New Year’s Day is the most revered holiday in Japan. The Japanese actually celebrate it over a 4 day period. Many start the year by waking up to the first sunrise, they go to a shrine to make a new year wish. It’s a quiet holiday – unless you’re out shopping. Every year, people line up to buy something called a “fukubukuro” or “luck” bag. Akiko Fujita introduces us to a different kind of New Year’s tradition. Download MP3
No joke… a giant white radish figures in today’s Geo Quiz. This Asian root vegetable goes by a couple of names: Daikon or the winter radish.
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Marco Werman talks with “Tokyo Vice” author Jake Adelstein. Adelstein’s new book chronicles his years covering Japanese organized crime and vice as a reporter for Japan’s Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper. Download MP3
Jake Adelstein reads an excerpt:
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American candy lovers know the Kit Kat bar. But few would recognize the varieties sold in Japan. Such as the green tea or soy sauce Kit Kat. Or the pickled plum or mashed edamame edition. 200 kinds of Kit Kat bars have been sold in Japan over the years. Akiko Fujita checked out the candy in Tokyo. Download MP3 (Photo:Fugutabetai Shyashin)
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Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, is something of a Renaissance woman: designer, former actress, cookbook author, television personality – and perhaps most controversially a self-professed space traveler who claims to have visited Venus with aliens. Akiko Fujita has the story from Tokyo. Download MP3
Cartoonists this week are captivated by the upending of Japan’s ruling party after almost 60 years in power. They also have fun with Disney’s purchase of Marvel Comics, and it’s back to school time….amid the specter of the swine flu.
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President Obama’s stimulus plan includes $ 8 billion to help jump-start a new network of high-speed trains. But the future of rail is already here in other parts of the world, including Japan, China and as Kathleen Schalch reports, the European Union. (photo: French TGV, Getty Images) Download MP3
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Maps of planned US system and high speed rail links in Europe
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Students at the University of Nagasaki are attempting to recreate a community that a nuclear weapon destroyed. The Urakami neighborhood in Nagasaki was ground zero for the second atomic bomb the U-S dropped on Japan in World War Two. That attack killed 39-thousand people. And it destroyed most pictures of life in Urakami before the war. The students are recreating pre-war Urakami, with the help of memories and 3D technology. Akiko Fujita has our radio story.
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There is no dispute over the results of yesterday’s vote in Japan. The Democratic Party of Japan won a crushing victory and its leader, Yukio Hatoyama (pictured), is getting ready to become prime minister. The Democrats have ended half a century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. Marco Werman talks with Len Schoppa of the University of Virginia, about the realignment in Japanese politics. >>>BBC coverage of the election
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For today’s Geoquiz we were looking for a major industrialized nation where a lack of daycare options for young families has become a main topic in this year’s election. The answer is Japan. Reporter Akiko Fukita tells us why the promise of more child care centers carries such weight with voters.
We’re staying on government benefits for the Geo Quiz. We’re looking for country that’s heading into elections this weekend. This is a major industrialized nation that’s played a crucial role in the world economy over the past 60 years. It’s also a country that’s ageing – fast!
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Once again, the technology podcast delves into the strange story of Gary McKinnon, the Briton accused by the US government of committing “the biggest military hack of all time.” McKinnon admits hacking (quite easily) into critical US systems in the weeks following 9/11, but that his intent was never malicious. Today, a British High Court ruling brought his extradition to the United States to stand trial one step closer.
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