Letters from Japan

December 13, 2012

Japan is at the middle of a general election campaign

 Japan has been in a general election campaign since Dcember 4. About 1200 candidates from more than 10 large ans small political parties have benn contesting to garner votes for the House of Representatives from  eligible voters . The candidates are trying to get a single- constituency in districts in Japan.

  Candidates have urges slogans rather than policies. Voters, who have thought themselves betrayed by the ruling Democrstic Party in Japan, are shifting from the party to the conservativeLibral Democratic Party led by party governor Shinzo Ave. Ave is considered a rightist. He has a tough stance to China and North Korea.

   A nuclear policy is on the agenda of the election. The disastrous accident of the Fukushima nuclear power station  has made a majority of the Japanese people change into the scrapping of all of nuclear power stations in Japan by 2030's. The ruling party and small parties have backed the policy.

  Those who are opposed to the continuing use of the nuclear power sations has supported the construction of wind and solar power plant. However, much time is needed to enable Japan to cover its electricity to be generated by the new energy generation systems.

  The Kyodo News, Japan's largest news agency, has reported that the Liberal Democratic Party secured the highest support in the fifth and final preelection poll by conducted Kyodo News, maintaining its lead over the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the recently formed Japan Restoration Party, the survey's results showed Thursday.

  In the nationwide telephone poll conducted Wednesday and Thursday, 22.9 percent of the 1,219 respondents said they intend to vote for the LDP in the proportional representation section of the general election on Sunday, up 1.8 percentage points from the previous poll conducted last Saturday and Sunday.

  Asked who is more suitable to be prime minister -- current Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who heads the DPJ, or LDP chief Shinzo Abe -- 34.2 percent of the respondents said Abe and 28.7 percent Noda, compared with 39.2 percent and 30.7 percent, respectively, in the previous survey.

 December 17, 2012

The opposition LDP wins landslide victory and returns to power following three years' tough opposition life

 The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito alliance won 325 seats in the Lower House — a supermajority that would allow it to override Upper House vetoes — as it reclaims power after three years in the opposition.

　LDP President Shinzo Abe will resume the premiership and pursue stronger defense and conservative nuclear energy policies.

The LDP's victory following three years in opposition ends the government led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan, heralding a new administration led by LDP chief Abe, a conservative hawk who is keen to revise the war-renouncing Constitution, to pick up where he left off when he resigned five years ago.

Abe will be the second man to be prime minister twice since World War II, after Shigeru Yoshida, and Japan's seventh leader in six years.

The DPJ, meanwhile, suffered a crushing defeat that reduced its seat count to 57. The DPJ had 233 seats and the LDP 118 when Noda, 55, dissolved the chamber on Nov. 16.

A record seven LDP Cabinet ministers, including education minister Makiko Tanaka and Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, lost their single-seat constituencies. Former Prime Minister Naoto Kan also lost his seat in Tokyo's No. 18 district.

Of the numerous "third-force" parties, Nippon Ishin no To (Japan Restoration Party), headed by former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, raised its 11 seats before the election to 54.

As the DPJ's dismal results trickled in, Noda said he intended to step down as party leader.

"I bear the biggest responsibility for the severe defeat," he said. "I will resign as the party president."

Noda said it is "most deplorable" that the party lost so many members in the Lower House.

"Today's victory is due to the confusion that the DPJ created," Abe said. "I can say that our policies gained support, but I can't say that we've recovered our trust."

Comment: The Japanese people gain have changed their stance from the DPJ to the LDP. The Japanese have decided to support the LDP not by in accordance with the parties’ like-dislike attitudes rather than with the parties’ policies.

After the disastrous nuclear accident in Fukushima Prefecture on March 11, 2011, a majority of the Japanese have supported the dismantling of nuclear power stations scattering in Japan.

The Nippon Mirai ( Future) Party, one of the Third Force, led by woman leader Kada, has claimed the scrapping of all of the nuclear power stations. But the party dropped its seats from 61 to 9. Ichiro

Ozawa, who the Japanese have considered, is a money-ridden, dirty politician, has joined the party shourtly after the dissolving of the House of Representatives on December 16.

China and South Korea have been on the alert towards Abe, who has sustained his tough stance to territorial disputes on Senkaku Islands between Japan and China on the one hand and between Japan and South Korea on Takeshima Islet on the other. Japan  have claimed the island and the islet as its inherent territories. as China and South Korea have done respectively.

December 27, 2012

Hawkish nationalist Abe has taken office as prime minister

The conservative Liberal Democratic PartyShinzo President Shinzo Abe　regained power as prime minister Wednesday, ending three years of liberal administrations.His conservative, pro-big-business party had run Japan for decades before the Democratic Party of Japan took office in 2009.

 Abe  immediately formed his Cabinet and said he would be to end the nation's extended economic slump.

 Abe served as one of those seven short-lived prime ministers from September 2006 to August 2007.  Abe's past remarks as a nationalist have in the past angered Japan's neighbors.

 His new administration faces souring relations with China and a complex debate over whether resource-poor Japan should wean itself off nuclear energy after last year's earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown at an atomic power plant.

 On top of that, he will have to win over a public that gave his party a lukewarm mandate in elections on Dec. 16, along with keeping at bay a still-powerful opposition in parliament. Though his party and its Buddhist-backed coalition partner is the biggest bloc in the more influential lower house, Abe actually came up short in the first round of voting in the upper house, then won in a runoff.

 Many Japanese commentators have said the new prime minister would concentrate on recovering the country's sluggish economy before the Upper House election to be held next August. If the ruling LDP win the election to garner a majority of Upper House seats, the prime minister will fully swing his political policies weight into the amendment of the 9th article of the Japanese Constitution prohibiting an act of war by the state.

 Abe has wantes to strengthen military ties between Japan and the United States as China has been making her military build-up, especially her naval power. China has claimed small islets in South China Sea and East China Sea as her inherent territories. China has been involved into territorial disputes over the islets with Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan and other countries in Asia.

