ABOUT the AUTHOR Formerly from the Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News, the Phoenix Gazette Republic, the San Francisco Chronic
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Photo: Shoko Photo: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Formerly from The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, The Phoenix Gazette Republic, The San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News, since early childhood, Jamaican born Stefhen Bryan was thought obsessed, plagued by depression, suicidal ideation, learning problems and sex addiction. High school drop out both in his native Jamaica and the United States, after 8 years of sheer perseverance and a near nervous breakdown he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from UCLA at 30. At 35 Bryan proved victorious over his depression and suicidal thoughts, but was still governed by sex addiction and an extreme preference for ‘yellow,’ which propelled him in April 2001 to liquidate all his belongings in California and relocate to Japan. Seven years in Asia, Bryan returned to the United States cured of his addiction, self-actualized and ready for marriage. US$24.95 CA$28.95 UK£15.25 www.blackpassenger.com www.myspace.com/blackpassenger ACCOLADES FOR BLACK PASSENGER YELLOW CabS “This is an exploration of deviant cultures in an “exotic land” that teeters on the edge of academic reflexive ethnography, edgy sex research that would have made Kinsey proud. A Henry Miller-esque porn-memoir. This inquiry treads where most qualitative researchers fear to gaze.” Michael Hemmingson, Author: Zona Norte: An Auto/ethnography of Desire and Addiction. Screenwriter: Watermelons “As the litany of sex ‘scandals’ to befall political and religious leaders reminds us, there remains a major gulf between how sexual desire is socially regulated and how it animates individual fantasies and practices. Bryan is one of the few who is prepared to both act on his strongest sexual inclinations while having the courage to lay those impulses bare for others to interrogate. Whether titillated or revulsed, all readers must agree that such an exercise is a major contribution to a more honest and reflexive relationship to sexual desire in general.” Jamie Paquin PhD Candidate, Global Studies Sophia University Tokyo “Guns, sex and racial suicide. And that’s just chapter one.” Alon Ziv, Author: Breeding Between the Lines. “This work is important, revealing and took a lot of courage to write.” Lawrence J. Goss, Amazon Kindle reader. “This book is worth reading if one would like to understand the psyche of the third world. Maybe one has to have seen where the likes of Bryan grew up and understand the incredible, sheer luck it took to crawl out of such a hole and be able to write a memoir of his experiences. That this author could still access his feelings, write about them and eventually overcome his sex addiction is laudable. As an example of overcoming obstacles in a way that most people in the first world can’t even begin to comprehend, it is a shining hope for others. The sexual experiences in the book are simply examples of his addiction, but if one read through that to the sensitivity he shows in understanding the abuses the women went through to be so available to him and other western men, that’s what makes it interesting. Much more of the world has these underlying abuses as part of their culture. The first world would be smart to pay more attention to what is being said in this book and others like it, which unwrap the brain and emotions of foreign cultures. Then maybe there would be a little understanding and less bumbling in their foreign relations. Don’t read this book for the sexual content, read it for the sensitivity it exhibits to two cultures not your own, but cultures that are valid nonetheless and reflect a large part of the population of the globe.” Carolyn Barrett, Amazon Kindle reader “Revolutionary!” Cabel: Myspace reader 1 2 BLACK Passenger YELLOW Cabs: Of Exile and Excess in Japan STEFHEN FD BRyaN 3 KIMAMAPRESS KIMAMAPRESS FIRST KIMAMA PRESS EDITION, JANUARY 2009 © Copyright 2007 by Stefhen fd Bryan All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in any form, in whole or in part (beyond copying permitted by U.S. Copyright Law, Section 107, “fair use” in teaching or research, Section 108, certain library copying, or in published media by reviewers in limited excerpts), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States by Kimama Press. Originally published on the Amazon Kindle in the United States, August 2008. This is a work of NON-fiction. All persons’ names and those of some locations have been changed for obvious reasons. ISBN 978-0-615-26810-1 4 There is something awe-inspiring in one who has lost all inhibitions, and who exhibits first rate intelligence in the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. — F. SCOTT FITZGERALD To Xyon Yasunami 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Making of a Rice King .................9 Henni .........................................97 Simone Chang ............................17 Karin ........................................103 Prelude to Japan..........................20 Kaori Conclusion .....................107 Japan: Year One ..........................23 Karin Continued ......................109 Mother and Ai............................27 Pressure Cooker Society ...........111 Mother’s Arrival .........................34 Baby Making Machines ...........126 Megu ..........................................36 Karin: Head Games Continue ..130 Mayumi ......................................37 Natsuko ....................................134 Women’s Social Conditions ........39 Sexless In Japan ........................138 Mayumi: The Party Continues ...45 Fu ..........................................142 Corean Christmas ......................46 No Country for Children .........150 Retreat to Kansai ........................53 Prelude to Hanshin ..................153 Tomoko ......................................57 Abortion in Japan .....................155 Chikako ......................................67 Hanshin ....................................157 Island of Neglected Women .......69 Meet the Parents ......................159 Farewell Rice Paddies .................73 Nao ..........................................163 Kaori ...........................................76 Chika at Bigot ..........................165 Kyoung .......................................76 Karin: The Adventure Ends .....171 Reiko ..........................................82 Hisako ......................................177 Kaori Continued.........................88 Anita Returns ...........................180 Anita McKenzie .........................92 Irie ..........................................184 Kyoung Continued .....................94 Miho .........................................188 6 Kazumi .....................................189 The Inevitable Comparison ......297 Akiyo ........................................191 Henni Comes to Pass ...............301 Janelle .......................................195 Lean Times in Japan ................303 Shoko .......................................202 Just As I Had Expected ............307 Japanese Depression Sex in Historical Japan .............316 Mirroring My Own ...........208 End of A Dilemma ...................320 Traumatised Women ................214 Shoko Conclusion ....................323 Parricide in Japan .....................218 Etsuko ......................................324 Shoko Continued .....................221 Sayo ..........................................327 Collective Arrested Emotional Development .....................223 Yukari .......................................328 Shoko’s Dinner .........................233 Etsuko Continued ....................333 Azusa ........................................241 Akari .........................................347 Rapunzel and Surrogate Sex in Japan ..............348 Year Three in Japan ...........253 Masako .....................................350 Jamaica March 2005 .................258 Manami ....................................352 Hooked on the Crucifix ............267 Masako Continued ...................356 Intervention ..............................270 Sex Outsourcing .......................357 Jamaica Continued ...................273 The Inescapable ........................358 My Contribution Japan’s Dashed Opportunity .....361 to the Statistic ..................275 Epilogue ...................................363 My Jamaica ...............................279 Bibligraphy ...............................367 Back on Japan Soil ....................289 Acknowledgements ..................371 Kansai Reunited .......................294 7 PREFACE The body of work now known as Black Passenger Yellow Cabs began simply as musings about Japan. Immediately upon my arrival here I was flabbergasted by the paradoxes of the society, and the discrepancy between the West’s perception and the actual Japan was blatantly obvious to me. Just two months into my residency on the island my friend Bahar sent me a New York Times article about parasite singles in Japan: the social phenomenon of unmarried women who continue living with their parents, some well into their 40s. “What’s up with this?” she titled her e-mail. And indeed such was my initial response upon observing that the overwhelming majority of unmarried women I had encountered in those initial 2 months, were still living with their parents. So after obtaining a used PC some 2 years later, I simply began documenting my observations. However, when I began writing about my own hedonistic experiences and those of my friends, I found it curious that I had not read about the sexual