FITCH, an international credit rating agency, sent shock waves through the Japanese stock market in November by cutting the ratings of Sony and Panasonic, two of the country’s bedrock electronics manufacturing companies, to junk for the first time. This came after Fitch reduced Sharp’s credit rating to junk earlier that month.

The Open Road

As I sit at home in Hawaii, enjoying our short winter, or rainy season as many locals call it, I am reminded of a journey I took in the summer of 1994. At the time I was studying haiku poetry and the life of one of its most prominent icons, Matsuo Basho. It is difficult to turn a page of a book on haiku poetry without running into Matsuo Basho. He usually is the first author a foreigner meets when they begin haiku.

I decided to replicate Basho’s trip to Japan’s northern wilderness as detailed in his world-famous “Oku no Hosomichi.” A fifteen hundred mile journey from his home in Fukugawa, Tokyo to the north country of Hiraizumi, then left to Yamagata and south to Lake Bizen and ending his journey shortly after.

Tokyo Journal Street Editor Kjeld Duits hits the streets with his lens to see what's hot in Harajuku

AS we near the end of 2012 and prepare for 2013, the Tokyo Journal Winter Edition Issue #270 is about to hit the shelves. Storefronts are decorated in Christmas cheer and year-end parties are certainly near. Although the year’s end is usually a time for closure, there is much astir in Tokyo this winter.

In Politics
On December 16, elections will be held for Japan’s lower house of parliament. Pundits predict a comeback for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) led by conservative Shinzo Abe, Japan’s 90th prime minister who stepped down in 2007 after only one year in office.

Tokyo's Fashion Queen and Tony Award Nominee Junko Koshino, renowned for her fashion, costume and uniform design, shares the latest in Tokyo's fashion scene.

Junko Koshino

TJ: How did you first get started in fashion design?
Koshino: My mother owned her own clothing boutique in Osaka. Therefore, from early childhood, I was surrounded by design. My older sister, Hiroko, was supposed to take over my mother’s business so I didn’t have to enter the fashion world, and I tried to become interested in other subjects. Before I entered Art College, Hiroko and I went to the same high school. It was a very prestigious one, and we both chose the same art club. I did oil paintings and my sister did water colors. I then went to Art College, but it turned out that the fashion world was my destiny after all. I liked to paint from early childhood, so for me it is very easy to create pictures of design styles. At one point, after I entered Art College, I decided I actually wanted to be a designer instead of a painter. So, I switched my major and I focused on design. This story of my mother and my sisters (who are all fashion designers) was featured on the NHK (Japanese national broadcasting station) Drama “Carnation” in 2011 and 2012.

TJ: Your sisters Hiroko and Michiko are also renowned fashion designers. How often do you keep in touch and do you ever collaborate?
Koshino: We don’t meet very often, about four times a year. Each year, we meet at a very famous festival in our hometown, which is the Kishiwada area of Osaka and also at the Lumiere Vision Exposition in Paris. We sometimes meet for a ceremony in memory of our mother as well. We collaborated for a show for our mother two times a few years ago, but we haven’t collaborated since she passed away.

Junko Koshino

TJ: How did you first get started in fashion design?
Koshino: My mother owned her own clothing boutique in Osaka. Therefore, from early childhood, I was surrounded by design. My older sister, Hiroko, was supposed to take over my mother’s business so I didn’t have to enter the fashion world, and I tried to become interested in other subjects. Before I entered Art College, Hiroko and I went to the same high school. It was a very prestigious one, and we both chose the same art club. I did oil paintings and my sister did water colors. I then went to Art College, but it turned out that the fashion world was my destiny after all. I liked to paint from early childhood, so for me it is very easy to create pictures of design styles. At one point, after I entered Art College, I decided I actually wanted to be a designer instead of a painter. So, I switched my major and I focused on design. This story of my mother and my sisters (who are all fashion designers) was featured on the NHK (Japanese national broadcasting station) Drama “Carnation” in 2011 and 2012.

TJ: Your sisters Hiroko and Michiko are also renowned fashion designers. How often do you keep in touch and do you ever collaborate?
Koshino: We don’t meet very often, about four times a year. Each year, we meet at a very famous festival in our hometown, which is the Kishiwada area of Osaka and also at the Lumiere Vision Exposition in Paris. We sometimes meet for a ceremony in memory of our mother as well. We collaborated for a show for our mother two times a few years ago, but we haven’t collaborated since she passed away.

