The Mysteries of Mt. Gox Continues: Interim Independent Report Shows Attacks Were Mainly an Inside Job
Independent investigators researching Mt. Gox’s collapse, from left to right, Kim Nilsson, Jason Maurice, and Emil Oldenburg, from WizSec in Tokyo. (Photo: Jon Southurst).
Tokyo – by Kyoko Miura
A Secret Service agent and a DEA agent, who had been cooperating with the investigation leaked information to the Silk Road operators on Mark Karpeles, the founder of Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange. The agents may have also tried to shake down Mark Karpeles on two separate investigations.
The prosecution of the two federal agents who played key roles in the Silk Road investigation now raises new questions about the collapse of Mt. Gox, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February of 2014, and the activities of the two agents involved. When the cops are cooperating with the criminals, and acting as criminals, then informants are likely to become targets for retaliation.
Once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange based in Tokyo, Mt. Gox collapsed in February of 2014, with 500 million dollars missing. The official police investigation began on March 27th. A year later, the mystery has only deepened. The Tokyo Police Department Cyber Crimes unit leaked to the press that it was an inside job but who was that insider? Was there an accomplice?
Data leaked and available after the extraordinary collapse of Mt. Gox was analyzed by a group of independent investigators, who released their 8 month-old findings on February 19th due to non disclosure agreements signed with different parties. The report mainly announces that the Mt. Gox hack was mostly an inside job. The report detailed the activities of a robot that was buying hundreds of thousands of coins with fake money within Mt. Gox. Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo on February 28th of last year after 850,000 bitcoins worth about $500 million disappeared.
On the first anniversary of the mysterious hack, WizSec (Wiz Securities), the independent group lead by Kim Nilsson, 32, a Swedish software engineer and Jason Maurice, 29, a Hawaiian security researcher, both based in Tokyo, launched their first and interim report on February 19th, showing the clearest account in terms of what could have happened to Mt Gox. Days later, maybe in response to this report, the alleged hacker(s) again anonymously leaked data that should normally be in possession of the trustee, who is currently liquidating Mt. Gox, and of the official investigators. The hacker(s) sloppily leaked private information about Mt. Gox creditors. The leak was immediately taken down, possibly by the moderators of Reddit.com.
Wiz’ independent report is based on a limited amount of information. Part of the data analysed in their report was left behind by the hacker(s) who allegedly attacked Mt. Gox.
Among information totally new to the public, the Wiz report sheds light on the time slot of the activities of “Willy bot”, which seems to have been running all the time except between 2 and 5 AM, Japan time. Experts estimate Willy started running sometime in 2013.
Maurice explains that the act perpetrated by the anonymous person is clearly voluntary and illegal. The bitcoin trading data showed that the automated trading robot, or computer software (Willy bot), was used to manipulate the market and possibly steal coins as well. The computer software, because it had database access, was trading different accounts at Mt. Gox, using fake money, creating new accounts, and set the balance of those accounts to millions of dollars. Then it faked the money that didn’t really get deposited. “The bot would spend that fake money on the exchange buying up few bitcoins every few minutes, which would usually take a day or so to spend. Spending $2 million buying bitcoins off of the market is something that can be made only slowly over time.” Maurice explained.
On March 9th, 2014 an anonymous hacker, that called himself “Nanashi”, aka “Anonymous” in Japanese language, posted trading data on Mark Karpeles’ blog. The hacker compromised the Mt. Gox database and downloaded a lot of the transaction data, account balances, packaged it all up and leaked it on Karpeles’ blog, then posted it on Reddit, an internet forum with Karpeles’ Reddit account. This person had clearly hacked Mt. Gox and hacked Karpeles personally. The perpetrator is anonymous and there is allegedly no evidence that points to his nationality.
“There is certainly a lot of evidence which makes the trading bot look like it were being run from either inside Japan or the Mt. Gox network itself.” Maurice said. The time slot of the operation of that bot also suggests it was an inside job.
“I do not know a lot of people capable of sleeping only 3 hours per night during 3 consecutive days.” Mark Karpeles said, commenting on the Wiz report.
This new information suggests that there could be more than one person behind the bot working on shifts. “This opens a new path to the investigation but the problem is that we don’t have anything solid at this level.” Karpeles added.
The bot was discovered by bitcoin traders using Mt. Gox as early as in January 2014 and was then dubbed “Willy”by the trader who discovered it. It’s only after the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox that the community reported the bot to Mt. Gox. Nobody knows how the bot got into the system. The exact nature of the bot is still unknown.
“Multiple hacks, including one attack that happened over several years to manipulate the market”
The report shows that there might have been multiple hacks. One of the attacks might have taken over several years and manipulated the market. Another attack was used to simply steal the coins. “Until we get the full database we can’t really be sure. There could have been multiple hackers in multiple countries. It could have all been done inside Japan and we don’t know. But there is a lot of evidence pointing to inside Japan.” Maurice explained.
Surprisingly, on February 24th this reporter obtained a whole new document disclosed by a Mt. Gox insider. The document leaked information about security issues at Tibanne (the mother company of Mt. Gox). The report, which brings a tremendous feedback for investigators, showed that the systems at Mt. Gox were compromised precisely from 19:23 JST (Japan Standard Time) on February 28th, ending at 16:07 JST on March 2nd. Its analysis on the origin of the attack says that there is a high probability that the attack was in response to the press conference held by Mt. Gox Co., Ltd on February 28th, around 18:30, where it was announced that a police investigation would be requested to find out what happened on Mt. Gox regarding the discrepancy in held balances. According to the leaked document, the attack was stopped on the day it was detected Karpeles, on March 2nd, at 16:07.
Bot operating on Asian hours suggests the creator could have worked at Mt. Gox
Kim Nilsson, the author of the Wiz report says that while his team went deeper and profiled how the Willy bot was run and controlled, their research showed beyond a doubt that the bot was real, intentional and significant enough to affect the market, contributing to, though not necessarily the sole reason for the 2013 price boom and subsequent early 2014 crash. “We also uncovered evidence that Willy’s operator was likely located in East Asia, based on the times they controlled the bot”, Nilsson explained. The fact that the bot was operating on Asian hours is one of several clues suggesting that the creator could have worked at Mt. Gox. “We think that there is a lot of evidence pointing out that it was an insider rather than an external hacker”, both Maurice and Nilsson told this reporter.
The group also claims that their report is about 6 months old, and that they had discussions with the Japanese police last summer with whom they shared a lot of their findings. “The police never came back to us after we had shared these information”. Maurice added.
Just before the bankruptcy was announced on February 28th, 2014, Mt. Gox had about 40 employees, a dozen were highly skilled engineers who had access to the entire system, about half of them were hired on a one year contract and the other half were permanent employees.
Karpeles reportedly wasn’t aware of any coins missing up until late February, weeks after users began to report difficulties withdrawing funds. Karpeles explained that Mt. Gox launched an investigation as soon as they received such information. “One thing we discovered was the transaction malleability, and then we recovered 200,000 of the 850,000 missing bitcoins in an old format wallet. It took us 4 months in total to investigate everything, starting from early February up until months after we shut down Mt. Gox,” Karpeles said.
The Yomiuri Shinbun, Japan’s largest newspaper reported on January 1st of this year that according to police sources, the Mt. Gox hack was a 99% inside job. Sankei Shinbun later reported it was a 90% inside job, showing similarities with the 8-months-old Wiz report.
The independent experts note that the recent leak to the Japanese press is compatible with what they shared with the Japanese police at the time. “It’s possible the police kept investigating this angle without telling us, and it is also possible the leak is referring to some other similar insider activity. Either way, Wiz claims their original report is almost one year old and cryptographic proof was embedded in the bitcoin blockchain. (The blockchain stores the history of all bitcoins transactions and can also be used to store information permanently).
Nobuaki Kobayashi, the appointed trustee of Mt. Gox and anyone in his team was unavailable for comments.
Clearly, there was negligence and lack of security. Some creditors of Mt. Gox say Karpeles is responsible as a CEO of the company for securing everyone’s money. “I don’t think he is personally the thief we are looking for. It could have been someone else, an external hacker or somebody else within the company”.
Mark Karpeles
The Wiz report is based on data leaked by the hacker(s) between February 28th to March 2nd. Wiz investigators claim they matched the data with information they collected elsewhere. The entire data was potentially deleted from Mt. Gox servers between February 28 and March 2nd, and a part of the data was left visible by the perpetrator(s). As pointed out in the surprise report released on Tuesday by a Mt. Gox insider, “during the attack, various logs were erased and disabled.” […] “The files were erased, and instead, a symbolic link was placed”, the surprise report said. The mystery within Mt. Gox is looming but shows some hope in the horizon.
Japanese media coverage of Mt. Gox collapse “too negative”, a Japanese economist says
Yukio Noguchi, a professor at Waseda University and economist said that the Mt. Gox coverage by the Japanese media was too negative and not based on facts. “They [the Japanese media] reported that the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox was the bankruptcy of Bitcoin, well it wasn’t.” He commented, explaining that Japanese people do not trust the virtual currency. “One of the flaws in Bitcoin is that Mt. Gox got hacked. Bitcoins are designed so that transactions can never be reversed or undone. There is no charge back like a credit card. Once bitcoins are stolen, there is no way to get them back unless the guy who did it is actually found.” Maurice summed up.
So Saito, a Japanese Attorney and auditor at JADA (Japan Authority of Digital Asset) said that after the collapse of Mt. Gox, the Japanese government discussed whether regulations should be put in place for Bitcoin, but finally decided that bitcoin is not a currency and that the crypto-currency would be treated like other goods and services, with commercial sales of bitcoin itself and bitcoin-based transactions subject to sales tax.
Au Japon, le vagin est un crime, même sous forme d’art
Par Kyoko Miura
Tokyo, le 15 août 2014
Rokude Nashiko, aka Megumi Igarashi avec son manga “Dekoman”
Si vous habitez au Japon et si vous considérez un objet ou une image comme étant « obscène, » ne le l’envoyez pas à vos amis ou à vos collègues si vous savez qu’ils vont le redistribuer via l’Internet. Si vous le faites, vous risqueriez d’être arrêté sous l’article 175 du code criminel pour « violation de la loi sur la distribution de données électromagnétiques obscènes. » C’est ce qui vient d’arriver à Megumi Igarashi, 42 ans, le mois dernier à Tokyo.
Un « crime » arbitraire
Megumi Igarashi, aka Rokude Nashiko, est une artiste conceptuelle et mangaka basée à Tokyo. Il y a environ 4 ans, elle se met à travailler sur un sujet considéré comme particulièrement tabou et « obscène, » au Japon : le sexe, et surtout le sexe féminin. Pourtant, si vous vivez au Japon, ou si vous vous y rendez en voyage, vous remarqueriez assez vite dans absolument tous les magasins conbini un étalage entier de magazines hebdomadaires douteux et de mangas pour adultes. Feuilletez-les même si vous ne savez pas lire le Japonais, vous verrez que c’est rempli d’images pornographiques, et c’est accessible partout dans les coins les plus publiques et fréquentés du pays.
