FREE PAPER! ¥0 RANMAGAZINE.COM April/May 2011 | ISSUE 10 | forward. ► by tdhouchen ccording to the Nagoya International Center, the number of in- about it. Your wife would have no legal obligation to return your chil- Aternational marriages in Japan has recently skyrocketed to al- dren to their country of residence. The Japanese government would most forty thousand per year, unfortunately, the number of divorces do absolutely nothing, even though your spouse had just commit- among international marriages has also skyrocketed to almost fif- ted kidnap. They interviewed one Japanese woman, who said it was teen thousand per year. Love Lost In Translation. “easy” for her to get a passport from the Japanese embassy in the US for her to be able to kidnap her children back to Japan. Your marriage could be one of those. Essentially, the Japanese system allows for and supports children be- Divorce is never easy, international or not, it’s a messy process that ing kidnapped and brought here. Seems unbelievable, but not much involves much emotional bleeding, and when children are involved, more unbelievable than a modern country having no legal provision it becomes even messier, with children often times being the victims. for joint custody. On that same ABC program, a document was pro- Let it be known unequivocly that no one wins in divorce. You may duced allegedly cooked up by the Japanese government, which had think you’re winning, but who’s losing? Take a better look. information in it which gave instructions to Japanese women on how to kidnap children from outside Japanese borders and bring them What if you’re a good dad? What if you’re a great dad, but your chil- back to Japan. dren’s mother won’t let you see your children, because she’s “too stressed,” pissed, angry, or whatever else? In family court, Japanese Children deserve the love, care, and attention of both parents, when- style, your ex-wife’s vague “stress” is enough reason for them to deny ever possible. For one parent to deny another their right to be a par- you your right to see your children. That’s it. No Law, just “stress”, and ent is irresponsible. your children disappear -poof- just like that. Never mind your stress, never mind how much you’ve done for your children and your ex- Last month hell froze over when revolt, revolution, and the voice of even though she doesn’t notice it, and the ‘court’ definitely doesn’t the people swept through Libya, Egypt, Tunisia—and other countries notice, especially if you’re not Japanese. Don’t kid yourself. What you long held breathless by megalomaniac lunatic leaders. think doesn’t matter in the mediation room - just her, her opinion, and the ‘mediators’ who mediate nothing, and side with her just be- Out in the streets. cause it’s easier, or she’s Japanese, or whatever. The dice were thrown Revolutionaries aiming to change the world, fighting warplanes and long before you walked into the room. machine guns, for their rights to be heard. The current Japanese laws, or lack thereof, provide no visitation Unless someone does or says something, the powers that be never rights for divorced fathers.No such thing as dual custody in Japan, or listen, the laws never change, and nothing goes forward. legally enforceable visitation “rights”, per se. RAN is about FORWARD MOVEMENT, exactly like the name of the Why? column says. Last month, ABC NEWS Nightline ran a three-part story on Japan’s I want to care for my kids, but the law here doesn’t recognize this. refusal to ratify the Hague Convention. This treaty between coun- tries allows for children who have been stolen from their country of I think it should. residence to be legally returned once discovered. Japan doesn’t have this. On that ABC News program, there were 15 or 20 American fa- Fight For Your Rights. thers whose children had been stolen from them, literally, with no forewarning. Imagine going off to work one morning, and returning that evening to find that your wife or husband had taken all his/her RAN Magazine belongings, and the children, and boarded a flight to another coun- Issue10 try. If that country were Japan, there would be nothing you could do April/May 2011 02 |RAN| CONTENTS 2 Divorce Listen 19 DJ Scrying The Pagoda Diaries 24 Certain Death The Green Spot cover photo: Ed Putman table of contents photo: Adam Pasion 4 ABC's of "E-Waste" Survivor 6 You Thought Your Life Was Tough Profile 10 One of Nagoya's Most "Colorful" Residents Create 12 Jesse Lang's Music Machines Publisher: TD Houchen Layout Designer: Jennifer Rivera