Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

Current Affairs

3 Comments

Japan’s democratic doldrums?

Japan is supposedly in a state of shock today due to the resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. A politician who despite his failure boasts a formidable family, with his father a former cabinet member and his grandfather an ex-PM.

Japan

Abe’s scandal-tainted reign was relatively short lived after taking over from the supremely popular and similarly connected Junichiro Koizumi. The wavy-haired one benefiting from a father who was director general of the Japan Defence Agency, plus a grandfather who rose to the ranks of minister.

Japan

And the man widely tipped to take the top job is Taro Aso, whose grandfather Shigeru Yoshida, was, perhaps not unexpectedly, also a Prime Minister.

Japan

Something of a pattern perhaps?

5 Comments

Tokyo Typhoon

The typhoon that hit Tokyo on Thursday night/Friday morning definitely deposited a huge amount of water on to the Japanese capital, but for most people, delays or a drenching on the way home were about as bad as things got.

For many of the homeless living along the metropolis’ rivers on the other hand, it was a very different story altogether.

Quickly rising water levels,

Tokyo river

and a churning mass of fast-moving muddy water,

Tokyo river

meant that the cleverly constructed but structurally suspect dwellings favoured by many of Japan’s homeless had little chance of survival.

Tokyo river

Not much remains of this man’s house, and what does is now useless.

Tokyo river

[Read more…] about Tokyo Typhoon

10 Comments

Japanese justification

Whether the arguments put forward for a lifting of restrictions are due to cultural or culinary concerns, Japan’s yearly culling of a limited number of protected whales for ‘scientific purposes’ is laughable to say the least. A stance that is even more suspect when one looks at the numbers involved. And then of course there is the huge amount of ‘by-products’. So much so in fact that children are being fed whale meat for lunch, burger bars are putting it between buns and supermarkets are flogging the stuff fresh or in cute little cans.

Yet whilst the unrepentant fisherman of Wada in eastern Japan may not win the hearts of many people due to their hunting of whales not on the protected list, they certainly can’t be accused of the same kind of hypocrisy. As like it or not they are legally allowed to do it — no spurious subterfuge needed.

Japanese whaling

Although that said, whether their recent butchering of a bottlenose whale is a suitable sightseeing spot for a school excursion is debatable to say the least.

Japanese whaling

4 Comments

Japanese ingenuity?

The decision to introduce a ‘baby hatch’ for unwanted children in Kumamoto, southern Japan, has been a controversial move to say the least, and it now looks set to produce even more publicity, as only hours after opening, a nowhere near newly born boy was found to have been abandoned there.

Japanese baby hatch

However as he is already three years old, the youngster looks set to stitch-up his parents sooner rather than later, having already told officials his name and that he travelled to the hospital with his father.

Yet due to Japan’s fascination with all things faddish, many people are worried that harassed mothers and fathers from all over the country will soon be following suit and hot-footing it to Kumamoto to ditch any particularly challenging children, with rumours circulating that a few enterprising females have already organised a pick up service for those somewhat pushed for time.

A story that whilst sounding sensationalist could well be confirmed by this covertly captured picture.

Japanese children

6 Comments

Western Tokyo wannabes

With local elections just around the corner, these bingo-like billboards boasting pictures of each area’s candidates are currently as ubiquitous in Tokyo as hostess bars and convenience stores.

Japanese elections

However, being ineligible to vote makes delving into any of the candidates detailed proposals a pointless exercise, and anyway, Japanese democracy appears to entail nothing more than maintaining the status quo and electing relatives of previous runners. Yet judging the pictures alone, young Leo Suzuki would possibly be worth a punt; his manly pose and martial arts prowess making him appear to be a man who could perhaps make something happen.

Japanese politician

That said, Hiroko Kano might well be a woman but she is equally manly — maybe even more so.

female Japanese politician

But when all is said and done, surely super suave ‘Shoko’ should seal the deal, as he is speedy, open, kind and an opinion leader. Plus perhaps more importantly, he is hot too.

hot Japanese politician

3 Comments

Tokyo Torpor

Whilst Japan does appear to have an inordinately high percentage of panty pilferers and public transport perverts, the number of those actually indulging in more civilised and reciprocal sexual practices appears to be rapidly decreasing. A situation highlighted a couple of years ago with the ‘how much other nationalities are getting it’ global sex survey, an investigation that saw Japan come bottom with an average of only 45 bouts of fornication a year — way behind the table topping Greeks grand tally of 138.

japan sex survey

Yet since then things have actually got worse, as a national sex survey last year found that the number had drooped even further, with an annual average of only 17 sessions between the sheets. A figure that makes the hardly salacious second to last place Singaporeans seem positively sex mad.

To make matters worse however, a report released earlier this week appears to paint an even gloomier picture, with many couples apparently now even foregoing the odd furtive fumble, as a staggering 34.6 percent of married couples (aged between 16 and 49) have sex less than once a month. Such relationships classed by the Japan Society of Sexual Science as ‘sexless‘. A figure that unlike other things has risen from a slightly lower but still less than lustful 31.9 percent in 2002.

So all in all it’s not exactly a rosy picture, and one that Kunio Kitamura, a member of the panel that carried out the latest poll and a director of the Japan Family Planning Association, is clearly worried about. The high ranking and presumably highly paid official justifying his substantial salary and social standing by insightfully stating, “The ratio of sexless couples has been increasing in recent polls. I think we have to make a connection between the increasing sexless rate and declining birthrates.”