Raw Japan

A carriage too far

What are the odds, but on the morning after a few Seibu shareholders asked the transport firm to offer male-only rail cars to avoid the stress of possible train groping allegations, I mistakenly walked into the women-only car in Shibuya during the crowded rush hour.

Whoops, I suddenly realized - no blue suits and ties, discarded racing newspapers and pornographic manga, or slumped-over passengers letting neighbours support their weight, and it smelled decidedly better. Something was dreadfully wrong.

In that millisecond it takes to sense your toe in boiling bath water, I implemented immediate retreat operations, trying to moonwalk out of the carriage without creating an international incident.

I had seen Masayuki Suo’s movie “I Just Didn’t Do It” and interviewed the director, who researched cases of false groping accusations, and I knew Japan’s legal system wasn’t where I wanted to take my chances with “innocent until proven guilty”, particularly in a car where I was already persona non grata.

While Yojiro Takita, the Japanese director who won the Academy Award for best foreign film earlier this year, may have made a pre-Oscar franchise of adult movies involving molesters on trains, public opinion on this serious issue is loud and clear: Rail travel in Japan is horrific enough without roaming hands. 

Mortician tale an Oscar surprise

Even the lead actor was surprised when his movie “Departures”, about an out-of-work cellist who takes a job as a mortician preparing corpses for cremation, won the Oscar for best foreign language film today.

The film has been a box office hit in Japan but it faced stiff competition and Masahiro Motoki, did not expect to win against the Israeli favourite in the category, “Waltz with Bashir”.

“I saw the Israeli movie which I honestly had thought would win as it was wonderful,” says Motoki, who instigated the Japanese film and worked on it in a 10-year labour of love.

“So I walked the red carpet as a hanger-on who just observes the ceremony. Now I regret that I did not walk with more confidence.”

“Departures” is a beguiling tale that had a theatre of people sniffling with tears when I went to see it.

The cellist, needing work, answers a mysterious job ad for someone to “help with journeys”, which lands him a post as an apprentice mortician, something he feels obliged to hide from his wife. To his surprise, he likes the job, which teaches him about life and death.