Drums of Japan - The Japan Foundation, Manila

ISSN 0118-7910
Volume XIV Issue 1
July 2010
1
www.jpf.go.jp
www.jfmo.org.ph
www.jfmanila.wordpress.com
In this Issue
Upcoming Events
Highlight
Kurosawa and Philippine
Cinema Intimacies
Feature
Riding the Emotional
Roller Coaster
in the Asia Playwrights
Conference 2009
Regional Conference of
Women Peace Advocates
Noor-us Salam: Women of
Faith, Light of Peace
YAMATO
D r u m s o f J a p a n
災 い 転 じて 福 となす
a blessing in disguise
Appropriating Japan
Aanak di Kabiligan
(Children of the Mountains)
Theater Festival
Learning and
Sharing Peace
Journeying Towards
Sustainability
Announcements
People, Events, Places

2
Upcoming Events
3rd Bagasbas Beach International
Eco Arts Festival 2010
May 30 to June 6, 2010
Daet, Camarines Norte
The 3BBIEAF2010 is a community
participative art and environmental
project hosted by the Daet Arts
Out of the Ordinary/Extraordinary
Japanese Contemporary
Photography Exhibition
Upper Galleries (Calma, Ho and Luz
Galleries) and the
Catwalk Galleries
Metropolitan Museum
of Manila
June 22 - September 30, 2010
Co-organized with the Metropolitan
Museum of Manila, Pasay City.
The exhibition introduces
the works of eleven Japanese
photographers who confront
the complexity and
indecipherability of an
increasingly complicated
world by coming up with
new forms of expression.
The 102 works by featured
artists Ishiuchi Miyako,
Chin Mi Yo, Okada
Hiroko, Sawada Tomoko,
Takano Ryudai, Sugiura
Kunié, Yokomizo Shizuka,
Motoda Keizo, Hishikari
Shunsaku, Onodera Yuki
and Yoneda Tomoko,
present different series
of photographs of
young women with
heavily tamed face,
Council of the Our Lady of Lourdes
College Foundation (OLLCF), held at
the Bagasbas Beach in Daet, Camarines
Norte. The festival will bring together
international artists from Croatia, France,
the US, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy,
Germany, Iraq, and Japan.
light colored make-up and bleached
hair; strangers who are agree to be
photographed standing in their own
homes with their windows opened;
and young people who resort to
tattoos, body piercing and strange
hairstyles in order to express their
individuality.
Virgin Labfest
June 22 to July 4, 2010
Tanghalang Huseng Batute
(Studio Theater)
Cultural Center of the Philippines,
Pasay City
(3:00 pm and 8:00 pm)
Virgin Labfest is a festival of new plays
(untried, untested, unpublished and
unstaged) by emerging and wellknown
playwrights, directors and
actors. This year, Shungiku Uchida’s
“Sundan Natin Si Ever-san” (directed
by Toshihisa Yoshida) will be among
several new plays to be shown
publicly for the first time.
The event is a joint venture of CCP,
Tanghalang Pilipino and the Writers’ Bloc,
Inc. in cooperation with the Philippine
High School for the Arts (PHSA) and
Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM).
For ticket inquiries, call CCP
at 832-1125.
http://www.culturalcenter.gov.ph
The three-festivals-in-one will include these
sections: Installation Art curated by Ms. Cora
Alvina; New Media (Video Art) curated by Mr.
Takahiko Iimura; and, Public Furniture curated
by Mr. Benjamin E. Hughes III.
www.bbieaf.org
PHILIPPINES-JAPAN FRIENDSHIP MONTH
J U LY C A L E N D A R O F E V E N T S • C o - o r g a n i z e d w i t h t h e E m b a s s y o f J a p a n
2010
July 1-11,
Shang Cineplex Cinema 4
Shangri-La Plaza Mall,
Mandaluyong City
July 23-25,
Gaisano South Citimall
Davao City
August 3-8,
Ayala Center Cinema 4
Cebu City
August 18-21,
UP Film Institute
Quezon City
This year’s featured films include Always
Sunset on Third Street 2, The Battery
Future in Our Hands, I Just Didn’t Do It,
How to Become Myself, The Bandage
Club, Glasses, Fourteen, Miyori in the
Sacred Forest, Tokyo Tower Mom & Me,
and Sometimes Dad, and Franz Kafka’s A
Country Doctor.
Editorial Staff
Ben Suzuki
Editor-in-Chief
Yukie Mitomi
Associate Editor
ISSN 0118-7910
Volume XIV Issue 1
July 2010
Suki is a newletter published by The Japan Foundation, Manila
(JFM) located at the 12th Floor, Pacific Star Building, Sen. Gil
Puyat Avenue, cor. Makati Avenue, Makati City 1226, with
telephone numbers (632) 811-6155 to 58, fax number (632)
811-6153; and email address at email@jfmo.org.ph.
Suki is published three times a year and is duly registered as
printed matter mail at the Makati Central Post Office under
Permit No. 1074-97 NCR dated June 16, 1997. It is distributed
free of charge to individuals and organizations interested in
Japanese Studies and International Culture Exchange.
Cecilia EJ Aquino
Sheila de la Paz
Katrina Soliman
Roland Samson
Staff
Yamato
The opinions expressed in the feature articles are of the authors
and not necessarily of the Foundation. Reproduction in whole
or part of Suki articles is prohibited without permission from
the author and The Japan Foundation, Manila.

3
All films will be shown with English
subtitles. Admission is free. For detailed
screening schedules and inquiries, please
access the Japan Foundation, Manila
website: www.jfmo.org.ph or call the JFM
telephone numbers (+632) 811-6155 to 58.
© YAMATO
Yamato:
Drums of Japan
Co-presented with the SM Supermalls
and Cebu Pacific Air
July 8, Thursday; 7:30PM
(Gala-Invitational)
Centerstage, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City
July 9, Friday; 7:30 PM
Music Hall, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City
July 10, Saturday; 7:30PM
Sky Dome, SM City North EDSA, Quezon City
Yamato, one of the best Japanese taiko
drum groups, return to the Philippines
to herald the annual celebration of the
Philippines-Japan Friendship Month.
Founded by Masaki Ogawa in 1993 in
Yamato-no-kuni (country of Yamato) the
present day Nara Prefecture. The group
will combine traditional Japanese musical
formats with modern rhythms and
themes.
J-POP/Anime Singing Contest
July 24 (Saturday); 2 pm
SM North EDSA Cyber Zone
Quezon City
In cooperation
with HERO TV, Toei
Philippines, Nihongo
Center Foundation,
Center for Pop Music
Philippines, Ajinomoto,
Canon, Heritage Hotel,
Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Yakult,
and Yoshinoya. Come and enjoy the
final ten groups as they perform
their favorite J-Pop/Anime songs in
Japanese.
For inquiries please call JICC
at 551-5710
4th International
Silent Film Festival
Opens August 28 (Saturday)
Until August 29 (Sunday)
Shang Cineplex Cinema 1,
Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Edsa,
Mandaluyong City
Expect another round of captivating
classic films, now on its 4th year, the
annual International Silent Film Festival
continue to inspire and amuse audience
with its classical appeal and unique
artistry thru the fusion of black-andwhite
images and live music score.
For this year, the Japan Foundation,
Manila will feature Kodakara Sodo (Kid
Commotion) filmed by the Shochiku
Kinema Kamata Film Studio in 1935.
The 4th International Silent Film
Festival is co-organized with the
Goethe Institut, Instituto Cervantes,
the French Embassy, the Italian
Embassy, and other diplomatic offices.
© 2008 DIGITAL MEME
Kurosawa Film Festival
September 14, Tuesday;
CCP Little Theater
September 15-19,
Wednesday to Sunday;
CCP Dream Theater
September 20-30,
UP Film Institute
In commemoration of the 100th
Birth Anniversary of renowned
Japanese film director and
screenwriter Akira Kurosawa this
year, the Japan Foundation, Manila,
in cooperation with the Cultural
Center of the Philippines and UP
Film Institute proudly presents
twenty-one (21) films from his
award-winning collections this
September.
An invitational screening of
“Rashomon” will be held on
September 14 at the CCP Little Theater
to open the week-long festivity.
Regular screenings will follow at the
CCP Dream Theater from September
15 to 19. The final run will be at the UP
Film Institute from September 20 to
30, 2010.
For inquiries, please contact The Japan
Foundation, Manila (JFM) at tel. #811-
6155 to 58 or email at email@jfmo.org.
ph.
Films to be featured include Sanshiro
Sugata, The Most Beautiful, Sanshiro
Sugata Part II, The Men Who Tread
on the Tiger’s Tail, No Regrets
for Our Youth, One Wonderful
Sunday Drunken Angel, Stray Dog
Rashomon (In the Woods), Ikiru (To
Live), Seven Samurai, I Live in Fear,
Throne of Blood, The Lower Depths,
The Hidden Fortress, The Bad Sleep
Well, Yojimbo (The Bodyguard),
Sanjuro, High and Low, Red Beard,
Dodesukaden.

