I am happy to see the Part-Timer, Arbeiter, Freeter and Foreign Worker (PAFF) union step-up and do something for those new to the workforce.

The Mainichi reports: “For young temporary workers, just paying the rent can be a real burden. However, help is on the way with new and cheap apartments in Tokyo’s Yotsuya area.

The 16 apartments, currently under renovation and set to open to residents at the end of the month, are a project of the Part-Timer, Arbeiter, Freeter and Foreign Worker (PAFF) union, an organization devoted to helping secure the lives of temporary workers living on their own. The residences — dubbed the Jiyu to Seizon no Ie, or the Freedom and Survival House — will be available to PAFF union members and young temporary workers who have been laid off for a monthly rental fee of between 35,000 yen and 60,000 yen.

The PAFF apartments will be officially unveiled at a ceremony on May 31 at 1 p.m. PAFF is also conducting a fundraising effort to cover the cost of the apartment renovations. Those wishing to contribute should contact PAFF at 03-3373-0180.” Click here to read the rest of the article.

Omedeto gozaimasu to Harvey over at Japan Newbie the JapanPage.com for their iPhone and iPod Touch App. I just purchased the app for my iPhone. I am sure that I will enjoy it, especially since I love manzai, Yoshimoto, Downtown and the Kansai dialect!

Harvey says: “Our iPhone and iPhone Touch Kansai-ben application is finally available in the iTunes Store! The full application name is “Japanese 101: Kansai Dialect.” You can read more about the application here, and also in the iTunes Store.” Click here for more information. 

This in from the Mutang Frog Travelogue regarding Japanese visas and change in residency status:

Roy Berman writes:  ”According to the Ministry of Justice website, starting April 1, 2010, anyone extending their Japanese visa or changing their residency status will be required to show a valid health insurance card/booklet. The relevant portions are below.

平成２２（２０１０）年４月１日以降申請時に窓口において保険証の提示を求めることとしています。 

８. 社会保険に加入していること
社会保険への加入義務がある場合には，当該義務を履行していることが必要です。
なお，平成２２（２０１０）年４月１日以降は，申請の際に窓口で健康保険証の提示を求めることとなります。”

Click here for the rest of the story. Photo credit: R. Berman, Mutant Frog Travelogue website.

Here is more on the continuing coverage of parental child abductions in Japan. The post below has tidbits of Terry’s article posted at Japan Today. My previous posts on the issue.

Terry Lloyd (Japan, Inc.) writes: “After the U.S. presidential election, the first foreign trip by new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to Japan. Then in a symbolic action within a symbolic trip, Clinton visited with the Japanese families whose children and relatives were abducted by the North Koreans over a 30-year period since the 1970s.

Clinton told reporters, “On a very personal and, you know, human basis, I don’t know that I’ll be meeting as a secretary of state any more than I will be meeting with them as a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister.” 

But there was one segment of the population in Japan that felt Clinton’s words were more like daggers than bandages. That segment is the foreign parents of children from international marriages, who have had their children kidnapped by the Japanese parent back to Japan, never to see them again. And while there have been a handful of those North Korean abductees returned to Japan, there has NEVER been a successful return of a mixed nationality child to the foreign parent through diplomacy or court action. Further, U.S. officials say they only know of three cases where mutually agreed returns have occurred. And yet many court actions have been brought against Japanese abductors over the years.

Japan has no concept of joint child custody and that abduction by one parent is not a crime. The judiciary in its wisdom still follows the feudal “Iie system” (house system) whereby it believes that the child should belong to one house only.

Officially, of the 166,000 children involved in divorces in Japan every year, less than 20% of them wind up with the father, and of course in the case of foreign fathers, the number is zero.”

Read the full article here. Follow Japan, Inc. on Twitter.

BTW, here is an interesting comment by hakujinsensei:  ”it makes no difference where the child is born or how many passports as long as it is registered in the womans family registry. A woman can start her own registry, but a foreign national may not. He is listed on her registry as a note; married to american national Bob Tom. As soon as they are listed in the that registry, they are property primarily of japan and secondarily of the mother and thirdly of her parents or relatives. Her father is irrelevant. Bottom line, if you marry a japanese national, and you love your children, divorce is NOT an option unless you want to just walk away.”

What’s your take on this?

