…And all I have to offer is this music video inspired by Bollywood movies sung in Spanish featuring Natalie Portman.

I came back to America at the beginning of June and I have to say that I still feel like I’m adjusting to being back home. I am not sure why I have been absent for so long from this blog, but I am guessing it is a combination of readjusting and plain lack of inspiration.

I also spent my days job hunting, and after many failed attempts landed at my dream job where I now serve as a graphic designer/website creator (so much for that whole majoring-in-East-Asian-Studies thing!) Unfortunately, the job is influenced by political campaigns and will end with the elections at the beginning of November, but hopefully if I work hard enough I will build up an awesome portfolio filled with flag graphics and headshots of fat old men and then everyone will want to hire me!

In other news, I have been watching movies practically every week since I came back, and came to the realization that four of the movies were all based off of comic book titles. Which leads me to this rant that I posted privately in my LiveJournal, but am aiming to take this blog in a different direction (can you tell?) and so I will post a snippet in here:

Sometimes when I watch movies that are based off of comics, I feel as though I am merely watching two pairs of testicles angrily flopping against each other, amongst car explosions and naked women. There is no room to breathe and no voice for the other half. It has become the norm for “good” action movies and summer blockbusters to be all about men taking care of business, with barely a main female role to play Smurfette in the all-male gun-toting extravaganza.

I realize it is a Catch-22 when it comes to comic book movies. Many titles were written in days where it was still blatantly OK to play down women and minorities in media. You cannot ask for a movie based off of old societal standards to resonate well with everybody and still be true to the original idea. But sometimes I wonder what movies would be like if all the male actors were replaced with women but everything else was kept the same way–dialog, actions, emotions. Would it still be successful? Would it all of a sudden turn into a chick flick?

These are the thoughts that have been troubling me lately, and for me I find it ironic that Japan offers more sexual equality in media despite the society’s on-going oppression of women, whereas the more liberal American media offer little solace for women who want to feel like the heroes for once. I have been sucked into watching Japanese dramas online and in particular am addicted to Life, based off a manga series by the same title.

The manga is written by a woman and the manga is geared towards to girls. The content is an unflinching look at Japanese school life, where both girls and boys lead messed up lives with horrible secrets. The girls are not sexualized and the interactions between them feel very real to me. I cannot think of an equivalent to this sort of show in the States except perhaps for Degrassi, but probably because it’s the only show not made by Disney aimed at the pre-teen audience containing serious material. Disney’s shows offer brightly colored teen pop stars to whom real girls could never relate to, but instead get the idea that they should want to be like them.

In any case, the world keeps spinning.

- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies
- If Only My 5th Grade Teacher Was This Cool
- Font Conference
- The Candle Night Campaign
- Japanese Version of the Office

Japan Probe has an article featuring the “Candle Night” campaign (also known as the “Light Down Campaign” in Japan).  Basically, several cities will shut off lights for a couple hours in order to bring awareness to energy consumption.

I think it’s great when big organizations and governments stop and think about the environment.  It always feels like it’s a little guy’s battle.

Also not having electricity at night reminds me of when the power would go out and nobody would know what to do, and so usually they would spend more time together instead of apart at computers and televisions.  It’s true that technology has brought us together, but I think it also encourages us to become more independent and spend less time within our own families.

I hope they can bring the Candle Night Campaign to the States

Source: Turning off the lights across Japan (Japan Probe) 

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- Happy Earth Day 2008
- Korean Women Worship Plastic Surgery, Says Oprah
- Increasing Career Opportunities for Japanese Women
- Environment: Meat-Eating Chinese and Other Causes of the World's Food Crisis

So apparently there was an episode of Oprah’s talk show that discussed the progress of women’s self-image in numerous countries, including the States, Mexico, Great Britain, France, and other such countries.

And then there was Korea.

While the other countries talked about positive aspects as well as concerns about body image, Korea was most specifically pointed out to be a nation where women are “obsessed” with plastic surgery and that they aspire to “go under the knife to shed traditional Korean looks for Westernized features.” And nothing else.

There has been a lot of controversy over the rise of cosmetic surgery in Asia, and most Westerners simply say “Oh, well they’re just trying to look like us! Damn our Western standards of beauty!” Laura Miller, who wrote an article about Japanese youth and their interpretations on beautification, rebuked this claim, and says that yeah, maybe Asians living in America aspire to look more Western, since they, you know, live in a country where Asians are severely under-represented in mass media.

