Jake Adelstein's Blog, page 83

Mind your f**ks and s**ts: Localizing Yakuza 1 龍が如く翻訳物語

By Demian 'Ryu Ichinose' Smith

Ryu ga Gotoku, or Yakuza, as it was unfortunately titled for international distribution, was the first major localization project I was assigned to as a young proofreader and translator. As one could imagine, I was tremendously excited to work on a SEGA title, especially one about the seedy underbelly of Japan.

Five months earlier, I was hired to work as a re-writer, proofreader and translator at a mid-sized (now small time) translation company in Tokyo. I'll refrain from dropping its name because I'd rather not give them any publicity.

When I first heard we got the contract I was extremely enthusiastic, but by the end of the debugging process I pretty much hated the game. I'd like to recap some of the highlights and low points of localizing a game that, although pretty damn good, could have been better translated.

Initially, we spent hours in meetings detailing the workflow, outsourcing a translator to get the long script drafted, sorting out voice actors and a director, and working out all the other technical and clerical aspects. When I finally got the script, several hundred pages of it, I was a bit overwhelmed. I was expected to read the entire thing, which I admit I didn't complete before deciding to tediously go through each line over and over, re-translating and re-writing the confusing draft version.

Aside from scanning the script, my boss, who resembled Master Onion from PaRappa the Rapper (both visually and olfactorily), assigned me some research. This included watching DVDs of The God Father and Brother, composing a glossary of yakuza terms with some sort of English equivalent, and some field research in Kabukicho.

Here are a few interesting/ridiculous excerpts from the glossary we mocked up for Yakuza.

こます – komasu – 「女をものにする。」という意味を持つ – get a woman, use a woman, seduce, screw some chick, fuck some girl (You can see the steady transition of English from the draft translator, to my native Japanese yet very fluent co-worker, to my version, in this one).

えんこ – enko – 指詰めで切り取られた指 – finger (pinky/little finger) that gets cut off.

シノギ – shinogi – 「稼ぎ」を意味する – earnings, salary, ill-gotten gains.

Well before I started the Yakuza project, I used to frequent the cheap dives, izakaya and rock bars of Kabukicho, so this particular form of "research" was very enjoyable for me. I joke that it was more fun and drinking than real research, but I did take it upon myself to get a closer look into Kabukicho's environment. I didn't pay to go to any hostess clubs or rub-&-tugs/sexy massage joints, but instead roamed about, beer in hand, checking out all the grimy alleyways decked with hidden sunakku and sketchy Chinese restaurants. I observed trannies sweeping up trash, and touts trying to con hapless salarymen into their rip-off clubs, all the while taking in the funky smells of backed up sewage, raw garbage and prostitutes' perfume. I really dig Kabukicho; I still go there on a regular basis just watch people.

Eventually the draft translation, or shitagaki, arrived and was finally time to put in some real work. At first, I was technically assigned as a proofreader and re-writer. However, as I read and edited the draft line-by-line, it became evident that the script had not been translated into any form of comprehensible English, but instead into some bastard form of Engrish. Maybe that's a bit too harsh–some of it was okay, but I had to fix about 95% of it.

This was a good life lesson on the mechanics of the Japanese translation industry. Essentially, a translation company will outsource most work to freelancers, and most of the time, even when the content has to be translated into English, they will give preference to the native Japanese with (questionable) English ability, rather than an English native who is fluent in Japanese. This may not be the case now, but this was a common pattern to be seen in many outsourced, as well as some in-house, projects at that particular company.

Below are some excerpts from the initial draft full of awful English. Unfortunately, most of the files were gone and I was only able to recover a first few pages of the rough draft.

囚人番号1350: おっと…こちらさんも物騒なツラしてらぁ

Prisoner 1350: Oops… You seem like a fuse, too…

真島: 桐生一馬チャンや！！

Majima: Kazuma Kiryu is he.

