When the world was watching

With two events of global interest the G7 Ise Shima Summit and U.S. President Barack Obama’s Hiroshima visit marking the early summer calendar, journalists scrambled to get an inside perspective . . . and some news.

WITNESS TO NOT MUCH OF ANYTHING

Sleep deprivation, mainlined caffeine and hours holed up inside a cavernous, windowless hall subjected to the press room’s version of auditory torture: the click click of colleagues’ laptop keyboards. Welcome to the glamorous world of the foreign correspondent.

I could have just as easily covered last month’s G7 summit in Ise Shima from the comfort of my Tokyo apartment although the bed and bookcases in the background would have been difficult to explain to the presenters at France 24 TV, for whom I did several live reports.

Instead, I and many of the Tokyo press corps found our selves ensconced in a sports stadium that, for a few days, doubled as the International Media Center for the G7 an opportunity for Prime Minister Abe to establish his credentials as a statesman and, more improbably, as something to help take David Cameron’s mind off the looming Brexit referendum.

With security concerns inevitably trumping all else in the minds of the officials who plan these diplomatic jamborees, any notion that journalists covering G7 summits are in any sense in proximity to power is laughingly wide of the mark.

I was in Okinawa in 2000 for the Daily Yomiuri, and recall daily contact with NGOs, government press officers and even world leaders who would drop by to talk to reporters, from Vladimir Putin’s entreaty to take Kim Jongil more seriously to the delayed final presser by the summit host, Yoshiro Mori, who, it was rumored, was struggling to master his brief.

I was on the first train bound for Hiroshima, where later that day we would bear witness to a moment of genuine historical significance

The thousands of reporters who descended on Ise, a remote, and admittedly picturesque, corner of central Japan, occupied hotel rooms located anywhere between 20 minutes and more than an hour by road from the press center, itself a mere 20 km from the G7 summiteers meeting on Ise’s answer to Tracy Island.

So it was from some distance that we watched the day’s events unfold on a big screen. It made for awkward viewing. It was, for example, an odd choice to have each leader cross the Ujibashi Bridge to Ise Jingu one by one rather than as a group. And I’m sure I saw Abe mouth the words “mada, mada,” as he waited and waited for Barack Obama to arrive.

It says a lot about the low expectations for the summit that the Guardian’s two main news stories from the first day centered on political ructions thousands of miles away. After leading with European commission President Jean Claude Juncker’s broadside against prominent Brexiter Boris John son BoJo as British prime minister, he said, would be a “horror scenario” we ended the day with Obama’s warning that other G7 leaders were “rattled” by Donald Trump.

My time at the G7 press center was mercifully brief. After a late night of cold beers and kakipi with a fellow hack who shall remain nameless I was on the first train out of Ise, bound for Hiroshima, where later that day we would bear witness to a moment of genuine historical significance.

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– Justin McCurry, the Guardian, France 24 TV

THE 600 WORD HARRUMPH

Everyone has an inner grump. Mine came out when I emptied the contents of the two G7 press swag bags onto my desk at the overlit press center. Out tumbled rice crackers and Pocky snacks, saké, a calligraphy brush, antibacterial towels, a pin badge for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, a piece of spinning plastic promoting local tourism, pamphlets spinning the success of Abenomics and other essentials.

At that point, I began to doubt the wisdom of the editor who sent me to Ise. Perhaps he should have chosen a more responsible journalist, someone who would follow the fine details of the policy discussions underway by the world’s most powerful leaders. Instead, all I could think about for the few painful hours I sat in the center was the appalling waste of the whole exercise.

If the aim of G7 summits is to promote tourism we’d have been better visiting when there wasn’t a cop every 50 yards guarding ditches and empty roads

G7 meetings began in the 1970s as an attempt to put together a collective response to the oil shock. Today, they are criticized as bloated talking shops with little to show for the time and money spent on them. The total budget for the Ise Shima summit was reportedly about ¥60 billion, swelled by the cost of sending over 20,000 police officers to protect seven people.

The leaders buffet, including produce from across Japan, was a “meaningful opportunity to promote the appeal of Japan’s food culture to the world,” said MOFA. At least that’s honest. But if the aim of G7 summits is to promote tourism we’d have been better visiting when there wasn’t a cop every 50 yards guarding ditches and empty roads. I saw little of beautiful Ise because I was cooped up on the press center. So I wrote a 600 word harrumph and took the train to Hiroshima.

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– David McNeill, the Irish Times/Economist

THE OTHER SIDE

The main focus of attention of the Ise Shima summit was to be the global economy, which has been going through another phase of chronic uncertainty. In the end, the leaders of world’s powerful economies seemed to have agreed to gloss over their disagreements by adopting a declaration that vaguely talks about advancing structural reforms and expanding investment in areas conducive to economic growth. The end result was a free interpretation of the statement, and many listeners felt a chill when Japan’s prime minister told the media at the concluding press conference that the three arrows of “Abenomics” were to be adopted as economic policies of other countries as well.