Instead, Miller argues (in what I think is an excellent point) that Japanese people who get plastic surgery are more than likely trying to emulate the looks of –who else?–Japanese celebrities, since they are the trend setters and the ones creating new social standards of beauty. I imagine that this goes the same for Korea, along with the idea that no matter what country you live in, there is always the pressure to look younger.

Also, since when was Korea the only country to be so-called “obsessed” with body image? What of America, the land of self-improvement reality shows, diet shows, diet gadgets, and um, like, talk show hosts who document every pound they gain and lose?

Sources:
- Oprah Winfrey’s Negative Remarks about Korean Women Spark Storm - The Chosun Ilbo
- S Korea’s cosmetic surgery boom - BBC News

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- The Candle Night Campaign
- Increasing Career Opportunities for Japanese Women
- Environment: Meat-Eating Chinese and Other Causes of the World's Food Crisis
- Asian Feminists: They Exist

Source: Japan Times

Things are starting to look up with new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s plans to increase career opportunities for women.

The government is pledging with the program to increase women’s social participation in areas where they have yet to play significant roles, including medical services, public services and science.

Gender equality minister Yoko Kamikawa plans to visit business group leaders and encourage the hiring of more women for managerial posts.

The program aims to raise the percentage of female employees in the central government ranked higher than section chief or equivalent to at least 5 percent by the end of fiscal 2010 from 1.7 percent in fiscal 2005.

I’ve mentioned before about the slow-but-noticeable increase in gender equality, but it’s still nowhere near ideal (or some semblence of.) It seems that the higher ups are starting to realize that without gender equality, a nation is only performing half as well as it could be–not to mention that Japan’s embarrassingly low gender equality statistics are constantly being thrown about.

I’m not sure if simple encouragement is enough, although this is a step in the right direction.  We need to see more examples of women leading successful lives in Japan to serve as role models for those following in their footsteps.  Although there is certainly nothing wrong with dreaming of becoming a housewife, it seems that so much talent and bright minds are going to waste because of ingrained societal expectations.  (Case in point: is there any reason why Empress Masako, a Harvard undergraduate and Oxford alum who is fluent in 3 languages, had give up everything in order to marry the Prince?)

Source: New program to boost women in workplace - Japan Times

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- The Candle Night Campaign
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)

There’s an interesting opinion article in the New York times regarding the world’s food crisis. Different than the financial crisis and harder to find a solution to, author Paul Krugman offers several reasons as to why this food shortage is happening.

One major reason he states is China: When you take a country as large and as densely populated as China, you are going to find that the rate of consumption is extremely high. When this country shifts its gears to become a superpower, more and more people are able to afford a Western lifestyle, such as eating meat. According the article, “it takes about 700 calories’ worth of animal feed to produce a 100-calorie piece of beef,” which means you are actually losing calories, a.k.a. grains, the one food supply that everybody can afford to eat. This is another reason why vegetarians don’t eat meat: it’s a waste of resources and contributes to the world’s food crisis.  Unfortunately, for many being wealthy and eating meat go hand in hand.

Other reasons for the food shortage include naturally occurring events such as droughts, and not-so naturally occurring events, such as bad policy-keeping.

Governments and private grain dealers used to hold large inventories in normal times, just in case a bad harvest created a sudden shortage. Over the years, however, these precautionary inventories were allowed to shrink, mainly because everyone came to believe that countries suffering crop failures could always import the food they needed.

The story of the ant and the grasshopper come to mind.

The combination of emerging economies such as China, droughts, and poor enforcement of policies make an ideal environment for a worldwide food crisis.  (Also, biofuels? Yeah, it turns out that they’re not such a good idea. When you try to make the world’s fuel supply by using the world’s food supply, it doesn’t quite work in the way you might think.)

In Japan, the effects are being felt as the prices of food increase, including the controversial increase of Kentucky Fried Chicken prices.  Countless TV programs examining this issue are aired weekly, and many companies have been resorting to putting out expired foods to keep their prices competitive, including patisserie giant Fujiya. 

The solution seems simple: enforce policies to keep grain supplies in check, and cut down on the world’s meat supply.  But unfortunately these sorts of things are easier said than done, and until people change the way wealth is interpreted (as in living excessive lifestyles and eating habits), it will be a harsh winter for us grasshoppers.