Mais attention ! Dans les publications légitimes, les parties génitales sont censurées, sauf sur la page de pub pour les vagins en silicones, moulés de manière très réaliste à partir de vagins d’actrices porno. Même Amazon Japon vend des vagins de célébrités du porno en ligne. Alors c’est quoi qui est obscène ?
Megumi Igarashi, petite artiste indépendante, décide de poursuivre son activité, créer divers petits objets obtenus d’après… son vagin, jusqu’au jour où, le 12 juillet dernier, c’est l’arrestation, la mise en garde à vue et une détention pendant 6 jours dans des conditions humiliantes. Son crime ? L’obscénité.
« Selon la loi japonaise, c’est la distribution de données obscènes à un individu non spécifié ou à plusieurs individus qui constitue un crime selon l’article 175 du code criminel, » explique l’avocat Takashi Yamaguchi, qui exerce à Tokyo. En effet, afin de remercier un certain nombre de fans ayant fait un don de plus de 3000 Yen (22 Euros,) pour soutenir son art, Igarashi a posté sur un site accessible à plusieurs personnes, le lien qui permet de télécharger des données permettant de reproduire des répliques « illégales » en 3D de son sexe. L’objet obtenu, serait « obscène, » d’après la police japonaise. « Franchement, la personne qui reproduit l’objet en 3D n’obtient concrètement qu’un objet rectangulaire, blanc, et froissé sur le dessus. Je ne pense pas que l’objet en soi, ni les données que j’ai laissée sur ce lien soient ‘obscènes,’ je pense qu’il serait au contraire perturbant qu’une personne ressente une quelquonque ‘obscénité’ à contempler l’objet fini, » explique Igarashi.
Selon les avocats de l’artiste, l’obscénité est un crime sans victime, il est donc extrêmement difficile de définir si les données distribuées sur Internet corrompent le moral du public ou non.
Igarashi a cependant été libérée au bout de 6 jours, d’après une demande officielle par ses avocats auprès d’une commission d’examen juridique. « La police a essayé de me faire confesser le fait d’avoir envoyé des données obscènes. J’ai admis avoir envoyé un lien pour télécharger des données, mais je n’ai jamais admis qu’elles étaient obscènes, » explique-t-elle, « Si je l’admettais, je ne pourrais plus continuer cet art dans mon pays. » Igarashi est maintenant libre, mais elle est encore suspecte d’avoir commis un crime, car la sentence n’est pas encore prononcée. Si elle est coupable, elle risquerait jusqu’à une peine de deux années de prison et une amande de 2,5 million de Yen (soit environ 18,300 Euros.) Si elle avait confessé avoir transmit des données obscènes, elle s’en serait sortie avec une amende de 150’000 Yen, (environ 1000 Euros.) Mais elle aurait dû en contrepartie abandonner son art.
Un système judiciaire « vague »
Selon l’avocat et professeur de droit Américain Stephen Givens, exerçant à Tokyo dans les deux langues, la « limite » pour définir la pornographie, par exemple, est extrêmement vague. On pourrait s’attendre à ce que ces limites soient définies selon une législature ou par la Court Suprême, mais au Japon, elles se définissent au cours d’une série de négociations entre la police et l’industrie de la publication.
En effet, à l’occasion de la sortie d’une collection de photographies de nus de Kanako Higuchi en 1991 dans un travail appelé « Water Fruit, » la police japonaise et l’industrie de la publication étaient parvenus à un accord informel selon lequel les poils du pubis de la femme, mais non au delà de ça, représenteraient la limite de l’acceptable. Ce soi-disant « règlement » sur les poils du pubis n’est pas vague, en soi, mais ce qui est vague c’est le fait que ce règlement ne constitue pas un droit légal formel. « La police est donc théoriquement libre de réviser ce qu’elle décide d’appliquer, » explique Givens. Il n’y aurait donc jamais eu de définition légale concernant les poils, mais une interprétation de la loi.
Mais alors, au final, que dit le texte concrètement ?
L’avocat Japonais, Takashi Yamaguchi explique qu’il existe bien un texte basé sur une jurisprudence qui ferait référence de définition de l’obscénité par la Court Suprême. Voici le texte tel quel :
« La Court Suprême japonaise a prononcé qu’un travail peut être jugé ‘obscène’ sous l’Article 175 si celui-ci suscite et stimule le désire sexuel, offense le sens commun de la décence ou la honte et viole ‘le concept propre de la moralité sexuelle. »
« Ce texte ne veut absolument rien dire ! Mais son interprétation est la suivante, ‘ne montrez pas les parties génitales ! » S’exclame l’avocat, « Notre loi sur la pornographie est donc bien plus flexible que celle des autres nations occidentales, car notre loi sur l’obscénité n’a pas de contexte pour appliquer la censure. » Autrement dit, la loi japonaise sur l’obscénité ne s’intéresse pas vraiment au fait que l’acte soit sadomasochiste, fétiche, non consentant, homo, pédophile, ou autre.
Effectivement ces lois ont souvent été critiquées, car elles négligent encore trop les vidéos et les mangas à succès qui incluent des images d’enfants explicitement sexuelles. Sous la pression internationale, en juin dernier, le Parlement japonais venait de voter l’interdiction de posséder du matériel de pornographie infantile. Jusqu’alors, il était interdit d’en vendre mais pas d’en posséder. Les législateurs ont cependant immédiatement exempté les images explicites de jeunes enfants dans les mangas et les animés après que les maisons d’édition se plaignent contre les restrictions de la liberté d’expression.
« Au Japon, le sexe est partout, même les journaux de sport ont une page ‘rose’ avec des recommandations de lieux où recevoir des services sexuels, un classement de lieux où recevoir les meilleures pipes, parce que ces activités sont légales au Japon. Ce qui est illégal dans la prostitution, c’est la pénétration du pénis dans le vagin, tout le reste possible et imaginable est légal. La prostitution existe bel et bien, mais c’est un crime qui n’est pas punissable. » Explique Jake Adelstein, auteur et journaliste d’investigation spécialisé dans le crime organisé et l’industrie du sexe au Japon.
Dans le cas d’Igarashi, un doute subsiste dans la façon dont la police considère la partie criminelle. En effet, du point de vue de la police, l’artiste a distribué les données d’un un moule obtenu à partir d’un vagin réel, le sien. « Je pense que même si j’avais distribué des vagins sculptés à la main, cela aurait posé un problème, » se lamente Igarashi. Ce qui a été considéré comme étant un crime dans l’arrestation de l’artiste vient en réalité des difficultés de la loi à s’adapter aux nouvelles technologies. Dans ce cas, la distribution sur Internet de données 3D est le nœud du problème. C’est arrivé pour la première fois dans l’histoire du crime japonais. C’est pourquoi l’incident a fait la une des journaux.
Megumi Igarashi pense être victime de sexisme. En tous cas, la police japonaise, (90 % masculine) semble fermement être persuadée que le vagin est une obscénité. Pour l’artiste, le crime dont elle est accusée vient d’un point de vue strictement masculin. « Ce que j’ai pensé lorsque la police est venue me mettre les menottes chez moi, c’est que cet incident est typiquement japonais, ça ne serait jamais arrivé ailleurs. Les hommes n’aiment pas que les femmes parlent de leur sexe. »
Megumi Igarashi veut casser les tabous et les préjugés infondés que la société japonaise circule à propos du vagin. « Au Japon, les hommes disent que les femmes faciles ont des sexes et des tétons ‘foncés,’ et que les sexes roses sont ‘purs.’ Ce sont des idées irréelles. A l’époque, quand mes petits copains ou mes collègues masculins disaient ce genre de chose, même si c’était sensé être une blague, je me sentais révoltée, mais je n’osais rien dire. »
En 2010, à 38 ans, Megumi Igarashi décide naivement de se faire refaire les organes génitaux externes en voyant une annonce. Intriguée par le fait que l’on puisse changer la forme de son sexe, Igarashi se jette dans l’aventure en pensant, à l’époque, que son sexe n’était pas très « beau » après tout. Aujourd’hui, elle pense avoir subit une opération inutile. Mais c’est au départ cette opération qui a entraîné la continuité de son activité artistique, explique-t-elle. « Je pense que les femmes ne parlent pas assez de leur sexe. C’est tabou. Moi-même, en observant mon propre sexe, j’ai d’abord pensé qu’il était plutôt ‘bizarre,’ mais c’est après l’opération et en commençant à en parler avec différentes femmes que j’ai réalisé que mon sexe n’était pas bizarre du tout et qu’il était tout à fait normal. » Un chirurgien esthétique, promouvant ses services sur le Net, écrit que c’est avec l’avènement des magazines et des vidéos pour adultes, et aussi avec la vente des appareils sexuels qu’une certaine image du sexe féminin circule dans nos sociétés. « Les femmes prennent consciences de l’apparence externe de leurs organes génitaux à la plage, autant que dans leur chambre à coucher. » Note-t-il.
Briser la honte qui entoure la forme esthétique du vagin
En 2012, la maison d’édition de Megumi Igarashi, amusée par l’expérience de l’opération qu’elle venait de subir, lui demande alors de l’illustrer dans un manga, Deko Man, ou « le vagin décoratif. » (Deko pour « décoration » et man pour manko, qui veut dire « chatte. »)
« A l’époque, les lecteurs japonais étaient extrêmement réticents vis-à-vis d’une opération esthétique du sexe féminin. Donc ma maison d’édition m’a demandée de rendre compte de l’histoire de manière à ce que le personnage principal féminin, donc moi-même, décide de se faire opérer la chatte à cause d’un conflit mental, » explique-elle, « l’histoire du manga est donc partiellement transformée, je ne suis pas une obsédée de mon propre sexe, mais pour ce manga, j’ai fait pas mal de recherche sur les mœurs concernant le vagin. »
C’est sous le nom d’artiste Rokude Nashiko, jeu de mot qui veut dire « enfant bonne à rien, » qu’Igarashi sort son manga qui parle de son sexe, comment il a changé de forme et comment elle s’est mise à créer autour de ce sujet. Le manga est aujourd’hui quasi introuvable, mais elle continue avec l’aide de ses fans à produire des objets d’art en forme de vagin.
