Jamaica/Japan Connections

[Tropicana]

The Japanese are our best customer for Blue Mountain Coffee. They pay a premium price for it before it is even planted. Some Japanese companies have invested in our coffee plantations.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Japan has had a long love affair with Jamaican coffee, buying 75% of Jamaica's coffee in 2004 </div></div>

http://www.teacoffeeasia.com/news.asp?id=669

A few years ago, Junko “Bashment” Kudo, a Japanese young woman was crowned dance hall queen:



Japanese bands have performed in Jamaica at reggae concerts. So I guess it shouldn't have surprised me in Japan:

- to see young men wearing Rasta tams and belts and sporting Jamaica and Bob Marley tee shirts
- to come across souvenir shops in some of the tourists areas (for example one of the shops going up to a large shrine in Kyoto) selling Jamaica bracelets, ashtrays, flags, tams, belts, Bob Marley posters, key chains, etc. I spoke with the owner and he said that it is mostly the local people who buy them
- Takishimaya, a Japanese department store with locations all over South East Asia and even in Paris, regularly plays reggae as background music while people shop
- to hear Bob Marley's Exodous album playing at a coffee shop at the Narita airport ( I was pleased to be around to hear Natural Mystic....one of my favourite tracks....now THAT was a nice send off on my way back to Canada)

What are some other Jamaica/ Japan connections? What do Japanese like from our culture and what do we like from theirs? What are some other opportunities for our 2 countries to collaborate?

[evanovitch]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

u juss stawt travel dem pawts deh dont...

have u noted dere tendency to 'sambo' blacks?

Japanese will neva ovacome dem xenophobia....wat dem do is coopt...but wid dat uneven smile of deres..pay on time butttttt, ongle so far

[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

Japanese Reggae DJ - Sammy T.



<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Sammy T, one of the Mighty Crown DJs (he's Japanese, but of Chinese origin, and has the Jamaican patois down pat) owns Raggachina, a dub plates store in Yokohama Chinatown. Nori, who works there, tries to explain the appeal of reggae in the documentary by linking it to Japan's Shinto festivals: "In Japan we have matsuri festival, with big drums going boom boom," he says. "The sound of that drum is connected to this reggae music."
</div></div>

http://imomus.livejournal.com/167838.html

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Reggae izakaya


The best food I've eaten this week has been in reggae izakayas. A reggae izakaya is simply a drinking and eating joint where they play reggae. For some reason, the presence of reggae is an excellent indicator of good food. It's also, if you like reggae as much as I do, an indicator of good sounds.
</div></div>

[Hopyoneson]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

Pick any european country and you can see them copy their culture the same way and even more especially Dutch,france, UK and Italy, the in thing now is to copy the Koreans especially the soap stars, dont get too excited because they take a interest in us, it is mostly superficial and have more to do with kawai or the cool factor than a deep understanding of Jamaica and its culture, the majority still think Jamaica is somewhere in Africa, like Evan seh the effects of 200 years shut off from the entire world (self imposed) still rear its head all the time in Japan, basically its the Japanese way and then everybody else way of doing things.

[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">u juss stawt travel dem pawts deh dont... </div></div>

No. I have been doing it for about 7 1/2 years. First year in Japan though....4 times so far...3 brief stopovers and a longer vacation stay.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
have u noted dere tendency to 'sambo' blacks? </div></div>

No, I haven't come across it yet.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Japanese will neva ovacome dem xenophobia....wat dem do is coopt...but wid dat uneven smile of deres..pay on time butttttt, ongle so far </div></div>

As I said, I have not had any problems. Not to say problems don't exist. Certainly encounter incidents regularly in Toronto though and see enough fake smiles to last a lifetime.

Here are some websites where Black people living in Japan or interested in things Japanese share their experiences:

http://www.blacktokyo.com

http://www.jamaipanese.com

This website is run by a Japanese man interested in reggae:

http://jah.cup.com/index-e.html

I ran into about 6 Black women but only 1 Black guy at the airport (who btw was on the way back to Toronto with his White (blonde) girlfriend [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img]

[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

The intent of this thread is positive. To look at opportunities for positive connections. Since you asked the question Evanovitch, here is an interesting take on things from a Black man living in Japan:

Here is an interesting discussion:

http://rangelife.typepad.com/rangelife/2005/10/japan_loves_bla.html

and an interesting article:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Black business courts the Japan market; penetrating this tough nationalistic market takes great products, great service and a great deal of perseverance - includes information for doing business in Japan
Black Enterprise, June, 1994 by Frank McCoy
JAPANESE CONSUMERS LOVE McDonald's teriyaki pork sausage sandwiches. Every day, they devour hundreds of thousands of them at the fast-food chain's 1,040 Japanese stores. But, do you think a single customer knows that one of the largest African-American-owned companies creates and exports the sandwich's main ingredient? It's true. Since 1990, Kenosha, Wis.-based Brooks Sausage Co. Inc. has earned millions of dollars selling its pork patties to Japanese-owned McDonald's Japan.

