Monday, March 5, 2007

Setsubun, geishas, and a springlike winter


6/3/2007 CHRONICLE FROM KYOTO// JORDI JUSTE
This winter is being unusually warm, also in Japan. So much that the predictions of almanacs and calendars are becoming out of phase and conversations in elevators and commentaries over the weather on television, are monothematic moans for the absence of the cold winter and the preoccupation for the possible advance of the blossoming of the cherry trees.

The eve of the 3 of February was setsubun, the day that marks the change of season with the end of daikan (great cold) and the entrance in the spring, according to the old Chinese solar calendar. Right that day, a cold air front coming from Siberia entered the country, allowing the coincidence of its departure with the traditional end of the great cold. But the problem is that we already are in March and this year the real winter is still to arrive. In Sapporo they had to sweat to avoid the melting of the works displayed at the festival of ice figures, that every year congregates more than two million people in the capital of Hokkaido.

Since 1873, Japan uses the Gregorian calendar, but previously it used a lunar one, for civil subjects, and the Chinese (with 24 divisions) for rites and agricultural works. Of the dates related to the old calendar, setsubun is the one that continues having great importance in contemporary Japan. It is a working day, but with festive flavor, that always gives place to commentaries on the weather.

In schools, Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, private companies and houses rituals are carried out to exorcise people and places and help them enter clean of bad spirits the new cycle of nature. The most popular ritual is known as mamemaki, and consists on the throwing of toasted soybeans to the shout of "oni ga soto, fuku ga uchi" (demons outside, luck inside). In the houses, the tradition marks that the throwing is done by the toshiotoko, the man born in a year of the same sign that the present one, according to the Chinese zodiac or, in its defect, the family head.
In many places public one is in charge of it to medical instructors of traditional professions, like fighters of extreme or geishas. It is the case of the great sanctuary of Yasaka, in Gion (Kyoto), where geishas of different districts are alternated to send you exceed with soybean to the multitude.

While in Kyoto geishas were throwing soybeans and in Sapporo hotelkeepers and skiers complained about the lack of snow, the ex vice-president of the U.S.A. Al Gore, arrived in Tokyo to present his film on the climatic change and to remember the symbolism of this country for the fight against the environmental problem. "Kyoto will be honored in history because it welcomed a crucial meeting, when humanity began to address the crisis", said To Gore.

Gore encouraged Japanese industrialists to influence their American colleagues using the experience they have on power efficiency. "The Japanese business community can have a powerful influence on the shaping of opinions within the U.S. business community", said Al Gore, who also talked about the Japanese language to transmit optimism: “In Japanese, when you speak of 'kiko no kiki' (climate crisis), the word kiki is made up of two symbols together. The first by itself means danger, but the second by itself means opportunity."

Japan won't apologize again for sex slaves


Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, said yesterday in the Senate that his government will not apologize again to the women who were forced to serve in the brothels established for the sexual satisfaction of the Japanese soldiers in many parts of Asia, during World War II. "Even if the resolution is approved, that does not mean that we are going to apologize", said Abe in reference to the nonbinding motion that the Californian congressman of Japanese origin, Mike Honda, has introduced in the US Congress to demand Japan to apologize in an unequivocal manner to the so called “sexual slaves”.
Abe, nevertheless, said that he maintains the 1993 declaration (known as "Kono declaration", by the name of the then spokesman of the government, Yohei Kono), by which Japan apologized and recognized that the Imperial Army had participated in the establishment and management of the brothels and admitted that coercion had been used.
On its words of last Thursday, where he said that there were no proves that such coercion in the establishment of the brothels had existed, Abe admitted yesterday that yes there were cases in that took place, but that it was carried out by civilian intermediaries and not by the military. "It is not that the military entered private houses and they kidnapped people", said Abe.
Some historians put in 200.000 the number of Asian women who served in the brothels for the Japanese military. It is practically impossible to prove the exact number of cases in which the women were forced to serve for the pleasure of the soldiers, but there exist numerous direct testimonies of victims, mainly Korean, and even of the Japanese military, that make clear the generalization of the abuses. In 1995, under the government of coalition between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Socialist Party, presided by Tomiichi Murayama, Japan established a private found, that expires at the end of this month, to compensate the women forced to serve in the brothels, but the associations of victims always have demanded official indemnifications, as a way of unequivocal assumption of responsibility on the part of the Japanese State.
Abe, who arrived in power in September with a reputation of being more nationalistic than his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, surprised from the beginning with his efforts to improve diplomatic relations with China and South Korea, specially damaged by the annual visits by Koizumi to Yasukuni shrine, where millions of Japanese combatants and 14 war criminals, responsible for atrocities committed by the Imperial Army, are honored.
In his first five months in power, Abe has seen his popularity rates deep constantly, largely because of his weakness before the LDP barons and his reversion of some of the reformist measures that had made Koizumi popular.
Where Koizumi seemed to yield to the extreme right in the symbolic things to be able to impose his reformist policies, Abe appeared until Thursday to be moderating his nationalistic positions to be able to introduce conservative policies. Prime Minister Abe, who wants to reform the pacifist Constitution and has succeed in introducing patriotism in education, is dammed to continue juggling if he wants to simultaneously satisfy his nationalistic follower base and the international community.

Friday, March 2, 2007

The witch of Japanese TV


Kazuko Hosoki is the most famous fortune teller of Japan. She appears almost daily on TV, normally in prime time. On Tuesdays night she has her own show Zubari wa yo (I will say it straight) in TBS. Her fame owns as much to her bold predictions on the life of the famous as to her conservative ideas, her ostentation of wealth, and her bitter and arrogant character. One of her more famous phrases is "You are going to go to hell", her weapon against those who don’t take seriously her divinations and advice. Hosoki’s methods drink from Chinese astrology and the worshiping of ancestors, a substantial part of the Japanese religion. In addition to her televised appearances, she has published more than one hundred books, of which in 2001 she had already sold more than 30 million copies, reason why she is considered the fortune seller who sells more books in the world.