The other issues that the leaders discussed at the annual summit were merely a sideshow; the seven countries hardly have the desire or the means to solve any political and social problems of a global nature. The Syrian crisis has shown very clearly that in talks about peace and security, it is necessary to ensure the participation of all parties capable of influencing the situation. Hence, talks leaving important players like Russia and China out of the discussion are going to have minimum impact on the gathered parties’ hopes.

For me, there was a different dimension to covering the event. There is usually little interest in the event among the almost 200 nations that remain outside of G7; after all, the issues are chosen by the leaders of the selective super rich. At the Ise Shima summit, however, the Japanese prime minister invited the leaders of seven countries from the other end of the great divide with the aim of reaching out to them with the messages that the rich adopt in their discussions. It was a gesture by the rich to reach the poor with assurances that their plights too are not forgotten. When Bangladesh was chosen as one of the countries, the summit became an important event for the country, at least from the media perspective. However, the outreach agenda, carefully arranged by the host nation, dashed from the onset much of the hope for a meaningful dialogue on issues considered crucial at both ends.

The session had two major items in the agenda, both with tacit political goals. “Quality Infrastructure Investment” is a notion floated by Japan and some other countries to address the massive infrastructure need of Asian countries in coming decades. As there are a number of emerging economies moving aggressively to get a share of that big pie, the value added terminology has been designed to outmaneuver such countries with the message that “quality” can be ensured only by those few who have the proven capability of providing it.

The second major topic was “Open and Stable Seas,” and the political connotation here seems more direct. As six of the seven outreach countries were representatives from the Asia Pacific region, the message of an open and stable sea route was already quite clear. Many of these countries feel a bit uneasy over the issue, in a region where hostility on the seas is becoming a matter of great concern with the increasing involvement of big players.

The hope of the host nation to forge a greater alliance using the G7 as a pretext was not seen as casual by some of the participants and hence they felt the need to remain cautious. This was reflected clearly in the position that Bangladesh took regarding both main points of the outreach agenda. In an exclusive interview given to NHK after the outreach meeting, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was candid and wise enough to suggest that it was up to the countries directly involved in the disputes to find a resolution through negotiations. She also made it clear that her country would actively accept financing from the new China led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Telling points, but unfortunately overlooked by the Western media who were focusing exclusively on the maneuvers of the major players.

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– Monzurul Huq, Protham Alo

NOT WHAT THEY USED TO BE

When it comes to covering G7 summit meetings of political leaders, things are definitely not what they used to be. My first such assignment was the Venice Summit of 1980 and the contrast between that and the recent event in Japan’s Ise Shima could hardly be greater.

One bright day 36 years ago I was conveyed from Venice Airport in an elegant water taxi across the harbor to a city that looked like a vast Canaletto canvas set out against the morning sky. It was an almost magical moment.

My rather charming (if somewhat aging) hotel was but a short vaporetto ride away from the summit venue, on the nearby Lido, and I was able to quickly check in my baggage before repairing with colleagues to Harry’s Bar to contemplate the delights of the coming days over vino rosso.

And, delightful it proved to be, with generous amounts excellent food and wine and unending cups of espresso coffee supplied by lovely Venetian ladies who seemed equally delighted to extend warm hospitality to so many overseas journalists.

There was an extreme informality about the proceedings compared with the ultra heavy security precautions that reduce summit meetings nowadays to something rather less than “close encounters” between leaders and the media. I recall ambling into a leaders’ press conference at the Venice Summit with scarcely a cursory glance from a security guard and sitting down to await the arrival of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and their counterparts from Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Italy. We were seated less than a stone’s throw (I suppose one would think now in term’s of a bomb’s throw) away from those eminent personages and it all seemed very friendly and informal.

This year, I arrived with an FCCJ colleague, Khaldon Azhari, via a local train at a small station seemingly in the middle of nowhere except that it was reasonably close to the International Media Center a temporarily converted sports stadium) close to the summit venue.

We went through the process of registering, having to produce emails confirming accreditation, showing passports, being photographed, collecting badges and all the things that make summit attendance nowadays about as delightful as a visit to the dentist.

“Let's drink! Get drunk!” A somewhat unnecessary exhortation – and just slightly unsubtle.

Inside were two vast auditoriums that served as press rooms, packed with several thousand journalists, mainly from Japan, but with a strong overseas contingent. There were liberal supplies of free food and coffee for the newsmen and women, but “the Venice of Japan” it was not.

The summit events, including the leaders’ visit to Ise Shrine (a controversial issue, seen to involve mixing “church” with state) were brought to us by TV monitors, with the exception of brief access given to pool photographers and one peek inside a Shinzo Abechaired meeting by a small band of reporters who were treated only to a short statement. As G7 summits go, it was an adequate if hardly memorable experience.

More memorable, perhaps, was Barack Obama’s historic visit to Hiroshima, which most of us ended up watching on the special monitors. Unusually, for normally rowdy newsmen, his speech was watched with an almost reverent silence.

Perhaps we ourselves bear some responsibility for turning these summits from what began as a “fireside chat” into a media circus. The original G6 summit (Canada was not among the members then) was held in 1975 when French President Giscard d’Estaing invited them for an informal gathering at the chateau of Rambouillet, near Paris. Then the media demanded access to the leaders and they got it thousands of them and the “fireside” became rather overcrowded.

