JAPAN: Japan's Belching Smokestacks Draw Industrial-Strength Sightseers

Kojo Moe Fans Are Infatuated by Factories; Night Cruise Past Steel Plants

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI

YOKKAICHI, Japan—Armed with expensive and elaborate camera equipment, the tourists excitedly disembarking the charter bus have all the markings of a stereotypical tour group. But they aren't interested in the area's renowned pottery making or its tranquil Shisuian teahouse. They are here to see a giant power plant billowing smoke.

The newest trend in Japanese tourism? Kojo Moe. It means 'Factory Infatuation' and it's the term used to describe people who are thrilled by the aesthetics of industrial factories. WSJ's Daisuke Wakabayashi reports from Japan.

It's the first stop of a sightseeing trip catering to factory fanatics who caravan to Japan's industrial hubs to gawk at the aesthetics of power plants, oil refineries and other smokestack facilities once derided as polluting eyesores.

On a recent bus tour to factory hot spots around this central Japan city, passengers erupted into applause at the sight of circular liquefied natural gas tanks.

"Doesn't that look so amazing against the blue sky," said Naomi Tsukasaki, a 39-year-old saleswoman at an electric-parts maker, who says she goes sightseeing to industrial sites at least once a month.

Moments later, the bus stopped at a railroad crossing, as a train carrying cement rumbled past. Passengers stampeded off the bus to photograph the train with a factory set in the background.

What started as a fringe subculture known as kojo moe, or "factory infatuation," is beginning to gain wider appeal in Japan, turning industrial zones into unlikely tourist attractions. It's the Japanese equivalent of going sightseeing at industrial stretches along the New Jersey Turnpike...

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SHANGHAI, CHINA: City Resorts to Property Tax to Cool Housing Prices

By JAMES T. AREDDY

SHANGHAI—Shanghai's mayor on Friday said the city will impose a controversial tax on property, a move by China's richest city that may be rolled out nationally as authorities scout for new ways to cool housing prices.

Mayor Han Zheng told a rare press conference that Shanghai's ambition as a global center for finance, trade and shipping depends on controlling "distorted" home prices, which he said threaten to drive away talent as people fear being "slaves of their house." The tax is a "future-oriented" policy, the 56-year-old mayor said, adding "If we cannot solve the housing issue, there will be no future for the city of Shanghai."

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VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA: City of Military Glory & Russia’s Window on the Pacific

By Heather Hopkins Clement

Vladivostok’s advantageous location in close proximity to China, Korea, and Japan was recognized quite early.  It was founded as a military post in 1860 and celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding last year.  From the beginning it has played an important role in the history of Russia.
 

Vladivostok became the main Russian port on the Pacific Ocean in 1873 and received city status in 1880.  It soon became a center of international trade.

For much of the Soviet period, the city closed not only to foreigners but also to all Soviet citizens without special permits. An exception was made when President Gerald Ford met with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1974 for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT).

After Gorbachev introduced perestroika and the Soviet Union fell, the city was officially “opened” again in January 1992. 

Today it is the capital of Primorye--the Maritime Territory of the Russian Far East, Russia’s largest port city on the Pacific Ocean, and a key commercial hub.

The city’s other claims to fame include being the birthplace of actor Yul Brynner, being home to the Russian Pacific Fleet, and being the terminus of the Trans-Siberian railway--the longest railway in the world.

This unique city in the Russian Far East is vastly different from Moscow or St. Petersburg (which are seven time zones away) and is sometimes compared to San Francisco for its views, steep hills, streetcars, and turn-of-the-century buildings.

The city has maintained its diversity and pioneering spirit, and Vladivostok reflects the history and culture of its own unique location commemorated in the numerous monuments throughout the city.

The city is proud of its Soviet/Russian heritage, but it also recognizes the opportunities that lie ahead for it in the Pacific Rim as it prepares to host the APEC Summit in 2012.

CHINA: 60% of 'ant tribe' blames society for situation

Since 2007, Lian Si, a young scholar and his team have been conducting an ongoing study of the so-called "ant tribe," a term sociologists use to refer to young Chinese graduates who live on low salaries in crowded conditions. 

According to the latest study by Lian and his team, nearly 60 percent of China's ant tribe members believe their living predicament is caused by society. However, only 10 percent of them think that is due to personal reasons.

Lian Si said he found that many "ant tribe" members expressed a strong feeling of resentment toward the group of people who benefit from the wealth or power of their families. Those people in China are usually called "second-generation rich" and "second-generation officials"...


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RUSSIA: Call that a drink? Uproar over alcohol label for beer

MOSCOW: Russia's parliamentarians might find it easier to turn lead into gold than make beer into alcohol.

