JR Tokai Applies For Maglev Approval

 

JR Tokai gate Nagoya Station

Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) filed an application Tuesday with the transport ministry for approval of a plan to build a magnetically levitated train line between Tokyo and Nagoya by 2027.

JR Tokai is expected to start construction as early as October following approval by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, which will screen mainly the technical and safety aspects of the plan.

The Tokyo-Nagoya maglev train line will pass through seven prefectures to link Tokyo and Nagoya in only 40 minutes, compared with roughly 100 minutes taken by the current bullet train.

The line will be extended to Osaka in 2045 to shorten the Tokyo-Osaka trip to 67 minutes.

JR Tokai intends to shoulder the entire Tokyo-Osaka maglev train line construction cost, estimated at ¥9 trillion.

The plan estimates the Tokyo-Nagoya section will cost a total of ¥5.524 trillion, up ¥93.5 billion from an earlier estimate.

The company also released its final report on its assessment of the plan’s environmental impact and allowed local governments of the seven prefectures to read the report over a one-month period, ending its environmental assessment procedure for the plan.

“We want to proceed with construction while giving sufficient consideration to safety and environmental issues,” JR Tokai Executive Vice President Shin Kaneko told a press conference.

Denso Collusion In Parts Case

When a Japanese car maker issued a tender for shock absorbers a few years ago for a model it planned to sell in Indonesia, two Nagoya suppliers came back with bids that were "so obviously coordinated," said an executive at the automaker.

One supplier put in a slightly lower bid for front shock absorbers than its rival and a slightly higher bid for rear shocks, while its rival did the opposite. The intent was clear, recalled the car maker’s former parts procurement chief for Indonesia who is now back in Japan and didn't want to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue: they were dividing the contracts between them.

A few weeks later, he came across the two rival suppliers' chiefs playing golf together in Jakarta, and summoned them to his office for an explanation. The upshot: the automaker asked the parts suppliers to re-bid.

The account helps illustrate how some auto parts makers, in particular those from Japan, have colluded for years to inflate parts prices for automakers, dealers and repair shops in a global market with annual sales of over 80 million vehicles, and which are now being exposed in a worldwide sweep by regulators.

For the past five years, competition watchdogs - from the United States, Europe and across Asia - have moved in, handing out record fines in some cases, and calling time on a business model that has served parts makers well.

That model essentially sees parts makers collude to keep prices relatively high for new components they supply to car manufacturers, and then charge even more for the same parts supplied as replacements to dealerships and repair shops.

Denso Corp, Japan's leading auto electronics parts supplier had a higher operating profit margin of 9.2 percent than Toyota Motor Corp in the year to March, while Aisin Seiki Co Ltd's 6.1 percent margin topped Nissan Motor Co's 5.3 percent. 

In South Korea, Hyundai Mobis, a leading Hyundai Motor supplier, had a margin of around 6 percent on parts and component systems sales to automakers last year, but 21 percent on replacement parts sales, according to its filing with the stock exchange.

Some Japanese parts suppliers have evidently taken that business model further.

"To secure high profitability, those suppliers often coordinate bids for a supply contract when they can, and come to automakers with mostly identical bids," the auto executive said in an interview at his firm's procurement office in Japan.

As well as colluding to push up prices for new car parts, they also charge multiple times - sometimes as much as 10 times - the price when they make the exact same components available as replacement parts in the aftermarket marketplace.

"In other words, they're doubling dipping to beef up and maximize their profit margins," the executive said. "This is the kind of cartel you deal with in Southeast Asia with Japanese suppliers, and that's not the exception, but the typical business condition we deal with routinely around the world."

As regulators, most recently in China, go after suppliers in what has become a worldwide probe into price fixing, this "business model is in danger," the executive said. "We might be seeing the beginning of an end of it."

BACK TO BASICS

Japanese auto component suppliers, such as Toyota Group's Denso and Aisin, have, like their parent, long been considered as running highly efficient operations. But that reputation for being "lean" when selling cars in mature Western markets was challenged as global automakers aggressively went after a new generation of more cost-conscious buyers in emerging markets.

Automakers took note of suppliers' cost structure before the authorities began clamping down on price manipulation - around a decade and a half ago as they sought to cut costs and vehicle prices to make cars more affordable in emerging economies. At the unnamed executive's company, for example, procurement officials began going after parts suppliers five years ago, mindful of their "pricing tricks," he said.