February 2, 2013

Minegish astonishes the world

Akimoto, AKB48 organizer, represents the shame of Japan

Minegish astonishes the world Akimoto, AKB48 organizer, represents the shame of Japan 

　Fans leapt to the defence of a Japanese starlet on Friday after she shaved her head and issued a tearful YouTube apology in an act of "disgusting" penance for a night with a man.

　Pictures of the roughly-shorn head of Minami Minegishi, 20, were emblazoned on national newspapers and Japan's Twitter scene was abuzz over news that the pop princess from cash-generating juggernaut AKB48 had broken the band's cardinal rule。

 Her boss is broadcating writer Yasushi Akimoto. My view is that Akimoto is a typical Japanese man who has ruled a prohibition of love affairs betwenn a man and a woman in order to show the purification of a group of young women between teens  and early 20s to the public. He and his senior staff members have ignore the womens' human rights and diginity. Akimoto, who is vice president of art university in Kyoto, has made the AKB 48 system as a gateway to success for young women in towns who want to be a star in the entertainment world.

  AKB48, a 90-strong pool of girls in their teens and early 20s, is a money-printing machine that makes much of the accessibility and the implied availability of its idols.

 The world has been astonished by the action by Minegish and has accussed Akimoto of punishing her by demoting her status. The punishiment is a typical in Japanese society in that She has broken private rules. But my view is that the rules are a lynch law.

The world has not understood it. It seems to me that Akimoto has not realized it. Akimoto must learn a world trend. It is a shame for Japanese people. 

　A sobbing Minegishi told fans she had decided to shave her head in contrition after a popular weekly magazine published claims of a night of passion with a 19-year-old boy band member.

"I don't believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did, but the first thing I thought was that I don't want to quit AKB48," she says in the video, which had been viewed on YouTube more than three million times.

　Tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun published its article Thursday, and hours later Minegishi was pleading to be allowed to remain with AKB48, one of the world's most successful acts by revenue.　The tryst was "thoughtless and immature", she told fans.

British quality newspaper Guardian reports " the incident."

https://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/01/japanese-pop-star-apology-boyfriend

   433 in running as election campaign starts   

  Official campaigning got under way Thursday for the Upper House election later this month in a key gauge of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s leadership over the past seven months.

Abe, who heads the Liberal Democratic Party, hit the campaign trail in Fukushima Prefecture, an area badly hit by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

    The past two House of Councilors elections, in 2007 and 2010, saw opposition forces win big against the ruling parties of the time. But the trend is almost certain to end this time around.

All signs indicate the July 21 poll will see a repetition of last month’s one-sided Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, with too little time left for the opposition camp to revive their comatose support ratings or for the ruling coalition to make a critical slip.

   But despite wooing the public with radical economy-boosting measures, questions remain as to whether another resounding victory by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which would give it full control of the Diet, should be taken as a complete vote of confidence in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s contentious policies.

   On the campaign trail, the LDP is trumpeting Abe’s economic achievements while lying low on divisive issues, analysts say. In addition, the disgraceful justification by Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader Toru Hashimoto of Japan’s wartime system of sexual slavery has seen support plummet for his group, a potential LDP ally on constitutional revision, causing Abe to tone down his rhetoric even further, at least for the time being.

   “The LDP is doing its job so far and the economy is looking good, so my vote will go to them,” a 58-year-old woman who asked to remain anonymous said in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, earlier this week. “But in terms of revising the Constitution or (Abe’s) hawkish foreign policies, I’m not sure if I support the government completely.”

   Public surveys by multiple media outlets suggest that although the LDP will triumph again in the upcoming vote, having maintained the support that propelled it back to power in December’s general election, some of Abe’s pet projects, including amending the war-renouncing Constitution and allowing the Self-Defense Forces to engage in collective self-defense, are far from gaining widespread public backing.

(Reproducution from the  JAPAN  TIMES)

Foreign chefs OK to work in ‘ryotei’ 

  KYOTO – Officials in the city of Kyoto said the state has approved a special measure that will permit foreign chefs to work at restaurants and other establishments serving traditional, high-end Japanese cuisine.

  Foreigners were previously not permitted to work in “ryotei” and similar restaurants. They could train there without pay under the “cultural activity” resident status, but paid positions were limited to foreign residents with Japanese spouses, the Justice Ministry and the Kyoto Municipal Government said Friday.

  fter the central government designated Kyoto a special zone for regional economic revival in 2011, the city requested that employment eligibility requirements be eased regarding foreign chefs. The government approved the special measure, which is limited to Kyoto, on Friday.

  The city will now decide which restaurants will be able to hire foreign chefs, who will be paid wages equal to or greater than those of their Japanese counterparts.

  Under the new measure, those establishments will be allowed to hire up to two foreign chefs for a maximum of two years. Candidates must have a certain level of skills, must be affiliated with a restaurant overseas and must be willing to prepare Japanese cuisine when they return to their home countries.

  Details such as the total number of chefs to be accepted and the types of training programs will be determined by the city and the Japanese Culinary Academy, a nonprofit group organized by Kyoto-based chefs. The hiring is scheduled to start sometime before the end of the current fiscal year next March.(

JAPAN TIMES Nov. 30, 2013) (picture=Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto)

Abe Shows Totalitarian Bent (Japan Times Commentary)

   The “old” Liberal Democratic Party that former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is supposed to have destroyed is making a strong resurgence as is the traditional “triangle” of the LDP, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren).

   When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe goes abroad, he is often accompanied by as many as 100 business leaders as he busies himself with exporting nuclear reactors and other infrastructural items through “top-level sales campaigns.”

   Furthermore, defying the traditional practice of determining wage levels through labor-management negotiations, Abe has asked Keidanren Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura to raise the wages of workers and this request has been handed down to Keidanren member corporations.

   His intervention in wage negotiations clearly indicates that Japan is a nation of highly controlled state capitalism, transcending a free market economy. Moreover, should a constitutional revision come to restrict freedom of speech, Japan would become a de facto totalitarian state.

