Most Western nations are facing the problem of aging populations, but Japan is really leading the pack, with its combination of a very low birth rate, healthier diet and a good medical system.

Japanese older people are just like elderly from any other part of the world, sometimes friendly and interesting to talk to, and other times unwilling to take crap from anyone as they dive for the last pair of shoes at a department store bargain sale. As an American living in Japan, it’s can be interesting to strike up conversations with older Japanese, who will often talk about what the war years were like for them, or the time they saw General MacArthur, and there’s an unspoken acknowledgment of all that’s changed in the past 60 years.

Since it’s generally expected that the oldest son or daughter will take over the family house and care for the parents in their silver years, elderly folks generally have the benefit of lots of family around them, at least in the semi-rural prefecture where I live. Partially because of this system, and also (I’ve been told) because Japanese rarely leave the area where their family grave is located, you don’t see people migrating to a different part of the country when they retire as is the case with Florida.

The main social activity of Japanese retired people seems to be going to the doctor’s office every day to sit and chat with friends while they wait to be seen by the doctor for some (usually imagined) pain, and if you ever get sick in Japan you’d better have a strategy for getting to the doctor’s office early.

While most of the older people living in my neighborhood are very genki (healthy, full of energy), there’s one poor woman whose back is stuck at a 90 degree angle, making her unable to stand up at all. I’d always assumed this problem came a lifetime of planting rice by hand, but supposedly it’s caused by a chronic vitamin B1 deficiency that was a problem in the first few decades of the 20th century.

Some exciting news for people who are fond of thinking in terms of hair thickness and ear wax texture.

The Japanese can be genetically classified into two categories–people native to the Ryukyu Islands in Okinawa Prefecture and people native to other parts of Japan–researchers from the Institute of Physical and Chemical Science (Riken), who analyzed the genes and genetic structure of about 7,000 people, have discovered.

Riken’s findings, which were meant to shed more light on the origins of Japanese, were published in the online edition of a U.S. science magazine on Friday.

The biggest genetic difference in these two groups were found to be hair thickness and ear wax texture. People who originated from areas outside of the Ryukyu Islands tend to have much harder hair and drier ear wax and were discovered to be genetically closer to Chinese people.

What does this do to the “homogeneous Japanese race” theory?!?

Cyndi Lauper is in Japan right now doing a series of concerts. I saw her on the TV the other day as she did Time After Time, much like the following performance she did on TV in 2005.

Caught this commercial for the Intel Centrino 2 on TV last night.

Autumn is upon us, and in Japan that means one thing: School Sports Festival, a special event held at all elementary schools where kids run relays, do tug-of war, have egg toss competitions, perform dances that they’ve been practicing for months, and so on.

Known as undo-kai in Japanese, the Japanese tradition of a special day when kids can show off their athletic abilities to their parents began in 1874 when an English teacher named Frederick William Strange organized the first “outdoor games” as a way for Japanese to learn about Western sports.

Today, Sports Festivals are held across Japan, which turns out to be quite profitable for companies like Panasonic and Sony, who are all too happy to sell this year’s hot new video cameras to all the oya-baka (”parent-fool”), the word for parents who go ga-ga filming their own kids.

The other day my daughter’s elementary school had her last Sports Festival, and we dutifully gathered to cheer her on during the various events she was in.

It’s an annual tradition at the school that the sixth graders treat everyone to a brass band performance of the theme to Space Battleship Yamato, aka Star Blazers, and everyone did a great job.

27-year-old Japanese ex-porn (AV) actress Nao Oikawa (she retired from boinking in front of cameras in 2004) seems to have completed the move from blue movies to mainstream pop idol via a girl group named G3 Princess, which also includes Yumi Sugimoto and Rina Aizawa. Ms. Oikawa is the one on the right in the following video.

For a peek at a censored but very not-safe-for-work XXX video that spotlights some of Ms. Oikawa’s more salacious talents, click here.

Japan calls it Takeshima. Wikipedia lists it as the Liancourt Rocks. To the South Koreans, it’s Dokdo. I had never heard of these little boulders sticking out of the Sea of Japan/East Sea until recently, when Japan decided to claim sovereignty over it.

This has the South Koreans pretty pissed. Everywhere I went during my recent trip to South Korea I saw posters about Dokdo (in Korean so I couldn’t read it, but the picture of the “island” was always the same). I even saw a seafood restaurant called Dokdo. OK, so the restaurant predates the recent fracas but that only goes to show how the Koreans feel about the rocks.

I even spotted this shirt:

I probably would have bought it but the store was closed.

People in China and other countries around the world are worried what will become of their own health and the health of their loved ones with revelations of tainted food produced in China hit the news with each passing week.

