Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival (46 page)

13
. For a detailed account of Saburo Ienaga, see Buruma,
Wages of Guilt
, pp. 189–201.

14
. Remarks to author, August 2004. In 2006, a Tokyo court ruled that it was unconstitutional to oblige teachers to stand in front of the national flag or sing the national anthem. But subsequent rulings by the Supreme Court quashed similar cases, saying it was not illegal to require teachers to stand. See David Pilling, ‘Japanese Teachers Freed from Singing National Anthem’,
Financial Times
, 22 September 2006.

15
. Interview with author, Tokyo, December 2006.

16
. Kenneth Pyle,
Japan Rising
, p. 373.

17
. Koizumi did attend the inaugural Boao Forum, intended to become a sort of Chinese Davos, in April 2002.

18
. Hugh Williamson and Ray Marcelo, ‘United Nations Warns on Asian Tensions’,
Financial Times
, 12 April 2005.

13. ABNORMAL NATION

1
.
Kokka no Hinkaku
or ‘Dignity of a Nation’ was the title of Masahiko Fujiwara’s 2005 book.

2
. John Dower,
Embracing Defeat
, p. 454.

3
. David Pilling, ‘Abe to Work Towards New Japanese Constitution’,
Financial Times
, 31 October 2006.

4
. David Pilling, ‘To Befit the Reality’,
Financial Times
, 1 November 2006.

5
. Interview with author, Tokyo, August 2006.

6
. Japanese military officials explained that if, say, North Korea launched a missile, Japan would need to shoot it down before it knew for sure whether it was headed for Japan or another country. If the missile turned out to have been headed for the US, then, by shooting it down, Tokyo would have engaged in collective self-defence. If, on the other hand, it waited until it was sure the missile was going to land on Japan, it might then be too late to attempt to shoot it down at all.

7
. David Pilling, ‘Abe Assumes Command of “Pacifist” Forces’,
Financial Times
, 1 May 2007.

8
. Interview with author, Tokyo, March 2004.

9
. Gavan McCormack,
Client State: Japan in the American Embrace
, p. 198.

10
. Norimitsu Onishi, ‘Abe Rejects Japan’s Files on War Sex’,
New York Times
, 2 March 2007.

11
. Yukio Hatoyama, ‘The Wrong Memorial’,
Financial Times
, 13 August 2001.

12
. Martin Fackler, ‘Cables Show US Concern on Japan’s Readiness for Disaster’,
New York Times
, 4 May 2011. The cables in question were leaked by Wikileaks.

13
. Interview with author, Tokyo, July 2006.

14
. Troop numbers have gradually dwindled from about 50,000 when Koizumi was in office.

15
. Steve Rabson,
Okinawa: Cold War Island
, p. 79.

16
. Interview with author, Naha, Okinawa, January 2006.

17
. Interview with author, Tokyo, January 2006.

18
. Edwin Reischauer, former US ambassador to Japan. Recounted in Yoichi Funabashi,
Alliance Adrift
, p. 129.

19
. Quoted in Kenneth Pyle,
The Making of Modern Japan
, p. 233.

20
. See McCormack,
Client State
.

21
. Shintaro Ishihara co-wrote the book in 1989 with Sony co-founder Akio Morita, arguing that Japan should be more than a mere ‘yes man’ to the US.

22
. Martin Fackler, ‘Japanese Leader Gives in to US on Okinawa Base’,
New York Times
, 24 May 2010.

23
. Martin Fackler, ‘US Relations Played Major Role in Downfall of Japanese Prime Minister’,
New York Times
, 3 June 2010.

24
. Japan had other territorial disputes with both Russia and South Korea. In both cases, the situation was the reverse of that with China. Japan claimed what it called the Northern Territories, but these had been administered by Russia, which called them the Southern Kuriles, since the end of the war. It also claimed what it called Takeshima island, which was administered by South Korea as Dokdo.

25
. Taipei, which also claimed the islands as part of Taiwan, called them Daioyutai.

26
. Quoted by Han-Yi Shaw, ‘The Inconvenient Truth Behind the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands’, http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/the-inconvenient-truth-behind-the-diaoyusenkaku-islands

27
. Mure Dickie and Kathrin Hille, ‘Japan’s Arrest of Captain Angers Beijing’,
Financial Times
, 8 September 2010.

28
. Yoichi Funabashi, ‘Japan–China Relations Stand at Ground Zero’,
Asahi
newspaper, 9 October 2010.

14. FUKUSHIMA FALLOUT

1
. The Official Report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, Survey of the Evacuees (Appendices).

