Most Recent Posts

Over Tokyo's Rainbow Pride Weekend in late April, Ren married her partner of four years, Yae, on stage before hundreds of Japanese strangers. They were proud to tie the knot and be part of a milestone in Japan and East Asia, a region where same-sex partnerships have never previously been recognized.

While same-sex marriage has become increasingly common in the U.S. and Western Europe, it's still rare in other parts of the world. There are signs of change in some parts of Asia. New Zealand legalized same-sex marriage in 2013 and Australia recognizes civil unions. Vietnam this year repealed a law banning same-sex marriages, though it does not officially recognize them.

No place in East Asia recognized same-sex marriages until late March, when Tokyo's trendy Shibuya ward passed a local ordinance granting same-sex couples the right to partnership certificates.

The ceremony quickly followed for Ren and Yae, who are keeping their last names private. They are among several couples that have had ceremonies recently.

"We didn't know this was going to happen," Ren said. "It was very quick."

While not legally binding, the certificates give gay couples rights to hospital visitation and shared rental agreements in the ward. Shibuya leaders expect businesses will honor the ordinance.

"Everyone has a right to become happy and they should be equal and everything, but maybe for some people in some way there had been some feeling that blocked their attitude to have more understanding towards these things," said Toshitake Kuwahara, the Shibuya ward mayor who oversaw the passage of the measure.

While the Japanese don't oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds, change has come slowly for LGBT measures in Japan partly because of a cultural paradox. The Japanese value harmony so much that the LGBT community hasn't faced overt discrimination.

Asia

For China's Gay Community, The Show Doesn't Go On

"For better or for worse, Japan is a place that doesn't have a lot of conflict," said Fumino Sugiyama, the organizer of Pride Weekend. He's a transgender man who is now able to marry his girlfriend.

"If there were a lot of hate crimes or people felt danger, or if you weren't allowed to participate in government because you were LGBT, we would be like, 'Let's fight!' But we're not really rejected. As long are you don't make a fuss, you can get by. That's one of the big reasons it hasn't been a bigger issue," Sugiyama says.

But activists are raising their voices now. When polled by Kyodo News last year, 52 percent of Japanese said they opposed same-sex marriage rights.

"I think they were so bound to tradition in some ways, especially with the family and the way they register their family, and so any change to the family and that idea about the family is a challenge," said Jeffrey Trambley, vice president of the Equal Marriage Alliance in Japan. The non-profit is pressing lawmakers to consider granting more rights to same-sex couples.

Now, the Shibuya ordinance is paving the way for other locales.

Tokyo's Setagaya ward and the city of Yokohama are considering similar same-sex partnership policies. And a path toward marriage equality that starts in local areas — and widens — should be a familiar one for Americans. That the issue became politically viable at all is a big sign of change for Japan.

Chie Kobayashi contributed to this story.

shibuya ward

tokyo

LGBT

Marriage Equality

same sex marriage

Japan

Photographer Sally Mann is fascinated by bodies. In the early 1990s, she became famous — or notorious — for her book Immediate Family, which featured photographs of her young children naked. Critics claimed Mann's work eroticized the children, but Mann says the photos were misinterpreted.

"I was surprised by the vehemence, I guess, of the letters and the dead certainty that so many people had that they understood ... my motivations and feelings and who my children were," Mann tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "People feel like they understand the children just by virtue of looking at the pictures but ... those aren't my children. Those are photographs of my children. They're just a tiny, tiny moment slivered out of time, a 30th of a second."

Hold Still

A Memoir With Photographs

by Sally Mann

Hardcover, 482 pages | purchase

Purchase Featured Book

TitleHold StillSubtitleA Memoir With PhotographsAuthorSally Mann

Your purchase helps support NPR Programming. How?

Amazon

Independent Booksellers

Nonfiction

Art & Design

Biography & Memoir

More on this book:

NPR reviews, interviews and more

Read an excerpt

After those photos, Mann moved on to what she describes in her new book, Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs, as "deeply personal explorations of the landscape of the American South, the nature of mortality (and the mortality of nature), intimate depictions of my husband and the indelible marks that slavery left on the world surrounding me."

Mann's work has included a series of photos of decomposing bodies in a University of Tennessee forensic anthropology research facility and photos of her husband, whose muscles are withering from muscular dystrophy.

Interview Highlights

On photographing her children naked

It's not that I wanted to do a series of pictures of my children nude, it's just that they were always nude in the summers when I did most of my shooting. We had a cabin on the river on our farm and there's not another breathing soul for probably 5 miles in all directions and they just never seemed to wear clothes. Why should they? They were in the river almost all day and deep into the night, so the fact that in many cases the children were nude ... that's just how the children were. ... I didn't take pictures of them once they reached the age of puberty, certainly. But considerably before then, I think, I quit taking pictures of them.