Ken Worsley writes on blog, Japan Economy News, that the Japanese media is putting another spin on their spin on the H1N1 virus and the economy. Check out what he has to say.

“An article published yesterday at the Japan Times opens by telling us that the H1N1 swine flu virus is hurting industries such as tourism and retail, especially in Western Japan. Of course, economists fear that the impact of swine flu will only make a bad situation worse.

Near the top of the article, however, we get this quote:

The outbreak “could pour cold water on the Japanese economy at a time when it just started to bottom out and was about to recover,” said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute Inc.

Emphasis mine. The writers of the article never comment on whether or not this assertion is true, and no figures are provided to back it up. We’re simply supposed to accept the assertion that the economy has “bottomed out” at face value? While it’s certainly hard to imagine seeing anything resembling the previous quarter’s GDP figures coming up again sometime soon, and exports and production figures are looking better, that doesn’t necessarily mean things have bottomed out.” Read the rest of the story here. For you Tweeters, check Ken Worsely here. 

From Japan Newbie: “That says “konkatsu”. This word isn’t in your dictionary, but if you’ve been studying Kanji for quite some time and know a bit about Japanese society you can probably guess what it means. By the way, “konkatsu” was nominated for the 2008 流行語大賞, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I’ll explain this “konkatsu” slang phrase while sharing some information about modern Japanese society and teaching you the joy of Kanji.” Click here to read more.

As a jazz lover and a HUGE fan of “hideouts,” I must post Tomoko Otake’s (Japan Times) story on Yokohama and the roots of the city’s jazz scene. Yokohama will celebrate its 150-year anniversary this summer. With 79,000 people of overseas origin, including Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Brazilians and Americans, it truly is an international city. As pointed out in the story, Yokohama is a “place where people of different ethnic backgrounds have mixed. And it’s the music that connects them, because it knows no language barriers! What are your favorite jazz clubs?

As one of Japan’s longest-standing maritime gateways to the world, Yokohama has absorbed many cultures from the West over the last 150 years — not least its abiding love of jazz.

Indeed, many residents of this metropolis — known in Japan and worldwide for its friendly attitude toward anything foreign or new — take pride in the fact that Yokohama is truly the birthplace of jazz in Japan. Click here to read more.

Henry Seals has invited you to the event ‘First Friday’s Cocktail Hour @ 57′ on Black Professionals in Tokyo!

Time:  June 5, 2009 from 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Location: Bar 57 in Roppongi
Organized By: Henry Seals

Event Description: Since we get our best turnout (in terms of quantity of people and quantity ) ,we will have our June Cocktail Hour at Bar 57 in Roppongi. We will start from 7:30 until people decide to leave.

Hope to see you all there!

See more details and RSVP on Black Professionals in Tokyo:
http://blackprofessionalstokyo.ning.com/events/event/show?id=778831%3AEvent%3A7403&xgi=6gig39g

About Black Professionals in Tokyo: 203 members

I received an email from the creator of  ”Hafu” regarding upcoming events in Japan. I am sure that many of you have read the Japan Times article,”Hafu, focuses on whole individual” which was published back in February 2009. The creator states that: “This is an ongoing project that creates a dialogue about being in between cultures. By increasing discussions about culture, ‘race’ and ethnicity we hope to achieve a deeper understanding of these issues. For this reason we actively give public lectures and organise events.”  

Jacqualine Kurio in her piece, “Nationality, Identity, Language and Culture – Making the Pieces Fit” examined three articles, one of which was on the website Hafu. She writes: “So while we can see that language, culture and nationality all have some bearing on identity, neither one can be said to be more important when it comes to establishing a sense of place or belonging. Clearly it is a combination of all these things, plus many other elements too subtle and numerous to list.” 

Ms. Kurio also wrote: “Cross-cultural marriages have been steadily increasing in Japan over the last few years, yet the divorce rate among such couples remains high (1 out of every 2.5 marriages) with ‘irreconcilable cultural differences’ being cited as the most common reason for the break-up. As a result of these marriages, more than 3% of births in Japan are to parents of mixed cultural backgrounds, yet the provision of education to enable these children to maintain close affinity with the non-Japanese side of their heritage (including language and culture) is extremely limited and depends more or less solely on the parents’ efforts.”

