Mama Grizzly takes no unchi

I 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 be more of a scare than an immediate threat. The Oz Lady, a mid-30s Japanese teacher with a fear of foreigners as long as they are a faceless group, is doing well with her new---OMG!---Japanese-speaking foreign boyfriend. And the cancer scare helped her stop smoking. She did not say anything crazy during the meal like she often does. I hope she is thinking the same thing about me.

Then there's the woman whose daughter is being bullied in school. It turns out that the bullying was worse than I first heard and the young girl had to go to the hospital once after being hit by the bullying boy. This took place in front of a teacher who not only did not intervene, but did not even inform the mother what had happened. The little bully had done similar things to at least eight other students. Apparently, his parents were unable to do anything about it either. Or didn't care enough.

Although the problem has not yet been resolved, the girl's mother did find support from a local politician, a NGO, the local board of education, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Gov't.

What was it a couple of month's back that CBS News reported about schools in Japan?

The answer to all problems at last!

Forget the politicians. The way forward for Japan is to spread the use of TOEIC! It has been so effective already that using it more is almost a no brainer.

"Just imagine what it would be like if TOEIC spread to junior high and high schools all over Japan. The results would astonish people around the world. Japan would rise like a phoenix from the ashes, and Japanese women and men would begin to play more important roles on the international stage," says some fellow from the totally unbaised Institute for International Business Communication. Japan Times

Teacher test scandal part II

Earlier, I stated that I had trouble understanding the focus on the scandal over faked teacher test results since that sort of thing seems to have been going on for ages.

Philip Brasor has written about this in more detail at The Japan Times:

I could accept the shocked tone if the practices uncovered in Oita were unique or seemed to be limited to that particular school district, but the more I learn about the way public-school administration works, the more I am convinced that the problem is systematic; not just built into the educational system but hot-wired into the bureaucratic mentality.

...And after the current anger and disgust blows over, it will likely return to the same old thing.

Old news is new news

Over the last few weeks the media has been full of reports of various scandals involved altering test scores on teacher candidate tests, sending lists of applicants to politicians, bribes and other unsavory practices.

Yesterday, the police raided some offices of municipal and prefectural boards of education in Oita because they suspect some principals paid bribes to get their positions.

I remember talking to a newly hired teacher in Toyama in the early 1990s who had just passed the teachers test on her 3rd try. How did she do it? By studying harder? Maybe, but according to her, she was able to get someone in a position to influence such things to pull strings for her. She was quite open about it, at least to me and my wife and friends.

I suppose the latest scandal may be a surprise for some, but more than one person has told me that sort of thing is an old custom. Nothing new, so I wonder why all the coverage of it now.

Kanagawa Prefecture Education Board goes Blinky

A few years ago, the rightist bigot and Tokyo governor Shintaro "Blinky" Ishihara got Tokyo prefecture to attempt to force all school teachers to stand during the playing of the national anthem. Many object to this as they remember the role of teachers in WW2 in helping the state instill jingoism and obedience to the emperor in students. Blinky and the Tokyo government have lost court decisions challenging the legality of this order, but they are appealing it.

Kanagawa prefecture, the home of a politician who became a little controversial among the foreign residents (like Ishihara, his remarks/beliefs didn't cause much of a reaction among the native-born citizens) who said that ALL non-Japanese in the prefecture were criminals and who refused to apologize or retract his statement, has an Education Board that wants to step up to the plate and punish citizens who disagree with its stance:

The Kanagawa prefectural education board decided Monday to continue collecting the names of teachers who refuse to stand when the "Kimigayo" national anthem is sung in school ceremonies, board officials said.

The board's decision defies a recommendation by a prefectural panel on protection of personal information that it stop the practice.

"It's undesirable there are such school staff members who don't stand (to sing the anthem), as enrollment and graduation ceremonies are important events," said Takaichi Hikichi, head of the education board. More here.

Blinky, "Beautiful Country" Abe, "Comic Book" Aso, and I assume "Barcode-head" Fujiwara must all be panting, giggling, and blinking rapidly with delirious glee.

