Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami Documentary - Fuji TV

This incredible documentary is the first of its kind to air in Japan, with professionally commentated and chronologically compiled footage of the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that was to follow. It is all in Japanese, but for those of you who cant understand the commentary, just watch it anyway. It is very well put together, giving logical sequencing of the mess which we all witnessed on the news and Youtube in the weeks after the event. Watch it, and witness the gut wrenching footage and interviews with people who lost their families and livelihood (even if you dont understand the language with your head, your heart understands the story being told). Much of the footage has previously never been shown before, and has been painstakingly sewn together into this shocking story, that helps with a deeper understanding of what really happened on that tragic day, March 11th 2011.

It starts with a 20 minute sequence of the progressive destruction of one single city, that had 19 cameras (some amateur, and some fixed) positioned around the bay. Quite amazing to see all of this second by second swallowing up the city.

The main program then starts, with detailed stories and descriptions of different people’s accounts. Emotional as hell, but it focuses on how the Japanese pulled together, and helped each other. No riots, no looting, just people in mourning trying their best to help other people in mourning.

Full credit given to Fuji TV for this show (we even left the ads in). We just thought it was such an incredible show, that it needs to be shared.

Watch the full program by downloading it in the link below.

Download the full video in mp4 format

(formatted for iPad, iPhone, in very high quality – you may need to right click and choose “save as”)

Sexless? We interviewed a professional Japanese relationship consultant for some ideas on what could be the cause

Marital advisors, Couple consultants, pre-marital counsellors, and the like are extremely rare in Japan. Sex specialists/therapists are even fewer and further between. Through some good fortune however, we were lucky enough to meet Rieko Saigo (西郷理恵子), one of Japan’s most prominent experts on sex…less marriages. During our three hour interview we learned more about the psyche of the Japanese wife (both in and out of the bedroom) than we ever expected and hope to share some that insight with you here.

Rieko Saigo (西郷理恵子) – Background:
While she dons a different sword to Takamori Saigo, her great, great, great uncle, it might be fair to describe her as the first female samurai fighting for female sexuality. Saigo has been interested in sex (academically!) since her days as a student studying Law at Waseda University. A self-proclaimed major in “Adult Videos”, she realised she would “never be able to learn the truth about sexuality” while studying in Japan and went to America to further her studies. Not to miss an opportunity to learn how to express herself, one of her highlights during her time in the US was performing in the Vagina Monologues. As an active member of Japan’s Society of Sexual Science (日本性科学会), she has been answering the needs of sexless Japanese men and women since 2006 and was generous enough to share some insights about the sexless couples that she has been involved with in Japan.

Her clients are all ladies!:
What surprised us more than anything else was to hear about her typical client. Diametrically opposite to our typical reader at stippy.com, her typical sexless client is female! In fact 90% are. Before you ask to be introduced to these Japanese women (whom mostly are disappointed/desperate about their lack of a sex-life) let me tell you that their stories sound desperately similar to our readers. The majority of her clients are married and have suffered a downhill trend that started after marriage. (On an interesting – or depressing – side note, there is also a significant minority of single Japanese women out there who are unsure if they should get married to their current boyfriend because he refuses to have sex with them!).

A common theme amongst many of Saigo’s patients is a feeling of loneliness and an inability to communicate with their husbands about sex and the quality of their relationship in general. How easy do you find it to broach topics like this with your Japanese partner? Has she ever asked you to sit down to discuss the quality of your relationship? Maybe our generation (X) of Japanese spent too much time watching how their parents “love” each other by staying out of each others way. I don’t think it is any coincidence that it was as recent as 1986 that the phrase 「亭主元気で留守がいい」 (teishu genki de rusu ga ii, or “a husband who is healthy and always absent is ideal”) was coined. It isn’t exactly a concept that is really going to encourage couples to try and get over their difficulties in communicating now is it.

A few of her clients acknowledge that they are the reason behind being sexless as even if they do have sex they don’t enjoy it. However, the vast majority of her patients are desperately seeking sex with their disinterested (male) partners and hitting a brick wall. Sound familiar?

Reasons why even Men are not interested in Sex
There is actually a pretty long list of reasons why the men aren’t interested in sex but the most common is being “too tired.” (heard that before?!!) Apparently statistics imply that the incidence of ED is increasing in Japan as more and more men are over worked at their jobs and come home without the energy to get it up at night so perhaps there is some truth to the matter.

What is perhaps a little more worrying are the stories that Saigo relates about men who just “don’t feel it is right” to have sex with their wives. Apparently some of the men suggest that sex with your wife is like incest. Others can no longer look at their wives as women after they give birth and Saigo notes that the common Japanese custom of calling your wife “Okasan” (Mum) only makes matters worse. (If that strikes you as strange, here is the proof – a whopping 49% of married women call their husbands “papa” or “otosan”, too!).

Enough said about men. Following are some reasons for Japanese women not to be interested in sex (and Saigo’s advice on how to possibly alleviate this in your afflicted partner!)…

The importance of masturbation and understanding ones sexuality?
One reason for Japanese women and their uncomfortableness with their own sexuality is the taboo surrounding female masturbation. Masturbation is much less common in Japan than in the West and when they do it they definitely do not talk about it. Saigo points out that the reason why Sex and the City was so popular in Japan was that Japanese women wish that they could be outgoing and self-confident in such a sexual manner but in reality can only do it vicariously through television. Can you imagine Sex and the City being re-filmed in Japan with only a cast of Japanese women?

While it might not surprise you to learn that a lot of Japanese women don’t realise that they might have a libido, it will definitely shock you to hear that “many Japanese women have never even looked at their vagina!” We are talking very uncomfortable with sexuality here. It hits home. How could your wife ever tell you how to make her feel good if she doesn’t know how to do it herself. I guess that explains why Japanese women are always waiting for you to “lead.” The very fact that a Japanese word exists specifically to describe a women who lays down in bed and does absolutely nothing during the act (maguro) does say something about the anthropology of the Japanese, and project their perhaps subconscious expectations of sex. One of Saigo’s recent focuses is on removing the perceived barrier around masturbation by discussing it in public and encouraging Japanese woman to get to know their downstairs selves better.

