Peace On Earth/Earth Garden 3/11 remembrance, gathering to co-create a life-sustaining culture, March 3-11, 2014 @Tokyo

IMA 3-Year Anniversary @ Tokyo this Sunday: Celebrating awakening, resilience, compassion, community as we transition to a Post-3/11 World

Right: Poster for Jeffrey's Jousan's "Tohoku Laughing"; Right: Dean Newcombe and Justin Berti of IMA. 

Photo: IMA (Intrepid Model Adventures) 3 year Anniversary Party!

Until 3/11, nuclear plants supplied one third of Japan's energy; they're all offline now. However, they're poised for restarts in March. Instead of systemizing the radical energy conservation efforts instituted right after the Fukushima meltdowns and aggressively supporting a shift to renewable energy, the Japanese government and energy companies have turned to global-warming fossil fuels: oil, coal, LNG (liquified natural gas) to make up for the loss. Because of this increase in imported energy (compounded by a monetary policy aimed at devaluing the yen), Japan posted a record trade deficit in 2013, an economically unsustainable situation used to justify the planned return to nuclear power. 

However, the proposed restarts won't be met with complacence. Heightened awareness and social energy in post-3/11 Japan has given rise to deepening collaboration between old and new Nuclear-Free activists, Japanese people and expats, across interrelated issues (organic, local, slow, low-consumption, fossil-free, renewable energy, fair trade), and across borders.

This month a lot of this amazing energy is visible above radar. Canadian environmentalist Severn Cullis-Suzuki (daughter of David Suzuki) is traveling throughout Japan, screening Occupy Love, Velcrow Ripper's third film in his "Fierce Love" trilogy about nonviolent grassroots environmental and social change movements.

And one of the founders of Beautiful Energy, Dean Newcombe, has been spotlighted in a nice feature by Liane Wakabayashi at JT. The Japan-based Scottish model, founder of Intrepid Model Adventures, shared his story about how he was spurred to personal action after witnessing the plight of 3/11 survivors.

Knew Dean Newcombe and his colleagues are dynamic, but didn't realize the breadth, depth, interconnections of their activities. It's a little hard to keep up: volunteering and raising funds for reconstruction in Tohoku; bringing hot meals to and supporting nuclear evacuees from Futaba; supporting fair trade; raising funds for typhoon reconstruction in the Phillipines; instituting a scholarship fund for an orphanage in Bali; supporting Hafu David Yano's NGO which is building a school in Ghana; initiating Beautiful Energy's Nuclear Free/Renewable Energy advocacy every Friday in Tokyo; and screening socially significant films.

The charismatic leader and networker  explained how serendipity, combined with intentional support of authenticity, snowballed his initiative in Tohoku into many directions :

“One of the surprises that perhaps I didn’t expect,” says Newcombe, “is that the volunteers that worked with me in Tohoku would step forward to suggest Tohoku-related support projects that we could do in Tokyo.”

“I want them to apply skills they were born with to make right what they believe is wrong. Deep down we all see what is wrong and unjust in this world. It’s just our choice whether we do something about it!”

This Sunday, IMA and related groups are celebrating their three-year anniversary all day at the Pink Cow in Tokyo.

2pm – A documentary film "Tohoku Laughing" (笑う東北) by Jeffrey Jousan (30 minutes)

(Photo: IMA (Intrepid Model Adventures) 3 year Anniversary Party!)

Events include the screening of Tohoku Laughing" (笑う東北), a 30-minute documentary by Jeffrey Jousan:

Filmed in September 2012 in Miharu, Fukushima, Ishinomaki, Kitakamigawa, Oiwake Hot Spring and Minami Sanriku

It took about 2 years after the Tsunami but people in Tohoku that we met started saying that they could finally laugh again,as if they had entered a new stage in dealing with their horrific experiences. Everyone's process of dealing with these events continues and will continue for some time.

This is a little film to share the healing and life affirming power of laughter, from the awesome people of Tohoku. Please come to Tohoku and laugh!

This post sounds like a valentine, because it is, to all at Beautiful Energy, Hot Meals for the People of Fukushima (双葉町交流プロジェクト( and IMA, MTM, et al., with appreciation for their efforts (born out of compassion), creating ripple effects, bringing people together in unexpected ways to help actualize the best in each other and a peaceful, affirmative, life-sustaining world.

(Photo: Beautiful Energy)

Snowy Weekend in Tokyo

"Snowy Weekend in Tokyo" (Photo: Kimberly Hughes) 

Kurashi: No "cheap" nuclear power for Tokyo, regardless of who wins governorship

Via Martin Frid at Kurashi, who explains why Tokyo won't be supplied with s "cheap" nuclear power, regardless of who wins the Tokyo governorship:

But the reality is that for Tokyo citizens, there is very little possibility of nuclear power plants to provide energy for the city's bright lights. Consumers, who vote, should know that only a handful of nuclear power plants that may provide energy to the metropolis are even candidates for restarts.

A reminder: Currently, none of Japan's 48 nuclear power plants are online. Japan has completely gone off the nuclear "heroin" drug.

But 16 are applying for restarts as of February 1, 2014.

Of those, only two would be in any position to provide Tokyo with electricity. Those are reactors 6 and 7 in Kashiwasaki Kariwa in far away Niigata prefecture. Both were severely shaken by the earthquake back in 2007, so we know they are not yet confirmed to be safe as such. No other reactors that may provide Tokyo voters with energy are about to be restarted.