Maintaining this business takes time and effort, but not because of "Japanese racism." Frank B. Brooks, CEO of this $31.5 million BLACK ENTERPRISE 100s company, hasn't,t had a problem. The Japanese are discriminating customers all right--about their food. According to Brooks, before his patties were accepted he had to change their flavor, texture and weight to meet local tastes.


Did Brooks balk? No way. In 1989, his company did no Japanese business. Last year, $4.4 million of its total revenues were from Japan.

Despite being mired in recession and accused of maintaining trade barriers for select products, Japan is an ultra-appealing market of 124 million mostly middleclass consumers. Unfortunately, its appeal is not always apparent to African-American entrepreneurs. Heated debate over whether or not the Japanese dislike African-Americans has kept some from tapping into this growing market.

No one knows when Japanese and blacks first met. Portuguese ships with African crews landed in Japan in the 16th century. In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry and his crew (which included free as well as indentured American blacks) forced his way in at cannon-point.

He also taught the Japanese to denigrate American blacks, according to black filmmaker Regge Life, who maintains a Tokyo residence. In his 1993 documentary, which was televised in Japan Struggle and Success: The African-American Experience in Japan, Life reveals that Perry entertained Japanese dignitaries with minstrel shows. Until a recent onslaught of black-produced art shows, movies and products, black images in Japan were primarily athletes, entertainers and criminals, not black entrepreneurs, scientists or working people.

Perhaps the overriding thing to factor into any discussion of racism in Japan is that to the Japanese every foreigner, whether black, brown, yellow or white is a gaijin or "outsider." There are 124 million Japanese--and only one million foreigners in Japan, the overwhelming majority of whom are Asian.

No one knows how many blacks live in Japan. But officers of the 13-year-old Japan Afro-American Friendship Association (JAFA)), a Tokyo-based group that builds bridges between the Japanese and a black community that includes non-Americans, estimate there may be 5,000 to 7,000 blacks (not counting military personnel) on an archipelago as long as the entire U.S. West Coast.

This lack of exposure has fueled some racist comments. In 1986, then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said U.S. intelligence is low "because there are many blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans." Two years later, Michio Watanabe, who later became foreign minister, said blacks did not repay debts. And in 1990, Justice Minister Seiroku Kajiyama compared prostitutes in a Tokyo district to "America when neighborhoods become mixed because blacks move in and whites are forced out."

Following each episode, African American delegations lodged protests, visited Japan and demanded (and received) apologies. Still, every black person I met during a visit to Japan last year called the remarks inexcusable. However, in several interviews, many black Tokyoites agreed that although some Japanese dislike blacks, such aggravation is trivial compared to the institutional racism in the United States.


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http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1365/is_n11_v24/ai_15429440

IMHO, that last sentence probably says it all...just call it a gut feeling.

[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

...and, before we get this thread back on track, here is a historical perspective on Blacks in Japan:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">THE BLACK PRESENCE IN EARLY JAPAN

Although the island nation of Japan, occupying the extreme eastern extensions of Asia, is assumed by many to have been historically composed of an essentially homogeneous population and culture, the accumulated evidence (much of which has been quietly ignored) places the matter in a vastly different light, and though far more study needs to be done on the subject, it seems indisputable that Black people in Japan played an important role from the most remote phases of antiquity into at least the ninth century.

Meaningful indications of an African presence in ancient Japan have been unearthed from the most remote ages of the Japanese past. To begin with, and as a significant example, a February 15, 1986 report carried by the Associated Press, chronicled that:

"The oldest Stone Age hut in Japan has been unearthed near Osaka....Archeologists date the hut to about 22,000 years ago and say it resembles the dugouts of African bushmen, according to Wazuo Hirose of Osaka Prefectural of Education's cultural division. `Other homes, almost as old, have been found before, but this discovery is significant because the shape is cleaner, better preserved' and is similar to the Africans' dugouts."