But we had great sex before we got married…
So what about those of us who are puzzled about how sex could have dried up to nothing, when it used to be so great before marriage. How could it be true that our wives don’t know how to enjoy good sex if they were so frisky and experimental before we got married? Saigo suggests that many of those wives are just good actors. Especially when they are in the courting stage, it is natural for women to want to raise the excitement in the relationship. They want to make their time together with you enjoyable so put in an effort to make you happy – which means including some great sex. They aren’t really reaching orgasm but they don’t want to sour the mood by letting on. They have mastered faking their climax to make you feel like an alpha male. These girls don’t really know why women sometimes moan during sex but they’ve seen it on the late night ero-channel, and so feel inclined put on “a pout or a moan to try and make the experience feel more authentic”. But the reality is that unless your wife is a Grammy award winner then she’s not going to be able keep up that act year after year. The sad reality is that she probably wasn’t enjoying it before you got married either. She might not have been consciously using it as bait to get you hooked but it is no surprise that she doesn’t have the energy to keep up her acting forever, especially when kids come along.

Cultural backgrounds:
“Without being able to ask their friends, or their mothers for advice about sex, Japanese women have been forced to “learn” by copying the passive actions portrayed by women in Japanese porno movies”. In fact due to totally inadequate sex education in Japan (both in school and at home), porn flicks are the only guide that most Japanese men and women have about sex. This has created a self-perpetuating and extremely negative spiral that we are now paying the price for. Think about it. How often do you see a woman playing an active role in a Japanese adult video? It’s basically just male masturbation but using a female body instead of his hand. Do you see where I’m leading to with this? In fact Saigo was pretty blunt about it. Japanese men just don’t know how to fulfil a woman sexually. The flip side of that razor edged coin is that Japanese women never get the chance to realise that sex can actually be enjoyable. Men don’t enjoy it. Women don’t enjoy it. No wonder everybody seeks it outside of the home.

On Fuzoku:
So what about the oft quoted Japanese wife who doesn’t want her husband to have an affair but is totally happy with him going off to fuzoku (風俗, brothels) to satisfy his sexual needs. While I’m sure there were more than a few readers out there hoping that this was just a sign of the overly generous nature of Japanese women, Saigo offers a sobering explanation. The tribe of wives out there that send their husbands off for “happy endings” are a lot more calculating than we would have hoped and are suffering from a lot more than just being sexless. They’ve “lost all love for their husbands and are just doing the best to hold their families together” for their children, or to avoid the embarrassment of divorce. They know that if their hubbies get too involved in a love affair then it could well lead to divorce. Ironically, the whores that their husbands are using are doing the wives a far greater service than the desperate salarymen. The wives are able to keep their families together without having to “service” their husbands. Most of these wives “don’t even want to touch their husbands any more”, let alone tell them that they love them or have sex with them. If you’re wife is encouraging you to visit fuzoku then perhaps you need to start with marriage counselling before you sign up to slow sex classes (see below).

And what about the Anru-style virtue of necessity?
One of our readers specifically asked about Saigo’s view on the strategy of coming clean to your wife about your “fling” in order to try to win back her affection through jealousy. While it worked for Anru, she reckons that he was extremely lucky. Saigo regularly receives calls from women who are totally repelled by their husbands when they learn of their affairs, and struggle even more with any physical contact with them, feeling that they are “dirty”. In addition to the double edged sword of jealousy it can also destroy what little self-confidence your wife might have which could take years to rebuild.

Yeah, so what does all this mean for a gaijin trapped in a sexless marriage? Give me some specific advice…!

Communication:
The fact that you are worried about being sexless means that there is more than just something missing between the two of you. There is a good chance that your partner will be sensing a problem, too. The only way to get over this is to talk it all out and the best way is to hear your partner out first. Odds are that they are just as frustrated (maybe not about the same thing) as you. Saigo points out that the more and more she speaks to her patients, the more and more she realises that the problem isn’t just being sexless. Being sexless is just a symptom. The bigger problem is in the communication – or lack their of – between the couple. If it is too embarrassing to do it in person then she recommends that you write it down. All women have a soft spot for letters. It is also very hard for them to ignore something that they have read in a letter.

Perceptions of sex and one’s sexuality?
Saigo recommends that you try to redefine your Japanese partner’s perceptions of sex. The worst thing you can do is abuse her (or him) for not giving you sex. She recommends that you start by re-educating yourself. The more fun you can make it for your partner, the more likely she will be willing to try it more regularly. Saigo’s golden words of wisdom: “Sex isn’t just about ejaculation. Try making it all about exploring your partner and finding out how to make her feel good.” For those of you who can’t even get your partner in bed to change her perception, she recommends that you change your tactic from “You’re so selfish to hold back sex from me!” to “I’d like the opportunity to try a whole new method of sex that is more enjoyable for you”.

Adam Tokunaga - Slow Sex Courses

If you don’t think that you are quite up to signing up for one of his classes (he has various “introductory”, “practical” and “advanced” courses at approx 40,000 yen a session) or perhaps you don’t think your partner would be too understanding, the good news is that you can buy the DVD. Link on Amazon here.

Despite my original scepticism, what makes me think that this guy may really be the answer to our problems is the fact that he has released a copy of his book – a manual on how to perform “slow sex” in both English and Japanese. Thank you Adam! If you find that the English book strikes a chord, you can get the Japanese version for your partner:

“Slow Sex Secrets: Lessons from the Master Masseur” by Adam Tokunaga, English version and Japanese version.

Additional tools
Finally, we’d like to share a couple of additional books with you that Saigo recommended to us. Two of the three come in both English and Japanese so both you and your partner can comfortably read them and compare notes. Each of them focus on increasing the quality of your sex by giving you ideas on how to please your partner first.

“For Women Only: A Revolutionary Guide To Reclaiming Your Sex Life” by Jennifer and Laura Berman sisters (バーマン姉妹のWOMEN ONLY―心もからだも満ちたりる愛しかた愛されかた), English version and Japanese version.

“Mars and Venus in the Bedroom: A Guide to Lasting Romance and Passion” By John Gray PhD (ジョン・グレイ博士の愛が深まる本―「ほんとうの歓び」を知るために), English version and Japanese version.

