Had enough of the Tokyo heat? What better way to spend a quiet stippy weekend than hit the streets of Hong Kong for a bite of 飲茶 (Yum Cha / Dim Sum) and a couple of rounds of 麻雀 (Mahjongg) with the locals in Kowloon Park? If you catch JAL, you can even convince yourself that you’re doing something to help the Mother Country. But JAL isn’t the only connection that Hong Kong has with Japan (and whatever else it is that we at Stippy.com claim we are writing about). We are always keen for a challenge and love it when our readers drop a hint to us in the comments section of our articles. A few months ago, Shiona left us a comment that we couldn’t ignore on Bone’s article about Tokyo’s two most famous Beatles Bars.

Shiona: The Broadwoods — who perform at Mr Moonlight in Hong Kong — is another Japanese Beatles tribute band worth a listen.

Oh my Buddha! Why is there a Beatles Bar in Hong Kong? What is an all Japanese Beatles tribute band doing in Hong Kong? Who on earth listens to them? Is there any other culture in the world that takes their hobbies (and dreams this) seriously? Last month, I set off on a Magical Mystery Tour and took up the gauntlet!

Despite having quite a reputation for themselves, it took me quite a while to track down the Broadwoods. Amazingly, nearly every friend of mine that had lived in Hong Kong during the last 10 years had heard of them but very few had actually gone to see them. A quick Google search came up with some Beatles Bars in Tsingtao and Shanghai but nothing in Hong Kong. After a few more phone calls and a little help from your friends, I managed to track the Broadwoods down to a building in Causeway Bay. For those of you who have never visited Hong Kong, Causeway Bay (銅鑼湾) may as well be the Shibuya of Hong Kong. It’s where all of the fashionable shops are and also where the local youth choose to go out for a night on the town. Better yet, it is also the cultural centre when it comes to Japanese food, drink and Karaoke. Mr. Moonlight was in the same building as Sushi Hiro (すし廣 +852-2882-8752), my friend told me. With the help of the yellow pages (the Hong Kong equivalent of mapion) I managed to stumble across the building pretty fast and low and behold, here was the bar that I was looking for: Mr. Moonlight is here, there and everywhere on the 12th floor of Henry House.

It was my wife’s birthday that weekend and I wanted the Broadwoods performance to be a surprise for her (after all, who would expect a Japanese Beatles tribute band in the middle of Hong Kong??). I had tracked down the owner of Mr. Moonlight in advance to make sure that we got the best seats in the house but couldn’t help myself asking him a little about the story of the show. It turns out that the man I was speaking to was none other than George himself. Yanagida George that is, the “master” of the bar and one of the founding members who started the Broadwoods back when Hong Kong was still a part of England. I hope that one day I will have the motivation and perseverance to turn one of my hobbies into a success like Mr. Moonlight has become. Not only was George a great host, he was also my favourite amongst the members, playing a mean weeping guitar.

Although the original John and Paul have moved on since the Broadwoods formed in the mid 90s, it is pretty impressive that the original Ono Ringo is still drumming with him in the band today. Both he and George have day jobs (apparel and interior design respectively) but have managed to put together a repertoire of over 80 songs on their long and winding road between performances. I was hoping that I’d get to hear how Ringo was behind the mike but to no avail. Perhaps next time I’ll have to request Yellow Submarine! in order to complete the review?

George and Ringo were joined by Yoshimoto John and Shimizu Paul. All in all we were pretty impressed with the Broadwoods. For a bunch of guys who get together once a month to put on a performance, the quality is consistent, the atmosphere is great and at least half of their jokes (in Japanese, of course) were laughable! I personally would have liked it if they had put in a bit more effort to look like the fabulous four but what they lacked in presentation, they made up for in mental effort. It took me a while to realise but Paul played his guitar left-handed for the entire evening. Here is a quick video of their performance:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Although the show doesn’t start until 9PM, the bar is open from 8PM. You won’t have trouble getting a seat if you get there early (most of the crowd arrives a few minutes before 9PM) and given that it is a nomihodai (飲み放題, all you can drink) there is at least one more good reason to arrive early. It cost me HKD$300 for the pleasure (about 4,500 yen) but felt pretty generous when I realised that the nomihodai continued until 2AM! Oh, and just in case you didn’t already think you were back in Japan, women get a discount of HKD$100. There isn’t any substantial food on the menu so make sure you eat first.

