Japanese "police" fight more crime

I heard this from a Japanese acquaintance:

She knows a British guy who was moving recently and while moving he decided to put some of his bigger unneeded items in the garbage. Unfortunately, this hardened criminal foreigner put it out without calling for pickup, in other words, he violated the garbage rules.

The landlord saw it and decided to call the "police" on this thug. The cops, displaying more skill and daring than they did when they tried to arrest the murder suspect in the slaying of a young British woman last spring, responded immediately and took said crook into custody. The held him for 5 hours, getting detailed information about such things as his salary etc (very pertinent to this felony.) Ultimately, he was released. He was very lucky that they did not keep him prisoner for 21 days.

The woman who told me this was stunned by it, calling Kanagawa's finest "idiots." Interestingly, when she was imitating the landlord calling the cops, she was using the term gaijin in a way that she assumed the landlord would. (She was imitating the landlord as if the landlord hated foreigners.) Sort of like some Americans use the N-word, or "gook" or similar. But of course, we hear especially from foreign apologists that gaijin is a neutral term. I have, however, given up on expecting that to change.

It is interesting that most Japanese seem to be as surprised and disgusted at this sort of thing as non-Japanese are. At least the ones whom I know and speak with who may not represent the average person react that way. I suspect that if the Japanese media ever started picking up on this kind of thing consistently and thoroughly, there would be embarrassment and negative reactions on the part of people towards the clowns doing it. But, that will never happen. These issues are largely ignored, and even if they did, you'd find a lot of foreign apologists defending the abuses of power in order to make sure their own little boat wasn't rocked.

This happened in Kanagawa where I used to live. The garbage collection rules are routinely violated there. If they detained everyone who does this, most of Kanagawa would be in police custody. Including the cops, I suspect.

Working in Japan?

Work rules that employers can create unilaterally and change at will. The essence of the draft of the “Labor contract law,” prepared by the ministry of Welfare and Labor to be submitted to the current Diet session, is to make these work rules into “labor contracts.”

...the number of disputes between individual workers and employers has increased, so the Ministry view is that the contractual rules between company and worker need to be clarified.

....The proposed law would apply to all aspects of employment contracts from hiring to retirement, seconding to related firms, or shifting a worker’s contract to another firm. Particular emphasis is placed on consolidating rules concerning “changes in labor conditions.” (From a Japan Focus article "A contract law that "enslaves" Japanese working people, by Suda Mitsuteru. You can read it HERE.)

And you can bet your last yen that in Japan that those "clarified" rules will always favor the employer. (No doubt it is heading that way in the US, but not so far, and not so fast. And it never started from the same point an of employer-favored environment anyway.)

Although this legislation has not yet been approved, it should worry anyone working in Japan. And after my experiences at 2 of my previous workplaces in Japan, the worst* of which was that eikaiwa company starting with a "B" and ending with "z" and spelled B-e-r-l-i-t-z, I am very concerned. This new law seems to mean that the company can do what it wants to a very large degree. What are you going to do about it---sue? In Japan? Got 20 years to wait and even if you do win, get an award of an absurdly small amount of money that wouldn't even cover 1/2 the legal expenses?

The author goes on to explain that the new law will mean that work rules will be entirely decided by the company unless they violate the law or a current contract (and as explained in the article, that latter exception may not be ironclad). All they need do is ask an opinion from the employees. It makes no difference what the opinion is, nor whether 100% object. As long as they ask for an opinion, that is all that will be needed.


*I wrote earlier about some of the experiences I (and others) had at Berlitz. In actuality, they needed change work rules as they tended to ignore them anyway if they thought they could get away with it.

Stupid non-Japanese misunderstand history

Only the rightwing elites of Japan can understand Japanese history. The Yomiuri Shimbun has published another editorial denying that the Imperial Japanese Army was responsible for forcing women into sexual slavery when it invaded and occupied China in WW2. They sound just like Abe.

See Pro-Con: Should Japan apologize to "comfort women"? No.

Why does the US media insist on the Japanese phrase "comfort women" instead of sex slaves?
Do we also refer to the fire bombing of Tokyo as "overheating?" (Maybe we should just deny it happened. Firebombs? What firebombs? The US gov't and military were directly involved, it was oil interests.)

Japan's support for child abductions by Japanese parents

Japan is a haven for Japanese parents who kidnap children from non-Japanese spouses in defiance of court orders and child custody laws in foreign countries. (Abduction of a child by a parent is said not to be illegal here.)

Japan is the only first-world country which refuses to sign the Hague Treaty meant to protect children from international abduction. A short documentary film on this is on YouTube: Face the Truth. (Can't post it directly here as I cannot get my login to YouTube to work.)

Quote from the film: "Japan, the country of Japan stood up and stomped their feet and screamed 'North Koreans are bad.' They filed international Interpol arrest warrants against the abductors from North Korea. But what they neglected to tell anybody is that every year American children are abducted to Japan and protected by the Japanese government."

Most Japanese are likely not aware of this. One suspects few would support it.

The United States though says Japan deserves a seat on the UN Security Council.

Japanese Imperial Army saving their sex slaves from harm

A translated right-wing comic book version of history (sex slaves) here. I can't vouch for its authenticity, but it looks about right. (It is on a self-proclaimed Japanese rightist's English blog.) Explains how the kind Japanese military saved he women (who were whores anyway according to the author of the manga).