Meanwhile. . .

While China grapples with its latest tainted food crisis, the political elite are served the choicest, safest delicacies. They get hormone-free beef from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, organic tea from the foothills of Tibet and rice watered by melted mountain snow.

And it’s all supplied by a special government outfit that provides all-organic goods from farms working under the strictest guidelines.

I wonder whether it will be revelations such as these that will lead to revolution in China.

The Peanuts, a female pair of Japanese twins (Emi and Yumi Ito), who were a major presence in the Japanese music world back in the ’60s, are planning to release a new album to mark the 50th anniversary of their debut back on 1959.

Here are a few of their better known songs in Japan.

If you are old enough, you might remember them as the duo who sang the original Mothra theme.

They even appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show.

There are certain fundamentals that are evident in every culture; among these traditions are art, music, architecture and my favourite – clothing. To me there is nothing more fascinating than sauntering down the Champs-Elyse in Paris scrutinising every detail of the French sense of style, observing luxe hippies hanging out on the central reservation of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, or witnessing the catwalk to work that is New York 7am to 9am.

The natural compulsion to compare and contrast international style loiters in the back of my mind wherever I travel, and never has it been stronger than when I arrived in Osaka several months ago. Seconds after stepping lightheaded and sleepy from a seventeen hour flight I encountered my first peek at Japanese style. The ‘Japanese Only’ queue at immigration was awash with silhouettes and trends as yet unseen in European streets. Even through my sleep-deprived haze I was hooked!

The first thing I noticed was the fabulously draped chunky knitwear in midnight blue, heady aubergines, and earthy browns and greens. This season’s catwalks have cleverly reflected the global consensus of thrift. Being a conscientious consumer has never been so en vogue and the trend’s hasty adoption by the rich (maybe in the reverse process of a trend filtering up from the high street consumer) has shown a shift in global spending habits. Fashion has cleverly pre-empted this stark change in direction from summer’s ethnic florals and prints on miles of soft, luxurious fabrics (not that it’s disappeared completely; Gucci are flying the luxe ethnic flag in their latest collection), and produced garments based on sensible investment and simple silhouettes. Notable for me were Louis Vuitton, Jill Sander, Kenzo (stunning, chunky knitwear swathed haphazardly around models bodies complimented by bare legs and minimum accessories), Stella McCartney and Dolce and Gabbana amongst many others. Though, apparently they are all trailing the chic Japanese women!

It had been some time since I’d been to an unfamiliar country and the thrill of seeing new fashion was coursing through my veins by the time I arrived at my hotel (also flowing joyously through my veins was the elixir of life known in Japan as ‘Boss Coffee Rainbow Mountain Blend’). Let’s move away from knitwear now though as it was, at this point in time, still officially summer in Japan and pushing 27° most days. On my first venture out into the Japanese evening I was not greeted with any of the summer’s European fashions (the tea dress, straw trilby or the hideous gym pumps adorning the feet of indie teenagers) but instead was emerged in a world of simplicity and rigid elegance.

I dined alone in a small sushi restaurant on that first night (“Hitori des” being a phrase I learned quickly as a young woman travelling alone) but without my usual armour of a book or magazine. Instead I sat transfixed at my table examining the slew of business people who came and went in their perfectly tailored suits. The men were predictably attired as in any western country. It was the women that held my attention. Never before had I seen so many varieties of the classic white shirt and suit combo. It dawned on me that, in the same way that the Italians do ‘cool’, the British do ‘countryside’ and the Norwegians do ‘cosy’, the Japanese do ‘graceful’ chic. Issay Miyake may be out there on his own in western fashion, a pioneer of the unusual silhouette, but here in Japan you’re treated daily to a visual plethora of style that reveals his roots and inspirations.

Jane Young, a British national who has lived in Osaka for four years informed me that “There is still a culture of expectation in Japan in every facet of life. More so than in any European country the Japanese are expected to conform to certain regularities. This includes their clothes, the general rule of which is ‘conservative’. Even in the heat of summer you’ll see women in sleeveless shift dresses with a long sleeved blouse underneath to hide their arms. Bare legs in the office are also a no-no”.

When asked about the British habit of coming outside at lunchtime for a little sunbathe she replied “They’ll come outside to go to lunch but it wouldn’t be like in Britain where everyone strips off as much of their work clothes as possible! That much skin would be seriously frowned upon”.