On normal days with no live performance there is a cover charge of HKD$200 so make sure you check the calendar before you go. Unlike the Parrots at Abbey Road or the Silver Beats at the Cavern Club, the Broadwoods are an amateur band and so only perform about once a month. While Mr. Moonlight generally stages two live performances each month, they aren’t always the Broadwoods and the days aren’t fixed so it pays to check “George’s” homepage (see link at the bottom) in advance. When the Broadwoods are not performing, the regulars at Mr. Moonlight include Elvis Ishikawa (I think you can guess who he impersonates) and a great local (Japanese) Mowtown band called Hinabeya. When I visited, Hinabeya played for us after two stages of the Broadwoods. While the Broadwoods were the highlight of the night, both my wife and I had a great time rocking along with Hinabeya, too.

If you get the chance to go to Mr. Moonlight, make sure you also visit their toilets. (Just in case there was any doubt after a 6 hour nomihodai). While I can’t vouch for the female toilet, the male toilet has some great Japanese Beatles posters from the ’60s. One of them shows all of the singles that the Beatles ever released, complete with their Japanese titles. I hadn’t realised that a bunch of the titles had been translated into Japanese for release although I have no idea how they chose which ones to translate. After why would you call a song koitsui? I’m serious! You can’t pick the song? Try “This boy”. On the flip side, surely 俺はセイウチだ would have been much less of a mouthful than アイ・アム・ザ・ウォルラス (“I am the walrus”).

Live House “Mr. Moonlight“
Phone: 2881-0199
Address: 12/F, Henry House, 40-42 Yun Ping Road, Causeway Bay, HK
(香港銅鑼湾恩平道40-42号亨利中心12楼)
Open: Mon-Sat from 8PM (until 2AM)
Homepage: http://mrmlhk.exblog.jp

Would you buy a used car from this man? Which man? Well that’s a good question. (I probably wouldn’t buy one from either) In this instance, I mean the man on the left, Masahiro Origuchi (折口雅博), the infamous ex-President of Comsn (コムスン) – the company that, according to their English homepage, is “preserving the dignity and independence of the elderly” (link) when they are not screwing taxpayers by lining their pockets with illegal subsidies.

To be frank, I don’t know if I’d buy a used car from a guy with a smile like that, but want about a used plane? You think I’m kidding? Well, according to a company press release (here), someone just did. A very lucky Mr. Donald P. Bass of Maryland, USA just offered to buy Mr. Origuchi’s private jet off him for the handsome sum of 38 million US dollars. That’s quite a lot of money for a second hand plane especially when you don’t know much about the seller.

I wonder if Mr. Bass watches Japanese television? If he does he might be in for a bit of a surprise as to what the company really used the plane for. Officially, the plane was owned on the balance sheet of Origuchi’s listed company, Goodwill. Origuchi had been quoted at the time of purchase saying that it would make it easier for him to visit foreign shareholders who lived overseas and kindly volunteered that when he flew for private use, his family company, The Origuchi Research Institute (折口総研）, would foot the bill for the running costs. What a generous guy. Although I suppose Mr. Bass wasn’t able to read much of the Japanese press when he did a background check on his seller. Despite being a happily married “family man”, Origuchi is brash with the media and quick to admit that a little bit on the side doesn’t hurt. According to industry sources he is well known for his attraction to high-school girls and often finds excuses to invite them to his holiday house in Karuizawa. So much so that he has earnt the nickname “Lolita Origuchi.” (source)

As it always is with a a Japanese expose, the amazingly long list of (underage) names are just starting to come out of the woodwork: Ejiri Sawajiri (沢尻エリカ), Haruna Yabuki (矢吹春奈), Mayuko Iwasa (岩佐真悠子), Akina Minami (南明奈), Akane Ozawa (大沢あかね), Kurumi Morishita (森下くるみ), Yu Abiru (アビル優）… Strangely the girls seem happy to own up to their relationships, the latest being Akina Minami (on the left) who didn’t seem in any rush to deny their relationship at the press conference for her latest stage show about the swimming club at a girls only high school which have a tendancy toward loose bikinis (sneak preview) based on the popular anime “umisho“. You have to seriously question his ulterior motives when he built swimming pools in both his home (Den’enchofu!) and his holiday house . It seems as though Origuchi is seriously having troubles graduating from his youth when he created Juliana Tokyo and Velfarre.