2
. Ibid.

3
. Gerrit Wiessmann, ‘Germany to Scrap Nuclear Power by 2022’,
Financial Times
, 30 May 2011.

4
. Hiroko Tabuchi, ‘A Window into Chaos of Fukushima’,
International Herald Tribune
, 11 August 2012.

5
. Some of the following description is taken from Jonathan Soble and Mure Dickie, ‘How Fukushima Failed’,
Financial Times
, 7 May 2011.

6
. Martin Fackler, ‘Evacuation of Tokyo Was Considered After Disaster’,
International Herald Tribune
, 29 February 2012. In practice the evacuation of such a massive city would take weeks or months, rendering such an exercise, to all practical purposes, impossible.

7
. Tabuchi, ‘A Window into Chaos of Fukushima’.

8
. Evan Osnos, ‘The Fallout: Letter from Fukushima’,
New Yorker
, 17 October 2011.

9
. Tabuchi, ‘A Window into Chaos of Fukushima’.

10
. Soble and Dickie, ‘How Fukushima Failed’.

11
. Norimitsu Onishi, ‘Safety Myth Left Japan Ripe for Nuclear Crisis’,
New York Times
, 24 June 2011.

12
. Interview with author, Tokyo, August 2011.

13
. Onishi, ‘Safety Myth Left Japan Ripe for Nuclear Crisis’.

14
. Hiroko Tabuchi, ‘Braving Heat and Radiation for Temp Job’,
New York Times
, 10 April 2011. Also see, Jake Adelstein, ‘How the Yakuza Went Nuclear’,
Daily Telegraph
, 21 February 2012.

15
. Interview with author, Tokyo, March 2012.

16
. Onda Katsunobu, interview with author, Tokyo, March 2012.

17
. Tabuchi, ‘A Window into Chaos of Fukushima’.

18
. Gerald Curtis, ‘Stop Blaming Fukushima on Japan’s Culture’,
Financial Times
, 10 July 2012.

19
. Account by Jonathan Soble,
Financial Times
correspondent, Tokyo.

20
. Peter Landers, ‘Japan Snaps Back with Less Power’,
Wall Street Journal
, 29 July 2011.

21
. Interview with author, Tokyo, June 2011.

22
. Tepco announced its intention to raise electricity prices in Tokyo and the surrounding area to compensate for the cost of compensation and the nuclear clear-up.

23
. Ben McLannahan, ‘Japan Deficit Rises to Record in January’,
Financial Times
, 21 February 2012.

24
. Martin Fackler, ‘Japanese Leaders, Pressed by Public, Fret as Nuclear Shutdown Nears’,
New York Times
, 5 May 2012.

25
. Interview with author, Tokyo, August 2011.

26
. Interview with author, Tokyo, March 2012.

27
. Interview with author, Tokyo, July 2012.

28
. Andrew Dewitt et al., ‘Fukushima and the Political Economy of Power Policy in Japan’, in Jeff Kingston (ed.),
Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan
, pp. 156–71.

29
. Rebecca Bream, ‘GE Chief Warns on Nuclear Prospects’,
Financial Times
, 3 August 2012.

30
. At Y42 per kilowatt hour for solar, the tariff was twice that set by Germany and three times that of China.

31
. Mariko Yasu, ‘Softbank’s CEO Wants a Solar-powered Japan’,
BloombergBusinessweek
, 23 June 2011.

32
. Mari Iwata, ‘Renewable Hopes in Japan Fall Short’,
Wall Street Journal
, 3 July 2012.

33
. Kaneshima Hironori, ‘Feed-in Tariff Energy System Gets Under Way’,
The Daily Yomiuri
, 3 July 2012.

34
. Landers, ‘Japan Snaps Back with Less Power’.

35
. Jonathan Soble, ‘Japan to Phase Out Nuclear Power’,
Financial Times
, 14 September 2012.

36
. Inevitably, police and organizers’ estimates of crowd sizes differed greatly.

37
. ‘Japan’s Anti-Nuclear Protests’,
The Economist
, 21 July 2012.

38
. Correspondence with Jeff Kingston.

39
. Landers, ‘Japan Snaps Back with Less Power’.

40
. Kyung Lah, ‘Former Japanese Leader: “I Felt Fear” During Nuclear Crisis’, CNN.com, 28 May 2012.

41
. ‘Nuclear Leaks Hit Marine Life’,
Metro
, 17 June 2011.