女医が教える 本当に気持ちのいいセックス (“Really Satisfying Sex As Can Only Be Taught By A Female Doctor”) by Miyon Son (宋 美玄), Japanese version only.

You can learn more about Saigo by reading her:
Blog
Twitter
Regular column at All About
New column in the magazine Chakra

Thanks:
We would like to thank Saigo-san for graciously spending the time with us, and letting us hurl your questions at her. She certainly was great fun to interview, and gave a fresh new aspect on our sexless debate.

While we’d appreciate it if you could leave your general comments about the sexless debate to our main Sexless Japan article, if you have any specific comments about this interview or questions that you would like us to ask Saigo in any follow up interviews then please let us know by contributing in the comments below here! We would love your feedback on the interview, and any angles you took on it.

We need your help - what do you need to know to help your sexless marriage?

The continued traffic that we get to that article is proof alone that there is a significantly large % of the married gaijin community that are suffering from sexless marriages.  Worse yet, there are no obvious places to go.  It isn’t the norm for Japanese couples to get counseling and there isn’t a harder topic to bring up with your loved one than a debate about who should be putting out more and why.  If you haven’t read through the entire thread then we really strongly recommend taking the time out to see the comments, questions and advice that our readers have left on this topic.  Even if you’re not married yet.  Maybe even more so if you’re not married!!

In a Japanese world that shuns upon dumping your feelings and worries on an outside party, we were pretty stoked when we came across a pre-marital counselor in Tokyo.  But to be honest, while they are great at helping avoid a sexless relationship before it begins they are not much help in bridging the ever expanding gap in an already sexless marriage. This time we’ve gone one step further and tracked down a local marriage/sex counselor.  She (yes! she) is Japanese but foreign educated and – get this – specializes in sexless marriages!! We are pretty excited.

We’ll be holding, and writing about an interview with her in the upcoming weeks but wanted to share the opportunity for input with our readers.  After all it has been the to the heart comments that have made that article such a key page for sexless gaijin husbands on the internet.  While we can’t promise to get all of your questions answered, if you can leave us a comment on this article before next Wednesday (June 16) then we will do our best to get her thoughts, comments, and maybe some answers about your situation, on your behalf! Lets just make that stick out a bit more, cause there is not much time…

Next Wednesday (June 16) is the interview. Please comment well before then, so we can ask her your interesting questions!

For the sake of continuity, please keep general thoughts and discussion about being sexless to the original article.  Just leave us your questions here.  Thanks to you all and hopefully we can hit a home run on behalf of all of the sex depraved married gaijins out there.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the situation isn’t getting any better in Japan. Earlier this month a Japanese company called “LC Love Cosmetics” (エルシーラブコスメティックス) released the depressing results of their survey of 500 Japanese women aged between 18-40. 47% of respondents felt that their marriage was sexless. ouch. Of those that were having sex they complained of everything from pain (itai, itai..), lack of petting through to premature ejaculation. What might surprise readers is that of the wives who complained of sexlessness, a whopping 40% of them claimed that they had tried to fix the problem by inviting their hubbies to bed. Oh, and 44% of those hubbies supposedly said no while another 20% “reluctantly” agreed! That is a pretty surprising result consider the data set that we have amongst our readers on stippy.com so trying to rectify the difference will be a big point in our upcoming interview. 12% of respondents were perhaps a little more honest when they admitted that they weren’t really troubled by the fact that they were sexless. LC claims that of those surveyed, those with a successful love life (who knows what the definition of that is though!) credited it to a good ability to communicate and a willingness by both sides to address issues like this. Have you tried to discuss it with your partner? It would be great to hear some real examples of how you tried… and then failed… so that we can take our interview with the counselor a step further than “you just don’t talk about it enough”.

Hurry, only a few days left before the interview with our stippy sexless counselor! Leave your questions for her in the comments below!

Semblance of our resident crazy Japanese neighbour.. Do you have one of these?

The perpetrator – my neighbour of five years – completely freaked me out a few years back by coming to my door and letting rip on me about my toddlers (they were 3 and 1 at the time) and the incessant noise they made. I was in the doorway and it was a very very intense moment as the guys mother (with whom he lives) came to the door to calm him down. The guy is in his mid-late 30′s and clearly something was not right – especially as on this occasion the kids had only been home a few minutes before he was dinging on the intercom. To my recollection we came in (after shopping for dinner), they washed their hands and went to the lounge to play. I was making dinner not far away and the noise was fine. The neighbour complained to the Kanrinin-san (caretaker) and he passed it on to the landlord (or at least to the agency that looks after the property). They came to us and dealt with the situation. The flooring was regulation thickness, we even had a thick carpet on top of most of it. We are not a loud family, and the whole situation did not make much sense. They went down to see the neighbour and came back to report that he suffers from some ailment of some kind. We were not sure but it started to sound like schizophrenia or something kind of “scary” to the uninformed (like us).

We agreed that should there be problems in the future we and he would go through the agent to communicate the issue. Of course we would try our best to keep our children quiet. This failed when on the next occasion the neighbour complained that it was me who was at fault for stomping around the house. As the father of two and wife of one, I had been at particular pains to keep quiet yet somehow my walking around in socks was noisy? Again, it did not make sense.

This type of thing carried on for years, with the occasional outburst from the man downstairs. We would get the call, “byonin ga imasu” (there is a sick person down here) every few months and we would be on high alert for a while to keep the noise down. It was not as if we were even all that noisy but with two small kids playing I can not guarantee that there were not at least some “bangs” and “thuds”. We have the same noise issues with the folks upstairs but we tend to understand, and get over it pretty easily. We have foot steps, knife on cutting boards and early morning alarm clocks but we don’t make any fuss. The noise is so slight that it really would be lame (or weird) to make a fuss.