   At least at this point, the results of “Abenomics” — economic policies pursued by Abe’s government — have fallen far short of being dramatic. Preliminary figures of the National Accounts Statistics show that the growth rate of private consumption, which is an engine of economic growth, has been on a downward trend — decreasing from 0.8 percent in the January-March period of 2013 to 0.6 percent in April-June and to 0.1 percent in July-September.

   Meanwhile, thanks to an unprecedented easy-money policy adopted by the Bank of Japan, the value of yen against other currencies is falling and stock prices are going up, although there have been temporary slowdowns in the process.

  But even with a cheap yen, exports in terms of volume are on a declining trend contrary to expectations. This has coupled with increased import of fossil fuels necessitated by the total suspension of the operation of nuclear power plants, causing imports to exceed exports. Thus Japan has become a trade deficit country.

  I had expected Abe to undertake political reform including constitutional revisions after confirming that his Abenomics has worked well. But my expectations have turned out to be off the mark.

  Apparently having gained self-confidence after his LDP won a resounding victory in the Upper House election in July, he submitted to the Diet two major legislative bills — a bill to protect specially designated state secrets and a bill to create the National Security Council, patterned after a U.S. body bearing the same name.

  Although Abe has succeeded in having the Diet enact these two bills, it should be remembered that history offers numerous examples of impetuous and intemperate excess leading to self-destruction.

  Koizumi’s structural reform plans were aimed at turning the market into a free and competitive one and thus creating an environment in which the market will give full play to its potential. In contrast, Abenomics follows the line of state capitalism with a high degree of control. This means that it will deprive individuals and corporations of freedoms in the economic sphere.

  On the social front, the Abe administration also has a strong totalitarian tendency because of its move toward depriving individuals of freedoms. Such a tendency is exemplified by the enactment of the state secrets law and its call for a constitutional revision designed to restrict freedom of speech and basic human rights if they run counter to “public interest and public order.”

  I would like to add, as a reminder, that conservatism emphasizes libertarianism in the economic sphere and order and traditions in the social and political sphere.

  Former Prime Ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone and Koizumi were pure-blooded conservatives as they advocated “small government” and regarded the market as omnipotent while visiting Yasukuni Shrine to pay their respects to the war dead.

  In the United States, the Republican Party follows conservatism while the Democratic Party advocates liberalism. Liberalists insist that government intervention is indispensable because, if everything related to the economy is totally placed in the hands of the market, imbalances like unemployment and instability like the boom-bust cycle cannot be avoided. At the same time, liberalists seek to guarantee maximum freedoms in the social and political fronts.

  The Abe administration is neither conservative nor liberal. In short, I cannot help calling it “totalitarian.” Yet, very seldom do I encounter opinions criticizing the Abe administration for endangering freedoms. Quite belatedly, on Nov. 28, a group of 31 scholars issued a statement expressing their opposition to the state secrets law.

  Major newspapers are divided into two camps — one group supporting the law and the other opposing it. There once were heated debates in newspapers for and against Abenomics, but they seem to have subsided.

  Since the Constitution has not yet been revised, freedom of speech is presumably still guaranteed. But journalistic bravery in expressing criticism appears to have been paralyzed either because mass media have been overwhelmed by the Abe administration’s high spirits or because they are under overt or covert pressure.

  I cannot help thinking that the current Japan is drifting away from the modern Western European ideals based on liberalism, democracy and individualism.

In her recent book titled “NOT FOR PROFIT: Why Democracy Needs Humanities,” Martha C. Nussbaum, professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago, issued a warning against neglecting knowledge gained through humanities for the sake of pursuing short-term profits and economic growth.

  With regard to both natural and social science, she wrote: “When practiced at their best, moreover, these other disciplines are infused by what we might call the spirit of humanities: by searching critical thought, daring imagination, empathetic understanding of human experiences of many different kinds, and understanding of the complexity of the world we live in.”

  She added: “Cultivated capacities for critical thinking and reflection are crucial in keeping democracies alive and wide awake.”

  Under the Abe administration, there is a growing tendency to allocate larger budgets to university departments of natural science, engineering, medicine and pharmacology — sectors considered to contribute to economic growth. Thus the tendency to neglect humanities and social science is becoming stronger.

(December 18, 2013)

Winter is the tastiest time to visit Tsukiji fish market

Picture=Mt. Fuji in winter

January is a delicious time for local seafood, as fish naturally fatten up to survive in icy waters. A visit to Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward will give you a first-hand view of winter seasonal seafood, as well as a chance to savor it in the area’s restaurants. Here’s a guide on what to look for and where to eat at the world’s largest seafood market — before it changes location to Toyosu in Koto Ward sometime in the next couple of years.

Start your morning at the recently opened Turret Coffee (2-12-6 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku; 03-6264-1883). Barista Kiyoshi Kawasaki, formerly of Streamer Coffee Company, serves espresso in colorful ochoko (sake cups). Or get a latte to go and keep your hands warm while perusing the market.

Start by exploring the many stalls of the outer market, Jogai Ichiba, that sell essential staples for the Japanese kitchen, such as konbu (kelp), tea and nori. Katsuobushi (dried bonito shavings) specialty store Akiyama Shouten (4-14-16 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku; 03-3541-2724; www.akiyamashouten.com) sells kezuri-ki, the tool used for preparing your own katsuobushi shavings. The shop will adjust the plane in the wooden box according to your ability to shave the hard filets of smoked and dried skipjack tuna. Katsuobushi flakes adds a rich, smoky note when sprinkled over tofu or steamed greens.

The inner market, Jonai Ichiba, opens to the general public after 9 a.m., so schedule your visit around this. It is here where hundreds of nakaoroshi (intermediate wholesalers) sell directly to chefs and retailers. Each stall has its own specialty, such as tuna, shrimp or live seafood. After the inner market moves to Toyosu, visitors will no longer be able to walk among the colorful and dizzying array of seafood — the new location will instead have a viewing area overlooking the nakaoroshi — so now is your chance.