シンジ: そんなの金払わないヤツ等があることないこと言ってるだけで

Shinji: That's just a groundless rumor that the ones who don't have money to pay back are spread around, we are…

I really wish I kept the files of my rewrites and translations. There were some real killer lines, like one dialogue set at the batting cage where Kazuma more or less says he's going to smash this dude's balls with a baseball bat. The draft English was poor and uncreative, but the Japanese was perfectly set up, so a witty English equivalent could be translated. I was pretty proud of that one, yet for the life of me, I cannot recall the exact line.

The following months consisted of me deciphering Engrish into sometimes cliché, sometimes ghetto-thug inspired dialogs. I was explicitly encouraged to add loads of fucks and shits. I remember reading a review shortly after the release (I thought it was 1UP, but can't seem to find it) that complained about the excessive usage of swear words.

The writing process involved my work partner and I doing back-and-forth native Japanese checks and rewrites, as well as having numerous, frustratingly counter-productive meetings. I recall one meeting concerning how to translate terms used in the hierarchy, like oyabun, wakaishu, chinpira, etc. Personally, I wanted to keep it all in Japanese, but SEGA insisted that it all had to be in English. I first I suggested, half jokingly, we use the mafia equivalents. They actually considered it for a while… Luckily, that got vetoed, and a straight-up translation of the ranks, like brother for aniki and henchman for kobun, was used. The end product, in my opinion, was generic and less authentic.

Another debacle was deciding on the English title for the game. Ryu ga Gotoku was not exactly easily translatable; translated directly it would be "Like a Dragon". This is unnatural English, to say the least. We were fretting over what to name it, as it was our responsibility, for quite a while, but in the end SEGA just opted for Yakuza. I don't know if this is true, but I heard SEGA trademarked the word Yakuza in the U.S.

After the title was chosen, the script was written and tentatively approved, the voice actors based in Japan laid down their dubs as we finished up the system localization and debugging. It was a long project, and I was ready for it to end.

When Yakuza was finally handed over to SEGA of America, we received notice that the voice acting our company recorded was deemed unfit to use as a final product. I didn't really have anything to do with that aspect. SEGA ended up hiring some Hollywood stars, namely Mark Hamill for the part of Majima, to re-record. I was told SEGA rewrote portions of my script. I don't know how much, but apparently many of the fucks and derivatives of fuck were left intact: My shining achievement?

I never bothered playing the English version, especially after weeks of debugging had done my head in. However, the next winter break when I went back to the U.S. to visit family and friends (this was a few months after the U.S. release), I noticed at my friend's house a copy of the game. I told them I worked on it, and that I wanted to check the credits for my name. Much to my dismay, I was left out. It's possible I may have just missed it, as I didn't bother looking through them again to find it. In the end it's no big deal, but I just want to say: 地獄に落ちろ！(GO TO HELL, M●●●●ckers!)

Editor's note: I attempted to get confirmation from SEGA on Demian's role in localizing the first yakuza game, which I have no doubt that he did, but as of yet have gotten no response. If they do respond, I'll let you (our loyal readers) know. –Jake

Ex-Goto-gumi member wanted for murder killed in Thailand. Dead men have no mouths. 死人に口なし

According to several sources, on April 27th,  a Thai tour guide was arrested after he confessed to shooting to death one Japanese tourist and wounding another while they were trekking in northern Thailand. The two "tourists" are believed to be former yakuza members.

Apichart Inphisak, the 41-year-old guide, was arrested Tuesday at a friend's house 30 kilometers from Chiang Rai. The pistol he said he used to shoot the two Japanese was confiscated, according to local Thai press sources. Japanese police sources assert that the two Japanese individuals were both members of the Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi. One of the individuals is believed to have involved in the murder of real estate agent, Nozaki Kazuoki, in 2006.