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HIGHLIGHT
Kurosawa
Courtesy of Toho Co., Ltd.
and Philippine Cinema Intimacies
by Rolando B. Tolentino, Ph.D.
“What
is the
truth...
“There is no
ultimate truth,
only truth-claims.”
Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) is credited for his pioneering and sustainable works in
world cinema. He provided Japanese cinema with one of the discernable post-World
War II representations of its nation-ness, the jidaegeki or period movies. These were
samurai movies, and in Kurosawa’s films were introspective and bleak representations of the
Edo or Tokugawa period in shambles as the samurai warriors and their shogun patrons were
being disbanded.
Attempts at local imaginary in Philippine cinema has yet to cohere into a return to an
imagined past. Eddie Romero’s Kamakalawa (1991) was an exploration of the Filipino psyche
using indigenous lore and other imagined fantasies. Similarly during the height of the Marcos
dictatorship (1972-86) that paradoxically produced the second renaissance in Philippine
cinema, the anxieties were filtered through the representations of the modern realities.
Set in slums and other sites of abject poverty, the films of the golden age obliquely
provided a critique of authoritarian rule through dark cinematography, claustrophobic feel,
and stories about the oppressiveness of living conditions.
Interestingly, Kurosawa’s samurai films were read as dealing with Japan’s post-war
anxieties—its defeat in World War II, the end of the emperor system and its militarism, and
its reconstruction under U.S. tutelage. Kurosawa also provided the template for Hollywood

Ikiru © 1952 Toho Co., Ltd
Rashomon © 1950 Kadokawa Pictures Inc.
and Italian blockbusters. His Yojimbo
(1961) was adapted in Sergio Leone’s
A Fistful of Dollars and Walter Hill’s Last
Man Standing.
The Hidden Fortress (1958) was
adapted by George Lucas for Star Wars.
Seven Samurai (1954) was remade into
The Magnificent Seven. Leon’s “spaghetti
westerns” (Italian low-cost counterparts
of the Hollywood genre) would find its
way in cowboy movies in the Philippines
and elsewhere in Asia.
Kurosawa is also acknowledged for
introducing “Asian cinema” to a global
audience. His Rashomon (1950) won
the Venice International Film Festival
in 1951. Dovetailing the success of
Rashomon, Manuel Conde’s Genghis
Khan would become the first Filipino
film to compete in the same festival
in 1952.
Rashomon has been effectively
used as a postmodern text, advance for
its time. Expounding on the sequential
interrogation of “What is the truth”
Rashomon has already pre-asked the
postmodern question and its answer,
“There is no ultimate truth, only truthclaims.”
Rashomon has provided the
template for a sub-type of film selfreflexivity.
In the Philippines, the “Rashomonmodel”
of stor y-telling has been
invoked in Laurice Guillen’s Salome
(1981) and Chito Rono’s Itanong Mo
sa Buwan (1988). Both films used the
court testimonies to provide various
interpretations of a crime whose main
suspect is the lead female character. In
both films, a proto-feminist perspective
is invoked, using the Rashomon-model,
implicating the patriarchal structure,
specifically of the courts, that has already
prejudged the accused female.
Kurosawa would be honored by the
world, including Cannes and the Oscars,
and the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1965)
for his contribution to world cinema.
Cineastes in the country would be able
to view his work through embassysponsored
film festivals. However, one
of the productive effects of film piracy
was the circulation of art films, including
the body of works by Kurosawa, in nerve
centers in Quiapo, and arcades in Makati
and Ortigas. This introduced Kurosawa’s
works to a younger generation of
cineastes, including the generation of
filmmakers that comprises the indie film
movement.
My own intimate moment with a
Kurosawa film was watching this in the UP
Film Center which then was structurally
complete only from the outside. There
were still no seats inside the theater,
Seven Samurai © 1954 Toho Co., Ltd.
HIGHLIGHT
and the audience was sitting or lying
on the floor. Rashomon started with a
huge downpour that brought together
the protagonists-storytellers. In the Film
Center, heavy rain also poured, loudly
hitting the new galvanized roofing and
adding on another layer of realism to the
film viewing.
I n f i l m c l a s s e s , K u r o s a w a
represented the other half of postwar
Japanese cinema, with Yosujiro
Ozu and his use of off-screen space
representing the modern-day cinema
(gendai- gek i). The past and the
present in cinema melded the idea
of Japanese-ness, distinctly unique
and collec tively understood and
a p p re c i a t e d a s w h a t re p re s e n t s
Japanese cinema.
Philippine cinema, from Brocka to
the present, invoked the abjectionable
in contemporary realities (gay, poverty,
subaltern conditions and identities)
as its representation. Kurosawa and
his Filipino contemporaries (primarily
through Conde) rode on this productive
era in the 1950s, and until Kurosawa’s
death in 1998, still made films that were
aesthetically provocative.
Kurosawa has outlived several
generations of Filipino filmmakers,
and this longevity is sustained by
his passion for his art. Encounters
with Japanese students would already
invoke an ignorance of Kurosawa. But
in the Philippines, a niche audience of
Kurosawa and other Japanese films has
been sustained.
The Hidden Fortress © 1958 Toho Co., Ltd.
5
Rolando B. Tolentino is dean of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. He is faculty in the UP Film Institute, and is author and editor of books on Philippine
cinema, media and popular culture.

6
FEATURE
Ridingthe Emotional
Roller Co
In a span of five days, from December 15 to December 19 of last year, the Asia
Playwrights Conference sponsored by the Japan Foundation and the Za-Koenji Public
Theater was able to provide an emotional ride sleazing through knots of cerebral
discussions about theater, its community, and its survival.
It kicked off with the obligatory orientation facilitated by the organizers and
the welcome reception at the Café in Za-Koenji Public Theater where playwrights
from Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines were treated to a night of
jovial conversations over sumptuous food by Japanese playwrights and theater
practitioners.
Keynote speaker Huzir Sulaiman raised poignant issues surrounding the world of
theater: from language barrier, mixed texts, dramaturgy, to the need for the reemergence
of text-based theater, preservation of artistic integrity, and question of institutional
funding.
Dramatic readings were presented with each reading being followed by an open
forum and a speech from the playwright discussing the form and content of the play
and the issues being raised.
The first dramatic reading was that of Australian playwright Raymondo Cortese’s
“Holiday.” It revolves around the developing friendship between Arno and Paul whose
exchanges are punctuated with momentary acknowledgements about their awareness
of the existence of an audience. In deliberately destroying the fourth wall, and ignoring
the importance of conflict, the poetry of everyday conversation with all its digression and
ability to side step on encyclopedic information and personal musings is emphasized
and utilized.
Aside from having two performers read the parts of Arno and Paul, there were
two other performers staring constantly
at the audience as they shifted positions
and mouthed the lines. That rendered the
audience self conscious and compounded
anticipation over what would happen in
the play with what would the performers
do to their audience.
Though seemingly plotless and
admittedly bereft of conflict, “Holiday”
was able to stay true to its form: a
documentary-like piece on an ordinary
conversation encompassing the profound
and the mundane.
My play, “Doc Resureccion: Will Cure
the Nation” was presented next. It involves
the story of Doc Resureccion as he tries to
persuade his cousin Boy Pogi to withdraw
his candidacy for Mayor. After unmasking
Boy Handsome as a nuisance candidate
paid off by the incumbent Mayor to
Reading of “DOC RESURECCION: WILL CURE THE NATION” by Layeta Bucoy. (Photo by Masaru Miyauchi)