Revisionist appointed chairman of the board of education

in Saitama. He is one of the key players in insisting on whitewashing Japan's WW2 actions in school texts. Apparently, those who appointed him either agree with his views, or at the least find no problems with him. Abe may be gone, but his extremist buddies ain't .

Shiro Takahashi, a professor at Meisei University and former deputy chairman of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, will be the first member of the group, which has sparked controversy with its nationalist history textbooks, to chair a prefectural board of education. From the JTonline.

Foreign Workers in Japan

One of the funnier things we can read about or hear about is how Japan is going to use foreign workers to make up for the population decline due to the rapid aging of society. Wouldn't hold my breath for that. Some of the old retro-grouches would starve first. The only chance for it to happen would be to import low-skilled, poorly educated people and watch and control them carefully.

The Japan Times recently published an article about foreign scientists who came to Japan and actually believed that they were going to be treated as intelligent, professionals with valuable skills. AHAHAHAHA. Guess they sort of forgot to put their research skills to work on investigating Japan before coming. Or they believed what they were told by the employers. April Fool all year round.

...internationalization of the workforce is often linked to the notion of the erosion of national identity, a well-polished political foil tied emotionally to the fanciful idea of Japanese racial and genetic homogeneity... (This sounds racist or at least racialist. Couldn't happen in Japan, as there is no racism here.)

...The numbers of both female and foreign scientists employed at Japanese universities are "extremely low" relative to other member countries of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), the government admits (see job.yomiuri.co.jp/news/jo_ne_05041103.cfm ). However, despite the government's statements to the contrary, many government initiatives actively prevent the integration of foreign scientists into the Japanese research and university environments....

...The emphasis is on the short-term turnover of a small number of researchers, and there is no provision for long-term integration....

...one eminent senior Japanese scientist at Osaka City University acknowledges, "It is unfortunate for research and students that it is almost impossible to keep good foreign scientists in Japan."

...The only other employment option available to foreign scientists who persist in pursuing their research objectives after JSPS funding is withdrawn and who cannot find work at a university is to become an employee of a Japanese scientist who works at a college/university and can use "kakenhi" grants (Japanese government research funding) to provide a salary for the foreign scientist. Employed via this method, foreign scientists find that despite the fact that they might produce world-class research, they are outside established Japanese university bureaucratic procedures, excluded from university decision-making processes and are politically powerless within the university because of the position of subservience they must assume in order to be able to continue their research. This employment avenue is the road to inequality and discrimination... (In Japan? NOOOOoooooo!)

...Brian Budgell is a Canadian scientist, resident in Japan for the past 15 years and currently an associate professor at the School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine at Kyoto University. Here he recalls his introduction to the university five years ago.

"On my first meeting with the head of school and the head of my division, I was informed that I was 'not a doctor in Japan' and that I would be assigned to teaching English. I was told to forget about research. This was quite different from the position that I had been led to believe I would hold. However, for the sake of my children, I could not suddenly resign.

(My God! Was he lied to? Deceived? No, Japan is special. That stuff only happens in foreign countries.)

"In the intervening years, every request to the school for research support, and every request for 'kakenhi' (government grants) has been denied...

Pesky Japan-bashing baka gaijin. Causing trouble for pure Japan. Poor Japan, victim yet again.

FULL ARTICLE at Japan Times Online, by Peter Osborne. (Pesky foreign rabble-rouser.)

U.N. Rep responds to Japan's assertion of homogenuity

A few days ago Japan's Education Minister, Bunmei Ibuki (who is in need of education himself), made the bizarrely inaccurate and false claim that Japan is a homogeneous society.

The U.N. special rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, and xenophobia responded:

"There is no such thing as pure blooded or a pure race. Where do the Ainu fit in to Japanese society? Or the Chinese and Koreans?"

"I am absolutely shocked at his remark. Here is the education minister, the person who in charge of educating Japan's children about their history, saying something that is so outdated."

I am shocked that he is shocked. I would assume he would have a lot to respond to about Japan. I guess since he is in Japan now, he was able to see and hear about Ibuki's comment directly.

One would not likely see many European politicians get a free pass for bigoted and racist comments the way Japan's leaders do. Perhaps nobody expects any better of them.

