The young man might be known to the girl and her family. Also, in a seasonal agricultural economy, farmers might have a number of laborers sleeping under their roofs sometimes, knowing that their daughters might be targets for yobai. In some cases, groups of friends would travel miles to neighboring villages, where the embarrassment of capture wouldn’t be as great, and each target a different girl.

In many cases, yobai would be conducted entirely with the knowledge of the girl’s parents. In fact, it was sometimes a prelude to marriage – parents would turn a blind eye the first few nights a young man secretly visited their daughter, but then he would be “caught”, and a more public courtship would begin.

Yobai tactics

• Take your clothes off before you even sneak into the house. In Fukuoka, it was once illegal to attack a naked intruder, as he was probably engaged in yobai rather than theft.
• Keep it quiet, even if socially questionable acts are required. One technique to avoid detection was to urinate along the bottom of doors to prevent them squeaking as they were slid open.
• Practice safe sex. A night crawling man would often cover his face with a cloth, protecting himself and his chosen lady from embarrassment if she rejected his advances.

Yobai clubs

Reportedly, yobai still happens in the more remote areas of Japan, and there seems to be nostalgia for the practice elsewhere. The seduction of sleeping women is a popular theme of Japanese pornography, and some image clubs offer special yobai services – providing prostitutes who pretend to be asleep while the client slips into their futon.

• ‘Bonk to the future: Business booming at old-style cathouses’ (MDN WaiWai)
  “Night crawling, the Japanese practice of stealing into a sleeping lady’s boudoir for purposes of making clandestine whoopie, has roots in remote antiquity.”
• YOBAI lit. NIGHT CREEPING (Sex Glossary)
  “Before the advent of Love Hotels, Karaoke Boxes, personal vehicles, and other such sites of sexual liaison, a young man would have little choice but to visit the bedroom of his lover in a practice known as Yobai.”

Different meanings

Most traditional maneki neko are white with black and orange blotches, which is considered the luckiest combination. Other colors have special powers of their own, like black (wards off evil – popular with women wishing to avoid stalkers), red (keeps sickness and other evilness at bay), and pink (brings love).

A right paw up is supposed to attract wealth, while a raised left paw draws people (customers or visitors). Left paw maneki nekos are also common in bars and other places that sell alcohol – left-handedness is associated with strong drinkers in Japan.

Origins

Maneki nekos first began appearing in the beginning of the Meiji era (late 19th century). Noone knows how or why the tradition started, but there are numerous theories:

• When the Meiji government decided to clean up Japan’s sex districts by banning overtly sexual advertising and signage, brothels decided to use alluring kitties instead of welcoming ladies.
• The figures were produced in honour of a cat that saved a lord by beckoning him away from a tree just before it was struck by lightning.
• A wooden version was carved to console a courtesan whose cat had been beheaded by an over-zealous samurai.
• Poverty forced an old woman to give up her cat. Later, the cat visited her in a dream, and inspired her to make clay figurines, which she sold to make her fortune.
• A ramen stall gained an edge over its competitor by putting the little cat in its window.
• The cat might not be beconing, but cleaning itself. According to an old Chinese saying, “If a cat washes its face, a visitor will come.”

• Big in Japan: Maneki Neko (Metropolis)
  “There are almost as many legends surrounding its origin as there are figurines.”
• Maneki Neko (Wikipedia)
  “A frequent attribution to several Japanese emperors is that one day the luminary passed by a cat, which seemed to wave to him.”
• Maneki Neko Club
  “This is the home page for the people who love Maneki Neko.”
• Maneki Neko the Lucky Beckoning Cat
• My Maneki-Neko (Lucky Cat)
  Various maneki neko collections, with pictures

Japanese culture traditionally glorifies the act – its history and literature is full of honourable and glorious suicides, especially “harakiri” and “seppuku” (ritual disembowelment).

The modern equivalent is “inseki jisatsu”, or suicide to alleviate guilt, which has been a high-profile feature of Japan’s economic crisis, as desperate businessmen and politicians atone for their organisation’s shortcomings with a short, sharp shock. In many cases, the deaceased has been completely blameless, but chose to take responsibility.

Train platforms are a popular site, but potentially expensive, as bereaved families are charged for delays their lost loved ones cause.

Another famous spot is Aokigahara Forest, at the foot of Mount Fuji, which sees up to 100 suicides every year. Most of these bodies are found in an annual “suicide sweep” by local police and firefighters.

