Issue:
June 2025
The Club’s man for all seasons is heading home to Kashmir after half a century in Japan
A decade after his Tokyo posting ended, a correspondent walked into the Main Bar wondering if anyone would remember him. Whereupon a distinguished-looking South Asian gentleman came to greet him. “Ah, X-san, welcome back. We haven't seen you for such a long time.”
For over 46 years, such scenes are what FCCJ members have come to expect from Mohammed Hanif, the beloved figure perhaps best described as the Club’s “de facto maître d’”. Even if he’d not seen you for years, you could count on Hanif-san to remember your face, the name that goes with it … and how you like to slake your thirst.
Hanif is our “institutional memory”, an FCCJ fixture since February 1979, less than three years after the Club moved to the Yurakucho Denki Building. He has served us for more than half the Club’s 80-year existence – longer than many (if not most) members have been alive.
Sadly, in June we will lose this critical lobe of our collective brain. Hanif-san is retiring, heading home to his mountain village in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. To capture his story before he goes, we whiled away a spring afternoon in a Denki Building café. Here’s how it started …
A long, unlikely journey
Born on March 15, 1952, Hanif hails from Arja in the Kashmiri mountains. From Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, the town is just 63 kilometers as the chirya flies. But by car it takes three hours on winding mountain roads. Townsfolk speak an Urdu dialect particular to Kashmir. Most of his family – his wife, their four daughters and various relatives – are still there, although some are working in the Gulf countries.
Making his way to the port city of Karachi in his late teens, Hanif became a servant in the house of a prominent Pakistani diplomat. This event set his life’s course, because when his employer was appointed ambassador to Japan in 1974, young Hanif came along with the family. He spoke no English at the time, and of course not a word of Japanese.
After a few years, having acquired smatterings of both Japanese and English, Hanif began to find his feet in Tokyo. So, when the ambassador was transferred to Beijing in 1978, he decided to stay on even after being let go by the new ambassador.
Despite losing his role in the ambassadorial residence, Hanif managed to secure a position in the embassy itself, running messages, doing maintenance and whatever else was needed. For 19 years that was his day job, but the starting wage was so low it was hard to make ends meet.
He found a position in the household of a Zambian diplomat, but when that turned out to be less than a happy perch, Hanif poured his heart out to a Pakistani journalist friend.
“Why don’t you try the Foreign Correspondents’ Club,” he advised. “I can introduce you.”
Kotaro Washida, the general manager at the time, hired him at ¥100 an hour, working evenings at wages that afforded him no more than a room in an old nagaya, with a shared toilet, for ¥18,000 a month. Circumstances were further straitened by a fondness for pachinko, a habit taken up to pass his lonely evenings. Hanif admits to losing consistently.
When he started at the Club, Hanif’s grasp of both English and Japanese was still shaky. But as English was the better of the two, he was first assigned to the old Shimbun Alley bar, aka “the stag bar”. Under the bare breasts of Marilyn Monroe, this was the haunt of hard-drinking, cigar-chomping correspondents like Al Cullison of the Daily Telegraph.
“He was a great man,” Hanif remembers with a laugh. “He asked why I wasn’t learning Japanese faster, and he told me, ‘You need a ‘night dictionary’” (aka a Japanese girlfriend).
As his proficiency in both languages improved, the Club’s regular members came to appreciate Hanif’s warm welcome of all by name and his encyclopedic memory of their preferences. He became everyone’s favorite, and his compensation grew. For this, Hanif credits members, including Pio D’Emilia, Anthony Rowley and Roger Schreffler, for going to bat for him before the Board.
Growing prosperity allowed Hanif-san to begin making annual trips back to visit Pakistan, and to marry. Long-distance unions being inherently difficult however, his first arranged marriage to a cousin’s daughter, broke up after three years.
A second go at matrimony, in 1990, has been far more fruitful. Although visits home have been relatively infrequent and short, apparently not a minute has been wasted. Wife Shanaz has blessed him with four lovely daughters: Irun, Sanam, Maria and Sariya. All but the youngest are now married, and have produced two grandchildren so far.
All was evidently well on the home front until October 2005 when a magnitude-7.6 quake struck the family’s village, severely damaging their home. Hanif-san became emotional in recounting how FCCJ members passed the hat and raised ¥3 million for him plus a ticket home.
Home at last
Now, once again, our members are passing the hat for Hanif, this time to fund his last trip home and his retirement. While he says he will sorely miss Japan and the FCCJ, he admits it’s time.
Over the past three years he has contended with a few health issues, starting with a crisis three years ago. When his long-time Main Bar colleague, Adachi-san, phoned to wish him happy New Year, she found out he was very sick and insisted on sending an ambulance. “That probably saved my life,” he says. He was unconscious for three days and hospitalized for a month.