I went on a tour back in 2008 at the world's largest nuclear plant in Kashiwazaki Kariwa in Niigata prefecture, western Japan. It has seven nuclear reactors that are currently all undergoing repairs after the massive earthquake in July, 2007. The PR from Tepco, the electricity company that runs the plant, was confusing at first, (BBC) and it is clear that damage was more severe than initially reported...

As for the rest, such as the controversial Hamaoka reactor southwest of Tokyo, they have recently built a huge 22 meter high wall hoping that will stop a potential tsunami. And that would not be providing Tokyo residents with juice for their heated toilets, air conditioners, rechargeable gadgets, or else. And I know there are any number of factory owners and businesses that hope for cheap electricity, but it just is not going to happen.

The Tokyo election on February 9 is not about nuclear power, because the capital of Japan no longer has any number of nuclear plants to provide it with "cheap" electricity.

Greens Japan back Kenji Utsunomiya as Tokyo gubernatorial candidate: "We won't forget the people of Okinawa and Fukushima."

(Via Kenji Utsunomiya on FB) 

At the 2.2 Hachiko Square, Shibuya, Tokyo campaign rally, Tokyo gubernatorial candidate Kenji Utsunomiya praised Okinawan citizen democracy and acknowledged the suffering of  people in Japan's sacrifice zones. Okinawa, a prefecture the size of Rhode Island, hosts over 30 military bases; and 290,000 people from Tohoku, including 160,000 nuclear refugees, remain in temporary housing limbo, three years after 3/11: 

The people of Okinawa did not sell their soul for money...We won't forget the people of Okinawa and Fukushima.

Backed by the Greens, Utsunomiya came in a far second in the last Tokyo gubernatorial election. His campaign is considered a long shot by many; in 2012 he received around 15% (968,960) of the vote compared to LDP candidate Naoki Inose's 65% (4,338,936). However, analysts may be underestimating the momentum for democracy, social justice, and peace in Japan. Moreover, it's uplifting to see so many people in Tokyo express solidarity with the people of Okinawa and Fukushima, and who look at Okinawa as a source of inspiration for their own movement for participatory democracy.

Inose resigned in December, after one year of office, because of allegations of corruption. Utsnomiya's major opponents are LDP candidate Yoichi Masuzoe (an ally of current PM Abe), former PM Morihiro Hosokawa (campaigning with former PM Koizumi),  and General Toshio Tamogami. Similarly to Utsunomiya, Hosokawa  favors a nuclear-free stance and an environmentally-friendly Olympics; however the two candidates diverge on policy details, as well as overall vision. The other two are pro-nuclear and favor lavish spending on the Olympics.

Kenji Utsunomiya, a former president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, has dedicated his career to addressing structural poverty and social justice issues (including multicultural inclusion). He specialized in poverty-related law cases, including victims of predatory lending overcome the burden of multiple loans.  He served as honorary mayor of a makeshift village for homeless workers in Tokyo's Hibiya Park in 2008. He speaks to the plight of many, especially youth, who suffer from irregular employment, deepening structural poverty, and resulting increased homelessness in Japan.

Since the collapse of Japan's Bubble Economy in 1991 and, again, since the 2008 US housing bubble crash that affected the international economy, the postwar Japanese middle class society and Peace Constitution have come under assault.  The nation's zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) has long decimated any expectation of savings income for Japanese retirees, who have had to use up their shrinking principal for living costs. The current administration's quantitative easing monetary policy maintains a zero interest rate, thus creating easy money. This benefits speculative borrowers, fuels new bubbles, and hurts the ordinary Japanese person.

51% of Japanese single-parent households are living in poverty. Japan’s welfare system only assists 18 percent of people under the poverty line. Last year, the administration raised the consumption tax to 8%.  Moreover, PM Abe has cut welfare benefits and increased military spending last summer, reported Tomohiro Osaki in "Abe set to squeeze the poor."

Surrounded by mother and children supporters at a rally in Ginza on Feb. 4.

Kenji Utsunomiya: "Childcare, work, education are serious issues."  

(Photo: Kenji Utsunomiya on FB) 

In a talk given at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo, the charismatic candidate detailed Tokyo's many socio-economic problems and how he would solve them:

• 43,000 elderly individuals  in Tokyo are waiting to get into a care facility.

• Day care: The official number of children on a waiting list is 8,000 children, but the actual number is probably actually closer to 20,000.

• Under former Governor Ishihara, no new public housing was constructed. Meanwhile, 750,000 housing units are empty in Tokyo. Would introduce a program for Tokyo to pay rental fees of empty units and provide them to residents as public housing.

• Initiate a subsidy program for the working poor. Problem of employment a serious problem for young people. Sad truth young people in Japan no longer to have much hope. They are treated as temporary workers. Exploitative "black companies" that use up young workers. Outlaw them in Tokyo, to prevent people from dying from overwork.

• Tokyo disaster prevention program. Subsidies to reinforce buildings and fireproof wooden homes. Start a movement from Tokyo throughout the nation to abolish nuclear power.

• Support the movement for a nuclear-free Japan from Tokyo to other regions. Work to help the evacuees and victims still living in Fukushima.      

• Address bullying in schools; work to create vibrant, hopeful school cultures.