What about that parade of fashion that now runs from tweenagers (aged 11-13) right up to late twenties? I don’t have the space to list all of the subcultures I’ve passed through myself or been witness to (living near London will do that to you). But, in my experience, western style goes all the way and behaves as if there will never be another fashion beyond what is ’now’. Simply put – we take ourselves way too seriously! Think of the permanence of tattoos or piercing scars, or the trauma of spending eighteen months growing out your Agyness Deyn crop. The mantra of young Japanese is “try anything once”, whether their fantasy of the day be punk, Goth, Lolita, cowboy (complete with Stetson and confederate belt buckle) or doll. As long as it’s transitory, anything goes!

The Japanese embrace the ephemeral nature of fashion in a way that we find difficult in Europe. “The expectation to conform makes young Japanese fearful of changing their appearance by getting tattoos or piercings that can’t be reversed or will scar.” Says Japanese fashion student Mika Kiminami “They ‘play’ with fashion like no-one else in the world because their time to be creative is limited”. I must agree with her wise words. My observation of young Japanese (the most famous being the fantastical creations tottering sweetly about the crazy circus that is Harajuku in Tokyo) has given me a new respect for them having the mind to think “next weekend I’ll be a punk”.  The skill of boys and girls alike to style themselves in a fresh and individual take on whatever their look of the day is certainly estimable.

The national sense of style in Japan seems to be intrinsically linked with national pride and deep expectation. The sense of countrywide ‘wa’ (harmony) must be protected as far as possible; a concept alien to most Europeans. Never have I visited a country with a more dominant sense of ‘oneness’ than Japan. There is some part of me that loves the organised rebellion of their young people, the way it will conclude when they begin their career and enter the real world. How many times have you heard British ‘kids’ in their late twenties being told to ‘grow up and live in the real world’? Maybe a spoonful of this Japanese medicine would be tough to swallow but ultimately beneficial.

Let it be said though that after spending time in Japan I shall enjoy returning to the convivial and varied world of fashion that Europe offers - much in the way you look forward to the familiarity of your favourite scruffy jumper that you will love and cherish above all other haute couture forever. But Japan I thank you! I thank you for your stiff elegance and ingenious take on being young and creative. I thank you for your individual and indispensable place in the world of fashion, and for being one of the most unambiguous innovators of chic I’ve ever encountered in my wandering quest to view the world’s sense of style one amble at a time.

Snapped by Mr. Pink recently with his camera phone.

Hello Kitty Roomba

Via Hello Kitty Hell

I remember my first payday after coming to work as a teacher in Japan, being handed an envelope containing my entire month’s salary in cash, which was quite a surprise to me.

Japan has always been a very cash-oriented society, with no equivalent to personal checks or money orders, and when making purchases most people will pay in 10,000 yen bills. Credit cards exist here of course, but they’re much less common than in the U.S., and to get one you need to pass a strict credit check and have been employed at the same company for at least a year — a far cry from the pre-approved credit cards I’d get in my mailbox back in college.

A few years ago, we bought the plot of land behind our home, I remember going to pay for it in cash, counting out the bills for the previous owner as we finalized the contract.

Of course, the only thing constant in the world is change, and Japanese are slowly adopting alternate ways of paying for products, such as Suica, a rechargeable contactless smart card that can be used to pay for train tickets, food purchases and so on.

One of the most innovative ideas I’ve seen in a long time are the cell phone with Suica cards built into them, so all you need is your phone and you can pay for just about anything.

Hiku (引く): to draw back or recede.
Komoru (篭る): to seclude oneself or be confined.
Hikikomori (引き籠もり): A person who isolates themself and refuses all human contact for long periods of time, often years. The term also refers to the entire social phenomenon.

Japanese society places many demands upon its youth. Its educational system is structured as a vast selection machine in which performance even while very young contributes to one’s eventual standing in society. “Social mobility is extremely easy for the able individual. On the other hand, people fear that if they do not succeed against the competition, the fall will be limitless.” (Kurimoto) The educational system itself is not the only problem, as children are quick to bully others who stand out, even to the point of suicide.

Most people eventually emerge into adult life unscathed. However, for a small fraction of them, the pressure proves too much to bear. As a consequence, they simply refuse to participate. In the young, the problem is called school refusal. Those who had held out until adulthood in the hopes that things would improve end up hikikomori.

The problem with hikikomori is that it is a self-reinforcing phenomenon. Tatsuhiko Takimoto, whose best-selling novel Welcome to the NHK is based on his own experiences as a hikikomori, writes:

The largest source of rage is his own personal cowardice.

He is poor because he lacks the skill with which to earn money. He has no girlfriend because he lacks charisma. But the process of seeing this truth and acknowledging his own incompetence requires quite a bit of courage. No human beings, regardless of who they might be, want to look directly at their own shortcomings.