For parts suppliers now, the answer may be to go back to business basics, industry officials and experts say.

"Rather than change in their business model, parts makers are going to have to quit getting their hands dirty for profiteering and should go back to basics," said Hidehiro Utsumi, an attorney-at-law at law firm TMI Associates in Tokyo and an expert on anti-monopoly.

That means re-embracing what Japanese automakers are best known for - eliminating excess from the manufacturing process throughout the supply chain and trimming any fat from production to achieve low cost and high quality.

No one at Aisin or the Japan Auto Parts Industries Association was immediately available to comment. A Denso spokesman referred to its earlier press statements on fines in various markets.

   

GLOBAL SWEEP

The crackdown on auto parts makers began around early 2010, when regulators in the United States, Europe and Japan started looking into parts suppliers including wire harness makers such as Yazaki Corp and Sumitomo Electric.

Japan's Fair Trade Commission has fined 12 local parts makers a total of $332 million since January 2012 for violating anti-monopoly laws, including Yazaki, headlamp maker Koito Manufacturing Co and bearing maker NSK Ltd.

China last week fined a dozen Japanese parts makers a record $201 million for manipulating prices, while in the United States, 28 firms including Denso and Yazaki and more than two dozen executives have in recent years agreed to pay $2.4 billion in fines, according to the Justice Department. 

The European Commission last month fined several parts makers, including Yazaki, NTN Corp, NSK and Furukawa Electric, a total of $182 million, and is currently investigating possible cartels in car lights, thermal systems, air conditioners, seat belts, air bags, radiators and windscreen wipers.

South Korean regulators last year fined units of Denso, Continental AG and Robert Bosch [ROBG.UL] for price fixing, and are looking into whether there has been price collusion among car makers and dealers. 

In May, Singapore's Competition Commission fined Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp, NTN and NSK a record S$9.3 million ($7.43 million) for cartel behaviour in ball bearings, noting the price fixing, going back as far as 1980, even had a formal name: the Market Share and Profit Protection Initiative.

The crackdown has hit Japanese parts suppliers hardest as they operate globally, though others such as Autoliv Inc have also been caught up. Car parts implicated in the probes range from wire harnesses, bearings and seat belts to anti-vibration rubber and ignition coils.

Reuters

Exhibit Recalls Nagoya Air Raids

Nagoya August 15, 1945

The Allied Forces did not just bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, although both are known for being the first and last recipients of atomic bombs. Other Japanese cities were also bombed during WWII. Maps of those cities were drawn by the First Ministry of Demobilization, and for the first time are being made available for public viewing.

The exhibit, called “Record of air raids: General maps of war damage in major cities in Japan,” are available in Tokyo, its neighbor Kawasaki, and Sasebo in Nagasaki. At the capital, the maps are under the custody of the National Archives of Japan in Chiyoda Ward. Completed in December 1945, measuring 55×40 centimetres, the maps traced from Hokkaido in the north down to Kagoshima Prefecture in the south. 

There were 131 affected cities and municipalities, including Nagoya, Osaka, and Tokyo, where the bombings were mapped using lines with seven shades of red indicating the extent of damage. Most have overlapped and even extended along the Sumida River in the eastern capital.

Kasugai Woman Helped Abandoned Girl

Yoko Kasuda

For six years, Yoko Kasuda was a regular visitor to the Welfare Center for Persons with Developmental Disabilities here. But those visits stopped last Aug. 12, the day that the 9-year-old girl charged to her care passed away.

Kasuda, a lawyer, was in her mid-thirties when she first met the girl, then 3 years old and already in institutional care.

From the outset, doctors gave the girl short odds at living beyond several years.

She was found abandoned in a cardboard box in a waiting room at a maternity clinic in western Aichi Prefecture in May 2004.

Doctors quickly diagnosed a severe illness, but determined the girl's life was not in immediate danger.

The girl suffered from hydranencephaly, a congenital condition that retards growth, movement and the ability to speak.

When she was discovered wrapped in a towel, the girl was believed to be just an hour old. A letter in the cardboard box read: “Please take care of this child.”

Kasuda, 42, met the girl for the first time in late 2007.

She agreed to talk to The Asahi Shimbun about her guardianship of the girl on grounds that the child was not identified. However, Kasuda did allow the newspaper to refer to the girl as "M."