On conditions of anonymity, Japanese police sources said, "It's clear that the two were assassinated on orders of former members of the Goto-gumi, possibly Goto himself. This makes prosecuting the case or taking it all the way up to the top extremely difficult." The Thai English Newspaper, the Nation reported one of the victims as being "Takashi Kodo,  age 44,  of the Sedu-kai gang in Tokyo". In all likelihood, it is probably Kondo Takashi (近藤毅）of the Yamaguchi-gumi Yamaken-gumi Seiryukai. (山口組山健組誠竜会）which has 120 members. The Goto-gumi was closely tied to the Yamaken-gumi in the past. Other law enforcement sources place him as having been in the Yamaguchi-gumi Rachi-gumi Seiryukai (山口組良知組政竜会).

In December of 2010, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested a former member of the Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi (Nobuyuki Yamamoto) for killing a real estate consultant,  Kazuoki Nozaki,  in a dispute over a building in Shibuya ward. The murder took place in 2006. A Goto-gumi front company was laying claim to the building and Nozaki-san was an obstacle in their plans. He was stabbed to death on the streets of Minato-ward. Yamamoto has denied receiving direct orders from Goto Tadamasa, his former gang-boss. An international arrest warrant for the superior of Nobuyuki Yamamoto was issued after Yamamoto's arrest and it is believed that the dead man and the individual in the arrest warrant are one and the same.

One of the two individuals shot  in Thailand was believed to have received instructions directly from Goto himself in the 2006 killing.  Underworld sources believe the two were shot to effectively close the case, stating, "The dead can't talk. (死人に口なし・shinin ni kuchi nashi)."

UPDATE: Japanese media outlets have started  reporting that one of the two dead men was subject to an international arrest warrant for the murder the real estate broker Mr. Nozaki, and that he was a former Yamaguchi-gumi member. I have yet to see anyone use the words "Goto-gumi" in the reports, but I may have just missed it.

UPDATE:  May 5th, 2011

The Tokyo Metropolian Police confirmed that the man killed in Thailand was indeed former Goto-gumi member  (Kondo Takashi aka Kondo Tsuyoshi) 近藤毅容疑者. He was also listed as 近藤剛. His alias or real name was Kobayashi Takashi (小林毅） aka Kobayashi Tsuyoshi. He was born December 20th, 1967. They are planning to posthumously file papers on him for charges of the murder of Mr. Nozaki in 2006.  The other organized crime member with him is in critical condition.

NOTE: The Thai police, according to some sources, believe that the Thai tour guide, Mr. Anphisak, was given the gun and paid to confess to the crime but did not actually pull the trigger. In other words, he's the patsy.

Ex-Goto-gumi members assassinated in Thailand!? Dead men have no mouths. 死人に口なし

According to several sources, on April 27th,  a Thai tour guide was arrested after he confessed to shooting to death one Japanese tourist and wounding another while they were trekking in northern Thailand. The two "tourists" are believed to be former yakuza members.

Apichart Inphisak, the 41-year-old guide, was arrested Tuesday at a friend's house 30 kilometers from Chiang Rai. The pistol he said he used to shoot the two Japanese was confiscated, according to local Thai press sources. Japanese police sources assert that the two Japanese individuals were both members of the Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi. One of the individuals is believed to have involved in the murder of real estate agent, Nozaki Kazuo, in 2006.

On conditions of anonymity, Japanese police sources said, "It's clear that the two were assassinated on orders of former members of the Goto-gumi, possibly Goto himself. This makes prosecuting the case or taking it all the way up to the top extremely difficult." The Thai English Newspaper, the Nation reported one of the victims as being "Takashi Kodo,  age 44,  of the Sedu-kai gang in Tokyo". In all likelihood, it is probably Kondo Takashi (近藤タカシ）of the Yamaguchi-gumi Yamaken-gumi Seiryukai. (山口組山健組誠竜会）which has 120 members. The Goto-gumi was closely tied to the Yamaken-gumi in the past.

In December of 2010, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested a former member of the Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi (Nobuyuki Yamamoto) for killing a real estate consultant,  Kazuoki Nozaki,  in a dispute over a building in Shibuya ward. The murder took place in 2006. A Goto-gumi front company was laying claim to the building and Nozaki-san was an obstacle in their plans. He was stabbed to death on the streets of Minato-ward. Yamamoto has denied receiving direct orders from Goto Tadamasa, his former gang-boss. One of the two individuals shot  in Thailand is believed to have received instructions directly from Goto himself.  Underworld sources believe the two were shot to effectively close the case, stating, "The dead can't talk. (死人に口なし・shinin ni kuchi nashi)."

