Lost In Translation

Cartels Of The Mind

Ivan Hall's muckraking book Cartels Of The Mind: Japan's Intellectual Closed Shop  may have been written in 1998, but it is still valid today in many respects. Hall looks at three areas: academia, law, and journalism. I have the most experience with academia and can attest that little progress has been made in the last 14 years. Hall cites that professor are given one to three year contracts, which is still true at many institutions. Some progress has been made in this regard since there are now four year contracts renewable once (this is the one I am on). And there is tenure available for foreigners, but only a small percentage of professors are tenured. Some schools are proactively trying to woo foreign students as the university age pool of domestic students shrinks yearly, some administers are actively trying to bring in foreign students. In fact this year Tokyo University stated that within five years they will switch to a western semester system in order to make it easier for foreign students to study at their university. It is not clear what effect this will have on other universities, I suspect little since Tokyo University has always been an exception. The domestic job market prefers to hire new employees at the beginning of the fiscal year,which is April in Japan. It is safe to say that almost all of the innovative research related to commerce takes place in closed environments of the large corporations that support them through their own research and development plans rather than in open exchanges in the universities. 

The world of journalism is an area I am less familiar with, however with a little research I have found that little has changed. This article from the NY Times in 2009 shows that the press clubs continue to exist and parcel out information in an unfair manner. Japan is known for having a toothless press corps with little investigative or muckraking journalism taking place in an industry where access is everything. This results in an insular back scratching between journalists and their sources.

The legal world is somewhat more accessible to me since I worked in the law department teaching English at a mid-tier university for five years. In 2004 they implemented a new system that would require bar applicants graduate level law school law school degrees in 2006. With this new law school system came a new bar exam, with a 40-50% passage rate which is capped by a numerical quota. Applicants are now limited to taking the exam three times in a five year period. Despite the much higher bar passage rate with the new exam, due to the quotas, approximately half of Japanese law school graduates will never be admitted to practice. The new system also reduced the apprenticeship period at the Legal Research and Training Institute to one year. Therefore, even though there has been "some" change there are gatekeepers to maintaining a legal elite. In 2009 a lay jury system was implemented but it has been seen as toothless since judges have a habit of over turning decisions by the lay jury. Judges are regularly racist and sexist in custody disputes giving sole legal custody to the Japanese parent in mixed marriages almost 100% of the time. (There is no joint custody so many children never see the other parent again).  Needles to say there needs to be major reforms in their legal system that has a 90% conviction rate and countless human rights abuses.

In the conclusion, Hall makes some suggestions to change this system of the cartels of the mind: 1) Gaiatsu-united foreign pressure to provide equal access 2) Severing direct control of higher education from Monbusho (The Ministry of Education) 3) U.S. Friendship groups should deal with lack of reciprocity 4) American should take compensatory measure as a "countervailing power" 5) Recognition and open debate among those in the transpacific dialogue about manipulative tactics of veiling and intimidation 6) The U.S. should demand a larger Japanese military contribution to the American strategic position in Est Asia as a substitute for the economic and social opening of Japan. I think that political economic realities continue to trump all of these positions that have allowed the cartels of the mind to continue to thrive.

Red River

Since I am a fan of Howard Hawks I felt it was necessary to see Red River (1948) made after To Have And Have Not and The Big Sleep. It has also been acknowledged as one of the great westerns of all time and the film debut of Montgomery Cliff. But it is also known as one of John Wayne's better performances as well and the penultimate cattle drive film. And indeed it is all of these things and more. There are several great cinematic sequences with the herds of cattle and wide open western spaces. The story can be encapsulated as a western "Mutiny on the Bounty" as the cattle drive is taken over by Cliff and Wayne is left behind. This is understandably a western classic.

Rian Ramen

Rian Ramen has been on the shotengai in Sasazuka for a while, it replaced the popular M's Curry when the owner died. I tried the miso ramen and found it to be a very flavorful broth, lots of toppings like bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, and leeks with solid noodles. I'll be back to checkout the tan tan ramen some time.

Beacon

This was my first visit to Beacon even though it has been around for a while. It is part of David Chido's T.Y.Express company with others like Cicada, etc. It is one of the few places in Tokyo with brunch and I got an omelet with ham, green peppers, onions cheddar cheese, and mushrooms with home fries, choice of bacon or sausage, a fruit cup, and bread. It was great but a little pricey at ¥2700. I would also like to try out the Huevos rancheros or the massive burger I saw another customer chowing down on another visit.

