J-Gospel Hits Japan!

J-Gospel Hits Japan!

Tokyo, Japan

While the world still marvels at Japanese Technology, Japanese Fashion and Japanese Food, a quiet revolution is taking place in the small Island on the other side of the world.

Known as `J-Gospel`，a new musical phenomenon is growing and spreading through beginning to exert influence similar to J-Pop and other forms of Japanese music that have taken over Asia by storm.

According to Kaori Yamamoto, one of the leading voices in the genre, `J-Gospel is in a sense a going back to our own roots. Many people do not know that `gospel music` has been sung in Japan for centuries, as far back as the first century when boatloads of refugees from the mainland came to Japan in search of freedom.

In particular in the 17th century the music of `Kirishtan` was Japanese, indigenous and spread through the country.` Following World War II, American Gospel spread throughout Japan and in the early 90s there was boom in Black Gospel Music which resulted in many choirs and even a television program on the main Government Channel.

Partly in reaction to that and partly in a going back to their roots in indigenous forms of the genre, Yamamoto and others are seeing the birth of a completely Japanese version.

Ranging from `Ryukyu Gospel` with the haunting tones of Japan`s southernmost Island, Okinawa to `Enka Gospel` written in the traditional Japanese musical style, J-Gospel has spawned a weekly Radio Program, soon moving to TV, Live concerts throughout the country and its own label.

From February 27 to March 2nd, in Shinjuku in central Tokyo, J-Gospel fans are preparing for what is being billed as the introduction of the genre to the world.

Entitled `Gospel Legend` the five day event in one of Japan`s premier venues will be featuring in addition to Kaori Yamamoto, iJ-Gospel bands such as Hide-C, Kiki, Yoshi Blessed, Route of Soul and more.

Event producer Yoshi Ikarashi says `Starting from one of Japan`s key venues we are planning over a five day period to introduce J-Gospel to Japan and the world. Following the introduction in Japan, we are planning ton taking J-Gospel to the world.

Japan`s newest `invention`, is seen by some experts as a possibility to finally rival the last time a Japanese song hit the pop charts of the world - in 1963 when the `Sukiyaki Song` sung by Kyu Sakamoto hit number one on the US Charts.

Can it happen again?

Yamamoto, Ikarashi and the other `J-Gospel` artists and their fans are convinced it will, beginning on April 27th in the heart of downtown Tokyo! www.kirisuto.com/gospellegend

Christian History Tour of Tokyo!

Tokyo, Japan

Japan is seen usually as a Buddhist and Shinto country.

In reality, as the final stop on the famed The Silk Road all the cultures, peoples and religions of The Silk Road flowed into her cities.

`Kyoto and Nara in the 7th century were more like Hong Kong or Singapore, full of the peoples, cultures and religions of the world` says the family that run one of Kyoto`s largest Temples according to `Japan: The Nation of the Cross:`.

`In 1600 the largest organized religion in Japan was Christianity` according to `A History of Christianity in Japan` by Henry Drummond.

Often forgotten is the vibrant Christian history of the capitol city, Tokyo, formerly called Edo.

The Edo Christian History Tour visits the famed sites of the Kirishitan, indigenous Japanese Christians, Keikyo, the earlier Christians who migrated across the Silk Road as early as the first century.

Beginning with an actual Oribe Toro, a stone lantern shaped in the form of a cross used during the 17th century by the Kirishitan near Mejiro, the bus goes to the site of the famed Kirishitan Yashiki which housed many of the Kirishitan leaders in Bunkyo Ward to a Keikyo monument from those who came to Japan in the 8th century in Adachi Ward to the site of the first hospital in Edo built by the Kirishitan in Asakusa.

The bus is welcomed by a local resident who tells the story of the Kirishitan of Edo, tea with the descendents of the Kirishitan near Asakusa and ends at a Kirishitan Museum in Shinagawa.

Led by seasoned guides with video narrative as the bus winds through the winding streets of Tokyo, the tour is a look at another side of Japan which is enjoying newfound interest.

The Christian History Tour of Tokyo begins at 9AM in Mejiro and finishes at 4PM at Shinagawa. There is no charge for the tour with a collection taken to cover the expenses of the tour which are 5,000 Yen per person.

Seats are extremely limited and can be reserved at info@keikyo.com or 090 3080 6711

Similar tours are held in the Tohoku are of Northern Japan, Kyoto which was the center of the Kirishitan in Japan and Kyushu.

