This is breaking news out of Fukuoka. A 69 year old American English conversation teacher has been arrested on charges of child molestation. There are reportedly as many as 40 possible victims in the case. The abuse happened over a period of over a decade. He is also accused of having taken photographs and videos of the children.

The crimes are said to have happened at his home. Police uncovered hundreds of videotapes and other evidence of the crimes. Most of the victims were in elementary school at the time of the crimes. The suspect reportedly denied the charges and claimed the videos were taken so that when the children grow up he could show them how they’ve matured.

The man’s name has not been released at the time of this writing.

I debated whether I should report on this and let it sit a few hours, but I think that its something that needs to come out in English language news as well as Japanese language news. If the story gets much bigger, non-Japanese teachers in Japan, especially those with their own schools, or those who interact with young children may be asked about it either directly or indirectly, or may think it’s a good idea to proactively address these topics with employers or students’ parents.

I’ll update this post if I see any big changes in the story.

This comes to us from the same NHK Kids show “Mitsuketa” or “I Found It”. This is the same show that gives us the NHK Kids Show Cactus Character, and also the awesome rock sounds of Tortoise Matsumoto of Ulfuls singing the NHK kids rock song Tamago.

Yes, this is a weird old guy in a pink cow suit. Yes, he’s scary as all hell… but kids love him and he’s really funny. His name is Ofuroski or Ofurosuki or Ofurosky… I don’t don’t how you’d spell it in English but it’s a play on Ofuro = bath and suki=like (as romaji, the proper spelling is Ofurosuki). He loves the bath, and sometimes comes out of it to do something fun or funny or educational for kids. He’ll play little games like how many words that start with shi (remember this is Japanese) you can think of in 5 seconds. When it’s the kids’ turn try he’ll make faces while they do it.

The videos below show two versions of one of the bits my kids and I especially like. He finds stuff laying around and asks the eternal question… “Do you think it’ll stand up?” Then he tries to figure out ways to make stuff stand. Seems kind of simple to us, but it’s a fun game to look at things with your kids and try to figure out how to make it stand up.

Ofurosuki “Tatsukana Sono 1″

Ofurosuki “Tatsukana Sono 2″

This story is an interesting one because it is a modern view of what’s going on in Japan. If you are already confused about fashion in Japan, school rules about hair coloring, and what people think of all the bleached blonde boys and girls running around the streets here, this story is not going to help you understand anything.

The following tweet on Twitter caused a stir in Japan:

A concise translation is that “motyli” the author of the tweet was riding the train and a very cute young girl was standing in front of motyli. The girl was telling her friend that her mother had said, “These days girls with black hair are being targeted by strange men. Just go bleach your hair,” and handed her some money.

If you come to visit Japan, especially during the summer time, you’ll see a lot of girls with bleached hair, or at least highlights in their hair. Some will even have this unnatural orange color. However the Japanese idols that seem the most popular with men are ones with straight black hair. As the schools tell the girls not to color their hair, often claiming that girls with their hair colored are more likely victims of assault (I don’t know how common this claim is, but I’ve heard it on more than one occasion), this mother is using the same logic as a reason for her daughter to color her hair.

The idea behind the hair bleaching seems two-fold. One is that she won’t seem so innocent and attractive to the “otaku” types or the older men who lust after the young teen idols. (I am referring to the kind of guys that say they are going to kill themselves or someone else when a manga character they like gets a boyfriend, or it’s implied that she’s not a virgin… god forbid an actual human teen idol singer gets a boyfriend or is seen smoking.) The bleached hair sort of destroys the image of innocence. Another reason this mother may think her daughter should bleach her hair for her own protection is that mom may think it’ll make her daughter look like a tough girl.

My opinion is that in a country with a NEED for women’s only cars on trains, hair color is not going to be a big preventative weapon in the battle against sexual harassment and “chikan” or gropers. I think, as I’ve mentioned on this blog before, that the problems need to be dragged out into the open. The girl with black hair being stalked for looking pure and classically Japanese is only going to be changing the demographic of her stalker when she changes her hair color.

What we need is for Japanese men AND women to start educating Japanese boys and girls about being proud of themselves, loving themselves, and protecting themselves. Maybe Twitter and blogging and the like are the kind of anonymous places that can kick start a revolution of openness in Japan, or maybe I’m too optimistic as usual.

Many years ago in Japan (old-timer ex-pats will remember it well) when Mr. Bean was very popular in Japan, and wanna-be tough guys in Japan would mutter “Mr. Bean” under their breath when they passed a non-Japanese person and felt a wave of insecurity. Students would call ALT’s (AET’s? I don’t remember what they call the JETs or other assistant teacher… maybe both, but I digress) Mr. Bean to try to get under their skin. I was even called Mr. Bean from a distance one day when I was walking around downtown, and I look absolutely NOTHING like the guy.

That was a long time ago, and I wanted to believe that non-Japanese people in Japan were becoming less… how should I put this… indistinguishable? easy to personify as one being? I wanted to believe that there were more people willing to look at non-Japanese people and come without as many assumptions as in the past.

