Latest news with #Harada
The Mainichi
11-05-2025
- Politics
- The Mainichi
Buried history of sexual torture under now-defunct law in Japan recalled a century on
OSAKA -- A century has passed since the promulgation in April 1925 of the Peace Preservation Law, which stripped away freedom of speech and thought in Japan. Before its abolition in 1945, over 100,000 people were apprehended under the law, and over 1,000 are believed to have died due to torture or illness. It was a dark period, during which many women were also oppressed and subjected to unimaginable sexual torture. Kan Harada, 74, a former Kyoto Prefectural Assembly member from Kyoto's Nakagyo Ward, recalls the day when his mother, Toshiko Yamada, shared her painful past with a writer visiting their home. "They stripped her naked and pressed a cigarette against her lower body," Harada said with a detached tone. "What terrible humiliation it was." Harada was in high school at the time and hearing his mother's account for the first time, he was shocked. He was unable to ask her the details of what happened before she passed away in 1998 at the age of 87. Yamada was born in 1911 in the western Japan city of Tottori. After graduating from a local girls' high school, she moved to Tokyo, where she worked for a doctor. Her experiences there changed her life. Discrimination and a labor movement The doctor Yamada worked for would shun poor patients, refusing even to issue death certificates necessary for burial to laborers without money. Witnessing such discrimination based on people's financial status, even after death, Yamada quit her job and began working for the Musansha Shimbun, a newspaper affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party. She also worked in small factories, and became involved in movements to support laborers. The Peace Preservation Law broadly targeted communists and those involved in labor movements. In 1928, an amendment upgraded the maximum sentence under the law to death. Senji Yamamoto, a House of Representatives member from the Labor-Farmer Party who opposed this amendment was assassinated by a right-wing extremist. Many laborers attended his funeral, and police apprehended participants en masse. Yamada was among those taken in by police, and she was apprehended repeatedly after this on the grounds of violating the same law, and tortured. According to her autobiography "Nagai Tabiji" (A long journey), she was detained for over a month at a police station in Yokohama. Yamada refused to give her name or the names of her friends, and the Special Higher Police responded by striking her with bamboo swords and hitting her legs with an iron ball in a bag. She was stripped naked with her hands handcuffed behind her back, and a cigarette was pressed into her lower body. She was eventually sentenced to prison for five years. Focusing on women's and antinuclear movements After her release in 1937, Yamada married a man who had supported her through letters during her imprisonment, and the couple moved to Manchuria (now northeast China). After escaping attacks by Soviet soldiers and facing hardship, they returned to Japan, and settled in Gunma Prefecture after World War II. Yamada went on to dedicate herself to local women's movements and the antinuclear movement. "I think my mother was great for continuing to stand with vulnerable workers and never wavering in her beliefs, despite enduring terrible sexual violence and torture," says Harada. He followed in her footsteps, joining a textile company in Kyoto and eventually taking part in a labor dispute. After effectively being dismissed from the company, he engaged in activities with a local shopping district association. Following his tenure as a prefectural assembly member, he became the chairperson of the Kyoto prefectural headquarters of an alliance seeking state redress for victims of the Peace Preservation Law. He has continued to call for the government to apologize to victims of oppression and compensate them. In recent years, Harada has been concerned about the introduction of legal system changes that could potentially lead to thought control, like the Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets and the establishment of the crime of conspiracy (officially the preparation of acts of terrorism and other organized crimes). "Depending on how those in power think, there is a risk it could lead to the kind of oppression we saw in the past. If we remain silent, we might once again face a dangerous era," he said. 'Erotic terror' buried in history The kind of sexual torture Yamada endured was not an exception. "Prejudices against the Communist Party and labor unions, combined with misogyny, led to many women being humiliated," says 78-year-old Kimie Oishi of the Osaka Prefecture city of Sakai, who serves as vice chairperson of the central headquarters of the alliance seeking state compensation. "The sexual torture of women under the Peace Preservation Law was absolutely vile, and was described as 'Erotic Terror.' People could not even speak of it to their families, and it has long been buried in history," she said. According to the alliance, there are women who have conveyed accounts of the torture to succeeding generations. One victim, Chiyoko Ito, a social activist from Nagano Prefecture, was subjected severe torture and died at 24 from causes related to mental illness. Her life has been depicted in numerous biographies and films. Takako Nakamoto, a proletarian writer from Yamaguchi Prefecture, wrote about being stripped naked, having a broom thrust into her, and being choked. Another woman from the Tokyo island of Hajijojima left a testimony saying she was stripped naked and molested, and tortured until she lost hearing in her left ear. Oishi notes that many women refused to turn from communism even when they were tortured in prison. "They probably were able to endure the torture because they believed that militarism would eventually end and a democratic society would certainly come. I want people to learn more about the history of such women's suffering," she says.