Have not as of yet heard much domestic criticism of Ibuki's remarks. That may change since a U.N. representative has commented on them. Or it may just be ignored by the Japanese language press and of course Japan's elite.

Abe agrees with Ibuki as this is in keeping with his vision of a "beautiful country." I assume that means a Japan with no non-pure Japanese defiling it.

Those semi-human women

Further reflecting Abe's "Beautiful Country" policy in which Japanese children would be coerced into patriotism which would, I guess, make other countries respect Japan, health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa today gave his vision of Japanese women as "birth-giving machines." Ahh, bushido?

"The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed. Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head, although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines."

Return to Yasukuni

Sooner or later. The LDP had a convention praising Abe and his reforms of the education laws to force feed patriotism to children.

Abe told the 74th LDP convention that his government built the foundation last year to create a "beautiful nation" with the passage of several bills. They include controversial revisions to the Fundamental Law of Education, requiring schools to instill a sense of patriotism in students.

The party also adopted the position that its members would continue to visit Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine, a major bone of contention with China and South Korea.

and

Abe wants the key campaign issue to be revising the Constitution."The Constitution is the framework, the shape of the nation, and based on the spirit behind the foundation of the (LDP), I would like to go after revising the Constitution," Abe said.

Others are bit concerned that Abe and his ilk are a real threat to democracy.
According to this story, one result of some of the right-wing nutjob education reforms has resulted in what has been called by teachers as a sort of loyalty test. (Ruled unconstitutional by the Tokyo District Court, but Shitaro "Blinky" Ishara's administration is appealing. Sorry, I meant Shintaro.)

Speaking of Blinky, he is on track for his 3rd term as Tokyo governor. It appears that the citizens of Tokyo support, or at least do not reject, his racism. What does that say about Tokyo voters?

Another View of the Rightward Rush in Japan

A story about a Japanese high school teacher, Ms. Miyako Masuda, who does not particularly agree with the rants of the right-wing nutjobs that Japan was a victim of WW2. She was upset by a statement a year or so ago by a Tokyo City councilman, Koga Toshiaki, that Japan had never invaded Korea, so she wrote a letter to the South Korean president. One of the loony-bird rightist groups which supports the shrine honoring some convicted war criminals (among the other dead), discovered that she and her class had written the letter and complained.

Masuda is now ordered to spend her days in a small room studying public servant regulations, a serious humiliation she says. She in turn is trying to fight in court.

Masuda's experience shows the growing power of Japanese nationalists, and their
grass-roots influence in Tokyo, analysts say. (From HERE)

AND:

"I explain and teach the past. But I am now suspended as a history teacher for doing that, even though they say it is for administrative discipline."

Masuda's case has been picked up as a case of simple slander by the Tokyo media. A Japanese journalist with extensive experience points out that the Tokyo Asahi ran an item saying that Masuda was suspended for slandering the government officials and the publisher of the textbook. (From the original Christian Science Monitor article.)

The first link's owner also describes a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine that Japanese LDP politicians love so much. It seems less than an innocent little place to honor war dead. I hope to visit myself sometime so I can see how poor Imperial Japan was victimized by the evil Chinese, the West, and others. They never did nuttin' wrong! (But of course, Japan "regrets" some of the bad things it may have caused in the past. Why don't the Chinese believe that?)

Koga Toshiaki's statement: "It is not proper to describe a war of aggression by Japan. Where and when in the world did Japan ever invade? I'd like to ask, once and for all, when where and which country....

Free speech in Japan? Only if you are a right-wing neo-facsist emperor worshiper. Ahhh saving the world through bushido just like in the 30s.

A vote of no confidence in Abe

Seems his (and Fujiwara's) vision of an increasing nationalist--sorry patriotic Japan is no especially shared by the whole government. The main opposition parties have filed a no confidence vote against the cabinet of Abe-sama. The idea of forcing "patriotism" in schools is repulsive to some. Japan went done that road prior to its initiation its aggression in China and ultimately WW2.

Japan's opposition parties filed a no-confidence motion in the lower house of parliament against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet in an effort to block a bill calling for promoting patriotism in the nation's schools. The four groups, including the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, filed a motion protesting the rigging of town meetings held during the previous administration.
Bloomberg News.