Kasuda initially visited the facility to meet the girl because her lawyer colleague had asked her to take on the responsibility of guardianship on her behalf.

Guardians of minors serve as legal representatives for children without a person in parental authority. Typically, this is when the parents have died or were separated from their offspring because of child abuse. Guardians are appointed by a family court.

Kasuda acceded to the request. It required her to consult with doctors to decide the best course of treatment for "M" and take responsibility for the girl.

“I had no reason to turn it down, although I realized that she probably would not be able to live for very long,” Kasuda said.

She researched the Internet and discovered that the average life expectancy of a person with the same disease as "M" was just three years. Kasuda had a son a year older than the girl.

Kasuda said "M" did not show any reaction initially when she held and talked to her.

“Her body was cold and stiff,” she recalled.

The girl’s life was beset by a series of injuries and illnesses, including a bone fracture and hernia.

But the child gradually appeared to be getting stronger and displayed signs of some awareness of the outside world.

When Kasuda held her, the girl’s cheeks seemed to relax slightly. When she woke "M" during a nap by rubbing her body, the girl appeared somewhat put out.

“(Those reactions) made me believe that the child could probably hear sounds even though she did not understand the meaning of words,” Kasuda said.

Staff members at the facility agreed.

“The girl blinks when a sound is made,” said one nurse. “It was like she wanted us to know that she can hear.”

Kasuda, encouraged significantly by these signs, gave the girl a gift that plays a song for Girls’ Festival on March 3, the day the festival is celebrated. On her birthday, Kasuda bought her traditional “jinbei” light cotton summer clothing consisting of knee-length shorts and short-sleeved jacket, the same one she bought for her own daughter.

The girl one time astounded the staff because she tried to use her head to press a button on her bed to move forward.

“Go! Go!” cheered several staff members when they noticed what "M" was doing.

When "M" turned 9, Kasuda became hopeful could even make it to 20, the legal age for an adult, or older.

Things changed dramatically for the worse on Aug. 12, 2013, however, when she received a call from the hospital at the center just after 9 p.m.

When Kasuda rushed to the hospital, the girl’s heartbeat was slowing. She was suffering from septicemia after becoming infected with the virus. The child died late that night.

Kasuda held the child's body and apologized to her repeatedly.

“I am sorry that I could not come to see you as often as I had wished,” she told the girl.

The girl's funeral was held three days later. Teachers who took care of her at the school for the disabled sent her coffin off by singing songs they sang during a morning meeting at the school.

Kasuda said the time she spent with the girl was invaluable, even though she was not her biological mother.

“There were difficult times, but we all joined in supporting her,” said Kasuda. “We experienced happiness as well as sadness in the course of looking after her, but I now remember all the encouraging events.”

According to the Supreme Court, guardians of minor were appointed in 2,099 cases in 2013. Guardians were typically children’s relatives and friends of their parents. In some cases, lawyers assume the duty.

Asahi

Grime Finds A Home In Nagoya

Nagoya Grime Duo Munny Muthaz

 Maybe because Nagoya is a bit more into keeping it real than Tokyo and even Osaka, the UK grown Grime scene is taking Nagoya by storm.  Tokyo and Osaka not as much, but Grime is catching on there as well.

Grime has never been something that exported from the UK particularly well. Rooms full of young men shouting at each other isn’t exactly marketable, and Americans and Europeans don’t tend to understand crucial phrases like “E3”, “move to you” and “your mum’s got athlete’s foot.”

However, that’s not to say the genre doesn’t have its overseas fans. In Japan, for example, DJs and MCs have taken parts the British sound – the bass hooks, bloopy synths and aggy, rapid-fire bars – and put their own spin on it, AKA MCing in Japanese rather than a dodgy faux London accent.

The scene in Japan is very much still developing, although there's recently been a large increase in the number of DJs who play the danceable grime you might hear on Rinse or on the Butterz label. In terms of producers, there's a deejay called DJ Prettybwoy, who's been following UK garage and grime for over ten years. He's also had releases on Big Dada, remixed many of my tracks and has a very unique production style. Another DJ crew is Double Clapperz, who recently had one of their songs played on Rinse FM.

There's Duff and Kitakanto Skillz, Dekishi and Soaku Beats, Beyond, Onnen, Catarrh Nisin, Rittzzz, Taquilacci, F-lager, MC Snow and MC Marimo Head.