But I’m not here today to expose any more scandalous stories about Origuchi. I’ll leave that up to the 週刊誌 (shukanshi, tabloids) and their first-class photography. What caught my attention about this news was his plane. Without being an expert on the price of second hand planes, I think it is safe to assume that 38 million dollars is a hefty price tag. After all, Tom Cruise could only afford a 20 million dollar jet for Katie’s wedding present. It turns out that Origuchi’s plane wasn’t just any old corporate jet, it was a top of the range “Gulfstream V”. The Gulfstream V cost over $800 million dollars to design and since being released 10 years ago has been known as the Rolls Royce of the air when it comes to private jets. No wonder Origuchi copped a lot of flack after buying it with shareholders money.

I suppose if you are going to spend all of that money on a plane then you may as well get a nice one. In fact, Origuchi was quick to point out that he had a brand new one, unlike poor Horie-mon who could only afford a second hand jet (Perhaps that was because Horie used his own money whereas Origuchi was using someone elses?) Fresh after reading Stippy.com’s scathing remarks about the bitch fighting at bulldog sauce, I was keen to work out just how many millions of dollars he had wasted with such an obviously egocentric (and hedonistic) purchase. But hold on a second. Let’s just click on that link to Goodwill’s balance sheet again. According to some quick math and an online fx calculator, it appears as though Goodwill only paid $34 million dollars when they bought the plane back in 2004.

What am I missing here? Generally when you buy something new, the price drops the day after your purchase. A diamond engagement ring, a condo in central Tokyo… a plane is no exception. Even today, a second hand plane will generally cost you about 20% less than buying a new one. So why was Origuchi able to profit a nice $4 million dollars in three years after “using” his plane so creatively. The answer is not so obvious. It turns out that right now the world is going through a shortage of planes. Production of everything from huge Jumbo jets to small private jets is just not keeping up with demand. Technology hiccups at Airbus and Boeing have not helped things and the universal strength in the global economy (at least until subprime hit us) has meant that everyone wants to fly and the incremental demand from BRICS hasn’t made things any easier. To add icing to the cake, the trend that you’re seeing at JAL of retiring older planes and replacing them with more efficient planes is a global one. It seems as though the success of Warren Buffet’s netjets has been a big driver of demand for smaller size jets, too. If any stippy readers out there were lucky enough to pick up a private jet in the last few years then you are probably sitting on a few million dollars of unrealised asset gains! (don’t tell the Japanese government).

The next question that crossed my mind was how much it would cost to run one of these beasts. Hey, if I can make 4 million dollars in 3 years, maybe this is a good investment to be looking at? Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as cheap as I had hoped. According to jets.com the average annual upkeep cost for one of these babies is over $800,000 US dollars. The key costs that you probably don’t want to skimp on include pilots ($200k), hull ($180k) and the hangar ($120). One of the more interesting costs was “charts” as $12,000 per annum. But it doesn’t end there. That $800k were your fixed costs – i.e. just enough for you to move your plane into the hangar. To cruise with your little baby, you’re going to need another $3-$4,000 per hour in variable costs. About half of that is fuel but maintenance, labour, parts, insurance etc. adds up, too. I’m not sure how much a business man would use a plane but if you budgeted for one 12 hour return international flight per month and 1 domestic return 1 hour flights per week, you’re already at 30 hours a month or another $1~1.5 million US dollars per year. You could buy an オクション (okushon, million dollar condo) in central Tokyo with the variable costs alone!