I had trouble deciding if the blog writer was real or it was a spoof. He seems real. A good place to see some of what the rightwing thinks.

Has Abe read this yet? Could be more documentary evidence to support his version of history. Could give Bush a copy too. No translation needed, George could look at the pictures and even color them.

Removed. Dead

Removed. Had enough. Gone. No career opportunities for non-Japanese gigalos in 2010 that I am aware of.

Japan Focus posted the following:

We are launching a subscription drive. We ask our subscribers to forward this newsletter with a note of your own to colleagues, friends, students and others who would benefit from a subscription to Japan Focus. They can subscribe to receive a weekly announcement and link to articles by going to http://japanfocus.org

Japan Focus is a peer-reviewed e-journal and archive on the Asia Pacific.

It's free and one of the best Japan-related sites on the Internet.

Only Japan

has four seasons. I had to endure that---shall we say "horseshit"---again this evening when talking to a man and woman. Having had it with such Fujiwarian idiocy, I said, "But other countries have four seasons too."

Man: "Haha, yes but Japan's are very distinct."

Me: "They are very distinct where I come from too. In fact, much, much more distinct than in the Tokyo area."

Gal: "We have many seasonal foods."

Me, the non-Japanese idiot: "Ah, but so do many other countries." Even in the US if you eat traditional food. (Not restaurant or packaged processed stuff.)

Gal "Mmmmm. But we have many different types of scenery in the seasons."

Baka Gaijin me: Oh, you mean like leaves that change colors, snow, mountains, beaches.."

Gal: "Yes."

Troublesome, evil foreigner who studied typing in English class instead of spelling: Doesn't the US have that?"

Gal: "Haha." Starts thinking of more nonsense. Refuses to give up as it is a known fact that Japan's seasons are different and better than anywhere else on earth.

I guess Fujiwara Masahiko-chan would say that the problem is that logic does not work, especially in Japan. One could make many arguments and provide tons of facts and evidence showing that Japan does not have unique seasons, but to do so would simply prove that logic is invalid. Japan has the world's most unique and distinct four seasons because it does. It's that simple.

I cannot resist digging at these nihonjinron myths anymore. I won't win any arguments as I am arguing a religious belief. Don't ever say that the Japanese are not religious. They are some of the most religious fundamentalists on earth. The religion is Japan, Japaneseness: Nihonjinron.

われわれ　日本人！ We are Japanese! (and you ain't so don't ever forget it!)

(I suppose US myths are just as irritating to immigrants in the US. All countries have their own and most folks believe them. Even people from other countries believe them too. Regardless, they are all myths. The USA is the freest country on earth specially blessed and chosen to lead by God. Canadians are all polite. Japanese is the world's safest country.)

Then perhaps he should stop trying to deny the past

Tokyo - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday expressed regret at a US resolution demanding an "unambiguous apology" for Japan's use of sex slaves in World War II, saying he hoped to look to the future instead. (Story from www.iol.co.za here.)

Certain Japanese rightists keep bringing up old WW2 issues (which the rest of the planet knows the facts about) and try to deny or revise them. This is what causes the controversy. Anyway, the resolution is mute. There is absolutely no way that Japan under the LDP and rightwing elite will "unambiguously" apologize for anything it did in WW2. Why should they? They are the primary victims and besides, everyone else has done bad things too. Never, ever, will there be such an apology from the LDP. Ever. Even a vague one will be in effect retracted later by the statements of some politician.

Anyway, hopefully just a few Americans will be woken up a bit about what Japan's view of its role in WW2 really is. Eddy Reischauer's fiction may melt away just a bit more.

Abe says he'll stay on

as PM. According to NHK TV, Abe believes his loss was due to scandals by his cabinet and the pension disaster and had nothing to due with his education/constitution reforms. Therefor, he won't resign as his policies weren't rejected by the public. I suspect that he is right, people are most concerned about the first two and other money issues.

LDP appears headed for a loss

At least from the early returns, the LDP is in trouble and at present (840 pm Japan time) looks to be losing badly. It will be interesting to see where this leads if they do lose.

Insightful, intelligent US coverage of Japan

from the Washington Post.

It is really no wonder that Americans in the US in general don't know much about Japan. As we all know, international news coverage there is usually poor to horrible, but just as often non-existent. I wonder how we are supposed to believe their coverage on Iraq or other places when it is so poor in Japan where they have access and which has a stable government and is not in a war zone?

The Post occasionally will have a decent article, but today's is just trivial, shallow nonsense. The article covers fringe candidates in today's election, but in no depth. If one were reading it without much or any knowledge of Japan, it would only serve to make Japan seem to be a weird inscrutable alien country. This article was not published to inform people, but to entertain them. And they wonder why newspaper readership had decreased (not that TV news would do better. It would be even worse) and Americans have a distrust of the media. Full article is here.

Note that the Post recently got into a bit of a scandal after it published another deeply insightful, intelligent article on Hillary Clinton's cleavage which the Post insists was news. No surprise on the stubborn insistence that they are right and everyone else is wrong---and more or less stupid. Have they ever admitted error other than for a misspelling of a name, or an incorrect address? (Of course this little controversy benefits Hillary, so the whole thing is more or less a joke.)

Abe campaigns with the bigot Ishihara

Rightwing revisionist Abe campaigned for the LDP with the well-known racist and bigoted governor of Tokyo, Shintaro "Blinky" Ishihara. This was apparently to make sure that all the extremist voters were covered. Well, perhaps that's going too far. After all, the citizens of Tokyo elected Ishihara 4 times, and one could never say that there was any racism/bigotry/nationalism involved. After all, such things don't exist in Japan.