In 1923, anthropologist Roland B. Dixon wrote that "this earliest population of Japan were in the main a blend of Proto-Australoid and Proto-Negroid types, and thus similar in the ancient underlying stratum of the population, southward along the whole coast and throughout Indo-China, and beyond to India itself." Dixon pointed out that, "In Japan, the ancient Negrito element may still be discerned by characteristics which are at the same time exterior and osteologic."

In his last major text, Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology (published posthumously in English in 1991), the brilliant Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986) pointed out that:

"In the first edition of the Nations negres et culture (1954), I posited the hypothesis that the Yellow race must be the result of an interbreeding of Black and White in a cold climate, perhaps around the end of he Upper Paleolithic period. This idea is widely shared today by Japanese scholars and researchers. One Japanese scientist, Nobuo Takano, M.D., chief of dermatology at the Hammatsu Red Cross Hospital, has just developed this idea in Japanese that appeared in 1977, of which he was kind enough to give me a copy in 1979, when, passing through Dakar, he visited my laboratory with a group of Japanese scientists.

Takano maintains, in substance, that the first human being was Black; then Blacks gave birth to Whites, and the interbreeding of these two gave rise to the Yellow race; these three stages are in fact the title of his book in Japanese, as he explained it to me."

As to linguistics, in 1987 former Senegalese president Leopold Sedar Senghor noted that, "The people who populate the island of Japan today are descendants from Blacks....Let us not forget that the first population of Japan was Black...and gave to Japan their first language."

SAKANOUYE NO TAMURAMARO: SEI-I TAI-SHOGUN OF EARLY JAPAN

Of the Black people of early Japan, the most picturesque single figure was Sakanouye no Tamuramaro, a warrior symbolized in Japanese history as a "paragon of military virtues," and a man who has captured the attention of some of the most distinguished scholars of twentieth century America. Perhaps the first such scholar to make note of Tamuramaro was Alexander Francis Chamberlain (1865-1914). An anthropologist, Chamberlain was born in Kenninghall, Norfolk, England, and was brought to America as a child. In April 1911 the Journal of Race Development published an essay by Chamberlain entitled "The Contribution of the Negro to Human Civilization." While discussing the African presence in early Asia, Chamberlain stated in an exceptionally frank and matter of fact manner:

"And we can cross the whole of Asia and find the Negro again, for when, in far-off Japan, the ancestors of the modern Japanese were making their way northward against the Ainu, the aborigines of that country, the leader of their armies was Sakanouye Tamuramaro, a famous general and a Negro."

Dr. W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963), perhaps the greatest scholar in American history, in his book, The Negro (first published in 1915), placed Sakanouye Tamuramaro within a list of some of the most distinguished Black rulers and warriors in antiquity. In 1922, Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) and Charles Harris Wesley (1891-?) in a chapter called "Africans in History with Others," in their book The Negro in Our History, quoted Chamberlain on Tamuramaro verbatim. In the November 1940 issue of the Negro History Bulletin (founded by Dr. Woodson), artist and illustrator Lois Maillou Jones (1905-1998) contributed a brief article entitled "Sakanouye Tamura Maro." In the article Jones pointed out that:

"The probable number of Negroes who reached the shores of Asia my be estimated somewhat by the wide area over which they were found on that continent. Historians tell us that at one time Negroes were found in all of the countries of southern Asia bordering the Indian Ocean and along the east coast as far as Japan. There are many interesting stories told by those who reached that distant land which at that time they called `Cipango.'

One of the most prominent characters in Japanese history was a Negro warrior called Sakanouye Tamura Maro."

Very similar themes were expressed in 1946 "In the Orient," the first section in Distinguished Negroes Abroad, a book by Beatrice J. Fleming and Marion J. Pryde in which was contained a small chapter dedicated to "The Negro General of Japan--Sakanouye Tamurarmaro."

In 1940 the great Joel Augustus Rogers (1883-1966), who probably did more to popularize African history than any scholar of the twentieth century, devoted several pages of the first volume of his Sex and Race to the Black presence in early Japan. He cites the studies of a number of accomplished scholars and anthropologists, and even goes as far as to raise the question of "were the first Japanese Negroes?" In the words of Rogers:

"There is a very evident Negro strain in a certain element of the Japanese population, particularly those in the south. Imbert says, "The Negro element in Japan is recognizable by the Negroid aspect of certain inhabitants with dark and often blackish skin, frizzly or curly hair....The Negritos are the oldest race of the Far East. It has been proved that they once lived in Eastern and Southern China as well as in Japan where the Negrito element is recognizable still in the population."