Source: Grains Gone Wild - New York Times

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- The Candle Night Campaign
- Happy Earth Day 2008
- Korean Women Worship Plastic Surgery, Says Oprah
- Increasing Career Opportunities for Japanese Women

Yuri Kochiyama

For my senior thesis, I am preparing to write a paper on the roles of women as portrayed by popular Japanese authors, both female and male. Reading the biography of one famous literary author, Tanizaki Junichiro, I was a little disturbed to read this passage from one of his essays:

One of the things I am currently interested in doing is to delineate the psychology of a Japanese woman of the feudal period, without giving it a modern interpretation and yet with such verisimilitude as to appeal to the modern reader’s emotions and understanding. I want to draw a truly lifelike portrait of a woman who believed in the neo-Confucian moral codes and who was therefore bound by them–a woman of bygone days who was reserved in all things, who was taught to suppress her feelings on all occasions, and who seldom showed her face to any person of the opposite sex except her husband. Yet it would not be easy to portray the hypersensitive workings of such a woman’s mind. Despite her wholly virtuous appearance, she could have been harboring thoughts of an illicit love that had not yet taken definite form. Jealousy, hatred, cruelty, and other dark emotions may have cast their dim shadows on her mind time and again without ever floating to the surface. It would be difficult, indeed, to create a vivid portrait of a woman of this type, a woman whose entire life was confined to her inner world.

(Emphasis mine.)

It’s nothing new for (obviously scorned) men to look down on women in such a manner, but Tanizaki actually claimed that he was a feminist, and even compared his degree of feminism to other authors. This is the same man that coerced his wife to destroy their unborn baby because he was afraid it would ruin his image of her as a symbol of “old Japan” (in other words, being completely devoted to him.)

Luckily, Tanizaki was just one jaded exception. Asian feminists do exist, although people might not think of Asian women (and men!) when they hear the word “feminist.” I happened to come across this list of Asian feminists who have done extensive society-changing work in America. The list led me to this other list of inspirational Asian women, which consequently made this entry take a lot longer to write than originally planned.

So what about Japan? Japanese feminists are hard to spot since the word is fairly taboo in Japan (Wikipedia only lists 13 women, somehow omitting Yuri Kochiyama who is pictured above), but signs that changes are a-comin’ can definitely be seen. Take, for example, one of the little girls I teach English to: she speaks in the most masculine form of Japanese, using “ore” instead of the gender-neutral “watashi” or “atashi,” which is reserved for girls and gay men. Also, bands who consist of all women or headed by a woman seem to have an easier time breaking into the major music industry than in America, where bands are usually reserved for men. I already mentioned that comediennes in mainstream media in Japan seem to outnumber those in America. Gender roles are slowly reversing among young men and women, where men want to be with women who are stronger than them.

Mizuho Fukushima, the leader of Japan’s opposition Democratic Party, is just one of an increasing number of women who are revolutionizing women’s rights in Japan:

[Fukushima] is the author of such books as What Happens When A Woman Becomes A Politician and Never Get Married To A Man Like This.

She wants to give women the right to keep their maiden name, an uphill struggle that has so far seen a bill rejected 10 times, and is an advocate of the rights of children born out of wedlock, which negatively affects their inheritance. Ms Fukushima, 52, has kept her maiden name and has not married her partner with whom she has a child.

She also campaigns against sexual harassment, domestic violence and for improved maternity leave and child care. When she was elected to the Upper House, 10 years ago, she had to share the male lavatories. Now she and her female colleagues have separate loos.

Despite these trends, Japan is still painfully behind in sexual equality. Women have a harder time moving up in the business world and are expected to quit after they get married/have kids (and are often harassed or threatened if they don’t.) Asian women in general are looked down upon by men of all races as subservient and aiming to please.

I don’t think I make it apparent enough on this blog how important women’s issues are to me, even though I have spent the last year and half of my school career researching and writing on women in Japan. Hopefully that will change, as I continue to research women’s issues in Asia and Japan in particular.

Sources:
- Asian/ APIA Feminism/ Women’s History Month - WOC PhD
- Inspirational Asian/APIA Women - Reappropriate
- English Wikipedia’s page on Japanese Feminists
- Japanese Wikiepedia’s page onf Feminism in Japan
- Japan’s gender inequality puts it to shame in world rankings - Japan Times
- Japan’s concrete ceiling - The Independent

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- The Candle Night Campaign
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)

Photo from Sashertootie

As if people didn’t have enough incentive to drink sake in Japan (there is sake for just about every seasonal occasion), Osake Therapy will help teach you the beauty benefits of drinking sake with their training courses. They focus on three points that sake can help with: Body Therapy, Mind Therapy, and Beauty Therapy.