Creating gold requires only the magic of alchemy but the fate of a proposal to legally define beer as an alcoholic drink will depend on the more challenging art of politics.

Russian law treats beer as a food and anyone who makes and sells it only has to prove that conditions are sanitary.

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This lack of regulation and attendant attitude, critics say, has contributed to people as young as 13 drinking, paving the way to the nation's unbridled alcoholism...

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CHINA: The Coming Clash With China

January 17, 2011

Hu Jintao's visit to Washington may be intended to patch up relations, but it is more likely to prove a turning point as tensions rise.

By Aaron Freidberg

When he meets with U.S. President Barack Obama this week, China's paramount leader Hu Jintao will not be carrying a symbolic "reset button" of the sort that Secretary of State Clinton presented to her Russian counterpart back in 2009. But he will probably be looking for ways to soothe concerns over his country's recent behavior and its possible implications for the future course of U.S.-China relations.

The last two years have seen a marked upturn in tensions between the two Pacific powers, as well as between China and many of its Asian neighbors. As viewed from Washington, but also from Seoul, Tokyo, Hanoi, Canberra, and New Delhi, this trend is a direct result of increasingly assertive Chinese words and deeds across a wide range of fronts...

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OSAKA, JAPAN: Mecca for foodies, and More

By KATE CROCKETT

A visit to Osaka is all about enjoyment, entertainment and indulgence — particularly in the fine fare to be found everywhere around its historic sites and along the buzzing neon streets of Japan's food-fueled second city...

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RUSSIAN FAR EAST: Russian film to hit US screens in spring

Jan 14, 2011 12:37 Moscow Time
Russia’s Oscar and Golden Globe nominee, ‘The Edge’ by Alexei Uchitel, is going to hit movie screens in the United States this spring. 


The film starring Vladimir Mashkov narrates the life of a former train driver who after the end of WWII settles in a distant Siberian village...

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VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA: Internet Game Allows Players to Shoot Medvedev at Kremlin

14 January 2011

Reuters

VLADIVOSTOK — Primorye prosecutors have requested an inquiry into a telecom web site that gives visitors a chance to shoot a cartoon likeness of President Dmitry Medvedev, a spokeswoman said Thursday...

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JAPAN: Searching for the Perfect Bowl of Ramen

January 9, 2011 8:38 AM

Every culture has its own unique comfort food, as Lucy Craft found out in a "Postcard from Tokyo."

CHINA & JAPAN: The 41 Places to Go in 2011

12. Niseko, Japan
An Aspen emerges in Asia, with luxury to spare.

It was the snow that first brought the Australian ski bums here, the great powder blown in by Siberian cold fronts. Then chefs and designers discovered that this sleepy town on Japan’s northern Hokkaido island was actually a lovely spot in itself, with natural hot springs, family-owned inns and spectacular views of impossibly symmetrical Mount Yotei. Now with the development of stylish restaurants and a network of fashion-forward chalets (like the foodie must stopKamimura and the 10 zenlike lofts at Suiboku), the well-heeled are arriving on direct flights from all over Asia to Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport, creating the region’s answer to Aspen and Courchevel.

Expect that to intensify when a high-speed train line, now planned to begin service in 2015, cuts the trip up from Tokyo to under four hours. This month the fully revamped 200-room Green Leaf Niseko Village, stylishly renovated by the New York-based Alexandra Champalimaud, is reopening its doors, while a Banyan Tree and Tadao Ando-designed Capella complex are in the pipeline.
— ONDINE COHANE

33. Hangzhou, China
An hour from Shanghai, a historic jewel goes five-star.

Although Hangzhou is only now coming into the global spotlight, its gorgeous pagodas, historic temples and lush gardens have been inspiring Chinese poets and painters for centuries. Recently, the feverish growth of Shanghai has sparked the rediscovery of Hangzhou as a peaceful retreat and a cultural masterpiece. And with it, a new generation of luxury hotels has arrived: Shangri-la overlooking West Lake; the Banyan Tree set within China’s first wetland reserve; the Aman, close to some of the area’s most spectacular ancient Buddhist temples up in the hills; and most recently, the Four Seasons with a destination spa and two swimming pools set up along the lagoons. Next up is an Angsana, the Banyan Tree’s design-chic sister hotel. And with the debut of a high-speed train from Shanghai, it’s now — unbelievably — less than a one-hour journey from central Shanghai. Once there, rent a bike and step into sights like Lingyin Temple, one of the world’s most important Buddhist temples. 
— ONDINE COHANE

37. Pingyao, China
Ming architecture is intact as contemporary culture takes root.

While other towns in China have modernized, Pingyao, in China’s coal-rich Shanxi Province, has clung to its old ways, barring cars within its 33-foot-tall Ming dynasty walls and preserving the traditional architecture of incense shops, courtyard houses and 19th-century bank buildings. Named a Unesco World Heritage site in 1997, Pingyao has become a major destination for Chinese and foreigners alike.