The Cockfighter

Last year I read my first Charles Willeford novel, Miami Blues, and really enjoyed it. I asked a friend who was a fan if I should continue on with he Hoke Mosley series or another novel-one of his recommendations was The Cockfighter (1972). As fate would have it I came across The Charles Willeford Omnibus (which included The Pickup, The Burnt Orange Heresy, and The Cockfighter) for a mere ¥500 last Monday while out and about-so I bought it. The Cockfighter, obviously, is about a man who trains chickens for fights that often end in death of one or both animals, thus, it is not for everyone. It is a subculture I knew very little about, but thanks to this novel, I now know a lot about  after following the exploits of the protagonist Frank Mansfield. In fact, it could be said to be the "Moby Dick" of cockfighting novels in that there are several sections that discuss the intricacies of the cockfighting trade as well as the conditioning of the birds. It was one of the elements that I found engaging in Miami Blues as well-I was able to immerse myself in the southern culture of Miami and Miami Beach-places that I had never set foot in myself. The same can be said of this novel. I was able to inhabit the southern cockfighting tour and share the triumphs and setbacks of the eccentric protagonist Frank Mansfield whose one and only goal in life is to be the cockfighter of the year. This is a similarity between Hoke Mosely (from Miami Blues) and Frank Mansfield they are driven to succeed and be the best they can in their respective professions almost to the exclusion of other aspects of their lives. Willeford is a master of creating believable and unusual characters in his novels and I look forward to inhabiting his world of fiction in future novels as well.

Food For Thought

In Kate Elwood's last column of 2011 for The Daily Yomiuri she looks at the cultural associations with western and eastern staples, bread and rice:

Both bread and rice symbolize livelihood, as can be seen in a variety of phrases such as "earn one's bread," "know which side your bread is buttered on" and "take bread from someone's mouth," as well as meshi no tane ("rice seed": a means of living), meshi ga kuenai ("cannot eat rice": cannot make a living), and fude ippon de meshi o kuu ("eat rice by one ink brush": make a living as a writer). "Eating the bread of idleness" also corresponds nicely to muda meshi o kuu, to eat useless rice, which means to be unproductive. Bread and rice also both signify a communal experience. The idiom "break bread together" signifies sharing a meal, similar to onaji kama no meshi o kuu, to eat from the same rice-cooking pot.

But cultural associations of rice perhaps go one step further. Linguists Dmitrij Dobrovol'skij and Elisabeth Piiraninen have made a study of cross-cultural and cross-linguistic figurative language. They note that rice is further associated with the whole living situation, as exhibited in the phrase hiyameshi o kuwasareru, being made to eat cold rice, a way of expressing being treated coldly. Tanin no meshi o kuu, eating the rice of other people, means to gain experience and become mature by leaving one's family.

Unlike these rice expressions, a focus on undesirable or external sources of sustenance is not seen in common bread idioms. "Bread and water" may be understood to be the most minimal provisions, traditionally associated with provisions for prisoners, but the expression does not figuratively describe a chilly reception. There is no idiom related to eating bread somewhere else and to say it would simply suggest a sandwich obtained elsewhere, not a vital representation of becoming independent from Mom and Dad.

A traditional name for Japan is Toyoashihara no Mizuho no Kuni--the land where abundant rice shoots ripen beautifully. Emiko Onuki-Tierney is an anthropologist who has done extensive research on the Japanese attitude toward rice, including writing a book titled Rice as Self: Japanese Identities through Time. According to Onuki-Tierney, in one story in the Kojiki collection of myths about the origin of Japan, the goddess Amaterasu is the mother of a "grain soul" and Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan, is the son of one. Amaterasu gives Jimmu rice grains and tells him to transform the wilderness into a land of rice. Onuki-Tierney points out that unlike other creation myths in the world, Japan's mythology is not about the creation of the universe but about changing wilderness through rice cultivation. While other Asian countries obviously also have rice, Japan's own rice has been viewed as distinct. Westerners were not traditionally thought of as bread-eaters but rather meat-eaters, as opposed to rice-eating Japanese people, due to Buddhist prohibitions in Japan on the consumption of meat.

The shamoji rice spatula is a symbol of the Japanese housewife. While less prevalent than it used to be, it can still be seen in various depictions of smiling women wearing kappogi long-sleeved aprons and holding the shamoji aloft, at the ready to serve up some warm nourishment. This contrasts vividly with the traditional Western images of angry housewives brandishing rolling pins, not equipped to joyfully roll out some pastry to supply their family members with a delicious savory or sweet pie, but rather to whack a wayward husband over the head. Occasionally Japanese women are portrayed using a menbo rolling pin in a similar way, but such representations are far less frequent than those of cheerful shamoji holders.

In this way, perhaps warm rice eaten at home has a cultural resonance not easily supplanted. Yet, as always, the picture is not completely black and white. When I spent a year in Europe for research a little while ago I made rice every day, thanks to a rice cooker a colleague returning to Japan after her own sabbatical had kindly passed on to me. On the other hand, many Japanese women I met in Europe had by and large happily abandoned rice for bread in their daily lives, and they expressed surprise and amusement that my daughter and I persisted in eating rice at least once a day. If rice is a symbol of physical and spiritual sustenance perhaps it can be said that variety is the rice of life.

Buried

This little thriller, Buried (2010), directed by Rodrigo Cortes flew under my radar. I saw that it was a film Steven Soderbergh saw last year, so I decided to track it down. It was a very cheap film to produce I imagine since all of the action takes place in a coffin, where Ryan Reynolds is placed by Iraqi insurgents. One of the main plot pieces involves a cell phone that was placed in the coffin with the truck driver. It was an entertaining and clever little film.