Business Journals
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Journals
Keitaro Harada's vision Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
Keitaro Harada, the incoming music director of Dayton Performing Arts Alliance, shares his bold vision for bringing the arts to every corner of the city, including areas some might consider "rough". After a grand slam introduction in Dayton as conductor of the opera "Aida," Keitaro Harada has set the stage to take over as the next music and artistic director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, which is part of the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance (DPAA). In July, Maestro Harada takes his place as the fifth music director in the orchestra's 92-year history. With a five-year commitment to DPAA, Harada delved into what made him set his sights on Dayton and where he hopes to take the organization during his time. Harada, a Japanese native, was drawn to Dayton because of DPAA's unique placement as the only organization in the country that has opera, ballet and philharmonic working under one name. 'Over the course of my career, I've done all [three] forms,' Harada said. 'With conductors, you're lucky to do two, especially in this country.' Rather than conducting a symphony of about 60 people, Harada's performances can translate to controlling hundreds of people from the actors on stage to the musicians in the pit. 'The adrenaline of that, for me, is what is exciting,' Harada said. expand A look at Keitaro Harada in his element, conducting. Dayton Performing Arts Alliance Before the age of internet and streaming, Harada said the arts were a source of weekend activity that people desired to go to. But the convenience of engaging arts online has pushed live performance viewing to the backburner for many. 'People don't think about these things that we watch on Tiktok or Instagram is actually done by human beings, and you can experience it live, in person,' Harada said. 'My goal is to not wait for people to come to the DPAA performances at the Schuster Center, but for us to break that mold and go into the community, to all different parts of Dayton.' With over one million people in the radius, Harada said DPAA has to be 'really loud' about what they do – making DPAA and its art forms widespread as a hometown arts organization. 'I keep hearing, 'don't go to this part of Dayton because it's a little bit rough.' I don't care,' Harada said. 'Art is a universal language that people can understand. I want to be more out in the community. And then, if they want to come to the concert in downtown, great. If they don't want to, at least we made an effort to bring art to them.' In the 2025-2026 season and in the many years beyond, Harada's goal is placing a 'Dayton flair' on performances, to create something that 'wouldn't work anywhere else.' For example, performances that bring together multiple local organizations. Harada also is taking consideration of the businesses and restaurants in the area. By understanding the dates and times considered most opportune for theatergoers to engage downtown, DPAA looks to become a kind of benefactor for businesses and entities downtown. 'Partnerships are really the key,' Harada said. 'It helps the city too, because you engage more people to come out – and downtown certainly needs help with that. People aren't coming out. It's not like they're afraid of coming to downtown, we just have to make it attractive.' expand Keitaro Harada has already made his Dayton introduction and he said there's "so much more" to be done. Dayton Performing Arts Alliance Harada succeeds Neil Gittleman who was dedicated to Dayton and DPAA's Philharmonic for the last 30 years. Harada said his goal is not to replace to erase the work of his predecessor but build on the excitement and success. 'If it wasn't for Neil, this organization and orchestra wouldn't be where it is. I'm in a good place where I get to take on what he has built and then take it to a different chapter,' he said. Alongside his duties in Dayton, Harada will continue to perform for other arts organizations and venues across the world. He also acts as permanent conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. 'I'm representing Dayton whenever I go conduct any other orchestras,' Harada said. 'I think it's a win-win for everyone.' DPAA's financial shift and where Harada comes into play Patrick Nugent, DPAA president and CEO, said while Covid was hard on the organization, it also enabled financial and programmatic restructuring. 'Our audiences have been growing very steadily since Covid,' Nugent said. 'They are younger than ever. They are more diverse than ever.' expand Patrick Nugent, DPAA president and CEO DPAA Nugent said their $5 ticket program and library check out a ticket program have 'led the way' in bringing younger and more diverse audiences to the concert and performance hall. Growth is expected to continue surrounding interest in the new generation of artistic directors, all of whom started after Covid. 'It really is a new era artistically, and the audiences are already responding to that,' Nugent said. 'When Kei arrives, he brings a special magic that we think is going to be reflected in audiences growing even more.' Half ticket buyers are new each season, which Nugent said is a major indicator of future strength. A third of them, he said, will buy another ticket in the same season, compared to 10% of less as a national average in the classical performing arts. 