ASIA / PACIFIC
December 16, 2019
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Shinto festival carries on
centuries-old tradition in Japan
Continued from page 4
GIRLS OPPORTUNITY ALLIANCE. Former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and female students at
Can Giuoc high school hold their arms in heart shapes as they say goodbye in Long An province, Vietnam.
Mrs. Obama visited Vietnam to promote education for adolescent girls. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)
Michelle Obama promotes girls
education in Vietnam school
The visitors also joined the students in a
life-skills training session where the girls
practiced perseverance, critical thinking,
and negotiating and leadership skills that
could ensure the girls are able to advocate
for themselves in and out of their
classrooms.
Michelle Obama started to work on
promoting girls education while her
husband was president. She continues the
charitable work through the Obama
Foundation, with Girls Opportunity
Alliance as one of its initiatives.
She announced that she would donate
$500,000 from the sale of her book,
Becoming, to the initiative’s fund.
After her visit to Vietnam, Obama and
her husband, former President Barack
Obama, spoke at a meeting for their
foundation in Malaysia that brought
together about 200 young leaders across
the Asia Pacific region. The couple also
planned to visit Singapore.
By Hau Dinh
The Associated Press
ONG AN, Vietnam — Former U.S.
first lady Michelle Obama spoke to
students at a school in southern
Vietnam while promoting education for
girls to help reach their full potential.
Obama, accompanied by actresses Julia
Roberts and Lana Condor and “Today
Show” co-host Jenna Bush Hager, met
with girls at a high school in Long An
province by the Mekong delta, where they
listened to the students talk about their
schoolwork and challenges.
“We are gonna shine a light on you and
the work that’s going on here ... so that
there are people around the world, who
understand that when you educate a girl,
you’ll give them power and a voice and an
opportunity to improve their lives and the
lives of their families and the lives of their
communities,” Obama said.
L
Huawei moving U.S. research center to Canada
BEIJING (AP) — The
founder of Huawei says the
Chinese tech giant is
moving its U.S. research
center to Canada due to
American restrictions on
its activities.
In an interview with
Toronto’s Globe and Mail
newspaper, Ren Zhengfei
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Difficulty
HARD
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Small Business Ombudsman: What we do
#17564
# 45
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
Puzzle #83832 (Medium)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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ANNUAL RITUALS. Half-naked shrine parishio-
ners using wooden tubs throw cold water on them-
selves during an annual cold-endurance festival at
the Kanda Myojin Shinto shrine in Tokyo. Pouring
cold water on their bodies is believed to purify their
souls. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
prominence.
That includes official visits to Tokyo’s
Yasukuni Shrine, where Japan’s war
dead, including war criminals, are
memorialized. Politicians have avoided
visiting Yasukuni because China and
South Korea say that doing so glorifies
Japan’s wartime leaders and past.
Abe drew attention to Shinto by hosting
the 2016 Group of Seven summit in
Ise-Shima and took fellow leaders to visit
the Ise Grand Shrine, dedicated to the sun
goddess. He also attended a once-every-20-
years event at Ise in 2013, only the second
prime minister to do so.
When you combine those political
undercurrents with the cultural traditions
maintained by millions who visit shrines
every year — most of whom likely embrace
freedom of religion — Shinto still “has a
fairly large role in Japanese society,”
Shimazono said.
Such political or even religious
convictions, however, were far from the
minds of most visitors to the Chichibu
Night Festival. None of the two dozen
people interviewed wanted a return to
state Shinto, and few said the festival held
religious significance for them, although
some would say it held spiritual meaning.
“It’s so majestic!” exclaimed Tsuyoshi
Koyama, a 47-year-old onlooker as all six
huge floats with glowing lanterns
gathered in the park at the festival’s
climax and fireworks filled the sky. “Every
day we have these mundane lives, and to
see something this grand really stirs my
heart.”
Koyama said he doesn’t consider himself
devout and “prays only when I need help.”
But he does believe spirits live in the
natural world around us, and “feels some-
thing spiritual in the atmosphere here.”
“Westerners tend to embrace one
religion, but if you reduce it to one, that can
cause conflicts,” he said. “The good part
about Japan is that there are many gods,
and they share generously with us.”
Associated Press religion coverage receives
support from the Lilly Endowment through
the Religion News Foundation. The AP is
solely responsible for this content.
Department of Consumer & Business Services
4
level: Hard
said the restrictions would
prevent
Huawei
from
interacting with American
employees.
Huawei is one of the
biggest global makers of
smartphones and network
gear for phone companies.
The
U.S.
government
accuses the company of
being a security risk, which
Huawei
denies,
and
announced curbs in May on
access to American com-
ponents and technology.
Ren gave no details of
how many jobs might be
affected. Huawei operates
a research and develop-
ment center in Silicon
Valley in California. It
confirmed in June it was
cutting jobs following the
U.S. sanctions.
emperor is a descendant of the sun goddess
Amaterasu Omikami.
It also has a dark recent past. During
World War II, Shinto was elevated to the
state religion and the war effort was
fought in the name of the emperor, who
was considered divine. After the war, the
emperor was stripped of his divine stature,
and the U.S.-drafted constitution ensures
freedom of religion and the separation of
religion and state.
Imperial family
But Shinto’s ties to the imperial family,
and some religious rituals performed by
the emperor, have generated controversy.
Last month, newly enthroned Emperor
Naruhito spent the night in a makeshift
shrine built (and which will later be
demolished) with public funds in a
ceremony called Daijosai, or the Great
Thanksgiving. According to authorities, in
this most important succession rite, he
gave thanks for harvests, prayed for the
peace and safety of the nation, and hosted
the imperial family’s ancestral gods.
All told, the event will cost 2.7 billion yen
($25 million) in public money. A group of
200 people filed a lawsuit last year against
the government over the expenditure.
Crown Prince Akishino, Naruhito’s
younger brother, said last year that he was
against using state money for the ritual
and raised questions about whether this
was permissible under the separation of
religion and state.
Visitors to the Chichibu festival were
divided over the issue.
“It’s a waste of money,” 27-year-old
Naoko Osada said of the ritual.
“According to the constitution, using
public money for this is out of bounds,” said
Akihiko Suzuki, a 73-year-old retired man.
“But as Japanese, we entrust these sorts of
things to authorities.”
Others said they believed Naruhito was
fulfilling his duties as symbolic head of the
country and that spending public money
on such rites was acceptable so long as
Shinto isn’t imposed on people.
“He’s our symbol, and it’s important to
keep this tradition. So I don’t think it
violates the constitution,” said Nobuyuki
Negishi, 44. “It’s OK for them to use state
funds as long as they don’t use too much.”
Shinto’s two aspects
Sophia’s Shimazono said it’s helpful to
view Shinto today as having two parts:
state Shinto as a lingering political
philosophy and the Shinto of the masses
who go to shrines at New Year’s.
“State Shinto was rejected as a state
religion after the war, but some of that
sentiment remains today,” he said. “It has
a large influence in politics.”
Rightwing groups such as Nippon Kaigi,
which has ties to the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party and Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe, who is a special adviser to the
group, would like to revise Japan’s pacifist
constitution and see Shinto increase its
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