On what she thinks the photos of her children capture

One of the interesting things is to go back and look at the contact sheets and you look at picture after picture after picture of the same scene. And you'll see in one picture, [the children] look mean; and in another one, they're giggling; and in another, one of them is punching the other and they're laughing. They're just doing regular kid things. You just always have to remember that picture ... that's a 30th of a second and to either side of that picture are half a dozen other images that are completely different and warm and friendly and sweet.

On photographing the University of Tennessee's "Body Farm"

The "Body Farm," as it's colloquially known, is designed to help graduate students measure decomposition in human bodies. They use it primarily forensically, I think, so that if law enforcement runs across a body that's, say, been locked up in a trunk for two weeks, they can gauge the size of the maggots or the development of the blow flies and know exactly or close to exactly when that body was put in that trunk given temperature conditions and all that kind of stuff. ...

Photography

From Lens To Photo: Sally Mann Captures Her Love

There was something matter-of-fact about the way those bodies were laid out and how they were treated. I mean, they were a scientific experiment and very quickly I grew to see them that way, in the same way that the graduate students were working with them. So that was one of the shocking things. ... The smell is just unbelievable but I had to sort of pull myself together and figure out a way to handle things I had never seen before and never anticipated ever seeing — these bodies in various stages of decomposition.

On her fascination with death

I have had a fascination with death that I think might be considered genetic. ... My father had the same affliction, I guess. The origin of his was the sudden death of his father — this is just a theory, we never talked about it. ... I think it changed the course of his life. He became fascinated with death. He then became a medical doctor and obviously fought death tooth and nail for his patients. But I was surrounded in the household with the iconography of death. He was a very cultured man and he was fascinated with the way death has been portrayed through the ages in all forms, from cave paintings to literature to everything. ... I picked it up by osmosis.

"Using photographs as an instrument of memory is probably a mistake because I think that photographs actually sort of impoverish your memory in certain ways ..."

- Sally Mann

On photography's effect on memory

Using photographs as an instrument of memory is probably a mistake because I think that photographs actually sort of impoverish your memory in certain ways, sort of take away all the other senses — the sense of smell and taste and texture, that kind of stuff.

On photographing her husband's muscular dystrophy

I don't think that he in any way in those pictures loses his dignity ... and I don't think anyone would think of him as being weak. ... It was wonderful. It was some of the happiest times I can remember being behind a camera. It's usually so fraught when you're taking a picture. I work with an 8-by-10 camera and there's a hood that I put over my head and it's tricky and complicated, but this was just such a lovely moment in our marriage. We're headed into our 45th year of marriage next month. ... It was just such a quiet, peaceful moment for us and it's not that we didn't know he had muscular dystrophy, but it was really one of the first times we actually sat down and looked at what it had done to his body and making art out of it somehow felt like the right thing to do.

If you think trade deals are just about business, think again. They can also have a sweeping effect on how people eat. Take all those avocados, watermelon and cervezas from Mexico we now consume, and the meat and feed corn for livestock we send there in exchange.

The Obama administration hasn't shared much detail about the provisions in its controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, the free trade deal between the U.S. and 11 countries currently being negotiated. But if it's anything like prior free trade agreements, two things are likely, trade experts say.

First, it will have a potentially troubling effect on food and diet in member countries. Second, no one will talk about these dimensions of the deal before it's inked.

The Salt

How NAFTA Changed American (And Mexican) Food Forever

"Trade agreements don't deal at all with diet and health," Eric Holt-Gimenez, executive director of Food First, a national food and development nonprofit, tells The Salt. "What's a concern is opening up markets. They're not expanding businesses to improve diets, they're doing that to meet the bottom line."

One example of a trade deal that should have addressed nutrition and health, according to Holt-Gimenez: The North American Free Trade Agreement boosted American consumption of Mexican produce, but also paved the way for Walmart and American food manufacturers to export and sell a lot more less-healthful, processed food in Mexico.

Yet "no-one even bothered to ... develop legislation that would address the impoverishment of the Mexican diet as a result of eating all of the processed foods sold out of Walmart," says Holt-Gimenez.

U.S. officials say they have no plans to explore the health impacts of the TPP. "We do not see conclusive evidence that trade agreements themselves have a major impact on diet and health one way or the other," Cullen Schwarz, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, writes in an email. For that reason, he says, it has not been part of the discussion.

The new trade agreement will renegotiate provisions in existing agreements like NAFTA and create one set of rules between its 12 member countries, including the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Australia and Vietnam. The agreement's stated goal is to "negotiate comprehensive and preferential access" for American businesses to foreign markets — including all the food items America sells, from agricultural products like meat and grain to processed foods like Doritos, Coca-Cola and Cool Whip.

As Mark Bittman argued in a recent op-ed in the New York Times, the agreements can also be seen as an attack on farmers and food safety. "The pact would threaten local food, diminish labeling laws, likely keep environmentally destructive industrial meat production high (despite the fact that as a nation we're eating less meat) and probably maintain high yields of commodity crops while causing price cuts."

