This year’s most memorable buzzwords in Japan were announced Tuesday, with the words bakugai (explosive shopping spree carried out by Chinese tourists) and toripuru suri (“Triple Three” achievements in baseball) jointly taking home the top honors. Eight other winners of the 2015 U-Can Shingo Ryukogo Taisho (2015 U-Can New Words and Buzzwords Awards), announced by the Jiyukokuminsha publishing house, included two phrases tied to political events, most notably the Diet’s passage in September of the controversial security bills, and the massive protests organized by the bills’ opponents. Shuntaro Torigoe, a journalist who headed the selection committee, said 2015 was a year of politics. The winners are “a mirror to reflect the reality of Japan,” Torigoe said at an awards ceremony in Tokyo. “The top 10 list shows what Japanese society looked like this year.” Meanwhile, Luo Yiwen, president of the Laox electronics store chain and one of the award recipients, said his company will strive to keep the bakugai phenomenon going. “Bakugai shows the high quality of Japanese goods,” he said. The buzzwords were chosen from a short list of 50 words and phrases that were picked based on results from a questionnaire answered by readers of an annually published book explaining news events.

Here are some explanations of the year’s best and other top buzzwords:

Grand prize:

Bakugai

“Explosive shopping spree” — a phrase referring to record-level shopping sprees by Chinese tourists.

Toripuru suri

“Triple Three” — a rare baseball achievement in which a player excels in three categories: a .300 or better batting average, 30 or more home runs, and 30 or more stolen bases. Two players — the Tokyo Yakult Swallows’ Tetsuto Yamada and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks’ Yuki Yanagita — achieved the feat this year.

Other winners include:

Abe seiji wo yurusanai

“We will not tolerate Abe’s politics” — a slogan used by people opposed to the security legislation backed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and later passed by the Diet.

Anshin shite kudasai, haite masu yo

“Don’t worry, I have my underwear on” — a pet phrase used by comedian Tonikaku Akarui Yasumura, who appears on stage wearing just underpants and strikes poses that make him look like he is completely naked.

Ichioku so katsuyaku shakai

“A society in which all 100 million people have an active role to play” — a policy goal announced by Abe when he reshuffled his Cabinet in October, with a ministerial post named for the task.

Enburemu

“Emblem” — a word that appeared frequently in the media in the wake of plagiarism allegations surrounding the now-withdrawn logo designed by Kenjiro Sano for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Goromaru pozu

“Goromaru pose” — rugby star Ayumu Goromaru’s trademark pose before making a kick.

SEALDs

The acronym for Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy, the youth protest group that mobilized tens of thousands of demonstrators against the security legislation.

Doron

“Drone” — A man was arrested in April for landing a drone carrying trace amounts of radioactive materials on the roof of Abe’s office, prompting the government to draw up new laws on the previously unregulated activity of flying drones.

Mainichi, Shuzo!

“The Daily Shuzo” — the name of a page-a-day calendar filled with over-the-top motivational messages by tennis pro-turned-TV commentator Shuzo Matsuoka.

 

By 10 a.m., some 2,500 people had formed a line, prompting the opening of the palace gates 30 minutes early.

“It was pretty. The weather was nice too,” said Nagako Kawaguchi, 62, from Yokohama. “I’d like to come back in the spring to look at the cherry blossoms.”

Inui Road was first opened to the public last year in recognition of the Emperor’s 80th birthday, which took place in 2013.

After more than 300,000 people showed up for openings in April and December, the Imperial Household Agency decided to make the occasions annual events.

The Imperial Palace’s Inui Road will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. until Wednesday.

 

