The luxury of Easter Bank Holiday Monday allows me to watch this year’s Oscar’s best foreign picture ‘Drive My Car’, adapted from a short story from Murakami Haruki.
The plot connects with the audience well in our post-pandemic times. Its duration of 3 hours allows viewers to become familiar with each lead character’s life and their baggage. I cannot help but take notice of the choice of the second main character, who is a young female chauffeur of the widowed protagonist. It is yet another attempt from popular culture to challenge the status quo of the homogeneity of modern Japanese society.
Coincidentally, The Revd Maria Grace Tazu Sasamori will be consecrated as the Bishop in Hokkaido for the NSKK (The Anglican Church in Japan) on 23 April in Sapporo. She is to become the first female bishop in the Far East. Thanks to a Japanese priest friend providing the statistic of the NSKK, women clergy account for one-eighth of the licensed Anglican Clergy (approx. 230 clergy in 277 parishes in 11 Dioceses) in Japan. Meanwhile, the percentage of women in ordained ministry remains relatively low for Hong Kong or Taiwanese Anglicans, and the Diocese of Singapore has yet to ordain women to the Holy Orders.
Trusting the ministry of Bishop Sasamori will continue to inspire the ministry of women in the life of the Church and beyond. Although the NSKK does not have a prominent place in Japanese society compared to its HK or SG counterparts, many of NSKK churches are near major landmarks across the country, and Rikkyo University (aka St Paul’s) is known as a prime filming location!
Revd Harry Ching