In other words, Origuchi’s shareholders have footed at least another $2 million US dollars per year to keep him popular with the ladies girls. I guess that even with the 4 buck profit he has booked on the sale, it is still hard to argue that it was a very economical decision. To put this into context, let’s just think about how much it would have cost him to do all this without buying a plane? While I could go to kokunaisen.com and try to work out how much he would have paid per trip, let’s be a little more realistic. How much would it have cost him to do this all by chartering a private jet (after all he does have a reputation to live up to)? According to a friend who recently was a guest on a netjets plane, the hourly cost of chartering a jet with them is about $10,000 USD. While this doesn’t include the membership fee (netjets is like a time-share operation but for planes) it does give you a bit of an idea. If Origuchi was to fly the same schedule that I mentioned above it would have cost him just shy of $4 million US dollars a year or almost double what he was paying in upkeep, maintenance and variable costs. When you consider that he did pocket a nice $4 million gain at the end of it, perhaps it wasn’t such a silly business decision after all. Unfortunately, I don’t think that stippy.com will ever be in quite the same echelon where we can test out this hypothesis for real!

Have any readers out there ridden in his private jet? Has anyone ridden in a private jet in Japan before? (the closest I came was viewing the Prime Minister’s jet (from the tarmac) at the Cairo airport earlier this year!) Unlike in the states, people like this are still a rare breed in Japan. Share your brushes with the elite in the comments section below.

How long does this stage last in a Kokusai Kekkon?

Here on Stippy the most popular of articles has been “Sexless in Japan”, which prompted a huge response from readers and is indicative of the fact that marriage in Japan is fraught with many challenges. Even more so, international marriage is fraught with so many more issues that threaten to destabilize life as a couple and life as a family. We have also written about pre-marital counseling for gaijin-Japanese couples thinking of tying the knot in Japan, where we explored some preemptive measures that can be taken to attempt to avoid disaster upon arriving back from your honeymoon. We have not yet however, touched specifically on how the novelty of an international marriage can quickly erode away, mainly due to lack of somebody willing to become our “case study”.

George (yes, that George) is in a predicament which many stippy readers may find themselves in one day – or even worse may be sharing with him right now! George agreed to being our “case study”, and while his problem is probably not so uncommon, it is one that tends to simmer away in the confines between one’s genkan and verandah, and mostly does not show itself at all in the public arena until suddenly boiling over one day with a bitter divorce.

We interviewed George to get a little more insight into just what he is going through in his “Kokusai-kekkon blues”. (Kokusai-Kekkon, is the Japanese term for international marriage. 国際結婚). The story is written in first person, right as we heard it from George. It is a sensitive subject and very personal for him. We thank George once again for letting us delve into his private life, for public good. With no further ado here is George’s story of the state of his multi-racial (gaijin & Japanese) married life.

George’s Marriage and the Kokusai-Kekkon Blues:
Last weekend I had a big argument with my wife of 6 years. It took until mid-week for us to sit down and discuss it and I had to admit that much of the argument was my fault and that I had definitely “gone too far”. I had said some things that needed more than just an airing. They needed to be investigated.

It was clear to my wife that I am struggling with our life together. During the weekend argument, she had also told me that she did not see us being together after our children left school. With my admissions of concern about our marriage, she made it clear that she had fast tracked her thinking to wanting to make a decision within the next year or two as she hits thirty years of age. The rationale being that as a divorced homemaker with kids, life would be tough; she is still young and very attractive and has a chance to find someone good to replace me.

As we talked mid-week, I had to think deeply about how I contribute to such anxiety for my wife. I came up with a few very negative character traits that probably make me a difficult husband for any woman.

It dawned upon me that I am much like my father back home. He is quite abusive to my mother who gets belittled and made to feel useless by him on a regular basis. My sister thinks that she is so far into this state of misery that our mother simply plays her part and shows no sign of self-confidence to stand up to the verbal abuse. To my knowledge he, like I with my wife, has never physically abused her; it is verbal abuse when angered. I, like him, have anger management issues.

In my wife’s family this relationship is the exact opposite: it is her mother who is the wearer of the pants and controller of how things are done. Her father is incredibly meek to the point that, while I like him very much, he borders on being pathetic, with no confidence to do anything other than his job. My wife’s grandmother had an abusive husband, as does her aunt. Her grandmother shrugged off convention and dumped her drunken gambler husband in the 1960′s and started a successful commercial real estate business. She is a strong matriarch, chain smoking with a very real strength in her eyes. My wife, aside from being a non-smoker is very much of this mold and this is one of her great qualities.