• Stop the de facto revision of Article 9 by halting efforts to engage Japan in "collective defense."  Would work to defend the Japanese Constitution and to dispatch messages of peace to Asian neighbors.

• Simple and environmentally-friendly Olympics and Paralympics.    

Utsunomiya responded to a question about the South China Sea tensions by saying that  the era of using war to resolve territorial conflicts is over. He added that diplomacy is a better way to address international disputes, and explained that Tokyo and other autonomous local governments are able to convey messages of peace to Asian neighbors, even if the national government is unable to do. He suggested that peace-based messages would ensure an amicable atmosphere which would foster the success of the Olympics.

Utsunomiya emphasized that the international sporting event, is, after all, a festival and celebration of peace and friendship.  He compared prewar aggression to increasing geopolitical tensions of recent years: Tokyo was supposed to host the 1940 Olympics, however this was not realized because the war between Japan and China began to escalate around that time. Also, in 1939, World War Two began in Europe. 

When asked why he had not considered merging his campaign with Morihiro Hosokawa (they share a Nuclear-Free stance),  Utsunomiya replied that the former PM's association with Junichiro Koizumi, another former PM (2001-2006), was problematic. During his administration, Koizumi spearheaded neoliberal deregulation that deepened structural poverty in Japan. The insecurity of temporary workers, including loss of homes, may be traced directly to Koizumi's policies. Moreover, their platforms diverge on issues of  poverty, welfare, education, the Japanese Constitution, collective self-defense, state secrets, and the TPP.

In a Jan. 10 article at JT, Reiji Yoshida provides background on the Tokyo election:

Tokyo has as many as 10 million voters... Experts... said most Tokyo residents are unaffiliated swing voters without loyalty to any of the established parties...Their voting behavior is often affected by hot-button issues of the day or candidates who draw intense media coverage, rather than pork-barrel public works spending or organized election machines, the usual weapons for LDP candidates in local elections...

According to the Green Pages, a publication by the US Green Party, the Green Party (Midori no Tou) was formed in 2012 from a former party, Midori no Mirai (Green Future), to reflect Japanese nuclear-free,  fossil-free, environmental, pro-democracy movements. They support renewable energy, oppose the export of nuclear power technology, and the Trans-Pacific Partner­ship (TPP). Greens Japan calls for an economy centered on local production and consumption, improved social security programs through fair sharing of tax burdens, and revitalization of participatory democratic processes.

-JD

Shiho Fukada: Japan's Poor, Homeless, Outcasted and Forgotten

Via the Pulitzer Center: 

Japan's structural economic problems are further alienating its already marginalized populations.

Photojournalist Shiho Fukada goes beyond the bright lights of Tokyo to document the country's unemployment crisis: disposable workers who are easily fired and live without a social safety net. They are usually shut out from the rest of the society, living in poverty but rarely acknowledged by their fellow citizens.

Fukada's photographs add a human face to widely discussed issues—from day laborers living on the streets to educated women taking banal jobs. She reveals the other side of Japan where alcoholism, hopelessness and suicide are increasingly commonplace.

This report is part of a Pulitzer Center-sponsored project, "Japan's Disposable Workers: Lost in the Global Unemployment Crisis."

Hiromi, 58, an unemployed day laborer, picks through garbage to see if he can find anything of value to sell. 

(Image by Shiho Fukada. Japan, 2009)

People wait in line to sleep inside a labor center in Kamagasaki. 

The center used to attract workers from all over Japan for high-paying day labor,

 but with jobs so scarce today it is used as a homeless shelter during the evening. 

(Image by Shiho Fukada. Japan, 2009)

A picture of Mount Fuji hangs under a highway where a homeless man sleeps in Osaka.

(Image: Shiho Fukada: "Hard Times In Japan: 'Home' Might Be An Internet Cafe," 2013)

"War is Over! (If You Want It): Yoko Ono" • Sydney MCA • Nov. 15, 2013 - Feb. 23, 2014

"WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT)" opened Nov. 15, 2013 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.  This is the first major survey in Australia of legendary artist, musician and peace activist Yoko Ono. "The exhibition encompasses five decades of practice in diverse media including eight participatory works. Themes include loss, conflict, humanity and the desire for world peace."  Ono designed the interactive parts of the exhibition to encourage collaboration, linked to a central theme of world peace.

Curated by MCA Chief Curator Rachel Kent, the title comes from a text by Ono and her late husband John Lennon that first appeared in 1969—in the middle of the Vietnam War—across public billboards in twelve cities worldwide, including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Toronto, Berlin, Paris, New York, and London.

While other visual artists have also engaged in peace art and activism, Ono is perhaps the most renowned peace artist of our time.  How did the impetus for her highly focused creative work originate?

Ono has explained that a childhood experience of the firebombing of Tokyo awakened her understanding of the human costs of military violence, fueling her peace art and activism for five decades.

Her father was an international banker and moved his family between the United States and Japan, so, as a child, Ono developed positive attachments to both countries. When the Pacific War broke out, she was eight-years-old, living in Tokyo.  She and her family survived (by taking shelter in a basement in their Azabu home) the firebombings of Tokyo, including the massive March 9-10, 1945 raid—the most destructive bombing raid in world history. At minimum, the napalm-fueled bombings destroyed 16 square miles (41 km2) of the city and killed 100,000 people.