Cue July 2009 – I was at the office and my wife was at home with our youngest son and three of his girlfriends (and their mummies) from kindergarten. Lucky little tyke, you may think but on this occasion – a warm, humid day – the window was opened and whatever noise those naughty little kids were making travelled south to the byonin downstairs. With no warning the ladies in the living room – three in all – heard an extremely loud and scary “Korosuzou! Kono Osutoraria-jin yarou!” (Going to kill you! F*ckin Aussie!). Needless to say the other ladies and their kids all left in a rush, probably thinking WTF is it with this wacko woman and her Aussie husband? What do they do to make their neighbours so angry? Well, as a matter of fact, ah… nothing, as far as we can tell. A week or so before this particular incident the byounin called the O-ya-son (landlord) and they sent a team around to investigate. They got to the door to find a very quiet household – the kids were playing Wii after all. Generally they are just glued to the TV when doing that. But it was clear that the byonin underneath us was reaching a peak.

He went nuts again just last week during the typhoon. For some reason he was paranoid that my home office (corner room) windows being open would cause major damage to his apartment. He asked the kanrinin-san to visit us, and make us close the windows. My wife explained (as I was on a call) that I had no air-conditioning in the room and there was no water coming in, other than the odd droplet that landed on my desk (with a newspaper strategically placed). The kanrinin understood and didn’t really see the issue.

Next thing – as I had not closed the windows – we had more of the yelling from downstairs. One of the neighbours and friends from upstairs called us to see if everything was okay (as this guy was now legendary in his own right). Being on the council (or whatever you call it) for our mansion they suggested that we call the cops. My wife was quite freaked out at this stage and duly did so.

Within minutes we had a copper asking about the trouble and also the real estate agent. We got some handy advice from the young policeman who was concerned about the potential for this issue to worsen and he went down stairs to talk with our byonin neighbour. He came back later to say that he gave the guy a warning to keep the noise down. Surely the man downstairs felt the irony in this, but we are already looking to move and buy our own place! The guy’s a psycho.

So. What would you do in this situation? We are thinking that after having “I will kill you Aussie!” yelled at our family, our chances at an amicable resolution are pretty low. Especially when you consider that I am not a bloody Australian but a Kiwi. (What an arsehole!) But we think that we need to vacate the premises and make the landlord pay for our new key money and gift money, seeing as we have paid that up so cheerily every 2 years.

Feel free to share your advice, or even better, your “crazy Japanese neighbour” story below in the coments.

Design Festa Tokyo 2009

If you are tired of all the doom and gloom that appears daily in the newspapers, nightly on TV, weekly, monthly, yearly… in the media in general, then it’s time for something else, something new, something worth both your time and your money, no?

In a city as replete with distractions as Tokyo, rivaling no other city than perhaps New York for the limitlessness of its possibilities, there is always something else to do, see, hear, eat and generally check out. With that in mind, grab a thick black marker and circle the dates May 16th & 17th on your calendar. Done? Good! Now, write in bold, black letters; “Design Festa vol. 29” Got that? Okay, now put away your marker. It’s really that simple.

If you want to spend a day, or two, meandering around the largess of what has to be one of Tokyo’s, and Japan’s, most innovative, architectural anomalies; if your eyes want to flit across a microcosm of Tokyo’s and Japan’s artistic community, peppered pelle-melle with some international flavor; if you yearn for strange, unique or kawaii gifts, knick-knack or doo-dads, if your ears want to drink in some new sounds, if your fashion sense is piqued by fresh, new designs and, if your palette desires some good food & drink, then come and behold what has loosely been coined ‘artistic chaos.’

The shear numbers say it all. Fifteen years strong, 28 volumes, 100,000 exhibitors & more than 9 million visitors – how much larger can an art event get? Next month we’ll all find out as Design Festa vol. 29 takes place, rain or shine, at Tokyo Big Sight’s West Halls 1, 2, 3, the Atrium and outdoors.

Envisioned as a no-strings-attached, nonjudgmental, non-corporate, freestyle art fair for anyone and everyone, Design Festa first opened its doors in 1994. Initially held at Harumi’s International Trade Fair Hall, before moving to it’s current location, Tokyo Big Sight, in 1996, it has developed into Asia’s (if not the world’s) single, largest art event held under one roof. Sometimes reminiscent of the mother-of-all flea markets, anyone with any artistic talent, no matter how latent or developed, can rent a booth, or a block of time, and be granted their fifteen minutes of fame.

Design Festa Sprawl (last year's event, click to enlarge)

And a blur it can be. Held over two days, a considerably limited amount of time needed to really get a sense of the depth and breadth of the entire exhibition, Design Festa is communal, fun, funky, loud, overstimulating, crowded and amazingly well organized. First timers may be overwhelmed by the number of booths, exhibitors, events and performances,while seasoned vets know that a bit of forethought will streamline their experience.

Through their website, www.designfesta.com, information leading up to the event is posted at fairly regular intervals, giving potential visitors the chance to execute their plan of attack, while others eagerly await haphazardly discovering something new, exciting and even strange, just by wandering about.

There are the hundreds of booths to peruse while shuffling along, a variety of performances and shows where you can take break and relax for a bit, live bands more-often-than-not thrashing about outdoors, mini-bars set up in strategic places, and the restaurant area where long lines are common, but move efficiently enough to make your refueling stop easy to bear.

Design Festa will be held at the futuristic Tokyo Big Sight

So forget the economy, geopolitics and all the rest of that stuff, and lose yourself in another world, one of fun, art, music, fashion, performance, food & drink. Inundate your senses and drench your peripheral vision, but don’t forget to load your camera and wear your walking shoes, ‘cuz there’s tonnes to see and miles to walk at this biannual art explosion.

Let the chaos begin!

Event Information:
Date: May 16th (Sat) & 17th (Sun) from 11:00 – 19:00
Location: Tokyo Big Sight West Hall 1, 2, 3, 4, Atrium and Outdoors
Map (click to enlarge):

Nearest station: Kokusaitenjijo-seimon (Yurikamome Line) or Kokusaitenjijo (Rinkai-Line)
Tickets:
FREE for children 12 years old and under
In Advance – single day ticket: ¥800 / two day ticket ¥1,500
Door price – single day ticket: ¥1000 / two day ticket ¥1,800

Article by Stephen Lebovits

This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

There’s a link between the arrest of habitual Filipina mutilator Hiroshi Nozaki and one of Japan’s most notorious crimes ever — the slaying of a Saitama Prefecture woman who was ignored by the cops when she complained about being stalked, according to Nikkan Gendai (4/10).