According to the site, Japanese Sake can help with the body for women in their 30s who are sensitive to the cold and have stiff shoulders. For the mind, Japanese sake has been noted to help relieve stress for women who are under pressures of modern day society. Finally, for beauty, the ingredients in most kinds of sake can help reduce the appearance of freckles, keep skin moist, and blood circulation.

I’m not sure how much of this I believe, but I did just see an 80+ year old woman on TV drinking her daily cup of sake…

- It's Been a Crazy Two Months
- The Candle Night Campaign
- Japanese Version of the Office
- Algorithm March...with Ninja!
- Tokyo Cat Cafes (Why Aren't I Working Here Already?)

Sweet Rain — see preview here

Does Japan need to think of audiences across the ocean when it comes to marketing films? According to this article from the Hollywood Reporter, Japan’s movie industry carries strength domestically but is starting to see a slight decline. U.S. film executive Bey Logan encourages Japanese filmmakers to think of audiences abroad in order to expand their markets:

“Japan is one of the most fascinating, contradictory and frustrating markets,” he said. “The biggest strength of the Japanese market is that it is so strong domestically, based on television shows that are already familiar to a Japanese audience, they do not travel outside of Japan.”

Consequently, producers do not even consider collaborations because they are effectively guaranteed a money-spinning product.

“They are not interested in the U.S., for example, because they are so strong at home,” he said. “But I was here in Hong Kong back in the 1980s when the industry was strong — and now it is much less strong.

“I would urge Japanese filmmakers to keep up their relations with outside companies because even though they are experiencing a boom at the moment, the time will come when there is a bust.”

Does this explain the reason why there are so many Western remakes of popular Japanese movies? I’m not sure how I feel about this statement–the reason why many foreigners enjoy Japanese movies is because they are distinctly Japanese, and aren’t interpretations of how Westerners think Japanese life is like.

It’s true that there many great films in Japan that probably will never be released overseas, and this may be due to lack of appropriate marketing. But it seems that there a slight increase in interest in Asian cinema, especially films that come from Hong Kong (despite that they are almost entirely all martial arts movies). So should Japan start making more kitschy Samurai flicks? Appeal to Western ideals of what Japanese entertainment should be like?

Source: Japan urged to take film abroad - The Hollywood Reporter

- What's Happenin' Friday
- Cher to Play Catwoman
- All Asians Have Beef With Other Asians
- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies
- It's Been a Crazy Two Months

Stich all dressed up for Halloween–photo taken with my cellphone last October

I am not such a huge fan of Disney as I was when I was kid–for one thing, the movies have progressively gotten worse and the storylines seem very desperate.  Japan, however, has continued to fully embrace Disney, possibly even moreso than average Americans.  One character that immediately jumps to mind is Stich from Lilo & Stitch, the little destructive blue alien with a love for Elvis. 

In Japan, Stitch has taken on many incarnations, even being adopted into the Japanese culture by wearing seasonal Japanese clothing.  I am kind of excited to hear Disney teaming up with Madhouse to create a Japanese Stitch TV show (cleverly entitled Stitch!). I’m excited because Madhouse is a famous animation studio that has created many amazing animated works, including numerous CLAMP animated series, and most recently Yazawa Ai’s huge hit Nana and Satoshi Kon’s Paprika.  I’ve always admired the work Madhouse puts into their productions, and am even more intrigued that the show will take place in Okinawa.

Disney is also in cahoots with Jinni’s Animation to produce another series called Fireball, which will take advantage of Jinni’s repitoure of extensive 3-D animation works. Jinni’s Animation produces a lot of music videos and commercials, and most recently had a hand in the opening credits for Takeshi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western (which contained a cameo by Quentin Tarantino).

I can’t say for sure whether this move will gain my respect back for Disney–Disney in America is certainly different than Disney in Japan–but it’s nice to see that they are branching out and actually thinking about their international audiences for once.

Source: Disney to work with two local animators - The Japan Times

- What's Happenin' Friday
- Cher to Play Catwoman
- All Asians Have Beef With Other Asians
- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies
- If Only My 5th Grade Teacher Was This Cool

This is a ridiculously funny how-to video on sushi, poking fun at the Japanese culture’s love for knowing how to do everything properly.  Learn how to enter a sushi-ya, the different types of tuna available, and how you can supplement your salt intake if your soy sauce was lacking.  Thanks to R for the heads up.

- All Asians Have Beef With Other Asians
- Disney Offers No Dental Plan for Fireflies
- If Only My 5th Grade Teacher Was This Cool
- Font Conference
- It's Been a Crazy Two Months