Across the Pacific, health officials in Australia issued a report warning of the likely health effects of the TPP — including on diet, obesity and diabetes—on that country's citizens. Their biggest concern? That the controversial "Investor State Dispute Settlement" provision, which allows corporations to sue governments for limiting their ability to compete in a market, would undercut food labeling policies that promote healthier food choices, making it more difficult to battle rising obesity rates.

U.S. officials say these concerns are likely unfounded. While they acknowledge that they haven't studied the nutrition effects of trade agreements, they argue that eliminating barriers to American food exports benefits everyone.

"The Grown in America brand stands for quality ... and you're making this type of product more easily accessible for people," says Trevor Kincaid, a spokesperson for the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is in charge of negotiating the agreement. Pointing to the rising demand for meat in regions like southeast Asia with a burgeoning middle class, Kincaid adds, "American farmers can help fill the void." What's more, he said, trade agreements can lower the cost of food because "even just introducing competition just drives down costs."

As for concerns that ISDS could overturn public health laws, trade officials say that while the provision allows companies to file suit, it only offers financial compensation as a remedy. To actually change the law, companies have to win in local courts. (Think New York City's failed soda ban.) Officials also say that procurement policies, such as those promoting the purchase of local food, are typically exempt from ISDS.

And as to whether the U.S. bears responsibility for rising obesity rates in its trading partners, Kincaid demurs. "It may be one of those things where other things are happening," he says, pointing to the fact that obesity has risen across Latin America, not just in Mexico. And, he says, "What your family chooses to purchase and eat is your decision."

Tracie McMillan is the author of The American Way of Eating, a New York Timesbestseller, and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. You can follow her on Twitter @tmmcmillan.

trans pacific partnership

trade agreement

NAFTA

Mike Huckabee kicked off his second run for the White House this week in Arkansas, a state where he has deep roots that he shares with another famous politician — Bill Clinton.

Huckabee and Clinton were both governors of the Southern state for more than a decade, and they also both hail from the same hometown — Hope.

Hope was prominent in Huckabee's announcement with TV monitors emblazoned with the double entendre, "Hope."

i

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announces his second bid for president. He did it from his hometown of Hope, which he used as part of his campaign slogan, "Hope to higher ground." Matt Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announces his second bid for president. He did it from his hometown of Hope, which he used as part of his campaign slogan, "Hope to higher ground."

Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

"We will make that journey from Hope to higher ground," Huckabee said during his announcement.

Clinton, of course, made this line famous in 1992: "I still believe in a place called Hope."

The two men spent their youth going to some of the same schools and hanging out at some of the same places, though not at the same time, since Clinton is nine years older.

But with Clinton a hero to rank-and-file Democrats, and Huckabee courting evangelical voters, ideology is not a shared trait.

Before the Huckabee rally this week, Helen Wood was ready to cheer the newest addition to the GOP field.

"Very nice day," Wood said. "Big things happening in Hope."

She's a retiree from a local school and a Huckabee backer. But she also offered this when asked about the other man from Hope: "I have great respect for what President Clinton did as a president when he was in office."

Certainly, there are plenty of Clinton critics in Arkansas. But Clinton and Huckabee remain popular in the state. Roby Brock, who runs a multimedia political and business news outlet based in Little Rock, said it's because both are so good at the retail politics that Arkansas demands — lots of handshaking and remembering everybody's name.

"He could still talk to a guy who was fixing a car on his back in an engine shop," Brock said of Clinton. "And Mike Huckabee has got those same blue-collar roots and can communicate that very well."

As for what any of this means for Hillary Clinton, Brock noted that she's not as popular as her husband in Arkansas. Not by far, but he said she does benefit from some residual good will.

Clinton grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, a far cry from Hope. So, it is strange to listen to tape of her from back when she was Arkansas' first lady and hear a hint of the South in her voice.

Now, unlike it did with Bill Clinton, who was able to win Arkansas twice when he ran for president, don't look for the state to get behind Hillary Clinton's presidential run.

Arkansas has gone through a political transition and has become a solidly Republican state.

But even a Huckabee fan this week smiled at the notion of Bill Clinton moving back into the White House.

"I love him, too," said 28-year-old Brandi Tuttle, owner of L.K.'s Closet, a children's clothing store in town. She said she is actually Clinton's fourth cousin, and she added that if he becomes the first first gentleman in U.S. history, "I think he'll do great, because he's been there before, and he's known how to do it."

When it came to Hillary Clinton, though, Tuttle was curt.

"I really don't have any feeling or say either way," Tuttle said, adding, "I don't know her." She's just "not like the ones born and raised."

Huckabee's announcement this week could very well be the most attention Arkansas gets in the entire 2016 presidential campaign, but folks in Hope and elsewhere have been enjoying their connection to three potential big players in the race.

2016 Presidential Race

Democrats

Mike Huckabee

Bill Clinton

Hillary Clinton

Republicans