In this issue

Justin McCurry

Last month’s issue of the Number 1 Shimbun paid tribute to FCCJ stalwart Buck Tharp. This month, sadly, the magazine is again devoting space to the death of another titan of Tokyo’s foreign correspondent community, Pio d’Emilia. The Pio I knew could be both infuriatingly stubborn and incredibly kind. I will always remember the evening he and I spent in the old FCCJ workroom, typing furiously into the early hours to satisfy editors who had demanded long accounts of a police raid on the offices of the celebrity entrepreneur Takafumi Horie. I had only just filed when a grinning Pio appeared beside me, an unlit cigar dangling from the corner of his mouth, holding two glasses and a bottle of his beloved grappa. In this issue, Roger Schreffler looks back on Pio’s long and colourful career, while other writers share reminiscences about our friend and colleague. Ciao, Pio. Elsewhere in this issue, David McNeill reports on a new documentary about the “forgotten” Tokyo firebombing, Mark Schreiber remembers the Japanese pirate who confronted the Russians, Dave McCombs announces the launch of the FCCJ’s Free Press Fellowship, and Anthony Rowley delves into the appointment of the new Bank of Japan governor. In their regular columns, Philip Brasor explains why the rightwing media have gone cold on solar energy, and Eric Johnston looks at how the war in Ukraine is affecting Japanese claims to the Northern Territories.

Cover artwork by Julio Shiiki

REMEMBERING PIO D'EMILIA