Despite my weakness here and her strength, it is evident that there are major problems in our marriage that are not altogether our own personal weaknesses but are key factors in making our marriage tough to work out. They are cultural issues. Probably more “cultural tolerance” issues.

As a brief backgrounder, my wife is pure Japanese. She could not speak English when I met her and culturally she is fully comfortable with who she is. I know some people who are married to Japanese women who seek to leave Japan or to escape their “Japanese-ness” and others who become “American” in order to fit in with their husband and his world. My wife is not like that. She shuns this world and that type of gaijin-nihonjin. Naturally, I also know a number of Gaijin who seek to escape their Gaijin-ness by really trying to become “Japanese”: throwing themselves head first into the culture, language and way of life. I think there is a term I saw on a blog for this sort of person, and I am certainly not it. What I am, much like my wife, is proud of where I come from and who I am. In fact being in Japan for as long as I have, my identity has been strongly shaped by the contrast to Japan. I fell in love with my home culture more.

Embracing the other culture…

My suspicion is that those international marriages that see one party being flexible enough to embrace their partners culture are the more successful. If the typical western marriage faces a 50:50 chance, then it goes without saying that the international marriage has less. I am focusing this on my impression of first time marriages. Quite possibly second or third marriages are fine as the couples are more mature and realistic about their expectations.

Anyway, I make these observations as they are a crucial part of where my wife and I are going wrong. We both agree that I am reluctant to become “Japanese” and she is reluctant to become “American”; though I am the most rock hard stubborn of the two (For the record, George is not necessarily American!). It is easy to say in poetic tones that true love conquers all boundaries (and all that jazz), and at least it was that way when we fell in love, but it is not so easy now. The bruising we have taken (more her than me) over the past 6 years has eroded that love and respect for each other to the point that we recognize that we have little in common – except two beautiful kids.

Basically I came to Japan as I was a student looking for new horizons and to learn the language. Japanese business style in the late 80′s and early 90′s was espoused by Harvard Business School – and all the rest – as the best thing since sliced bread. I sought to come over here and get “internationalized”, adding some strings to my bow. I fell in love with a real Japanese beauty. I fell in love with Japan: the people, the culture, the food, the “wa”. But I never fell out of love with my homeland or who I was, and eventually, with all the stress that comes with living in the big city of Tokyo, I fell out of love with Japan.

That lack of love for my current place of residence is problematic for my relationship with my wife. And my kids. However my career is now sewn into this city. I can not simply get up and leave, though some day I do pray that I can take my family home and have them share my world and have my children grow up knowing truly what it means to be “American”. At present our kids are growing up in a regular Japanese world; they are not at all growing up as “Americans” and this is the beginning of a crisis for me.

Will my kids ever be able to embrace my “world”? Will they simply test it out while we live there? The plan being when they hit high school. Then will they simply return to Japan to get a bilingual job and marry a Japanese girl and settle in Tokyo forever? Condemning me to the fate of my own parents and great distances from my future grandchildren. These are all concerns that have begun to haunt me. Am I going too far?

If we move to “America”, my wife will have a tough time. Her English is good but not at all fluent, which makes a big difference in making friends. She shares a similar concern as myself that the kids will then turn on her culture and follow me. We discussed this further and obviously (as we have been raising them) we want the kids to be able to embrace both cultures and make their own choices. However it remains a worry that we will feel alone when we are old. If we can not resolve our differences and truly embrace each other’s culture, then the children will have trouble in finding out for themselves who they really are.

Maybe at this stage of our lives we simply do not have enough experience to know how we will feel when older. Maybe we are both closet racists. Maybe we can work it out. Whatever the result, at present, both of us feel that we are potentially wasting our lives by staying with each other. We are considering divorce. But where does that leave the kids?