Dekishi and Soaku Beats’ "Makenai (Never Lose)" was released in 2012 and has been played on Japanese rap radio stations. Kitakanto Skills, led by Duff, also released a compilation album called Grime City. I have no idea where the Japanese grime scene will go from here, but there are a large number of people who are active in the scene and have the enthusiasm to make things happen. If these producers, DJs and MCS can link up, I'm sure the scene can become something really great.

In 2004, there was a special article on Dizzee Rascal, and that got me into grime. This was pretty much straight after I got into hip-hop – I'd read about US rap, so I was interested in the idea of UK rap. BMR Magazine mainly focused on R&B, soul and funk, so the only real way to learn about grime in Japan was via the internet. I didn’t have an internet connection at home at the time, so I'd use a PC at school. I Googled "grime" and "Dizzee Rascal", which brought up Juno Records. This was the beginning for me.

Grime is the product of a number of different genres, such as garage and dubstep, and was intertwined with them. I learned this through Juno Records and a couple of bass music bloggers. Having been accustomed to US rap I was blown away by the UK sound – the unique flow of the rappers and the rough beats and bass. I had no idea what the lyrics meant, but the raw energy really appealed to me. It wasn’t long before I realised that this was the sound I'd been looking for.

Most grime nights are fairly small, DIY events, although extremely good. There's an organiser called Eri who runs a crew called Goodweather. They have booked Champion, Swindle and Logan Sama to perform in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. P Money and Royal T also played at a festival called Outlook Japan 2014, for which we are very much indebted to Eri. Another DJ and blogger, Chelsea JP, organised an event called the Wardub Japan Cup, which was inspired by Lord of the Beats. Prettybwoy has been running a UK garage and grime night called Golly Gosh for many years, and a number of young Japanese and British artists – the Void crew – have recently started a new night called Swims.

Japanese radio culture is nowhere near as developed as the UK. There are a few major radio stations that play J-pop, rock and a bit of party rap, and that’s it. However, there are a number of internet radio stations that run grime specials. There's a famous Ustream channel, Dommune, that featured Visionist and Logan Sama. More recently, Glacial Sound performed on Block FM, another internet radio show. I think there's a growing demand for this sort of radio show, but this is very much a developing scene.

The reality is quite different in Japan. While there are rappers from poor backgrounds, there are plenty of MCs with money, as well as students. I myself am working. However, it's certainly very much an inner-city scene. Japan has its own developed rap scene, which definitely pays less attention to class and background than the UK or the US. I think there are probably many reasons for this, but one of the major reasons is that rap is originally an imported sound, so it would be hard to claim any sort of legitimacy or realness.

There are tracks that deal with criminal activities, but the majority of lyrics are personal boasts, attacks on MCS or political content. Most rappers aren't from a genuine "ghetto" background, so people tend to rap about the things they're interested in.

Vice

Mitsubishi's Nagoya Aerospace Works To Partner On 787

Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works (Mitsubishi Subsidiary)

 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI) will make investments for production facilities for the 787 composite wing box at Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works (Shimonoseki) and Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works (Nagoya) in response to Boeing’s plan to increase production rate of 787 from current 10 shipsets per month to 14 shipsets by the end of decade. 

Commencing from October, construction work will start to expand Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works where composite stringers, a reinforcement structure, are manufactured and to expand Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works’ Oye plant, where composite skin panels and wing boxes are fabricated and assembled. Increased production rate is targeted to begin in 2016.

Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works will expand the Aircraft Shop and will add autoclave for curing and shape-forming the layered composite prepregs under high temperature and high pressure. In Oye plant in Nagoya, automated composite tape layer in the Fabrication Factory will be added and the Painting and Assembly Factory will be expanded including modification of automated drilling machine and installation of painting robot.

MHI is responsible for manufacture of the 787’s composite wing boxes. By expanding its production capacity and supplying the 787 composite wing boxes of high quality, the company will continue to play a crucial role in the 787 project - a significant step in expanding its commercial aircraft business. 

Jiji Press

Typhoon Halong In Video And Images

Nagoya Escapes Wrath Of Halong

Clearing Conditions Over Aichi and Nagoya

Japan's national broadcaster NHK is reporting one man was washed away in an overflowing river in Gifu Prefecture and later died in hospital, while more than 30 others were wounded. 

A surfer has also been reported missing off the coast of Wakayama Prefecture.

