‘Smile for Nippon,’ a volunteer organization, came to speak at the University of Southern
California’s  Annenberg Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 13, to remind people that the relief
efforts in Japan are far from over. Check out the slideshow.

By Sara Clayton

A man from Tokyo and

his ‘Smile for Nippon’ team

are on a mission —

a mission to do whatever they can to support tsunami victims and keep them smiling despite the hardships they have faced.

It has been ten months since the tragic magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Tohoku, the northeastern region of Japan, and though many of us saw images and footages of cars, houses and people being swallowed up by the relentless tsunami waves, this disaster has been abandoned by the media and the rest of the world after almost a month of coverage.

But one small organization, Smile for Nippon, which came to speak in the Annenberg Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 13, is determined to remind the world that Japan still needs as much help as possible.

A group of graduate students from USC and UCLA have been touring around Los Angeles and giving presentations in order to educate people on what has happened since media coverage of the tsunami area halted. But these students would not have come together if it were not for a certain Mr. Tsun-san, who goes by the name Chonmage, the hairstyle featuring a shaved pate and a small ponytail that most sumo wrestlers don before a match.

Chonmage has visited Tohoku 17 times since the tsunami, and with every visit, he brings up amenities – shoes, sausages, games, etc. Because he lives in Tokyo, each trip he makes up to Tohoku and back covers approximately 1000 miles, but Chonmage does not mind making the trip because all the smiles he sees whenever he visits Tohoku makes all the traveling worthwhile.

“I heard that the people who lived in Tohoku needed shoes, and since I am a shoemaker myself, I decided to bring up 200 shoes to give to them,” Chonmage said in Japanese, “When I delivered the shoes, I made a pinky-promise with a little boy that I would come back. Since then, I have returned sixteen more times.”

With donations and money out of his own pocket, Chonmage has been able to brighten the lives of people from all ages in Tohoku. And along with the supplies and entertainment he gives to those in the disaster areas, Chonmage also noted how much they enjoy his presence. “They love to see my goofy outfit. It gives me a reason to talk to them and gives them a reason to laugh. Everyone remembers me.”

Chonmage, with the help of the Los Angeles team, among others, will continue to help those in Tohoku for many years to come. “My ultimate goal is to take the kids to Tokyo Disney!” exclaimed Chonmage, with a brilliant smile.

If you would like to learn more about Chonmage and his mission, please “Like” Smile for Nippon on Facebook and follow Chonmage on Twitter.

Related Stories —

New York Times: Panel Challenges Japan’s Account of Nuclear Disaster

KTVZ: Japan Tsunami Debris Threatens Ore. Coast

The Tokyo Times: Japan welcomes new foreign friends as volunteers

By Anne Su

Even though these students from Abu-cho, Japan, learn to study diligently from a young age, secure and stable careers may not be in their future. Photo: Flickr.

As Japan lost its place as the second largest economy in the world, the number of Japanese “freeters” is remarkably increasing. “Freeters” is a term derived from the word “freedom” and the German word for worker, “arbeiter.” They are people who don’t have stable jobs and are engaged in low-skilled, low-pay part-time jobs.

About one-third of Japanese freeters live in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Among them, 39 percent is comprised of males and 33 percent females.

One reason attributed to the rise in Japanese freeter population is the growing difficulty of having full-time jobs. Companies are hiring more part-time employees because of lower personnel costs and higher employment flexibility.

Most Japanese freeters are also “parasite singles” who continue to live with parents after college.  Some are even unemployed and financed by their parents.

Another cause of the problem is that a diploma from even the most prestigious university in Japan like the University of Tokyo does not guarantee full-time employment. Japanese youths are becoming more “lost” and aimless in what they want to achieve in life.

In a study conducted by Yuki Honda of the University of Tokyo, she wrote, “This figure [Figure 3] gives us the impression that Japanese companies are even more reluctant to hire new university graduates than high school graduates.”

Japan’s rigid school-to-work system is unique for the reason that firms and corporations hire fresh-out-of-high-school-graduates to work. To keep the fresh graduate status, some Japanese rather go to graduate school or 2-year professional schools, known as “Senmon gakko,” while job hunting.

“Many establishments want to have fresh graduates so they are obedient. It’s crazy in my view,” says Kurokawa from CBC News.