It seems unlikely that this will work though, for the citizens seem to be more concerned about money issues and the continued scandals under Abe and the LDP than they are in Abe's "Beautiful Country." (Some may be shocked that money is important to people here as it is everywhere else except Fijuwara's neo-bushidoist dreamworld and in a few socialist/Marxist fantasies).

Ichiro Ozawa's Democratic Party may be poised to win:

“If we fail to win a majority and allow Abe’s administration to survive, it means democracy will never take root in Japan,” Mr. Ozawa said Saturday. From the Japan Times. Full article here.

Huh? Japan is not a democracy? How 1980s.

Wildlife books

I mentioned earlier that I had been having trouble finding wildlife-related books and magazines at bookstores here. I did finally find several types of field guides----just what I was looking for---at Kinokuniya in Takashimaya Dept store in Futakotamagawa. I guess they are not sold so widely because Japanese have such a close connection with nature that they have the knowledge available in their DNA. Or, perhaps it is like my wife said "They're not needed. Nobody cares." She was only half joking. Poor barcode head Fujiwara Masahiko-chan would have peed his undies had he heard that. But then again, he did write in his book that many Japanese who speak English well should shut up because they ruin the impression that Japanese are deep. He did not, however, follow his own advice.

Rightist revisionist Aso after Abe

Foreign Minister Aso, who would be likely called a racist in Europe or North America (Remember his remarks of the dangers of a blue-eyed foreigner marrying in to the Japan Imperial family? Should be under one of the posts under the Aso label below).

I have long suspected that Aso will be the next nutjob in line for prime minister. The LDP is likely to lose the election this Sunday, which theoretically could influence Abe to resign---or perhaps quibble over the meaning of the word "loser."

Just a few other Aso "gaffes" (gaffe implies error, he is saying what he believes to constituents who have the same beliefs.):

[Aso] got Beijing's dander up last year when he described Taiwan as a "law-abiding country," a remark that came not long after he said colonial ruler Japan's compulsory education was a good thing for Taiwan....

and

...."even people with Alzheimer's disease can understand" that the price marked on Japanese rise [sic] is higher in China than in Japan...He later apologized. These are just a few minor examples. Quotes are from the Japan Times article:

STRAIGHT-, SLUR-SHOOTING BLUE-BLOOD WAITS IN WINGS:

Is blunt-speaking Aso next act after Abe? by Reiji Yoshida

I also recall him denying that his family mines used slave labor in WW2 although the folks involved have different recollections. (The article says he has "kept silent" on the issue.)

I am sure if the LDP loses the election, once aqgain we will here that it is the final nail in the LDP's coffin. It won't be even close to that. It's the sort of thing we've heard for years, even when the win in landslides. "Oh, the LDP won, but that just shows they are losing power. Their support among grannies with red shopping bags dropped by .01%---they are doomed!!!"

However, according to the Japan Times article, Aso would have to tone down his rightist rhetoric if he does get the job because of his lack of power in the party

Japan sends warning letter to US

threatening to damage relations if the US congress passes a resolution by Mike Honda asking Japan to clearly and sincerely apologize to former sex slaves. Japan, of course, denies government/military responsibility. They are threatening that they will stop cooperating on Iraq and take other unspecified (anti-US) actions. I wonder if the US will have the balls to respond in kind to Japan? Note that this is after Japanese government officials have been running around, obviously lying, and saying the resolution would have no effect on US-Japan relations. More Abe/rightwing honesty?

I have not found any reference as of yet in the major US newspapers, but the South Korean Chosun Ilbo has a story HERE.

There was and is absolutely no chance in hell that Japan will issue an official apology for this. However, one hopes that it makes news enough in the US to alert people to what the nutjobs are up to here and to make people a bit more cautious about becoming overly close to Japan as an ally in the region. The Japanese rightwing is itching for trouble with the US in order to further its nationalistic goals.

This is fantasy on my part. Most Americans are paying zero attention to this issue. It only perks up when some of the rightwingers do things like place an ad in the Washington Post denying history. But the threat by Abe and his helpers (those who have not resigned nor committed suicide yet) to somehow cause problems in Iraq might get a little mileage. If it comes to it, can we not at the very least say to Abe: "You remember the six-party talks with North Korea? Remember your little problem there? Well, we don't. And they are now five-party talks. UN Security Council seat? Good luck with that. See if you can buy it."

27 July 2007: Amazingly, I have found no reports on this anywhere else. None of the major US online newspapers carried it. Is it not accurate? Why would US newpapers not find this newsworthy?

Fujiwara and the unique love of bug sounds

in Japan. As I mentioned, in his comic book Masahiko-kun claimed that the Japanese are uniquely unique because they notice and enjoy insect sounds and can connect those sounds with such things as a change of seasons, which except for a few "obscure poets" (Emily Dickinson for example?) non-Japanese cannot do. Even the Koreans and Chinese don't notice bugs in the superior, more cultured and more beautiful way that the Japanese do.

Now being a stupid, semi-evolved, primitive non-Japanese, I was a bit confused when I read that because I recall things differently. When I was in the US---and even now---I notice things like that and can associate those things with seasons or nostalgia or other things. Now ol' Barcode head did admit that it could be possible for us robot-like foreigners to notice insect sounds and perhaps even enjoy them, but he implied it would be in a sort of inferior sub-Japanese way.