Did you adjust to your Japanese spouse? Did they adjust to you? Any other root causes of conflict in a Kokusai-kekkon? Is George too late to read the book pictured on the right? Tell us what you think in the comments below! (Or, if you are not married to a Japanese, but are willing to give it a try, here is the first step – give Stippy Friends a burl. There is plenty of romance to be had in Japan…! Just try not to get hooked )

It seems a number of the people tuning in to Stippy are married and have kids. I, also a parent living in Tokyo, just checked out an old site that I used to look at for News on Japan. Aptly it is called newsonjapan.com. Looking at the society section I wanted to check if a certain story that I have a personal connection to, was in the English news yet. It isn’t but what I saw was quite scary.

On the Society page for the news on Japan, there were three articles about little kids suffering and dying thanks to their parent’s lack of ability to cope and act maturely when making basic parental decisions. What is happening to parents in Japan these days? Is there a distinct change in the way that Japanese parents treat (through action and inaction) their kids, leading to this scary spate of twisted horrible crimes that we witness daily?

This news reminded me of a story a month or so ago of an 18 year old (assumed single) mother whose 2 year old kid died in a house fire. The mother left the kid sitting in front of the telly with some snack food and ducked out to a Nagano ski field for the day, leaving at 6am and coming home at 10pm, to find the house burned down. This is so unbelievably sick but she at least stated to the Police “I feel really terrible about my actions”.

One of the stories making the news today was about a set of parents who popped out to their favourite Pachinko parlour for a bit of a break, leaving their 3 year old kid at home alone, front door locked and balcony door open. While they had told the kid not to climb on top of the air-con unit, the 3 year old didn’t listen (as 3 year old tend not to) and proceeded to climb up over the railing to see what was on the other side. Sadly, tragically for the infant there was a 10 foot drop.

Another story was of a father, 25yo (profession: driver), who lost control with his 2 month old kid during a crying fit. Those of us with kids – especially first timers – know just how stressful screaming kids can be at midnight, but this incident was at 6pm and the guy’s method to stop the baby crying was to put the child under a hot shower, causing severe burns and the poor baby to die from shock.

I am sure we can dig up a lot more sickening stories both here in Japan and back in our home countries but this stuff really disturbs me personally. I happen to have a couple of kids now and seeing this stuff in the news with such regularity disturbs me. It just goes against the stereotype of Japan being a safe country. What is going on here? Why are so many kids dying?

As pop-psychologist (and I did do honours in Psyc many years ago), I’ll throw my two cents in. One part of this I assume has to do with the “lost generation”. When I was studying at University here, we looked closely at this generation as they really seem to have had everything delivered to them materially speaking, but had no love or attention from parents who were hell bent on fulfilling the “salaryman” and “shufu” dream. They just didn’t communicate to their kids on how to be good parents, because they didn’t know how themselves – their own parents being tough, hard asses who built the place after the war. Possibly they “know” what is right and appropriate but they don’t actually practice it; leaving the kids confused as to how they should handle such a situation when they become adults and it is their turn. This is not a rich kid, poor kid issue either, as plenty of dual income families earning 20 mill a year have these issues as well. Take a look at the “suspect”, Tatsuya Ichihashi (22) in the case of the young English girl, Lindsay Ann Hawker’s death a few weeks ago: his parents were a doctor and a dentist.

As an example of ill-communication between parent and child, I sat in a kaiten sushi shop a year or two ago with my boy on my knee and we happily ate some sushi and communicated in our Father to 2 year old son kind of way. A guy next to us was in his late 40′s and was with his son aged in his mid-teens. They did not say a single word to each other for the entire time we were there, except for “is it okay if I have another one?”, “hmm”. Maybe that was not how they act normally, but I suspect it was, as I have seen plenty of other examples like this where the parent seems to be so out of touch with their kid (or is this just Japanese style “wordless” communication!?)

Another reason for this problem of messed up parents may well be the fragmentation of the “nuclear” family in big cities like Tokyo. Many of young kids come to Tokyo with dreams of success, leaving their rural furusato (home town) and taking up a lonely existence in the big city. It is a hard and trying place to be for some people and for many who come here, there are many frustrations that really yearn for family support and comfort in order to break through to the other side – at least that’s how I felt at times.