But the city is becoming known for more than its history. Its yearly photography festival, which takes place in late summer, has attracted enthusiasts and professionals from across the globe for a decade. Another sign that Pingyao is being embraced by the fashionable set: in 2009, the city’s first boutique hotel, the 19-room Jing’s Residence, a Relais & Chateaux member, opened in a restored courtyard house built more 200 years ago by a Qing dynasty silk merchant.
— DAN LEVIN

39. Okinawa, Japan
A ‘Japanese Amazon’ with some luxury thrown in.

The latest news about Okinawa might focus on the future of the American military base there, but the cluster of coral-lined islands has long been a uniquely lovely place to experience wild Japan. Few foreigners make it here, though Okinawa is a popular vacation spot for Japanese mainlanders as it’s just a few hours from Tokyo by plane and has excellent diving, hiking and palm-fringed white-sand beaches.

Playing off an increased awareness of the islands as a destination for non-Japanese tourists, new hotels are popping up all over the prefecture: InterContinental opened the first two luxury resorts last year, and in March, the Tera Resort Hotel is scheduled to open near the Shuri Castle ruins, which are part of a Unesco World Heritage Site. On Okinawa Island visitors should head to the northern coast for a decidedly unspoiled, natural experience replete with sugarcane fields, hibiscus-lined beaches, and traditional ceramics studios that use old-fashioned Okinawan firing techniques and dragon-shaped kilns. Farther southwest, the island of Iriomote is the wildest of them all, with dense coastal jungle, mangroves, rich indigenous wildlife, and tiny villages accessible only by boat. They don’t call it the Japanese Amazon for nothing.
— BONNIE TSUI

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THE KOREAS: Korean, US forces lower alert status: report

North Korea has lowered its military alert status to a pre-crisis level, prompting similar moves by Seoul and US forces as tensions on the Korean peninsula showed signs of easing, a report said Friday...


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JAPAN: Popularity of bunnies soars ahead of year of the rabbit

Tokyo - A sunny weekend in the port city of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture finds a small room packed with young visitors eager to get to the dozen metal cages lined up on a shelf.

‘‘Look, it’s getting all cozy and drowsy,’’ said a young woman to her husband as they sat on a bench, while a little boy timidly touched the furry little animal in his lap and smiled.

Usagi Cafe, or rabbit cafe, located not far from the city’s Chinatown district, has been a key attraction in the area since its opening in November.

Like the numerous ‘‘cat cafes’’ that have sprouted up across the country in recent years as more Japanese people turn to animals for comfort or relaxation, the cafe allows people to spend time with 11 rabbit ‘‘staffers’’ kept at the facility and to have drinks there.

Rabbits are already a popular pet here, with animal hospitals, pet hotels and clothes shops specializing in rabbits thriving.

But their popularity has increased in recent months as 2011 marks the year of the rabbit in the Chinese zodiac, and the emergence of the rabbit cafe is the latest sign of it...

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OSAKA, JAPAN: Ko Tae Mun, Ko Chung Hee, and the Osaka Family Origins of North Korean Successor Kim Jong Un

Kokita Kiyohito, Tessa Morris-Suzuki and Mark Selden

The following article by Kokita Kiyohito, on the family origins of Kim Jong Un, the leader designate of North Korea, is illuminating above all for the language, assumptions and treatment of issues related to North Korea in contemporary Japanese media, including the Asahi. Two brief commentaries locate some of the issues in broader perspective. The headline and article are taken from the Asahi’s weekly Aera; photos have been provided from other sources. The major story addressed in the commentary by Tessa Morris-Suzuki is the collaboration of the Japanese government and the International Red Cross in arranging the migration of more than 93,000 Korean residents of Japan, who had been deprived of Japanese citizenship following Japan’s wartime defeat, to North Korea. Mark Selden examines a range of issues related to the perspective of the Japanese journalist on Zainichi Koreans and North Korea.

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CHINA: Marriage database created to catch cheaters

7:45 PM Wednesday Jan 5, 2011

China's exploding wealth has created a culture of secret mistresses and second wives. Now officials are putting marriage records online so lovers and spouses can check for cheaters.

State media on Wednesday said Beijing and Shanghai are among the first places to put marriage databases online this year...

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CHINA: Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail opens in June

01-05-2011 16:49 BJT

Editor:Yang Jie |Source: Xinhua

The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway will be put into operation by the middle of June this year, Chinese Railways Minister Liu Zhijun said at a conference Tuesday.

The high-speed link connecting the country's two most important cities will open ahead of its original schedule, previously set in 2012.