The link is Hiroshi Nishimura, who was head of the Saitama Prefectural Police in October 1999 when the stalker slaying occurred, and the now-62-year-old former top cop was lambasted by the public for his appalling mishandling of the case.

But at the same time, the same force that Nishimura headed had also arrested Nozaki for chopping up the body of another Filipina, but stuffed up that investigation so badly he was never charged with that woman’s murder.

The stalker slaying created public outcry. A young woman filed a criminal complaint to the Saitama Prefectural Police’s Ageo Police Station, saying that she was being stalked by a man threatening her with violence. Police did nothing about the case and the man she had been accusing stabbed her to death in broad daylight on the streets of Okegawa, Saitama Prefecture. Ageo cops later forged paperwork in an effort to appear a little less lax, but eventually several police were punished for their poor handling of the case, including Nishimura.

While all this was going on, Nishimura’s cops had Nozaki in their custody.

“In September 1999, he was charged with embezzlement for not returning a car he had rented. During his trial in January 2000, he said that he had mutilated a Filipina’s body in Soka, Saitama Prefecture, so he was arrested for mutilation of a corpse,” a Saitama Prefectural Police insider tells Nikkan Gendai. “Just like this case, Nozaki cut up the body in an apartment and dumped the parts in a public toilet in a park. The Saitama police tried to pin a murder charge on Nozaki, but they couldn’t find any evidence to pin him to the case and he refused to talk. He wasn’t even charged for the murder.”

Eventually, Nozaki was released from jail after serving just three years behind bars. He’s back in confinement now, having been arrested Monday, accused of chopping up the body of 22-year-old nightclub hostess Honiefith Ratilla Kamiosawa.

Nishimura, meanwhile, quickly bounced back from his tumultuous time at the head of the Saitama Prefectural Police. He was eventually transferred to Kyushu before he retired in September 2003 and landed a cushy job as the president of a security company based in Fukuoka.

“It’s the biggest security company in western Japan, with annual earnings of about 19 billion yen,” the Saitama police insider says.

Considering he let Nozaki go, perhaps Nishimura would like to comment on the current case.

“I don’t really know much about it,” he tells the lowbrow afternoon tabloid in a statement released through his company.

Ironic, Nikkan Gendai muses, considering his reply when asked for a comment about the stalker slaying not long after it happened.

“We haven’t got the investigation documents,” Nikkan Gendai quotes Nishimura saying at the time, “So I don’t really know much about it.” (By Ryann Connell)

〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜

(The Mainichi Waiwai column ran online from April 19, 2001 – June 21, 2008. It was a much loved form of entertainment amongst foreigner in and outside of Japan. To any reader it was obviously not serious news, but it was a set of articles that portrayed quite well how the Japanese tabloids actually write about their own country. In 2008, a small number of Japanese people bought it to the attention of rival news groups that Mainichi was running an anti-Japan column on its website. With the bad publicity, Mainichi was forced to shut the page down, and take punitive measures against the journalists that were working on it, claiming that it was receiving opinions that were critical of the column, such as “its contents are too vulgar” and “the stories could cause Japanese people to be misunderstood abroad”. A perfect example of how Japanese consider what they write in their own script to be an acceptable secret code, that the rest of the world cant understand. When that same tabloid rubbish gets inconveniently translated to English to make light of some aspects of the Japanese people, it gets canned. Stippy.com finds this unacceptable, and will reproduce as much of the Waiwai content as possible in order to bring it once again to our computer screens for a good laugh. Of course we claim no credit for this content, and attribute it to it’s writers who were former Mainichi employees. Waiwai in its true and glorious form has been discontinued, but it’s legacy will live on at stippy.com for all to enjoy.)

This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell (Article below by Masuo Kamiyama). Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

If a man has money in his wallet and a gnawing need to get naked and have sex, where would be the most logical place for him to mount his search?

In Japan, the first place that would come to mind would doubtless be a dimly lit alley proximate to a neon-illuminated drinking district, usually within staggering distance of a major commuter rail station.

By contrast, the last place one would think of looking would be in a suburban residential area. But thanks to magazines like Jitsuwa Taiho (April), we have learned to expect the unexpected.

The magazine’s reporter was able to get wet and go wild, not in a bar or massage parlor, but in a bathing establishment where low-income earners go to get clean. Although as we shall soon see, in his case it was more like getting cleaned out — and in more ways than one.

The incident in question occurred at a “coin shower” in Tokyo’s Bunkyo-ku, an area with a high population of students who reside in cheap apartments and boarding houses.

These coin showers, which are often set up adjacent to coin-operated laundromats, are like self-service car washes for human bodies. Catering to people whose tiny, low-budget residences lack bathing facilities, they consist of a compact cubicle for disrobing and a shower stall — with timer-equipped hot water heater — that is activated by insertion of several hundred yen, permitting a 10- or 15-minute hot-water scrubdown.

Since, unlike the larger neighborhood public bathhouses, they are automated and unmanned, one can slip in for an inexpensive scrub any time of the day or night. Lurking outside one such place in Tokyo’s Bunkyo-ku, Jitsuwa Taiho’s reporter encounters a kinky 36-year-old housewife named Miyuki, who has discovered another use for the establishment — as a spot for turning tricks.

To make contact with her clients, Miyuki uses a prepaid cell phone that cannot be traced to her. Her old-style ‘mama-chari’ bicycle, a standby of Japanese housewives, makes her appear to her neighbors as if she’s headed out for a perfectly innocent shopping expedition. But having a two-wheeler also enables her to flee the scene quickly, should the need arise.

Greeting our reporter with a shy smile, Miyuki’s bearing was unmistakably that of a female on the prowl.

Miyuki tells the reporter she never paid much attention to the coin shower in her neighborhood, until one day she caught a glimpse of a happy young couple, wet hair glistening, making their exit together. This gave her the idea that she could utilize a coin shower stall for illicit purposes.

She also lets him in on her secret fetish.

“I’m a little shy about taking about my sexual preferences with a guy I’m meeting for the first time,” Miyuki giggles. “But when I was young, I played around a lot. If I wasn’t doing it with a guy someplace out of doors, I couldn’t get turned on.”

