Serving Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and surrounding communities
By Sara Ellis
If anything reveals the dark side of the American palate, it's the Food Network's latest incarnation of The Iron Chef. Chef Masaharu Morimoto is pressed into battle against a Western opponent, a neutral ingredient is chosen, and an ostensibly fair competition begins. Yet, despite his mastery and familiarity with the subject matter, Morimoto is bound to lose. In the last half hour of the program, his opponent will whip out the butter, the cheese, and the cream, and the judges, usually as unqualified arbiters of Japanese cuisine as the president is of syntax, will fall to their calorically padded knees.
It's too bad, because while places like New York and California pride themselves on their cosmopolitan fare, an oft-ignored secret is that the Japanese have got them beaten in just about every arena, including an obsession with the minutia and variety of the world's foodstuffs strong enough to destroy every open-kitchen from here to Manhattan. Stop by Costa Mesa's Mitsuwa or Marukai supermarkets and you'll see this obsession in print, where stacks of papers, from the San Diego based Yu-Yu to the local Sweet Orange, entice readers with images of Korean barbecue and ads for Hokkaido crab. Other than the tame snapshots in the entertainment paper La-La, there is little tabloid action here, perhaps revealing a healthier focus on the everyday enjoyment of people who eat, rather than the American obsession with celebrities who don't. Food is, after all, the fastest way to connect to a far away home. The Huntington beach-based Sweet Orange, however, provides more than just recipes and restaurant listings. The colorful monthly, which began in 2002 with a run of just 500 copies, has become a much-needed source of practical information for Japanese residents not quite comfortable in their adopted language. The only locally published Japanese language newspaper, Sweet Orange has now grown to 10,000 copies, sometimes taking up to a week for publisher Rocky Yakushiji to distribute.
Yakushiji, a soft-spoken Kobe native, hadn't dreamt of running a newspaper when he moved to the area four years ago. “A newspaper wasn't my first choice,” he says, “My goal was to get more business opportunities for myself and for Japanese business people in the community.” Yakushiji was pondering his options, when the paper's founder, Todd Horinouchi, asked him for help. “(Horinouchi) was issuing (Sweet Orange) but was having a hard time financially, so I started out working as a sales person.”
The sudden change in career and climate certainly wasn't anything new for a man who helped to get Tokyo Disneyland off the ground, and then went on to found his own international language school. When Horinouchi opted out of the business a year later, Yakushiji quickly decided to take the reins. “I offered to start again, but he didn't have the passion to continue,” he says, “Three years on, I've got more information about business, but I'm also satisfied that people have enjoyed (the paper).”
When I ask whether Sweet Orange has ever taken stances on Japanese political matters, such as the recent election of the hawkish Shinzo Abe to the post of Prime Minister, he laughs. “Honestly speaking, I'm not such a smart guy. Just giving (local) news and information is enough.” He does, however, state that about 70 percent of his readers are Japanese women, who, freed from what many still view as Japan's largely male-dominated industries, are running businesses and starting new careers. Although gender disparity in the Japanese workforce is decreasing, statistics show that less than 1 percent of females hold top-ranking positions, with women still accounting for only 30 percent of the country's national workforce. “I totally believe that women have a much higher chance of succeeding in business here than in Japan,” he says.
Each month, Yakushiji profiles a local career woman and the paper features a regular series of columns from women in a variety of professions: doctors, lawyers, and real estate agents dish out advice on everything from the IRS to what to do on your kid's first day at kindergarten. Huntington beach realtor, Mariko Gillam, a new columnist, says that the paper has already helped her gain exposure. “This is just my second issue,” she says “but so far it's more than I expected.”
Makiko Meyers, a California attorney whose “Legal Consulting Room” column covers a variety of civil matters, also credits the paper with attracting interest and clients. “Some people do call me up,” she says, “and I often do seminars and legal clinics.” As to whether they agree with Yakushiji's assessment that women have it better here than in Japan, Meyers declined to comment due to the sharp differences between the Japanese and American legal system, but Gillam disagrees: “As a woman, if you live here longer it's the same I think. I had plenty of opportunities in Japan, so I can't compare, but speaking English helps.” Gillam is hoping that the return of Japan's economic fortunes will encourage more people to move to Orange County. “I was really lucky when I moved here in 1987,” she says, “I started out selling ads in the Japanese yellow pages in Los Angeles and I did really well. A lot of companies were moving here. Now that (Japan's economy) is growing, I hope more people are coming over.”
If they do, papers like Sweet Orange will be there to provide a vital support system and much-needed access to businesses and information in the area. Those interested in getting an ad or announcement out to the Japanese community, or who would like to learn more about local Japan-related events, can pick up a copy at Mitsuwa or visit the paper's Japanese language website.
Photo: Sara Ellis