In a 2007 interview with Amy Goodman:

I remember, when I was a little girl, a young — you know, when I was very young, one day I had high fever because of just a cold. You know, I had a cold.

And so, my family all went down into the basement to make sure that, you know, they’re alright. It’s a kind of shelter that they created in the garden actually. But I couldn’t go.

And I was just sort of in my bed, and I saw that all the houses next to us and all the places around me were just all fire. I go, "Oh." But, you know, when you’re young, and that’s the only reality you’re working through, you don’t really get totally scared or anything. You know, you’re just looking at it like an objective film or something like that. "Oh, this is what’s happening," you know?

And because of that memory of what I went through in the Second World War, I think that I really — it embedded in me how terrible it is to go through war.

To those who charge that she is "optimistic" or "naive," Ono points out that she is a simply a resilient pragmatist who cares about life and our planet—and does what she can do—which includes encouraging others to do what they can do to support peace building at multiple levels:

Well, you know, most people say, "Oh, you’re so optimistic. I mean, what’s wrong with you?" I’m not really that optimistic.

I am trying to make us survive. And in the course of survival, we don’t have the luxury to be negative. That’s a luxury that we can’t afford.

 And we just have to do what we can do. And I think that instead of getting so upset with some people, you know, or some countries which are doing this, doing that — "How dare they," whatever — I think we should just do what we can do.

 In a Reuters article about this current exhibition, she compares 1969 with 2013:

When John and I stood up, very few people were activists. Now I think 90 percent of the world is activists. If you're not an activist, you'd be considered a nerd maybe.

 (Image: Colin Davidson, The Guardian)

"Pieces of Sky"—WW II German helmets with blue jigsaw pieces inside.
Visitors are told, "Take a piece of sky. Know that we are all part of each other."

"Play It By Trust"/"White Chess Set"
(Photo: Iain MacMillan,© 1966 YOKO ONO)

Shinya Watanabe:"Through her simple alteration of the chessboard
 (a war strategy game), the artist made it extremely hard for the chess players to 
 fight each other, and this creates new relationships between the opponents."

Beautiful Energy - 1st Anniversary Celebration - Tokyo - Nov. 30, 2013

(Photo: Beautiful Energy)

Via Jacinta Hin and Natsu no Color of Tokyo-based Beautiful Energy/The Stand for a Nuclear-Free World.

Beautiful Energy is... born out of the weekly Friday anti-nuclear demonstrations in Tokyo in front of and around the prime minister's residence and Parliament. Through inspired, peaceful action we stand for a nuclear-free world that thrives on renewable energy.

Our current, ongoing project is Candles for Peace. Every Friday, from 6-8pm Japan time, we gather in front of parliament in kokkai gijido, joining the weekly anti-nuclear protest, and create a beautiful display of candlelight to symbolize our intentions...

This group of visionary citizen activists in Tokyo radiate positive (and beautiful) emotional, ethical energy and holistic vision.  They're engaged in outreach and support for Fukushima nuclear refugees, (including bringing hot meals to elder refugees living in a shelter).  Sharing their kind of healing, constructive worldview is a first step in our collective transition from toxic to nontoxic, renewable energy production and use.

In November it will be one year since we lighted our Beautiful Energy candles for the first time. Time for a little celebration!

You are invited to our anniversary party in Tokyo on November 30. Join us for an intimate evening with live music, delicious graceful vegan foods and of course candles!

Date: November 30 (Saturday), from 19.00 – 22.30pm
Place: Bar GariGari (Tokyo, Setagaya-ku, Daizawa 2-45-9, .. Building B1 /

http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1318/A131801/13126176/dtlmap/ / opposite Ikenoue Station, Inokashira-line (2 stops from Shibuya)

Charge: 2,000 yen (inclusive vegan buffet foods, music charge and charity donation).

* Vegan foods provided by our Friday neighbors Yuko Ogura and Yayoi Ito of Guerilla Café

* Drinks are not included. Please order at least one drink at the bar

* 500 yen will go to Share Your Christmas (SYC). SYC collects and brings Christmas presents from around the world to people in Tohoku affected by the 3/11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster (https://www.facebook.com/shareyourchristmaswithtohoku)

Please bring your own chopsticks, so we may reduce waste and spread eco-energy!

19:00 Start

19:20 Anniversary Speech

19:30 Special Message from people from all over the world♪

19:45 Music time: nuclear-free world songs by Natsu, Chris and other Beautiful Energizers! (details to follow)

20:30 Enjoy conversation with each other!

22:30 End

Kindly let us know no later than November 20 if you plan to attend (and sooner if you can).

7th Organic Film Festival - Tokyo - Nov. 23-24, 2013

Via Organic Consumers Union:

The 7th organic film festival will be held in Tokyo on November 23-24, 2013.

This will be a great opportunity to catch up with recent trends and watch documentaries from Japan and abroad. The theme this year is “Holding on to the Soil” to reflect the hardships many farmers are experiencing, with special focus on Okinawa and Fukushima.