7
aster
in the Asia Playwrights
Conference 2009 by Layeta P. Bucoy
diminish the doctor’s chances of winning
in the elections, personal grudges and
collective hopes are tangled in the
machinations of traditional politics ending
in a violent surge of maligned pride and
undressed hypocrisy.
Questions regarding the political
landscape in the Philippines were raised
during the open forum with a few referring
to the Maguindanao massacre as a
possible spring board in understanding
the violence that comes with politics.
Interestingly, when someone expressed
veneration for the late President Corazon
Aquino, another one was quick to teasingly
interject the name of former First Lady
Imelda Marcos. Most of them dubbed
the play as “powerful.” And amidst their
congratulatory remarks, their interest in
the Philippines’ contemporary history
was evident.
Some members of the audience
expressed familiarity with another play
of mine, “A Thousand Poems for Dulce’s
Breasts.” In drawing a comparison between
Dulce and Doc Resureccion, their curiosity
zeroed in on how a playwright enters
a character’s psyche especially if the
character thrives in an environment that
may be totally alien to the playwright.
Korean Japanese playwright Wishing
Chong’s “Heart of Almond Jelly” is a
certified tear jerker. As a couple, Sayoko
and Tatsuro are breaking up on Christmas
Eve. After a series of false reasons for the
break up, from a reversal of stereotypical
gender roles to the concerns of the
working class, the play cleverly reveals
the widening gap between a couple for
not having been able to confront a shared
traumatic experience.
It was able to reduce almost everyone
to tears, and a female member of the
audience had to leave in the middle of the
performance for she was already sobbing
uncontrollably. The melodrama worked
perfectly well, as the dissolution of a marriage
was seen to not entirely be dependent on
love alone but largely influenced by the
collapse of communities brought about by
contemporary social problems.
Nguyen Thu Phuong of Vietnam
tackles contemporary women’s issues in
her play “House with Three Women.” Tu,
Nhien, and Quynh are three sisters with
distinct personalities but with happiness
in life as a common goal. Being married
to a loser, an extremely unromantic
practical man, and a drifting philanderer
respectively, the three sisters are reminded
by their father Mr. Can of the happiness
they already had in the past, and the
futility of wanting to be embraced by it
once more as he says, “But how can we
be as exactly as we used to be”
Ms. Nguyen was astute enough to
present flawed female characters. Their
individual choices thus colliding with
social expectations, their hopes trapped in
a tug of war between the desires lurking
in their heart and the dictates of their
social milieu.
The performers wore individual
headbands with rectangular nameplates
bearing the names of their respective
characters. With eight characters in the
play, those headbands were truly helpful
to the audience.
The Indonesian playwright Joned
Suryatmoko chose to be mischievous
in his play “Threesome.” It is about the
reunion of Dora, Giant, and Cuk, who
all got involved in a bonfire event at the
Gadjah Mada University two years before
the student movement of 1998. Their
reunion, though motivated primarily by
the idea of having a threesome, reveals
their past idealism and the changes it
underwent with the changing political
and social climate.
Drawing from contemporary pop
culture and peppered with sexual
innuendoes, the play provided the
audience with a comical take on a serious
issue regarding activism and how the
flames of idealism may refuse to burn a
little longer.
With two capable interpreters present
during the duration of the conference, plus
another interpreter called on to translate
from Vietnamese to Japanese, the issue of
language pervaded all throughout those
five meaningful days. In trying to forge a
sense of community among playwrights
and theater enthusiasts, literary translation
became a key talking point together with
transculturalism, network models, and the
need to maintain living archives.
In the end, I got a request from an
audience to write a play on the evolving
“families” in our country’s municipal jails.
May that propel another emotional roller
coaster ride.
Korean Japanese playwright Wishing Chong and me
during the send off party.
Layeta P. Bucoy currently teaches at the University of the Philippines Los Banos. She is a proud member of the playwrights’ group Writers’ Bloc, and continuously maintains an erotic
column for a daily magbloid while recently writing for a television drama anthology. She is a three-time Palanca awardee.

8
FEATURE
Regional Conference of Women Peace Advocates
Noor-us Salam: Women
of Faith, Light of Peace
by: Sheryl N. Peral
The prevailing situation of conflict leading to poverty in
Mindanao demand action geared towards peace and
stability, considering the vast number of lives it affects.
Among these, those greatly impacted are Muslim women and
children. Hence, in order to address the issue at hand and to tap
out the potential of women in contributing to the peace process,
the Magbbassa Kita Foundation, Inc. (MKFI) and the Philippine
Council for Islam and Democracy have taken upon themselves
the responsibility to capacitate Muslim women with the proper
knowledge and skills that will aid them to become empowered
“peace-makers”. This objective is embodied by the “Empowering
the Aleemat as Peace Advocates Project.”
The “Empowering the Aleemat as Peace Advocates Project”
consisted of a series of local capacity building workshops
gathering Aleemat and women peace advocates from different
sectors to train them on conflict prevention and peacemaking.
Their attained knowledge from these workshops can aid them
in formulating models for peace, democracy and development
tailor-fitted to the needs, interests and demands of the
communities.
The Regional Conference of Women Peace Advocates with a
theme Noor-us Salam: Women of Faith, Light of Peace was held from
24 – 27 January 2010 at the Waterfront Insular Hotel in Lanang,
Davao City, Philippines. A total of 145 aleemat and women peace
advocates coming from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao convened
for the first time. It was during this event that representatives per
cluster, were able to voice out their initiatives in promoting the
message they received from the workshops, empowering others
with the knowledge they generously shared, as well as giving
updates on the specific activities that were ongoing in their
respective areas. The participants of the conference were also
privileged to hear of the past experiences of successful agencies
promoting women empowerment from the international
community, and they were introduced into issues relevant to
them which were once taken for granted. This included their
role in the public sphere, and how they can impact specific
realms such as nationbuilding,
education and
technology, the peace,
justice and security
system, and women’s
reproductive health.
The conference
showcased the aleemats’
embrace of their roles as
active participants in the
public realm, and their
growing understanding
of the new responsibility
thrust on them. Besides
t h e recognition o f
women of their potential
WOMEN IN ACTION. Facilitating the regional planning of the Aleemat and women
representatives of different CSOs, Prof. Javate de Dios, Executive Director of
Women and Gender Institute of Miriam College and Gender Adviser of the National
Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), helped the Muslim women
religious scholars from the National Capital Region (NCR) come-up with their
priority agenda in their region. (Photo by Sheryl Peral)
to work towards the peace process, these aleemat also became
aware of the growing demand for their individual rights, and
the possibility of involving the youth in the attainment of peace.
The attainment of peace only becomes possible with effective
coordination among government, NGOs and civil society, Added
to this, there is also a call towards more inter-faith dialogues in
order for all to gain a common understanding of each others’
grounds and contributions. The conference also promises
continuity with projected activities including the conduct of
seminars and forums to follow through with the objectives
discussed during the conference.
The participation of the aleemat in the regional conference
manifested the enthusiastic reception of the aleemat of the
principles and objectives MKFI and PCID stand for. Collaborations
with other agencies continue to help the aleemat with their
provision of new knowledge, expertise and technology and
integrating these to produce the most efficient results.
Finally, the participants of the event were able to garner
for themselves new perspectives towards intercultural
understanding, as well as address issues regarding their individual
and communal development, and their form of leadership. To
concretize their experience prior and throughout the conference,
the aleemat took a bold step in creating something they could
truly call their own and be accountable to. The conference did
not end simply with the introduction of ideas and undertaking
of prevalent issues that affect Muslim women, but rather, with
the creation of regional structures with corresponding officers,
and the formulation and recommendation of ten priority plans
and programs for the organization, which marked the beginning
of change for Muslim women in Mindanao.
Sheryl N. Peral is currently the Program Officer of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy and handling the Empowering Women as Peace Advocates Project partly funded by the
Japan Foundation. She took up BA Communication Research from the University of the Philippines Diliman.