'Younger audiences are getting engaged. The millennials are running the show now artistically, more or less, and I think that will also attract attention and attract new ticket buyers.' His other American Orchestra, the Savannah Philharmonic, acts as an example of what Harada brings to the table for DPAA's future growth in Dayton. At the start, the philharmonic wasn't known to the community and an audience not full. As of 2025, the Savannah Philharmonic is 80% subscription rate and every concert sold out. 'That kind of effect happens here and that comes from really being part of the community. I couldn't have achieved that if I wasn't fully invested in the community. They hate me for leaving, but you have to leave when they love you.' The 'reality' Kei said DPAA is faced with is making the organization known – a household name. When people purchase a ticket, he said the goal is for them to understand they are buying into a 'family of experiences'. For every dollar earned in ticket revenue, DPAA said it must raise nearly $3 from members to meet the expenses of keeping the performing arts alive. That translates to $6 million per year that DPAA members provide. 'You don't just do the music,' Harada said. 'You have to manage. You have to see beyond the artistic scope of what you doand understand finance. You have to keep the organization alive… It's business and presence. It encompasses everything.' Missed it? Dive into the DPAA's 2025-2026 season, set to run from September 2025 to June 2026. 'Kei is a fresh voice with immense international perspective and intense local interest,' Nugent said. 'That's a magical combination. Kei has said again and again that he wants us to work on performances that can only be done in Dayton, that only Dayton can do, that lift up Dayton's identity and its strengths, so that I think the community is eager and excited for that fresh voice.' Dayton Performing Arts Alliance (DPAA) represents a merger between Dayton Ballet, Dayton Opera and Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. DPAA performances reach an audience of more than 90,000 people annually, and their arts education programming serves over 50,000 schoolchildren in 150 schools in southwest Ohio.
Japan Times
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
Feast your eyes on 'The Complete Illustrated Guide to Japanese Cooking'
Sachiyo Harada was walking down Paris' Avenue de l'Opera when a young girl saw her, smiled and exclaimed, "Ah! You're the onigiri (rice ball) girl!' Harada was born in Hokkaido, but after 20 years of living and working in Tokyo, she was in need of a break. Her business of designing kimonos as a freelancer and making bags under her own brand was a success, but the work and travel of attending international fashion shows, including multiple visits to Paris Fashion Week, had led to burnout. In need of a reset, at the age of 38 Harada moved to Paris in 2003 for a sabbatical and what she calls her 'second chance at life' in the City of Light. Taking a moment to collect herself on the Avenue de l'Opera, Harada realized that the year before she had made classic onigiri and miso soup for staff at a fashion show in the city, and the young girl was the daughter of one of the attendees. 'I was surprised that she remembered,' says Harada, 59, who is now based in Paris. For such a simple dish to have such staying power with a stranger, Harada took it as the sign she had been looking for and enrolled in a culinary training program at Ferrandi Paris. Sachiyo Harada, who moved to Paris in 2003, has more than 20 years experience as a food consultant and writer. | HARDIE GRANT PUBLISHING Now, after more than 20 years as a food consultant and writer and five books later, her latest release, ' The Complete Illustrated Guide to Japanese Cooking: Techniques, Ingredients & Recipes, ' distills her culinary know-how in her most easily digestible format yet that's perfect for readers making their first foray into Japanese food as well as more practiced practitioners looking to refine their skills. 'Should I make it a simple Japanese cuisine book for home cooks, or should I go deeper and make it more like a Japanese cuisine dictionary?' Harada recalls of the writing process. 'I wanted to incorporate a breadth of knowledge, which includes my time working at sushi and kaiseki (Japanese haute cuisine) restaurants. I've included recipes at various levels, from simple (ones) to those used by professional chefs.' 'The Complete Illustrated Guide to Japanese Cooking' holds the reader's hands with simply written recipes — 100 of them — made all-the-more achievable with step-by-step pictures. In addition to procedural photographs, plating diagrams and pictographic visualizations offer a true insight into everything that goes into a dish — they will also have you plating like a professional. For example, the steps required to break down a whole octopus or arrange five elements into a scallop shell for eye-catching sashimi are clearly pictured. Simple illustrations, such as this one showing the placement of ingredients in a tea pot for 'tai chazuke' (sea bream and rice with hot tea poured atop), make Harada's cookbook easy to understand. | HARDIE GRANT PUBLISHING For visual learners, 'The Complete Illustrated Guide to Japanese Cooking' is invaluable and the complete antithesis of overly wordy prose that many cookbook authors are prone to. The precise nature of the book transported me back to my own cooking days leafing through binders of standardized recipe cards to stay up to speed with not only my own workstation but what prep I might be called upon to cover for other kitchen departments. 