Both legacies should be remembered together, especially in light of current trends in American political discourse that demonizes an entire population — this time based on religion rather than ethnicity. It is remarkable how much has changed in the 74 years since Pearl Harbor — particularly between the United States and Japan. The two, once enemies, are now politically, militarily and economically intertwined. Even the general citizenry of each holds a positive view of the other. A 2015 Pew Poll found that 68 percent of Americans trust the Japanese a great deal or a fair amount and 75 percent of the Japanese trust the U.S. This despite over 2,400 killed in the Pearl Harbor attack and many thousands more on both sides in the war in the Pacific that followed, despite the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, an occupation and forced political change. After the war, relations were not guaranteed to be friendly, and indeed through the 1980s and early 1990s when Japan’s economy had recovered and was surging ahead Americans feared and derided Japanese-made cars the way some deride goods “Made in China” today. How can opinions shift so quickly? The case of Theodor Geisel is illustrative of the evolution of American opinion, especially with regard to Japan, from racism, anger and fear to compassion and partnership. Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was a popular American cartoonist and author. In the 1940s he was an editorial cartoonist for PM Magazine, a newspaper in New York, where he wrote more than 400 political cartoons. The man, better known for Cat in the Hat, penned numerous starkly racist cartoons about Germans and Japanese in the early years of the war. Two days before Pearl Harbor PM Magazine ran a Geisel cartoon which depicted Hitler as an organ grinder and Japan as a pet monkey. Hitler skulks around a corner and the monkey, on a string, holds a cup up to a bird with a spangled hat, ostensibly the United States (the bird resembles a sneetch). The monkey is turned back to Hitler, asking “Master! What do I do when they won’t come across?” Geisel’s opinion of the Japanese, and Japanese-Americans, was vitriolic and disgusting. He supported the internment of Japanese-Americans and is quoted as saying: “But right now, when the Japs are planting their hatchets in our skulls, it seems like a hell of a time for us to smile and warble: “Brothers! It is a rather flabby battle cry. If we want to win, we’ve got to kill Japs, whether it depresses John Haynes Holmes [a prominent pacifist] or not. We can get palsy-walsy afterward with those that are left.” But after the war, Geisel changed his tune. In 1953 he visited post-occupation Japan and was inspired to write “Horton Hears a Who,” a children’s book about an elephant named Horton who discovers a whole community — Whoville — living on a speck of dust. The story’s moral, echoed repeatedly, is that “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” The book, published a year after Geisel’s visit to Japan, is dedicated to a Japanese friend and widely seen as an allegory for the U.S.’ postwar occupation, through which Japan was remade. One of Geisel’s biographers, Thomas Fensch, contended that the Geisel made reference to Hiroshima as well through the words of the mayor of Whoville, who says “When the black-bottomed birdie let go and we dropped, We landed so hard that our clocks have all stopped.” Geisel wasn’t the only one to have a change of heart after the war. It’s unclear if he ever addressed his strong support of the Japanese internment camps, but the U.S. eventually did. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter authorized an investigation to determine whether Roosevelt’s internment order — Executive Order 9066 — had been justified. The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC) found very little evidence that the Japanese-Americans jailed in camps were disloyal and recommended in its final report that the U.S. government pay reparations. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan did just that. The Civil Liberties Act acknowledged the injustice of the internment program, apologized, and directed the government to both pay reparations and invest in educational programs to “inform the public about the internment of such individuals so as to prevent the recurrence of any similar event.” Further, the bill noted that the internment was “motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” Prejudice, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership threatens to lead the U.S. down a dark path once more. In November the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia absurdly cited Roosevelt’s internment camps in his protest against the resettlement of Syrian refugees in his town. “I’m reminded that President Franklin D Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and it appears that threat of harm to America from [Islamic State] now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then,” David Bowers wrote, exhibiting a timeless brand of hysteria void of any awareness of reality. On the eve of Pearl Harbor Day, President Barack Obama addressed the nation in remarks targeted at comforting Americans in the wake of the attack in San Bernardino, California, which was seemingly motivated by IS ideology. Amid the remarks, Obama made a plea for Americans to not “turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam.” Talking heads and presidential candidates (including failed candidates) were quick to sling criticisms. Mike Huckabee said: “Could you imagine FDR going before Congress and saying, ‘We were attacked yesterday on Pearl Harbor. I really don’t want to talk about who did it, but you know, we just want to say that they were terrible people and they were thugs.’ Well who was it, Mr. President? Well, we don’t want to get into it, because I don’t want you to have any bad feelings toward the Japanese.” They may critique Obama for refusing to blame Islam, for being too circumspect with his words, but it was Roosevelt’s lack of circumspection that led to desert internment camps filled with loyal American citizens. The very same fear that Roosevelt railed against in his first inauguration address (“… the only thing we have to fear is fear itself …”) pushed him to shameful ends in his fourth and final term in office. I wonder, does the price of unity have to be fear?

Catherine Putz is the special projects editor for The Diplomat. © 2015 The Diplomat, distributed by Tribune Content Agency

 

The simulation of air pollution in East Asia can be found at Shimizu’s website: jtim.es/VEpGD

 

According to the accusations, the vice-chief, who is married, harassed the victim, including touching her body and making obscene suggestions. The subordinate, also married, is alleged to have abused her verbally. For instance, he was said to have asked, “Why don’t you become the vice-chief’s mistress?” Studies have linked experiences of sexual harassment with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The woman’s behavior in the months before her death suggest the woman was deeply traumatized by events of Dec. 8, and she visited a psychosomatic specialist following the incident, believing she had PTSD. It took 10 days after the bōnenkai for the victim to summon up the courage to call the harassment consultation desk at Hokkaido Shimbun Press headquarters in Sapporo. Following company procedure, the victim expected the complaint to be dealt with properly — in other words, that the offenders would be punished. After speaking with the victims and the two offenders on Jan. 8, the staff at the harassment consultation desk concluded that the claim was highly reliable. On Jan. 23, a meeting was arranged at a hotel in Hakodate, where the two offenders apologized both verbally and in letters they handed over to her. On a recording of the meeting the victim made on her mobile phone, the harassers can be heard explaining that they had drunk too much and were unable to control themselves; she replies firmly, saying that this is not an acceptable excuse. After the apology, the company offered the woman, who had been working on serial six-month contracts, open-ended part-time employment. On the recording, she seems relieved and pleased not to get fired. At this point, it seems the company considered the matter resolved. The victim, however, was not satisfied, because her requests — such as that the offenders be transferred to another branch — were not accepted. On Feb. 5, the victim was told she would be required to attend a meeting about health care at the headquarters in Sapporo with one of the offenders. She would have to be in the same room as him for more than four hours. The staffers on the harassment consultation desk would also be present. “My anger exploded into an uncontrollable rage,” the woman wrote in the letter sent the day before her death. After being told about the meeting, she took a period of leave from work. On Feb. 16, she sent a letter to the director of the General Affairs Department to explain about her health problems and complain about the insensitive attitude of the company. The reply to this letter by the vice-chief of the General Affairs Department in Sapporo may have triggered her suicidal behavior. In the letter, received on Feb. 18, he said that the company believed it had dealt with the problem appropriately and repeatedly asked for an opportunity for a discussion. “It is useless to discuss this again,” she said in the letter sent Feb. 20. “No matter how much I demand something be done, nobody has responded.” The morning after this letter arrived, she was found dead. In this woman’s case, the experience of being sexually harassed and her company’s response to the ordeal eventually led her to choose death. What made her believe that this way the only way out? The woman severely criticized the Hokkaido Shimbun in her final letter.