FEATURE
9
災 い 転 じて 福 となす
by: Cynthia Neri Zayas, Ph.D.
Professor, UP Center for International Studies
a blessing in disguise
The past twenty years or so have been catastrophic years for us.
The Hanshi-Awaji Earthquake of 1995 was indeed destructive
and unforgettable. Yet in the sadness of this event, I see some
light, in a way, a blessing in disguise for me later on. This happening
gave me an opportunity to be part of the Hyogo Teachers Union’s
commemorative ceremony during the 5th year and 10th year
of that grim disaster. Attending their international symposium, I
learned about their project to address the mental health care of
school children. They also wanted to hear the experiences of their
colleagues in Turkey, China, California, etc. who had also suffered the
same fate as them. This was for me a very rare chance to reflect on
their experiences and related activities on disaster education.
Thus from 2005 we at the UPCIS began our planning meetings to
conceptualize an ideal course and research project to pursue disaster
mitigation education. The UPCIS faculty and faculty affiliates met to
find ways on how we can inject disaster preparedness education
in our school curricula, i.e. education to build a culture of safety
and resilience at all levels. We thought that as country specialists,
we could be the window to many experiences. We thought of this
because we were mandated to interpret for the Filipino people
the cultures of the world from interdisciplinary perspectives, to
bring together diverse scholars,
cultural practitioners, artists, and
visionaries of the world to interact,
do collaborative researches, create
courses, activities and resource
materials that reflect interdisciplinary,
cross-cultural interests towards
the development of an academic
program in Global Studies, and to
train and develop experts/specialists
in countries of the world - a gigantic
mandate for a small Center. We did
our best with the creation of GS
197: Special Topics in Global Studies, where the theme is Cultures
of Disaster: Learning from Life Experiences. We offered this course
during the second semester of the school year 2009-2010, just in
time to coincide with our February 15-17 International Symposium
with the support from the Japan Foundation, DOST-PCIERD and the
University of the Philippines. Entitled “Towards a Culture of Resilience
- An International Symposium and Study Tour on the Best Educational
Practices on Disaster Risk Reduction in Japan and Southeast Asia,”
the symposium had three basic objectives:
1) To learn and share from our neighbors’ experiences in
dealing with risk management, specially on the effects of
large scale devastation from the earthquakes of Kobe, the
aftermath of the Asian Tsunami, the prolonged flooding
in some parts of Southeast Asia;
2) To network with promoters of education for disaster
reduction and school safety from Japan and Southeast
Asia in order to acquire updated information on the latest
pedagogical development of the field; and
3) To develop courses for the Revitalized General Education
Program on risk reduction, and perhaps a major - Global
Studies major in Risk Reduction Education at the UPCIS.
The guest speakers came from Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand
and of course, the Philippines. They shared with us the products of
their studies as well as their experiences in utilizing the results for
educational purposes. They gave us samples of their work in books,
(Foreign Guests) Seated: , Dr. Gunawan Adnan, State Institute for Islamic Studies,
Aceh, Indonesia; Prof. Daroonwan Kamthonkiat, Department of Geography, Faculty
of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, Thailand; Prof. Isao Hayashi, Associate
Professor, Department of Social Research, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka,
Japan/Graduate University for Advance Studies; Standing: Mr.Koichi Yoshida, HTU
interpreter; Dr. Cynthia Zayas, convener (UP CIS); Mr. Izumi Yuichiro , Executive
Director, Japan Hyogo Teachers’ Union; and Mr. Mori Yasushige, Instructor, Hyogo
Prefentural Awaji Senior High School. (Photo by Cynthia Zayas)
pamphlets, and CDs. On our part, we presented papers on our
work from many perspectives: anthropology, geology, community
development, etc. The meeting gave us a chance to network on
human resources and specialists who are skilled in developing
instructional materials for education at all levels. Furthermore, we
discussed future collaborative research, especially after we undertook
our Study Tour in Mt. Pinatubo. The meeting provided a venue for
sharing lessons drawn from personal experiences of natural disaster(s)
and research findings from which we can collectively design ways
of educating the present generation to be more prepared during
disasters. We thought that this is an initial step that could propel the
momentum for the planning and execution of measures toward our
goal of building a culture of safety and resilience.
As the International Symposium is limited to invited guests,
from an expected 60-70 it went up to a total of 85. The student
audience was primarily from our Japan Studies classes, Global
Studies (Cultures of Disasters), and Southeast Asian Studies (Asian
Emporiums); thus, making our classes relevant to our times. The study
tour component was made possible partly with the cooperation of
the Philippine Air Force 600th Wing, which provided the vehicles,
guides and security escorts. The limited participants, 22 (it could
have accommodated 23, but due to the early assembly at 3:30 am,
3 students could not make it) learned closely the effects of volcanic
eruptions on the Ayta (indigenous people) villagers of the slopes
of the volcano and the environment of the volcano. We saw for
ourselves how they have adapted to live and return to their natural
villages amidst a lahar desert. Mr. Roman King the Barangay Captain
of Barangay. Inararo was kind enough to prepare for the group their
Aeta traditional cuisine cooked in bamboo tubes called binuho. The
difficulty of travelling to Mt. Pinatubo rewarded the tourists with a
beautiful landscape of Mt. Pinatubo caldera which was the source
of global ash fall erased the grim memory of the 1991 eruption. It is
with the hope that the scenic caldera will always make us remember
that resilience in this time of disasters “teaching our children today
is empowering the next generation to address risks more effectively
tomorrow.”
Cynthia Neri Zayas, Ph.D is concurrently the director and a professor of the Center for International Studies University of the Philippines, Diliman (UPCIS; She is a 2009 UP Diliman
Centennial Faculty Grant Awardee for her work on Trade and Patronage of Ati Material Medica in the Visayas (Essays in well-being, opportunity/destiny and anguish, edited by C. J. Paz.
U.P. Press 2008). Her scholarly work is focused on various characteristics of Asian maritime cultures in historical and comparative perspective, i.e. maritime trade, water villages, stone tidal
wares, sustaining community-based marine resources, among others. Quite recently, Dr. Zayas has engaged herself with the cultural notions of disaster—its mitigation and lessons for life
especially among the Pinatubo Negritos, and the Batad Ifugaos of Northern Luzon

10 FEATURE
Appropriating Japan by
Tito Genova Valiente
The notion of appropriating Japan can be misleading. One can
almost picture the scenery of conquest and occupation. To
a certain degree, the images that the word conjures are also
appropriate: appropriating a country or a culture is like occupying a
space where that country or culture exists. It can mean conquering
meanings and allowing those meanings to be either dominant or
assumed to be personal.
In our case, this act of appropriation took place by way of an
international conference with a title, “Appropriating Japan: Evolving
Southeast Asian Views of and Approaches to Japanese Studies.” The
one-day symposium gathered speakers from Singapore, Japan and
the Philippines. The demographics of the audience was interesting:
universities and learning institutions from Metro Manila were
represented as well as schools located from as far as Baguio.
The academic gathering proved to be a way to test
theories. Given the multidisciplinary approaches covered by the
scholars, concepts taken were by themselves bearers of different
perspectives. Gender, ethnicity, authenticity were some of the
areas discovered and rediscovered.
Even as the lens of the conference focused on topics
pertaining to political, social and cultural phenomena under
globalization, the paper took up how these phenomena were
transformed and redefined in a world where boundaries are
shifting and getting blurred, when identities are questioned and
re-formed.
There were three panels in the conference: Japan and
Southeast Asian Imaginary Geographies; Spaces in Transit Asia,
and; Japan and Cultures Within. For the first panel, Dr. Leng Leng
Thang of the National University of Singapore spoke about one of
the most fun social phenomena ever to catch the attention of the
region, “cosplay.” In her paper, the Singapore-based anthropologist
showed how a phenomenon that originated in Japan finds a
public place in another area, Singapore in the case of Dr. Leng
Leng Thang’s fieldwork. In her own words, she tried to evaluate
how cosplay “creates community and shapes cultural identity
among the cosplayers.
In the same panel was Dennis Gonzaga’s “Mapping the Space
of Otaku: From Akihabara to Appadurai.” Gonzaga mapped in his
paper the journey of the “otaku” from being a product of economics
in post-war Japan to forming a metaphor, or a simulacrum, to
indicate how globalization has brought about the flowing of
cultures and traditions from one space into another. The title
is witty because it puts together an area called Akihabara with
a theoretician Appadurai. The author is not merely a name but
also a space. Gonzaga is a faculty member of the Social Sciences
Department of the Ateneo de Naga University.
The second panel put together a scholar revisiting the angura
or underground Japanese theater of the 60s and the 70s with two
experts on urban planning and environmental planning looking
at the streets of Southeast Asia. The two titles seem disparate until
one examines what they are talking about, and they are all about
the notion of the public and the rethinking of spaces.
Engaging the audience, the paper of Dr. Brian C. Gozun,
professor at Holy Angel University in Angeles City and the Japanese
Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University and Dr. Iderlina
Mateo-Bibiana, lecturer of the School of Geography, Planning and
Environmental Management of the University of Queensland,
delved into the street space development in the two Asian cities
of Tokyo , as it was Edo, and Manila, as a colonial city.
The tendency to adapt other street utilization strategies
from the Western mode does not always bring good results.
Gozun and Mateo-Bibiana proposes the “need to revive Asian
street culture on the premise that the present street utilization is
a consequence of and reflects the underlying pedestrian culture
of the past.” The listeners were amused particularly with the insight
that more Japanese walk in the streets of Tokyo than Manileños
walk those of Manila. Apparently, there is more to this “trivia” than
meets the eye.
In Ken Takiguchi’s paper, “Creativity Collaborates with
the Authority: “Publicness” of Theater Debate and the “Asian
Theatre” Thesis in Japanese Contemporary Theatre,” locates the
development of a theater form in its dialog (or debate) with other
theater forms. It must interest cultural workers in the Philippines
to know for Takiguchi, the Black Tent Theater of Japan in its desire
to open up its theatre practices to common people, “referred”
to the theater pedagogy of the Philippine Educational Theater
Association (PETA.) This gave rise to the practical concept of Public
Theater. Takiguchi is a Ph.D. candidate at the National University
of Singapore.
The third panel had the two most intense political papers: one
was Dr. Tze M. Loo’s “Rebuilding Shuri Castle: Japanese Colonialism
and Cultural Heritage Preservation.” At the center of the paper is the
rebuilding of the Shuri Castle in Okinawa, which was destroyed
during World War II. What began as a debate about the rebuilding
the magnificent structure from the ashes turned into discourses
about the place of Okinawa in the grand narrative of Japan as a
nation and its many histories. Dr. Tze Loo is Assistant Professor at the
University of Richmond where she teaches East Asian history.
Dr. Masaaki Satake, Professor at the Department of
International Culture and Cooperation, Faculty of Foreign Studies,
Nagoya Gakuin University, talked about his favorite theme: foreign
migrants. Satake compared the growing number of foreign
migrants to Japan, which has been placed at 2 million in 2008,
to what he described as the stagnant population of Japan in the
recent year. He also highlighted the role of the migrant workers
to the economic growth of Japan.
Resource persons and organizers of the Appropriating Japan conference.
Tito Genova Valiente is a lecturer at the Japanese Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University. He is a public anthropologist and the resident Media and Art critic of the national
broadsheet, Business Mirror. He is a member of the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, the premier film critics group in the country.

