You’ve been in Japan too long when you air-drum in your car while listening to the U.S. Military radio news opening, which goes “here’s what happening…around the Kanto Plain.” The primary source of English-language radio in the Tokyo area is the Far East Network (now known as American Forces Network-Japan), the AM radio station that serves the U.S. military forces stationed in Japan, and it’s a staple of civilian gaijin who want to listen to the radio in English, too. In addition to NPR news and various other programming, FEN serves up top forty and country music countdowns on the weekend which I’d listen to when I got homesick. Because it’s a non-profit station, in place of radio commercials they play short pieces on “our proud military heritage” which give interesting tidbits of military history from the past. The U.S. maintains dozens of military bases in Japan, especially in the Yokosuka area near Yokohama, on Okinawa and also in Sasebo, Nagasaki, where those delicious hamburgers come from.
The Far East Network has been the voice of America in Japan since the Occupation.