TJ: You have been involved in the fashion industry for over 50 years. How have you managed to keep your designs on the cutting edge after all this time?
Koshino: I have no plans for retirement. Therefore, I have to keep creating state-ofthe- art designs. It is very important to stay busy and I need to have vision. People always need to be inquisitive and be interested in new things, and we need to keep our curiosity going without the support of others. My mother gave me this advice. She said, “Don’t go back to the previous page. Always move forward to the next page.” My mother did this and she remained very busy up until she passed away. I am very interested in Japan as well as other countries around the world and it is very important for me to share my experience with young people.

We have to do what we believe in very aggressively. Sometimes, if I act on my ideas, my work and my life increase in scope a hundredfold, so I have to keep thinking and moving forward. I hate repetition and grow tired of the same thing. I can’t enjoy repetition. I like questions that cannot be resolved and I constantly quiz myself. I ask and answer my own questions.
My encounters with people inspire me to move forward. If someone unrelated to my field asks me something, it is fascinating Fashion Design by Junko Koshino Tokyo's Fashion Queen and Tony Award Nominee Junko Koshino, renowned for her fashion, costume and uniform design, shares the latest in Tokyo's fashion scene. to me as I need to learn how to think about it. Perhaps the world I wasn’t connected to before will open my world. Because I have a core, I can expand my world. Without a core, I cannot do that. I am interested in many things but I don’t spread myself too thin in other areas.

My designs are not just for fashion. For example, I dreamed about fireworks in an opera, so I created this. I painted fireworks on a black background, and then for the 60th Anniversary of Japan-India Relations, I expressed this painting through music and fireworks. I always express things through my paintings first. This is my core. Whether I paint fashion designs or fireworks, it’s the same thing for me. Usually, fireworks shoot up and then out, but the fireworks I designed shoot out and then up. I asked a technician to match the fireworks with opera music, and it turned out to be a huge moving painting that made people cry. I did a similar event in 2011 for the 40th anniversary of Okinawa’s return to Japan. The symbol was the Rising Dragon, which represents heavy rain. Coincidentally, it rained that day, and the combination of rain with those fireworks was very moving. It was aired on television but it was most moving for people who watched it in-person. The first time this was held, the music was the music from “Madame Butterfly.” Fatima is symbolic for Japan-US relations, so I chose the music from Madame Butterfly. I am involved in an event called “Phoenix” featuring Japanese Taiko Drums, which will be held on Dec. 9th at Bunkamura in Shibuya, Tokyo. This event was held many times in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan. This is the second time in Japan.

TJ: Who is your inspiration?
Koshino: There was a painter named Ito Jakuchu in the Edo Period. In the Edo period, culture was divided between the common people and very elite people. A very original culture was formed in the Edo Period and a symbol for this culture was Ito Jakuchu. He is not famous now, but I think we have to pay attention to people like him.

TJ: Can you name some celebrities that have bought Junko Koshino designs?
Koshino: Beyonce, Mariah Carey, and long ago Diana Ross. Beyonce came in my shop to buy clothes for her next music video.

TJ: Do fashion models at your fashion shows need to have a certain “look”? Do you personally select fashion models for each show?
Koshino: I look for height, balance of movement and feeling. The face needs to have a certain look. I Iike very active, vibrant people, so I prefer Latin Americans or others who also look very vibrant. I prefer someone with darker skin or a suntan to very white skin. I choose the models by myself and I know instantly when I see them. Balance is a very important factor for me when choosing a model.

TJ: What do you think your greatest accomplishment has been?

Koshino: Being included in the Oxford History of Art Book on Fashion, and my international Fashion shows. I was also very proud to be a pioneer in having my show at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. They had never had a fashion show there. But, they accepted mine because it was art. I felt that was a great accomplishment. In 1985, I had a fashion show in China for the first time and that was difficult. They did not even have words for Fashion Show. They had no wallpaper, or anyone to put the paper on the wall, so it was very exciting.

Interview series with Japan’s most renowned translator of foreign films and interpreter for Hollywood stars, Natsuko Toda.