Reports of sexual violence remain a rarity in disaster zones as both women and the media keep quiet

Ishinomaki Elementary School, now used as a shelter. Photo by Max Hodges

FNN news is reporting on the arrest of one Kyo Matsunaga, a 28-year-old man who is accused of raping a woman in her Iwate home during a blackout following a major aftershock. The case has caught media attention because Matsunaga's DNA matches DNA left at the scenes of two other rapes in Tokyo's Musashino area back in 2005. Police plan to transfer the suspect back to Tokyo and press additional charges.

This report is a rarity. It's a known fact that rape and other forms of sexual violence are common in the wake of natural disasters. Accounts of rape and violence after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake still trickle in today, despite the fact that they remained largely uncovered by the media at the time.

Just days after the March 11, the foreign media showered endless praise upon the 'noble' Japanese for their orderliness and honesty in numerous articles about how had been so little looting. (Check out this interesting Slate article hypothesising why) The next week some were redacting their astonishment as reports of theft and more widespread crime began to emerge. There are still very few reports of sexual violence, with articles instead focusing on police warnings against false rumours of rapes in evacuation centers (as noted by Debito). This April 1 Nikkei article even goes as far to say that, along with there having been no rapes reported in the disaster zone, rates of reported rape in Hyogo Prefecture–center of the Hanshin Quake–were the same in 1995 as they had been in 1994.

A few organizations have been working to prevent any further violence, documented or not, from occurring. Perhaps the newest of these, The Post-Earthquake Support For Women and Children Project (震災後の女性・子ども応援プロジェクト – English here) was started through the cooperation of several women and children's rights groups, including Polaris Project. The group has been working to distribute cards advising women and children to put their safety first and not hesitate to report sexual violence.

One wonders how many rape- and violence-less disasters it'll take before both the media and authorities realize the problem is real and needs to be given attention. Word of some evacuation centers setting up "Women Only" areas, much like a Tokyo train, are a start, but likely a small comfort for those who are forced to walk alone down streets with no electricity, or return to homes that lie empty because family members have been stolen by the tsunami.

The 8th International Conference on Asian Organized Crime and Terrorism

The FBI, the DEA, and the The International Organization of Asian Crime Investigators and Specialists (IOASIS) were kind enough to invite me to speak at their 8th conference, in Las Vegas, and allow me to attend the lectures with other law enforcement officers. I will be spending most of this week learning about areas of asian organized crime that I know nothing about in hopes of expanding my knowledge a little bit beyond the yakuza. (Not that I claim to be a living dictionary on the yakuza either. When I have all 78,000 member names and face memorized, than I'll feel like I know a lot.)

This week posting may be a little sparse but bare with us. We have some good articles planned for next week, including an interview with the director of the Great Happiness Space. I'm off to a lecture on Asian Organized Crime and Casinos. Hopefully, I'll hear some valuable tips to improve my blackjack game. (Not. I don't gamble. Not for money, anyway. Luck is better spent on other things.)

–Jake, writing from Sin City, USA.

Fashion model exodus from Tokyo! Many flee to a different runway

Over the past few weeks, foreign models working in Japan have been gracing a different runway– the one that leads directly out of the country.

According to a recent article in the Asahi Shinbun(朝日新聞), models for major names like Louis Vuitton and Gucci are leaving in great numbers due to panic over the nuclear situation in Fukushima. The parents of one 19-year old Belgian model, while crying on the phone to their son, begged him to come home; "We don't want you to get cancer!!"

a model and his over-priced garment react to bad news about the power plants

A spokesman from a modeling agency also noted that this panic is exacerbated by the models' respective governments, some of which have ordered its citizens to leave Japan or move far to the south. That Air France sent 2 planes to begin evacuating its citizens has become a well-known story among the modeling agencies.

