Osaka, Japan — Japan celebrated on Monday the record-breaking Emmy Awards triumph of “Shogun”, although many confessed not having watched the series about the country’s warring dynasties in the feudal era.

“Shogun” smashed all-time records at the television awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, taking home an astounding 18 statuettes and becoming the first non-English-language winner of the highly coveted award for best drama series.

Lead Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Lord Toranaga, became the first Japanese actor to win an Emmy, while Anna Sawai achieved the same for her performance as Lady Mariko.

“As a Japanese, I’m happy Sanada won,” Kiyoko Kanda, a 70-year-old pensioner, told AFP in Tokyo.

“He worked so hard since he moved to Los Angeles,” she said.

“In ‘Last Samurai’, Tom Cruise was the lead, but it’s exciting Sanada is the main character in ‘Shogun’,” Kanda added.

But she admitted that she only watched the trailer.

The series is available only on Disney’s streaming platform, which is relatively new in Japan.

“I want to watch it. I’m curious to know how Japan is portrayed,” Kanda said.

Otsuka, who declined to give her first name, said she, too, has not watched the show.

“But I saw the news and I’m happy he won.” Sanada, now 63, began his acting career at the age of five in Tokyo and moved to LA after appearing in “Last Samurai” in 2003.

The words “historic achievements” and “Hiroyuki Sanada” were trending on X in Japanese, while Sanada’s speech at the awards racked up tens of thousands of views.

Yusuke Takizawa, 41, also only watched a trailer but he said he was amazed by the quality of the show.

“I was impressed by the high-spirited acting, the attention to detail and the film technology,” Takizawa told AFP outside Osaka Castle, a major historical location for the series.

“I think many young people will want to try their hand in Hollywood after watching Sanada,” he said.

Tourists at the castle also welcomed the record Emmy win.

“I think was the best TV show that I’ve seen this year,” said Zara Ferjani, a visitor from London.

“I thought it was amazing… The direction was beautiful, and I really enjoyed watching something that wasn’t in English as well,” the 33-year-old said.

She said she had planned to watch “Shogun” after returning home from Japan.

“But one of my friends strongly advised me to watch it beforehand, just to appreciate the culture more and definitely Osaka Castle more,” she added.

Breaking from cliches

Many in the Japanese film industry were also jubilant.

“He won after many years of trying hard in Hollywood. It’s too cool,” wrote Shinichiro Ueda, director of the hit low-budget film “One Cut of the Dead”, on X.

Video game creator and movie fan Hideo Kojima, who has described the show as “Game of Thrones in 17th-century Japan”, reposted a news story on the win.

The drama, adapted from a popular novel by James Clavell and filmed in Canada, tells the tale of Lord Toranaga, who fights for his life against his enemies alongside Mariko and British sailor John Blackthorne.

A previous TV adaptation made in 1980 was centered on Blackthorne’s perspective.

But the new “Shogun” breaks away from decades of cliched and often bungled depictions of Japan in Western cinema, with Japanese spoken throughout most of the show.

Sanada, who also co-produced the drama, is credited with bringing a new level of cultural and historical authenticity to “Shogun.”

An army of experts, including several wig technicians from Japan, worked behind the scenes to make the series realistic, poring over sets, costumes and the actors’ movements.
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HONG KONG — A Hong Kong man on Monday pleaded guilty to sedition for wearing a T-shirt with a protest slogan, becoming the first person convicted under the city’s new national security law passed in March.

Chu Kai-pong, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of “doing with a seditious intention an act.”

Under the new security law, the maximum sentence for the offense has been expanded from two years to seven years in prison and could even go up to 10 years if “collusion with foreign forces” was found involved.

Chu was arrested on June 12 at a MTR station wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” and a yellow mask printed with “FDNOL”- the shorthand of another slogan, “five demands, not one less.”

Both slogans were frequently chanted in the huge, sometimes violent, pro-democracy protests in 2019 and June 12 was a key kick-off day of the months-long unrests.

Chu told police that he wore the T-shirt to remind people of the protests, the court heard.

Chief Magistrate Victor So, handpicked by the city leader John Lee to hear national security cases, adjourned the case to Thursday for sentencing.

Hong Kong was returned from Britain to China in 1997 under Beijing’s promise of guaranteeing its freedoms, including freedom of speech, would be protected under a “one country, two systems” formula.

Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 punishing secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison, after the months-long protests in the financial hub.

In March 2024, Hong Kong passed a second new security law, a home-grown ordinance also known as “Article 23” according to its parent provision in the city’s mini constitution, the Basic Law.

