Tuesday, February 20, 2007

20,000 yen for Gaijin Hanzai Magazine


I think by now every foreigner in Japan must have heard about the GAIJIN HANZAI magazine (Gaijin Ura Hanzai Fairu - 'Foreigners Underground Crime File'), a xenophobic booklet accusing the foreigners of making Japan unsafe.

When I heard first about it via Japan Probe and Debito Arudou, I bought a copy via Amazon.co.jp to judge for myself. It was shocking. From the first page to the last page this magazine is repulsing.

The foreign media noticed the magazine: The Times Online, Australia’s ABC News, Bloomberg, Reuters, IHT…, but I haven’t seen much in the Japanese press.

The editor defends that is magazine is not racist. This nonsense of course when you read captions like "Oi Nigger!! Get your fuckin’ hands off that Japanese lady's ass!!" or "This is Japan. Go back to your country!" next to pictures of foreigners kissing Japanese girls (since when is kissing a Japanese girl a crime?). I suggest you read Debito Arudou's response to the lamentations of the editor.

Meanwhile, the unsellable GAIJIN HANZAI has become a collector’s item, according to Debito 's latest newsletter: "Even the last holdout, Amazon Japan, has 'sold out’'of the magazine. And for a couple of days, somebody was offering a used copy there for 20,000 yen! (somebody seems to have snatched it up.)"

PS: Someone has scanned the whole booklet and posted the pages here.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Wereldnet 30 januari

Het is al en tijdje geleden, maar dinsdag 30 januari heb ik deelgenomen aan Wereldnet samen met Bart Van Bockstaele in Toronto en Sandra Roelofs, de first lady van Georgiƫ.

Over Japan heb ik verteld over het 1) everzwijnen die mensen aanvallen in het jaar van het zwijn, 2) God in cyberspace, 3) commerciƫle TV: het natto-schandaal.

Audiobestand: via de Wereldnet-site.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Shinkansen

More than a month that I didn’t post anything in this blog. Phew! A time management problem. I just can’t get organized.

For now, only a few pictures form the shinkansen when I went to Hamamatsu a few days ago. My shumai obento and Fuji-san form the Shinkansen window.