The Czech Republic embassy, immediately upon hearing the news of the quake, pulled its models out of a photo shoot and evacuated them, along with other Czech nationals, on a military plane.

A fashion show in March also had to be canceled; although the official stance is that the rolling blackouts were to blame, the reality, one modeling agent claims, is that there were no models left to walk. The weekly magazine Shukan Shincho (週刊新潮）in their April 14th issue, also notes that many fashion magazines are having trouble to go to press after their cover models cancelled on them and left Japan.Editors of fashion magazines have reported trouble filling their pages, as they usually employ Western models. "We had several models scheduled to appear in our magazine next month, and as they have left the country, we may not be able to publish the issue".

Japan fashion expert, stylist and renown fashion blogger, Misha-Janette, confirms that there has indeed been an exodus of fashion models leaving Tokyo akin to the Jews fleeing Egypt, but she says the fashion Diaspora may be slowly coming to a halt.

"Many of the current high-end fashion models are from Eastern Europe and they left in droves. There have been a number of photo shoots cancelled because there weren't enough models to do them. There has been an upsurge of casting calls on twitter and other social media as well."

Misha-Janette also notes that there are two types of foreign fashion models in demand in Japan now. The tall, thin, and drop-dead gorgeous models are in demand for Japanese companies marketing their wares internationally, while Japanese companies focussed on domestic marketing prefer "the gaijin-girl-next-door look".  She explains, "The word for it is busu-kawaii (ブス可愛い), homely and cute. These are girls who don't look like typical fashion models. They smile, don't wear much make-up, seem friendly. That's the natural look that's big here. Some women are able to do both."

Camille Blanchot, a french model, with her red curly hair, freckles, and friendly smile is always in demand as a model and actress, domestically and internationally. However, after ignoring the French government and resolving to stay in Tokyo, she has been besieged with calls for modeling jobs. She's glad she stayed. Her name Camille, when shortened into Japanese is Cami and she is playfully referred to by those in the industry as Kami-sama (神様）literally  "Honorable Goddess."  She was nice enough to come down from the heavens and speak with us about this dire crisis.

"I'm a big fan of  the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho (週刊新潮) and their article is right on le money. A few weeks ago, I  still had to go to auditions to get really excellent jobs, but now it is like I get to audition the clients. I'm very happy to be getting so much work and so happy I stayed. The tremors are a little scary but you get used to them. I am always happy to walk down the runway; I never run. I like the runway. I am not the type to run-away," she says laughing and demonstrating "model behavior."

While many models flee to the runway (at the airports), some models like Camille Blanchot (aka 神様）stay to walk the lonely runways of high fashion.

For all your fashion news in Tokyo in English, here's the place to go. On twitter @FashionTubuyaki

This article was a Stephanie Nakajima and Jake Adelstein production. No models were injured or fled during the making of this article.

If you're a gaijin left in Japan, high fashion wants you. #Quakebook campaign cover model 2011

Anyone can be a fashion model now. Jake Adelstein models Hello Kitty Pajamas for the #Quakebook multi-yen marketing campaign. First person to gift 50 copies wins the actual pajamas. Amazing offer.

#2:46 Aftershocks: Stories From The Japan Earthquake Published. Give a little, learn a lot, help some people.

2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake aka #Quakebook, which is a compilation of art, stories, and essays to raise money for Japan earthquake survivors, went on sale today. All revenues go to the Japan Red Cross. Contributors include many Japanese citizens, foreigners who stayed in Japan, those who had to leave, and science fiction author, William Gibson, singer-songwriter-artist, Yoko Ono, and investigative journalist, Jake Adelstein.

You'll hear a lot about how Quakebook started on Twitter, a social media network, with a single tweet (blog entry), but like many great ideas, it started in the shower. After the Great Tohoku Pacific Earthquake and Tsunami, a British teacher who blogs under the name Our Man in Abiko was trying to find a way to help the suffering survivors and combat his own sense of helplessness. It finally came to him while he was washing up one evening a week after the quake. "It was a eureka moment," he said. "I don't have any medical skills, and I'm not a helicopter pilot, but I can edit. I can put together a book with voices from all over. I'm doing what I can do."  His wife suggested he get dressed first. First things first: he tweeted, "If everyone wrote one page…I could edit, publish it in days."