Actors from the mining town of Mankayan, Benguet
in their traditional attire. (Photo by Tsutomu Suzuki)
Aanak di Kabiligan
by Sacha Garah K. Weygan
FEATURE11
Cordillera Green Network President and
Executive Director (2nd from left) discusses
in detail the musical performances for the
3rd Cordillera Youth Eco Summit held last
January 22-23 in Lepanto, Mankayan,
Benguet and January 25-26 in Bangued,
Abra. Listening intently are (from L-R)
percussionist Jun Jun Banasan, CGN staff
Carla Rosito, Kabuku master Jun Amanto,
Tapati of the band Joey Ayala at ang Bagong
Lumad, and Cordillera musicians and
cousins Edgar and Kent Banasan. (Photo by
Sarah Weygan)
(Children of the Mountains) Theater Festival
For who else would speak for the trees, the rivers and the land but the
children of the mountains
I
first heard of the Eco Summit last year from a friend who was
so inspired by the children, who, on the way to Lubuagan from
Mayoyao, were still singing even after many roadblocks on the
long trip. Fortunately, I went to see this year’s 3rd Eco Summit, and I
was more than happy I did. Watching the children, who came all the
way from different parts of the Cordillera, some farther than where
I came from perform on stage that night was enough to take away
my exhaustion from the day’s trip.
Aanak di Kabiligan Theater Festival is an offshoot of the
Eco Caravan by Cordillera Green Network (CGN) and Kiyosato
Educational Experiment Project (KEEP). What started as a series of
seminar-workshops on environmental education, the Eco Caravan
has extended to the Cordillera Youth Eco Summit – with its focus
on developing environmental awareness in the youth through the
arts. This year’s Eco Summit brought together various groups from
different provinces in the Cordillera and Japan. The coming together
of diverse cultures and traditions resulted in wider opportunities for
the children to learn from themselves and from each other.
This year’s third Eco Summit took place in Lepanto, Mankayan,
Benguet then moved to Bangued, Abra last January 22-26, 2010.
For two nights, a series of local and international, traditional
and modern performances transpired in Lepanto’s CPJ Hall. Rooted
in ancient values, the contemporary biaxial dance, Kabuku Mai,
performed by Jun Amanto balanced with the wave-like grace of
Tapati (of Joey Ayala at ang Bagong Lumad), accompanied by an
ensemble of wind and percussion by local ethno-musicians: Ruel
Bimmuyag of Ifugao, Edgar and Kent Banasan and Alex Tumapang
of Kalinga. Takanori Kawaharada’s contemporary performance
“Kappa” urged the audience to pledge to save the environment by
reducing waste. Meanwhile, his wife Zohar Cohen hinted on the
growing greediness of people. Consomme W Punch involved the
audience to use their body parts to imitate actions while combining
music with an illustrated environmental children’s story projected
on screen. Amazingly, the high school students proved to be at
par with these professional performers, with the guidance of their
teachers and coaches: director Toshihisa Yoshida and actors Lynette
Bibal and Rei Baquirin, who also performed a four-part monologue
“Homecoming”.
With a common theme on environmental awareness, the
theater groups conceptualized and wrote their own scripts which
they performed themselves. Balbalan’s Shilas Theater Guild began
with a tragic story on the loss of a young man’s life in trying to protect
their land from illegal loggers who ironically happen to have the ‘right’
documents. Meanwhile, Lepanto’s Gambang Theater Guild relates
how the town has prospered in mining gold and a man’s recurring
dream of devastation becomes a reality in the end. In a similar vein,
Ifugao’s Aguinaldo Community Theater Society proved that the abuse
of environment, particularly in the misuse of new technology causes
tragedy. Interestingly, the Isnag Theater Group of Apayao presented
lapat – a traditional law that protects certain areas of the land and
water resources for the use of future generations. The story of the
lapat began from a couple’s longing for non-instant food, as they
recount childhood days spent hunting and fishing for food. Abra’s
Maeng Young Artists asked Kabunian for guidance and blessings to
strengthen this same law, lapat, through the ritual bagawas. Their
version began with two friends who found no food in the denuded
forests and rivers murky with mine tailings. Finally from Bauko,
Ayyoweng di Ebokolan’s classroom setting showed that children, even
as they are in school, should go back to their elders for their knowledge
and experience, in particular how they were able to live in harmony
with the environment.
On stage, the audience has witnessed various translations
of one advocacy – environmental awareness and preservation.
An exchange of knowledge transpired within the performers
themselves, between the performers and the audience, and among
individuals and groups from different ethnolinguistic groups.
Outside the theater, the participants learned more about the
environment through the lectures on environment by Singo Sekine,
KEEPs forest instructor; mental therapy workshop through music
by Consomme W Punch; theater workshop for students; a photo
exhibit by JP Alipio on the state of the Cordillera environment;
and a surface tour of the Lepanto Mines. They get to experience
places where they could see for themselves the effects of nature’s
destruction as well as the efforts to save it.
The participants, exhausted yet with recharged hearts, brought
their stories all the way to Bangued, Abra for the second half of the
Eco Summit where the participants also went on an agro-forestry tour
at OISCA-Abra. Along with the eco-theater festival, teachers of Divine
Word College and students of ASITS participated in an Environmental
Education Facilitators Training. The collaboration of various offices,
organizations, groups and individuals have made possible this year’s
Eco Summit.
The coming together of diverse cultures and traditions for a
common cause resulted in wider opportunities for the participants,
specially the students, to learn and share knowledge and experience
on the many ways they can take part in the advocacy for environmental
awareness and concern. I was deeply moved by the energy of the
organizers and performers of this weeklong activity. Like many
people who were there, I learned so much from the children of the
mountains. As a child of the mountains, I was motivated all the more
to do my part.
Sacha Garah K. Weygan, is a Bachelor of Arts degree holder in Language and Literature. She is currently taking her Masters Degree in Language and Literature, also at the University of
the Philippines Baguio. She usually writes about environment and culture, inspired by her being an avid mountaineer. She is the current president of Ubbog Cordillera Young Writers, a nonprofit-oriented
group of young writers in the Cordillera. She became a volunteer of Cordillera Green Network since year 2008, and was involved on the editing of the Modules for Elementary
teachers published by CGN in 2008. She is often involved in CGN’s activities such as tree planting and advocacy.

12
FEATURE
Last March, I set aside my sandals and no matter how much the cook prepares the of the Nigata University of International and
sleeveless shirts and donned thermal freshest and most expensive ingredients, Information Studies, we agreed that peace
clothing, a thick coat and boots for my without the different spices of your was a situation where there was minimal
first trip to Japan.
Together with eighteen other young
individuals from fifteen countries in Asia
and Oceania, I spent two weeks immersed
in Japan – looking at its history and how
it has interacted with the rest of the world,
observed its traditional and modern culture,
met with religious leaders, community
members and marginalized groups to
observe how Japan is dealing with its past
and how it utilizes peaceful methods to
overcome challenges.
The Japan East Asia Net work of
Exchange for Students and Youths (JENESYS)
Program is a regular activity conducted by
the Japan Foundation to foster networking
and dialogue among young people across
different sectors. The theme of our program
was “Comprehensive Peacebuilding Initiatives
of Young Leaders in Asia and Oceania: The
Potentials of Culture and Education.”
Ms. Mika Mukai, the Japan Foundation
Coordinator in Tokyo, likened the program to
a dish made to be intellectually stimulating
for the participants. She adds, “However,
experience, enthusiasm and personality,
the dish will be bland and tasteless. We are
looking forward to seeing how your culinary
dishes will be chopped, baked, braised,
steamed, or raw (it will be held in Japan after
all) during the program, and tasting its flavor
at the end.”
My travelling companions, or fellow
cooks, were teachers, students, artists,
journalists, lawyers, administrators, social
workers, human rights advocates and
members of civil society from Australia,
Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand,
Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand
and Vietnam. We were hungry and thirsty for
knowledge and experience, and wanted to
bring in something new to the program.
Food and peace, an unlikely combination,
but we all had to agree with Mika that it
would be an interesting concoction.
In our first few days, we shared stories
on our countries, most pressing situations of
conflict, and our concepts of peacebuilding.
Guided by our teacher, Prof. Hiroshi Sasaki
conflict or violence. This could only be
achieved only once basic human rights are
addressed. Constant effort and dialogue in
the situation of conflict is needed to make it
happen, and be sustained.
Not ever yone in the group had
experience working on issues of peace and
some of us were wondering what we could
do in our own work to become a peace
builder. Things became much clearer each
day as our guides took us through Tokyo,
Kyoto, Osaka, Okinawa then back to Tokyo.
The trip to Kyoto exposed us on wonderful
initiatives of peace and of the importance of
listening to the voiceless. Visiting the Kyoto
Museum of World Peace at the Ritsumeikan
University was definitely an eye opener.
Museum Director Tomohiko Takasugi said,
“A war museum encourages war. We are a
museum that encourages peace”.
The museum looked at the history of
conflict from a different angle. It showed its
root causes and ways people and countries
have addressed this. One striking image
for me was a display of elementary school
Learning
and
Sharing