Note the care with which the seafood is displayed. Whole fish are often positioned with the eyes to the left and the tail to the right. Some stalls practice ikejime, a technique of killing the fish quickly by pushing a thin wire rod down the spinal cord, resulting in a richer texture and better flavor. At eel specialty stalls, a spike is used to secure the eel down onto the cutting board before it is butterflied. Listen for the screeching sound of bandsaws slicing super-frozen tuna.

At this time of year, connoisseurs go crazy for delicate innards such as shirako (milt), usually from cod, but the best is said to come from fugu (blowfish). Shirako is steamed in sake and served with grated daikon and a tart ponzu sauce. Ankimo (monkfish liver) can be seen in the market still attached to the fish after its stomach has been sliced open. Referred to as the “foie gras of the sea,” it is rolled up like a sausage, steamed and sliced, and is considered a lighter version of its duck counterpart.

Shellfish thrive in cold waters. Trattoria Tsukiji Paradiso (6-27-3 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku; 03-3545-5550; www.tsukiji-paradiso.com), which opens at 11 a.m., is a gem in the outer market that brings together Japanese seafood with Italian cuisine. The signature lunch, Linguine alla Paradiso, is a hearty pasta dish of mussels, tsubugai (whelk), shirogai (white tellin clams), asari (Japanese littleneck clams) and shijimi (corbicula clams) that are cooked until they burst open, the juice enriching the tomato sauce.

Shellfish’s rich texture is treasured at the sushi counter. Akagai (ark shell) is a red clam that is crunchy, while hamaguri (Oriental clam) is simmered until tender and slathered with a sweet soy reduction. Tsukiji Sushidai Honkan (6-21-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku; 03-3541-3738; www.tsukiji-sushidai.com), which opens at 10:30 a.m., offers many otsumami (small dishes) to whet your appetite. Start with shirako or ankimo and grilled or deep-fried bites before moving on to seasonal sushi. Excellent this time of year is the buttery kanburi (winter yellowtail), which melts in your mouth. Saba (Pacific mackerel) is salted and then cured in vinegar (shime-saba), which helps to cut through the oily fish. Kawahagi (thread-sail file fish) is a meaty whitefish that is luxurious when topped with its liver (kimo).

Squeeze into the counter at Toyo-chan (5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Bldg. #1; 03-3541-9062; www.tsukijigourmet.or.jp/11_toyo), a katsu (deep-fried pork cutlet) specialty restaurant that excels at kaki fry. Bread crumbs cover two oysters that are deep-fried until golden; the juicy, briny oysters are a nice contrast to the crispy coating.

Tuck in at Takahashi (5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Bldg. #8; 03-3541-1189) for simple dishes that speak to a fishmonger’s heart. Kinmedai no nitsuke is a pink-fleshed splendid alfonsino fish simmered in a sweet soy and sake broth until tender.

With the imminent move of the inner market to Toyosu, now is the time to experience it along with the rich selection of dining options of the outer market. And winter undoubtedly offers the richest selection of seafood.（The Japan Times 　Jan. 10, 2014)

Japan marks record high 11.25 million foreign visitors in 2013

Foreign visitors to Japan totaled a record high 11.25 million in 2013, up 2.08 million from a year earlier and topping the 10 million threshold for the first time, according to preliminary data released by the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau of Japan.

Immigration officials said the weak yen, which helped lower traveling costs in Japan, as well as eased visa requirements for Southeast Asians was behind the increase.

The total included those who were staying in Japan for extended periods of time and made re-entries after leaving the country. Excluding those re-entrants, arrivals came to approximately 9.55 million, also a record high and up about 2 million from 2012.

South Koreans were the largest group of visitors to Japan, totaling 2.3 million, followed by 2.16 million Taiwanese and 980,000 Chinese. The Chinese total excludes those from the Hong Kong special administrative region.

Chinese visitors gradually increased after plummeting in the wake of Tokyo's purchase in September 2012 of Japan-administered islets claimed by China from a private Japanese owner, a move that drew a fierce backlash from Beijing.

Foreign arrivals reached a record 9.44 million in 2010 and decreased sharply in 2011, when tourism withered due to the massive earthquake and tsunami in March and the strong yen. The visitor count started growing again in 2012.

Japanese departures, meanwhile, declined by 1.02 million from 2012 to some 17.47 million. The decline was attributed to the weak yen, which makes traveling overseas more expensive for Japanese.

picture=at night in the city of Hakodate, southernmost Hokkaido in Japan

==Kyodo News Jan. 11  2014

Worldwide, Richest 3% Hold One-Fifth of Collective Income　　　　Income inequality highest in sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia

Chinese military could target Okinawa during South China Sea conflicts: U.S. official

  WASHINGTON – Okinawa Prefecture and the U.S. territory of Guam could become targets of the Chinese military in the event of contingencies in Taiwan or the South China Sea, a senior U.S. Air Force official said.

　The People’s Liberation Army Air Force and the Second Artillery Corps would be tasked with strikes against American forces and facilities if China decided that U.S. intervention in such conflicts would have an overwhelming impact, the official, part of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, said.

　“Chinese analysts note the importance of military on Okinawa and Guam, and these assets and their supporting infrastructure are likely high priority targets of the PLAAF and Second Artillery” Corps, the official noted.

　The official made the comments Thursday in written testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which advises the U.S. Congress.

　China is locked in territorial disputes with Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries over island chains in the South China Sea, and with Japan over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

（My comment)　I have thought our national interests are peace in the Asia-Pacific region. China's strategy is only contained by the U.S. presence in East Asia.

However, we should always try to have opportunities to keep talks with Chinese leaders. Chinese leaders have long ago gone back to their traditional wasy of thinking in moving tacktically. They long ago scrapped the  communist theory of Mao and Marx. Japanese people must co-exist with Sotuh Korean and Chinese people who have totally different mentality and national characters despite chose distance between Japan and the two neighboring countries.

(The Japan Times Feb. 2 2014)

Defend dolphins, not a ‘tradition’

  In mid-January, somewhere between 250 and 500 dolphins were driven into the cove near Taiji, a small town in western Japan made famous in the award-winning film, “The Cove.” There, at least 100 of the dolphins were slaughtered for their meat. Others were packed up and sold to aquariums.