He got his first submission two hours later and had most of the final eighty-nine essays, illustrations and photos within two days. Most submissions were accepted. Our Man said, "The editorial policy was: If you sent it and it was honest, it went in." People in England, Canada and both coasts of the US answered calls on Twitter for editors and designers.  This included science fiction writer William Gibson, who produced a 300-word essay in just three hours to meet Our Man's half-joking deadline. Thriller writer Barry Eisler contributed a forward, in which he says "if my books have been love letters to Japan this is an SOS." The final contributor to this edition was Yoko Ono. As the layout was being finalized, the artist submitted a piece she wrote on March 11.

The 98-page book itself was finished just nine days from the first proposal. It was finally given an official title, 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake. although it continues to be known simply as #Quakebook on Twitter. Then there was the small matter of getting it out into the world on a major platform with a donation model that had never been used before. From the start, Our Man insisted that no less than 100% of revenue from the book would go directly to the Japanese Red Cross Society. Trouble is, any service that hosts book sales takes a cut. In an unprecedented arrangement, Amazon has agreed to waive all of its fees and give 100% of revenue from the digital edition to the Japanese Red Cross. Amazon will also reimburse buyers the $2 international purchase surcharge.

At Friday's press conference, the editor, who has asked to remain anonymous, talked about the way Twitter facilitated the process.  "Anything we needed, we put it on Twitter and a person or company came forward, ready to put their resources behind it. Ninety-nine percent of the time, people did what they said they would do. If they couldn't, someone else came forward." Talking about finding people to help navigate the complex obstacles of publishing formats, donation schemes and tax considerations he said, "It's like asking your neighbor to fix your bike: if he can't do it, he knows someone who can. It was that, on a global scale."

The title of the book comes from the 9.0 magnitude earthquake which struck Japan on March 11th at 2:46 pm. The book is sad, funny, moving, and tragic. It is not just a book about mourning those who have departed, it is also a celebration of the good will of those who remain. The $9.99 price tag is the cost of a stiff drink in Tokyo. Instead of downing a shot of whiskey, make a toast to the living and the dead and buy a copy. It's your chance to contribute a little something to the world. It's not often that we get that chance.

The book: 2:46 Aftershocks aka Quakebook was a community creation. All proceeds to the Japan Red Cross.

Sandra Barron who runs the Quakebook blog and myself put together this article. Please purchase a copy of Quakebook if you can and gift it to those who you know in Japan or love this country. 恩に着ます。

Why Japan's Mainstream Media Can't Be Trusted To Report Objectively On TEPCO (東京電力）

When the earthquake struck Japan on March 11th and knocked out TEPCO's Fukushima nuclear reactor, setting off a chain reaction of disasters–TEPCO's chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata was nowhere to be found.  Where was he? He was on a tour of China with members of some of Japan's largest media outlets–and TEPCO was footing the bill.

On March 30th, not only did TEPCO admit that the chairman had been taking Japanese mass media power brokers on the trip to China but also that TEPCO paid the majority of the travel fees for the participants. On April 7th, a reporter asked TEPCO to reveal the names of the mass media firms that had executives and/or former executives joining the chairman on his trip, but TEPCO dodged the question.

It's well known that TEPCO pays huge advertising fees to most media outlets; it is one of the largest advertisers in Japan. It's not as well known that the president of TEPCO, Masataka Shimizu, is also the chairman of  the Japan Society for Corporate Communication Studies (JSCCS), which includes among its members former and current top executives from Asahi Beer, Toyota, and Dentsu, Japan's largest advertising agency. In a sense, the president of TEPCO is the chairman of what is whispered to be the equivalent of a lobby group that wields the power of advertising revenue over anyone who crosses their paths. It is ostensibly a group of scholars, executives, advertising agency bosses, mass media representatives, and businessmen who gather together to study more effective means of communications. Veteran Japanese reporters assert that the society also functions as powerful consortium of large corporations who know how to use the threat of taking away advertising dollars as a whip to keep the Japanese media muzzled.