history textbooks from different countries
showing the differing accounts of world war
two. It is people who write history, and we
too have to be careful with how we record
it, as this is what people will remember. The
museum tries to point out that considering
others perspectives is important; it does
not mean agreement with their views, but
acknowledging and understanding where
their ideas and actions are coming from.
Many of us in the group have different
faiths but we all appreciated the session
with the Reverend Yoshiharu Tomatsu at the
Chion-in Temple of Pure land (Jodo sect)
Buddhism. Sitting cross-legged on Tatami
mats in a room at the temple complex, we
were given a background on the history of
Pure Land Buddhism, and found out how
they are moving forward and reaching out
to young people in Japanese society. A
quiet session of meditation and mantra
writing made me realize how important it
is to listen to oneself in order to be able to
listen to others.
In Osaka, we heard testimonies from
people saying, “When I was young, I hated
being Korean, I wanted to be Japanese.” A
Korean non-government organization shared
situations of discrimination experienced by
many Koreans, and other immigrants, who
have been living for generations in Japan.
The NGO, through education and media,
helps non-Japanese embrace and celebrate
their own culture, as well as let the Japanese
people understand and appreciate others.
They try to influence policy in order to pass
better migrant laws in the country.
The immersion in the island province of
Okinawa was a culmination of our learning.
Peaceby Yasmin
Mapua-Tang
Though Okinawa has a long history of
conflict and violent struggle, including the
battles during the World War 2 and current
occupation of a US Military base on the
island, Okinawan people use peaceful means
to overcome and improve their situation.
In the town of Koza, we experienced
Okinawan music that reflects a multicultural
perspective.Through champuru (mixing),
they appreciate the best from styles they
are exposed to, like traditional Japanese
music fusing with jazz brought in by the
Americans, resulting in a unique sound
appreciated in all of Japan. Expression of
Peaceful discussions at the museum lobby. (Photo by Jerry Jose)
Yasmin Tang presenting her country report. (Photo by Jerry Jose)
ideas, thoughts and feelings through music
is a powerful tool in communicating peace.
The Director of the Machizukuri Koza Machi
Shachu NGO mentioned that they come up
with events like the Okinawa music festival
to bring different countries together. He says,
“We should cherish and nurture each other’s
culture, enjoy one another’s music and food.
Once we become good friends with different
countries, we can eliminate war.”
In the north, a small community in
Yanbaru has run an eco-tourism business
called the Yanbaru Nature School, showing
how peace can be sustainable. The school
teaches environmental awareness and
preservation by taking visitors out to canoe
in the river, trek along the mangrove forests,
participate and witness local farming and
others. “Since local resources are used, all the
people are involved” says Mr. Shimabukuro,
the young vice president who plays an
active role in this endeavour. He says that
the Nature School has revitalized the entire
local community -- even the young people
who left have come back, to work together
and take care of the environment.
The Battle of Okinawa is said to be the
bloodiest battle during the Pacific War. Over
200,000 people of all nationalities died in the
battle, including around 100,000 Okinawan
civilians. Located in the southern part of
the island, the Okinawan Prefectural Peace
Memorial Museum was erected to mourn
for lives lost but also send a strong message
to the next generation about the horrors of
war and the need for lasting peace. The
vast complex overlooks the sea and has
The energetic bunch of future leaders spicing up the program. (Photo by Dara Lim)
Danial of Malaysia, Mika Mukai of the Japan Foundation
and Danial of Brunei try out mantra writing at the
Chion-in Temple in Kyoto. (Photo by Yasmin Tang)
beautiful monuments and gardens, rows and
rows of tablets etched with names of those
who perished in the war. A large part of the
complex is the museum, which shows the
harsh realities of the events of the war, and
a positive look into the future. Targeted for
children, the “Outlook on the Future” focuses
on the exposure and appreciation to other
cultures and ways of living.
After all bus, train and plane rides,
encounters with groups, activities and meals
together, our group had gotten quite close.
We were happy to spend the night at a camp
where we sat around a fire, barbecued food,
sang songs and shared stories that reflected
each other’s culture. A community elder
shared a beautiful Okinawan saying, “Ichariba
chode,” he said, “It means that once we meet,
we are brothers and sisters”. This could be
the secret ingredient to peacebuilding, but
at that moment, it just expressed what we all
felt about another.
To close the program, share our
knowledge and bring together how we can
be builders of peace, the Japan Foundation
arranged for the nineteen of us to conduct
a workshop for the Japanese public in Tokyo.
We delivered brief lectures, exercises and
interactive activities that expressed the
need to uncover hidden truths and injustices
and use arts, media and education to build
peace. As we stood side-by-side, different
races, skin color, beliefs and ideas, we hope
to have projected the image of a global
community.
I shed off my coat to welcome the warm
air of the Philippines. However, even without
the winter clothing, I feel heavier… from
insights and learning gained and from the
heavy heart I carry leaving Japan and my new
“family” behind. Also, a few pounds heavier
from eating all the delicious food! We did
promise to bring in our unique spices, which
blended well, coming up with an interesting
and delectable dish -- definitely something
to be shared back home.
Yasmin Mapua-Tang is the Executive Director of the Probe Media Foundation. A non-profit organization
committed to improving the quality of media in the Philippines and Asia Pacific through training of
professional and aspiring media practitioners. Their programs and activities focus on building the capacity
of journalists and students on media for positive social change.
13