I googled "poems about insect sounds" and got 1.5 million hits. The first several pages---I went no further---had numerous references to such in the west, and mainly in the USA. (Because I used US Google. Wouldn't be surprised if Fujiwara's less logical, humor-filled British had a few too, as well as the Chinese, Koreans, and all other folks on the planet).

Oh drat! Oh fiddle! Now I am more confused! I am sure the quality of the western stuff is poor compared to that of Fujiwara-chan's neo-bushidoist Japan. It has to be, because he said it was. To use his logic: It is because it just is!

Nutjobs pissed at US congress

for spreading lies about the pure, innocent Japanese Imperial Army in WW2:

Conservative Japanese politicians, scholars and journalists plan to write to U.S. lawmakers urging them to revoke a resolution calling on Tokyo to apologize for forcing women to serve as sex slaves during World War Two....

...Arguing that there were no sex slaves and that the women were prostitutes, the group said they were "surprised and shocked"...

...this resolution on the comfort women issue was passed based on wrong information completely divergent from the historical truth," said the letter...

Read the full article at the Washington Post HERE.

Food Safety

Recently the news (both here and in the USA) has been filled with problems with Chinese food. The Japanese media has especially loved this, taking us into China and showing just how poor Chinese food hygiene can be among the poor in China (while showing the program panelists making faces of disgust). Some Japanese whom I have talked to---actually many---are quick to point out yet another problem with China. One went through a long explanation of why this sort of thing is a result of Chinese selfishness. They don't want to follow the rules for the rest of the world, you see. They only think of themselves. He is a very nice, pleasant guy who is fun to be around. It's just that he, led by Japan's media and gov't elites, distrust and dislike China. In some societies, one could view some of the comments and stereotypical beliefs as bigotry at the best. But, Japan is different. We are all pure here.

The strange thing is that while this has been going on there has been yet another serious food safety scandal in Japan. These seem to crop up at least once per year---old food relabeled as fresh etc. Meat Hope is interesting as it was a Hokkaido-based Japanese meat processor which, after first denying any wrongdoing, admitted to: relabeling out-of-date products; labeling beef as pork; labeling imported chicken as Japan-raised (a very big sin here); mixing guts into ground meat and forgetting to label it; mixing barbecued pork into ground pork; using meat "unfit for human consumption." and much more. At least 18 serious violations. The last is especially appetizing. Supposedly, they took spoiled meat, sterilized it, and added fresh blood to it to make it appear red and used it in its products. Most of Meat Hopes products were sold to convenience stores and restaurants. What's more, the government knew about this long ago after whistle-blowers from the company informed it and even provided sample and evidence. Nothing was done until it became public. Article HERE.

Mmmm. Sounds great. I am becoming as concerned with Japanese processed food as with Chinese. I know the the use-by dates are quite shaky. If you are looking for skim milk, for example, at Tokyu, and it is within 3-4 days of its use-by date I'd be suspicious. That milk is first sold with around a 10 day use-by date. It is sold at the expensive Precce branches of Tokyu, (Denenchofu, for example) and it all seems to disappear and be replaced by fresh milk within 2-3 days. I remember at Kajigaya Tokyu though, all the skim milk would arrive with only 3-4 days left. Still safe to drink, not illegal or even particularly deceptive. It's just not fresh.

Although the nutjobs of Japan's elite

may be leaning (or plummeting) towards the extreme nationalist right, I don't think that at present the average Japanese has much sympathy for such ideas. I have to be cautious and mention that I have not taken a poll, and most Japanese whom I know speak English to some degree and are comfortable around non-Japanese, and as such are not representative of the Japanese people as a whole. My wife is Japanese and she has much harsher words and thoughts about Abe, Ishihara, Aso, Tojo than I do---if that is possible. And her comments on Fujiwara's writing were along the lines of "What kind of idiot is going to read that?" when I asked her to read his comic book last year. Apparently, a large number of folks don't share her views since his masterpiece of idiocy was a best seller here.

One would have to have the utmost faith in the human race, or else believe the nihonjinron nonsense that the Japanese are somehow different as human beings than the rest of the world (and have blind, stupid faith in believing that every belief that the Japanese had pre-WW2 suddenly did a 180 at the war's end) in order to assume that the increasingly incessant nationalistic, far right rhetoric in so many areas of public life will have no influence on the future course of Japan. Most of us would find it hard to believe that Japan would ever repeat the errors of WW2. But then again, Japan's elite rightists increasingly deny that there were errors.

I find it hard to believe that the US repeated some of the errors of Vietnam too. We went into a war on flimsy, exaggerated evidence in the 1960s, and we've done it again. We knew we should not trust the government very far. But we did. And now we want to pretend it wasn't our fault, it was all George Bush's. And the US has a incomparably freer, more aggressive media, and a long tradition of debate, democracy, citizen involvement, and distrust of government. Why would Japan or any other country be necessarily exempt from this type of tragic misjudgment? Moral/cultural superiority or uniqueness? Exceptionalism? Hmmm. Heard something like 'bout the US before. Turned out to be wrong.

Amazingly, as the USA has become more isolated in the world and has taken a more aggressive, go-it-alone, militaristic stance, its relationship with Japan has become closer than at any time in recent history. The US may have hit the wall and seems to be altering course now, but Japan appears to have missed some parts of that lesson. But then again, Fujiwara's elite(?) also seem to have missed the lessons of World War Two.