Igarashi explique qu’au début, cela amusait juste les gens de son entourage, mais il y a quelques années, quand ses activités ont été postées sur Internet, son travail a été malmené dans les media japonais. C’est cette situation désagréable et la couverture médiatique « obscène » de son travail qui l’a poussée à continuer son activité. « C’est à ce moment que pour la première fois, je me suis demandé pourquoi les Japonais sont si offusqués. Ce n’est qu’un vagin après tout. » Les chaînes de télé censuraient systématiquement le mot manko utilisé par l’artiste, qui veut dire « chatte, » en langue vulgaire. Les journaux et les magazines censuraient également les images des objets artistiques que en forme de chatte. « Au final, on aurait dit qu’ils voulaient se payer ma tête, à chaque fois que le présentateur télé prononçait le mot, il y avait un « bip » pour censurer le mot. » Pourtant, le Festival du Pénis, à Kawasaki, dans la préfecture de Kanagawa, ballade des phallus géants au mois d’avril dans les rues la ville pour célébrer la fertilité… mais ça, ce n’est certainement pas « obscène ! »
Le vagin décoratif pour démystifier l’anatomie féminine
En moulant ses organes génitaux, Igarashi créé divers objets d’art, comme des boucles d’oreilles, des chandeliers, des objets décoratifs et même… un kayak géant en forme de vulve dont le siège représente l’orifice du vagin, un de ses plus grands succès. Pour ce projet, l’artiste a récolté un million de Yen (environ 7,300 Euros.) Ses fans disent soutenir son activité afin de briser les tabous autour des attributs sexuels féminins dans la société japonaise. Son arrestation a provoqué la révolte de 21,000 personnes qui ont signé une pétition pour la faire sortir.
Rokude Nashiko travaille autour du vagin depuis plus de 2 ans. « Ce sont les hommes d’âge mûr qui critiquent mon art avec le plus de violence, » observe-t-elle, « Ces hommes viennent voir les ‘vagins’ lors de mes expositions d’art, et même si la majorité de ces hommes repartent chez eux tout amusés, il y en a qui viennent et me balancent des critiques en pleine face. Je pense qu’ils le font parce que justement mes ‘vagins’ ne sont pas excitants ou pornographiques. »
Rokude Nashiko et certains supporters pensent en terme général que les hommes sont mécontents de voir des femmes se libérer et agir comme elles l’entendent. « Le Japon est encore une société dans laquelle ceux qui tentent d’exprimer la sexualité féminine sont réprimés, alors que la sexualité des hommes est exagérément tolérée. » s’exclame une sympathisante.
Mais les autres expliquent leur opposition ainsi, « Le vagin d’une femme, c’est ce qui nous est le plus important et c’est notre plaisir intime. Si une femme en fait quelque chose d’ordinaire, elle nous ôte notre désir et salit notre envie, » explique un homme japonais dans la cinquantaine, qui ne trouve pas cet art « sexy » du tout, à Tokyo.
En octobre 2012, lors de la première exposition d’art autour du vagin, l’événement avait été reporté que dans des magazines masculins. « Il n’y avait eu que des oyaji, (vieux monsieurs,) » se souvient une des organisatrices. Mais cette année, une audience plus jeunes, autant masculine que féminine a été remarquée.
« Il arrive souvent que les femmes japonaises sont élevées pour apprendre à endurer les choses difficiles. Je pense que certaines femmes japonaises ressentent une certaine fraîcheur à voir une fille, comme elles, faire ce qui lui plaît. Le but de mon travail est de promouvoir la liberté d’expression des femmes. » Explique Igarashi.
En effet, depuis son arrestation et depuis la construction de son kayak en forme de vagin en septembre 2013, l’artiste dit avoir gagné de la popularité auprès de l’audience féminine.
En passant, selon Rokude Nashiko, ce n’est pas un mythe, les femmes asiatiques laissent les poils de leurs chattes pousser, sans en prendre soin. Elle illustre aux pages 35 et 36 de son manga « Deko Man » un incident vécu par une amie qui est sortie avec un homme caucasien marqué par son sexe poilu. « S’il y a une chose qui m’énerve encore plus, c’est que certains hommes japonais sont furieux si une femme entretien ses poils. Ils veulent contrôler le corps de la femme en leur disant que ce qui est bien c’est le naturel. » Explique-t-elle. Pour elle, le fait que les hommes commencent à critiquer la manière dont une femme prend soin de son sexe esthétiquement est une tentative de contrôler son corps. « Malheureusement, au Japon, c’est une chose encore tout à fait normalisée que de traiter une femme comme un objet, » se plaint l’artiste.
Color/Blind, a movie by Caroline Mariko
Caroline Stucky, aka Caroline Mariko Stucky – as she presents herself in one of the five teasers of her latest short film Color/Blind – is a Swiss-Japanese Filmmaker. Inspired by her father who owned a Super 8mm camera and her uncle, founder of Métrociné, her passion for films started at a very young age. Self-taught, she created videos to entertain her family and have fun with her friends. In 2005, she had the opportunity to work at the Aïchi Universal Exposition on a show created by Robert Wilson – In the evening at Koi Pond. Since then, Caroline studied filmmaking in LA, cinematography in Hamburg, screenwriting in NY and has worked for over thirty film and theater productions.
Today (September 20th 2014), is a special day for her. Two of her latest short films – Color/Blind and Paper Boats – are going to be screened on opposite coasts of the United-States.
KM: Caroline, tells us more about your films and where they are going to be screened.
– Paper Boats tells the story of a young boy and his fear of time passing by. It was written by Anna Kriegel, a very young French writer and is the first film I directed and didn’t write. I was a bit nervous in the beginning but Anna let me free to do whatever I wanted. In the end, it was a great experience to put in images someone else’s words, especially ones from a writer who inspires me as much as Anna does. The film will be screened for the second time in New York, during the Williamsburg International Film Festival.
Color/Blind is having its US Premiere at the Hollywood Weekly Magazine Film Festival in California. It’s a commentary about racism and how we should never judge a person for their appearance. I co-wrote it with Lex Scott Davis, an actress who writes poetry. She helped me find the voices of each character who are teenagers who live in Harlem and do freestyle rap. Another exciting collaboration was recording the original soundtrack with two outrageous artists, Swiss Chris and Kevin Njikam from M7 (Movement 7). It took six months to find the perfect collaboration and I really wanted to work with New York musicians but it ended up being with a drummer from my country and a composer from Oakland California. Music or art should I say, really has no frontier.
How did you approach filming Paper Boats?
– The screenplay is very poetic and abstract so I decided to keep that style for the visual part. I divided the scenes in two styles – real world and surreal world – and simply followed the script literally. I had a great producer, David Borens, who got everything I wanted and a team who never questioned my method. Paper Boats was by far the smoothest production I ever worked on.
How was it the smoothest one?
– I am not saying it was all easy. We had to change a little bit the script because we couldn’t find an actor with the right age or we had to cancel one night because of rain and find a new location that was less populated for one exterior scene. Anyway, filming in NYC is not the easiest thing to do. First of all, the weather forecast is always wrong, than people on the street are not very cooperative, you have planes and helicopters flying every 2 minutes over your head wherever you are and it’s hard to find a parking space. But other than that, everything went as planned.
Where did you get the idea for Color/Blind?
– The idea came to me when I was living in Harlem. I stayed in an apartment where every night, people from the building or the neighborhood came for dinner or to have a drink or a chat. I am by nature shy but I immediately felt comfortable. Later I realized it was because no one was judging me for my race, which has been something that was always an issue wherever I went. Even on the phone, for a job interview for example and the person who interviewed me meets me afterwards, I often hear: “I didn’t imagine you this way”. Of course, I have a French accent but I look Asian. So I kept returning to the thought that if everybody was blind, appearance or ethnicity wouldn’t matter anymore.
What is next for you?
– I am currently writing a screenplay about a young man who grew up in South Brooklyn in the 50’s and who managed to escape the street gang he was in. I am also preparing my first feature film that I am co-writing with Anna Kriegel – a love story between a teacher and her former student in a homophobic and conservative environment. Other than that, I have other short-film projects such as a spy-comedy and more fun stuff, which I am sure you will hear about soon.
Caroline Mariko: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Caroline-Mariko/262552040452595
Paper Boats: https://www.facebook.com/paperboats.themovie
Color/Blind: https://www.facebook.com/colorblindthemovie
by Kyoko Miura
Tokyo, Interview with Mark Karpeles, CEO of Mt Gox
Mark Karpeles, Tokyo 2014
Note: Certainly the bitcoin community continues to treat Karpeles as a pariah. When he began tweeting anew as @MagicalTux, writing about daily life, snacks, and Japanese sunsets, the response was vehemently hostile. There were even death threats: “I am planning to hire someone to murder you. Watch out your back because your life will be fucked up asap!”
death threat, source: Twitter
Interview
Q: Everybody in the bitcoin community talks about you in Tokyo. Who are you and where do you come from?
I’m a 29 year old geek, an entrepreneur, and mostly, I’m curious. In other words, when I see something, I like to know how it works. My main activities are coding and sending e-mails. I think coding is a bit of an art form. You code, the same way a writer writes his book and the painter paints his picture. When you are inspired, you can’t stop doing it. And sometimes, you force yourself as much as you can, it just won’t come.
I was born in Dijon, France. I did most of my school education in France. When I was 3, I started to do basic programing on a 5 lasers spectrum, a very easy computer that the general public was familiar with at the time. Between 3 and 7 years old, my mother got me game programs, and when I pushed the record button I could see the program itself and I could entertain myself by modifying them or doing other things with them. I did not get a completed school education. In fact I was not very good at school, because the teachers put me in a literature class because that was the only place where they found a place to put me. That was not necessarily the best environment for me. But in math classes I scored 19,5/20 in average, and the teacher always took 0.5 points from my tests because my writing was crappy, and he was maybe right to do so because I really have a crappy handwriting. I used to dismantle a calculator to understand how it works. My profile is not really “literature,” I’m purely a math and science guy. I can easily remember some numbers I typed on my computer few days earlier, but regularly, I do something and I forget about it. For example, if you ask me what I did yesterday, I really need to think hard. I have no memory of what I did or whom I met. I have a memory that is very much based on numbers and much less based on elements. If I want to create a password, I type it 2 or 3 times, and that’s it, it’s registered in my brain.
My mother didn’t have an easy situation to raise a child, so sometimes I lived with my grand mother, who had very old values, and it had some impact on me. At some point I was put in a private school that taught children in small groups and where the kids evaluate their own score by using different colors. When I was 10 years old I was suddenly put in a public school, and that also had a certain effect on me. I consider myself someone who is quite logic and I do have good understanding of computer engineering and I have a particular affinity with programing.
When I was about 17, I was homeless for about a week. I used to distribute flyers to advertise for a cyber cafe near Chatelet, in Paris. The money I made allowed me to buy the evening food.
My big life adventure started in 2009 in Japan. But way before that, I left France for Israel, where I lived 9 months. I had prepared a plan to get from France to Japan in four steps: France, Israel, Australia and from there, I wanted to get to Japan. But everything didn’t go as I planned. In Israel, the war in Gaza started. Somebody blew the power plant in a terrorist attack, and we had half a day of power shut down. For an IT company, that’s the worst thing that can happen. That day, it blew all my plans. What I was trying to create there did not happen, so I returned to France. Selling services in foreign countries is a good business in Israel. Israel is seen as a spotlight for technology, particularly for the US. But the problem of the hazard of terrorist attacks, power plants shut downs, unstable electricity, slow Internet connection, and so on, were things that I didn’t expect. And Australia is also a bad country for Internet connection. So I returned to France. I had nowhere to go, but a friend hosted me and told me that someone was looking for a PHP developer. I was interested. That’s how I got to work in this company in France during 4 or 5 years, prior to moving to Japan. That French company bought several branches, including some in Japan, so I did everything in order to be transferred here. I arrived in Japan in 2009 and I founded the company called Tibanne on October 29th of that same year. Tibanne does web hosting and development. I did web hosting and different services all by myself. Tibanne is the name of my grand mother’s cat by the way. When she died, I inherited that cat.