He managed to return to work, but in March this year he was again hospitalized for a month. “I was almost paralyzed,” he said. “I am very grateful to Matsuoka-san, my oldest Japanese friend, for helping me to get through this.”
These days, Hanif’s sense of humor is fully intact, but his back is not in good shape. And he admitted that his memory – long his greatest strength – is getting shaky.
Speaking of which, that reminded him of something. “Do you remember Gebhard Hielscher, the German correspondent?” he asked. (And I do.) “He hasn’t been to the Club for ten years, but recently his son phoned the front desk and asked about me. He said the father’s memory is almost completely gone, but he keeps asking ‘How is Hanif?’”
When asked to list his happiest memories over decades at the Club, Hanif was silent for almost a minute, until finally he said, “I think it has been when members have returned to the Club after a very long time away.”
Like who? He had to pause and think.
“The English … what is his name? Emmott.”
“You mean Bill Emmott of the Economist?”
“Yes, yes, him. Always so friendly. And William Horsley. And Brad Martin. He always says to me, ‘Hanif, you are the Club.”
When I admitted that my own name-recall function is now on a 24-hour delay, it prompted us to start dredging up names at random and snippets of anecdote to go with them. In no particular order: Charles Pomeroy, Chuck Lingam, Tom Brown, Swadesh De Roy, Karel van Wolferen, Hans van der Lugt, Steve Herman, Jim Treece, Lucy Birmingham, Dan Sloan, Sam Jameson, Geoff Tudor, Mehdi Bassiri and Don Houk … are the ones I jotted down.
After a while we both fell silent. Then I asked him, “What will you do when you go home?”
“Mostly, just take it easy. Enjoy my family. Go to my favorite chai shop and visit with friends.”
“Is there pachinko in Arja?” I asked. “No, no, no,” he laughed. “No gambling, no alcohol.”
Flying home on June 1, he will arrive at a difficult time for Kashmir. Although Arja is likely safe, located over 100 kilometers from the Line of Control separating the Pakistani and Indian halves of Kashmir, bilateral tensions soared last month.
“It may be war,” Hanif said, wearily shaking his head.
Let us all wish him a safe and peaceful retirement. In fact, you can help ensure that with a generous contribution to the retirement fund set up by our grateful members.
Mata ne~
In the eight decades since the FCCJ was founded, has there ever been a sayonara party to rival the May 21 sendoff for our beloved Mohammed Hanif?
Honoring him as the heart and soul of our Club for 46 years – more than half of its existence – a capacity crowd of 240 members and staff packed out its event space, and many more were turned away once tickets had sold out.
The receiving line stretched the length of the room as Hanif fans waited patiently to offer their thanks and farewells. And in classic Hanif fashion, he greeted almost all the well-wishers by name. Meanwhile, glowing tributes flowed from the mic.
More than just a chance to see Hanif-san one last time, for many of us it was a chance to encounter old friends we hadn’t seen for years.
For the evening’s music, there could have been no performer more fitting than Rambling Steve Gardner, who may well have played the Main Bar more times than anyone else.
Hanif hails from the Pakistani side of Kashmir, a long-troubled area and recently the site of renewed hostilities between India and Pakistan. While Hanif’s hometown, Arja, is generally regarded as safe, being more than 100 kilometers from the Line of Control, communities even further away were targeted by Indian missiles in the recent hostilities. Fortunately, Arja was unscathed.
When Hanif’s impending retirement was announced, FCCJ members rallied to the cause. By the morning after the sayonara party, 165 people had donated more than ¥2.5 million to his retirement fund. That plus another ¥140,000 from the sale of mugs graced by Hanif’s visage. As three of his four daughters are already married, this should see him through.
Here’s hoping Hanif-san comes back for a visit before too long.
During the party, members stepped up to the mic to offer their thanks. While we were not able to capture all their kind words, below are a few of the many messages sent from around the world.
Steve Herman, FCCJ president 1997-98
Hanif-san, your personable and stellar service made my years at the Club a most pleasant experience. Knowing you were there put me at ease when bringing important guests into the FCCJ.
Hans Greimel, Automotive News
Dear Hanif, you are truly an institution of the Club and a pillar of what makes it special.
Kumiko Matsuoka
Thank you for loving Japan for 50 years. Please do not forget that Hanif’s hometown is Japan.
Takayuki Hagiwara
I am truly grateful for your kindness to me over the past 15 years. I hope that your second life with your family will be healthy, happy and enjoyable.
Shinsuke Yoshimura
As chief of the Main Bar, you have been regarded as the most fitting gentleman.
Josselyne Salomon
Your smiling face will remain an icon within the walls of the FCCJ bar. Ernie is also watching over you.
John R. Harris is a Canadian speechwriter, editor and Hanif fan who has been in Japan for all but seven of the past 40 years.