Critics, including the U.S. government have expressed concerns over the new security law and said the vaguely defined provisions regarding “sedition” could be used to curb dissent.

Hong Kong and Chinese officials have said it was necessary to plug “loopholes” in the national security regime.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — It’s noisy, smelly, shy – and New Zealand’s bird of the year.

The hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin, won the country’s fiercely fought avian election on Monday, offering hope to supporters of the endangered bird that recognition from its victory might prompt a revival of the species.

It followed a campaign for the annual Bird of the Year vote that was absent the foreign interference scandals and cheating controversies of past polls. Instead, campaigners in the long-running contest sought votes in the usual ways — launching meme wars, seeking celebrity endorsements and even getting tattoos to prove their loyalty.

More than 50,000 people voted in the poll, 300,000 fewer than last year, when British late night host John Oliver drove a humorous campaign for the pūteketeke — a “deeply weird bird” which eats and vomits its own feathers – securing a landslide win.

This year, the number of votes cast represented 10% of the population of New Zealand — a country where nature is never far away and where a love of native birds is instilled in citizens from childhood.

“Birds are our heart and soul,” said Emma Rawson, who campaigned for the fourth-placed ruru, a small brown owl with a melancholic call. New Zealand’s only native mammals are bats and marine species, putting the spotlight on its birds, which are beloved — and often rare.

This year’s victor, the hoiho — its name means “noise shouter” in the Māori language — is a shy bird thought to be the world’s rarest penguin. Only found on New Zealand’s South and Chatham islands — and on subantarctic islands south of the country — numbers have dropped perilously by 78% in the past 15 years.

“This spotlight couldn’t have come at a better time. This iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa before our eyes,” Nicola Toki, chief executive of Forest & Bird — the organization that runs the poll — said in a press release, using the Māori name for New Zealand. Despite intensive conservation efforts on land, she said, the birds drown in nets and sea and can’t find enough food.

“The campaign has raised awareness, but what we really hope is that it brings tangible support,” said Charlie Buchan, campaign manager for the hoiho. But while the bird is struggling, it attracted a star billing in the poll: celebrity endorsements flew in from English zoologist Jane Goodall, host of the Amazing Race Phil Keoghan, and two former New Zealand prime ministers.

Aspiring bird campaign managers — this year ranging from power companies to high school students — submit applications to Forest & Bird for the posts. The hoiho bid was run by a collective of wildlife groups, a museum, a brewery and a rugby team in the city of Dunedin, where the bird is found on mainland New Zealand, making it the highest-powered campaign of the 2024 vote.

“I do feel like we were the scrappy underdog,” said Emily Bull, a spokesperson for the runner-up campaign, for the karure — a small, “goth” black robin only found on New Zealand’s Chatham Island.

The karure’s bid was directed by the students’ association at Victoria University of Wellington, prompting fierce skirmish on the college campus when the student magazine staged an opposing campaign for the kororā, or little blue penguin.

The rivalry provoked a meme war and students in bird costumes. Several people got tattoos. When the magazine’s campaign secured endorsements of the city council and local zoo, Bull despaired for the black robin’s bid.

But the karure – which has performed a real-life comeback since the 1980s, with conservation efforts increasing the species from five birds to 250 – took second place overall.

This weekend as Rawson wrapped up her campaign for the ruru, she too took her efforts directly to the people, courting votes at a local dog park. The veteran campaign manager who has directed the bids for other birds in past years was rewarded by the ruru placing fourth in the poll, her best ever result.

“I have not been in human political campaigning before,” said Rawson, who is drawn to the competition because of the funds and awareness it generates. The campaign struck a more sedate tone this year, she added.

“There’s been no international interference, even though that was actually a lot of fun,” she said, referring to Oliver’s high-profile campaign.

It was not the only controversy the election has seen. While anyone in the world can vote, Forest & Bird now requires electors to verify their ballots after foreign interference plagued the contest before. In 2018, Australian pranksters cast hundreds of fraudulent votes in favor of the shag.

The following year, Forest & Bird was forced to clarify that a flurry of votes from Russia appeared to be from legitimate bird-lovers.

While campaigns are fiercely competitive, managers described tactics more akin to pro wrestling — in which fights are scripted — than divisive political contests.

“Sometimes people want to make posts that are kind of like beefy with you and they’ll always message you and be like, hey, is it okay if I post this?” Bull said. “There is a really sweet community. It’s really wholesome.”
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