Hikikomori often suffer crushing self-esteem issues which make it difficult for them to even contemplate improving themselves. There are legitimate obstacles to their finding a traditional job, but few manage even to support themselves as freeters. The majority are instead are supported by their parents, and either live with them or are entirely supported by a stipend from them.

Parents of hikikomori rarely cut off funds and force their children into the world. Having one in the family is seen as an embarassment, like mental illness, so parents often aid and abet in the seclusion of their children. Schools write off extended absences as “medical trouble,” and parents leave food and allowances at their child’s doorstep.

There are any number of professionals in Japan working to help hikikomori. These can range from “rental sisters” to more traditional halfway houses. In his book Shutting Out the Sun, Michael Zielenziger writes about three:

Minami, Watanabe, and Kudo are, in Watanabe’s definition, lunatics–people who are “doing really good, original work” to help some of the most vulnerable members of their society. These three have no professional contact with one another. Each pursues a different strategy of counseling hikikomori… Yet each operates on remarkably similar principles. They want their charges to exercise individual judgment over their lives. They insist that each be held accountable for his actions and be able to distinguish between fixed, not flexible, notions of right and wrong. They want to encourage individual autonomy over collective sensibilities, and recognize that these lost and sometimes troubled young adults can prosper only in an open, flexible, and trusting environment.

Eventually, some hikikomori emerge on their own, and some through the assistance of professional help. Many, however, are only thrust back into the real world with the death of their parents. With no professional background, no social skills, and no sense of how to deal with the world around them, the fate of these unfortunates remains unknown.

Found this in the toddler’s clothing section. It looked like the right size for a kid about five or six years old.

China’ s poison milk scandal is spreading both in China and Japan. A Chinese government food safety agency has announced that 10 per cent of the liquid milk it has tested is contaminated, as well as 14 per cent of the baby formula. Hong Kong is reporting pollutants in ice cream and yogurt from China as well.

More than 6000 babies so far have developed kidney stones as a result of drinking the poisoned powder. Four of them have died.

Hundreds of parents streamed into the offices of the Sanlu dairy company at the heart of the scandal yesterday, demanding refunds and worrying over what was still safe to feed their children. “Now we have no idea what kind of milk to give the baby. They all have problems,” said the mother of a one-year-old who had been drinking Sanlu formula for two months.

I saw a report on the TV today that said powdered milk and other processed food products from China are currently in wide use in Japan.

Each year the organization that publishes the Standardized Kanji Test announces the “kanji of the year,” the character that best sums up the events of the past twelve months.

Previous characters have included inochi (life) in 2005 to mark the terrible young lives lost in suicides that year, tora (tiger) due to the historic Hanshin Tigers’ victory in the Japan pennant, and ikusa (war) in 2001, when the U.S. invaded Iraq.

The kanji of the year for 2007 was nise, meaning “fake” or “fraud,” due to the large number of food-related scandals that became news, including a famous restaurant caught labeling normal meat as high-grade Kobe beef and serving leftovers to customers, a confectionery company that sprayed water on stale slices of cake so they’d look fresh enough to sell, and Hokkaido-based “Meat Hope,” which despite its awesome name got in trouble for intentionally mis-labeling its products.

So far, 2008 has been more of the same as food scandals continue. The most egregious one so far has been a company called Mikasa Foods, which bought inedible rice that had been contaminated with pesticides and seawater (it said) for use in glue production. In reality, it relabeled the rice and sold it to more than 370 companies, which used it to manufacture everything from food to sake to beer and more — bleah.

A change of pasture makes fat calves.

And so we say farewell to yet another Minister of Agriculture. It’s often said there’s a revolving door at the Min of Ag., and it’s really been on a spin recently.

The Shinzo Abe administration saw 3 Ministers. You wouldn’t have thought there was time, but surely there was. Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who committed suicide in May of last year, was succeeded by Norihiko Akagi. He lasted all of 60 days but you’ll remember him as the chap who turned up at a press conference with an unshaven and bandaged face, looking like he’d taken the wrong route home.

Masatoshi Wakabayashi then warmed the Ministry seat for about three weeks before Takehiko Endo took over officially. Mr Endo then made Akagi look like a stayer by resigning after a mere 8 days in office. Mr Wakabayashi was called back for his second stint in a fortnight.

Seiichi Ota took over the reins at the beginning of August. And today he’s decided to take responsibility (as is the ministerly tradition) for the tainted rice scandal by buggering off and doing nothing at all to help clear up the mess. Very noble, I’m sure.

That’s 6 ministers in 16 months if you’ve lost count. At this rate, within a few years, we’ll all get a go at being the Agriculture Minister.