14
FEATURE
Journeying Towards
Sustainability
by Lisa Tapang
JENESYS 2010, Education
for Sustainable
Development (ESD) group
The first images I recall were that
of cherry blossom trees, their dark
trunks pregnant with pale pink petals
lining the avenues of Tokyo. Delighted
to have seen the tail-end of the season, I
considered this exquisite sight an auspicious
welcome to our sojourn as participants of
the JENESYS 2010 thematic group on
Education for Sustainable Development
(ESD), from April 11 to 23.
This journey, which gathered 23 other
young environmental advocates from 14
countries and a team of facilitators led by
Prof. Yoshiyuki Nagata and Hisae Shiwa, was
a intense, two-week run through various
sites and activities related to ESD in the
Tokyo-Minamata-Ohkawa-Susubaru-Ojika-
Nozaki-Nagasaki-Kyoto regions. In the
end, I think that our group’s cohesiveness
and very warm camaraderie attests to the
new bonds formed as a result of these
interactions and shared experiences.
It isn’t always easy to capture the
full range and depth of impressions,
experiential learnings and personal
reflections from this trip in the span of a
few words and photographs. What follows,
thus, are attempts at approximations: little
stories and notes scribbled along the
way, which have lingered after we have
long gone back to our own countries and
respective contexts.
Learning from a tragedy
Our first major stop was Minamata
City in the Kumamoto region. The site of the
world’s first pollution-triggered disease that
reared its ghastly head amidst the rapid
economic reconstruction of post-war Japan,
this quiet coastal city now seems to harbor
little of the toxic landscape which caused
so much sadness for the past decades. The
wide bay where effluents were discharged
by Chisso Corporation (producing methyl
mercury which accumulated in the food
chain and triggered a lingering disaster)
has been cleared of sludge and given way
to reclaimed land. On this, other facilities
and numerous memorials have been set
up: a museum devoted to preserving
testimonies of the victims, a field of votive
statuettes, a poignant cenotaph facing the
still Shiranui sea.
I first learned about the Minamata
disease through the internet: staring at
haunting black and white photographs
of a mother cradling her stricken son. But
walking through Minamata’s very streets
and memorials and talking to the people
who lived through the tragedy provided
a broader and deeper perspective of the
issue. There, for instance, was the video
documenting disease-stricken cats caught
in violent convulsions, and a blown-up
photograph of scratches on a wall—a
seemingly innocuous image until one
reads from the caption that these were
marks made by a victim in the throes of
death. There was the compelling testimony
of a Minamata disease survivor who
started sharing her story 15 years ago (I
refuse to call her a victim, in recognition
of her strength to overcome not just the
physical symptoms, but also the fear and
discrimination that being afflicted brought
about). I recall her memories as a child,
where she and her siblings used to playfully
collect fish and shells on the shore—very
near the drainage pipe where effluents
were released—blissfully unaware of the
poison accumulating in their system.
The stories are sad, but what impresses
me is the strong resolve to remember, and
to communicate those memories so that
others may learn from the lessons of
Minamata. “What I learned,” Oya-san said,
“is that we shouldn’t run but confront the
facts.”
Sense of Hope
There was also the dialogue with
Mr. Yoshii, former Mayor of Minamata
city, whose speech touched on various
concerns: the roots of the problem,
questions on trajectories and contradictions
of development policies, the complex web
of socio-economic and political relations
surrounding environmental issues, the
moral imperative of scientific research
and mass media. The session with Yukiko
Takashima of the NGO Soshisa attested to
the complicated web between victims, the
corporation, central government and local
governments yet also proved that citizens
are striving to resolve and address the issue
even now.
Then there was the staff of Gaia
Minamata, a small NGO producing organic
orange marmalade, avoiding agricultural
chemical inputs hazardous to health.
Many disease survivors who formerly
worked as fisher folk could not continue
their work after the tragedy and turned
to other means of livelihood, such as
growing amanatsu oranges. They continue
to face challenges related to production,
marketing of their products, and the
declining rural population.
At the end of this visit, one of my
strongest impressions left of Minamata
was the strong sense of hope arising from
all these years of sadness. This site which
for three decades was a city of pollution,
has gone beyond the “dissemination of
Minamata’s suffering” and gradually worked
to rebuild it as a city for environmental
education. This process, Yoshii-san
explained, is one that entails a lot of
change: cultural values, attitudes, local and
national policies, community involvement
and political will. With hope, this unfolding
story of Minamata leaves a taste like Gaia’s
orange marmalade: bitter, but with a rising
hint of sweetness.
One is everything
From the coastal plains of Minamata,
we proceeded to the remote mountainous
village of Kagumeishi in the nearby
Okawa district, whose springs supply
Minamata’s freshwater needs. There, we
visited a unique institution called the
Village Lifestyle Museum/Museum of
Rural Community. Operating with almost
no subsidies from the government, this
self-sustaining community project aimed
to revitalize the people and culture, and to
build appreciation of their available natural
and cultural resources.
Over fresh, homegrown food, Mr.
Tetsuro Yoshimoto explained the concept
of jimotogaku (creation of a living culture),
which guided the resource mapping and
community studies which were a major
feature of the musuem. This process aimed
to gather information needed for a holistic
understanding of community contexts and
identify appropriate changes tht can be
pursued for environmental rehabilitation.
During the field interviews, Yoshimotosan
advised participants to just ask simple
questions from the community members:
What is the best food you have ever
eaten What is the happiest moment in

15
JENESYS ESD participants presenting the outputs of an
exercise in jimotogaku community resource mapping,
Okawa village, Minamata.
Mr. Yoshimoto’s philosophy of jimotogaku has guided the
community mapping activities in the Okawa Village Lifestyle
Museum. (Photo by Lisa Tapang)
your whole life What is the most valuable
thing for you What’s the place you like
in this area We later learned that these
questions served not only as a subtle form
of social investigation, but also a means to
create values within the people to which
these questions are posed. This was a
form of taking time to develop people
who have a sense of responsibility and
ownership. I think this is a very important
process especially in the context of working
with communities: learning to infer their
essential contexts in a process and manner
emanating from the people’s own voices.
“One is everything,” was a memorable
quote from Yoshimoto-san, “if you
investigate one house, you can learn
about a whole village.” If you investigate
one village, you can learn about the larger
contexts beyond.
Connected realities, same roots
From Minamata and Okawa, which
are part of the mainland, we proceeded to
Sasebo to the north. From there, we took
a boat ride to Ojika town. Composed of 17
islands, only seven of which are inhabited,
small and remote Ojika faces the problem
of a rapidly declining population since
the 1950s. Currently, it is looking towards
promoting ecotourism and strengthening
of is agriculture and fishery industries as
one way to encourage livelihood, selfreliance,
and more young residents.
This was starkly seen in the case of
Nozaki island, where we spent an evening.
Home to “hidden Christians” and small
Author pointing to various debris washed up on
Shirahama Beach, Ojika islands. (Photo by Reza
Favhevi)
communities in the feudal and pre-war
years, the pristine Nozaki island was
eventually left by its residents in the 1960s,
as part of the shifting of populations from
rural to urban areas. Housing a dam which
supplies freshwater to other islands and a
pier, the only other signs of human life in
Nozaki are the rubble of deserted villages,
a school converted into a tourism facility,
and a small yet beautiful Christian Church
built in 1908.
If we are to believe that everything is
interconnected, that events and realities
happen in consonance and resonance with
each other, then I think that the succession
of visits from Minamata to Nozaki were
significant in the sense that they point
to the different effects of one trajectory
of development. I recalled that the 1960s
was also the time when the Minamata
disease must have been full blown, in
the face of industrialization and a fastgrowing
economy; here in another part of
Japan, at around that same period, people
were leaving the rural areas and islands
for the cities. Nozaki’s sparkling beaches
and breathtaking scenery, in the face of
declining forest cover and a growing deer
population, thus presented a different facet
to the same contradiction. These realities
give us much food for thought, especially
if we are to factor in the respective contexts
of other countries.
This sense of interconnectedness
again surfaced while visiting the Shirahama
Beach and different waste disposal facilities
in Minamata, Susubaru, and Ojika. I found
both the domestic and industrial
recycling and segregation facilities and
systems very impressive compared to
most countries—from the composting
practices of our homestay family to
the community-based segregation
of wastes into 24 different types in
Susubaru to the technological capacity
of the incinerator and waste impactors
in Minamata.
In contrast to such precision and
order, the sight of debris and trash
along Shirahama Beach, a secluded and
serene spot within Ojika, was a reminder
of larger global realities and the need
for connected solutions. Ojika Island
Tourism Society representative Junji
Kametsu pointed out that the waste
came from different parts of Japan as
well as other countries and regions, all
being swept up in the Kuro Sio (Japan
current) coming from the South China
Sea and passing through two different
streams in Japan and ultimately ending
up in the North Pacific Ocean. The effects
of these debris and trash on marine and
coastal biodiversity and our food chain,
of course, are sobering and should be a
wake-up call.
Lessons Learned
The ESD program was quite an
intense program for me: not just in
terms of itinerary, but also in terms of
the lessons that it left. It stressed the
challenge to define what sustainability
means for us, concretely, in our contexts,
and to reflect on how these conception
define what type of development our
respective societies strive for. I think
that Prof. Nagata’s positing of ESD as a
holistic paradigm shift, rather than an
additionality to the curriculum, is also
a critical aspect of the program. More
than a series of topics, ESD is also about
values—values which influence the ways
we investigate, learn, and teach.
Lastly, I think the most valuable
messages were that of hope, solidarity,
and moving forward in terms of building
sustainable societies . Like the pretty
cherry blossoms of Tokyo, our own
respective natural, cultural, and social
resources and patrimony may be here one
day, but gone the next. It is imperative
that we do not take these for granted,
and seek ways to conserve, develop, and
defend these.
I consider the ESD program a journey
that doesn’t end with the formal closing
of the itinerary–it’s a sojourn that will
continue, this time, in ever widening
circles.
Lisa I. Tapang works as a program coordinator for the NGO Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines.