'Taking photos of each step in the cooking process is called 'pas a pas' (step by step) in French,' Harada says. '(They) help to explain things that are unclear with just text. Especially in Japanese cuisine, there are techniques and ingredients that people from other countries don't know, so having photos helps you learn.' Many of the dishes in the book are attributed to her mother, whom she describes as a 'superlative cook.' 'Ever since I began working with food, it has been my dream to share (my mother's) recipes with the world,' she says. The comforting 'tai chazuke' (sea bream and rice with hot tea poured atop) is the author's favorite dish in the book. | HARDIE GRANT PUBLISHING Her favorite dish in the book is tai chazuke (sea bream and rice with hot tea poured atop), which embodies what she loves about food — quality ingredients, simply prepared and arranged with 'an effortless chic that pleases the eyes and stomach.' Harada is also the author of 'Cuisine on Screen: 60 Famous Japanese Recipes from 30 Cult Movies,' the English edition of which was released just last year. The book covers beloved cinematic classics from the ramen of Juzo Itami's 'Tampopo' to nabeyaki udon (noodles simmered in a clay pot) from Studio Ghibli's 'Whisper of the Heart.' 'The (kanji) character for shoku (food) combines (radicals) that mean 'people' and 'making one better,'' she says. 'Delicious food enriches our lives.'
WIRED
27-03-2025
- Business
- WIRED
SignalGate Is Driving the Most US Downloads of Signal Ever
Mar 27, 2025 2:31 PM Scandal surrounding the Trump administration's Signal group chat has led to a landmark week for the encrypted messaging app's adoption—its 'largest US growth moment by a massive margin.' Photo-Illustration:SignalGate, as it's come to be called, may be the biggest scandal to hit the Trump administration in its first months in power. But it's been great for Signal. Since the news broke on Monday that senior Trump administration cabinet members accidentally included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in a group chat on the Signal encrypted messaging platform where the officials were making secret plans to bomb Yemen, the ensuing news cycle and the constant mentions of Signal have led to the encrypted messaging platform doubling its usual rate of new downloads, the non-profit organization that runs Signal tells WIRED. Given that 2025 so far has already been a 'banner year' for Signal's growth, according to Signal's leadership, that makes this week the single biggest bump in US adoption of the app in Signal's nearly 11 years of existence. 'In Signal's history, this is the largest US-growth moment by a massive margin,' says Jun Harada, Signal's head of growth and partnerships. 'It's mind-blowing, even on our side.' Harada declined to give absolute numbers for Signal's user growth beyond saying that its total downloads are in the 'hundreds of millions,' which has been the case for several years. But he said that the week's rate of adoption has been twice that of a typical week for 2025, which in turn was twice that of a typical week the same time last year. 'It happened immediately' after the Atlantic broke the story of Signal's use in the Yemeni bombing, Harada says. 'And it's been sustained. We've been maintaining that rate every day.' In Signal's history, the only comparable spike in adoption occurred when WhatsApp changed its privacy policy in 2021, Harada says, leading to millions of users abandoning that communications app. But that incident mostly brought non-Americans to Signal, unlike the current, US-focused SignalGate bump. Numbers from the market intelligence firm Sensor Tower largely align with Signal's own analysis of that growth: The company says that Signal downloads in the US increased 105 percent compared to the prior week—and 150 percent compared to an average week in 2024. Outside of the US, Sensor Tower saw only a 21 percent increase in Signal downloads compared to the prior week. The Atlantic's revelation on Monday that secretary of defense Pete Hegseth, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, national security adviser Michael Waltz, vice president JD Vance, and other Trump administration officials used a Signal group chat to plan an airstrike against Houthi rebels in Yemen—and that Waltz accidentally added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to that group in a shocking breach of confidentiality—has raised serious questions about the security practices of the Trump administration that are still resonating days later. The scandal has called into question whether the executive branch officials were planning the airstrike using vulnerable non-approved or even personal devices rather than the secure machines intended for classified conversations. Screenshots of the group chat published by The Atlantic on Wednesday indicate the officials were using Signal's disappearing messages feature to delete their communications, potentially in violation of US record retention laws. The incident has raised sometimes-misguided questions, too, about whether Signal itself is to blame for the breach—including from President Trump, who suggested in comments on Wednesday that Signal might be 'defective"—despite many cybersecurity and encryption experts' recommendation of Signal as the best end-to-end encrypted messaging tool freely available to the public. 