But obviously in close proximity to her own residence, Miyuki doesn’t dare indulge in such exhibitionist behavior. The relative privacy of a public coin shower, however, permits her to pursue her perverse penchant for promiscuous play.

While Miyuki’s enthusiastic but unrefined techniques suggest she’d never been employed in the sex industry, she did come well equipped. Folded into a bath towel our reporter saw a tube of skin lotion, bottle of throat gargle and several condoms.

“How did I get started in this? Well, my hubby’s salary is pretty low, and I wanted to have some extra spending money. We don’t have kids, and it’s kinda boring to stay home all day by myself.”

Miyuki’s usual charge for 30 minutes, which will included stripping to the skin, slipping inside the shower, soaping up and going all the way, is 20,000 yen. For half that figure, she’ll allocate the same time, but end the occasion with oral only. This time she agreed, for an additional consideration, to pose for nude photos, so the total cost to Jitsuwa Taiho came to 40,000 yen.

After the sudsy sex session ended, Miyuki’s kinky urges were still kindled, so for an additional 5,000 yen, she took the reporter back to her apartment building for a second serving. On the topmost floor on the outdoor fire escape, the two embraced. After slipping a latex muzzle on ol’ Fido, she leaned against the banister while he did her doggy style. Now that’s about as kinky as it gets.

〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜

(The Mainichi Waiwai column ran online from April 19, 2001 – June 21, 2008. It was a much loved form of entertainment amongst foreigner in and outside of Japan. To any reader it was obviously not serious news, but it was a set of articles that portrayed quite well how the Japanese tabloids actually write about their own country. In 2008, a small number of Japanese people bought it to the attention of rival news groups that Mainichi was running an anti-Japan column on its website. With the bad publicity, Mainichi was forced to shut the page down, and take punitive measures against the journalists that were working on it, claiming that it was receiving opinions that were critical of the column, such as “its contents are too vulgar” and “the stories could cause Japanese people to be misunderstood abroad”. A perfect example of how Japanese consider what they write in their own script to be an acceptable secret code, that the rest of the world cant understand. When that same tabloid rubbish gets inconveniently translated to English to make light of some aspects of the Japanese people, it gets canned. Stippy.com finds this unacceptable, and will reproduce as much of the Waiwai content as possible in order to bring it once again to our computer screens for a good laugh. Of course we claim no credit for this content, and attribute it to it’s writers who were former Mainichi employees. Waiwai in its true and glorious form has been discontinued, but it’s legacy will live on at stippy.com for all to enjoy.)

HIV Awareness in Japan:
Has anything changed?

Thus far, we have two articles about HIV and AIDS in Japan on stippy.com (the first and the second). Another year has passed since we last touched on this issue, but a recent episode in my own life drove home that things still are really not changing fast enough with regard to the blurry awareness of HIV/AIDS in Japan, and the studied nonchalance of the Japanese people whenever the topic arises.

In Japan, everyone knows the word AIDS, but still very little is known *about* HIV or AIDS by the general public. This giant disparity of awareness was brought clearly to my attention one day after overhearing the following conversation between a physical education teacher and a young math teacher in her early twenties in my office (I work in a Japanese School):
Ms. Math: So wait, I don’t understand; what is the difference between HIV and AIDS?
Mr. PE: If you are infected with the HIV virus, it will eventually lead to AIDS and if you catch another less serious illness you can die because the virus weakens your body. If you have HIV, it doesn’t mean you have AIDS, but that you will eventually get AIDS. As long as you don’t catch the virus, you don’t need to worry.
Ms. Math: I don’t understand. What is HIV?
Mr. PE: It’s the virus that causes AIDS. If you have HIV, you will get AIDS.
Ms. Math: I still don’t understand.

The fact that this conversation could occur between two adults in a First World country nearly 12 years after I can recall asking the same questions of my teachers in America is absolutely baffling to me. Japan is slow to catch the news because the virus has only just recently started to increase within the population despite its low numbers; here is an article explaining the situation, including the country’s reaction to its .02% prevalence rate of the virus reported. However recent statistics are showing that the virus is on the rise in the country, due mainly to increased contact with foreigners abroad and within the country, and the government is scrambling to inform and educate the public about HIV.

This year my junior school has become one of presumably many which are currently including information about the disease in its annual curriculum. In early December 2007, they distributed red ribbons at the weekly student body meeting and included information about it both spoken and in print.

The following is a translation of a PTA Bulletin from November that is sent out to students of our school and their guardians each month:

December 1st is World AIDS Day. We ask for the student body cooperation in accepting a red ribbon. The red ribbon is a symbol of support and understanding for people who are suffering from AIDS. We are distributing the ribbons to promote the message that we will not discriminate against or have a narrow-minded view of AIDS.

AIDS is a sickness that leads to death. However, the infection rate is very low, and there are three main ways of contracting the virus:

1. Sexual transmission
2. Transmission during birth from mother to child
3. Shared intravenous needles

You cannot contract it from touching the body or sweat of an infected person. It is very important that each of you have understanding about this disease.

By the way, do you know the difference between AIDS and HIV? AIDS stands for “acquired immune deficiency syndrome” and HIV stands for “human immunodeficiency virus.” In other words, if you contract HIV, the resulting disease is called AIDS. We would like you to understand and have proper knowledge about the people in the world infected by this virus. Please wear these ribbons on your school uniform during this period of time.

This information is new for the children at my school, as well as for the adults who are teaching them. How it can be new so late in this age is an indicator of extreme isolation. I am always curious just how this isolation still exists.

Even when Japanese people enter into adulthood, awareness about AIDS and its prevention never seems to be high on anyone’s agenda. Women Japan is a popular site amongst “around 30″ girls in Japan. It features several 相談室 (consulting rooms) where girls can ask doctors, and several prominent personalities questions about almost anything they like. One of the rooms is a セックス相談室 (sex consultation room) where people can ask “Dr. Seiko先生” their deepest and darkest questions about their sex lives that they could never share with their friends or colleagues.

Dr. Seiko self-professes herself as, 性に関して日夜研究。研究結果をみなさんの悩み解決のために役立てたいと願っています。 (Translation: “I am researching sexuality day-and-night. I hope the fruit of my research can help you solve your sexual hang-ups and problems”). It is a semi-serious, “Ask the Doctor” type site, generally keeping a down-to earth approach on proposed solutions – except however for some of the condom usage advice given to the girls (who assuming from their questions, had the math teacher above for sex-ed class) where it is inappropriate and dangerous.