42
. ‘Butterfly Mutations Found Near Fukushima’, Associated Press, 16 August 2012.

43
. Hiroko Tabuchi, ‘Japan: Estimate of Cancer Toll’,
New York Times
, 18 July 2012. Original study: John E. Ten Hoeve and Mark Z. Jacobson, ‘Worldwide Health Effects of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident’, DOI 10.1039/c2ee22019a www.rsc/org/ees

44
. Pico Iyer, ‘Heroes of the Hot Zone’,
Vanity Fair
, 1 January 2012.

45
. Hiroko Tabuchi, ‘Inquiry Sees Chaos in Evacuations After Japan Tsunami’,
New York Times
, 23 July 2012.

46
. Mure Dickie, ‘A Strange Kind of Homecoming’,
Financial Times
, 10 March 2012.

47
. Osnos, ‘The Fallout: Letter from Fukushima’.

48
. Translated by Hiroko Tabuchi, http://www.zerohedge.com/article/letter-fukushima-mother

49
. David Pilling, ‘Japanese People Make Mandarins Feel Nuclear Heat’,
Financial Times
, 31 July 2011.

15. CITIZENS

1
. Gerald Curtis, talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Tokyo, September 2005.

2
. Jeff Kingston, ‘The Politics of Disaster, Nuclear Crisis and Recovery’, in Jeff Kingston (ed.),
Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan
, p. 192.

3
. Ibid., pp. 188–9.

4
. Simon Avenell, ‘From Kobe to Tohoku’ in Kingston (ed.),
Natural Disaster
, p. 60.

5
. Figure provided by Kiyomi Tsujimoto.

6
. Avenell, ‘From Kobe to Tohoku’, p. 54.

7
. Telephone interview, February 2012.

8
. Jeff Kingston,
Japan’s Quiet Transformation: Social Change and Civil Society in the Twenty-first Century
, p. 3.

9
. Email correspondence, August 2012.

10
. Remarks to author, Tokyo, June 2005.

11
. David H. Slater, Nishimura Keiko and Love Kindstrand, ‘Social Media in Disaster Japan’, in Kingston (ed.),
Natural Disaster
, pp. 94–108.

16. AFTER THE TSUNAMI

1
. Related to author, Ofunato, June 2012.

2
. David Pilling, ‘Japan: The Aftermath’,
Financial Times
, 25 March 2011.

3
. The word for sea bream,
tai
, is contained in the word
omedetai
, which means ‘congratulations’. For that reason it is considered to bring good fortune.

4
. ‘“Miracle Pine” Preservation Plan Questioned Over Y150m Cost’,
Japan Times
, 23 July 2012.

5
. When I checked in September 2012, it had 7,584 ‘Likes’.

6
. In July 2013, the preserved tree, its scaffolding removed, was lit up with an LED display. The plan was to leave it illuminated for an entire year,
Asahi
newspaper, 29 June 2013.

AFTERWORD

1
. John Dower and other scholars have long argued that this view is too simplistic. Of the classic example of stasis followed by rapid change, Dower told me, ‘The challenge was to revise the view that Japan, prior to the Meiji Restoration, had been this stagnant society, this dark feudalistic society. Then, so the story goes, you come to this Meiji miracle and they are transformed. Of course, what we see now is this terrific dynamism going on in all aspects of [Tokugawa] society and that becomes the baseline for understanding why Japan was able to move so fast after Meiji.’

2
. Interview with author, Boston, May 2011.

3
. Jonathan Soble, ‘Japan Warms to “Fire Ice” Potential’,
Financial Times
, 12 March 2013.

4
. Remarks to author by Lionel Barber, editor of the
Financial Times
, Jakarta, March 2013.

5
. Ben McLannahan, ‘Abe Takes First Step on Road to Recovery’,
Financial Times
, 11 January 2013.

6
. Telephone interview with Peter Tasker, Arcus Investments, April 2013.

7
. Shinzo Abe, address to Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington DC, 22 February 2013.

8
. Martin Wolf, ‘The Risky Task of Relaunching Japan’,
Financial Times
, 5 March 2013.

9
. Bond prices fall when interest rates rise and vice versa.

10
. Jonathan Soble, ‘Abe Pushes for More Women in Senior Roles’,
Financial Times
, 19 April 2013.

11
. Telephone interview, April 2013.

12
. Dealogic, ‘Global Cross-border M&A Volume by Acquirer Nationality, 2012’.

13
. Mure Dickie, ‘Tokyo Warned Over Plans to Buy Islands’,
Financial Times
, 6 June 2012.