• Japanese for Suicidal People
  Japanese suicide words (from Japanzine magazine)
  
• Seppuku – Ritual Suicide
  
• ‘Japan’s chilling Internet suicide pacts’ (MSNBC)
  

Most ninjas lived in secretive and carefully-guarded ninja villages (“shinobi no sato”) and were hired by the powerful elite for bodyguarding, espionage and assassinations.

They followed a code of honour called the ninpo. The most important rule was to protect secret information about the ninja or their employers, at any cost. Those who betrayed or killed other ninjas, or tried to abandon their village, would be hunted down and executed.

The ninja’s arsenal included disguises and camouflage, shuriken (ninja stars), gunpowder, traps and poison. They did not use black suits, nunchaku or karate (which wasn’t introduced to mainland Japan from Okinawa until the late 19th century).

• Ninja (Wikipedia)
• Enter the Ninja
  Some serious information, some proudly silly
• Ninja villages and museums in Japan (About.com)

In feudal Japan, the country was ripped apart by conflict between its most powerful provinces. Demand for warriors increased, and many schools of swordsmanship sprung up. The popular Ittoryu (“one sword school”) would provide the seed of kendo.

The martial art started to take its modern appearance in the late 18th century. Protective armour (bogu) was introduced, as well as a less-painful, bamboo sword (shinai). These became necessary, because so many people were getting hurt practicing without protection, they couldn’t fight for real.

In the modern form of kendo, competitors wear a lot of protective padding, and are masters of 3 types of sword. Shinai, the practice swords, are made of split bamboo. Bokken are wooden swords used to practice kata (set patterns). In formal competitions dull metal swords (habiki) are used.

International kendo championships are held every 3 years. The rules for kendo competition are strict. “Thrust” attacks are allowed only at the throat, while “strikes” target the top of the opponent’s head, sides of the body and forearms.

Legal attacks must be accompanied with an appropriate yell to score points in a match. This yell names the area being targeted. The first person to score two points wins the match.

• Kendo America
  Dedicated to the promotion of kendo in the US
  
• Kendo (Wikipedia)
  

When karate came to Japan from Okinawa in 1922, the exotic sport faced a fight for acceptance. New kanji were adopted to make it seem less foreign to the nationalistic Japanese people. Elements of Zen Buddhism were introduced, including meditation and the focus on composure and awareness. White uniforms were borrowed from judo.

By World War II, karate had found nation-wide popularity and was introduced to high schools. Its popularity was spread to the West after the war, when returning US soldiers took it back to America.

Unlike judo, karate has no single set of rules or techniques. Modern karate is broadly split into traditional styles and full contact styles, and hundreds of different schools. The most famous traditional forms are Shotokan, Gojo-ryu, Wado-ryu, and Shito-ryu. Kyokushin-kaikan is the most popular contact style.

Karate is not an Olympic sport. The martial art is so diverse that an international governing body is impossible. However, there are individual and team competitions in kata (fixed set pieces) and kumite (sparring).

In kata, points are awarded for style and quality of the performance. In kumite, two fighters face off in bouts lasting 3 to 5 minutes. Scoring and rules depend on the style, a scoring point in a full contact style might be illegal in a traditional, half-contact style.

• Karate on the Web
  Numerous karate links, mostly US-related
  
• Karate (Wikipedia)
  

The game is played on a 19×19 grid. Two players, black and white, take turns placing their pieces (stones) on the intersections (points) of this grid. The aim is to ? enclose? more empty points with your stones than your opponent does with theirs. When a stone is surrounded by opponent stones, it’s removed from the board.

The rules are extremely simple, but the strategies are extremely complex, with a greater scope than chess. It is commonly said that no game of Go has ever been played twice, as there are an unthinkable number of possible outcomes, and an equally unthinkable number of different ways to reach them.

There is also something distinctly human about the game. While computers have been taught to play flawless chess, Go is too difficult for them. At an advanced level, the game requires deep understanding of intangible concepts, which computers are not yet capable of.

The most important concept of Go is “life and death”. In every game, a few of your stones will be captured and “die”. It’s crucial to predict this, and focus your strategy on the “live” stones which will remain on the board.

In international tournaments, honors are usually shared between Japan, Korea and China. Players from other countries had never found any success until 2000, when an American called Michael Redmond reached 9th dan (the highest grade).