Q: What is your particular attraction for Japan?
Well, I like the standard of living that we have in Japan. First of all, you don’t find conbini (convenient stores) in Paris. Paying your bills in a convenient store, and that it actually works. Also, I used to forget my laptop on a park bench numerous times, and each time I got it back. In Paris, just forget it, people would mostly steal it. All the service sectors in Japan, such as the delivery system are very efficient I think. In France, it took me 2 hours to get a vital card whereas in Japan, it took me 20 min to get a kokumin hoken, or social insurance card at the town hall. Otherwise, I think you find a lot of Japanese culture in manga, animation. And the nature and politeness of the Japanese people makes it easy to integrate in their society. In the subway train in Japan, when people are not necessarily in a good mood, they will nevertheless be courteous, whereas in France, it’s a bit the opposite (laugh). Every morning I took the metro until Opera, in Paris and from there I took the RER A, every morning I had my hand on my bag to make sure no one was going to steel it from me. I’ve seen guys who enter the Metro and start barking at each passenger inside. People are so courteous here in Japan, so it inspires me to do the same. Once I was in Shibuya in a parking lot with some of my employees and we found a fat wallet on the floor, and we went to bring it to the closest koban or police box. The goal is not only to be in Japan, and to take advantage of the nice people, but it’s also about being part of the whole.
Q: How did you get into bicoins? Is it because you have a great understanding of finance and the banking systems? Do you follow a philosophy, if so, is it libertarian, anarchist, or futuristic?
For me, basically I am more a geek. I’m a computer guy, more than a politician or a finance person, so I was not very well informed about those sides of bitcoin. It all started in 2010, when a French friend of mine in Peru, who was one of our clients, asked me, “Could I pay in bitcoin?” I said, “sure.” And started to look into it, how it works etc. What interested me in bitcoin was the technology part. In other words, the fact of maintaining a global data base in a secured way, the way it works, the fact that each client has a secured private wallet, the possibility to exchange values with other clients without any security problem, to have an entirely decentralized system, capable of exchanging data between two people. Also, bitcoin allows to have a database that is public. A database where everyone knows which keys has what, but without knowing who is which key. So there is a whole concept that was invented behind bitcoin, that is extremely well done, in fact. That was basically what interested me in the very beginning. The anonymity of the bitcoin was not my main interest. Bitcoin requires an extremely rapid communication between all the parties concerned. And the joint database, or the account book of bitcoin, is made in a way that everybody can look into it and at any time. Everybody can update it anytime they want and globally track a new transaction. There are a lot of technical problems that are very interesting challenges to meet as an engineer in the network or as a programmer. The beauty of the technical challenge itself is a sufficient motivation for many people like me. And that is really what motivated me in the start. To have a database that is updateable by several million of people, at the same time, and instantly is an incredible challenge, especially to do this on the Internet.
Q: What are the 5 things you like the most and the 5 things that you hate the most?
I like computers, courtesy, Japan, apple pies and cooking, and also driving around in a car, or travelling. I can’t really take an airplane at the moment. I am more secure in Japan, and if I want to travel abroad I have to get a permit from the Japanese court that put Mt Gox into bankruptcy. And unless there is a strong reason for me to travel, it is very unlikely that they would say yes. Otherwise, I love dismantling old computers or electronic devices and try to make them work. I also love cooking my grand mother’s apple pie, a family recipe from Burgundy.
It’s more complicated to find the 5 things I hate the most. I hate mushrooms, most fish, except tuna and salmon when I have sushi. I never lived near the sea, so I think that’s why. That’s for the food I hate. Otherwise, I hate press conferences. I had only one experience in giving a press conference, if it was possible, I would like to avoid doing another one ever.
Q: Is there anything that people do that you don’t appreciate?
I don’t like egoism. It’s so pleasant to share, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t do it.
Q: Do you think you are generous?
I think I am. But then it’s a question of doing what I can do and that it doable.
Q: Who is your hero? Who is the person, real or fictive, that you admire the most, whom you want to be?
It’s complicated, each people have different interesting aspects and skills. Putting all the good things in one person is something difficult. I admire Neil de Grasse Tyson, the astrophysicist and author of “Space Chronicles and Inexplicable Universe.” My hero is Iron Man. (Laugh.) He’s a good example, because he does a lot of things. Again, I like the action of inventing and innovating.
Q: What do you think life gave you? And what did people give you?
Until now, I think I was really lucky, because not many people can have the same things that I do. And at the same time, I think I am unlucky when I look at how it all ended, it’s actually quite horrible. And I really hope we are going to find out what really happened. What we are seeing now, maybe in the near future we will be able to say that we were part of an economic revolution. Bitcoiners are making history. When I landed in Japan the first time, I didn’t possibly think all this would happen. But among bitcoiners, there are some who are quite extremists, I would say, but somehow that is something important, because in general when you try to achieve something, suppose that you can only achieve half of it. Let’s suppose you are trying to do something and you get only half way through, it means you achieved half of the impossible. Now, if you try to achieve the impossible and suppose you can achieve half of it, that means you can do the entire possible things. That’s why you always have to aim for the moon. Because even you can’t reach the moon, you will still reach the stars. Never hesitate. When you wake up in the morning, you have two types of people, those who will go back to bed because it’s the morning and those who will put their dream in action.
Q: Who are the people you saw the most, these last years?
The last 5 years, and especially when I had Mt Gox, it was house/work, work/house. Mt Gox used my entire energy. I didn’t really have the choice. As of 2012, we started to encounter the governments, and then I had no time to go out and take some relaxing time. I feel somehow better now than then, because I spend less time at work and because I didn’t really know how I could improve the situation anyways. That said, I still have a lot of things to sort out, and most of all, it leaves a bad aftertaste to be pirated and to have been stolen so much bitcoins.
Q: Is there something that you have now, that you didn’t have when you were running Mt Gox?
I now have time. It’s something positive. I feel liberated. It makes a big difference on that level. With Mt Gox, I sometimes had 8 meetings in a day. Evening meetings with the lawyers in Europe, and night meetings with the lawyers in the US. I was indeed put under huge pressure and stress. I gained 30 kg. And nothing improved with time. When we managed to solve one problem, others appeared one after the other. For example, at some point the French government seized one million Euros from us, and that was very stressful. A year ago we managed to get that money back. And we were relieved for a moment, but then the problems came along with the Americans.
Before, when I woke up in the morning, my day looked gray in perspective. But now, whenI don’t have any meetings, which happens more often than before, I think to myself, “Gosh, today I can work on this or that.” And I feel excited about my day. Nowadays, sometimes I wake up and I arrive to the source code, and it happens to me to think, “Well I am going change that entire code.” And I end up spending my entire morning re-writing an entire system. And it pisses off every one at the office because suddenly I change the entire thing, (laugh.)
Q: Were all these problems related to bitcoin? Some believe that bitcoin is the future. Some say that governments will always find ways to enforce new laws to frame bitcoin because bitcoin is not a concept that goes along with central banks and the very existence of governments. Tell us about your views.
At the moment, the best enemy of bitcoin are the people who love bitcoin. Particularly the pirates and all these sorts of people, who spend their entire time trying to attack the services that are trying to make bitcoin user friendly, like Mt Gox for example. As I am speaking to you, I do not think that it is possible to have a bitcoin exchange service unless you have a team that works 24 hours to detect attacks and that kind of things. It requires a budget that not many people have access to. I think we will see another Mt Gox next year, and the next year. And my opinion is that each time we will see that, the losses will increase. In 2013, you had the collapse of Bitcoinica, the first collapse of an important bitcoin exchange company, because of hackers. After that you had Mt Gox. And there will be another one soon. It might be BTC-E, it might be Coinbase. But it will strike harder next time. However if bitcoin works, it can be extremely interesting. Those who are enthusiastic about bitcoin should be more careful about the harm.
Q: What is your landmark, what keeps you going, what makes you feel secure?
When I’m home with my cats, I feel much more quiet and peaceful. But I also have my company and all my employees. We know each other well, and we have been together for quite few years now. And we do what we can.
Q: What are the first things you do when you wake up in the morning, and what are the things you think about most of the time?
The first thing I do, is I go the room next to my bedroom and I switch on the screen, (my computer is always on,) I check what happened. I take a shower, put my clothes on and go to my office or I continue working from home. Depending on my inspiration, I go to bed very late when I do coding. I am now dealing with a case in the US with CoinLab who is trying to sue us. This week, our lawyers made an announcement, where we stated that CoinLab is a joke. Five million dollars was stolen from Mt Gox, and we’re being sued by CoinLab, who manages the Bitcoin Foundation in the US. I can see no other words but “cheeky” to qualify CoinLab. Otherwise, most of my time, I think about a code, a network, a piece of apple pie, going out on a little trip. I also find myself inevitably thinking about who could have pirated Mt Gox.
Initially, the contract that we had with CoinLab was to subcontract CoinLab for all the financial parts in the US, so that we wouldn’t need to have a license in the US, because it was impossible to get it. Four different financial services experts found 4 different answers to whether a license was needed or not. Some had said that bitcoin is not regulated. Another said that a LTB license was required. We thought, “It’s too complicated in the US. We will let some local companies handle this, because they are there and they will make it.” There are regulations that exist, and we were not sure whether they applied to bitcoin. We tried to be on track, but the problem was that different parties told us a different story. For example the MTB license cost almost 50 million dollars, and we didn’t have 50 million dollars to inject right away. So we decided not to do all this by ourselves. That’s why we contacted CoinLab. And CoinLab, based in the US and they told us, “No problem, we can deal with your license.”
Q: Against what does a startup have to fight most of its time in order to exist?
A good question to ask yourself is, “What is the average age of a politician?” Politicians are usually not so young, and instead of thinking about innovating, their goal is to maintain things stable at the least during their term. So if there are any problems, they will want to leave to the next generation. For example, in order to get the most expensive license, which is the NTB license, you have to have a physical office in each State. And what we do is we provide online services. So the license says you have to have a physical office in each State, and each state has a slightly different system. Bienvenue in the USA! One thing I love doing is also giving lectures on bitcoin. I’m quite good at doing that. I gave some lectures at Chuo University in Tokyo and you had bankers coming along with the students. I could have had a career as a university Professor I think, I would have been excited doing that job anyways. I’m capable to explaining what “mining” is in a way that anyone can undertsand. (Laugh.) One thing I wish I had done in my life is I wish I went to university. I actually never had a university education.
Q: You said you felt liberated that everything is over with Mt Gox, do you still think about it?