Here where a 22 year old girl asks for advice about her コンドームをつけてくれない彼 (Boyfriend who wont ever wear condoms), Dr. Seiko answers with three not very well thought out solutions. 1. Don’t have sex, 2. Get on the pill, and 3 Ask another guy to tell him to wear condoms. There is not one mention of STDs in her response, or any of the other reader’s comments. The Doc even goes so far as to say, 私の場合は医者にピルを処方してもらった (“One time when I had a boyfriend like yours, I just got my Doctor to give me the pill”). Hmmm.

As the answer to another 35 year old (!!) reader’s consultation entitled コンドームをつけるタイミングは？ (“At what stage should I put a condom on him?”, Dr. Seiko gives this advice:
1　口でフェラチオ
(First, give him fellatio)
2　一度挿入　※性病が怖い人は挿入する前から
(Put him into you without a condom first – unless you are afraid that he looks at risk of having an STD)
3　プレイとして、口で女性がつけてあげる。　※これはテクニックが必要となりますのでバナナで練習しましょう。
(Then before he comes, roll a condom onto him with your mouth – This takes technique, so practice with a banana first)

Well, advice for champions. This is the state of condom usage and STD prevention awareness in Japan.

The three star symbol of a Master Taxi Driver – 優良タクシードライバー

Have you ever noticed Tokyo taxis with these three stars atop? They are a type of certification of the level of the driver inside the taxi – they are designated “Master Taxi Drivers” (優良タクシードライバー). Look out for them next time you grab a cab in Tokyo!

The Kanto Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has announced a proposal to designate space at taxi ranks for these master drivers. They have chosen Shimbashi station, near the Yurikamome line, as the first location. Some taxi stands already offered passengers the chance to queue for no-smoking cars but since most Tokyo companies no longer allow smoking, the Ministry has been considering other premium services which might draw passengers and reward those drivers who offer them. A master taxi driver is designated by the Tokyo Taxi Centre as someone with no traffic violations and an unblemished record in dealing with customers. Around 10% of the city’s 90,000 drivers qualify for the “three star designation” which can be seen on the roof of the car.

Hmmm. So what does our friend George think of all this I wonder? I asked him. The first thing he asked me was where the information came from. I told him it was from here, and assured him that it was from a reliable source. He then went on to say he was not surprised by the fact that only 10% of Tokyo’s taxi drivers qualify for the 3-star “Master” designation. That is actually quite an amazing statistic, if in fact correct: only 1 in 10 of the taxi’s that come past you are driven by someone deemed professional enough to qualify. The logic of the designation effectively stating that 9 in 10 of those drivers are not worthy, having at some point infringed on traffic laws or having dealt with their customers in a poor manner, so much so that they were reported.

The last eight or nine months have seen a lot of taxi travel for me, in and around Kanto, as well as other areas of Japan. I have found myself in taxis almost every day, and have wished that there was some way that I could reward outstanding drivers who “delighted me”, and somehow demerit those drivers that enraged me. And yes, there are more of the latter than the former, even in Japan – or maybe my “en” (luck) with taxi drivers is just thin. In any case, the new initiative where taxi drivers are ranked and given preference is a move forward. We choose whom we give money too and whom we don’t in any other industry, so why not taxis!

We all know Japan as the land of wonderful (environmentally unfriendly) product packaging, outstanding customer service and absolute politeness – just a generally good feeling when we are standing on the customers’ side of the counter. I am sure it is one of the elements that keeps many people here. Comparing with the average rude clerk back home in my country, I am addicted to being treated with kindness and a nice smile when I am paying someone money. I don’t care if they mean it from their heart or not – I deserve it. That said, I don’t seem to get the same endorphin rush when riding in Japanese taxis, even at shiharai time, when it is time to hand over the cash (despite the recent hike in taxi fares that has swept over us).

However, just the other day (in Yamagata of all places) I came across the model taxi driver. I just spent the whole ride wishing there was some way I could convert the rest of the arrogant punch-perm sunglass-wearing taxi driver population of Tokyo into this guy. Or at least find out a way to reward him so that he would get more of my money than the punchies.

It was snowing heavily, and I had 2 large cases, and a cardboard box (long story). I flagged a taxi that was driving in the other direction (expecting to be ignored of course) and to my delight, he quickly U-turned and stopped as close as possible. He quite literally flung himself out of the taxi, and helped me settle my bags in the boot, and then opened the door for me (with his real hands, not with the impersonal auto-door standard in Japanese taxis). Now dont get me wrong, I am not from a wonderland where I expect taxi drivers to be chauffeurs, but this was only the beginning of my pleasant surprise.

I got in the car, and watch the guy slipping and sliding on the icy road around to his door as fast as he could. I told him my destination, but his reply was not the standard silent grunt (which Tokyo drivers would so often use when a simple “wakarimashita” is too much trouble for them), but a question. He asked, “there are two pretty fast ways to get where you want, do you have any preference of route?”. Wow! I have hardly ever been asked this question in Tokyo, and never in Osaka. In the big cities, the taxi would leap into action without any dialogue, and I would be 100% at the whim of the driver.

This driver was making an effort to determine the process of our transaction – albeit a simple taxi ride – together. Even though I was exhausted from a long day, and extremely annoyed at the blizzarding snow, this gesture of the driver asking me if I have a preferred route is, in effect, avoiding me having the feeling that I am being taken for a ride. Choice. Customer service is all about choice, and doing what is not only most reasonable, but what is most comfortable for the customer.

After telling the driver my preferred route (yes, I did have one), we set off. The journey to my destination was then filled with some pleasant conversation, and after I received a phone call, some even more pleasant silence. It was a 30 minute ride. There were no steering wheel grip changes (causing jerks), no intermittent and unnecessary taps on the brakes (this really gets to me), and I even was able to doze off to a half sleep by the time I arrived. He was actually a professional driver. In Tokyo, my taxi rides often entail thoughts that I am a better driver than the person behind the wheel. I don’t even have a car, but I can’t help but thinking that the drivers are playing with my head with their constant sudden brake movements, causing mini-whiplash jerks in my neck and back. If anyone deserves the three stars of a Master Taxi Driver atop their vehicle, it was my Yamagata taxi driver hands down.