  The dolphins are herded, butchered and sold every year, but this year, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, together with CNN news uploaded videos of the dolphin hunt. The video, available online, is not for the faint of heart. Despite claims of humane killing methods, the video shows the fishermen hacking into the heads and backs of the panicked dolphins, then leaving them to bleed to death, turning the entire cove bright red.

  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe defended the practice in an interview with CNN and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters at a news conference that marine mammals including dolphins were “very important water resources.” Suga insisted “Dolphin fishing is one of the traditional fishing forms of our country and is carried out appropriately in accordance with the law.”

  Their argument that the force of tradition justifies the herding, capturing and slaughtering of dolphins is a flimsy one. Many past cultural practices, such as slavery, bordellos and beheading were stopped for ethical reasons. Tradition and culture are forces that change in accordance with new scientific understanding and evolving ethical standards. In addition, the Taiji hunt didn’t even become institutionalized on a large scale until 1969, so its roots are quite shallow.

  Their argument that the slaughter adheres to principles of the law is equally questionable. Veterinarians and behavioral scientists who viewed the covertly recorded video contend that the killing method used in this year’s Taiji dolphin hunt would not be permitted in any slaughterhouse in the developed world.

  Indeed, it is open to question whether the method would be acceptable if used to slaughter cows or other livestock in Japan.

  Japanese law states that all methods of killing livestock should reduce the animals’ suffering as much as possible. The method of sending “fishermen” into the water with knives to stab the dolphins, clearly evident in the video, does not begin to meet that guideline. The desperate flailing of the wounded animals and the long time it takes them to die go against the accepted animal welfare standards employed in advanced societies.

  Japan has already stopped invasive research and other harmful practices on species such as chimpanzees. Intelligent animal species have always held a special closeness to humans because of their intelligence, capacity for suffering and complex social relations. Dolphins are even known to commit suicide when distressed or confused.

  Japan has another tradition, one of deep respect for nature and the creatures in it. That tradition would be much easier to defend. The dolphin hunt is an inhumane practice that should be stopped.

The Japan Times editorial   Feb. 2     2014)

Heavy snow hits Japan

　　Heavy snow and severe weather struck Tokyo and other areas across Japan on Saturday, leaving five dead and more than 600 injured, reports said.

More than 740 flights were grounded as the weather agency issued a severe storm warning for the capital, while more than 40,000 households lost power.

　　The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the first heavy snowfall warning for central Tokyo in 13 years. Snow accumulation reached 27 cm, the heaviest snow in the Japanese capital since February 1994 and the fourth largest snowfall since World War II, the agency said.

　　Public broadcaster NHK said the snow-related accidents in eastern Japan including 17 serious injuries.

　　Through Sunday morning, as much as 50 cm of snow is expected in the Kanto-Koshin area and 40 cm in various areas from western to eastern Japan, according to the agency.

The agency issued a heavy snow warning for Tokyo, the first such warning for the capital in 13 years, calling on residents not to go out unless necessary. The agency also warned of strong winds and high waves in eastern Japan.(The Japan Times Feb. 9　2014 ) 

 Crafts made by disabled in Fukushima prove popular in Japan, abroad

 Japanese People with disabilities living in the northeastern Japan prefecture of Fukushima, devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, are doing their best to promote the area by making craft goods that are proving popular both at home and overseas.

Before the disasters and the subsequent nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi power plant, a number of disabled people used to gather at community workshops, designed to provide them with places and opportunities to work, to make skin toner made from luffa that they then sold. But orders dropped sharply after the nuclear disaster, due to public fears about possible radioactive contamination of the luffa.

Left with nothing much to do but to play games, they asked staff at the workshop in the central Fukushima city of Sukagawa for some gainful work. They said they "want to work, instead of playing games every day," according to the staff.

 Kyodo News March 17, 2014 

National Character

 I have now been reading the English written by Jeremy Paxman. I am interested in the English national character. Mr. Paxman says the English people are indifferent from others. American war correspondent, Martha Gellhorn, married famous American writter Ernest Hemingway and later divorced from him, loved Englnad for its absolute indifference. "I can go away, spend six months in jungle, come back and walk into a room, and people won't ask a single question about where I've been or what I've been doing. They'll just say, ""Lovely to see you.Have a drink."" "

 The English people are also discreet. If you are going to be an intellectuals in England, you had better to do it dicreetly , and certainly not call yourself an intellectual. Paxman writes.

  Paxman writes. The English people are fond of sports. " The language of sport permeated deep into the national consciousness. It has a slightly dated feel to it nowadays, but still to describe a man or woman as "good sport" is high praise. A good sport is the sport of person willing to concede defeat by saying that "the best man won".

 We, Japanese, are applicable to the second and third examples of the English people.We are discreet and we conceed defeat and praise a victor. The Japanese have been schocked by the South Korean behaviour which displayed in late February when figure saker Mao Asada won the world champion competion. South korean people said Asada won the first prize because Kim Jonah, who won the golden medal (first winner)in the Sochi Winter Olympic Game, was absent from the world competion. South Korean media said so. South Korean people wrote in the blog. The people of South Korea are so fanatically  patriotic that they are lack of fairness and objectivity, many Japanese have thought now. 

 Paxman says the English are very self-cnotroled people. Yes, Japanese also are self-controled people. South Korean are not. In November 2009, ten Japanese were killed by fire in the shooting entertaiment place in Pusan in South Korea. The relatives of the dead rushed into visiting Pusan but they never cried out nor shouted to South korean police and an entertaiment owner with complaints. They were self-controlled and just said why did the fire break out. we would like to know. The South Korean people felt strange to them. They were surprised at the behaviour of the relatives.

  The south koreans traditionally criy out in the public when unhappy events like funerals and accidents take place. We can watch South Korean television drama progarammes. This behaviour of the koreans is a good viture, I have learnt.

 The mentality of the Japanese and South Korean are very much different from each other despite a short distance between the two countries. However, the Japanese and English are more similar in many points of national charcters despite a long long distance.