By the way, Tojo's granddaughter has started her campaign for parliament. She won't win, but she will get a nice platform for her extreme rightwing nutjob views. Folks to the left may have a tougher time.

A Quality Company in eikaiwa

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Japanese media

A dog without a nose? So asks Michael Hoffman in an article in the Japan Times. I can answer that offhand. Yes, it is. The media is not really free to investigate much that would oppose mainstream or government beliefs. For example, the Japanese hostages and North Korea, as is discussed in the article:

..."Reporting on North Korea," Byon tells Dacapo, "is extreme, exaggerated, distorted. There is no digging, only regurgitation. Anyone who deviates even a little [from the government line] is liable to get 'bashed.' Many commentators are afraid to express their true opinions. They express instead what they feel is expected of them."...

...In the 1930s and early '40s, Dacapo hears from Rikkyo University media scholar Naoki Kadona, Japanese newspapers championed war and absolutism. The war ended, and they espoused peace and democracy. The transition was abrupt and, he feels, not entirely convincing....The full article is here.

A reflection of Japan, not the media alone. The sudden complete reversal of beliefs after the war was not and is not entirely convincing....except for those such as the long dead sugar-coater Edwin Reishauer.

Free speech in Japan

Fujiwara may be getting what he and the extreme rightwing hope for in Japan. A country without dissent. Sort of a follow the leader shut up and do/believe as you are told neo-bushido paradise.

As has been obvious to nearly anyone who has been living in Japan, or closely following what has been going on politically and socially over the last decade or so, Japan has been going further and further right. "Right" as in the sense of nationalism as opposed to patriotism, and retreating more and more from any responsibility for past actions. Some from the US who believe that the right in Japan has the same interests as conservatives in the US see this as a good thing. They ain't even similar.

It has always been especially difficult for those with views opposed to the mainstream in Japan to speak out. It has historically been even tougher for those who oppose nationalistic right wing groups. Pre-WW2, this could get one killed. Post WW2, it at least meant harassment by the thuggish nutjobs in sound trucks.

Last August, the Washington Post published an article by Steven Clemons titled: The Rise of Japan's Thought Police in which he describes some recent events in which the right wing has managed to stifle opposing views:

...In 2003, then-Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka discovered a time bomb in his home. He was targeted for allegedly being soft on North Korea. Afterward, conservative Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara contended in a speech that Tanaka "had it coming."...

and

...Right-wing activists threatened her [Sumiko Iwao] last February after she published an article suggesting that much of Japan is ready to endorse female succession in the imperial line; she issued a retraction and is now reportedly lying low....

He notes:

...I have spoken to dozens of Japan's top academics, journalists and government civil servants in the past few days; many of them pleaded with me not to disclose this or that incident because they feared violence and harassment from the right...(Clemons full article is HERE.)

So Japan has completely changed since WW2? All the ingredients that helped Japan enter into that war just suddenly disappeared. Perhaps nothing that has been going on means anything like similar scenarios did before the war. No doubt, the country, government, and people are different and have very different views.

Then again, Fujiwara's book in which he suggests that Japanese culture is superior to any other in history and that a good government would be one of elites who run the country by dictates based on the theory that they are somehow better and smarter than everyone else; and that people should have no rights at all except the right to complain was a top seller in Japan last year. (Fujiwara's fantasy may be too soft for the rightwing as they don't seem to acknowledge any right to complain.)

Perhaps none of this means anything and I am going wildly overboard here. After all Japan is a US ally and the US has no history of deluding itself about its superior culture/values/beliefs and going to war with another country in order to spread those ideals. So as long as Japan seems to toe the US line, all will be fine.

I found that article at ikjled.com, has a list of more articles from various sources describing the rightwing trend in Japan.

Japan Times on Fujiwara

Andrew Rankin has reviewed Fujiwara's comic book The Dignity of the Nation for the Japan Times entitled: A question of dignity or a cause for embarrassment. He begins by stating the deliberate similarity of the title of Fujiwara's latest to a nationalist pamphlet issued by the WW2 era Japanese government in which asserted the superiority of Japanese culture. (Just like Fujiwara does in this hack job.)

He has the same worry I do:

"Rather worrisomely, "The Dignity of a Nation" was one of Japan's top sellers in 2006..."

and

"It is depressing to hear an intellectual who has spent several years in Europe and America regurgitate the old myth about Japan being the "only country to have four distinct seasons."

"You can listen to most of Fujiwara's other ideas for free at any noodle stand in Japan." All quotes from his review in today's Japan Times. Read the full review HERE.

I think Rankin was a bit soft on the silly old doofus, but obviously he didn't want nor need to waste much time on every idiotic thing Fujiwara wrote.

Where is all the wildlife?

I wonder, since the Japanese have the world's most uniquely deep relationship with nature---so we read and hear ad nauseum---where are all the animals and why is it that nobody seems to know anything about them (or care.)

Japan does have a variety of wildlife (I suppose some nihonjinronist will say it has the widest variety of any country on earth): deer, bear---including a close relative of the grizzly which attacks and kills several every year---a type of mountain goat, marine mammals, waterfowl and other birds. But in the city there are few animals like you will see in American cities like squirrels, rabbits and such. (I have seen a tanuki, a raccoon like animal, in Kajigaya of all places.)