Maybe it’s too strong to use that word, but being pirated, in other words, to have someone who enters your server and you don’t know about it, it’s close to be a rape. You have your space, where you do your things, and while you are not watching, someone enters inside it, does what he wants. It might not be the appropriate word, but that’s how I feel. I think I spent too much of my time dealing with the governments and the banks. All the precious time I should have spent coding and maintaining the system, I was spending it at meetings with lawyers, bankers, and lobbies. That is finally a lot of time wasted in dealing with regulations and stuff that oppose what we do, whereas my time could have been more efficiently spent. When Mt Gox was still in my agenda, I had only meetings with bankers and lawyers who were worried because they didn’t understand bitcoin, and I was practically doing nothing that dealt with technical parts. With 8 intensive meetings per day, I would go home at night and I was exhausted. And the next day I had to start it all over again with new meetings. I spent months and months without really having a decent life. I think there are many things that go against innovation. When you want to do innovation without borders, you will see many people who have their little comfort and who don’t want you coming out and destroying their comfort. Banks are typically the first to be worried about bitcoin, because their international banking system is currently functioning. Despite some problems like high risk loans, where they end up, and all the stories we hear with the mafia passing their money through the normal banking system, you see banks that have to pay impressive amounts because of that. But globally, their system works. So they don’t welcome someone like Satoshi Nakamoto who forces them to re-learn what they are doing. With bitcoin, they suddenly have their banking system that’s not up to date. It represents a huge change and a lot of cost if all the banks in the world have to learn how to do their job from scratch.
Q: What is your favorite song?
I have a billion of favorite songs but those that show up the most are Rhamstein, and for example, “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes.
Q: What are the thing that you desire the most today?
I would like to be less lonely. That could mean different things, but a big problem I have is that I don’t have many people who understand me, and it isn’t always easy. I am not a very social person, I used to be worse, but now I learned how to detect the flaws I have and I am more capable of interacting with people.
Q: Are you a “white hat” or a “black hat,” Mark?
You are talking about hackers. The fundamental difference between a white hat and a black hat is as follows. Imagine two kids who are playing and they are trying to open a lock with a little hairpin. The white hat will test his knowledge, opens the lock and demonstrate that the lock is vulnerable and report it to you and tell you to change your lock. The black hat will come at night, open your lock, empty your house and disappear. It applies to the security breech in computer engineering. The white hats are those who want to publish a maximum of reports in order to improve the situations, whereas the black hats are those who is use their knowledge to reach a more lucrative business, I would say. You have those two mentalities, those who don’t understand or did not take the time to assimilate the entire environment around and to conform to the rules. And often, in certain cases, the rules that are defined don’t necessarily make sense.
After the bankruptcy of Mt Gox, the Japanese police opened an investigation on this case. Foreign creditors including Japanese reporters who cover the cyber crime beat believe that the Japanese police haven’t got the skills to solve this issue. A team of 4, lead by @wiz aka Jason Maurice from Wiz Technologies launched an independent probe on their own, and Roger Ver, aka “Bitcoin Jesus” launched a bounty to find the culprits. What do you think of this initiative?
I think that those who think that the Japanese police is “incapable” slightly underestimate them if they think that they are not advancing. I don’t have all the details, but I have more details than usual people. So I have seen things that others won’t ever see. And based on that, I think the Japanese police are quite efficient. But I totally support the idea that several people start their own investigations. It is generally a good idea to have different people having different way of seeing the same problem. The police does not report into details on what they are doing, that’s why it might seem like they are not doing anything but they are actually working on this. As for understanding the situation, I think I gave them enough training so that they can now go on. It is a recurrent fact that the Japanese police arrest innocents and make them confess that they did the thing. So, I simply hope that they won’t do anything insane. That is something that is not guaranteed though.
( See previous coverage on this topic in Daily Beast, “cat collar crime” )
Personally, I support the fact of finding the culprit or the culprits. The method used is less important for me than the result.
Q: Have you read the book of Satoshi?
No. I haven’t read “the” book. These days I read more books like, “What If ? : Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions,” by Randall Munroe. And I try to imagine all possibilities to frame a problem.
Q: Who is your favorite Japanese comedian and your favorite French comedian?
Mr. Downtown, aka Hitoshi Matsumoto, who does the show called “Waraccha ikenai 24 jikan,” (“the forbidden to laugh 24 hours.”) And my favorite French comic is Fernand Raynaud.
Q: We say that bitcoin can obstruct governments to finance wars, is it true?
Well, it’s not credible. Nowadays, governments finance wars with taxes. If we didn’t have taxes, which is improbable, I would see how bitcoin could obstruct financing wars, maybe. But as I am talking, people who are using bitcoin are ready to pay taxes. If we stop paying taxes, we won’t have the firefighters, the ambulances, many of the things that we need in the end. What we could do is to experiment a society where we put all these people who don’t want to pay taxes together, they create their “bitcoin nation,” and if it works, that’s good. I totally support experimentation. However, taking in account the information we have available at this point in time, I do not believe it is a realistic thing to do.
Q: What’s good about bitcoin?
It allows a financial system that is entirely independent and it has the advantage of not being under the control of a country or an entity. Therefore, it is a much more robust system. I explained earlier that I had the intention to do replace one of our systems for Swift. Well, as I am taking to you, the entire international banking system that uses Swift depends on Swift, which has its headquarters in Belgium. If someday for some reason, the company decided to cut everything, although they cannot really do it because all their shareholders are all the banks in the world, but suppose that there is a problem with an entity or that the Belgian government decides to do something. Well, suddenly you can have all the world’s banking system cut. Bitcoin does not have that kind of problems or risks. And we could technically do a system that is similar to bitcoin that would allow banks to exchange messages in a decentralized way. It would reduce costs, because currently, each time a bank sends something to another bank, it has to pay a little fee to Swift. It will not only reduce the costs but it will also create a robust system.
Q: Will the world be a better place then?
Maybe not, but at least it will be slighty better than how it is now. What is fascinating with technology is that we improve systems little by little, and although perfection does not exist, what we can do is to improve things along our way.
Q: New York just just launched its bitcoin license, what do you think about it?
I think it’s constraining, on one hand you have the requirements that have been defined and that are a bit absurd, like the fact that you have to collect names and addresses each time, whereas for normal payments you only need the names and the countries. However in other cases, I think the text needs to be much tougher. Particularly regarding safety requirements. Because storing bitcoins for your users, is the same as storing gold. So, you have someone who gives you gold and tells you, “I would like that gold to still be there when I come back in a week.” In Order to do that, you will use guards 24/7, you will put surveillance in front of your strong room, that’s usual business. However the bitcoin businesses say, “It’s fine, we are hackers, we won’t be pirated.” And the next day you have someone who actually hacks you. Or for example someone who physically enters your offices, install keys on the computers. Like someone who gets hired as a cleaning agent, and takes advantage of a moment when the offices are empty and do the things I just mentioned. You see that in movies, but it exists also in reality. I think it’s not very complicated to get hired as a cleaning agent in a building where you have a bitcoin business. So, when you get that job and you clean the offices, you have access to the building at hours when it’s generally empty, because you usually clean places when no one is working. It’s a way like any other way to access an office that manages billions of dollars in bitcoin, when the office is empty. That is something that should not be possible. But it is, for many companies it is. You can ask your employer to vacuum his own space to counter that issue. But sometimes you can have an employee who gets hired and whose real intention is just to get access to what you have. This is not a fact, it’s just my opinion. We are dealing on a level where our little hackers who are protected behind their screens, are not anymore on a par to face all the possible cases. If you want to do a bitcoin business nowadays that is secure and safe, you need a security team 24/7 on a computer science level and a 24/7 security team on a physical level, in other words, guards who are in your office 24 hours per day and who keep a close watch on the movements of everybody who gets in and out of the office. To have a security system that you can control and that is efficient, with access cards, badges etc, you have to have audits, in other words, if possible, to have someone who verifies in real time, all the in and outs, like identifying whether this or that person is supposed to be here or there at this particular moment of the day. For example, if the cleaning lady who usually cleans the office in 30 minutes, suddenly takes 2 hours to clean, that’s weird. I say the cleaning agent, because it’s the most usual case. It’s easy to bribe them, for example, at night after work you tell someone, “I have a problem with that woman, I think she cheats on me, could you bring me her garbage so I can verify that? And in exchange I will pay you 100 $. The guy will do it 2 or 3 times, and after several times, you tell him, “If you don’t want me to report you to the police, you will give me the garbage of everyone in it, and then you will plug this on each of their computers.” You ask for a little favor and then you turn it into a blackmail, that’s how theses guys proceed. Those small cleaning people usually don’t have bodyguards and they can sometimes be put in a situation where they don’t have the choice. They are helpful and then they don’t want to loose their job and then above all, they don’t want to be reported to the cops, these people would do anything. Suddenly, the tone of the exchange is not asking for a favor but it becomes an order. It’s easy to do, and then usually no one thinks about that. Someone who cleans the offices in your building is someone you see every day.
Q: Do you trust your little cleaning lady now?
Now we don’t have any important things in our offices, we don’t have bicoins anymore. So it’s simple.
Q: What is a question that you wished a reporter would have asked you and that no one ever asked you?
That’s a good question. Well, I wished that someone had asked me how I’m doing. I think everyone sees me as “Mr. Mt Gox,” and not enough like a human being, or just a person. Although I don’t always agree with what human beings think, or the way they react, it’s sometimes disappointing, everyone needs human interaction.
La lutte sociale des fermiers de Narita dure depuis plus de quarante huit ans
Japon, 2012, Nathalie Stucky
« Vous parlez de stresse, mais c’est pire que cela. Voyez par vous même les conditions de vie de ces fermiers. Voyez-vous les barrières qui encerclent leurs terres ? Est-ce un acte humain ? Notre combat s’étend sur le droit fondamental de l’homme. »
Koji Kitahara (92), secrétaire général et leader de la ligue contre la construction de l’aéroport de Narita.
Koji Kitahara (91)
Les avions commencent à décoller aux environ de six heure le matin, sans arrêt jusqu’à vingt trois heure, le soir. Le bruit des avions qui volent au dessus des têtes attire l’attention des visiteurs occasionnels. La majorité des habitations de la région de Narita sont équipées d’un système d’insonorisation. Lorsqu’un avion passe par dessus les maisons, le son de la télévision ou de la radio augmente automatiquement. Les murs des maisons ont été épaissis et insonorisés. Le système de chauffage et de l’air conditionné est aussi installé par la compagnie de Narita et les coûts de l’électricité sont aussi pris en charge. Telles sont les conditions qui se sont imposées pour vivre avec le bruit et la pollution.
Pour décourager et harceler les fermiers qui luttent contre l’achat des terres, la ville de Narita et la préfecture de Chiba ont barré les routes des fermiers en projetant des sites de construction en plein dessus, forçant les fermiers à faire des détours insensés pour se rendre à leurs champs. Une autre forme de harcèlement consiste à encercler les maisons avec des barrières en fer.
L’une des plus grandes luttes des classes qui ait eu lieu au Japon est celle menée contre la construction de l’aéroport de Narita. Cette lutte a aujourd’hui plus de quarante sept ans. Eclatant peu après la deuxième Guerre mondiale, elle représente au Japon, la fusion entre les luttes internes contre le capitalisme et la lutte contre l’impérialisme américain.
