Raw Japan
Slices of Japanese business, politics and life
Call me “Crasher”
My nickname among the Reuters photographers in Tokyo is “Crasher”.
They call me that because I always seem to get pictures right at the moment of a crash whenever I cover motorsports.
One colleague sometimes teases me saying “You’ve got to stop pouring oil on the track,” and I answer: ”I would never use oil — I only use banana skins!”
In motorsports the most exciting moment you can capture in a picture is a crash.
That instant can be the difference between life and death, and it’s a picture that is most difficult to capture.
Buff, bronze and beautiful
For the national holiday, Sports Day, I had a fitting assignment – a women’s bodybuilding competition in Tokyo.
It was my first time to cover bodybuilding, and as soon as I entered the venue I heard cheers from the 1,500 spectators eyeing 68 athletes from across Japan.
Shaking hands with the prime minister, sort of
On the last day of Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s campaign for last week’s lower house election, I went to cover Aso’s speech in Kamakura to get pictures out as early as possible.
A large crowd of people waited for him to speak, but only a handful of cameraman were at the scene, perhaps reflecting the view that the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was on its way to defeat.
Elections, obstructions and duct tape
When you pack scores of journalists into a room and they’re all trying to listen to, photograph, and film one person – like the head of a political party – it’s easy to get blocked by the people and things in front of you.
For a photographer, this is the kiss of death. It means not getting a picture. Next, your phone rings with an angry editor on the other end - a brief conversation is followed by a lengthy period of woe and despair. For this and other reasons, photographers go to great lengths to get a good photo position.