You don't have to be too bright to figure out that if TEPCO, Toyota, Asahi Beer and Dentsu somehow banded together and pulled advertising from your newspaper, television channel, or radio program, that it would be financially devastating.

Masataka Shimizu, the president of TEPCO, is still listed as the chairman of the JSCCS but on April 1st his "greetings" were taken down from the sight and replaced with the words of the vice-chairman. The current page expresses condolences to the victims of the recent disasters. There is no mention of the problems at the Fukushima reactor,  only that Chairman Shimizu is now too busy dealing with the disaster to fully devote himself to his duties for the organization.

According to a mainstream Japanese media reporter, the TEPCO tours of China have been going on for over ten year. "The trips have a token amount of study, such as visiting a factory, or whatever has been scheduled to justify the event for that year. In reality, most of the day is devoted to sight-seeing. At night the TEPCO executives wine and dine the reporters, editors, or  mass media representatives. And of course, the obligatory karaoke."

It's not surprising that much of the Japanese mainstream media has been less than critical of  TEPCO up until now. It's very hard to raise your voice loud enough to be heard from inside the pocket of your sponsor.

The president of TEPCO also is chairman of the Japan Society For Corporate Communication Studies. Their motto: "Striving to create a new vision of society." It may be a myopic one.

Of earthquakes, tsunami and the ephemeral

by Orlando Camargo

Those of us living far away from our parents dread the thought. A call in the middle of the night asking you to book a flight – ASAP.

"Dad is not well." March 2nd.

The next day I got the first possible flight out of Narita to Florida but did not make it in time to say good-bye to my 84-year old Papi. RIP.

Within 9 days I would get another middle-of-the-night call, this time from Tokyo asking me to get the first flight back to Japan.

"Japan is not well". March 11th.

So starts my March to remember.

After quickly returning to Japan on the 13th of March, and making sure family, clients and work were fine, the decision to volunteer in Ibaraki was a simple one.  27 years ago I first came to Japan to work as a Monbusho  (Ministry of Education) English Fellow, the precursor program to today's JET program. I was assigned to Ibaraki and lived in what was then a beautiful scenic capital – Mito. After two years helping in Ibaraki schools, I then accepted a government scholarship to attend graduate school at Tsukuba University – also in Ibaraki. So those first five years in Japan rooted me deeply to the Prefecture.

When I was watching the news of the devastation from outside of Japan, the focus was on Miyagi and Fukushima – but I knew that Ibaraki had also been hard hit, especially along the coast, and especially on the northern tip near the Fukushima border.  No one was telling the Ibaraki story. I felt I owed so much to the people of Ibaraki who had given me so much. It wasn't enough to just send money or make calls. I had to do something.

I was also seeing news of foreigners "fleeing" Japan – the now infamous flyjin. I was amazed upon my return to see Narita airport full of foreigners leaving the country. The only large group of incoming foreigners to catch my attention was the Mongolian emergency rescue team!

Mongolian Rescue Team at Narita

I could not fathom leaving Japan at this time. I had to go up to Ibaraki to help.

I started making calls and seeing how I could help. All the public volunteer announcements were asking for only locals. Apparently the civil servants did not want to worry about housing or feeding volunteers.  "Don't come unless you can fend for yourself – there are no trains, few buses and long lines for gas," I was warned. I had prepared for this and had bought plenty of camping gear and goods from the US to both hold me for at least 10 days and to bring on my trip to Northern Ibaraki.

When I arrived to the Kita Ibaraki City Offices looking like a back packer, the head coordinator smiled like he knew me, "So you are Mr. Camargo. We were told you would likely arrive. Welcome". I had been tweeting and talking to many people in the Prefecture before my departure so apparently news of my possible arrival had already reached them.

