Drawing up battle lines !

Cartoonist Yoshinori Kobayashi, pictured holding a copy of his magazine, has cast Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as the villain in the row over visits to the Yasukini shrine. Koizumi is a symbol of wishy-washy Japan, he says.

Manga Artist Strike Back!!!


The Standard - Drawing up battle lines - Focus Section:On the book jacket, he gazes out with steely self-confidence in his white kimono, his distinctly uncool red-framed glasses the only hint of the social isolation that brought him this far.
Sixty years after the end of World War II, one of the best-selling books touching on Japan's controversial history is the work of a cartoonist - or manga man - Yoshinori Kobayashi.

Employing a masterful balance of wit and understatement, Kobayashi is again taking his unapologetic and provocative defense of Japan's past to a wider audience.

This time, he is campaigning on behalf of Yasukuni shrine, the sanctuary to Japanese war dead at the center of tensions with the two countries that suffered most under its wartime occupation - China and South Korea."

One view, however, that has won him some friends on the left is his fear that Japan is becoming, both culturally and economically, too much like the United States.

In my opinion...being controversial is something artists have always done well...How far will our friend Yoshinori go? Stay Tuned!

Mark Alderwood
The Anime Times

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