• Go (Wikipedia)
  
• History of Go (GoBase)
  
• How to play Go
  

Until recently, North Korea denied these abductions, and the issue was considered a conspiracy theory by Japanese left-wingers. In September 2001, Kim Jong-Il admitted the kidnappings and allowed 5 abductees to return home.

The Pyongyang Agreement was signed between the countries, which declared that “the abductee issue will be resolved completely”, without defining what that resolution would be.

Japan claims that North Korea has violated the agreement, as abductees’ families have not been allowed to return to Japan with them. There is further confusion, in that many of the people Japan demands to be returned are claimed to be dead by North Korea.

Ms Soga

The most famous abductee is Hitomi Soga. She married Charles Jenkins, a US Army deserter, in North Korea, with whom she had two daughters. After her release in 2002, she faced an uncertain wait to see if her family would also be allowed to follow her.

The story dominated national news for weeks, and was followed anxiously by millions of Japanese people. Prime Minister Koizumi made a controversial visit to Pyongyang, where he organized their release. Ms Soga was reunited with her family in Jakarta in 2004.

The Soga saga wasn’t finished. When Jenkins arrived in Japan, he was forced to hand himself over to the American armed forces, who charged him with desertion. Although he was 64, and in poor health, he could have been sent to prison.

• ‘Heartbreak over Japan’s missing’ (BBC News)
  
• North Korean abductions of Japanese (Wikipedia)
  Includes incomplete list of abduction victims
  
• ‘N Korea kidnap families protest’ (BBC News)

After this honeymoon period, Koizumi’s popularity waned. Rather than delivering the painful restructuring he promised, he was frustrated by resistance within his own party, the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party).

Controversy

His popularity took another blow after he sacked his foreign minister, Makiko Tanaka. The daughter of a former Prime Minister, she had made critical remarks about Koizumi, and was forced out of the LDP.

He has also drawn criticism from Japan’s neighbors. Since becoming Prime Minister, he has made many official visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. This is the resting place of thousands of Japanese soldiers killed between 1853 and 1945, including war criminals responsible for unprovoked massacres in Asia. People in China and other East Asian countries see these visits as supportive of Japan’s WWII atrocities.

Controversially, he approved the expansion of Japan’s SDF (Self Defense Force). In 2003, he sent Japanese troops to join the coalition in Iraq, an act many in Japan and abroad saw as contrary to Japan’s pacifist constitution.

By the conservative standards of Japanese politics, Koizumi has a colorful personal life. He was married in 1978, but divorced in 1982. This divorce seems to have been highly acrimonious, and he has sworn never to marry again. He raised 2 of his 3 sons alone, and won’t allow them to see their mother. He refuses to see his ex-wife or his youngest son, who she took with her.

Rape Claims

In 2004, the Prime Minister faced rape accusations from a Japanese tabloid magazine. According to the story, Koizumi sexually assaulted a fellow student when he was studying at Tokyo’s prestigious Keio University, and when she threatened him with charges, his wealthy family paid her off and moved Junichiro to study in Europe.

This story raised rumours of another rape, that of a schoolgirl, while Koizumi was a junior minister. Neither accusation seems to have much credibility, and Koizumi’s vigorous denial of the charges in parliament seems to have closed the issue.

• Official English Language site
  
• Junichiro Koizumi (Wikipedia)
  
• Kayoko Miyamoto and Yoshinaga Miyamoto
  Profile of Koizumi’s estranged wife and son
  
• ‘Koizumi fights rape claims’ (The Courier Mail)
  

During the Tokugawa Period, they were forced to live in separate villages and perform society’s dirty jobs, including grave digging, butchery, executions, and making tatami floor mats.

2% of Japanese people are buraku, and although they are racially identical to other Japanese people, discrimination is rampant. Caught in a vicious cycle of poverty and prejudice, many people are forced to invent “clean” family histories.

The class was officially abolished in the Emancipation Act of 1871, but it’s common for an employer to check an applicant’s background for buraku heritage.

Protective parents, worried about having sullied grandchildren, often hire private detectives to make sure their child’s potential spouse doesn’t have any buraku or Korean blood.

• Burakumin (Wikipedia)
• The Burakumin
  ‘The Complicity of Japanese Buddhism in Oppression and an Opportunity for Liberation’
• Burakumin
• ‘The burakumin: Japan’s underclass’ (Contemporary Review, Sept, 1993)