  The one point between the Japanese and English are totally different. The English are much more cooler and objective than Japanese. The Japanese are more ideal -obsessed people  amd less pragmatic than the English. The Korean people are much more emothional and self centered people than the Japanese.

 The different national characters between the Japanese and the South Korean people have created part of mental conflicts and different ways of looking at social phenomena and historical views like war experiences.

(April 16, 2014)

Japan's Antarctic whaling bid faces IWC scrutiny after scientific challenge

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

PORTOROZ, SLOVENIA, Sept. 18 The Japan Times  - Japan's plans to resume a controversial Antarctic whale hunt in the name of research, which opponents say is really just for the meat, is facing scrutiny by the International Whaling Commission.

As members of the organization met for a second day in Slovenia, the agenda was laden with contentious issues that seek to balance national whaling traditions with conservation needs.

Japan has no formal proposal before the commission, but was forced into the spotlight by a New Zealand proposal that no permits be issued for whaling research in the future without proof of scientific necessity.

"The New Zealand proposal would make it very difficult for Japan to come up with a scientific program" acceptable to the commission, said Kitty Block of the Humane Society International, an observer at the talks.

Tokyo's eye on the Antarctic tops the list of hotly disputed topics for the IWC's 65th meeting in the Adriatic resort of Portoroz, which continues until Thursday.

It's the commission's first meeting since the United Nations' highest court found in March that Japan abused an exemption to a commercial whaling ban for scientific research purposes.

Japan canceled its 2014-2015 Antarctic hunt after the ruling, but a fisheries official told AFP his country would "explain its plan to resume research whaling in the next season (2015-2016)" at the IWC meeting.

Japan killed more than 250 minke whales in the Antarctic in the previous season.

New Zealand's draft resolution - which is supported by European nations, Australia and the United States, and other countries - recalls the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) finding that any state seeking to kill whales for research must show why nonlethal methods were not an option.And it wants the commission to instruct its scientific committee to thoroughly examine future research bids within the strict parameters set by the court. "The ICJ decision is an important ruling regarding how you assess a scientific program," said New Zealand commissioner Gerard van Bohemen.

Japanese representative Hideki Moronuki, however, said that "New Zealand's understanding of the ICJ judgment differs from Japan's. . . . Japan cannot accept the resolution as it now stands."

But he said the delegation was "willing to work with New Zealand and other countries tonight to find common ground. We hope that some agreement can be reached."

Discussions on a second contentious issue, an attempt to create a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic, have been put on hold. The idea has been thwarted by pro-hunting nations for years. It requires 75 percent of votes to pass but has failed at previous commission meetings.

The plan is backed by European countries and the United States. But Japan rejects the idea "from its basic position of seeking to resume sustainable commercial whaling," according to the fisheries official.

Two whale sanctuaries already exist. One in the Indian Ocean was created in 1979, and a second was established in 1994 in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica - where Japan has continued annual hunts in the name of science.

On the first meeting day on Monday, the IWC gave aboriginal Greenlanders the go-ahead to kill hundreds of whales, while Iceland came under fire for contravening a ban on commercial hunting.

Greenland's hunts are allowed under a special aboriginal subsistence dispensation. Iceland and Norway, on the other hand, issue commercial permits under objections or reservations registered against the IWC's whaling ban, and together catch hundreds of whales per year.

Also still to be discussed is Japan's bid to be allowed small-scale whale hunting off its own coast.

Quarter of workers suspect they are trapped at "Black firms"

 December 7, 2014

 A quarter of Japan's workers believe they are working at "burakku kigyo" (black companies) - firms that resemble sweatshops and flout labor laws by inducing employees to work overtime without pay, a labor union survey says.

Of that group, 80 percent have experienced physical or mental problems, the survey carried out by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) said.

The umbrella organization for labor unions conducted the online survey in November on 3,000 workers aged 20 to 59 across the nation.

Of the respondents, 26.9 percent said they think their workplaces are so-called black companies notorious for exploiting workers.

While 18.6 percent of the respondents in their 50s said they were employed at black firms, that response accounted for as much as 32.7 percent of all respondents in their 20s.

Asked why they call their employers black firms, 52.2 percent said they are routinely forced to work long hours, 46.3 percent cited low wages not commensurate with their labor, and 37.4 percent cited difficulty taking paid leave. The respondents were allowed to give multiple answers.

Of those who claimed they were working at black firms, 79.5 percent said they suffered from bad health and 79 percent said they were having mental problems.

These proportions were 19.8 points and 21.7 points higher, respectively, than those who said their employers are not black companies.

People satisfied with their personal lives made up 41.1 percent of those at black companies, nearly 20 points lower than those not working at such companies.

More than 30 percent said they turn to families and friends to address their concerns, while less than 2 percent cited labor standards supervision offices or labor unions at their workplaces.

As many as 46.8 percent said they have never consulted anyone for advice.

Between a rock and an art place in Kurashiki's merchant quarters (tarvel=The Japan Times  Monday Jan. 2015)

 Timing, as they say, is everything. With a bad habit of turning up to places and appointments too early, I often find myself wandering through train stations and pocket parks, and past the shuttered doorways of shops.

 I've done it again - 7 a.m. is clearly the wrong time to arrive in historic Kurashiki, a city just beginning to wake up. The station area at this hour is bleak, the shabby contemporary city replicating 1,000 other randomly cobbled together urban melees.

 One place that never closes, and has managed to avoid the design lapses that still disfigure many Japanese cities, is Achi Shrine. The site, accessed after passing through a stone torii gate, is located at the top of a long flight of steps. The view from the edge of the well-appointed grounds - which stand like an aerial terrace above Kurashiki - is of a town planner's draft, a cultural geographer's map of urban growth; from the postwar sprawl typified by the compression of buildings contiguous with highways and railroad tracks, to the painted walls and turrets of Kurashiki Tivoli Park, a children's storybook theme park, replete with artificial lakes, palaces and a Ferris wheel, to the well-ordered Edo Period (1603-1868) grid of Bikan, the original town.

