan Center at Doshisha University.
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JOURNALISM
Language Luddite
Guy Stanley
was reading The Tale of Genji the other day. No, let me correct that: I was reading about the Tale of Genji. Apparently the story was originally written in kana, real homegrown script, with hardly a trace of the imported Chinese characters known as kanji, and it provoked me into thinking about three languages reasonably familiar to me. Unlike America, where precocious teenagers struggle with words like diarrhea and sphygmomanometer, Spain has no spelling bees. Standard Spanish is a dumb linguists dream: a pushover to pronounce, even to the point where any deviation from intonation rules bears an accent mark. You can go through life without making a spelling mistake or a mispronunciation in Spanish. Contrast that with the bizarre inconsistency of English. Playwright and linguistic reformer George Bernard Shaw famously said that ghoti would be pronounced fish if you use the gh sound from rough, the i from women, and ti from national. He had a point: wheres the logic in a language in which cough rhymes with off and not rough or bough? Still, with only 26 letters to learn, literacy in English comes swiftly. European languages related by root, and most using the roman alphabet enjoy great phonetic flexibility. English can absorb foreign words like siesta, rendezvous and tsunami, and come very close in pronunciation to the language of origin. Strangely, Japanese is the nearest language to Spanish in pronunciation consistency. By the age of six, a native English speaker can expect to be literate in basic terms. But a native Japanese speaker, who has to deal with 1,945 kanji in the queue, arrives 10 years later. I flirted with the written language of my adopted country for over thirty years, but it was the (dassara) moment escaping from salaried life a decade ago to write that convinced me to pursue reading fluency. And I was heading for kanji number 1,945, the last on the official list of commonly used jouyou Chinese characters, able to claim 90 percent fluency in trashy weekly magazine literacy. Then the eminent scholars on the Council for Cultural Affairs went and raised the bar
Kanji 1,946. Surprisingly easy to remember: theyre not all like this.
again.Theyre greeting the second decade of the 21st century with another 196 of the multistroke monsters. While theyve kindly removed 5, the total is now 2,136, and for me thats , genkai, my limit. And lets not forget the mass of kanji that fall outside the common usage category. True masochists will take extreme tests in which kanji for various types of fish requiring 20 or more strokes of the pen test both skill and sanity. Kanji are the digital clocks of written communication, and the letters of our roman alphabet represent the analog. A digital clock face at 2:30 tells the time: you dont have to read it, just recognize the numbers in sequence. An analog clock at two thirty, however, requires you to translate the position into a time.You cant understand a kanji character unless youve learned it, and the sheer volume and complexity often make them impossible to recall with fluency. Remember former Prime Minister Asos excruciatingly embarrassing kanji meltdown? He was reading a speech on the importance of education to children at Japans most prestigious private school when he attempted to pronounce mizou (), a not-uncommon word meaning unprecedented. He had forgotten the last character in this construction was pronounced u, rather than the usual yuu, a delicious trap for the forgetful and unwary. Written as hiragana, , his blushes
would have been spared, but his nightmare didnt end there: he misread the national language three more times in 10 minutes. It was a grand moment for pedants. You cant blame the Chinese, either they were just the nearest locals with a written language. What causes havoc in communication (ask former PM Aso) is putting two or more kanji together and imbuing them with Chinese-inspired on pronunciation. Since Japanese is poorly equipped in terms of phonetic variation, a different kanji for the same syllable is used. My electronic dictionary lists 333 different kanji for the hugely ubiquitous long kou sound, 270 for shou, and 190 for kyou. While risking the wrath of purists, and perhaps a visit from a right-wingers sound truck, I would cull kanji drastically, Korean style, and use many more hiragana and katakana. Baka () meaning foolish and written in hiragana as may lose its aesthetic appeal, but its easily understood in context and is simple to write. I would miss seeing perplexed people writing characters in the air with a finger, though. While Im at it, Id add two letters to katakana and hiragana (pure homemade stuff, dont forget), one pronounced to mimic the English sound ir as in bird, earth or curve, and the other th. This would bring hundreds of common imported words into reasonable proximity to the original. I still cringe when I hear newsreaders pronounce earth (as in rare earth) as aarsu, making it uncannily similar to British slang for a private part of the lower body. By increasing the number of kanji, the government is also unconsciously promoting creeping functional illiteracy. The aging population which includes the countrys educated prime ministers and me struggle to remember kanji readings, and need a dictionary alongside when we write them. The young, with their electronic gadgetry, cant be bothered. Filling in multiple-choice exam answers and job applications will become the only outlets for their handwriting skills. The rest is texting. In any case, back to kanji number 1,946 if I could only remember what it was.
Guy Stanley has published six novels set in Japan, including A Death in Tokyo and Nagasaki Six, and divides the year between Tokyo and London.
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