TJ: Can you tell us about how you got started in your career?
Toda: I saw a lot of movies in my school days, and I absolutely loved them. After graduating from Tsuda College, I visited Japanese subtitling pioneer Shunji Shimizu to ask about working in the field of movie subtitling. He said mastering the skill was difficult and there weren’t many opportunities for work in the field. But, I was not discouraged. I chose a non-film industry related job and began working at Dai-Ichi Life Insurance Company in the Hibiya area of Tokyo. However, I didn’t abandon my passion for movies. Pretty soon I quit Dai-Ichi Life and began working part-time jobs as a translator. I did all kinds of translations including industrial manuals, magazine articles and books. Eventually, I began doing movie-related translations and dictation for Shimizu sensei, and through this relationship, I was offered the opportunity to interpret at a press conference. It was almost 10 years after I graduated from college before I had the opportunity to be offered the job of subtitling for a Francois Truffaut movie and I was fortunate to have Shimizu Sensei provide advice during that time in my career.

Go on tour with legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen, who is one of the most well known and respected photographers in Rock and Roll.

HELLO Japan! I am very happy to have been asked to make a regular feature column for the Tokyo Journal! I thought I would start with a few pictures that show where my career began.

Growing up in the 1950s, I heard rock and roll when it was first played on the radio and I was an immediate fan. After High School in the late sixties, I was living with a rock band and started my career by taking pictures of them. When they were discovered, their record company used my photos and hired me to photograph more groups.

Soon I was working for many record companies and in 1972 I was included in ‘The Photography of Rock’, the first book of rock music photos. The writer, who interviewed me for the book, liked my photos and the following week brought me to his magazine interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. John & Yoko liked the photos I took and used one in the package for their next record album. And I’ve been very busy ever since.

INTERVIEW SERIES WITH PRIME MINISTER KAN’S SPECIAL ADVISOR & NUCLEAR EXPERT DR. HIROSHI TASAKA

Nuclear expert, philosopher, strategist, social entrepreneur and former advisor to Prime Minister Kan, Dr Hiroshi Tasaka shares his views on Japan.

TJ: What role have you played in serving as an Advisor to Prime Ministers?
Tasaka: On March 29, 2011, shortly after the March 11 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident, I was appointed by the Prime Minister of Japan Naoto Kan as his Special Advisor to serve him as an expert of nuclear engineering in an effort to cope with the accident. My role as a Special Advisor to the Prime Minister shifted from devising a way to stop the accident to proposing ways to reform nuclear regulations and nuclear industries, as well as investigating ways to change national energy policy.
I resigned from the position on September 2, 2011, when the cabinet changed. I had served as an advisor for five months and five days during the most critical period after the accident.

Hiroyuki Suzuki's camera lens has taken him to construction sites around the world in an ambition to capture the instability, energy, beauty and hope – he sees as intrinsic within these sites.

Hiroyuki Suzuki

TJ: How did you first get interested in photography?
Suzuki: I first became interested in photography 50 years ago when I was in the 5th grade of elementary school and was given a Konica Camera as a present. At the time I was also interested in painting. I was in Yaizu in Shizuoka Prefecture, which is a port city, so I often painted boats. Normally, people paint a boat in the center of a picture, but from the beginning I would use a non-standard composition. I might paint 2 boats in the painting, but for example, only part of one boat would be on left side of the painting and part of the other boat would appear on the right side of the painting, with a gap between the boats. It was not the usual focal point for a picture. I often use this same approach in my photos.

TJ: How would you describe your style of photography?
Suzuki: I wouldn’t say I have a specific style. I like to capture the moment. I play soccer, and I learned that if you want to score, you need to seize opportunities, and that’s what I do in my photography. In black and white photos, composition and light are important. I don’t need any colors. In my photos, the composition of my pictures is like my original style of paintings, and is not like that of other photographers.

A regular visitor to Tokyo, New York City-based Yoga Instructor and Interculturalist Judit Torok shares her techniques for alleviating big city stress.

Yoga for Everyone

I recently read an article about parents of elementary school children in California who were outraged about their children practicing Ashtangastyle yoga at school as part of their physical education program. They claimed that yoga is inappropriate and dangerous for kids because they believe their children are being indoctrinated into the Hindu religion in a public school. I couldn’t disagree with them more. These parents, and unfortunately many other people, hold inaccurate notions of this ancient practice.