The construction of the 1,318-km railway was started in April 2008 with total investment estimated at 220.9 billion yuan (around 32.5 billion U.S. dollars).

The railway is expected to cut travel time between Beijing, China's capital in the north, and Shanghai, the country's economic center in the east, to less than five hours, compared with the current 10-hour rail journey…

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RUSSIA: For Tolstoy and Russia, Still No Happy Ending

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) remains excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church

January 3, 2011

By ELLEN BARRY and SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY

MOSCOW — A couple of months ago one of Russia’s elder statesmen set out on a paradoxical mission: to rehabilitate one of the most beloved figures in Russian history, Tolstoy.

This would have seemed unnecessary in 2010, a century after the author’s death. But last year Russians wrestled over Tolstoy much as they did when he was alive. Intellectuals accused the Russian Orthodox Church of blacklisting a national hero. The church accused Tolstoy of helping speed the rise of the Bolsheviks. The melodrama of his last days, when he fled his family estate to take up the life of an ascetic, was revived in all its pulpy detail, like some kind of early-stage reality television.

And in a country that rarely passes up a public celebration, the anniversary of his death, on Nov. 20, 1910, was not commemorated by noisy galas or government-financed cinematic blockbusters. Officially speaking, it was barely noted at all…

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CHINA & JAPAN: Small Islands – Big Problem: Senkaku/Diaoyu and the Weight of History and Geography in China-Japan Relations

By Gavan McCormack

“Senkaku Islands Colonization Day”

In December 2010, the Okinawan city of Ishigaki (within which Japanese administrative law incorporates these islands) adopted a resolution to declare 14 January to be “Senkaku Islands Colonization Day.” The “Colonization Day” is intended to commemorate the incorporation of the islands by cabinet decision 116 years earlier. China immediately protested.

Ishigaki was following the model of the Shimane Prefectural Assembly, which in 2005 declared a “Takeshima Day” in commemoration of the Japanese state’s incorporation 100 years earlier of the islands known in Japan as Takeshima but in South Korea (which occupies and administers them) as Tokdo. That Shimane decision prompted fierce protests in South Korea. The Ishigaki decision seems likely to do no less in China. Why should these barren rocks, inhabited only by endangered short-tailed albatross, be of such importance to otherwise great powers? Whose islands are they? How should the contest over them be resolved?

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CHINA: What's Next in 2011?

In the past, Chinese officials insisted their foreign policy strategy was to "lie low". But as America's influence dims, China's demanding attention. Celia Hatton asks, what's next for Asia in 2011?

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S. KOREA: For South Korean teen, golf comes first

Like thousands of other young golfers in South Korea, 17-year-old Eom Jae-moon is expected to excel, turn pro and win tournaments. (Matt Douma)

By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times


More than a decade after South Korean golfers burst onto the international scene, Jae-moon's tale illustrates the intense national pride in the success stories of recent years, but also an unsettling side to the country's mania for golf.

In a nation obsessed with success, thousands of young golfers soon learn a tough lesson: More than just playing the game, they're expected to excel, turn pro and win tournaments, making their families proud. The schedules of many youths are managed as closely as those of Olympic-hopeful figure skating or gymnastics prodigies around the globe...


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CHINA & RUSSIA: Russia-China oil pipeline opens

The pipeline runs between eastern Siberia and north-eastern China

1 January 2011 Last updated at 23:56 ET

The first oil pipeline linking the world's biggest oil producer, Russia, and the world's biggest consumer of energy, China, has begun operating.

The pipeline, running between Siberia and the northeastern Chinese city of Daqing, will allow a rapid increase in oil exports between the two countries.

Until now, Russian oil has been transported to China by rail.

Concentrated in western Siberia, Russia's network of pipelines for oil exports has so far run towards Europe.

Russia is expected to export 15m tonnes of oil through the new pipeline each year during the next two decades - about 300,000 barrels a day.

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CHINA: China’s Naval Ambitions

January 1, 2011

Beijing’s drive to extend its military and territorial reach is making America’s close allies in the region nervous and raising legitimate questions about American diplomacy and future military procurement. The commander of America’s Pacific forces recently revealed that China could soon deploy a ballistic missile capable of threatening American aircraft carriers in the region.

The Pentagon has a long history of hyping the Chinese threat to justify expensive weapons purchases, and sinking well-defended ships with ballistic missiles is notoriously hard. But what should rightly concern American military planners is not so much the missile but the new Chinese naval strategy behind it.

China seems increasingly intent on challenging United States naval supremacy in the Western Pacific. At the same time it is aggressively pressing its claims to disputed offshore islands in the East and South China Seas. Washington must respond, carefully but firmly...

 View The New York Times Editorial...

EAST ASIA: Asia Rings in New Year