Editor’s note: Except for the part where Abe intends to repeat past atrocities, the KCNA isn’t as funny as usual with this trio. Nevertheless, it keeps me well-informed.

Japanese Education Chief’s Balderdash about Human Rights Rapped
Pyongyang, March 13 (KCNA) — Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ibuki recently said that no matter how nutritious it is, if one ate only butter every day, one would get metabolic syndrome, adding that “Human rights are important, but if we respect them too much, Japanese society will end up having human rights metabolic syndrome.”
Rodong Sinmun Tuesday observes in a signed commentary in this regard:

(Read on …)

“I’m gonna be in the government! It’s gonna be grrreat!“

The high-pitched, quintessentially nerdy, but boyishly excited exclamation resounded in my head with as much attached to it as any quote by better-known men every time I saw Mr. Enoki’s outsized face staring up at the camera with all the excitement any ten men could muster for the local politics of Shinjuku beckoning, “Vote for me. Vote for me,” from the campaign posters plastered up on the walls of old houses, dry cleaners, the train station, and just about everywhere else near my Naka-Ochiai apartment. I have since moved away, but I remember every detail of that poster - his big, goofy grin, the comically large glasses that remain his trademark, the odd touch of including pictures of the assembly hall at the Shinjuku ward office.

(Read on …)

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Ibuki

I missed him. I arrived late on Monday morning for my late start at work, only to hear I had just missed getting a glimpse of my main man, incompetent and now, it appears, crooked Education Minister Ibuki Bunmei. From what I could gather, Ibuki toured some of the facilities at Waseda University with University President Shirai Katsuhiko and Waseda University International Co., Ltd. (an education company primarily owned by the University) President Adachi Shinichi (the latter two having no affiliation with Ibuki other than being the guys in charge of the facilities he toured.) Apparently, the trio talked loudly in the hallways and Ibuki’s visit caused a few to comment (not to him) that he showed some nerve in showing up for the appointment despite the recent scandal.

(Read on …)

This flash movie has been at the top of former Democratic Party of Japan president Hatoyama Yukio’s home page for some time. Hatoyama also stars in the DPJ TV ad that was shown in the previous post. The only difference is that the fonts are a bit different, since I used Flash on my laptop to turn it into an .avi file, and I didn’t have the font from the original file (Y2KBug?)..blah blah.

Because (I assume) of the font switching, the Japanese characters on the flower got a little messed up. They should be (from the top, going clockwise):

官製談合 (Kansei dangou): Bid rigging
ライブドア (Raibudoa): Livedoor
BSE
弱者切捨て (Jyakusha kirisute): Not caring for the ‘weak’
耐震偽装 (Taishin gisou): Faking earthquake-proofedness

When he cuts the veins, 増税 (Zouzei), a tax increase, is destroyed.

The issues are obviously quite ‘2006′ and an update to the site is expected soon (Hatoyama’s pretty good about being on top of things like that).

Point is, I assume that the movie might be changed soon with the changing times and this is worth documenting. Hatoyama used to have a whole load of flash animations on his website. They were rich; there were animations of him driving a car and knocking Koizumi off a cliff, and such hilarity.

Just in case: In Japanese, “Hato (鳩)” means dove. “Yama (山)” of course is mountain. This helps explain why in this, and other flash animations on Hatoyama’s site (if you can find them), there are always doves and often mountains present. I don’t know what the deal is with the Pegasus; if you know, please let us in on it.

From Burkhard Bilger’s “The Lunchroom Rebellion” under the heading “In the Kitchen” in the September 4, 2006 issue of The New Yorker, in the course of an otherwise fine article on a chef trying to improve public school food:

“Children can learn to eat almost anything, given time. In Mexico, they consume fiery chilies; in Japan, whale meat; in Sweden, pickled herring.”

Wait a second. Hold on. In Mexico, kids eat fiery chilies. OK. As far as I know, that’s (Read on …)

When we started TPR, we created Uragawa as an outlet for interesting stories on or from Japan that just wouldn’t fit into Seijigiri, which is a podcast on news and politics, and which we wanted to keep as such. Our goal in producing Seijigiri was and is to let our listeners know what’s going on in Japan, that there’s more to it than unusual pop culture and more to its politics than Prime Minister Koizumi singing Elvis tunes.

With that said, it would be naive of us to pretend that things outside of politics weren’t there and disingenuous of us to pretend that those things never caught our attention.

We’ve noticed as well that understanding what’s going on outside of high politics is also very important to developing an understanding of a country and its culture. Hence, Uragawa. We’ll podcast here when possible and blog here otherwise, but we hope you’ll find the same attention to fact and reason you’ve come to expect from TPR in other areas and will find it entertaining.

If Uragawa seems a little more opinionated or personal than Seijigiri, that’s by design. There are many ways one can check objectivity when dealing with politics, fewer when dealing with the Far Side of the River.

We hope you enjoy it.

- Garrett De Orio and Ken Worsley