Rogers mentioned Tamuramaro briefly in the first volume of World's Great Men of Color, also published in 1946. Regrettably, Rogers was forced to confess that "I have come across certain names in China and Japan such as Sakonouye Tamuramaro, the first shogun of Japan but I did not follow them up."

Sakanouye Tamuramaro was a warrior symbolized in early Japanese history as a "paragon of military virtues." Could it be that this was what Dr. Diop was alluding to in his first major book, Nations negres et culture, when he directed our attention to the tantalizing and yet profound Japanese proverb: "For a Samurai to be brave he must have a bit of Black blood."

Adwoa Asantewaa B. Munroe referenced Tamuramaro in the 1981 publication What We Should Know About African Religion, History and Culture, and wrote that "He was an African warrior. He was prominent during the rule of the Japanese Emperor Kwammu, who reigned from 782- 806 A.D." In 1989 Dr. Mark Hyman authored a booklet entitled Black Shogun of Japan in which he stated that "The fact remains that Sakanouye Tamuramaro was an African. He was Japanese. He was a great fighting general. He was a Japanese Shogun."

However the most comprehensive assessment to date of the Black presence in early Japan and the life of Sakanouye no Tamuramaro is the work of art historian and long-time friend and colleague Dr. James E. Brunson. Brunson is the author of Black Jade: The African Presence in the Ancient East and several other important texts. In a 1991 publication entitled The World of Sakanouye No Tamuramaro Brunson accurately noted that "In order to fully understand the world of Sakanouye Tamuramaro we must focus on all aspects of the African presence in the Far East."

Sakanouye no Tamuramaro is regarded as an outstanding military commander of the early Heian royal court. The Heian Period (794-1185 C.E.) derives its name from Heian-Kyo, which means "the Capital of Peace and Tranquility," and was the original name for Japan's early capital city--Kyoto. It was during the Heian Period that the term Samurai was first used. According to Papinot, the "word comes from the very word samuaru, or better saburau, which signifies: to be on one's guard, to guard; it applied especially to the soldiers who were on guard at the Imperial palace."

The samurai have been called the knights or warrior class of Medieval Japan and the history of the samurai is very much the history of Japan itself. For hundreds of years, to the restoration of the Meiji emperor in 1868, the samurai were the flower of Japan and are still idolized by many Japanese. The samurai received a pension from their feudal lord, and had the privilege of wearing two swords. They intermarried in their own caste and the privilege of samurai was transmitted to all the children, although the heir alone received a pension.

The "paragon of military virtues," Sakanouye no Tamuramaro (758-811) was, in the words of James Murdoch:

"In as sense the originator of what was subsequently to develop into the renowned samurai class, he provided in his own person a worthy model for the professional warrior on which to fashion himself and his character. In battle, a veritable war-god; in peace the gentlest of manly gentlemen, and the simplest and unassuming of men."

Throughout his career, Tamuramaro was rewarded for his services with high civil as well as military positions. In 797 he was named "barbarian-subduing generalissimo" (Sei-i Tai-Shogun), and in 801-802 he again campaigned in northern Japan, establishing fortresses at Izawa and Shiwa and effectively subjugating the Ainu.

In 810 he helped to suppress an attempt to restore the retired emperor Heizei to the throne. In 811, the year of his death, he was appointed great counselor (dainagon) and minister of war (hyobukyo).

Sakanouye no Tamuramaro "was buried in the village of Kurisu, near Kyoto and it is believed that it is his tomb which is known under the name of Shogun-zuka. Tamuramaro is the founder of the famous temple Kiyomizu-dera. He is the ancestor of the Tamura daimyo of Mutsu." Tamuramaro "was not only the first to bear the title of Sei-i-tai-Shogun, but he was also the first of the warrior statesmen of Japan."

In later ages he was revered by military men as a model commander and as the first recipient of the title shogun--the highest rank to which a warrior could aspire."
</div></div>

From Black Shogun: The African Presence in Early Japan

[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Kingston20</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Pick any european country and you can see them copy their culture the same way and even more especially Dutch,france, UK and Italy, the in thing now is to copy the Koreans especially the soap stars, dont get too excited because they take a interest in us, it is mostly superficial and have more to do with kawai or the cool factor than a deep understanding of Jamaica and its culture, the majority still think Jamaica is somewhere in Africa, like Evan seh the effects of 200 years shut off from the entire world (self imposed) still rear its head all the time in Japan, basically its the Japanese way and then everybody else way of doing things. </div></div>

Well certainly it is the "cool factor" that we are seeing. It would be naive to expect that there is a deep understanding of Jamaica and its culture.