16
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Japan Foundation Grant Programs
Fiscal Year April 2010- March 2011
CATEGORY: ARTS and
CULTURAL EXCHANGE
Invitation Program
for Cultural Leaders
Dr. Raul M. Sunico
Cultural Center of the Philippines
CATEGORY: JAPANESE-
LANGUAGE EDUCATION
OVERSEAS
Short-Term Training Program
forTeachers of the Japanese
Language
Ms. Violetta Niaga
(July 14-September 4, 2010
– summer course ) Nihongo Center
Foundation Inc., Manila
Ms. Maria Eleanor Tanteo
(January 26-March 18, 2011
– winter course)
De La Salle University – College
of Saint Benilde, Manila
Ms. Mercidita S. Villamayor
(winter course)
Bukidnon State University, Bukidnon
Long-Term Training
Program for Teachers
of the Japanese Language
(September 15, 2010 – March 11, 2011)
Ms. Roelia V. Alvarez
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
Ms. Lemila M. Cabudoy
Abendan Nippongo Center,
Mandaue City
Japanese Language Program for
Overseas (Outstanding Student)
(September 1-15, 2010)
Ms. Manna S. Dominguez
Nihongo Center Foundation, Inc.,
Manila
Japanese Language Program
for High School Students
(June 30 – July 14, 2010)
Mr. Jess Anthony P. Alcid
Philippine Nikkei Jin Kai –
International School, Davao City
Japanese Language Program for
Specialists (Specialists in Cultural
and Academic Fields)
(June 23-August 18, 2010)
Ms. Kristine Grace B. Reyes
Asian Studies, University of the
Philippines Asian Center, Quezon City
CATEGORY: JAPANESE STUDIES
OVERSEAS AND INTELLECTUAL
EXCHANGE
Support Program for
Organizations in Japanese Studies
Ateneo de Manila University
(Japanese Studies Program)
De La Salle University
(Japanese Studies Program)
The Japan Foundation
Fellowship Program
Prof. Ronald Everette David Holmes
Dept. of Political Science
De La Salle University, Manila
September 16, 2010 – March 15, 2011
Grant Program for Intellectual
Exchange Conference
Psychosocial Support and
Children’s Rights Resource Center
Islam, Childhoods, and Building
Cultures of Peace in Southeast Asia
- August 18 to 19, 2010
Caucus of Development
NGO Networks (CODE-NGO)
X3-Expertise and
Experiences Exchange
- August 21 to 23, 2010
Sikhay Kilos Development Association
2nd Asia-Pacific Regional Conference
on Community Development
“Enriching CD Education
amidst the Global Economic
and Environmental Crisis
- October 21 to 23, 2010
Probe Media Foundation, Inc.
Kabataan (Youth) X-Press - Peace
Production and exhibition of
multicultural films for peace in
Mindanao made by youth of
Mindanao - July 26 to August 8, 2010
(for trainings) and October 28 to 29,
2010 (for Media Summit)
Asia Leadership Fellow Program
Ms. Amina Rasul
Philippine Council for Islam and
Democracy
The Japan-East Asia Network
of Exchange for Students and
Youths Programme (JENESYS) was
launched by the Government of
Japan as a result of the Second
East Asia Summit (EAS) in January
2007. It is a 35-billion-yen youth
exchange program, inviting about
6,000 young people to Japan
mainly from the EAS member
states (ASEAN, Australia, China,
India, New Zealand, the Republic
of Korea) every year for five years
with a view to establishing a basis
of Asia’s stalwart solidarity by
expanding youth exchange.
Japanese Language
Education
Young Japanese-Language
Teachers Dispatch Program
(July 2009 – March 2010)

17
Ms. Megumi Katayama
– F. Torres High School and
Valenzuela City Science High School
Ms. Sayoko Minami
– Makati Science High School
and City of Mandaluyong Science
High School
Ms. Sayaka Hanami
– Pasig City Science High School
and Muntinlupa Science High School
Ms. Kayo Fukunaga
- Trade -Tech International Science
Institute, Inc., Mandaue City
Ms. Ayano Nakazawa
- Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku,
Davao City
Special Invitation Program
for Japanese Language-Teachers
(May 27– July 21, 2010)
Ms. Maria Isabel Madrideo
Japanese Language
Research Center, Manila
Ms. Sharwin Trinidad
Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku,
Davao City
Ms. Doreen Cajilig
Cebu Institute of Technology,
Cebu City
Training Program
for Japanese-Language
Learners (Spring Course,
May 12 - June 23, 2010)
Ms. Mary Joy V. Yap
Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku,
Davao City
Ms. Josabel C. Bersabe
Mindanao Kokusai Daigaku,
Davao City
Ms. Jennelyn G. Arroyo
The University of Manila, Manila
Ms. Jemima G. Galeon
University of the Philippines,
Diliman, Quezon City
Ms. Jessica P. Isidro
University of the Philippines,
Diliman, Quezon City
Special Invitation Programme
for Graduate Students
(July 21 – September 3, 2010)
Ms. Carla Luna Japanese Studies
Program, De La Salle University,
Manila
Ms. Sahara Brahim Asian Studies,
University of the Philippines Asian
Center, Quezon City
East Asia Future Leader
Programme (Youth
Exchange)
Re-Acknowledging Cultural
Diversity: The Roles and
Possibilities of the Asia
and Oceania Region
(April 1 - 13, 2010)
Mr. Leoncio Banaag
Mangyan Mission, Oriental Mindoro
Education for Sustainable
Development and Environmental
Education: Preservation of
the Natural Environment and
Promotion of Sustainable
Development in Communities
(April 11 - 23, 2010)
Mr. Oliver R. T. Paderanga
Siliman University, Dumaguete
Ms. Lisa Ito Tapang
Center for Environmental Concerns
– Philippines, Quezon City
Disaster Prevention and People:
Working Towards the Creation
of a Strong Society
(June 21 - July 2, 2010)
Ms. Catherine C. Abon
National Institute of Geological
Sciences, UP Diliman, Quezon City
Community Design
through Culture: Creative
Practices for the Passing
Down of Cultural Properties
(July 8 - July 20, 2010)
Arch. Michael F. Manalo
Escuela Taller de Intramuros
Arch. Ramil B. Tibayan
Design Coordinates, Incorporated
Program for Creators
Ms. Elena O. Laniog
(UP Dance Company)
July 12 to September 5, 2010
NPO Dance Box
Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
Mr. Jaime Pacena II
(Asia Pacific College)
June 29 to September 18, 2010
Aomori Contemporary Art Centre,
Aomori Prefecture
Local Grants
3rd Bagasbas Beach International
Eco Arts Festival 2010
May 30 to June 6, 2010
Daet, Camarines Norte
Virgin Labfest
June 22 to July 4, 2010
Tanghalang Huseng Batute
(Studio Theater)
Cultural Center of the Philippines
(3:00 pm and 8:00 pm)
53rd Annual Philippine PEN
Literature Conference
December 4-5, 2010, Cebu City
- Participation of Japanese writer
Ms. Nori Nakagami in the panel on
“Writing and Writers in Asia” within
the conference theme : “Solidarity in
Literature without Borders”
(Philippine Center of PEN,
c/o Solidaridad Bookshop;
philippinepen@yahoo.com)

18
People • Events • Places
2010 Nihongo Fiesta
February 27 • SM Mall of Asia
Japanese
all-female
rock band
Shonen
Knife with
Philippine’s
all-male dunk
(dance and
punk) group
Pedicab at
the 2010
Nihongo
Fiesta.
Naoko san and Ritsuko san of Shonen Knife giving
an all-out performance.
Winners and organizers of the 37th Nihongo Speech Contest last February 27, 2010.
The Japanese and Filipino Street
Fashion Exhibit & Contest was held
last February 22-28 and February 27.
Photo shows judges Mr. Steven Tan
and Ms. Millie Dizon, with first prize
winner Ms. Benjas Mae Morato.
Participants of the 2nd Nihongo Quiz Bee for High School Students held on February
27, battling it out with their knowledge of the Japanese language and culture.
Hiroshi Shinomiya, director of the
documentary “Basura,” during the
open forum at the Video Act!
Japanese Film Documentary
Now!! held on Mar. 6 & 7 in
Shangri-La Plaza and Mar. 17-18
at the UP Film Institute.
The exhibit featured a blend
of current and traditional
lifestyles of Tokyo and Manila’s
contemporary generation.

People • Events • Places
19
The Course on Japan
for High School
Classroom Instruction
was held from April 12-
May 21 at the Nihongo
Center Foundation,
Makati campus. This
course aimed to
develop the capacity
of high school teacher
participants in teaching
the Japanese Language
(Nihongo) as well as
Japanese culture.
“Appropriating Japan - Evolving Southeast Asian Views of and Approaches to
Japanese Studies” was held last January 29, 2010 at the Ateneo de Manila University.
The 3rd Cordillera Youth Eco-
Summit (CGN) held last January
22-26 in Lepanto, Mankayan,
Benguet, and Bangued, Abra.
International lecturers, local resource persons, guests and women representatives
from all over the country convened on January 24-27 for the Regional
Conference of Women Peace Advocates (Aleemat) in Davao City led by
Former Senator Santanina T. Rasul, Chairperson of the Magbassa Kita Foundation
Inc. (MKFI) and Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy (PCID) Lead Convenor
M. Amina Rasul.

Kurosawa
Film Festival
September 14
Tuesday
CCP Little Theater
September 15-19
Wednesday to Sunday
CCP Dream Theater
Copyright Toho Co., Ltd.)
September 19-30
UP Film Institute
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