I predict that the opposition will ultimately fail. It will be so nice if I am wrong, but I doubt I will be. I can't imagine the public at large getting much involved.

Abe, Saving Japan and the world with good old Japanese Bushido.

7:01PM update: The LDP, and the Diet has passed the new education law requiring more "patriotism" in education. It is the first revision in the education law since 1947. According to NHK evening news, the laws requires school principles to rate/grade children on patriotism (CORRECTION 17 Dec: It will not require grading, although many parents and teachers fear it ultimately will.) . One school principle said it would be difficult to determine a child's--especially grade school children's level of patriotism. BANAZAI!!!BANZAI!!! Perhaps, that is a bit harsh. We will see.

In addition, the Self Defense Forces (the military which is not a military because it would be unconstitutional if it were) will now officially achieve the status of a ministry. Its head will be referred to as the Defense Minister. Remember, this is different than say the US in which the Department of Defense includes the military. Again: Japan has no military, just guys with battleships, heavy weapons, small arms, combat aircraft, tanks etc. It's only for self-defense and hiding behind Dutch forces in Iraq and more or less being restricted to base except when digging holes in the sand for wells.

Shintaro "Blinky" Ishihara

The old bigoted woman-hating, Korea-hating, Chinese-hating, Caucasian-hating, non- "pure blood"-Japanese hating racist, fascist gummer whom the fine, open-mind non-bigoted non-racist citizens of Tokyo elected and reelected came out with another one of his memorable statements.

Reacting to the recent focus on rampant bullying in Japanese schools in which several young children have committed suicide and schools have been caught covering up, the old Emperor worshiping fellow has made another one of his deeply thoughtful remarks:

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has weighed in on the bullying issue, saying last week that the victims were "spoiled and weak" and that the recent spate of letters sent to the education ministry, most anonymous and all apparently written by children threatening suicide over bullying, were probably pranks. From the Japan Times.

Now of course, just because he has been elected and reelected by folks in Tokyo, and just because he continues to enjoy support and suffers no consequences for his crude remarks, we cannot assume that this in any way reflects poorly upon the citizens who elect him. Not at all. It's only Americans who are stupid. Japan is different---don't you know?

Bushido---saving Japan and the world!!!

A Trick Question

I suppose. I was talking with manager of a foreign accounting firm who "happens to be a Japanese female." (Whatever happens to be means.) We were discussing the Clint Eastwood film Flags of Our Fathers. She found it boring because it was just about a flag and a Native American. There were too many stories in the film and she was confused and disappointed. She likes simple things. One good thing about being Japanese is that the Japanese "are simple." (Her words.) Most are of "one group"---meaning one race. She won't bother with the Japanese Letters from Iwo Jima because she believes it will be boring too. Probably be just about letters and writin' I suppose.

Anyway, this led to a short discussion about Native Americans in the US. She, of course, was concerned about discrimination as most Japanese are, unless it involves discrimination in Japan. People usually deny or excuse that away.

We were talking about the origins of Americans, and then I asked her a simple question. "Where did the Japanese come from?" She was completely shocked, as if she had never considered such a thing before. She probably hadn't. I thought for a moment that she was going to answer "From the Sun goddess." But she finally came up with "maybe Mongolia."

I didn't go further and mention that China, Korea, and parts of southeast Asia were involved too, as I was afraid that she would take offense at being told that she could have some Korean or Chinese blood. Then I said that most evidence points to Africa as the origin of the human race and she began to giggle. She thought I was joking. "But the skin color changed!!"A university-educated woman did not know that simple fact that most 3rd graders (outside of Japan?) know.

We baka gaijin are so stupid and troublesome

Education

Back in the mid/late-eighties when I was in college and Japan's economy was peaking, there were all kinds of "the sky is falling" stories about how much better educated the Japanese were than nearly anyone else in the history of the universe. We knew this was true because they consistently had high scores on multiple-choice paper tests. We never noticed that Japanese education is heavily weighted towards memorizing huge quantities of "facts" for little other reason than passing tests. Few noticed that a Japanese university education is a joke---little to no studying takes place in a Japanese university for the majority of "students." Foolish non-Japanese professors who come to Japan to "teach" at a university have found out about this tradition of non-study when they were asked by the fine, polite, obedient Japanese, "Why do we have to study? This is a JAPANESE university." But the idea of a superior Japanese education fit in well with the unique Japan myth.