When I see a type of bird or ask about a certain type of animal, about all I can get if I am lucky is the name. There is little to no knowledge of habits, habitat or anything else about the animal. I suppose this is about normal for city people---no real knowledge and a Disney-like vision of wildlife---but I would have thought Japan was different with its supposed "deep relationship with nature." Obviously it is not. Even more surprising, I can find no magazines and very few books on wildlife and that includes those in Japanese. Perhaps they exist, but not in the book stores I have been to recently. I am still looking.

This is even more shocking after reading Fujiwara's book in which he said that non-Japanese cannot connect insect sounds with nature in the same way that the uniquely human Japanese people in his neo-bushidoist world can. A Stanford professor visited Fujiwara-sama's house and heard crickets and, not being familiar with the sound, asked what that noise was. Fujiwara, the clever man that he is, immediately recognized that the Japanese were unique and superior in enjoying bug sounds. Although he thought it was strange that Imperial Dai Nippon could have lost a war to such idiots as Stanford professors, he did admit that there might possibly be a few non-Japanese who enjoyed insect sounds. However, he pointed out that in Japan, unlike anywhere else on earth, folks recognized the sounds of crickets in the late summer as harbingers of autumn. (Perhaps that's because Japan is the only country on earth with four seasons?)

Now I don't know about Stanford professors---perhaps he did not represent everyone in American or the rest of the world, but when I was a kid, we always enjoyed hearing crickets (and other insects) in the evening. Our parents and everyone else seemed to enjoy it and recognized that the crickets meant summer was ending, and fall coming soon. I remember in school having to write poems and one of the topics was insect sounds. Of course, THE all around expert on American and the world, Masahiko Fujiwara, admits a few obscure poets in the US did write about the sounds of insects---though not as well as Japanese poets, I'm sure. I wonder if Fujiwara was referring to us grade school kids.

But anyway, where are all the animals, insects (fireflies are near extinct in Tokyo), and the rest of nature in this land with such a deep respect for it?

Related National Geographic photos and narrative, Japan's Winter Wildlife; Raising Japanese awareness HERE.

Only Japan has fireflies

Speaking of nihonjinron, I was talking to a guy the other day and mentioned how we could easily see fireflies in my hometown and how we would catch them and keep them overnight in jars to watch their lights.

This shocked him as his eyes grew as big as saucers. He was so stunned he could barely compose himself to ask "Are there fireflies in America too?" Like four seasons, I suppose a lot of folks here believe that Japan is THE ONLY Country with fireflies. Mmmm. Fujiwara does say that Japanese education is deteriorating and Japanese are becoming nearly as dumb as Americans, despite the "fact" that a Japanese junior high student has an education equal to a US university freshman. (Please tell Malaysia that fact, as they don't---or at least did not--accept a Japanese 4-year degree as a valid university education. Those stupid foreigners!)

Fujiwara's version of Logic.

Fujiwara spends a lot of time in his book, The Dignity of the Nation, explaining his stunning new revelation that "simple logic" can't solve all the world's problems. He claims that Mr. Spock-like westerners cannot understand this shocking new piece of Fuijawarian neo-bushidoism. (The English may get it to some degree---I assume. He does not say so, but he does imply that the British are less logical than Americans because of their use of humor over logic. They're more clownish than rational?)

Masahiko-sama claims that at a school graduation in Japan, a student asked why it was wrong to kill someone and none of the teachers could answer.

He then takes the universal statement, "It is wrong to kill a human being" then uses logic to show that the statement is logically flawed. He points out that there could be 50 reasons why it isn't wrong, and 50 more why it is, which in his mind shows that logic is useless here. And then he uses his razor-sharp mind to inform us that it is more than just a question of logic!!! Who would disagree? Naturally it is more, but that does not preclude the use of logic to attempt to explain it or to challenge it.

However, what he did was show that the initial statement itself is is an overly-broad universal statement. All one has to do to show the flaw in a universal statement is to show one instance in which it is not true, and Fujiwara-SAMA did so. He then makes an absurdly nonsensical leap to conclude that since he has shown that the initial statement might be debatable with logical arguments on both sides that logic doesn't work here!!!! According to him, you cannot provide a logical explanation for the above statement, so you just have to accept it as true: It is wrong to kill a human being because it just is. Fujiwara says so. Don't think, don't question, just shut up and believe the elites of Fujiwara's neo-bushido dream world in which the non-elites have no rights except the right to complain. (He contradicted his own argument in reaching this conclusion, but he is very good at contradicting himself throughout the book.)

Fujiwara does not seem to understand that the reason that it is difficult to logically explain the rationale for such a universal statement is because it is a universal statement and likely logically flawed right off the bat. Yes, it is hard to logically explain a logical fallacy.

However, as I mentioned, there are some who do believe that killing is always wrong and those with perhaps a bit more intellect and knowledge than Fujiwara could use logic to support their position. After all, a Quaker or a Buddhist, or simply someone who opposes any killing could come up with logic to support their position. Doesn't mean the logic is always perfect or that one could not logically argue the opposite. Again, Fujiwara seems to have little understanding of what logic is, or he assumes his audience has no clue. What does that say about Fujiwara and his opinion of the people of Japan?