Avec la montée en puissance des agressions américaines contre l’Indochine, l’aéroport principale de Tokyo, située sur l’île de Haneda, avait été surchargée par un tiers, voire la moitié du trafique aérien qui provenait des charters et autres appareils militaires américains directement liés à la guerre en l’Indochine. En 1966, le gouvernement du premier ministre Eisaku Sato avait alors décidé de s’emparer d’un village à Sanrizuka, situé à une soixantaine de kilomètres au Nord de Tokyo.
Le terrain sur lequel l’aéroport se trouve actuellement avait longtemps été géré comme propriété de l’Etat sous la juridiction du premier ministre en fonction. Une fois évacuées en avril 1969, le gouvernement remettait les terres à son ministère de la finance. Se débarrasser du ranch impérial de Shimosa Goryo, qui occupait alors la plupart des terres, rendait la tâche plus facile aux autorités qui s’appropriait ainsi comme base de sécurité les 500 hectares de terre pour entamer la besogne. Certaines sources historiques indiquent que lors de la première tentative de saisissement des terres, les forces policières avaient terrorisé la population locale et battu le chef le plus âgé des fermiers, ce qui avaient attiré l’attention et le soutien de milliers de travailleurs et d’étudiants venus des quatre coins du pays pour se joindre à leur lutte.
pancarte anti aéroport datant des années 70s
La décroissance des plaines vertes
Plus de quatre décennies se sont écoulées depuis que le début de la lutte sanglante contre la construction de l’aéroport de Narita. A Narita, dont le caractère chinois signifie «croissance des champs, » des pleines vertes, des vastes champs de légumes et de riz s’étendaient à grandes distances. M. Koji Kitahara avait décidé de s’installer en ces lieux à son retour de fonction dans la marine japonaise. Les terrains étaient ouverts. Il avait 21 ans. Koji Kitahara en a aujourd’hui 91, il est devenu le secrétaire général et leader de la ligue contre la construction de l’aéroport de Narita. Du haut de ses petites jambes frêles et fatiguées, il représente encore et toujours le symbole d’une lutte historique. Peu après la défaite du Japon et des explosions des bombes atomiques de Hiroshima et Nagasaki, il s’en était fallu que d’une courte période de transition avant qu’un changement radical ne s’impose dans la gouvernance japonaise. « Durant ma jeunesse, la défaite militaire du Japon avait ouvert pour les jeunes de ma génération, une nouvelle perspective et nous avait donné une liberté infinie pour un avenir nouveau.» Se rappelle M. Kitahara.
comment voir l’avenir
« Le soleil ne s’est pas encore levé sur les idéaux développés durant ma jeunesse » Koji Kitahara, (91)
En 1966 cependant, l’Etat décide de construire un aéroport international à Narita, une province qui se situe à environ 64 kilomètres du centre de Tokyo. En bafouant la loi japonaise sur le droit à la terre, le gouvernement se met à acheter des terrains aux propriétaires légaux sans acquérir la faveur des habitants. Au moment des faits, le Japon possède une loi extraordinaire sur l’expropriation qui protège les habitants des lieux. «La colère du peuple avait éclaté au moment-même où le gouvernement avait commencé à enfreindre ses propres lois au nom du développement technologique et économique. » Explique M. Kitahara. Les fermiers de la région s’étaient présentés chez lui afin de lui demander de l’aide et de devenir le représentant de leur lutte contre le projet de construction. « J’étais devenu une sorte de « maire » pour cette cité qui allait être effacée de la carte du Japon. » Pour Koji Kitahara, si le gouvernement lui-même a quoi que ce soit à se reprocher, c’est qu’il était naturel de devoir se battre afin de protéger les droits-même que le gouvernement lui avait précédemment attribués. « Bien sûr, ajoute-il, personne ne savait si cela allait être possible, mais il fallait tenter la bataille. C’est ainsi que j’ai accepté d’entreprendre la mission que les fermiers m’avaient confiée, et jamais durant ces 47 dernières années je n’ai failli à mon poste. »
Selon M. Kitahara, cinq milles personnes ayant commis des « infractions contre le pouvoir de l’Etat » ont été arrêtées durant la lutte, et une vingtaine de personnes sont décédées du côté des protestataires, galvanisés et soutenus par les membres de l’extrême gauche japonaise, connue pour sa violence inouïe. Les chiffres historiques varient selon les différentes sources opposées. La police nationale a refusé tout entretien avec la journaliste concernant le nombre de morts ou les causes de ces décès sous prétexte que leur media ne faisait pas partie du cercle du Kisha Club ou « clubs de presse, » dont la liberté a commencé à poser problème au Japon depuis l’accident nucléaire de Fukushima, le plus important mondialement après celui de Tchernobyl. (Cf le rapport de Reporter Sans Frontière sur le sujet.)
atterissage au dessus de la tour contrôlant les manifestants
La compagnie de l’Aéroport International de Narita dénombre à trois les morts du côté de la police, et n’a pas indiqué les chiffres du côté des opposants. Les portes paroles du Parti Communiste japonais actuel nient également connaître le nombre de morts durant ces luttes historiques, affirmant n’avoir « aucun lien avec les luttes actuelles des fermiers de Narita, ni les précédentes. »
Koji Kitahara conclut d’un air désespéré que ses partisans ont payé leurs efforts de « sacrifices sans précédents. Ce qui s’est passé ici ne peut pas avoir lieu en France. » Affirme-t-il.
Barrière en fer séparant la piste A en construction et la terre de M. Takao Shito (62)
La demeure de Koji Kitahara se situe dans la ligne qui forme la continuité de la piste A, qui mesure 4000 mètres. Veuf, il habite aujourd’hui avec son fils aîné et sa belle fille. Des portraits peints dans le style maoiste du temps de sa jeunesse, sont suspendus dans la salle principale de la maison. Des vieux souvenirs de la lutte. Koji Kitahara a été arrêté à quatre reprises. Selon lui, il ne faisait qu’exercer son droit le plus légitime. Il attendait de son gouvernement la protection de ces droits fondamentaux. Cependant, la construction de l’aéroport de Narita n’est toujours pas achevée, dû au fait de l’entêtement des agriculteurs qui ne vendent pas leur terre.
Aucun regret
« Le gouvernement offre autant d’argent que les habitants le souhaitent, à condition que qu’ils acceptent l’achèvement de l’aéroport de Narita. » Ce genre de proposition, Koji Kitahara en a reçu plus d’une fois, explique-t-il fatigué. « Mais je n’ai jamais cédé, » ajoute-t-il en reprenant de la force, « dans ces moments, le pouvoir me jetait en prison pour violation de l’ordre publique, je suppose. » Pour Koji Kitahara et ses camarades de lutte, le message est passé dans le monde entier, car des ouvriers Américains, Coréens, et même Chinois, viennent lui rendre un tribut. Sans compter les journalistes venus d’Europe qui couvrent des histoires similaires dans leur pays. Pour Koji Kitahara, la classe ouvrière et les agriculteurs ont besoin d’un syndicat et d’une bonne gestion de leur force pour garder la force de l’union sociale.
les choux du dernier champs sont arrosés de kerosene
Certains champs de légumes se situent à l’intérieur-même des pistes d’atterrissage
La terre que M. Takao Shito (62), et son père avant lui louaient à leur propriétaire avait été vendue à la compagnie Narita qui formulait en 2006 une plainte pénale et une demande d’expulsion. Soudés, les fermiers s’entraident en participant aux procès à titre de témoins.
A Tenjin Mine, le champ et la serre de M. Shito se situent actuellement à la frontière de la piste B de l’aéroport de Narita. « Il y avait un chemin à cet endroit, » Explique M. Shito en montrant une barrière en fer haute de 3 mètres coupant ce qui reste du chemin en travers. « C’est la ville de Narita qui a vendu les terres de l’autre côté de cette barrière aux gens de la compagnie de l’aéroport. » Le terrain sur lequel M. Shito cultive ses légumes avait été choisi par les militants communistes et les fermiers pour en faire le quartier général de la lutte, du fait de sa situation géographique. A une centaine de mètres de la serre où il cultive des patates douces mauves, en passant par la broussaille d’herbe trop haute, une tour en acier qui avait jadis mesuré une soixantaine de mètres avait servi de symbole de la lutte contre la modernité. La tour avait été érigée en plein dans la face de la piste B, ayant pour but de rendre la tâche plus difficiles aux avions en phases d’atterrissage. La tour, jadis haute et fière, est aujourd’hui détruite à moitié. Des plantes lui ont poussé le long des barres métalliques, fatiguée mais solide, comme Koji Kitahara qui marche à petits pas prudents sur le sol dont l’herbe lui arrive aux genoux.
M. Takao Shito habitait à Ichikawa et travaillait dans la restauration avant de se rendre à Narita sur les terres que son père cultivait avant sa mort. Le procès de la compagnie Narita contre M. Shito a commencé en 2006. Depuis plus de dix ans, il a vu les constructions s’affairer dans toute la région et autour de son champ. « Je savais à quoi m’attendre en déménageant ici, je voyais déjà les problèmes de mon père avant qu’il ne me lègue sa ferme. » Explique-t-il d’un ton désolé. La société Narita veut s’emparer de 60% des champs de M. Shito en lui payant une compensation en monnaie. Celui-ci rétorque avec conviction que s’il lui manquait 60% de ses terres, il ne pourrait jamais vivre de son métier. « Les bruits des constructions et des avions sont insoutenables, je n’arrive pas à dormir la nuit. Le procès a commencé du temps de son père. Bien qu’il n’ait pas pris fin, les constructions battent leur plein tout autour de son lieu de travail.
Comme lui, il existe encore des agriculteurs qui vivent de leurs cultures. Il est difficile de déterminer le nombre des habitants s’opposant à la construction de l’aéroport. « S’opposer à la construction de l’aéroport c’est comme s’opposer à la politique nationale, c’est pourquoi les hommes comme mon père sont considérés comme des dissidents. Pour parler plus strictement, nous sommes considérés comme des forces antisociales, » Explique Kenji Kitahara.
Du côté des autorités et de leurs alliés
En 1966, le conseil des ministres ayant formalisé la décision de construire l’aéroport international de Narita, projette un aéroport comportant trois pistes. Aujourd’hui, seule l’une d’entre elle est complète dans son entier. Il s’agit de la piste A, mesurant 4000 mètres. La construction de la deuxième piste commence en 1999. Celle-ci devient opérationnelle en 2002, mais prend fin officiellement en octobre 2009, étendue à 2500 mètres au lieu de 2180 mètres en 2002.
