tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74206062024-02-21T10:21:25.958+09:00Japan without the sugarThere ain't no samurai, there are few geisha, Japanese are not the most polite people in the world. In practice, there is no special love or care for nature, nor is Japan uniquely unique. Sorry, but the sugar-coated fantasyland-Japan of Edwin O. Reischauer et al does not exist--if it ever did.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.comBlogger1239125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-6801203320215670362011-01-30T18:04:00.003+09:002011-01-30T18:16:18.158+09:00Do you think women's work lives have changed in Japan?"Not changed at all." Mother's way; Daughters' choiceDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-68916161566003254332011-01-16T15:58:00.008+09:002011-01-16T19:39:50.140+09:00Speaking of Mama Grizzlies, I was once again puzzled by the goings on in the US. After a person who might be called a loony-bird by less politically correct, cruder folk went on a shooting spree in Tucson, the early consensus among media types and some on the far left seemed to be that Sarah Palin was somehow to blame. Apparently, her map with crosshairs targeting certain seats for takeover by Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-78303543475276257272011-01-16T13:38:00.005+09:002011-01-16T19:26:41.477+09:00Mama Grizzly takes no unchiI knew things were looking up this year. First, The-Woman-Who-Watches-YouTube-All-Day-in-Her-Room-When-She-is-Not-Working-or-Playing-Tennis, came out long enough to inform me that her mother who is in the hospital with an aortic dissection is doing well and won't need surgery. A miracle, I'd say.Then Friday evening I had dinner with the Oz Lady who informed me that her cancer scare turned out to Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-67542835136381810842011-01-13T22:40:00.005+09:002011-01-13T22:50:15.088+09:00BygonesStriking a conciliatory tone on an issue that has divided Japan and the United States, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on Thursday that the Obama administration would follow Tokyo’s lead in working to relocate an American air base on Okinawa. NYTSo what the hell was all the fuss about last year?Thank you, China and North Korea.Oh, wait a second--- "follow Tokyo's lead" could Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-88273028561915255342011-01-09T20:05:00.005+09:002011-01-11T12:18:59.350+09:00Joggers wobbling around chaoticallyApparently the conflict between joggers and pedestrians around the Imperial Palace is on again, according to NHK news. It has become so severe that the Chiyoda-ku government has decided to call a panel in March consisting of joggers and other residents to come up suggestions for rules for joggers. The government will then decide which of these suggested rules they will enact. Should take less Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-4551996907956508482011-01-08T12:36:00.013+09:002011-01-08T15:43:42.336+09:00After a Christmas and New Year break, it's not pleasant to have to return to reality. Assuming there is such a thing as reality in this Japan as opposed to the one of myth.Debito Arudou wrote Arudou's Alien Almanac in the Japan Times which, to me, indicates how the atmosphere for non-Japanese has improved since the early-mid 2000s. Ishihara (I understand from other sources that people should Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-6971909910302009372010-12-30T13:50:00.014+09:002011-01-17T23:35:36.687+09:00ImagineImagine a country where everyone is good at his or her job. Imagine a country where everyone has respect for elders and teachers. Imagine a country where every shop clerk treats each customer like an honored guest. Imagine a country where everyone wears expensive clothing, the food is slurpy, and there aren't any napkins because apparently nobody needs them. Imagine a country where everyone has Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-71245394282840100312010-12-26T18:12:00.002+09:002010-12-26T18:17:07.348+09:00Motivating かな。。。。。Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-70463166020739563802010-12-26T09:14:00.007+09:002010-12-26T09:40:15.978+09:00Merry Christmas from PM KanHaving pretty much given up on being able to do anything but embarrass himself, Kan has reached out to the Shintaro Ishihara's hard right party, tachiagare nippon ("Stand Up" or "Rise Up" Japan, intentionally mistranslated as The Sunrise Party in English*), in hopes of finding friends. Not that the DPJ doesn’t have a few of that flavor already, as some of its members signed the Washington Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-26972175841947465002010-12-13T09:39:00.017+09:002010-12-13T10:27:06.222+09:00Kan maybe not so unrealisticPM Kan has been reported to suggest that the SDF would go to Korea in case of war. This has been judged to be unrealistic by some in the ROK. It certainly might cause problems for an untested force that has never participated* in exercises with the US/Korea forces (not ground combat anyway), and with no known (at least not widely known) planning for such actions with South Korea or the US. Then Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-60314335360014429202010-12-12T21:54:00.009+09:002010-12-12T22:15:10.213+09:00Wikileaks leaks on Japan....Singapore's Ambassador Tommy Koh called Japan "the big fat loser" and "stupidity, bad leadership and lack of vision" for Japan's position in Asian region. OneIndia.in (Reporting on Wikileaks)
South Korea has dismissed as ``unrealistic’’ Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s comment on sending troops to the Korean Peninsula if a war breaks out.