'You use Signal, we use Signal, everyone uses Signal,' Trump told reporters, 'but it could be a defective platform.' Signal's Harada declined to respond to Trump's 'defective' comment, and pointed to Signal's previous statements that it has yet to see any evidence of any vulnerability in the app, much less one that has anything to do with Jeffrey Goldberg being accidentally added to a White House group chat. But Harada noted that the overall attention to Signal—even the president himself saying that 'everyone uses Signal' in the Oval Office—is an example of the kind of visibility it's never had before. 'All awareness for Signal is a net positive. The interest in Signal continues to be at an all-time high,' Harada says. 'I don't think my phone has ever buzzed this much, from people from every walk of life. People are learning about Signal who maybe have never even heard about or considered encrypted messaging before.' Harada also pointed to a report that Google searches for Signal were up more than 1,000 percent. Harada says that Signal was already seeing a significant uptick in adoption in the first few months of 2025. He attributes that growth partly to increasing general interest in privacy among consumers and partly to the breach of nine US telecoms by China's Salt Typhoon hacker group, which led to the hackers accessing some targets' real-time calls and texts. Federal officials at the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency responded to those breaches by publicly recommending that Americans use encrypted messaging and calling applications. But all of that has been dwarfed by the attention and interest Signal has received in the last week. As messy as SignalGate may be, Harada says, it's made Signal a household name like never before. 'To have this kind of mainstream moment is massive,' he says. 'I believe it's a sea change for private encrypted messaging for the US and the world.'
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Subaru's Gelandale Taxi Event Returns to Japan with Vintage Wagons
Subaru Japan brought back its Gelande Taxi event, using and as an alternative to the ski lift. The event looks like it was plenty of fun, with racers and rally drivers handing out rides up the mountain. Officiated by an Olympic gold medallist over two weekends, the event also featured demo drives with rally-spec WRX STIs. Last month, Subaru of Japan offered skiers a more fun way to get to the top of the hill than the usual chair lift. Over four days at the Naeba resort, situated a couple of hours by car or transit northeast of Tokyo, snowsports enthusiasts could hop in a Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid and have a pro driver slew it through the snow on the way up. Subaru calls this event the Gelande Taxi, and it's the first time it has been held since before the pandemic in 2019. Even better—if you're more Subaru fan than ski bum—was the parade of vintage Subaru wagons that have been the official ride of the Japanese Ski Federation for almost a half-century. The parade was led by a bright red Subaru Leone wagon, which was joined by three Legacy wagons wearing Ski Federation liveries. Riding along in the red Leone was Japanese Olympic gold medallist Masahiko Harada. A ski-jumping legend in Japan, Harada was part of a team that lost out on gold at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, but then tied the then-record jump in 1998 at Nagano, winning Japan the gold on home soil. His jubilation at the comeback earned him the nickname 'Happy Harada.' Harada and two other ski-jumping champions presided over the event. Rallying ace Toshi Arai, who won the world Group N rally series that was the production-car companion to the WRC in 2005 and 2007 in a Subaru WRX STI, was also present. Arai was backed up by another rally driver and two SuperGT racers to make sure the rides to the top of the hill had plenty of snow-drifting oversteer. The classic Subie wagons were for display only, but getting a lift from a rally champion in a Forester or WRX on Blizzaks sounds like just as much fun as hitting the moguls on the way down. After the sunset, Subaru its rally drivers loose to do demo runs up the hill in their race cars. It all looks like a blast and is perhaps something Subaru's U.S. operations could learn from. Subaru was the official sponsor of the U.S. Ski Team through much of the 1980s, and the white Leone wagon with red-and-blue livery is still pretty recognizable. Sticking decals on a couple of Foresters, Crosstreks, and maybe even a WRX or two and hitting the local slopes would make for a heck of a PR stunt and be plenty of fun. And you just know Travis Pastrana would be up to shred Aspen in his Family Huckster. You Might Also Like Car and Driver's 10 Best Cars through the Decades How to Buy or Lease a New Car Lightning Lap Legends: Chevrolet Camaro vs. Ford Mustang!