Japanese authorities have now ordered 1.6 million people out of the path of the powerful storm which has lashed affected areas with strong winds and torrential rain.

More than 200 fights have been cancelled today and some bullet trains suspended service, leaving many passengers stranded, including holidaymakers as Japan begins its annual "Obon" summer holiday

In Nagoya there was little more than heavy rains at times and wind gusts of about 40 km/hr.  Damage from wind was limited to broken tree limbs and loose objects shattering unprotected windows.  Flash flooding occurred in low lying areas.  Local public transportation operated undisrupted.

By 1500 local Halong had already passed over Honshu and was over the Sea of Japan.  Improved weather and possible light showers with windy conditions are expected for the rest of the day Sunday in Nagoya.

NHK, Jiji

Typhoon Halong Cancels Manila to Nagoya Flight

Rainfall Predictions Through Sunday

Bad weather conditions in Japan forced the cancellation of two flights between the Philippines and Japan on Saturday, the Department of Transportation and Communications said.

In a post on its Twitter account, the DOTC said the two flights belonged to Philippine Airlines. They included:

PR-408: Manila to Osaka
PR-438: Manila to Nagoya

The DOTC said the cancelled flights were "due to bad weather at destination."

The Japan Meteorological Agency indicated the bad weather is due to Typhoon Halong.

Lightning Kills High School Student

Seishin High School

 A high school student died after being struck by lightning Wednesday during a baseball game at a school in Fusocho, Aichi Prefecture, police said.

Shoki Ando, 17, a pitcher for the private Seishin High School, was on the mound when he was struck by a thunderbolt during a game against an unnamed high school, according to Inuyama Police Station sources. The police were informed about the lightning strike by phone at 1:15 p.m.

The second-year student and resident of Oguchicho fell into cardiopulmonary arrest and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where his pulse briefly recovered before he died, the sources said.

Ando was struck as the game was going on in front of about 100 spectators, including parents and other high school students. The game had been briefly suspended due to rain starting at 1 p.m.

Police quoted witnesses as saying they heard distant thunder first, and then after about 10 seconds the lightning bolt hit the student with a loud “bang.”

“We need to remind ourselves thunder may feel distant, but an incident like this could happen,” Mitsuo Kurachi, principal of Seishin High School, said after the incident. He said the school will create an instruction manual to address thunderstorm situations.

The Nagoya Local Meteorological Observatory had issued a thunderstorm warning early Wednesday, but the school was not aware of it, Kurachi said.

Kyodo

ANA to Begin Nagoya to Haneda Flights

 All Nippon Airways Co. says it will launch daily round-trip flights between Tokyo’s Haneda airport and Chubu Centrair International Airport starting Oct. 26 to better serve travelers going overseas from central Japan.

The move ties in with ANA’s launch in March of international services to London, Paris and Munich from Haneda.

ANA said Wednesday that it hasn’t yet set fees for the new domestic service. Passengers will be able to check their luggage at Centrair near Nagoya and collect it at their overseas destination, the airline said.

ANA stopped flying between Haneda and Nagoya in 1982 due to competition from bullet trains.

Shukan Asahi Geino: Yakuza - Chunichi Dragon Ties

It Has a Mean Fastball

 In the outfield seating areas of baseball games in Japan, there is usually an oendan (or cheering section), which consists of fans chanting, pounding drums, blowing horns and waving flags, primarily when the team they support is at bat. 

For the Central League’s Chunichi Dragons, their cheering sections at their home stadium of Nagoya Dome and elsewhere on the road have had little to shout about — and that is not due to the team’s current fourth-place position in the standings. 

On July 24, Chunichi announced that it was accepting applications for membership in a new cheering section in an effort to comply with the policies of Nippon Pro Baseball (NPB) regarding connections to organized crime.

The application for the Chunichi Dragons Cheering Section includes the submission of a form and a performance review, ostensibly an evaluation of the applicant’s musical ability. The team, which is seeking 20 suitable candidates, hopes to have the new section up and running before the year is out.

The move follows the failure on the part of four existing groups that support Chunichi nationwide to change their upper members by the first All-Star Games on July 18. Up to this point in the season, the fans in the outfield had been required to cheer individually and without musical accompaniment, as mandated by NPB.

“Generally, a team cannot have organized cheering with instruments without permission,” says a reporter at a sports newspaper.