Speaking to the families of Japanese citizens Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-49297081551826173362010-11-25T22:46:00.005+09:002010-11-25T23:01:59.610+09:00Unpredictable, irrational DPRKA very short history of the DPRK and some possible rational why the unpredictable country that seems strangely predictable is behaving so irrationally is online at PBS. Some parts may be quibble worthy* (was Kim Il-sung really an anti-Japanese guerrilla or could that be part or all myth?), but it might give some insight:North Koreans have long felt threatened by American nuclear weapons, and Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-34813965745580519512010-11-25T13:55:00.007+09:002010-11-25T14:57:44.361+09:00PM Kan's TVAlthough it is tough to pull away from the antics of the unpredictable DPRK which for some reason seems to be generally predictable, one can entertain oneself with some good TV. Failing that, one can find PM Kan's TV online. This will help folks try to figure out just what the government is doing since it isn't exactly obvious otherwise. It is available in English and in Japanese. (Unfortunately,Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-27251773783290867662010-11-23T17:26:00.019+09:002010-11-23T20:21:40.615+09:00DPRK bids for attention or ?A bit of a buzz on Twitter as the DPRK has shelled Yeonpyeong island off northwest South Korea. According to a report on MSN Japan (in Japanese), ROK's president believes the shelling may be in response to an exercise the ROK military was holding. The ROK has reportedly returned fire. One South Korean soldier was killed, but I would be surprised if there were not more fatalities after seeing Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-22427443100839147832010-11-22T22:58:00.013+09:002010-11-23T08:55:15.508+09:00More Chalmers JohnsonThe Washington Note has a good article on Johnson: ....Johnson for his seminal work on Japanese political economy, MITI and the Japanese Miracle was dubbed by Newsweek's Robert Neff as "godfather of the revisionists" on Japan. Neff also tagged Clyde Prestowitz, James Fallows, Karel van Wolferen and others like R. Taggart Murphy and Pat Choate as the leaders of a new movement that argued that Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-31077673905306399152010-11-21T17:20:00.006+09:002010-11-22T22:56:05.216+09:00Chalmers Johnsonauthor of MITI and the Japanese Miracle, Japan scholar, and so-called Japan revisionist has died at 79 years of age. James Fallows has a short obituary at The Atlantic.22 Nov: Article on Johnson at Washington Note.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-19517653122233522822010-11-19T19:29:00.003+09:002010-11-19T19:41:26.433+09:00All the Devils are Here; ratings agencies and the financial crisisNot Japan related directly, unless you consider the damage done to the Japanese (and world's) economy a direct result of the 2008 financial crisis*, but PBS has a short segment on the role of US ratings agencies---Moody's etc---in the crisis. They also discuss the responsibility of the US government, both political parties, and Wall Street. Lesson learned until the next bubble.*Probably a good Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-72811613381886517482010-11-19T16:43:00.003+09:002010-11-19T16:54:43.117+09:00Sorry for the delayed responsesto a few comments on my post below, but I have finally made poorly written replies full of grammatical and spelling errors. Blogger does not allow long comments, nor does it allow any editing or correcting after posting, so they are a bit of a mess. Hopefully they are understandable.Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-63652700642549248272010-11-16T12:36:00.014+09:002010-11-16T14:01:31.597+09:00Ahhhh. Finally something like autumn has arrived. No frost on the pumpkin, but except for Sunday night when I was hunting mosquitoes in the mansion, it has cooled enough and enough leaves have turned to make it seem like October back home.
Luckily for me, autumn brings learning opportunities and I needn't go to school to experience them. Why just yesterday a fellow as telling me about how Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-42175783854235345482010-11-14T20:36:00.010+09:002010-11-15T00:12:00.933+09:00Joseph Nye: Return of AsiaDuring and after the G-20 this week, much of the media has attributed the US inability to get its way on every issue as a sign of the decline of the US. Naturally, one has to view this sort of quickie analysis with a skeptical eye.Last July, Joseph Nye made a presentation at TED discussing global power shifts in two aspects: the shifting power of states from west to east (i.e. US-China), and whatDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-55851812607056078522010-11-10T20:54:00.025+09:002010-11-11T01:03:56.549+09:00Coast Guard crew member caught leakingAfter being hunted for the better part of a week, the culprit who leaked the videos of the Chinese fishing vessel/Japanese Coast Guard collision to YouTube has confessed. The government is now able to breathe a sigh of relief that the person who made it look like the country was being run by the Three Stooges will possibly suffer the consequences of violating relevant laws and regulations.There Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-80171374551479219992010-11-05T13:54:00.005+09:002010-11-05T14:05:03.685+09:00Another Youtube Senkaku collision video source (six part) in addition to previous post:1/62/63/64/65/6 (Collision here)6/6Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-65681619178572587392010-11-05T11:58:00.008+09:002010-11-05T19:36:40.352+09:00Senkaku collision videoFrom Japanese patrol point of view. Collision at about 1:20:More distant view from second ship:Hmmm...who is fibbing? Not hard to tell from those videos.More at Japan ProbeA word of warning: It has been reported that the government did not want these videos released as they might cast doubt on China's version of the incident, thereby making China look bad and causing a pissy fit. Thus it is Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-34787144140710143172010-11-01T14:41:00.011+09:002010-11-14T21:16:10.346+09:00Japan as Number One againSince the sub-prime crisis began in 2008, we've seen story after story on the supposed lessons Japan holds for the US.Most of these seem to be of use to those who want to push their own political/economic agenda at home using Japan as evidence to support their opinions. On his NYT blog recently, Paul Krugman used Japan as an example of why Friedman's monetarism does not work. However he has not,Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7420606.post-38597899563625098892010-11-01T12:55:00.010+09:002010-11-25T23:07:02.314+09:00Good service I dropped by the Denenchofu Maison Kayser bread shop at noon to pick up some expensive pizza for lunch. Until recently, most shops in Denenchofu have not seemed to be very enthusiastic about actually attracting customers---I have heard unproven rumors that some may have been set up for tax purposes---but MK has always seemed to be interested in doing business. Perhaps they let their prices Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16435915677126518313noreply@blogger.com3