Location: Hosei University, Sotobori Campus (between Iidabashi and Ichigaya stations on the Sobu line)

Tickets: 1800 Yen (pre order) 2500 Yen ( at the entrance)

For more information please check the official website (J): http://www.yuki-eiga.com/

Earth Garden Festival @ Yoyogi Park, Tokyo - Sunday, Oct. 27

More info: http://www.earth-garden.jp/festival/31251/

World Food Sovereignty Day • Soil and Peace Festival @Hibiya Park, Tokyo - Oct. 20, 2013

Today is the international family farmer movement Via Campesina's World Food Sovereignty Day; and this weekend, Japanese organic family farmers and their supporters will join in a celebration of the best of visionary Japanese (organic, recycling, nuclear-free, GMO-free, fair-trade, Slow Life, satoyama, Tohoku-supporting) culture.

Via the Consumers Union of Japan:

There will be a Soil and Peace Festival in Hibiya Park, Tokyo, on Sunday October 20, 2013. Starting at 10:00 hundreds of farmers and activists and artists will hold a great event until the evening.

A great opportunity to meet your favourite NGOs and learn more about organic food, anti-nuclear campaigns and the future of Japan. Look forward to lots of inspiration! Music by Kato Tokiko and many others throughout the day, starting with a taiko performance by Gocco.

Website with more info (J) here.

40,000 rally in Tokyo for a nuclear-free and war-free Japan (and World); Global Article 9 gathering in Osaka

(Via Jacinta Hin and Beautiful Energy)

More via our friends at Beautiful Energy - The Stand for a Nuclear Free World:

Good Morning world! Today is NO NUKES DAY in Tokyo, the day of the big demonstration. Many people from all over Japan coming together in protest to ask for a nuclear-free Japan.

If you're in Tokyo, JOIN, be seen, be heard, make a difference!

If you cannot join in person, be with all of us in spirit and heart.

To get you in the mood, we have the perfect song for you. Talented musician Natsu of our Beautiful Energy core group, has created a NO NUKES version of a famous pop song. Listen to her beautiful voice and soulful NO NUKES, BABY and be connected with us today!

At the end of September, nuclear-free supporters held two rallies after TEPCO asked for permission to restart TEPCO on Friday asked Japan's nuclear watchdog for permission to restart its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.

Since September 15, all of Japan's nuclear plants have been in shut-down for maintenance.

---

Also over the weekend, the Global Article Nine Campaign held 

its second international conference  supporting a (nuclear-free) world without war:  

the Article Nine World Conference in Osaka.

Nuclear-free activist Taro Yamamoto wins; Yohei Miyake via YouTube & Twitter: "Keep the Motivation..."

YOHEI MIYAKE Melodious Campaign Speech (Greens Japan) 

Nuclear-free candidate Taro Yamamoto won an Upper House seat after losing a bid for a Lower House seat in last December's election. The actor also opposed Tokyo's entry into  TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) negotiations.

Short news documentary on Yamamoto at Shingetsu News here on YouTube.

Beautiful Energy's Jacinta Hin's translation and comment on another Nuclear-free candidate, Greens' Yohei Miyake's concession via Twitter:

"I/we lost, but I/we gained so much". He also mentions the need for international collaboration for world peace. He got a lot of votes. He is a winner for me. This is just the start of his new journey.

三宅洋平 / Yohei Miyake @MIYAKE_YOHEI

やれる事はすべてやった。 もっとうまくやれる方法も沢山分かった。 負けたが、得

たものは大きい。 伸び代しかない。 次は強い党を作らないと、だね。 そして国際平和のための世界的な連帯作り。 おし、まずは走り込みだ！ ‪#‎176970票‬

 Read a terrific analysis of the media blackout, "blur" (?) of Miyake's campaign by J. T. Cassidy at Temple Valley Times and wrap-up by Martin Frid at Kurashi
..

“Chasing Rainbows: LGBT Communities in Japan Gain Slow Yet Steady Social Recognition.”

It’s shaping up to be a pretty busy year for LGBT folk in the metropolis.

Since my last piece highlighting lesbian happenings in Tokyo and beyond—which was written two years ago—so much has gone on that I hardly know where to begin.

May as well start, then, with perhaps the most exciting event in the lineup: Tokyo Rainbow Pride—make that, in fact, Tokyo Rainbow Week. Yes, folks: an entire week chock-full of events celebrating LGBT culture—including film screenings, family picnics, foreign embassy receptions, talk sessions on various social problems continuing to face seku-mai (sexual minorities), and even an outdoor run—right here in our own metropolis. Who said we couldn’t keep up with other gay world capitals?

“Events will be focused around the following three main topics: Knowing, connecting and having fun,” explains the event website. “We aim to convey this message not only around Tokyo, but hope to have our message of the importance of accepting and respecting diverse lifestyles reach and extend throughout Japan, Asia, and the rest of the world.”

TRW follows on the heels of several additional initiatives recently spearheaded to help make the lives of LGBT individuals in Japan a bit easier by encouraging more social acceptance. Haato wo tsunagou gakkou (the “Connecting Hearts School” project), following the long-running NHK television series of the same name, was launched as a sort of resource clearinghouse for LGBT individuals seeking to find information. Similar to the “It Gets Better” Project begun in the United States to prevent queer* youth suicide, the Japanese website features numerous video messages from seku-mai and straight allies alike (including a number of famous individuals) with the resounding message that you are not alone—and there is nothing wrong with you. A great explanation of the project in English, along with links to several of the videos, may be found on this blog post from the Stonewall AJET website. 

