Economist.com Cities Guide: Tokyo Briefing - January 2006

News this month

Military disorder

The murder of a 56-year-old woman in Yokosuka, a town near Tokyo that hosts a US Naval base, has reignited anger over America’s military presence in Japan. William Reese, a 21-year-old US Navy sailor, allegedly accosted Yoshie Sato as she walked to work on January 3rd, robbing and then beating her to death (he denies intending to kill her). The incident tested an agreement forged a decade ago in the wake of a now notorious case in Okinawa, when a 12-year-old girl was raped by a US marine. Mr Reese was initially taken into American custody on the base, but was then handed over to Japanese police, who arrested the sailor themselves. While the Okinawa agreement did not require this transfer, an amendment to the agreement encourages America to hand over suspects in particularly heinous crimes.

Yokosuka’s proximity to Tokyo ensured that the attack would be covered heavily in major newspapers, and the incident has sparked outrage in the capital. Criminal disorder by American forces is increasingly perceived as a pressing issue on the mainland, rather than a problem confined to Japan’s distant islands. The timing could not be worse: America hopes to make critical shifts in its military-base deployment in Japan, and must rely heavily on the goodwill of locals. The commander of US Navy forces in the region visited Japan’s foreign ministry on January 12th, in an effort to make amends.

Bridge bashing

Shigeru Itou, Japan’s top urban-planning expert, spent two years ranking the country's most hideous spots. In “Ugly Japan”, the report he released in December, he dubbed Tokyo's Nihombashi bridge the “country’s ugliest sight”, followed by a bike park and a bubble-era ghost village. The bridge, from which all distances to Tokyo are measured, was thrown across a critical stretch of river in the 17th century to promote trade. It was elegantly renovated in the early years of the 20th century, but in the 1960s, to Mr Itou’s horror, an eight-lane motorway was built on stilts a few metres above it, blocking all daylight and making the bridge a blot on the landscape.

Mr Itou, a professor emeritus of Tokyo University, says his report is not merely an exercise in sadism, but a way to inspire efforts to beautify the landscape. He heads a government panel with the purpose of promoting a “Japan beauty renaissance” and undoing some of the architectural crimes of the last century. Such is the professor's influence with Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, that he requested a study into restoring Nihombashi to its former glory by rerouting the highway above it. Mr Itou will submit a full proposal for the renovation by September. If the plan goes ahead, work will be finished by 2012.

Doggy style

As 2006 is the Year of the Dog, Mr Koizumi used his first press conference of the year to praise dog breeding patterns. He spoke wistfully of big puppy litters, hoping to inspire Japanese couples to make more babies themselves. In December, the government released data that warned that Japan’s falling birthrate would cut the country’s population in half within a century unless something is done to reverse the trend.

Many suspect that Mr Koizumi's peculiar advice was especially targeted at women in Tokyo, where fertility rates are among the lowest in Japan. The advice came weeks after a cabinet office proposed measures to make child-rearing more attractive. The changes, suggested in December, would redraw civil-service rules, allowing women to work flexible hours and converting unused retail space into child daycare centres.

Ready to blow?

North-western Japan is covered with its heaviest blanketing of snow in nearly 60 years, but Tokyoites have been enjoying a winter of blue skies. Thanks to the clear weather, the capital’s tallest buildings are offering excellent views of Mount Fuji, but the sight is causing some alarm: in a record year of snowfall, Fuji’s peak remains brown and arid. Some worry that the lack of snow portends an eruption of the iconic volcano.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency says the snow-free cap is perfectly normal, as there has been no cold front. But Masaaki Kimura, a seismology professor at the University of the Ryukyus, has done little to allay local fears, declaring that the magma build-up inside Mount Fuji is now at a critical stage. “Mount Fuji erupts about once every 300 years”, the professor told the Shukan Post. “And it's been about 300 years since Mount Fuji's last eruption.”

Celebrity slump

CM Databank, a Tokyo-based research firm, has a cruel shock for any Hollywood star hoping to earn a fast yen by appearing in Japanese advertisements. CM's researchers each year chart the “impact” of advertisements on television viewers, ranking the audience's receptiveness to those that use celebrities. In 1989, when the use of western celebrities in Japanese commercials was at its peak, 32 adverts on the “Impact top 100” chart used Hollywood stars. Such was the demand for American celebrities that one could expect $1.5m for appearing in an advertisement.

But this golden era seems to have come to an end. In 2005, fewer than half a dozen ad campaigns featured westerners, and for the first time since CM created its impact chart, the top 100 did not include a single American, British or European film star, other than the cartoon characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Catch if you can

January 2006

Tokyo-Berlin/Berlin-Tokyo

January 28th-May 7th 2006

Since opening in 2003, the Mori Museum has hosted a string of powerful exhibitions. This month brings another: an examination of the cultural interplay between Berlin and Tokyo, two of the world’s fastest-changing cities.

David Elliott, the show's British curator (and director of the Mori), has brought together some 500 works of art dating from the late 19th century (when Japan opened to the West) to modern times. Visitors can examine the links between Bauhaus and Japanese architecture and design; the impact of Germany's avant-garde movement on Tokyo's artists, and the effect of the second world war on the culture of both cities. With works by individual artists and photographers, the show investigates the broader historical events that have shaped the two cities over the last 150 years.

After a three-month stint in Tokyo, the show will proceed to Berlin, in time for the final rounds of the football World Cup.

Mori Art Museum, 53F Roppongi Hills, Roppongi 6-10-1, Minato-Ku, Tokyo. Tel: + 81 (03)5777-8600. Take the Oedo or Hibiya Line to Roppongi Station. Open: daily, 10am-10pm (Tues until 5pm). See also the Mori Museum's website.

More from the Tokyo cultural calendar