Being a parent in Japan is not an easy thing. There are all sorts of societal pressures that “mum/mom” faces in the neighbourhood. Conforming with the school system, choosing the “right” kindergarten, being nice to all those other bitchy mothers at the bus stop (bitchiness it seems depends on the “level” of the school to a degree), not inviting your child’s friends around for a party because the parents of the kids who do not get invited will talk about you and shun you. It is a weird system to live in and it must be even more difficult for single mothers like the stupid snow boarder girl above. However let’s note that there are also a lot of great examples of the parents these days as well. There are some genuinely great Mum’s and some great Dad’s out there doing their bit. I love to see these people and to meet them at school events as they come across as such “enthusiastic” parents.

So why is it we see so many sickening stories like the above examples? Does anyone have any deeper insights on this? I guess there is a Darwinian aspect to this and if you have ever read the Darwin Awards, you will know what I mean.

The World Health Organization has issued their annual report for 2006 called the “World Health Report” stating that life expectancy is expected to increase worldwide with the highest projected life expectancy in 2030 to be Japanese women, at 88.5 years. That’s up 2.5 years from the current life expectancy of 86 years. The life expectancy for Japanese males is 79 years, a little less than a decade short of women but certainly a long life by any standards.

Generally speaking the average lifespan is on the upswing but there are areas in Africa where due to AIDS and other diseases a person might be considered extremely lucky if they can live to see their 40^th birthday. Japan, and many of the Western nations have the luxury to be able to fret about the increased life expectancy and the consequences of a graying society (高齢化社会, koureika-shakai). Nevertheless, it is a very real concern for those living in the rapidly graying nation of Japan and one that will require considerable attention and thought from the government in order to make allowances for the ever-expanding senior population.

The extended lifespan is attributable to a combination of diet, lifestyle and access to medical services in the country as well as genetic disposition. For us gaijin currently residing in Japan who can partake of the apparently beneficial culture, diet and health services it remains to be seen if we too can expect a comparatively longer life.

While the government and society concern themselves with how they will adjust their infrastructure to accommodate for the increasing number of seniors it is ultimately up to the individual to answer the question of how they choose to live their expected 80+ years. Western magazines have recently written that 40 is the new 30, which is to say that with the longer expected lifespan people are enjoying a prolonged adolescence and youth before settling in and making major life decisions.

In Japan as well, the opportunities for second chances in life are now, more than ever, within reach. Changing jobs, careers and returning to school, divorces and second marriages, quitting the salaryman rat race and pursuing your dream, all are viable transitions that one can make. During the 80 some years that makes up an average Japanese life how many of those years are going to be spent in pursuit of one’s bliss and how many of those years are going to be sacrificed on the altar of duty and societal expectations?

The World Health Organization report measures the quantifiable aspects of health, access to medical facilities and lifespan. It would be a shame for medical sciences to continue extending the life of individuals who are ultimately incapable or unwilling to spend those years happily.

If you have ever lived in Japan, you know this man. At just about any time of the day, you can flick a few channels on the TV and there he will be. “Mino Monta” (みのもんた, who’s real name is actually Norio Minorikawa, 御法川 法男) is everywhere in Japan. You cant escape the man, who apart from seemingly living in TV studios, is also regularly on the radio, as well as being slated on huge billboards, plastered over the side of buses, not to mention his appearances in countless TV commercials. (Even as I am writing this, he just greeted me on a Tama Home TV ad).

Monta is a master of almost all genres of TV. He appears totally natural whether it be on talk shows, news programs or “variety TV” shows (as they are called in Japan). Documentaries are also in his forte, playing a great David Attenborough when he wants, and even hosts Japan’s version of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”.

Last Tuesday, the hyperactive Monta won a spot in the Guinness Book of Records, for, get this – “most hours spent on live TV”. According to Guinness, he spent 21 hours, and 42 minutes in one week, live to air!

“I’m so pleased. Talking is everything to me, I would be happy if I died talking.” he told the Guinness director Alistair Richards at a ceremony to honour his record in Tokyo last Tuesday.

