{"id":1206,"date":"2008-02-03T22:00:36","date_gmt":"2008-02-03T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2008-04-23T11:33:32","modified_gmt":"2008-04-23T02:33:32","slug":"alex-kerr-on-being-a-yokoso-ambassador-for-the-goj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=1206","title":{"rendered":"Alex Kerr on being a “Yokoso Ambassador” for the GOJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Blog. Based upon the Japan Times article immediately below, Alex Kerr, author of DOGS AND DEMONS and famous social commentator (who incidentally has written before for Debito.org about his statements on my activism, which had been willfully misinterpreted by the axe-grinders on Wikipedia<\/a>), has been chosen as a GOJ tourism representative. The Community interest group<\/a> had a number of questions about what this meant (reproduced below). <\/p>\n

Alex was kind enough to answer them, and give his permission for his clarifications to be reproduced on Debito.org. Have a read. Thanks Alex. Arudou Debito in Sapporo<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

17 tapped as Welcome to Japan envoys
\nKyodo News\/The Japan Times: Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008
\nhttp:\/\/search.japantimes.co.jp\/mail\/nn20080123f4.html<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

The government has appointed fashion designer Junko Koshino and 16 other people as Welcome to Japan ambassadors for their contributions to draw foreign travelers to Japan.<\/i><\/p>\n

On selecting the 17 Yokoso! Japan Ambassadors, a selection committee of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry took into account two aspects \u2014 building infrastructure in the hardware side to accept foreign travelers and transmitting Japan’s attractive features in the software side.<\/p>\n

Koshino was selected because she has transmitted fashion that embodies Japanese-style images to the world, the ministry said.<\/p>\n

Hotelier Kenichi Kai was picked because he served 10 years as the chairman of a committee in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, to attract foreign travelers to the hot-spring resort area and for his activities such as making hotels capable of exchanging yuan and five other foreign currencies.<\/p>\n

American Alex Kerr was selected as he is working on renovating traditional houses in Kyoto and undertaking business to have foreigners experience lodging in Japan.<\/p>\n

The ministry will introduce the 17 on its Web site as “role models” and consider holding symposiums, according to the officials.<\/p>\n

The Japan Times: Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008
\n\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS RAISED ON THE COMMUNITY:<\/p>\n

Friend Olaf Karthaus (who brought it up) wrote:
\n===============================
\nAlex Kerr, an American is among them.
\nWhat is his stance on fingerprinting?
\nEspecially on fingerprinting PRs, a group he himself belongs to, I assume.<\/p>\n

Anybody knows?
\nBut I doubt that he would have been chosen as an ‘ambassador’ if he
\nwouldn’t be 100% backing the government’s line in that matter.
\n===============================<\/p>\n

Friend Todd wrote:
\n===============================
\nIs that not the same Alex Kerr who authored Dogs And Demons (for
\nthose unfamiliar, a legendary and scathing critique of Japan)?
\n===============================<\/p>\n

Friend Matt wrote:
\n===============================
\nThis reminds me of a quote I saw online recently that was attributed
\nto Chomsky:<\/p>\n

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly
\nlimit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate
\nwithin that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident
\nviews. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going
\non, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being
\nreinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”
\n===============================<\/p>\n

To which Todd responded:
\n===============================
\nWhich is *exactly* why it would be so surprising for the authorities
\nto appoint Alex Kerr to such a position.
\n===============================<\/p>\n

SO I ASKED ALEX:<\/p>\n

Alex, this is a fundamentally sympathetic crowd (I can vouch for
\nthem), so would you like to make any comment about what your job
\nentails? I will also blog it if you like, just in case there are
\nothers out there who would like to know what’s going on. In this day
\nwhen the GOJ is seen is fundamentally NJ-unfriendly (what with
\nfingerprinting at the border and all), the question will probably
\ncome up anyway sooner or later. Bests, Debito in Tokyo<\/i><\/p>\n

AND HERE IS HIS REPLY:<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

February 3, 2008
\nDear Debito,<\/i><\/p>\n

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. The issue people bring up deserves a serious answer. Unfortunately, I\u2019m so busy on the road right now that I don\u2019t know if I can do it justice. Here are a few words:<\/p>\n

Dear Debito<\/b><\/p>\n

I understand why some people might wonder why I\u2019ve accepted designation from the government as a \u201cYokoso Japan! Ambassador.\u201d There can be indeed a process of co-option whereby foreign critics mute their voices when they get too close to the agencies they write about. As I\u2019ve written in Dogs and Demons, I think many foreign academics suffer from exactly this problem. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve therefore always tried to remain sensitive to this danger. That said, I don\u2019t believe in absolute black-and-white on this issue. I am certainly opposed to numerous government policies, for example finger-printing, which I\u2019ve personally had to undergo. But that doesn\u2019t mean that one should never cooperate with any branch of the government on anything. That would be like saying that because one doesn\u2019t approve of the Iraq war, one shouldn\u2019t work with the US National Park Service.<\/p>\n

The \u201cYokoso Japan! Ambassador\u201d designation was presented by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. I\u2019ve repeatedly criticized this Ministry (in its present guise, as well as its former reincarnation as the Construction Ministry) for its damaging public works projects. Nevertheless, it happens that Japan\u2019s tourist department (to be upgraded to the Tourism Agency by the end of this year) is located inside this Ministry. It\u2019s this department that I\u2019m working with. <\/p>\n

I work with them because it\u2019s my strongly held belief that an increase in international tourism can have great benefits for Japan. It makes regional economies less dependent on government construction projects. It brings home to people the financial merits of preserving their cities and countryside as tourist assets. And, not least important, the inflow of foreigners, can act as a powerful aid in \u201cinternationalizing\u201d Japan in the true sense of the word. Many of the issues discussed in your blog will hopefully improve once people in Japan have an increased experience of actual foreigners traveling (and spending money) in their communities.<\/p>\n

As for being \u201cco-opted,\u201d I\u2019ve no intention of letting the rest of the Land, Infrastructure, and Transport Ministry (or Fishing and Agriculture Ministry, or so many others branches of the government, who go right on sponsoring wasteful and damaging construction projects) off the hook. Anyone who has heard my recent talks or read recent interviews would see that I continue to say (and illustrate with photos) exactly what I\u2019ve been saying for years in Dogs and Demons and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

In fact, this year I\u2019m planning to do an illustrated photo-book which shows visually what the damage has been. It will feature ill-considered public works in the form of environmentally-harmful roads, dams, and so-called erosion control, destruction or mis-management of old houses, old towns, and cultural assets, visual pollution in the form of bad signage (including official propaganda signs from police departments and municipalities) and failure to bury electrical lines, tourist developments that are eyesores or adversely impact the environment, absurd public monuments, weird civil engineering projects (large and small scale) that transform rivers, mountains, and sea coasts, etc. I appeal to anyone on this website who\u2019d like to give me a hand with this, since I don\u2019t have time to go around the whole country collecting all the photos that I need.<\/p>\n

Best wishes,
\nAlex
\nENDS\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Based upon the Japan Times article immediately below, Alex Kerr, author of DOGS AND DEMONS and famous social commentator, has been chosen as a GOJ tourism representative. The Community interest group questioned whether one of Japan’s fiercest social critics of devastating porkbarrel and GOJ excess had in some way “sold out”. Alex was kind enough to answer them specially for Debito.org…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-issue","category-japanese-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}