Manaca in the Middle Editor: Adam Pasion 14 Nagoya Public Trans Gets a Facelift Photography: Achim Runnebaum Web Manager: Jason L. Gatewood Read Send story ideas, art, photography, 18 Tonoharu Part II and Charisma Man and advertising inquiries to: [email protected] 20 Taste Promotional Events/Co-Promotion: Vegetarian Options in Nagoya [email protected] www. 21 Go ranmagazine New Museums Open in Nagoya .com |RAN| 03 The green spot. ABC's of E-Waste. Thehe letter ‘i’ is the 9th letter of the Alphabet, and in recent years 1. Sell it. With the many online marketplace options such as craig- T has become synonymous with cool, state-of-the art gadgets. It slist, ebay, yahoo auctions, etc. these days, you’d be surprised at the should come as no surprise that the average modern person owns number of people still interested in your slightly older models. between 6-10 gadgets these days (with or without an i in front of the name). By now everyone you know probably has an iPod for 2. Trade it in. With certain gadgets, such as phones, you can usually music, an Android, Blackberry, or iPhone, at least one Computer at trade it in for the newer model. This might cost you a couple of yen, home, a Digital Dictionary, some kind of navigation device for get- but it’s a lot better than just chucking it out with the trash. ting around, an Electric toothbrush, and last but not least the various Gaming devices vying for our hard-earned yen. We are so addicted 3. Bring it back to the store. A number of electronic giants such to and dependent on our gadgets that most people can’t imagine as Bic Camera, Yamada Denki, and others have an e-waste recycle ever having lived without them. When I was a kid, the idea of a cool program that not many people are aware of. There’s even a lottery gadget was the Etch-a-sketch. We’ve certainly come a long way since style incentive program that could net you 50,000 yen for your old those days, with various gadgets catering to all our (virtual) needs, E-devices. More info under: http://tansu-keitai.jp but what happens with the older, outdated models we are so eager to trade in or upgrade for the latest and greatest? 4. Let your creative juices flow and find some other use for your old devices. An old iPod, for example, makes an excellent on-the-go Do they go to some great big gadget nirvana in the sky, living out the backup device since it’s small enough to carry anywhere, has lots of rest of their existence bringing joy and happiness to people who are storage space (30gig or bigger), and can store all kinds of files. Search not as fortunate as us? You wish! These old, outdated, and unwant- the Internet for plenty of ideas to re-purpose your old gadgets and ed models usually end up in the trash, and on landfills somewhere breathe new life into them. in Asia, where they are dismantled by hand and the toxic waste is dumped in streams and fields. That’s right, exporting our E-waste 5. Go to a recycle shop. There are many recycle shops and recycle from our backyards to developing countries has become big busi- stations in Nagoya. You might even get a bit of money back if you ness, albeit a very dangerous business. Our desires for the new and bring them your old devices. Many phones have about 40mg of improved whatchamacallits are causing huge problems for people in gold or silver, 10mg of copper, and 4mg of palladium - all rare metals developing countries, where electronics are dismantled and handled which are important for the production of new gadgets. If everyone in sub-human conditions without the use of protective clothing, and recycled their old gizmos properly, about 3.2 tons (about the equiva- then burned in open fires or dumped in rivers. lent of a small country’s gold reserves) of Gold could be salvaged. So what should you do if you get a severe case of G.A.S (gadget ac- By recycling your E-or i devices properly, you can help not to let all quisition syndrome) and want to upgrade your once shiny gadget for those precious metal parts go to waste and do your part in helping the latest and greatest? Well, there are several options for you, all of with the E-waste problem. After all, wouldn’t you feel a lot better which infinitely better than annihilating, burning, chucking, divest- twitting about your newest i-gadget, after you’ve properly disposed ing, expelling, or fobbing off your old E-waste. of the old one? You can find more info on recycle shops and stations in Nagoya through the NIC website: http://www.nic-nagoya.or.jp/en/e/archives/416 04 |RAN| Ran is with you.