According to Shukan Asahi Geino (Aug. 14-21), Chunichi has a long, complicated relationship with one yakuza group in particular, the Nagoya-based Kodo-kai, an affiliate gang of Japan’s largest criminal syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi. 

“NPB has been showing an attitude whereby ties to organized crime are not allowed,” says a person affiliated with NPB. “But in the oendan sections of Chunichi, the upper members are yakuza, particularly the Kodo-kai.”

In 2006, NPB issued a special mandate to exclude boryokudan, or organized crime groups. As a result, all 12 teams were required to submit the names and portrait photographs of the members of its oendan groups. 

One year later, the Nagoya Hakuryu-kai (名古屋白龍會) and Zenkoku Ryushin Rengo (全国竜心連合) oendan groups for Chunichi had already been rejected by NPB for not submitting a list of their members. The groups filed a claim against NPB four years later in the High Court of Nagoya but lost. In 2013, an appeal reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of NPB.

In the three-page application to join the Chunichi Dragons Cheering Section, the ninth question asks whether the applicant is a member of an organized crime group.

This raises a very logical question: Why is Chunichi protecting organized crime members?

“Since the days of Nagoya Stadium” — the facility used by Chunichi before it moved to Nagoya Dome in 1997 — “there has been a problem with ticket scalping,” says the aforementioned sports reporter. “Teams can supply the oendan sections with around 100 tickets, and those tickets can get into the hands of organized crime members who scalp them.” 

Then there are the direct connections yakuza can have with the players themselves. 

“So-called ‘player seats’ are provided to team members with the intention being that they invite people to the games,” says the previously mentioned NPB source. “All teams allocate two tickets per player per game.” 

A problem arises when the players become close to members of the oendan sections — and the tickets are funneled to gangsters. 

In illustrating the friendly ties that can exist between oendan sections and gangsters, the magazine mentions an alleged rape committed in 2003 by Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, a slugging third baseman with Chunichi between 1988 and 2009. Weekly tabloid Shukan Post said that Tatsunami hired gang members to threaten the victim and her fiance in an effort to intimidate them into not revealing the crime.

These problems, however, are not limited to Chunichi. The magazine mentions an unnamed player on another Central League team. 

“He collects tickets from other players and passes them on to the oendan sections,” continues the NPB source. “These then wind up in the hands of yakuza, who scalp them to fund their gang.”

 

Tokyo Reporter

Seto Ceramic Doll Exhibition

An exhibition currently being held in Seto at the prefectural Ceramic Museum is celebrating the 100th anniversary since the production of novelty porcelain figures started in the city.

“The Charm of the Ceramic Dolls” features 120 pieces made in Seto and around the world.

“We want to prove that we can still craft ceramic figures of this high quality,” said Norichika Kato, the 54-year-old president of Seto-based ceramic doll manufacturer TK Nagoya Ningyo Seito Corp. His company’s works are among those on display at the museum.

TK Nagoya Ningyo Seito is the only manufacturer in Japan that produces ceramic lace dolls, for which a mastery of highly sophisticated skills is required. While the local ceramic novelties industry has declined, the company is enjoying brisk sales of popular figures, such as Disney characters.

Seto ceramic novelties are distinguished by their meticulous workmanship that makes the most of the high-quality clay. While the city of Seto has long been commonly known as the town of Setomono (ceramics), the city was also the world’s leading manufacturer of ceramic novelties after World War II.

During the post-war period, the industry enjoyed a boom period, with most ceramic products bound for the U.S. market. Since 1985, however, the novelty industry has seen a sharp drop in exports due to a stronger yen, leading to the decline of the industry. At present, only a handful of manufacturers still market the novelties in Japan.

One of the dolls in the exhibition is a “Hanayome ningyo” doll produced by the founder of TK Nagoya Ningyo Seito and Kato’s grandfather, Tokumatsu. First offered by the company more than 50 years ago, the Hanayome ningyo is a ceramic bride figure dressed in Japanese-style clothing with Western facial features.

Newly created ceramic figures called the “Nagoya ningyo” doll, created by Kato’s older sister, Kumiko Motomura, 56, are also on display. As opposed to the Hanayome ningyo doll which it is based on, Motomura created three kinds of Nagoya ningyo dolls, each with Japanese facial features and wearing a different colored kimono.