Additional initiatives in this regard include Collabo, whose “lesbian life support” offers resources including study groups and a telephone hotline; Good Aging Yells, which spearheads LGBT-related projects such as shared housing and support for older individuals; and the Koyuki Café—an event series put on by lesbian activist (and former Takarazuka Revue actor) Koyuki Higashi to discuss various issues relating to LGBT life.

Koyuki and her partner Hiroko—who appear in one of the Connecting Hearts videos profiled in the Stonewall blog—recently became Japan's first same-sex couple to hold a public wedding ceremony in the Tokyo Disneyland theme park. Although Japanese law presently offers no legal recognition, protection or benefits to non-heterosexual couples, the ceremony made news headlines around the country—including a 20-minute in-depth piece that aired on Fuji TV, which covered the pair’s wedding story from both personal and social angles.

“To have been able to hold a wedding ceremony with my beloved partner brought me so much joy that I can hardly express it,” Hiroko told me in an e-mail interview. “Many LGBT individuals in Japan continue to have a hard time, as we tend to remain invisible within society—almost as if we were surrounded by barriers. And while more and more countries around the world are offering legal protections to same-sex couples, we have not yet reached the stage in Japan where this issue has begun to be discussed publicly.

“In Japan, (homosexuality) is not objected to on religious grounds; instead, people are discriminated against due to somehow diverging from what is considered ‘normal’,” she continued. “I think that many people may simply have never been exposed to sexual minorities, however, and so I intend to continue speaking out about this matter as often as I can.”

One event that has continued to help bridge mainstream and queer communities over the years is the Tokyo International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, whose 22^nd run will take place this July, and which screens films from around the world that give a glimpse into LGBT life. Similarly, the smaller and yet no less enjoyable Asian Queer Film Festival, scheduled for the end of May, also promises to bring viewers deeper understanding regarding the lives of sexual minorities in Japan and elsewhere in Asia.  

Indeed, it does appear that Japan’s cultural and artistic spheres may be far ahead of the government in terms of nudging the country onward in the direction of social acceptance for sekumai communities. In addition to queer niche magazines such as the lesbian Novia Novia and the gay male badi.jp, certain heterosexual publications are beginning to venture into queer territory as well, with special features on same-sex couples appearing in magazines such as the fashion-oriented Tokyo Graffiti (forthcoming) and the ever-edgy VICE.

And lest you think Tokyo’s culinary establishments are being left out of all this rainbow action: think again. Gossip Café in Omotesando, and Rainbow Burritos in the Shinjuku gayborhood, both offer fantastic food while also regularly hosting both organized and informal gatherings for queer folk.

As the country continues to inch slowly forward in the direction of full acceptance for its LGBT citizens, then, Japan’s rainbow community in Tokyo and beyond will continue to do its thing: quietly reaching out and building community. And you can be pretty sure that they will be having a pretty good time doing it.

Kimberly Hughes is a freelance translator, journalist and community organizer based in Tokyo. For more information, see http://kimmiesunshine.wordpress.com/. She may also be reached at kimmie.hughes@gmail.com.

*A word originally carrying derogatory connotations, “queer” has been reclaimed with pride to serve as an umbrella term for those outside of the mainstream with respect to sexuality and/or gender (often used similarly to ‘LGBT’).

--Kimberly Hughes 

(Originally published in Being A Broad Magazine, April 25, 2013.)

Tokyo Waka: A (cinematic) poem about a city, its people, and 20,000 crows

Thanks to Aki Gibbons, SF-based visual artist and writer, who blogs  at Tokyo Dreaming and Okinawa Blue, for the head's up on Tokyo Waka: A City Poem, screening at the International Buddhist Film Festival, which opens in San Francisco today.

A  meditative exploration of Tokyo and post-Bubble, post-3/11 Japan.

3/11 Anniversary Remembrance by Beautiful Energy • 3/11 • Tokyo & Anywhere in the World

Via our friend, Jacinta Hin


下の方に簡単な日本語版があります。また編集します！

We are planning a series (day) of events on March 11 both in remembrance of the Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and the Fukushima Nuclear Plant disaster, and in support of the global stand for a nuclear-free world.
Please join us on this special day, either in person or remote from anywhere in the world.

Join in person, in Tokyo:

We will get together from 1.30pm in Yoyogi Park. At 2.46pm, the time that the Earthquake struck, we stand still in silence and meditation to honor those who lost their lives and everyone affected by the horrendous events of March 11.

From 6pm we will get together for an evening of candlelight, music and…being peacefully together with people who share the vision for a nuclear-free Japan and world.

簡単な日本語版です。後日また編集します。
来る3/11に、私たちは連続したイベントを計画しています！
東北震災や津波や福島の原発事故を忍び、世界中で核をもたないことに賛成している人たちに
賛同し、支持するためのイベントです。この特別な日にぜひ皆さんでご参加ください！
イベントに直接お越しいただいても、遠隔で世界中からこのイベントページに参加いただく形も
大歓迎です！

直接お越しいただける方：
3/11　13：30～　代々木公園集合
14：26　震災が起きた時刻ちょうどに黙とうを
ささげ、震災でお亡くなりになった方や被災した方々
のために瞑想します。

18：00～　キャンドルライトや音楽などで平和をいのり、
核のない日本や世界へのビジョンをピースフルに共有します！
（場所や正確な時間は後日ＵＰします。）

Join from anywhere in the world:

We want to create a chain of 311 candles around the globe. People can join the chain anytime on March 11, preferable from 2.46pm Japan time onward. For this we will be inviting people from around the world to participate. Please help us by suggesting anyone or any groups who might be interested. Post here or facebook message or email Jacinta (jacinta.hin@embrace-transition.com).