Apart from his live appearances, Mino hosts a further four prerecorded programs (other than “Millionaire”), including the wildlife show “Amazing Animals” (どうぶつ奇想天外, Dōbutsu kisōtengai) and “Full Speed TV” (おもいっきりテレビ, Omoikkiri Terebi) on which he advises viewers on lifestyle, health and relationships. All up, he spends an amazing average of 34 hours and 45 minutes on the box each week!

Monta’s roller-coaster of a career started with a short stint in the conservative newspaper Sankei Newspaper, after which he was transferred to sister company, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting (NCB Radio) in 1967, where he worked as a radio news reader, covering baseball matches, and hosting the late-night program “Say! Young”.

The name Mino Monta originated in the opening to another NCB radio program he hosted, “All Japan Pop 20″, where his catch phrase was 「♪み〜のみの〜もんた　み〜のもんた　パッ！」or, in romaji, “Mi-nomino-monta, Mi-nomonta, Pa!” (which doesn’t mean anything at all as far as I know; think of it as his version of “goood mooorning Vietnaaam!”).

In 1979 he left NCB to work at his father’s company in Aichi Prefecture, but continued contract himself as a news reader for Aichi Broadcasting. Shortly after, in the same year, he started his television career as a freelance baseball reporter with Fuji TV.

These days, Mino Monta is known for his rare abilities on TV, where he is condescending and smarmy but at the same time authoritative and charming. He established himself as the housewives’ favorite with his daily afternoon show Omoikkiri Terebi, which has run for years on Nippon TV. The show features a call-in counseling segment, usually from middle-aged housewives who are having problems with their husband or mother-in-law. This is followed by a feature on a particular health issue. This segment has become such an institution that many irritated doctors say their patients swear by it. “If Monta says so, it must be true!”

Always tanned and immaculately groomed, he is so beloved and respected by middle-aged Japanese that he could sell them just about anything. The government of Ghana, so the story goes, enjoyed a surge in exports of cacao beans to Japan after Mino touted their health benefits on one of his shows.

He certainly seems to be able to swing his salesman charm when negotiating his own contracts too. Monta is said to be able to command a cool ¥5 million for an hour’s work (no wonder he puts in so many hours!)

Money aside, Mino loves hard work and wishes more Japanese people would share his work ethic. “Everyone has the capacity to do it, but the majority just don’t want to, and that’s a terrible waste,” he said. “Japan used to be known as a land of hard workers. Now it’s just the opposite.”

Success doesn’t come easy. Mino gets up at 3 a.m. and commutes from his home in Zushi, Kanagawa into Tokyo. Rehearsals start at 4:30 and he goes live at 5:30 for three hours. Then he travels across town for a two-hour live lunchtime program and most afternoons he tapes shows for the evening. There’s no time to relax on weekends: Mino has on-air commitments on Saturdays and Sundays too.

Amazingly, on top of all this, Monta is also the president of a company, called Nikokku (二コック株式会社), which specialises in manufacture and sales of water meters (of all things). The company however, is far from booming after being involved in a bid-rigging scandal in July 2001, when it’s headquarters in Roppongi, and Monta’s private residence were raided and searched by police. His company’s misdoing was subsequently exposed publicly, and was found guilty of several offences. This did not put a halt to the misdemeanors, and Nikkoku has come under investigation many times since, being officially warned by the authorities at least four times.

In his private life (if he has such a thing), Mino Monta is also well known as a smooth sailor on the female front. He is constantly spotted around Roppongi, with less than sober, but gorgeous girls hanging off each of his arms. When he gets time to sleep with this sort of lifestyle, god only knows.

But being the busiest man in Japanese show-business took its toll. After being brought in to help boost the flagging ratings of NHK’s annual New Year’s Eve song contest (紅白歌合戦, Kōhaku Uta Gassen), he was immediately hospitalized for surgery on his back. Days later, a tearful Mino gave a TV press conference (broadcast live of course), thanking his doctors, while relieving the worry of his fans with his mischievous smile.

Monta has been known to say (likely in jest) that he would “welcome the chance to become the Prime Minister of Japan”. For now though, no political party has dared to invite him into their ranks, because, according to him, “they know I wouldn’t take a pay cut.” For now, Monta has no plans to retire. And that’s his final answer.