Very Kind Of Them #58 and #59

The Economist this week examines the unnecessary pressure being put on Japan's new media to conform to Abe government-approved ways of thinking or to avoid examining the government's actions at all. A generous author includes a minor observation of mine. (Link)

Meanwhile, as a part of an ongoing series of conversations regarding the burning issues confronting Japan, Timothy Langley, Nancy Snow and I have a long conversation on rural depopulation, taking a big, necessary detour through the socio-economic roles of women.

Mr. Langley misspeaks at the outset as regards the ageing of Japanese society: only 1/4 of Japanese are above 65 years of age and 1/8 are above 75 years of age. Mr. Langley's percentages are for rural communities or for the so-called New Towns, the satellites cities built on farm and forest land in the 1960s. In the villages, with very few exceptions, and in the danchi, the giant public housing projects in the New Towns, the proportions of senior citizens is at 40% and on the way to 50%.

Chichibu - April 2013

Valley of the Yokoze River, Yokoze Township, Saitama Prefecture.

Sakura performer, Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture.

Shiba zakura, Hitsujiyama Park, Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture.

Shishi dancer, Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture.

Shishi dancers, Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture.

Mt. Bukko, Yokoze Township, Saitama Prefecture

After the discovery of nylon doomed the silk industry, Chichibu's core industry became cement production. Materials companies blasted Bukko, the limestone massif overlooking the city, to powder (one resident said one of her earliest memories was traveling to another town and finding out that not everyone had white roofs). The resulting product was shipped off to armor the coastlines and line the rivers (and play a role in better-considered construction as well, of course).

The blasting has ceased, leaving behind a peculiar half-mountain as Chichibu's scenic backdrop.

Chichibu is trying to reinvent itself as a center for tourism: a role for which it is eminently qualified. The city faces limits, unfortunately, in its poor transportation links. There is no major no airport and no nearby Shinkansen line. The valleys leading into the city from the south are only wide enough to accommodate two lane roads, and access from the north takes a lengthy looping route via Yorii -- a sleepy burg whose own fortunes are set to skyrocket when the new super-efficient Honda assembly plant opens.

The already poor transportation situation could become dire if the Seibu Group wins permission to close down rail service on the Seibu Chichibu Line. Seibu managers seem to have wanted for some time to unload the Chichibu line as well as four other minor lines. They have cleverly used a bid for board seats by U.S. based Cerberus Capital as an opportunity to make public their desire to dump their least profitable rail operations. (Link)

To be fair, Seibu has tried to promote travel along the Seibu Chichibu line, publishing, for example, a library of trail maps for hikers. Two of the trails, the one up to Kanhatsushumiharashidai and the one from Ne no Gongen to Takedera (Hachioji) are classic beginner-level day trips.


All photos: MTC

Where It's At At The Asahi

It may be just one long "just-so" story...but what a story!

Keio University professor Oguma Eiji offers The Asahi Shimbun's English-language AJW a rollicking, wide-ranging take on what's going on (Hurry up and copy, before link rot sets in).

Yes, Oguma's old university home page was way cooler.

A Simple Rule

If Peter Tasker suggests it, it's probably a good idea.

The Japan-China-U.S.Triangularity

The new situation in East Asia, or at least one graphical illustration of it.

(Click on image to enlarge)

The top curve, with the white triangles, is the proportion of Japan's total trade that is trade with the United States. The bottom curve, with the black squares, is the proportion of Japan's total trade that is trade with China. The gray bars are Japan's total trade volume in dollars.

Image by Shibota Atsuo. Image copied from from here.

An Industry Washes Out?

After recording the production in Japan of a stunning 1580 film cameras in January of this year, the Camera and Imaging Products Association (Kamera Eizō Kiki Kōgyōkai) seems to have ceased counting the number of film cameras produced by its members.

I have drawn up a graph of the last year and a quarter of monthly production data. According to CIPA figures, manufacturers in Japan produced 92,716 film cameras in July 2007 and 79,210 as recently as October.

Click on image for full size

From all appearances, the industry has just evaporated.

I believe I now can understand what my great-grandparents must have felt when they read in the newspaper one day that the last cart owner in the city had put his old mule out to pasture.

Original report from Wired's Gadget Lab.

Later - It seems Kitanaka-san checked in with her getto first.

Great Smoggy Mountain

At a meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan yesterday, researchers from Waseda University announced a surprising discovery - the level of photochemical smog precursors in the air atop Mount Fuji is higher than that found in the center of Tokyo. Indeed, in the case of toluene the levels in the air at the summit were 3 times higher than in city air.

So much for standing on the mountaintop, taking in a bracing lungful of fresh, clean air.

The Waseda result may help explain the disconcerting red haze over the summit of Mt. Fuji in this image that I took when halfway up Mt. Ono last year (click on image for larger view).

View of Mt. Fuji from Yaga
Ashigarakami-gun, Kanagawa Prefecture
April 29, 2007

Unsurprisingly, researchers suspect that the source of the high-altitude pollution is China somewhere outside Japan's borders, though they do not have the evidence supporting this contention yet.

Our beloved 99 Yen Store products come with an increasingly visible second price tag, it seems...

Still Wrong

Kyōdō News just cannot help itself.

Emirates Airline may buy Mitsubishi Heavy small passenger jet
Kyodo News

TOKYO, March 25 - Emirates Airline may purchase Japan's first-ever passenger jet, to be produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., a source familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The Dubai-based carrier, one of the world's fastest growing airlines, is in talks with the Japanese company about purchasing the Mitsubishi Regional Jet, which will seat 70 to 90 passengers, the source said, without elaborating.

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Emirates denies plans to buy Japan's first passenger jet
AFP

DUBAI — Dubai-based airline Emirates on Tuesday denied reports it is planning to buy a new regional passenger jet under development in Japan -- the first such aircraft to be built in the country...

Entertaining the suspicion that someone might be trying to profit from the spread of such pie-in-the-sky rumors is, of course, preposterous.

Mitsubishi Heavy Shares Rise on Report of Jet Order
Bloomberg

March 24 -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., developer of Japan's first passenger jet, rose to the highest in more than two weeks in Tokyo trading on a report the company may sign its first overseas order with Vietnam Airlines Corp.

The shares gained 2.8 percent to close at 449 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the highest since March 6.

Kyōdō News - when you absolutely, positively have to disseminate partial truths, untruths and outright fibs.