En 2001, l’aéroport international permettait le décollage de d’environ 360 avions par jour. Avec la fonction partielle de la piste B en 2002, environ 450 appareils décollaient en direction de l’extérieur. Aujourd’hui, l’aéroport en est à environ 600 décollages par jour. Pour des raisons de sécurité, les portes paroles de l’aéroport de Narita ont refusé de donner les chiffres concernant les coûts des constructions. « La piste B est construite sur un terrain encore habité, c’est pourquoi la compagnie Narita ne peut pas encore étendre sa piste B. Nous ne sommes pas en mesure de savoir quand les terrains seront cédés à l’aéroport dans l’avenir. »
Après maintes négociations au téléphone avec la police locale, celle-ci a refusé de révéler le nombre de citoyens, du côté des opposants et du côté de la police, qui ont payé de leur vie la bataille contre la construction de l’aéroport.
Les portes parole de la compagnie de Narita rapportent à trois le nombre de morts du côté de la police et les chefs de la lutte sociale rapportent à vingt morts du côté des protestataires. Les mêmes sources rapportent que pendant les 47 années de bataille, 5000 citoyens protestataires auraient été arrêtés par la police pour trouble de l’ordre publique.
Chez M. Susumu Hagiwara (65), le chef de la ferme de Toho et directeur général adjoint de la ligue contre la construction de l’aéroport de Narita, des étudiants communistes viennent soutenir le travail des fermiers.
Susumu Hagiwara explique que, comparé aux agriculteurs d’autres régions du Japon, sa famille et lui endurent un stresse supplémentaire et indésirable, comme les procès qui ont lieu deux à trois fois par mois dans d’autres cités éloignées. Les dimanches sont souvent réservés aux manifestations. « Je suis fatigué dans le sens que je n’effectue pas uniquement mon métier qui est celui d’agriculteur. En dehors de cela, je dois m’occuper d’organiser les réunions, les discussions et les manifestations anti-aéroport de Narita. Je fais cela depuis les 47 dernières années. »
Interrogé sur sa santé, Susumu Hagiwara explique que la pollution provenant du kérosène rejeté dans l’air par les appareils ressemble au problème actuel de la radioactivité à Fukushima. « On ne peux pas savoir quels seront les effets qu’auront les gazes résiduaires sur notre santé, sans parler la perte de l’audition. Il est difficile de prouver l’impact qu’auraient, par exemple, les odeurs des pneus qui brûlent au moment de l’atterrissage, ou l’odeur du kérosène sur notre santé ou la santé de nos enfants. Pour nous, il est impossible de mener une enquête scientifique pour le démontrer. Le parti opposé nous répond que cela ne diffère pas de la pollution des villes, avec l’odeur des pots d’échappement des voitures. Notre pays, et même les autres pays ne prennent pas en compte ces problèmes environnementaux. »
Les légumes de M. Susumu Hagiwara sont revendus dans les supermarchés locaux. La société Narita ne conduit bien entendu pas de recherches sur les dangers de la culture organique de ces légumes sensés être « bio. »
Susumu Hagiwara habite à 300 mètres à l’est du site de l’aéroport de Narita, dans sa ferme de Toho.
La loi sur l’expropriation des terres, qui se limite à une quarantaine d’années, a été utilisée d’une manière inattendue en ce sens que les terres ont été acquises de leur propriétaire, avec la promesse d’un paiement sur les frais du bail. Bien que ces terres aient été acquises 15 années auparavant par leurs propriétaires, elles ont ensuite être expropriées afin d’expulser les habitants de ces terres.
« Si les autorités continuent à exproprier les terres des agriculteurs, alors l’agriculture japonaise, qui est déjà réduite à diminuer d’années en années, le Japon aura des problèmes dans le domaine alimentaire. La réponse du gouvernement est l’importation des denrées alimentaires. » S’exclame Susumu Hagiwara.
« Je n’ai rien sacrifié, j’y ai gagné le monde tout entier. » Yoshiro Yagami (34)
Yoshiro Yagami (34) est un ancien étudiant communiste. Il a fait ses études à l’université de Kyushu, dans le sud du Japon. Il venait soutenir les fermiers de Narita, et il a aujourd’hui fini par rester auprès de M. Susumu Hagiwara en trouvant une raison de vivre dans sa lutte. Yoshiro n’est pas marié, mais il se sent heureux. « Si je n’avais jamais rencontré la lutte des gens de Sanrizuka, j’aurais été un homme incapable de vivre sans penser qu’à lui-même. C’est grâce à ma rencontre avec ces paysans démunis de leurs droits que j’ai pu rejoindre la lutte des personnes du monde entier, en dépassant les frontières des nations. Je n’ai rien sacrifié, j’ai gagné le monde en me joignant à cette lutte. » Yoshiro Yagami s’est installé il y a huit ans à plus de 2 kilomètres de l’aéroport de Narita. Avec la loi sur la sécurité de Narita, il n’a pas le droit de vivre à l’intérieur de la zone délimitée.
Une histoire injuste
« Le gouvernement s’était emparé des terres. Cela faisait partie d’un arrangement tordu de la part du Parti Libéral Démocratique (PLD). » Explique Robert Whiting, auteur de Tokyo Underworld, un best seller retraçant la vie d’un soldat Américain d’origine italienne installé dans le Japon de l’après guerre ayant développé des relations avec la mafia locale. Selon ses recherches, certaines personnes liées au premier ministre Kakuei Tanaka, premier ministre au pouvoir entre 1972 et 1974, avaient acheté des terres à Narita, et le gouvernement annonçait soudainement qu’un aéroport international allait se construire à cet endroit. Les prix au mètre carré avaient explosés. « Les personnes qui avaient acheté des terres à ces endroits ont gagné une fortune. Ça, c’est le côté tordu de l’histoire. Et puis, il y avait ces pauvres fermiers qui ne voulaient pas quitter leurs terres, mais ils y ont été forcés. Ça avait mis des années pour les déplacer, mais il y en a encore quelques uns qui subsistent. Kouji Kitahara est un héro, et il ne reste plus aucun héros dans le Japon moderne. » Commente Robert Whiting. « Aucun fermier ne souhaitait avoir un aéroport là-bas à Narita. Il n’y avait pas de raisons de construire un aéroport aussi loin de Tokyo, à une heure et demie du centre ville. (Actuellement 56 minutes avec le Narita Express). Ce que le gouvernement a fait avec ses fermiers avait été injuste. Il leur a enlevé leur terre. » Le Japon a des lois différentes de celles des Etats Unis en ce qui concerne l’expropriation du domaine privé. La loi sur l’expropriation au Japon protège le locataire, on ne peut pas délocaliser une personne de son lieu de d’habitation. » Explique Robert Whiting. Il est possible de déplacer des personnes ainsi dans certains autres pays, dont les Etats Unis, mais il est théoriquement interdit de le faire au Japon. « C’est dans ces moments-là que la mafia japonaise intervient avec efficacité. Mais le gouvernement n’avait aucun droit de délocaliser ces personnes de chez elles. C’est pour cela que M. Susumu Kitahara se trouve encore là. »
Tomio Hagiwara (44) un fermier de Narita
L’avenir
Les fermiers de Narita ont appris à reconnaître les avions, à force de vivre et travailler au milieu des pistes d’atterrissage et décollage. « Ça ressemble à la Palestine, » explique Tomio Hagiwara (44), en montrant du doigt les bâtiments du quartier de la police anti-émeute qui se trouve de l’autre côté des fils barbelés qui limitent le terrain de son beau-père. Tomio Hagiwara habite à Narita depuis une dizaine d’année, après avoir épousé la fille de M. Susumu Hagiwara, avec laquelle il a eu la petite Momoka, 8, qui participe aux réunions journalières des agriculteurs, sagement assise aux côtés de son grand-père, le vieux résistant. Son père, Tomio a commencé la lutte il y a 24 ans, lorsqu’il était étudiant. Le parti communiste soutenait ces paysans parce qu’il souhaitait gagner les voix de ces agriculteurs. Certaines sources rapportent que les communistes de l’armée rouge japonaise, ou les militants de l’extrême gauche avaient lutté férocement contre les forces de l’ordre. Aujourd’hui, les portes paroles du parti communiste japonais prétendent qu’il n’a jamais eu affaire avec « les incidents impliquant des fermiers de Narita, ni aujourd’hui, ni dans le passé. »
Tomio Hagiwara explique que le parti communiste s’était détaché des opposants sitôt qu’il y avait eu des morts et des blessés. Tomio Hagiwara ne vote plus ni pour le parti socialiste, ni pour le parti communiste japonais. « C’est vraiment fatigant de lutter en permanence. Chaque famille a ses raisons personnelles de se mettre à vendre leur terre. » Tomio Hagiwara est père. Il avoue redouter les accidents d’atterrissage. En avril 2009, un cargo Fedex Express s’écrase sur la piste A, en tentant un atterrissage dans des conditions de vent extrêmes, causant la mort du pilote et du copilote. « Nous avons peur des accidents qui peuvent avoir lieu. J’ai vu un avion dépasser la piste d’atterrissage. Si les avions s’écrasent, ils nous arrivent dessus. »
Tomio Hagiwara pense que sa fille Momoka qui a aujourd’hui huit ans, décidera elle-même si elle souhaite vivre sur les terres de ses ancêtres plus tard. Il explique que s’il était stressé, il ne pourrait pas être où il en est aujourd’hui. « Ce qui me tient bon, sans dévier de mon chemin, c’est l’aide des étudiants communistes, les autres luttes sociales comme les opposants à l’énergie nucléaire, les opposants au site militaire américains d’Okinawa. »
Fukushima: Two summers and a winter living with no electricity
Tokyo – September 11, 2012 was the one year and six months anniversary of the big Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster, followed by the Fukushima nuclear accident.
The nuclear disaster has displaced 100’000 people. The nuclear disaster also made huge amounts unusable land in northern Japan for decades to come. Critics in Japan and overseas have largely questioned, whether Tepco has sufficiently considered the tsunami and earthquake risks.
Tomioka town, after the earthquake hit, in 2011 (photo: Naoto Matsumura)
For more than eight months, the 20 km zone around the Fukushima power plant was a forbidden zone where evacuation is an obligation for everyone, except one man. Since the nuclear accident, Naoto Matsumura refuses to leave his farm. At the age of 53, this farmer is physically in a good shape. In the city of Tomioka, in the Prefecture of Fukushima, where he currently lives, there is no water and no electricity. People who can identify themselves as being residents of the evacuated area and members of their families can get inside with a special pass. Reporters have requested these passes by pretending they were “married” or somehow “family related” to the residents who originally lived in the evacuated zone in order to get inside and report how it is. Therefore, Mr. Naoto Matsumura is not the only man going inside the the forbidden zone, however he is still living there in his original home with the animals which he took under his responsibility. The police patrols and the frontier guards do not seem to be very picky on checking the faces and the identities of the people going inside, like foreign reporters, because of the necessary masks and whole body white suits.
Currently, Naoto Matsumura is taking care of three dogs, Taro and Ishimatsu, and a third little orphan he found near the awful cow skeletons, now so sadly famous. Just three weeks ago, Mr. Matsumura was paying a visit to some remote areas of Tomioka town, and he said “the poor dog probably got a skin or fur infection. It was lying there in the middle of the dead cows, it looked sad and depressed. Its fur had gone off, and it looked skinny. When I approached it, it didn’t react aggressively, on the contrary, it looked happy to find a man, alive. So it followed me into my pick up truck and I took it home and fed it.” Mr. Matsumura called it “Kiseki”, the word for “Miracle.”