More details will be announced shortly.

About us:

Beautiful Energy is an IMA project and movement born out of the weekly Friday anti-nuclear demonstrations in Tokyo in front of and around the Prime Minister Residence and Parliament. Through inspired, peaceful action we stand for a nuclear-free world that thrives on renewable energy. Our current, ongoing project is Candles for Peace. Every Friday, from 6-8pm Japan time, we gather in front of parliament in kokkai gijido, joining the weekly anti-nuclear protest, and create a beautiful display of candlelight to symbolize our intentions. Intrepid Model Adventures (IMA) is a nonprofit, open community of hundreds, supporting thousands, standing for positive social change. IMA members share a desire to help and strive to live their lives in such a way that they may act as a positive influence.

Visit our Facebook pages: https://www.facebook.com/BeautifulEnergyTokyo
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BeautifulEnergy/

"They Don't Want You to Know What is Going On": Performance Artists Noora Baker and Yoshiko Chuma Bring Pain of Palestinian Reality onto Tokyo Stage

Japan-born, New-York based performance artist Yoshiko Chuma, founder of the School of Hard Knocks, and Noora Baker, a dancer with the El Funoun company in Ramallah, Palestinian territories, teamed up this week to bring a powerful message to a Tokyo audience in a small theater in Sangenjaya. 

Titled "Love Story, Palestine", the multi-media show featured Chuma and Baker performing to the backdrop of imagery from 6 Seconds in Ramallah, the show performed during Chuma's recent visit to Palestine with a team of other Japanese musicians and artists, including genre-bending violinist Aska Kaneko and singer Sizzle Ohtaka. Interspersing the performance were hauntingly gorgeous vocals from Ohtaka, who was live in the house, as well as a frank conversation between Chuma and Baker about a reality that few outsiders know.

Baker recounted stories of relatives and friends arrested on a constant basis by Israeli occupation officers--often with little or no justification. "In addition to the regular checkpoints that we all must pass through, they suddenly also sometimes erect barriers so that you cannot pass,"Baker recounted. "They do not care even if they are separating families." She relayed a story of being detained at age seven with a group of other children and having tear gas thrown at her by authorities simply because she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

In response to Chuma's question whether her troupe could possibly face arrest if their visits to Palestine continued, Baker responded, "Yes, the action of simply visiting Palestine on multiple occasions is enough to draw yourself into the spotlight and possibly face detention by Israeli authorities. They don't want you to know what is going on."

Chuma then went on to point out the similarities existing between Palestine and Fukushima following last year's nuclear accident, wherein people truly have no idea what is actually going on. "Both places appear normal from the outside, but in reality, they are not."

                                    Yoshiko Chuma (center) with audience members in Tokyo

The latest news about Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks may be read on her blog.

An interesting review of "Love Story, Palestine" may also be read in Dance Magazine here.

--Kimberly Hughes

Related posts on this blog:

Speakers contemplate Palestinian human rights, urge action at Tokyo event

Live theater performers from Iraq and Tunisia bring deep emotion, human connection to Tokyo stage

"War Makes People Insane": Dramatic work by performance artist Tari Ito lays bare the realities of military sexual violence

Banner Rally @ Hitachi in Tokyo: 6 countries unite to protest nuclear exports to Lithuania

Hitachi, Gerbk Lietuva! Hitachi, respect Lithuania!*

Concerned citizens from Japan, Lithuania, Austria, Korea, USA and Russia united in front of Hitachi Headquarters in Tokyo on December 18, 2012 to speak out against the nuclear services provider's insistance on exporting Fukushima-model advanced boiler water reactors to Lithuania. Ten-meter banners stretched across the street like rays of light proclaiming in Lithuanian and Japanese, "Hitachi respect Lithuania!" "Stop nuclear export to Lithuania!"

According to anti-nuclear activist and nuclear engineer by training, Andrey Ozharovskiy, "the banner rally was co-organised by Lithuanian anti-nuclear NGOs and political parties with support from Japanese NGO. Police did not interfere. None from Hitachi came to talk to the protesters." 

Passerby spreads word of protest: "Hitachi- stop nuclear exports to Lithuania!" 

Protesters included permaculturalist Kai Sawyer, Green Action director Aileen Mioko Smith, and Beyond Nuclear director Paul Gunter. Following the banner action, Paul Gunter, Aileen Mioko Smith, and Italian biologist and Scientists against the War member Monica Zoppe held an event at Doshisha University in Kyoto. They spoke on collusion between the U.S. nuclear industry and the nuclear regulations board in Japan and nuclear free Italy.

News of the protests has already reached readers of the Lithuanian newspaper Bakurus Ekspreses, demonstrating the potential for international solidarity in the fight against nuclear power to raise awareness. Lithuanian Farmers Union President told Barkurus Ekspreses that he shares the goals of the protesters. He is working to inform people about the results of the referendum on the power plant, and explained that any self-respecting company would withdraw from a project after a referendum deciding against it. Hitachi has not stated that it will abort its export plans. Shibun Akahata, the newspaper of the Japanese Communist Party, also reported on the banner action.