As you can guess I was the only foreigner in our group of volunteers. No one would have cared if I had come from Mars. There was work to do. For the next week I would carry boxes of water, bags of rice and bundles of futon with about 40 other volunteers. We would also travel to either the coast or inland to help clear out debris from damaged homes. We would also visit the community centers and deliver goods.

There is where my March moment would come.

It was when I saw so many elderly alone and unattended.

The shelters have and will get plenty of relief aid. They can always use more money but that too will come. But what I saw in athletic gyms turned community centers were elderly folks sleeping on cardboard boxes near kerosene stoves. Many were alone and disoriented. Yes, they still had their lives, but many had lost their homes and some, even their loved ones.

As I watch my the 27th season of cherry blossoms twitter in the spring outside my Tokyo window, I ask myself, "what do the people in the Ibaraki shelters need most?"

Maybe what they need most is what I could not give my Dad enough of -

…..a warm hand and more time to share the blossoms.

BIO

Orlando Camargo has worked for the Japanese government, for a Wall Street Investment bank and has headed a global public relations company in Tokyo. When he is not volunteering in Ibaraki (http://orlandojpn.posterous.com/) , he can also be spotted around Tokyo's rustic neighborhoods taking photos (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurokoshiroko/) in search of the perfect yakitori.

.

The Return of The King: Yamaguchi-gumi boss leaves prison today

Today April 9th (Japan time) around 6am, the head of Japan's largest organized crime group, the Yamaguchi-gumi (山口組・40,000 members), Shinobu Tsukasa-kumicho (司忍組長), will leave Fuchu Prison after serving his time for violations of Japanese Firearms and Swords Laws. He is now 69 years old. He officially became the 6th generation leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi on August 27th, 2005 at a succession ceremony at the Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters in Kobe. He quickly engineered a merger with the Tokyo based crime group, the Kokusui-kai* (国粋会）on September 7th, the same year,  expanding the Yamaguchi-gumi into Tokyo and expanding their power base considerably.

(*NOTE: The head of the Kokusui-kai at the time of the Yamaguchi-gumi merger would later commit suicide by putting a plastic bag over his head and shooting his brains out on in his own home on February 15th 2007. Investigators found the gun he used still in his hands. Some forensic pathologists say that would be unusual since the recoil usually makes gun fly out of a person's hand when they shoot themselves in the head.)

On November 29th, 2005, Tsukasa-kumicho's legal battle to have a conviction for violations of the firearms and swords laws ended and his sentence of six years of hard labor went into effect. On December 5th, he turned himself into the Osaka Police Department and began serving his time. While he was gone, he trusted the organization to his number two (wakagashira),  Kiyoshi Takayama. Takayama  was arrested last years on charges of extortion that seem likely to stick and Tsukasa-kumicho is returning to an organization that has been severely cracked down on by the police September of 2009.  Around September 30th of 2009, Takaharu Ando, the head of Japan's National Police Agency, declared war on the Yamaguchi-gumi and more specifically on the faction that Tsukasa-kumicho came from, the Yamaguchi-gumi Kodokai (山口組弘道会).

Tsukasa-kumicho has been housed at the Fuchu Prison since February 6th of 2006, after he was transferred from an Osaka prison. His return to power marks a great period of transition for the Yamaguchi-gumi. If he picks another Kodo-kai member as his second-in-command it is very likely to encourage even harsher police crackdowns on the group and related groups as well. On the plus side, Tsukasa-kumicho is very much of a disciplinarian and is expected to harshly enforce internal regulations, especially the ban on trading in drugs or using them. The Japanese mainstream mass media is camped outside Fuchu Prison as well as the yakuza fanzines. In the tight knit yakuza world, the release of Tsukasa-kumicho is like the Return of The King in Middle-Earth. It will be interesting to see how he begins his new reign. He is expected to arrive at the Kobe headquarters before noon today.

The release of Shinobu Tsukasa-kumicho, the head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, is the biggest news of the year for the yakuza world (and fanzines).