I hope this new system of giving preference at taxi stands to real professional taxi drivers expands. It should help to raise the bar, and rid the city of the types of drivers that anger me. Specifically, they are:

• Drivers who despite having a passenger in their car, drive with one hand, often at the bottom of the steering wheel and steer with small jerky thumb movements.
• Drivers who open the door of the taxi as if to say, “hurry up and pay, and get the hell out of my taxi. Gaijin”.
• Drivers who’s taxi that smells like a kitsuenshitsu (smoking room).
• Drivers who think they are driving alone, and toggle with the accelerator and brakes like they are in a dodgem car.
• Drivers who constantly complain about the deregulation of the industry (which happened back in 2002!) and how it is hurting them in the current times of fukeiki (不景気, recession).
• Drivers with no manners. Drivers who do not understand their customer’s needs.
• Divers who are selfish, and just plain punch-perm arseholes. I’m sure you’ve met one or two. If not, you will.

When you are next in Shimbashi looking for a taxi, for sure try out one of the certified master taxi drivers. The special rank where only those taxis can wait will start on the 6th March this year. Even if you are not around Shimbashi, look out for a three star
優良タクシードライバー taxi. Take it over the ones without it.

We realise feelings about taxi drivers differ from person to person, and so we’d love to hear your thoughts on taxi drivers, especially if you are first of the rank to try out the new Shimbashi system! How can we reward good drivers and avoid bad ones?

This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

Tucked in a corner of the Aichi Prefecture city of Toyota, the Homi Danchi housing estate most famous for its racial problems, may offer a vision of the Japan of the future, according to Spa! (12/4).

The estate opened in 1975 and, like many public housing complexes at the time, was then a highly desirable residence for many families.

But an influx of Japanese-Brazilian immigrants from the start of the 1990s saw the housing estate split along racial lines as Japanese residents complained fiercely about loud Latino music, cars parked illegally and rubbish dumped everywhere.

Three decades after it opened, Homi Danchi was no longer so homey. The housing estate had turned into a slum divided between its Japanese inhabitants and the descendants of other Japanese who had earlier left the country for greener pastures overseas.

The brawl between Japanese and Japanese-Brazilians saw its roots in 1990 changes to the Immigration Law that allowed any descendants of Japanese who had previously left this country to come into the country without any other visa restrictions, ironically in the belief that such a move would smooth over perceived cultural gaps brought by other foreigners lacking the blood of Yamato flowing through their veins.

Homi’s racial battle began when rules about public housing were relaxed a decade ago to allow foreigners to live there without restrictions, opening the floodgates to a swarm of non-Japanese moving in to the housing estate a short trip from the Toyota Motor Co. factories where many of the immigrants work.

“They literally popped up everywhere in no time at all,” a Japanese resident of the housing estate for over 20 years tells Spa! “Before you knew it, you would never see Japanese in the housing estate anymore.”

Many of the gripes Japanese residents had about their Brazilian “brethren” seem trivial, such as the propensity for partying and loud Latin music, but others point to the old adage of being in Rome and doing as the Romans do, urging the immigrants to lead a quieter lifestyle along the lines of the inhabitants who had been there longer.

But the Brazilian-Japanese were not going to take things lying down. When confronted by a group of right-wing thugs driving a loudspeaker screaming out messages along the lines of “Foreigner Go Home,” the foreigners took on the harassers in a very non-Japanese way: they firebombed the soundtruck.

Homi’s battle lines had been drawn and threatened to flare, but the government intervened, brokering a peace deal between the Japanese and Japanese-Brazilians. Now, the housing estate is a peaceful place, but Spa! notes that doesn’t mean the two groups get along, with the Japanese sticking to themselves and the foreigners clustering among their own, with each group ignoring the other.

Foreigners blame the Japanese for the uneasy stand-off.

“All the Japanese ever do is complain about us,” a Japanese-Brazilian resident of the housing estate tells Spa! “They don’t accept us at all. We try to greet them and they just ignore us. They don’t want to have anything to do with us.”

And here’s where Homi can serve as a harbinger. Danchi housing estates across Japan are losing their inhabitants as the country’s population shrinks. Japan’s current population of 126 million is estimated to drop below 100 million by 2050 unless something is done. More than likely, foreigners are going to be needed to make up for the lost 20-odd million. More and more public housing estates are going to become like Homi, where over half the current 8,000 inhabitants are non-Japanese.

With Homi’s Japanese and Japanese-Brazilians agreeing to mutually ignore each other, the weekly notes it’s not possible to say the problems between the two groups have been solved. But, to its credit, the magazine argues that the issue needs to be cleared.

“This is an issue that should be of prime importance,” Spa! says, “For Japanese, for foreigners, for governments and for businesses.”

〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜★〜

(The Mainichi Waiwai column ran online from April 19, 2001 – June 21, 2008. It was a much loved form of entertainment amongst foreigner in and outside of Japan. To any reader it was obviously not serious news, but it was a set of articles that portrayed quite well how the Japanese tabloids actually write about their own country. In 2008, a small number of Japanese people bought it to the attention of rival news groups that Mainichi was running an anti-Japan column on its website. With the bad publicity, Mainichi was forced to shut the page down, and take punitive measures against the journalists that were working on it, claiming that it was receiving opinions that were critical of the column, such as “its contents are too vulgar” and “the stories could cause Japanese people to be misunderstood abroad”. A perfect example of how Japanese consider what they write in their own script to be an acceptable secret code, that the rest of the world cant understand. When that same tabloid rubbish gets inconveniently translated to English to make light of some aspects of the Japanese people, it gets canned. Stippy.com finds this unacceptable, and will reproduce as much of the Waiwai content as possible in order to bring it once again to our computer screens for a good laugh. Of course we claim no credit for this content, and attribute it to it’s writers who were former Mainichi employees. Waiwai in its true and glorious form has been discontinued, but it’s legacy will live on at stippy.com for all to enjoy.)