Japanese Christians concerned about growing poverty among the young

By Ecumenical News International

24 Dec 2007

Japanese Christian groups are noticing increasing poverty among young adults in a country that once had an image that its companies provide lifetime employment and that it is a country that has a strong middle class base - writes Hisashi Yukimoto.

"If one applies the commandment, "You shall not kill", this should mean allowing poor young adults in Japan who have insecure lives as part-time and contract workers to live properly," says the Rev. Iwao Hayashi of the United Church of Christ in Japan.

Hayashi was speaking during a presentation by Karin Amamiya, a 32-year-old popular anti-poverty activist leader and author of books, including "Let Us Live! Young People Becoming Refugees", which has sold 50 000 copies since March.

"It also means, 'You shall not steal'," said 47-year-old Hayashi during a meeting with Amamiya at his church in Tokyo on 7 December. The pastor was also pointing a finger at a major Japanese temping agency that had described the salaries of many such workers as "data equipment costs". The pastor said, "Using classical terminology, they are exploiting them."

Amamiya, who has shed her past life as an ultra-nationalist punk rock singer, pointed out that there are a million insecure young people moving from place to place as day labourers in manufacturing industry in Japan. They are often called "net café refugees" as they spend nights at Internet cafés and have no fixed abodes. "They can become homeless at any time," said Amamiya, a non-Christian who held a meeting at a church for the first time.

Japan's national broadcaster, NHK, earlier in December re-broadcast "Working Poor I & II", two documentaries first aired in 2006, which have since won several domestic media awards. A columnist in The Japan Times newspaper wrote on 16 December, "One of the experts interviewed in the programme said he believes the working poor will eventually become the majority."

"The quality that non-Japanese have always admired about Japan," the expert was quoted saying, referring to Japan's hallowed industriousness, "is being squandered, and very quickly." The columnist added, "What's shocking, is how quickly poverty has become structural in a country that still tends to think of itself as being uniformly middle class."

Amamiya said some "net café refugees" once had apartments in Tokyo where they lived without having to pay a deposit for rent, but nonpayment of the rent, for even a day, results in their ejection. The former punk singer, who is also a leader of an advocacy group against poverty in Japan, known as the Anti-Poverty Network, told Ecumenical News International: "I hope that the churches will join the network by providing information [on labour laws]."

Hayashi said the Church could assist the poor by helping them to prepare application forms for welfare benefits. His church is located in an area called Kamata where many "net-café refugees" gather. There they can camp out at the cheapest Internet café in Japan for 200 yen, or about 2 US dollars a night.

"I think they will become poorer, but when they have no money, we can store canned food and share it," he said. "We can also use the [labour] law, while at the same time we can seek to change it." The pastor added, "The Church should adapt itself to them as Christ did."

[With grateful acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches]

Tuna sells for record $63,400 in Japan

From correspondents in Tokyo

January 05, 2008 06:00pm

A HONG KONG sushi restaurant owner has paid a record $US55,700 ($63,400) for a massive bluefin tuna in the first auction of the year at the world's largest fish market in Tokyo, an official and media reports said.

The 276kg bluefin tuna - caught off Japan's northern region of Aomori - sold for 6.07 million yen ($63,428) or 22,000 yen per kilo, an official at the Tsukiji fish market said.

The final price was a record for Japan and nearly two million yen more than the previous year, he added.

A Hong Kong-based sushi restaurant chain owner made the highest bid, local media reported although the fish market official was unable to confirm details about the buyer.

Prices of tuna caught overseas were on average 20 to 30 per cent higher than the previous year as imports of cultured tuna from Mediterranean countries including Croatia and Spain have dropped sharply, Kyodo News said.

The record prices come amid a decline in tuna supply due to tighter international controls on the catch for bluefin tuna.

Japan, which eats a quarter of the world's tuna, is moving towards limiting bluefin tuna fishing in its own waters in a bid to help protect the species from extinction.

The Tsukiji market sold a total of 2904 bluefin tuna or 176.6 tonnes today, down from 3268 or 178.6 tonnes at last year's opening auction.

Japan reached an agreement in January 2007 with the European Union to slash its tuna quotas by more than 20 per cent.

This was in line with a decision by an international commission in November 2006 to cut the total hunt of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean by 20 per cent by 2010.

The 43-member International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna approved a quota of 28,500 tonnes for 2008 and 25,500 by 2010 but failed to set national quotas.

Environmentalists have warned that tuna face eventual extinction if fishing continues at current rates to feed a worldwide fad for Japanese food such as sushi.