Another related personal story I’d like to mention before getting on to the McDonald’s Mr. James ad campaign is a time I was asked by the same guy, in the same short five minute span of time if I were vegetarian, and if all I ate was hamburgers and steak. The man asking seriously believed that most Americans were vegetarians, and that most Americans ate nothing but meat. He didn’t see the contradiction involved, and couldn’t understand why I thought his assumptions should take on a more logical form.

Although we see other incidences of this kind of thing almost everyday in Japan, and doing business in Japan gives you the opportunity to face and hopefully overcome stereotypes every day, McDonald’s Japan has decided to throw a brand new wrench  into the works and give the the non-Japanese community in Japan a huge set back.

This wrench in the works in Mr. James… the overly excitable, katakana speaking, dorky looking, new character used to advertise the new tamago-double-burger, a double burger with a fried egg on top of the top burger. The fried egg burgers, like the Tsukimi Burger that McDonald’s release here in Japan do well, so they hardly need to make fun of foreigners in order to sell it. The Mr. James character is featured all over Japanese tv, and there are life-sized cardboard versions of him carrying a tray of food in most McDonald’s stores… all of them feature him unable to speak proper Japanese.

The story is even being featured on Arudou Debito’s blog Debito.org: “Mr James” Burger Campaign. He likens the McDonald’s Japan use of the Mr James character to if McDonald’s in another country used negative and false stereotypes of Chinese people unable to pronounce English properly.

I have seen much worse cases of racism and stereotyping during my time in Japan, but this is on a large enough scale that such things as people speaking out against it, teachers using this to teach students how NOT to view foreigners could make it a worthy topic for bloggers and others. McDonald’s is putting a lot of energy behind making this a huge campaign so it may be difficult to get them to stop, there are contests and other things involved, and I think we’ll be seeing this Mr. James character for a while, but if people speak out, maybe it won’t turn into another case of every caucasian foreigner being referred to as “Mr. Bean”… or in this case “Mr. James”.

Don’t even get me started on the lack of respect and rudeness involved if it happens to turn out that this characters FIRST name is James. Too many non-Japanese people in Japan allow themselves to be referred to in a rude and condescending way… to the point that people who ask for the courtesy of being referred to the same way Japanese people are seem like troublemakers. This is could be just another setback for people trying to just live in Japan and be treated like equal human beings. Let’s hope McDonald’s and “Mr. James” come to their senses.

A science teacher at Hiraoka Elementary School in Sakai City, Osaka showed about ten minutes of a home video of his wife giving birth to fifth graders in July. In the video students were able to see the umbilical cord and parts of the actual intance of birth.

Students complained saying things such as, “It was scary,” “It was gross,” and other complaints. The principal of the school visited each students home to apologize.

The teacher showed the video as a part of a “Life and Birth” class, and showed the video to all sixty-eight fifth graders at the school. The teacher commented that he really wanted to show the students how wonderful the birth of a life is, but that his decision was careless.

My commentary:

My personal feelings are that I wish this were acceptable. I can imagine that with the right lead up and teaching, or the right attitude, or support from the parents and school, this teacher could have shown this video and taught the kids something really good about life and about where they came from.

It also exposes something about schools in Japan that I think is a big problem… There is often very little discussion about lesson plans, and what actually goes on in the classroom. If this teacher had been in a place where it was natural for teachers to discuss lesson plans and education, someone might have told him it was a bad idea, or suggested that information be sent to parents beforehand about the content of the class.

Another thing about education (and society in general) is the tendency of people to just apologize without standing up for themselves. This could be an issue for which the school could stand up for the teacher who obviously had nothing but the best of intentions. If people just give in and apologize, then all the control and power goes to the complainers.

It seems that a Japanese husband and wife, supposedly for the sake of being non-sexist and fair, have decided on prices for various things the wife does around the house. The man is a 48 year old company employee married to a 42 year old woman. They claim that since the husband has started paying for services, he’s begun complimenting his wife more and the whole household’s become more fun.

The story says that the man always comes home late to find his wife and kids sleeping, and a note on the dining room table asking him to circle yes or no for whether he needs a bento lunch the next day. The memo asks him to leave the 400 yen fee on the table as well.

The wife also demands 5000 yen each time the couple have sex.

Some thoughts:

OK, taking care of the kids and home is hard work for a woman even if she’s home all day, but if this couple really wants to be fair shouldn’t the whole thing be a big fun concerted effort at home? Why does it have to be about money? Why does the guy have to pay his wife? Maybe she should pay him, or if compensation is the point of it all, they can pay each other 5000 yen each and call it a day?

So sex one time is worth 12 bentos? I don’t really know what to do with this information. Maybe they can get away from money and start up a point system. Does food making go both ways? If he makes breakfast lunch and dinner for the family one Sunday does that add up to more than 12 meals and entitle him to a night of sex? Does she get to refuse his business at will or is she also bound to let him eat a bento or sleep with her as long as he makes with the cash?