[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

Trends in Japanese Tourists Visiting Jamaica


Jamaican getaway
David Shields

Deputy director of tourism, marketing
Jamaica Tourist Board

May 24, 2005

http://www.japantoday.com/news/jp/e/tools/print.asp?content=executive&id=192

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">While the bulk of Jamaica's in-bound tourism comes from North America, Japan is also a growing market. The annual number of Japanese visitors stands at around 4,500, and while that is down from the peak of 20,000 in the early 1990s, the Jamaican Tourist Board and its travel partners are making efforts to bring more Japanese to the islands.

David Shields, deputy director of tourism and marketing for the Jamaican Tourist Board, has already made two trips to Japan in the past eight months. The tourist board works through Marketing Garden Ltd in Japan to increase Japanese consumers' awareness of what the Caribbean country has to offer.

Born in Jamaica, Shields has a degree in management studies and a master's in accounting. Prior to joining the Tourist Board, he worked with KFC, Tia Maria, and the Cayman Islands as assistant director for tourism for five years. He took on his current position in January of 2004.

Japan Today editor Chris Betros catches up with Shields during his recent visit to Japan at the offices of Marketing Garden.

Where do most tourists to Jamaica come from?

Each year we get over 1.4 million stayover visitors and around 1 million cruise visitors. Of the total, 70% come from the U.S., mainly the northeastern belt. The U.K. represents about 13%, Canada about 10%. We get a lot of Commonwealth visitors for cricket, of course, and with the staging of the cricket World Cup in 2007, we anticipate more.

What about from Japan?

Japan is a small but steady market. Our peak from Japan was about 10 years ago, when we used to get 20,000 visitors a year, but economic factors had an effect. Today we are seeing 4,500 a year and there are sings of growth.

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[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

Here is some basic data re: Japan Jamaica Relations:

http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/latin/jamaica/index.html

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Basic Data
Diplomatic Relations:
Established in March, 1964
Number of Residents:
Number of Japanese nationals residing in Jamaica: 174 (as of Oct. 2004)
Number of Jamaican nationals residing in Japan: 161 (as of 2003)
Trade with Japan in 2004:
Export: 3.9 billion yen (coffee, garments, liquor)
Import: 18.7 billion yen (autos, electric machines, machinery)
Direct Investment from Japan:
Cumulative total as of 2003: 2,500 million yen
Japan's Economic Cooperation:
List of Exchange of Notes
Loans: 53.4 billion yen
Grants: 1.4 billion yen
Technical cooperation: 6.2 billion yen
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Cultural Grant (cumulative total fiscal 1975-2004)
620.8 million yen (Cultural Grant Aid)
15.3 million yen (Grant Assistance for Cultural Grassroots Projects)
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[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">May 28, 2006
From Japan to Jamaica With Love
By: Claude Mills
Photo By: Carlington Wilmot

http://www.yardflex.com/archives/000491.html

Konnichiwa.
There is no denying it anymore. The Japanese have a yen for all things Jamaican.

There are more ska and ska-punk bands in Japan than Jamaica at this time. In addition the number one international reggae sound, Mighty Crown, is from Japan and not so long ago the number one dancehall queen was Japanese.

So why do so many Japanese love reggae?

"From a Jamaican perspective, I believe it has to do with Rastafarianism. It came out of learning about what they stand for. Because reggae is associated with rastafarianism, I think that is how they became interested in it," Megan Barrett, assistant to the cultural officer at the Japanese Embassy, told YardFlex.Com

However, the fervent Rastafarian religious belief displayed by many reggae musicians is alien to the experience of the largely non-religious Japanese. Plus, marijuana is strictly verboten in Japan. And while there are plenty of Japanese kids wearing dreadlocks these days, it's more about fashion than culture or religion.

Some people think that the festive vibe of reggae, especially in terms of its historical roots in mobile DJ units, resembles the atmosphere of Japan's local festivals, or "matsuri." Others see similarities between the highly stylized "skanking" dance style associated with ska music and Japanese "bon odori" festival dances.

Not everyone agrees. Just ask Keiko Yasuda, a Japanese national who came to Jamaica at the age of 19, and got married to a Jamaican man, just because of her love for reggae.

"However, Jamaica has more upbeat riddims, I used to dance bon odori as a child, but it is not as similar. In patois, we have very similar, in Japanese, we call oyster in Japanese, kaki, but it patois, you know what that means, so we always laugh, oh my god, we eat oyster for stamina, we say kaki tonight for dinner, that's so funny and weird," Ms. Yasuda, who is a member of the administrative staff of the Japanese Embassy, said.