We here at Black Tokyo like to examine the issues and encourage dialogue found on websites such as Hafu. Please checked out the Hafu website, the Hafu Facebook Group and the dates for the upcoming events. There is information on how you can participate in the photoshoot (I believe it is for those 18+) below and on the Hafu website. Be sure to tell a friend about Hafu and the wonderful work they are doing!

The Hafu Blog states: “Our events are designed to create opportunities to instigate fruitful discussions on cultural diversity, identity and ‘race’ in a profound and thoughtful way. Typically, our talks are 30-45 minutes long with plenty of images and quotes from interviews, followed by a discussion. Our exhibition can also be booked, usually for a period of at least one week, with the option of an event ‘In conversation with the curators’.” 

Here are the upcoming events in Japan:

Calling all half Japanese people living in Japan (over 18s only)
 
Tokyo Photo Shoot                 20 & 21 June (Sat & Sun) 10am – 7pm as well as 24 June (Thu) 5pm-8pm

The Glass House Studio
Kokubunji, Tokyo
www.theglasshouse.info

Osaka Photo Shoot                 28 June (Sun), times to be confirmed 

Information: Our photo shoot in Tokyo will take place in a studio in Kokubunji, which is around 20 to 25 minutes from Shinjuku. The studio in Osaka still needs to be confirmed but if you are free and can attend please let us know now so we can slot you into our schedule. The photo shoot should not take more than 20 minutes.
 
In addition to the photo shoot, we will select a number of people to be interviewed. The interviewing process will take about 60-90 minutes. We can meet in a mutually convenient time and place. You will be asked a number of questions about your identity and experience in relation to your half Japanese background.
 
If you are interested in taking part, we would love to hear from you. Please fill in our online entry form:

The project:  Hafu is a collaborative project between artist/photographer Natalie Maya Willer and social researcher Marcia Yumi Lise. The project is made up of portrait photographs of half Japanese people (or Hafus as they are called in Japan) and their stories, extracted from in-depth interviews. As part of the exhibition we will organise a range of events including an academic seminar, family art workshop, networking night, live photo shoot and a cultural evening.
 
The project tries to give insight into the experiences of ethnically mixed Japanese individuals. It offers an opportunity to explore the ways in which Hafus construct their identities and establish a sense of belonging whilst being in between different cultures.
 
The work we carry out is highly respectful to everybody portrayed. The format provides an intimate and safe environment where subjects’ stories can be heard. We place much value in respecting people’s opinions and integrating them in the dialogue we are trying to create. Our work is carried out to a high standard and we aim to achieve further intercultural understanding based on the trust of the people we work with.

Public lecture
“Hafu Japanese Identities”
25 June 2009 (Thu)
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Sophia University, Institute of Comparative Culture
http://www.fla.sophia.ac.jp/icc/index.htm
写真撮影

東京
６月２０日（土）午前１０時～午後７時
６月２１日(日)午前１０時～午後７時
６月２４日（水）午後５時～午後８時
国分寺スタジオ

大阪
６月２８日（日）
時間帯は現在調整中
スタジオ確認中

【エントリーフォーム】
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cHBVN2VQUklDejQxOUxRM2FVSGp3Y3c6MA

講演
「ハーフ・ジャパニーズのアイデンティティ」
６月２５日午後５時～６時半
上智大学（四ツ谷キャンパス）
＊英語での講演です。
http://www.fla.sophia.ac.jp/icc/index.htm

A very good post for students of Japanese, especially military linguists learning Japanese, that shows vintage posters with information on Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) agents and recommended treatments in case one is exposed to NBC weapons. This information will be useful for those in the medical or military profession. I am sure that the most military personnel (to be sure all of the Marines and Soldiers) would have received this information during training. I still remember the my NBC training and the taste and smell of good ol’ CS gas. Yikes!

Pink Tentacle writes: “In 1938, the Japanese Red Cross worked with government authorities to create a series of posters to teach the public about the new Anti-Aircraft Defense Law, which was enacted in seeming anticipation of air strikes following the outbreak of the Japan-China War (1937-1945). Among other things, the new law required citizens to take protective measures against gas attacks and prepare for disinfection, evacuation and relief. For the government, one purpose of the posters — which were created as part of a military exhibition at the Red Cross Museum — was to instill a pattern of “anti-aircraft defense thought” among the population.”

Click here to see the posters. Be sure to follow @PinkTentacle on Twitter! Arigato to Tune in Tokyo for the heads up!