An array of fresh graduates eventually get promoted to permanent working class positions or become the “salarymen,” who are the Japanese white-collar labor force.

According to Mary C. Brinton of Cornell University, who wrote an article on youth employment in Japan compared to that in the U.S., about 25 percent of the graduating Japanese high school students enter into the labor market. Only about 40 percent of them matriculate to junior colleges or universities. Japan has been known for its well-established system of connecting high school graduates to employers in the job market.

However, Japanese companies are cutting down the funds designated for professional training after one is admitted into a corporation.

Developing one’s talent in the arts or in music is another cause of the shift towards working part-time jobs for the young Japanese. The pressures from home to get married and form a family or to become salarymen retard the young Japanese in their search for and entrance into full-time jobs.

Many young Japanese escape from Japan to other countries such as the United States to in pursue artistic professions. There is more freedom and less pressure on what one wants to pursue in the U.S., some Japanese have commented.

But the youths of Japan will have to take into consideration the reality of the pension system from which their parents will receive aid after retirement.

By Anne Su

Is the shocking number of missing centenarians a sign of a degenerating respect for the elderly? Art by Stacy Kwok.

More than 234,000 Japanese elderly aged 100 or older who are registered on the country’s government records are actually missing or probably long dead, according to Japan’s Ministry of Justice.

Longevity has always been a source of pride and celebration in Japanese society, but the social attitude seems to be shifting in the midst of an economic recession.

Sogen Kato, thought to be the oldest living man in Japan, had actually been dead for 32 years before authorities found his mummified body in July. His daughter had failed to report his death and pocketed 9.5 million yen ($111,000) in pension payments, according to Kyodo News.

This incident was succeeded by a string of reports finding dead or missing centenarians who were assumed alive. A single case of fraud made apparent the flaws and incompetence of the government and the pension system. It also shocked the entire country in which a national holiday is dedicated to the elderly: Respect for the Aged Day.

Kato was considered to be one of the oldest people in the country at 111 years old. Yet when the police found his mummified remains at his home in Tokyo, he was very much dead rather than alive. It quickly became clear that Kato was not the only person who the Japanese government had overlooked.

In the majority of cases, the missing elders had moved away and heir family or relatives had not reported the move to the local authorities for record-keeping and pension distribution. These circumstances can be interpreted as negligence on the part of the families. Another major factor is the poor, unestablished bookkeeping on the authorities’ part.

“It was a greedy family who wanted to keep receiving the pension for that grandpa,” said Yuka Kumagai, a USC professor affiliated with the Japanese Language Program and the Department of East Asian Languages and Culture, of the Kato case. “But after that, there are more missing people found, like 400 years old or 200 years old… It’s just an unestablished recording system of the old days, so maybe two issues were mixed there.”

After the discovery of Kato’s death in July, the government conducted a nationwide survey. That is when officials discovered there is actually a discrepancy in the number of living centenarians and registered centenarians.

There was a gap in the records and government officials found they were not entirely accurate, according to Kumagai.

But Kumagai doesn’t think this means traditional Japanese respect for elders is waning.

“I don’t think that news really mean that we don’t respect senior citizens, you know,” she said. “But [there’s] another social problem… Japan is in [a] depression for many years now, economic depression, so there are more poor families or greedier families who want to get easy money.”

As the life expectancy (about 86 years for women and 80 years for men) and the population of Japanese centenarians soars, Japan’s public pension and medical care system is heavily burdened with its financing. It might be a difficulty for the Japanese government to come up with sufficient funds for the pension.

More Japanese elders now have a notion of independence from their families, unwilling to trouble them. Nowadays, some elders even willingly choose to go to elderly cares. Thirty years ago, it would have been scandalous to send parents to care centers, but times are changing, according to Kumagai.

“Our generation is worried about the stability of the current pension system because there will soon not be enough number of younger generation to support the system for increasing number of senior people,” she said about increasing elderly independence. “Our senior citizens’ being more and more independent is a good social move, I believe.”

Correction: September 21, 2010
The original post quoted Kumagai as saying “My generation are worried… Thirty years ago, it was a scandal to send your parents to a care home, but it’s changing.” We were informed that was a misinterpretation and have made necessary changes. Bamboo Offshoot regrets the error.