His book is based on attacking logic and asserting that one must just accept what they are told. Forget using your brain. He comes up with dozens of strawman arguments (e.g. westerners, especially Americans, believe that logic can explain everything and solve all problems), hilariously absurd errors in facts about American society (Americans take typing in English class and don't study English and that's why none of them can spell as good as he can), selective amnesia about Japanese history, and more. He is inconsistent throughout the book, arguing one way on one page and the other on the next. But then again, since he has shown logic to be useless if it does not support his argument, there would be no need for him to do much more than just make assertions and claims based on his neo-bushidoist fantasies.

I could write another book---as could a reasonably intelligent American third-grader provided he or she isn't too busy shoplifting when folks aren't watching---on this thing. I will do some more posts, but then again, I don't think he is worth it. He does represent a current of thought in Japan, one that supports Abe and others of the nationalist right in many aspects. It is amazing to me that anyone except for the most ardent believer in the myths of Japan could take any of this even slightly seriously. Most of it is extraordinarily silly. I expected more, even from a nihonjinron writer.

Sorry for any spellling mistakes as I done never taked English in English class, I done taked typerighting. I remember different, but I cannot logically argue with Fujiwara. I taked typerighting in Enlish class cause he done said so.

Resignation over WW2 comments

In a very unusual case, a politician has resigned over comments he made concerning a WW2 event in which Japan was involved.

This may be a first for Japan---at least it is extremely unusual. His remarks offended many. Some victims have said that he appears not to have learned the lessons of history and that he has ignored the feeling of those victims.

So actually was so bad that a Japanese politician had to resign over it? There have been many politicians who have made controversial, insensitive remarks concerning WW2 and few have actually apologized for the remarks, let alone resigned. Well, it seems Defense Minister Fumiyo Kyuma suggested that the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were inevitable in ending WW2---they couldn't be helped.

Prime Minister Abe himself rebuked Kyuma earlier by saying Kyuma must "strictly refrain from making remarks that cause misunderstanding." (BBC) Abe, however, did not offer to resign for his comments concerning Japanese use of forced sex slaves in WW2. (He denied that the sex slave were forced to be sex slave by the Japanese military.) No other politician, such as Foreign Minister Aso has offered to resign over similar remarks concerning Japanese actions in WW2. In fact, there is usually little outrage obvious among the public in Japan when politicians make these types of remarks.

Kyuma's remarks were different however, as they concerned Japan as a (THE) victim of the war, not an aggressor. And there is a strong tendency for Japan to see itself that way. Japan's "victimization" by foreign countries in the war is much more real to many. Japan was just tryin' to do good, when for no good reason evil foreigners attacked.

Full BBC article here.

The Dignity of the Nation

I have had a tough time finishing Fujiwara Masahiko's nihonjinron rant in book form, but I have finally reached the last chapter. Not that it is difficult, it's just that it is a tedious, boring read of a book written by a man who believes that normal human feelings/emotions are experienced only by---or particularly by---Japanese. Of course this is what nihonjinron is. A mythical, quasi-religious fiction.

Fujiwara attacks the west in general and the US in particular. He draws ridiculous conclusions and makes hasty generalizations about the cultures and people of the west based on shallow stereotypes, hearsay, and the like. Europe and Britain do not escape his rants either. Other countries of the world don't really figure much, but he makes a few references to China, Korea, and other Asian countries/culture in the book---none especially flattering as compared to Dai Nippon.

He also attempts to discredit logic by setting up logical fallacies and then using logic to discredit them. From there, he leaps to the absurd conclusion that logical reasoning is flawed because he discredited the fallacy!! To give him credit (!?), he appears not to understand that he is attacking a logical fallacy with logic. A math professor who taught at a US university who does not understand logic.

He seems to actually believe that his sudden discovery that logic alone cannot solve all the world's problems is something that is nobody ever thought of in the Ayn Rand-ist, Mr. Spock-like US. According to Masahiko, we robotic idiots in the west cannot understand this: Logic alone cannot solve all problems! Wow! Who'd a figured!

He discredits democracy and champions a sort of dictatorship of mysterious elites in which citizens---scratch that---subjects have only one single right: The right to complain. It is possibly the most repressive system one could imagine, except that Fujiwara fantasizes that bushido would make it all OK because the elite dictators would show the peons bushidoistic compassion. And they would presumably be really, really smart. Smarter than all the subjects combined.

He cherry picks "facts" to such an extreme that many of his arguments are actually weakened for any but the true believer who can't be bothered to think. Just the type who would make an ideal subject in his fantasy-world bushido dictatorship. He very conveniently forgets things which Japan did in the past--such as the invasions of Korea under Hideyoshi, its annexation of Korea, the many internal wars in Japan's past, its treatment of minorities---the eta (burakumin) among others---in the Tokogawa era, most likely because these facts would discredit his whole thesis of neo-bushidoism. This especially applies to anything that seems a bit unpleasant about Tokugawa since this was a popular period for bushido . Since it worked so well for Japan in the past (?), he wants to export his neo-bushidoism to the rest of the world in order to save it. (It is amazing---no, comically naive---how he thinks Japan alone could solve all the problems in Iraq.)

I hope to write more, and in more detail as time goes on, but the book is simply ridiculous in most parts. He may have this great view of Japan and its past, as may many Japanese who don't know their own country's history, or much about the rest of the world except for nihonjinron myths, but I doubt many others share the fantasy. I'd suspect China and Korea might have a less than enthusiastic opinion of bushido. Though again, to give Fujiwara credit, he does admit that Japan was "mean" to China and "bullied" it in WW2. I have seen no mention of any "meanness" or "bullying" as far as Korea is concerned.