The Unnamed

I really enjoyed Joshua Ferris's first novel, Then We Came To An End, but was reluctant to read The Unnamed (2010) because the plot didn't sound that compelling to me. A successful lawyer with a family develops a condition where he goes through periods where he starts walking until his body gives out to sleep and rest. But after seeing several good reviews I decided to give it a chance and I am glad I did. It is a strangely compelling story, which almost comes across as a fable. However, I don't think its lessons are easily found. It is a fable that treats this imaginary disorder as if it were a real event-not necessarily matter-of-factly, but certainly realistically. I find his descriptions of the one child family of a successful upper class lawyer's family utterly realistic and true to life especially when held up to other contemporary books that I feel were much, much more contrived and artificial (Jonathon Franzen's Freedom and Jennifer Egan's The Goon Squad). In fact, the story almost seems biblical in the fact that at the onset of his walking jags are accompanied by biblical acts of nature: unprecedented cold, unseasonable swarms of bees, torrential rain. Perhaps, it suggests that we often take for granted the simple aspects of life that make seem incredibly bare when taken away. I found Ferris's depictions of the lives of his characters, their problems, their reactions to certain events and their inner lives full of verisimilitude. This is a strange, compelling and moving novel on several levels.

Taiga Dramas

Here's an interesting column on Japanese period TV dramas from Sawa Kurotani for the Daily Yomiuri:

A glance at the list of Taiga dramas quickly reveals that the series keeps revisiting the same historical moments. The three most frequently depicted time periods are: the Sengoku (warring) to Azuchi-Momoyama period, which extended from the late 15th to late 16th century; the transition from the Tokugawa shogunate to the Meiji era (1868-1912); and the middle of the Edo period (1603-1867).

However, what makes a jidaigeki (period drama) series popular for nearly five decades has little to do with history itself. Instead, it has everything to do with how we interpret particular historical figures and project our own social reality onto that of other eras. The middle of the Edo period was a time of peace and affluence arriving after a century of continuous warfare that resonated with Japanese viewers during the economic growth of the 1960s and '70s.

The Ako incident in 1703, in which the former retainers of the Ako clan avenged their lord's unjust death, marked an important moment in which the roles of samurai shifted from professional warriors to bureaucrats and administrators. The former Ako retainers' adherence to the outdated code of conduct and obsolete wartime ethos has solicited popular sympathy ever since its first theatrical adaptation in the late Edo period, but gained new significance in the 1960s and '70s when the old was rapidly replaced by the new.

The Sengoku period, with its chaotic social environment of gekokujo--the "bottom" overthrowing the "top" in bloody battles, turning social hierarchy upside down overnight--seems far removed from a postwar Japan ruled by social order and peacefulness. Yet, the "battle and conquer" ideology of Sengoku warlords appealed to postwar generations of sarariiman who saw themselves as warriors fighting and winning in a fierce economic battle to catapult Japan to a position of great power and global influence. The three most famous warlords of the period--Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu--are also known for their distinct leadership styles, which resonated with corporate managers who identified with one of the three leaders.

The turbulent period toward the end of the 19th century, when the long rule of the Tokugawa shogunate collapsed and political control of Japan was "returned" to the emperor, represents another moment of upheaval when established social order broke down and competing world views clashed against one another. Key actors of this era, such as Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Sakamoto Ryoma and Saigo Takamori, had to set aside ingrained prejudices, shake hands with age-old enemies and embrace foreign ideas and new technologies to strengthen a newly emerging nation. They had also forsaken their personal well-being and ignored individual gain for the sake of a larger cause.

In his recent book, economist Taichi Sakaiya identifies the three most significant moments of "defeat" in Japan's modern history: the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, World War II and the two decades following the collapse of "bubble" economy. After the first two defeats, Japan came up with new paradigms to reinvent itself and move forward. Now that Japan is facing its third defeat, he implores its political and economic leaders to devise a new way of thinking and show a clear course of action so Japan can once again rise from the ashes.

Incidentally, next year's Taiga drama, Taira no Kiyomori, will purportedly follow the life of an energetic warrior from the late Heian period (794-1192) who broke away from a stifling social order to look outward at the rest of the world--much like Sakamoto Ryoma from 2010's Ryoma-den and Oda Nobunaga, the uncle of 2011's heroine Princess Go from Go-Himetachi no Sengoku. Until we find our own Ryomas, Nobunagas and Kiyomoris, we can at least continue watching Taiga Dorama to fulfill our yearning for a true leader, if only for 45 minutes a week.

2011 Year In Films

This has been one of those years where I didn't get a chance to see a lot of the celebrated movies of the year. However, I was able to see several while at home on vacation at the year end and these are my choices for the top films:

1. The Descendants

2. Drive

3. Shame

4. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

6. 13 Assassins

7. Uncle Bonmbee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

8. Of Gods And Men

9. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

10. Tree Of Life

I guess I'd recommend anyone to see these on the big screen. And here's two solid renters as a bonus and heads up on one that I wasn't so impressed with.

Sleepers: Win Win, The Debt     Most Overrated: Midnight In Paris