Is 5000 yen cheap for sex with the wife? She’s competing with the “water business” and prostitution services in Japan, and although I don’t know how much they cost, it might be worth it for the man if the service is some how better or more appealing. People pay more for quality, skill, or style.

I’m not taking this story too seriously, but I’m pretty sure this will end badly, but we probably won’t get that news.

I wonder if the guy’s friends are also allowed to order a 400 yen bento or (ahem) other services from the woman. Actually, I don’t really care, but it’d be a shame if the kids grow up thinking about the world this way. What of love, family, community?!

Well, if making it all about the yen makes everybody happy, then who am I to say?

A recent study by the Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has shown marriages in which the couple is already expecting are currently 26.8% and seem to be on the rise. Some wedding planning companies are saying that number may be as high as 40%.

There is a movement to rename the shotgun weddings from “deki-kon” or “dekichatta kekkon” (meaning something like “we really did it” or “we made a mistake” or “we messed up” marriage) to something more positive like “omedeta-kon” or “congratulations wedding”, or “angel wedding”, or “sazukari-kon” which I’ll translate here as “gifted wedding” considering the baby a great gift

Some other creative names include the magazine Zexy which gave us mamarraige… an obvious play on the words mama and marriage. (I kind of like this one.)

The wedding planning services interviewed say that some of the special services they offer for these mamarriages or gifted weddings are:

• wedding dresses with more room around the middle for the brides expanding belly
• buckets under the tables for just in case the wife gets morning sickness
• staff at the ready with drinks and towels for if the bride starts to feel ill

This video is shown as part of the chair themed NHK children’s show I mentioned in the NHK Cactus Kids Show post.

This is an awesome song for kids. It has enough rock n roll to it for parents to enjoy. It’s written and sung by the lead singer of Ulfuls, named Tortoise Matsumoto. He’s got a good voice, and Ulfuls is an all around great rock band.

It’s a nice change from some of the cutesy kids songs around… and yes, they found a way to involve chairs in a song called “Tamago” or “Egg”.

A new Kids show called “Mitsuketa” or “I found it” has started up on NHK. For some reason, the show’s main theme is…

CHAIRS!

There are skits of interactions between a real live girl, a giant talking cactus, and a chair. The cactus plays kind of a fatherly role, settling little arguments between the little girl and the chair.

Please don’t get me wrong. It’s a great kids show… funny, colorful, educational, and well thought out.

There is just one aspect of the show that I can’t seem to understand….

It doesn’t happen every time, but the Cactus, which is usually quite manly (referring to himself as “ore” and speaking in masculine Japanese), sometimes gets excited. When Sabo-chan (the cactus’s name) gets excited, a flower on his head blooms, and then…

he becomes extremely effeminite, using feminine language and gestures.

The first time I saw this it was kind of surreal.

Anyway, here’s a video of Sabo-chan getting excited. The story of the video is Sabo-chan explaining how electricity flows through the wire, into the lamp providing power. When the little girl asks how a remote control works, Sabo-chan, who apparently doesn’t know the answer… blows a fuse. The flower blooms and he gets girly.

Let’s watch.

In a previous post I wrote about six Kyoto University of Education students who raped a girl at a party in February. The university never reported the incident to police until June. There were some pretty outrageous moral violations by the school, such things as refusing to report the incident to authorities, and the fact that the perpetrators were not even expelled from the school.

In an explanation meeting held on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009, Kyoto University of Education president Mitsuyo Terada  spoke in front a nearly full, four hundred fifty person classroom, and addressed students directly.

During the meeting, Terada explained why the six perpetrators were never expelled from the school despite having gang raped another student by explaining that the university itself is an educational university, and it is their responsibility to help rehabilitate the perpetrators and help them become productive members of society.

Here is an article (in Yahoo News in Japanese) describing Kyoto University of Education’s meeting with students.

Since, I feel its therapeutic for me to comment on the stories, please indulge me in a little sarcasm…

…I believe what this educator and university president has thought of  is quite revolutionary. He has decided to open his school up and offer it as an alternative to prison. If he feels there is a place in a well-regarded education university for six violent rapists, I’m sure he would be honored to accept a Yakuza member whose only crime is shooting a few rivals. The Yakuza member would probably never think to do harm to other members of the university community, unlike the six criminals he has offered golden tickets to. If his school’s responsibility to society is to rehabilitate felons, I’m sure he would be happy to play host to any illegal immigrants in Japan who have been discovered after countless years of living a law abiding life in Japan. Maybe the next generation of teachers in Japan will all have a “story to tell”. I also expect these future ex-killers and rapist-turned-teachers to cast a very forgiving eye on students who’ve forgotten to do their homework.

Stable leader Junichi Yamamoto (formerly Tokitsukaze) who ordered members of his Sumo gym to beat and abuse a sixteen year old junior Sumo wrestler (including breaking beer bottles over his head and hitting him with an aluminum baseball bat) resulting in his death, could be a future valedictorian.

Thank you for indulging me in a little sarcasm there, but I am surprised the Japanese authorities are not coming down on Kyoto University of Education for trying to handle this crime off-record and for even now making a mockery of any laws designed to protect victims of sexual assault.