 Immediately below the terrace, many of the tiled roofs of private homes and shops are meticulously interlocked, their surfaces resembling an expanse of gray fish scales.

 For those interested in Japan's pre-Shinto spirit world and the putative origins of its early stone gardens, Achi Shrine is home to a number of large granite boulders known as iwakura. Also called "seats of the gods," they appealed to the early Japanese, who possessed nothing comparable to shrines or religious reliquaries - to them the stones were natural force fields, attracting the presence of deities. Found in forest clearings and other natural settings, iwakura were cordoned off with rice-fiber ropes, and the ground around them strewn with pebbles, in what could well be a seminal model of the dry landscape garden. After staring for some time into the dark mirror of the stones, which are older than everything here, even the historic district of Bikan seemed less aged.

 Descending to the old merchant town, the sense of slow time prevails through its main forms of transport: the canal boat and rickshaw. Disengaged from their original, utilitarian functions, they are now the vehicular mode of choice for tourists, who pay a great deal more for them than the original passengers would have for a ride - the pleasure of experiencing the deceleration of time doesn't come cheap.

 Bikan is a return to an age when entire districts were designed for specific purposes, the resulting architecture displaying a good deal more unity and coordination than contemporary urban zones. In astonishing contrast to today's homes, which the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism accords a lifespan of roughly 27-37 years, the district's 17th- and 18th-century stores, merchant houses, granaries and spacious villas were built to last.

 It's worth viewing the interior of at least one of the residencies open to the public. It takes some seeking out, but Ohashi House, a little west of busy Chuo-dori, is a fine example of how the affluent merchant class were beginning to subvert many of the Edo Period's prohibitions on displays of wealth by members of the lower orders. Built in 1796, during the more liberal, or administratively relaxed, Genroku Era, the sober merchant exterior of Ohashi House belies a series of inner rooms that bear a strong, transgressive resemblance to the interiors of samurai villas.

 Besides architecture, there are other good reasons for visiting Kurashiki, not least the canals themselves, used originally to ferry cargo and grain, but now exclusively set aside for the conveyance of visitors. In the summer, tourists boarding flat-bottomed boats are issued with conical shaped sedge hats, the type still worn by some Japanese farmers; in winter, passengers snuggle under blankets. Only short sections of the canals are accessible, but the sense of floating backward along the currents of history is pleasant. The banks of the canals, luxuriant with willows and bush clover, could almost be mistaken for sections of English waterways, such as the River Cam or Avon.

 Then there are Kurashiki's first-rate galleries and museums. Having become wealthy through commerce, the city's merchants and business people sought a cultural outlet in their daily lives, and perhaps, a higher footing on the social ladder, by investing in art. The textile tycoon Magosaburo Ohara established what is, without question, the foremost exhibition space in Bikan, the Ohara Museum of Art. The museum's neoclassical building - housing works by the likes of El Greco, Auguste Rodin and Picasso - somehow manages to square quite well with the older wooden residences and white plaster storehouses of the district. The paintings being shown were selected by the artist Torajiro Kojima, a friend of Ohara's, while he was traveling and working in Europe in the 1920s.

 The first exhibition at the museum took place in 1930, a few short years before Japan's political climate changed and certain aspects of Western culture found themselves out of favor.

 The works of British sculptor Henry Moore seem to be everywhere in Japan - it seems no modern garden or landscaped park with an art site can do without a Moore. Accordingly, I spotted a large, lumpy bronze figure, suitably oxidized in the humid air, outside a modern art gallery tucked into one of the blocks behind the main canal. For purely Japanese content, though, the Kurashiki Museum of Folk Crafts, sited along the main canal, is the place to go for quality textiles, woodblock prints and ceramic ware. The building is a converted storehouse, whose fine crossbeams and stone floors provide the ideal ambience for craft items that border on art. Bikan has dozens of souvenir shops, but the gifts here are quality items.

 Replica toys, of the older type - consistent with the nostalgia that pervades Bikan - are sold nearby at the Japan Rural Toy Museum. Its doll, puppet, kite and spinning top displays are a nice relief from the high art and craft exhibits at Kurashiki's top-drawer museums.

 Bikan can be like a strong shot of culture in the arm, and as its effects wear off, other interests assert themselves. In my case, Kurashiki beer - a brew well worth sampling. There's nothing quite like a certain level of beer consumption to sharpen the faculties. After a few bottles of this fine craft beverage - on an empty stomach - I was beginning to cast a more critical gaze over the town. Like many of these preservation zones, Kurashiki began to seem a tad too picturesque, its boatmen dressed up too much like Edo Period stevedores, decorative touches on the homes a little too typical, while its canal swans looked as though they might have been groomed to glide into just the right choreographed spots for the droves of photographers who descend on the town at the weekends. Designed for the circulation of hundreds rather than thousands of people, Bikan can indeed get very crowded with visitors on these days. The guidebook I was carrying warned darkly of the area being "marked by the inevitable cluster of shops and dawdling tourists," as if its own readers were somehow a different breed from the ordinary sightseer.

 In contrast to the architectural dystopia of the newer parts of Kurashiki, Bikan is an exercise in that rarest of things: the combination of wealth and good taste. The contemporary sections of the city will likely continue experimenting with the half-baked architectural hybrids and implants that characterize many cities in Japan, which eventually become - architecturally speaking - neither Japanese nor Western. Bikan, however, is a well-grounded quarter, one that, importantly from the preservation perspective, pays its way. As long as it continues to draw in the well-heeled visitor, the old town will survive and prosper.

 Implausibly for a country fixated on the here and now, it is Kurashiki's past that has triumphed over its present. These are, after all, the streets of a different era, an age when there were no mechanized forms of transport, where nights in the cities and small, huddled towns of Japan were as dark as pitch.

 Wandering the lanes and alleyways of Bikan, it is almost possible to forget that the ground beneath your feet is not made of earth and flint, but unlovely asphalt.

    Getting there: Kurashiki Station is a 15-minute train trip from Okayama Station on the Sanyo Line. The Kodama shinkansen stops at Shin-Kurashiki Station, where travelers can change to a local train. There are also regular buses from Okayama.

