/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC: Japan, Jamaica Grow Closer with One Love

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Alecia McKenzie

TOKYO, Jun 22 2004 (IPS) - Reggae music boomed from the stage, but the energetic singer was a slim Japanese youth. The aroma of Jamaican jerk chicken filled the air, but the cook was a robust, shaven-headed Tokyoite.

Young men and women sporting dreadlocks and brightly coloured garb drifted around with benign smiles, but most had never set foot in the Caribbean.

Welcome to Tokyo’s ‘One Love Jamaica Festival’, held in late May at the city’s famous Yoyogi Park to celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Jamaica.

Under clear and sunny skies, despite earlier predictions of rain, some 20,000 fans danced to heavy bass rhythms and snapped up items for sale such as Blue Mountain coffee, golden rum, knitted tams and tee-shirts with the Rasta colours of red, green and gold.

The atmosphere was one of laid-back enjoyment in a country normally considered conservative and inward-looking.

”I myself am surprised that it’s such a success,” said organiser Ryuchi Tsuruno, who has been putting on much smaller versions of the festival for seven years. ”We never expected so many people or so many performers.”

Earlier events had attracted a maximum of 500 people because of the size of the venues. This was the first time the event was held outdoors and with admission free.

The popular Japanese reggae band Home Grown provided the backing music,while a procession of 22 amateur and semi-professional singers belted out Bob Marley songs before the audience and a panel of judges.

The best singer would receive a free trip to Jamaica to stay at an exclusive resort. Some of the performers sounded remarkably like the late Marley, with renditions of ‘No Woman No Cry’, ‘Redemption Song’ and other hits, and if one closed one’s eyes, one could easily imagine being at a festival like Reggae Sumfest in Jamaica.

Indeed, part of the reason for organising the event was to turn imagination into reality.

The number of Japanese tourists travelling to the Caribbean island has plummeted from a high of 30,000 in the mid-nineties to about 5,000 currently.

The Jamaican ambassador to Japan, Paul Robotham, blames the decline in numbers on the struggling Asian economy and the fallout from the Sep. 11 attacks in the United States. He hopes that events like the festival will push the number of tourists back up.

”Japanese people have long had an affinity for Jamaican music and culture, and this event highlights and underlines the importance of such cultural exchange,” he said.

Increased tourism from Japan would help to balance the trade situation between both countries, he added. Last year, Jamaica imported 18 billion yen (164 million dollars) worth of products from Japan, including automobiles, machinery and electrical appliances.

In contrast, during the same period, the country exported goods worth four billion yen (36 million dollars) to Japan, consisting mainly of coffee, rum and spices.

The Asian country is the leading market for the famed Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, importing 80 percent of production, according to figures from the Jamaican embassy.

”If tourism grows, that would make things more balanced because it is an earner of foreign currency for us,” Robotham said. He added, however, that Jamaica’s development efforts have benefited significantly from the partnership with Japan.

”Japan’s technical cooperation with Jamaica has been particularly valuable, encompassing the transfer of technology through training, as well as cultural exchanges, export promotion and bilateral grants and loans,”Robotham stated.

He said that as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, 41 Jamaican teachers were now teaching English in Japanese schools.

Apart from culture and trade, the One Love Festival also drew attention to the growing people-to-people relations between the two island nations,which are generally poles apart in history and social structure.

At the event, a common sight was bicultural children playing or dancing to the music, while their parents ate noodles and jerk chicken.

”Something like this is great for both countries,” said Jamaican singer and musician Pablo, who has lived in Japan for 14 years and is married to a Japanese woman. ”It makes everyone feel good.”

But according to another Jamaican onlooker: ”Japanese youth may dress up in Rasta colours for now, but once they get a job, they put on a suit and forget about dancing to reggae.”