The similarities don't stop there.

"We have a lot of similarities, and it is interesting and weird at the same time, our countries names begin J-a. We are both islands, Japan played Reggae Boyz in World Cup, we have JDF, no army, but a body to protect our country, Jamaica has a JDF as well. We love Blue Mountain coffee, we buy 99 per cent of Blue Mountain coffee made in Jamaica in Japan," the thirtysomething year-old divorcee with 'one pickney' said.

</div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
"The consonants and sound of our patois and their attempt at speaking English is similar," famed 'Coolie Dance' producer Cordel 'Skatta' Burrell said. "That is part of the attraction, it just seems we have a lot of things in common. We love karate movies, and they love our reggae."

REGGAE AS MESSAGE MUSIC

Reggae's syncopated rhythms are said to echo in the rhythm of Okinawan music -- so much so that Okinawan music is sometimes called "Japanese reggae."

"I personally came to Jamaica at 19 because of the reggae music. I fell in love with Bob Marley music while living in the countryside of Japan, where I could only find Bob Marley and Cliff records in shop. It was very strong music when I was in high school at age 17. I read translations and felt strongly about them," Ms. Yasuda said.

"No other black music has that message, rap not as strong as reggae's message. I learned about Kenya, Tanzania, Jamaica is different from other black society, it has more offering to me, the Maroons, Marcus Garvey, it was very new. Most Japanese love roots reggae," Ms. Yasuda said.

She believes that a lot of young Japanese want to come here to work and live, but cannot do so because of the lack of job opportunities and the language barriers.

"The young people like to correspond on fashion, music via Internet, and there are a few Japanese owned guest houses for Japanese only, most in Kingston, Mandeville and Montego Bay," she said.

According to statistics from the Jamaica Tourist Board, Japanese nationals, especially young adults, have rediscovered the magic of Jamaica in the last couple of years, after a decline in the late 90s.

The number of Japanese coming to Jamaica peaked in 1995 when there were 23,673 visitors, but then in Asia, the economic downturn affected travel outside of Japan.

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[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Bliss Bamboo products are manufactured at the Dolphin Head Bamboo Conversion and Utilization Facility at Dundee Pen in Hanover with <span style="color: #6666CC"> <span style='font-size: 11pt'> support from the Embassy of Japan</span></span> and the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ).

Currently, the facility's 10 line staff members produce plant holders, curtain rods, coffee tables, side tables, loveseats, armchairs, throne chairs and small craft items such as rainmakers, vases, wall hangs and incense holders.

</div></div>

Source

[evanovitch]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

Tropi , it all good to print all dis but u done know seh trade wid Japan is one-sided...even now, how many years afta Toyoto fuss come a America, dem still no ha dat much inroad in Japan...look up 'protected market' eena Webster an u see a Japanese a grin ...fi real

[Tropicana]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

Yes there is definitely a trade imbalance with Japan globally. However, the Jamaican situation seems to be a bit unique. Not to say that we don't import from them more than we export to them but they do seem to have a fondness for some of what we have to offer music, bamboo, coffee, cocoa? Do you know there are vending machines with iced cocoa all over Japan. It was DELICIOUS!!! You buy it an numerous other drinks from vending machines. The containers keep the hot drinks hot and the cold drinks cold. Perhaps some of our other drinks would be of interest. TING?? There may be opportunities for us to export more to the Japanese and to attract more Japanese visitors to Jamaica. I have always thought that overdependence on one market (read that as USA) is a mistake and leaves us vulnerable. (Look at what happened in the Manley era). The more that we an diversify, the better and I do think we have some opporunities.

[evanovitch]

Re: Jamaica/Japan Connections

Trops, the Japan influx to Ja peak one go rung arreddy....time fi a new one, maybe, but the terms not gwine to be any diffrant dis time rung...if anyting, we deh dung pon our knees even more

u seem to believe that they bargain in good faith...their history past an present, belies dat....

bet u neva see no poverty while u dere...or street peeps...but they do exist....

they show u juss wat they want u to see in all things, an if u slip u tek dem at face value....yep, brilliant wid technology an coopting, but ongle on their terms

PS..they lead di worl in use of vending machines...i will agree...u can get juss about anyting from one ovah dere....but try buy some beef an see if u no bruk [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/704555_dwl.gif[/img]

to join a golf club use to have a $1m member's fee....it aint alll milk an honey....