For industry, Nikkei deal to acquire FT raises questions　about shift in standards

The Japan Times -Reuter　JULY　２５　　　２０１５　　

　TOKYO/LONDON - For all the assurances by Nikkei executives last week that the Financial Times will retain editorial independence under their ownership, some staff at the London-based business daily are fretting about everything from journalistic standards to holiday allowance.

　Most acquisitions cause workforce anxiety, but some of Japan Inc.'s overseas buys have foundered on perceived differences in corporate culture and values.

　Nomura's cut-price purchase of parts of failed Wall Street broker Lehman Brothers during the financial crisis caused tension and resentment, and hit the bottom-line. Gung-ho Lehman bankers champed at Japanese conservatism and bureaucracy, while Nomura veterans chafed at how much Lehman staff were paid.

　Nikkei promises a far more hands-off approach to the FT.

　"We will respect each other's editorial direction and newsroom culture. If there are problems, we will discuss them frankly and make efforts to find points of agreement," President and CEO Naotoshi Okada said Friday.

　On the business side, Nikkei and the FT have much in common. Both are hard-wired to the financial world, seeking to "scoop" rivals on corporate and economic news, and both have been around long enough to be seen almost as part of the establishment.

　"The Nikkei is . . . more pragmatic, business-focused and prides itself on the quality of the information it gets, particularly from Japanese corporate sources," said Peter Tasker, a prominent Tokyo-based analyst at Arcus Research. "The FT is sort of sui generis (unique) in the UK. Accuracy and detail and quality of argument are more important (to the FT) than they would be for other (British) newspapers."

　Others, however, noted the potential for cultural collision.

　Michael Woodford, the former CEO who exposed an accounting scandal at Olympus Corp. in 2011 by working with the FT, said Japanese media is "deferential and almost reverential to powerful forces," and he wouldn't have taken the Olympus story to the FT if it had been owned by Nikkei.

　"I'm deeply troubled that the subliminal effect of being owned by Nikkei will make it (the FT) less willing to publish articles critical of corporate Japan, which includes the Nikkei," he said.

　Those concerns were echoed by one FT journalist in London, who asked not to be named. "With Nikkei, there are obvious concerns. They didn't do a great job exposing Olympus.

　"There's a different culture in journalism and also in the readership in Japan. That question might be more acute for our Tokyo bureau. What happens when we have to be forceful and do our style of reporting on Japan PLC?"

　Former FT editor Andrew Gowers said Nikkei's long experience and tradition in financial newspapers makes it a good choice as buyer of the FT. However, he added, "this is a transition time. There are cultural differences between Japanese journalism and Anglo-Saxon journalism and it would be just good to have it acknowledged that the FT has its own way."

　For Nikkei and the FT, a meeting of those cultures is likely, for now, to not go far beyond the mutual publication of each others' stories and a sharing of digital strategy.

　Okada said there are no plans to cut jobs or merge bureaus, though he said separate Nikkei and FT bureaus might be brought under the same roof.

　That may spook some at the FT.

　"The FT is very good in terms of work/life balance, especially holidays," said an individual familiar with the paper's newsroom. "The Japanese are notoriously not. We get a starting six weeks' holiday, and the Japanese have a rather different attitude to working hours."

　A previous, more limited, tie-up Nikkei had from the late 1990s with Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co., now owned by News Corp., was not a roaring success. The Dow Jones Newswires Tokyo bureau was put in a joint newsroom at the newspaper's headquarters with staff from Nikkei QUICK wire service, but plans to forge a joint news operation were dropped.

　Joint editorial meetings lapsed, with DJ journalists complaining of a lack of support and cooperation from Nikkei managers, recalled one former DJ staffer.

　"I remember giving them a pre-publication WSJ scoop on the Federal Reserve so they could set it up to snap (alert) with us. The section chief put the story in his desk drawer," the former staffer recalled.

　On a more trivial level, tempers frayed among Dow Jones employees who were used to having chairs with armrests. At Nikkei, only senior staff had that luxury.

How Japan's devastating rainstorm came about

　The heavy rainfall in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures was caused by stationary humid air covering a wide swath of sky in the Kanto region, which was unable to move in any direction. It was hemmed in to the west by a chunk of cold air over the Sea of Japan, where Typhoon Etau fizzled out, and a block of humid air to the east over the Pacific Ocean, where Typhoon Kilo was swirling, according to Kunihiro Naito, a forecaster at Weathernews Inc., a Chiba-based weather information company.

　"Usually, autumn typhoons pass quickly after making landfall in Japan, and strong rain clouds normally move eastward along with the typhoons," Naito said. "This time, however, after Typhoon Etau lost its strength and turned into a tropical cyclone in the Sea of Japan, it stayed there, while humid air kept flowing in from the south. This resulted in the formation of a rain zone in Kanto."

　The downpour that afflicted almost half of Kanto had pretty much the same factors behind it as the torrential rain that struck the city of Hiroshima in August 2014, which triggered massive floods and landslides and killed 74 people.

　In meteorological terms, what happened to Hiroshima is known as "back building," whereby thunderclouds typically pile up in a narrow band about 10 km wide, causing intense rainfall in a very small area.

　This week's rainstorm was a larger version of what happened in Hiroshima, in that it involved much larger amounts of thunderclouds creating a thicker, longer band of rain, 100 km in width and 1,000 km in length, Naito said.

　While such sudden pileups of thunderclouds are not new, the growing intensity of downpours in recent years might be linked to climate change, Naito said.

　"Ocean temperatures around Japan have been rising in recent years, producing vapor and making air conditions unstable. That makes 'back building' of sorts easier to happen," Naito said.

　Kei Yoshimura, a hydrologist at the University of Tokyo's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, said the magnitude of the Kinugawa River flooding on Thursday was "something that takes place only once in 100 years."

　He added that it was too early to conclude the flooding was linked to climate change, saying the heavy rainfall happened to occur along that river.

　"It's my view that the effect of climate change on this particular incident is zero, or unknown at this point," he said.