Banner action appears in Lithuanian newspaper immediately after

In a recent non-binding referendum in October, 62.68% decided against the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania. (For more details see previous post). Lithuania has also lost its funding from the European Union for the decommissioning of its Igalina nuclear reactors because it has not yet resolved the issue of where to store spent fuel from the plants. Closing down Igalina was a requirement for Lithuania's accession to the EU.

Radioactive waste containers at Igalina (Photo courtesy of Igalina Nuclear Power Plant Homepage) 

Hitachi won a bid from the Lithuanian government for the construction of the plant after Germany decided to denuclearize. Anti-nuclear movements in Lithuania expressed outrage that the government would risk the safety of its people for so-called energy security. Lithuania currently imports 50% of its natural gas from Russia, and is effectively dependent on Russia for 80% of its energy requirements. Despite the Lithuanian governments protest against Russia for its plans to construct nuclear plants near its border, the Lithuanian government is now seeking to build a nuclear power plant in efforts to achieve energy independence.

International environmental NGO, Bellona, however, explains that graduating from nuclear power will allow Lithuania to diversify its energy portfolio and eventually gain independence:

Following Ignalina’s closing, Lithuania will – at least for the first several years – have to depend on imported energy to cover around a half of its energy needs, including imports from Russia, the Ukraine, and Belarus. Those bridges it never had the chance to build with Western electricity providers will then become another option as it negotiates plugging into Swedish and Polish grids....

There are hopes, however, that betting on fossil-based energy will only be a temporary measure for Lithuania. In the long term, the country may grow to generate over a third of its energy from renewable energy sources. According to climate commitments agreed on in the European Union, no less than 23 percent of all energy is expected to be produced from clean sources by 2020. Local biofuel resources hold significant potential for Lithuania’s green energy sector, as do wind energy converters. At present, Lithuanian wind power plants have a combined output of 200 megawatts and another 1,000 megawatts’ worth of electricity production will be added by 2020.

A joint letter of demand (see below) from these Lithuanian and Japanese NGOs was sent to Hitachi,. Ltd and Governments of Lithuania and Japan later today.

Hitachi, Ltd
Hitachi GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd
Copy to: Government of Japan Government of Lithuania Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)

LETTER OF DEMAND Vilnius-Tokyo, 18th December 2012

We, the undersigned members of the civil societies of Lithuania and Japan strongly demand from Japanese companies Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd. to make public the official withdrawal from the construction project of a new nuclear power plant in Visaginas region (Lithuania) on behalf of the decision of the Lithuanian people expressed in democratic referendum on 14 October 2012.

We inform you that 62.68 per cent of the people who voted in the referendum decided against any new nuclear power plants in Lithuania. Thus the Lithuanian people have decided to stop any development of the nuclear power plant project which was previously started by preliminary agreement signed between the Government of Lithuania and the Japanese company Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy Ltd. (alliance between Hitachi and US company GE Nuclear Energy Ltd.) on export of nuclear to Lithuania.

The Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania provides the possibility for the people to express their opinion on important state decisions. The parliament of Lithuania in the summer of 2012 decided to hold a referendum about new Visaginas nuclear power plant project. According to strict and demanding Lithuanian referendum law, the decision of referendum is legally binding. This therefore applies to the referendum on the Visaginas nuclear power plant. The Lithuanian people have expressed their deep interest in this decision and have made their choice.

We have warned your company and the Japanese government from signing any agreement with Lithuania before the referendum, and we have also expressed our arguments in our letter of concern, signed on December 23, 2011. In that letter we opposed any backing of the project by any direct or hidden subsidies of the Lithuanian Government, Government of Japan and the US Government which strongly contradict with principles of free market economy and fair competition in liberalized EU energy sector. Such subsidies distort investments into the energy sector, first of all into renewable energy sources and incentives for energy efficiency.

A large majority of Japanese society strongly opposes any further development of nuclear energy domestically. Therefore, we call on Japan to refrain from resorting to ‘double standards’ by giving support to Hitachi’s intention to export unsafe technologies.

We address the multinational Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd. corporations with a call to respect corporate responsibility standards, the Lithuanian Constitution, democratic values and the will of people, and demand that Hitachi announce withdrawal from the Visaginas nuclear power plant project.

Signatures:
Lithuania:
Linas VAINIUS, on behalf of Atgaya NGO
Tomas TOMILINAS, on behalf of the Lithuanian Farmers and Green Party
Andrius Gaidamavičius, on behalf of Lithuanian green movement
Laurynas Okockis, on behalf of Association ŽALI.LT


Japan:  

Aileen Mioko Smith, Executive Director, Green Action 

Yuki TANABE, Program Coordinator, Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES)

Eri WATANABE, Nuclear and Energy Program, Friends of the Earth Japan
Hideyuki BAN, Co-director, Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center

Contact in Lithuania:  

administracija@lzsp.lt, +370 52 13 13 53
info@lvls.lt, +370 686 27469
linas@atgaja.lt, +370 699 33661
zali.vilnius@gmail.com, +370 654 73926

Contact in Japan:  

Aileen Mioko Smith, Executive Director Green Action
Suite 103, 22-75 Tanaka Sekiden-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8203 Japan
Tel. +81-75-701-7223 Fax.+81-75-702-1952 

*Unless otherwise specified, photos are courtesy of Andrey Ozharovskiy

- Posted by Jen Teeter