Tomioka town, after the earthquake hit, in 2011 (photo: Naoto Matsumura)
The dead cows spot where “Miracle” was probably found by Mr. Matsumura three weeks ago. Reportedly, the place was full of germs and worms. Miracle probably caught a diseases while staying there. (photo: Naoto Matsmura)
The poor little Kiseki aka Miracle, will probably never be adopted by anyone in Japan, like some other Fukushima dogs had been recently. It looks too ugly, nobody would want it in the living room or even in one’s garden. He can only live in the Fukushima no-go zone, counting on the gentle voice and love of Mr. Matsumura, and his two companions, Taro and Ishimatsu, which accepted it pretty well, because they suffer the same misery.
Other than the team of four, who often stay together, there are additional 30 or so cats, which are much more independent and learned to live pretty much in the wilderness, but which still count on the hands of Mr. Matsumura to be fed occasionally.
Tomioka town, Fukushima, 2011 (photo: Naoto Matsumura)
The Fukushima “lesbian” ostriches
Another photo of the famous ostrich of Fukushima, in 2011 (photo: Naoto Matsumura)
There are two ostriches, two females. One of them got a big egg recently, but it was technically not fertilized and so will never be the next eggs.
Seventy Five Cows and a Pony
Mr. Matsumura also has a little pony, called Yama, like the mountain. As for the famous cows, there are now 60 males and females and happily 15 healthy calves.
“Today, I had a visit from a reporter of Friday Magazine, so I had some human encounter, but those guys leave when it becomes dark, so it isn’t fun.” Mr. Matsumura never complained, but he admitted that the summer had been tough, the water from the well dried up. No air conditioning, no television, no water. “I still eat exclusively precooked food, cup noodles, instant curry and so on. I go to my attributed evacuation home only 2 or 3 times in a month.”
Naoto Matsumura said he dares not ask for help to anyone, since doing anything inside the no-go zone can affect one’s health, due to the high radiation rate. However, his NGO partners had left him aside lately, and he is dealing with the feeding all by himself. He said sometimes he receives donation pet food from Japanese nationals who support him and encourages him. He has stayed in good contact with “Gattsu Fukushima” and its leader Endo-san, but his own NGO “Ganbaru Fukushima” had had only one active member until recently, and it was himself. Time passes by slowly indeed. But the Fukushima nuclear accident has caused the forced evacuation of more than 100,000 people in Fukushima. Many will never step their foot back in their home land again. The left behind are the animals. “We cannot do anything about them, this is a no-go zone,” the authorities had said. But Mr. Matsumura continues to feed those animals left behind. And he will continue to operate inside the town until someday action will be finally taken by authorities and the Japanese people to rebuilt this region of Fukushima, with decontamination of the soil, and reconstruction of the houses.
Naoto Matsumura helping cows to give birth, around spring of 2012. (photo: Munesuke Yamamoto, a photo journalist.)
A Star meeting a Comet in the FFZ last Week
Tomioka-town, June 2nd, 2012
Another happy news from the Fukushima Forbidden Zone: Last Thursday, a new calf was born successfully. The new born female is the fourth calve to come to this world after the great Tohoku tsunami and nuclear disaster that obliged thousands of people to move “temporarily” from their homes.
Last week, an attractive celebrity came inside the FFZ accompanied by 4 other volunteers, to help Mr. Matsumura’s work.
Kumiko Ohba, 52, a retired singer and actress who was a pin-up idol in the 1970’s, came to help Mr. Matsumura to do the farming work. Kumiko Oba has especially helped Mr. Matsumura to collect the grass that he has been cutting with a farming machine. She first came to his farm on the 28th around noon and left before the sun set. Stayed over night in Iwaki-city and came back the next morning from 10 am to 3pm.
Mr. Matsumura and his NPO colleagues decided not to give any names to the new born calves, out of superstition, Matsumura explained: “Two times when we baptized the new born calve, they died few days later. So we decided not give names.” However, Mrs. Kumiko Ohba baptized baby number four, she called it Kometto, “comet” in English, referring from the famous TV drama she starred recently.
Mrs. Ohba expressed her gratitude to Mr. Matsumura before she left the doomed city and said: “Matsumura-san, ganbatte kudasai, please stay strong.”
Mr. Matsumura said that a TV crew tried to enter the forbidden zone to cover the helping attempt of the star singer, but they did not receive permission from the government to accompany her and the 4 other volunteers who visited Mr. Matsumura from May 28 to 29, 2012, inside the Fukushima No-go zone.
Kyoko Miura in Tokyo
Fukushima Forbidden Zone Cows: Support from Authorities
Tomioka-town, Sunday 26th May
Naoto Matsumura reported a third birth inside the FFZ this week. Out of three calves, two died. However, this week two additional calves were born successfully, which makes a total of three “healthy “ calves at the moment.
A total of seven high level representatives including representatives of the Ministry of Forestry, Agriculture and Fisheries, of the Fukushima Prefecture, of a medical association, and the mayor of Tomioka town have visited Naoto Matsumura in the exclusion zone last Wednesday. As a result of talks, a decision has been made not to kill the surviving cows of the FFZ.
A victory for Naoto Matsumura, who is now starting to get support from officials. “After the nuclear accident, the government officials repeatedly said there was nothing to be done for the animals caught inside the 20 km no-go zone. Last winter they were talking about exterminating them, rather than feeding them,” Matsumura said over the telephone, while driving his white Suzuki pick-up truck, this Sunday morning.
Tomioka town, May 2011: it was unclear what the city officials were doing to this cow. Photo: Naoto Matsumura, 2011
The weather has been nice overall this week inside the FFZ, and Matsumura was in a good mood on this Sunday morning, which was rather sunny and warm in both Tokyo and Tomioka town.
We should not forget this Japanese town, contaminated for decades to come where a man has courageously decided to stay in “until he dies”, Naoto Matsumura said many times.
Kyoko Miura
Press Release Reporters Without Borders JAPANESE
05.23.2012
日本
国境なき記者団
プレスリリース 05.23.2012
フリーランス 福島第一訪問で差別に直面
今月５月２６日に予定されている昨年３月１１日の津波と地震で大打撃を受けた福島第一原子力施設内部への第３回目プレス・バスツアー。同ツアーには、約４０人の記者が参加。その内、わずか２人のフリーランスに入域許可が下りた。
大手メディア所属のTVカメラマンや写真家などの参加は認められている一方、この２人のフリーランスに関しては、スチール・カメラそして撮影用カメラの所持そして撮影は禁止されている。
参加予定のフリーランスライター 畠山理仁は「国境なき記者団」との対談で、代表カメラによるムービー４台、スチール４台の撮影が許可されていることを指摘。しかし、報道機関に加盟していない同フリーランスに関しては、如何なるカメラ機材も持ち込んではならないと条件付けられた事実を語った。
「このような明白な差別は、隠れたところで行われている密かな情報統制であり、受け入れることは出来ない」、国境なき記者団は抗議した。
「原発水素爆発の事故から一年経過した現在でも、政府関係者や東京電力は原子炉のメルトダウンによる原発施設、人体、そして環境への影響などに関する情報を極めて著しく統制している」
「政府側の言い分はまったく根拠がなく合理性に欠けたものである。情報にアクセスするという権利は、憲法第２１条に記載されている事実であり、メディアそして市民ジャーナリズムに携わる全ての人々に適応することである。数人の選別された人だけに与えられる特権ではない」
「論理的な視点から、原発施設視察に関して規制が課せられるというのは理屈のつくものである。が、その規制が日本のフリーランスや外国報道陣に対して使用されるバイアス（偏見・差別）とはなってはならない。我々は政府にこのような差別に基づいた規制を即座に中止するように追及し、更なる人数のフリーランスが今月２６日の訪問に参加させるように求めた」
「そして、入域を許可されたフリーランス２人に対してはカメラ機材の持ち込みを認めるように要請した」
昨日（２２日）の、国境なき記者団とのやり取りの中で、園田康博・内閣府大臣政務官は２人のフリーランスがカメラ機材を持ち運び、撮影することを禁止する姿勢を全面的に表明し、規制を掛ける幾つかの理由を述べた。
まず、第一に、特別にチャーターされた２台のバスが用意されている事実にも関わらず、園田政務官は「十分な場所がない」ことを理由に挙げた。そして続いて、時間の問題もあると指摘。カメラやビデオ機材は現場で核物質防護上の観点から特別に管理されなければならず、余りにも多い数の機材が持ち込まれるとなると出発時間を大きく延長させると説明した。
フリーランスの畠山は、今回、報道陣が防護服を着用し4号機建屋から70～80ｍの距離でバスから10分間降車しての取材が行なわれることを説明した。
東京電力そして日本政府がメディアに対して差別的な対応を取ったのは今回が初めてではない。昨年２月、２回目の報道陣による福島第一原発施設内訪問では、初回のツアーでは排除されていた外国人ジャーナリストらに対して、放映する前に必ず撮影した画像などを事前チェックさせることを要求していた。
外国報道陣、フォーリン・プレス・センターそして外国特派員クラブの会員からの強い抗議の末、そのような事前チェックは取り下げられた。
原発事故から一年後、相変わらず、新聞協会や報道局に加盟している記者らと比べて、フリーランス・ジャーナリストらは更に厳しい報道規制を課せられている。
海外報道陣も例外ではない。
国境なき記者団が毎年調査している「世界報道自由レベル インデックス」の２０１１－２０１２年版で、日本は１７９カ国中、２２位だ。
Contributed by 瀬川牧子
Reporters Without Borders / Reporters sans frontières
Press release / Communiqué de presse
05.23.2012
ENG: http://en.rsf.org/japan-freelance-journalists-face-23-05-2012,42669.html
FRA: http://fr.rsf.org/japon-tepco-et-le-gouvernement-japonais-23-05-2012,42668.html
Tomioka-Town, FFZ: Foreseeing Cooperation Agreement With the Mayor
Tomioka-town – Friday 18th of May 2012
During this week, which has been “quite rainy” inside the FFZ, but “not too cold” a third calf was born last Monday. According to Naoto Matsumura, there have been two previous births among the hundred or so cows, which he is taking care of currently. The two died, as we know. However, “this one really looks healthy and strong” he said over the telephone tonight, “this one will live.”
This week has been the first week after his new NPO started to exist under the name of “Ganbaru Fukushima”. He said he was overall satisfied with the situation: “I have no particular feelings, but right now, what I feel is tremendous responsibility.”
Yesterday, Naoto Matsumura received a phone call from the mayor of Tomioka-town. The mayor told Matsumura that he will “cooperate in the task.” Next Wednesday, the people who grant the agricultural award will come to visit Matsumura at his farm-house. “We will have a discussion,” Matsumura said.
Nathalie-Kyoko
nathalieandkyoko 