The making of the Nagoya ningyo dolls involved a lot of delicate work by hand. Motomura rolled out a mass of clay to make a strand of hair one by one. In addition to crafting a Japanese wedding headpiece and a fan made of ceramics, she embellished the figure with details such as the laced patterns on the kimono belt.

Kato said that the Nagoya ningyo dolls represent his wish to revive the Seto novelties industry.

“Our work would be recognized if we continue to make novelties with high skills and sensitivity,” Kato added.

Satoshi Tamura, a 42-year-old curator at the museum, proposed the exhibition. He was born to a family in Koka, Shiga Prefecture, which produces Shigaraki earthenware plates, the region's specialty, at its pottery.

“I want to preserve the ceramic industry in this city of Seto as I am also concerned (with the industry),” Tamura said. “I hope that the exhibition will convey the brilliance of what the creators have made.”

The exhibition will continue through Aug. 17.

Asahi

Nagoya World Cosplay Summit 2014

Oasis 21 Mascot Poses With Cosplayers

 

The World Cosplay Summit was held in Nagoya over the weekend. While the events went on in Oasis 21, we were able to get some views from the players, spectators, and passersby. Other sites have all the nice stories and how it was all fun and good times, but there is another side that is always left untold. This is what we were told by those who see things a bit different.

Beverly, from USA and Cosplayer

It's about having fun dressing up as your favorite character and having fun in imagination. There is absolutely nothing wrong with cosplaying. It is like being someone different for a little while from the same person you are all the time. To get lost in imagination from the real world that absolutely sucks.

Michael, from Canada and Cosplayer

Some Japanese cosplayers have been making rude comments to the non Japanese cosplayers. I think they need to lighten up and enjoy themselves. Cosplay is not one culture or country, it is about coming together to show love of anime and love of fantasy.

Shoji, Company Employee

I have no problem with this, but I do wonder why these people spend so much time on what is an obsession with fantasy and not helping our society. I mean we have a deflation spiral due to unemployed youth not entering the work force, and a population problem due to people not having kids. I think these people need to get priorities right.

Miki, College Student and Cosplayer

There were too many foreigners here this year. It was no fun because of them. They were being rude, getting too drunk, and acting obnoxious. I wish they would leave our culture in Japan alone, or act like this in their own countries. The gaijin are ruining it for us Japanese.

Keiko, Housewife

I think it is good for young people to have fun, but there comes a time when they must become adults. I am concerned about all the over 20 year olds I see. I am also concerned about the public drunkenness. This seems to be causing troubles for local people here in Sakae just wanting to shop and not be harassed by mobs of costume clad immature adults.

Jim, from the UK

Honestly, is it Halloween? I mean these are adults? What a bunch of immature adults.

Paul, from Australia and Cosplayer

I saved and saved to come to Nagoya this year. I wanna get drunk, get some Japanese girls and go wild. I don't do this back home so I want to do all I can here.

Taro, Cosplayer

We Japanese are having no fun this year. Drunken foreigners have ruined everything for us. Look over there at all those foreigners passed out on the grass or puking. I wish they would stay away.

Jung, from China

I suppose they should have their fun before they work on our collective farms and factories after we take control of Japan. You can party it up now but work tomorrow.

Kyutaro, Retired

This is ridiculous. They should be working and raising families, and these foreigners should be back in their countries working and raising families. This is the problem with today, too much play and not enough work.

Kyle, from USA dressed as Captain Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribbean

I know people think it's stupid but it's just dressing up for fun and meeting people with the same interests and by making it to the different cosplays. It learns us how to sew and if you want to be a costume/fashion designer those talents are crucial. There are a lot of bullies in the cosplay community and honestly the cosplayers are just trying to have fun. Some think it is like a religion that needs certain details and some Japanese cosplayers here think the foreigners do not belong. We don't mock your interests so why make fun of ours? I do understand some cosplayers can be ridiculous though.

Megumi, College student

Leave the cosplaying to Japanese people. Believe me, when we do it it looks original, it's part of our pop culture. Why are so many westerners all of a sudden into Anime and Japanese culture? It's like an invasion of Japanese wannabes. I also hate having to see a fat white woman dressed up as a Japanese school girl, it looks disgusting and ridiculous. 

While many had fun others used the Cosplay Summit to protest a number of issues. One protest was against the restart of nuclear power plants. Another was against the TPP. This protest below was against Chinese claims of islands claimed by Japan in the South China Sea.