“Hokkaido Shimbun does not seem to realize that its remarkable lack of proficiency in risk management could inflict significant damage on the reputation of the company. With its articles supporting the common people and the weak, it pretends to stand on the side of justice, but the Hokkaido Shimbun does not qualify as a news organization that pursues and reveals injustice.” It seems the woman had great respect for the ideal of what news media should be, and it was these high expectations that compounded her disappointment in the company. However, Hokkaido Shimbun is a fairly typical example of a Japanese male-dominated company, many of which routinely fall short when it comes to dealing with sexual harassment. The 2006 revision to the Act on Securing, Etc. of Equal Opportunity and Treatment between Men and Women in Employment was intended to provide new enforcement measures to tackle sexual harassment. In accordance with this act and the guidelines based on it, employers are obliged to establish measures to prevent sexual harassment of both men and women in the workplace. As every large Japanese company should, Hokkaido Shimbun has a detailed procedure in place for handling sexual harassment claims. It involves steps to clarify the details of any workplace sexual harassment, measures to punish perpetrators that are outlined in the company work rules, and the establishment of a dedicated service that workers can turn to for advice and consultation on the subject. “Despite the enactment of the legal framework, the practice of preventing sexual harassment in the workplace has not worked in Japan,” points out Yoko Koyama, chief secretary of the Hokkaido Women’s Union. Private companies have tended to treat this act as a guideline rather than a law. No penalties are imposed when the guideline is not obeyed. Hokkaido Shimbun is no exception. In this case, says Koyama, “The consultation desk may have been used, but it also inflicted secondary damage on the victim.” Although companies have to designate certain staff as being responsible for receiving sexual harassment complaints, the person in charge is often an executive who tends to stand on the company’s side, not with the victim. Moreover, these people do not always have enough experience or knowledge about sexual harassment. A source at the paper said that the employees dealing with sexual harassment at Hokkaido Shimbun, for example, were ex-newspaper reporters.

“I know of the existence of the harassment desk, but … I wonder if anyone actually uses the consultation service,” said one female reporter at the Hokkaido Shimbun, a sentiment echoed by other women at the paper. On July 1, 2014, the Amendment of the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Act took effect, changing the guidelines regarding sexual harassment. It stressed the necessity of mental care for victims. But at the Hokkaido Shimbun, it appears obvious that appropriate measures for reducing psychological stress were not taken in this case. Removing the offenders from their positions may have resolved the situation. But instead, the victim suffered anxiety and stress because her appeals for action were basically ignored. “Non-regular employment has many disadvantages in terms of sexual harassment,” says Kaori Sato, chair of the Purple Union, a labor union formed to fight for women’s rights in the workplace. Sato herself was sexually harassed while working for a firm through a dispatch agency, and set a precedent in Japan by winning worker’s compensation for her ordeal in a case against the government. “Nonregular employees have no choice but to be quiet and put up with it because they are worried about their contracts not being renewed.” According to a survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, women accounted for 56.7 percent of Japan’s 24.36 million nonregular employees in 2014. Of Hokkaido Shimbun’s 1,408 regular employees as of May 2015, only 178 were women, almost all of whom were reporters. Many more are working on fixed-term and temporary contracts in other sections. Women’s empowerment has been touted as a key plank of the government’s Abenomics plan to boost growth, but there has been little sign so far of much progress toward gender equality on the ground in Japanese workplaces. Sexual harassment is still endemic in the media industry. “Try not to take it so seriously — that’s the only way to survive in the news media”: This is a cynical refrain I have heard countless times over the years from female reporters. Sexual harassment is an organizational and structural problem in Japan, and thus remains an unfortunate fact of life for a large number of women. If the government is serious about “building a society in which women can shine,” as the prime minister has claimed, this needs to mean more than just increasing women’s participation in the workforce. The government needs to take enforceable steps to safeguard women’s human rights — not just the right to work just like men do, in workplaces run according to their rules.

Kayoko Kimura is a freelance journalist. Foreign Agenda offers a forum for opinion on issues related to life in Japan. Your comments and story ideas: community@japantimes.co.jp