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– Anthony Rowley, Singapore Business Times

OMOTENASHI OVERLOAD

The IseShima G7 summit was pretty much a bust newswise. But it did serve as a chance to promote the Japan brand to the world rather clumsily, as it turned out. Media types who covered the summit received a basket of goodies that included desiccated oshibori hand towels that expand when moistened, a box of Pocky, a makeup brush, and two rather nice ceramic saké cups. The latter were part of a boxed gift set that included a rather mediocre nihonshu.

What caught the attention of cynical hacks, though, was the message printed on the box: “Let’s drink! Get drunk!” A somewhat unnecessary exhortation for bibulous ink stained wretches and just slightly unsubtle.

But a sign placed in the part of the International Media Center where free snacks and drinks were provided was the best example of how good intentions can be lost in translation. It urged hungry media folk to “Please follow the Japanese customs before and after every meal,” and then told the unwashed gaijin how to use an oshibori and to say “itadakimasu” and “gochisosama” at the appropriate junctures. No mention as to whether slurping noodles, belching or making origami with chopstick covers is kosher.

How do such silly linguistic faux pas keep making it through the quality filter is unclear. It’s possible someone might have known better, but they didn’t want their superior or an alleg edly more knowledgeable person to lose face.

This kind of ometenashi hospitality makes me want to have a drink. . . .

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– Steve McClure, NHK World

DESPERATE FOR NEWS

Covering big news events in Japan can sometimes be an exercise in meta journalism. Never is this more true than at a big news event that produces no big news.

Organizers of the G7 Ise Shima Summit gathered over 2,000 reporters, photographers and assorted TV types in a cavernous media center in rural Mie Prefecture at the end of May.

Then not a lot happened.

Sure, there were the exhibitions of delicate calligraphy, the demonstrations of weird personal mobility vehicles for which no one has yet found a use, and the displays of little space bound robots intended to showcase Japanese tech at its best.

But Barack Obama and pals were a long way away in a swanky looking hotel. And they weren’t really talking about anything. Still, we’ve all got words to file or airtime to fill, so our colleagues in the Japanese media turned to one of their favorite standby subjects: what do the foreigners think?

“What are your expectations of the G7 Ise Shima Summit?” Fairly low.

“What are you impressions of the G7 Ise Shima Summit?” I expect they’ll be talking about the economy.

“What do you think about Mie Prefecture?” Not seen much apart from the media center.

“How is the food? What is the most delicious?” I’ve had the pot noodles. The buffet is usually finished by the time I get there.

As a relatively early arriver at the venue I was in the AFP booth first thing on the morning of May 25 I was ripe for the picking. Five minutes after I sat down, the first reporter stuck his head around the door. And I committed a rookie error I answered in Japanese.

The news spread like wildfire.

“There’s one in there. He’s not very good and barely intelligible, but he’ll do,” I imagined them whispering to each other. For the next three quarters of an hour, a steady stream of journalists piled through the door to hear my expectations and my impressions. My 15 minutes of fame had begun in earnest, with appearances, I’m told, on five separate TV networks and I don’t know how many newspapers.

My 8 year old son rang me excitedly to tell me he had seen me on the telly. No idea what I was talking about “What is kokusai keizai?” but bursting with pride and ready to boast to all his schoolfriends.

In between writing about warnings over Brexit, the European migrant crisis and the obligatory piece on Justin “The Hunk” Trudeau, I kept up a steady stream of impromptu media appearances over the following days. One interview really went very badly my questioner’s opening gambit was some drivel about how Japan is a model for global tolerance and diversity because people celebrate Shinto festivals, Buddhist ceremonies and (wait for it . . .) Christmas.

He got short shrift. But mostly I learned to Give Them What They Want. Especially the local TV channels trying desperately to puff up the tourist industry.

So what did I think about Mie? Oh, it’s wonderful. And the food? Oishiiiiiiiii!

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– Huw Griffith, Deputy head of desk, Asia-Pacific,
AFP (formerly deputy bureau chief, Tokyo)

MAN ON THE STREET

In going to Hiroshima, Mari Yamamoto and I were hoping to get a sense of how the locals felt about the visit and Obama and Abe. The first people we spoke to were a couple, a Hiroshima resident and his wife who had survived the bombing. They were great. The police security was immense and I noticed one older man arguing and laughing with some officers, insisting on crossing the road on his bicycle. He eventually waved them aside and crossed over. We flagged him down and he took our business card with some interest. We weren't talking for long before it became apparent that he used to be a yakuza (I can’t help running into them) and was on his way to the dentist. He had been a member of the Yamaguchigumi and had wound up living in Hiroshima after getting out of prison there. He insisted that he was now straight. He had great respect for Obama, but when asked about Abe he was hilariously critical. Luckily, my knowledge of Japanese folklore enabled me to translate his description of the prime minister as an “irrelevant shape shifting badgerdog.”

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– Jake Adelstein, the Daily Beast