We get to see this superior education every day. We poorly-educated non-Japanese are often shocked by such facts as "Japan is the ONLY country with four seasons." One could wonder how anyone with any basic understanding of seasons, or climate, or the earth could think this, but that would be because one is too dumb and foreign to understand Japan.

I was talking to a guy (an engineer with an American company in Tokyo) the other day and brought up male colorblindness (the tendency of many males to have some degree of colorblindness to some greens/reds. Naturally, with his superior education and strong belief in nihonjinron, as well as the knowledge that all non-Asians have blue eyes and can see in the dark like a cat, informed me that this was because of our blue eyes. Strangely enough, I never said that this was a characteristic of only blue-eyed non-Japanese, but he figured it was. I was foolish enough to believe that Japanese males were members of the human race like everyone else, but I forgot that they were different, special, unique, and much better educated.

Shocking News

To me anyway. A few years ago, the Tokyo government decided that children would have to sing Kimigayo, the Japanese anthem. Teachers were also required to stand, face the flag, and sing. Many were disciplined when they refused to do so. The song itself has links to the war, so a lot of teachers strongly opposed it. (Japanese teachers were used to indoctrinate children before WWII, and many of today's teachers are very aware of the dangers of anything that smacks of militarism.)

The Tokyo government was sued by a group of teachers---and amazingly, they won. Teachers now have "no obligation" to stand, sing, and face the flag. The story is here.

I'll bet Tokyo's part-time governor, Shintaro "Blinky" Ishihara, is furious. Probably blinking at warp speed and blaming it on the U.S., China, Korea, and foreigners in general. I hope he doesn't soil his panties over it.

This is a rare pause in the march to increasing nationalism we've seen recently. I doubt it will last. (Tokyo can appeal the decision.)

30 September 2006 update: The Tokyo government has filed an appeal to force teachers to stand and sing this thing. I knew ol' Blinky would defecate in his drawers when he heard that.

The Return of the Imperial Rescript

We all know that Japan has completely changed since WW2. Why that era just a slight diversion from the path to democracy. WW2 was really just something foreign powers either tricked Japan into entering, or forced them to as they had no other options.

Before Hirohito died, we were told that the modern Japanese no longer thought much about him. He was just a funny old man. None other than Edwin Reishauer himself pushed this laugher. Then Hirohito died and the response of many in Japan made us wonder if Japan really had just completely changed overnight when the war ended.

But now, despite the opposition of the rightwing loonytunes like Fuijiwara Masahiko, Japan is said to have a democracy (debatable). One has to wonder for how much longer as we keep hearing of a desire to return to the past. In Fujiwara's top selling book, he renounces democracy (and even claims that the Japan that started the Pacific War was a democracy) and suggests Japan be ruled by an elite unelected group. He suggests that Japan should return to bushido---in fact, he wants to export it. This all worked so well in the past.

The Imperial Rescript on Education has was used by such elites from the late 1800s to indoctrinate young Japanese children with the idea that the emperor was the head of the state in Japan and they owed him allegiance. It was one of the strongest symbols of nationalism in that era.

The 1890 decree, issued on behalf of Emperor Meiji, was criticized on the grounds that it was "based on the belief that sovereign power resides with the emperor, upholding a mythological view of the fundamental character of the nation." The Diet ruled that it "clearly infringed on basic human rights." (From Asahi.com---link below)

It is coming back in some areas, and is fully supported by many parents---the average Japanese mom and dad. Children are again being forced to recite it---elementary school children!

So what does this mean? Is Japan becoming a militarist Japan again? No, but Japan does not hold the same values, world views, and visions as the US or other western countries. The beliefs, traditions, and tendencies that existed in Japan prior to World War II did not suddenly disappear. They still exist at some level in Japan. US citizens should in particular be aware of this. Japan is not becoming more like us. Japan is an American ally only as long as the US remains strong and as long as it is to Japan's benefit. No shock there.

The story, from Asahi Shimbum is here: Potent Words.