Tokyo Briefing - May 2005

News this month

Turning up the tension

Tokyo lawmakers appear to be in no hurry to ease the recent tensions with China. On April 21st, 168 Diet members and assorted aides visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which commemorates Japan's 2.5m war dead, including 1,000 convicted war criminals. Trying to cool the row, Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, apologised for Japan's war crimes in a speech in Jakarta on April 22nd. But tensions were revived three days later when a Japanese court ruled that visits to the controversial shrine by Mr Koizumi and Shintaro Ishihara, Tokyo's governor, did not violate Japan's pacifist constitution since they were “private”.

This came a couple of weeks after protesters in China and South Korea rallied against a Japanese textbook that plays down Japanese war crimes. The absence of proper apologies from Japan for its actions during the second world war has been a point of friction between the two countries. The Yasukuni Shrine's exhibits include tendentious accounts of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, and a film that calls Pearl Harbour a “battle for Japan's survival”. The lawmakers who visited the shrine were mostly members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, including Tamisuke Watanuki, a former House of Representatives speaker, and Makoto Koga, a former party Secretary General.

Responding in kind

In apparent reprisals for the anti-Japan rallies held in China, vandals in Tokyo attacked buildings affiliated with its Communist neighbour. A nameplate on a gate outside the Chinese ambassador's official Tokyo residence was defaced with spray paint. In Tokyo's Bunkyo ward, holes from pellets fired by an air rifle were found in a glass door to a Chinese-language school operated by the Japan-China Friendship Centre.

The vandalism in Tokyo took place after the anti-Japanese demonstrations in Shanghai and several other Chinese cities, in which several Japanese-owned stores and diplomatic buildings were damaged. The riots were apparently organised by students using mobile phones and computers. Though the Beijing government initially encouraged the protests, it has since moved to defuse the movement, as such high-tech organising tactics could threaten the country's leadership. Besides an increased police presence at key sites in early May, millions of Chinese got somewhat threatening text messages saying: “Don't make trouble.”

More than just rocks

One of the many bits of turf that China and Japan are arguing about now includes Okinotori, a tiny rock formation some 1,700 kilometres south of Tokyo, in the Ogasawara island chain. At the urging of Tokyo's governor, Shintaro Ishihara, the city government has put up ¥500m ($4.75m) in subsidies for fishing operations around Okinotori Island, aiming to bolster claims that the uninhabited territory belongs to Japan. One of the first sponsored expeditions returned on April 19th.

Wind and waves have eroded much of the island, so that only a few metres of rocky formations stand above water at high tide. But adding the tiny island to Japan's exclusive economic zone would net the country 400,000 square-kilometres of territory and some valuable fishing rights. China argues that Okinotori is too small to be considered an island.

Pushing granny aside

Joining an international chorus, elderly Japanese often grouse that public-etiquette standards have fallen precipitously. They now have a martyr for their cause. After a 65-year-old woman admonished Akimi Odajima, aged 22, for putting on her makeup on a train platform in Hiroo station, Ms Odajima allegedly pushed her critic against a subway train moving at 35km per hour. The older woman suffered several broken bones in her chest. Traditionally in Japan, it is considered rude to eat or apply makeup in public.

A Prince's retinue

Tokyo's luxury hotels have been anxiously awaiting an expected glut of offerings. Last month they got one more competitor: the Prince Hotel chain's new flagship, the ¥30 billion Tokyo Prince Hotel Park Tower, near the Tokyo Tower in Minato ward. Those aiming to burn serious money will have little trouble here, where among the 673 guestrooms is the ¥980,000-per-night “Royal Suite” on the 32nd floor. One banquet hall is adorned with 21 chandeliers, each costing ¥20m. At an average nightly rate of about ¥50,000 yen, rooms are more than twice as expensive as the average upscale Tokyo hotel. But expect these prices to go down soon: a Mandarin Oriental and a Hilton-affiliated Conrad are scheduled to open later this year. The Ritz-Carlton and the Peninsula are planning branches in 2007.

The Prince Hotel chain and its owner, the Seibu Railway Group, could use a lift after its image was badly tarnished by a scandal involving Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the group's former chairman. The new hotel was the last big investment by the hotel- and real-estate mogul before his arrest earlier this year on charges of insider trading and falsifying financial reports.

Catch if you can

May 2005

Grand Sumo Summer Tournament

May 8th-22nd 2005

Sumo's reigning grand champion, 24-year-old Asashoryu, is the sport's only yokozuna (top-ranking fighter). The Mongolian wrestler, known for pummelling his opponents, will take on challengers to his title during a 15-day tournament this month. It is not the first time that a foreigner has so utterly dominated this quintessentially Japanese sport; indeed, home-grown sumo champions have been thin on the ground in recent years (so to speak). Asashoryu weighs only 150kg, so he has to make up for his relative lack of heft with skill, speed and sheer strength. But few look likely to beat him.

The National Sumo Stadium (Ryogoku Kokugikan), 1-3-28 Yokoami, Sumida-Ku. Tel: + 81 (03) 3623-5111. Ryogoku Station on the Sobu Line. The daily tournament starts at 2pm, and builds to a climax at about 5.30 pm.

See the website of the Japan Sumo Association (in English and Japanese).

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