I will say, however, that he does not seem to share the exact same views as the right wing nationalists, the Abe/Aso/Tojo nutjobs. He may understate or leave out some of the things Japan did (at least in this book) but he does not deny that Japan did wrong in WW2.

As I read months ago on the internet (by a Japanese writer) there isn't much to be said for the contents of this book. The question is: What exactly is the purpose? Where does he want the country to go?

My question is: Why was this such a big seller in Japan? Do people really take it seriously? Do folks believe this sort of nonsense? (From what I have read and heard, many do like the nihinjinron "We are uniquely human" aspect, but feel a bit uncomfortable with his denunciation of democracy.)

Is this woman lying?

Abe and his ilk imply that she is. Japan's ambassador to the US implies that she is.

....Zhou has broken decades of silence to speak of her traumatic experience as a "comfort woman" -- the euphemism the invading Japanese used to describe women forced into sex slavery.

"I hid with my husband's sister under a millstone. Later, the Japanese soldiers discovered us and pulled us out by our legs. They tied us both to their vehicle. Later they used more ropes to tie and secure us and drove us away," she told Reuters in her home village in Jiangsu province.

Does this fit the "narrow" sense of coercion that Abe talks about or the regular meaning? I can't recall exactly how he tried to wiggle out of what he said and meant.

Full article on Reuters while it lasts. HERE

Who is responsible

Theresa Morris-Suzuki has an article in this week's Japan Focus about the Yomiuri (Newspaper) project (and book) about responsibility in WW2. I have not yet read this book, but did spend a little time skimming through it at a bookstore, and it seems to pull very few punches on attributing responsibility accurately for Japan in WW2. This is somewhat surprising as Yomiuri is considered a conservative newspaper---right-wing by some. Again, I have not read it so my impression is little more than just that. Morris-Suzuki's atricle explains much more and even mentions that there is also another volume not translated into English. That one seems truly interesting.

She also gives a short history of the Japanese government's (esp the LDP) lack of addressing its WW2 actions and the debate within Japan as early as the 50s concerning Hirohoto's responsibility. Not everyone in the country buys the right-wing's distortions and excuses. Hopefully, the present climate in which the right-wing revisionism seems to be spreading won't take hold deeply and folks like Abe, Aso, Fujiwara (I apologize for mentioning Fujiwara as he is a lightweight, but his book was/is popular in Japan), and others in the LDP and elsewhere of similar ilk.

The article is HERE.

Japan threatens US over sex slave issue

Do you suppose that the USA would have the balls to call Japan's bluff? Bush won't. Bush accepted Abe's nonsensical "apology" even though as far as we know Georgy is too young to have been a sex slave in WW2.

Would any of the Democrat candidates were they president? I doubt it. Clinton backed down in the mid 90s from Japan over the auto issue. So did all the presidents before, except for Tricky Dick.

Who has more to lose? Is Japan gonna refuse to sell to the US? Close Japanese markets or make it extremely difficult to compete here? Sell its dollar reserves and in effect not only severely damage the global economy but in the process destroy their own. (This one I could somewhat imagine.) Are they gonna kick US forces out of Japan (Oh please do!) and pay for their own defense and own military? Go it alone hoping Australia will take the place of Uncle Sucker? Ally with China? (Not right now.) Refuse to send its military overseas in "support" of the US by being restricted to their base and defended by another country's military?

Please Japan, let's see what you've got.

I haven't written to a congressman in several years, even though in the states, I often did. Now I am going to do so again. Japan is distorting history and deceiving itself and hoping others will let it get away with it. Japan has done so for years and became experts in the game. They even have numbers of foreign explainers and apologists to push their falsehoods for them. They do not expect the US to call them on this. They will probably be right, unfortunately.

Japan Times article on this HERE

Wrong again

Seems that folks in other places do handle food with dirty hands too. Right in front of your face. So why is everyone worried about BSE?

...the butcher’s where they handle both the meat and the money with the same bloody hands...I do like to show all my European visitors this snapshot of how life must have been in England before the health-and-safety lobby had amassed its great power.

From the "Award-winning blog", Tokyo Girl Down Under.
Actually, she isn't Japanese nor Australian, but British and writes one of the funniest blogs you'll ever read.

Wouldn't this be sweet

Peru's Fujimori, a buddy of Blink Ishihara, is considering running for office in Japan. Fujimori was shocking found to be eligible for Japanese citizenship when he was hiding in Japan to avoid extradition to Peru on corruption charges. Amazingly, it is not the LDP who has supposedly contacted him, but the People's New Party. I don't know the Japanese name, but I have never heard of it. According to the article, it is likely to jump into bed with the LDP if needed to assure the LDP almost continuous hold on power since the end of WW2. They are mostly former LDP members according to the article. Mostly retro-grouches whom Koizumi forced out after they opposed his postal reforms.

Peru is not amused. (Excerpt from tvnz.co.nz.)

Omar Chehade, the head of the extradition unit in Peru's attorney general's office, said Fujimori was considering running for office "to avoid an extradition that is on the verge of being ruled on."

"Fujimori continues to play with his dual nationality and this shows he's desperate," he said.

Fujimori is under arrest is in Chile hoping to avoid extradition back to Peru. Japan will take him back. Criminal suspects of Japanese descent have a much better chance of getting a break from immigrations than refugees from anywhere else being persecuted for any reason do.

The full story is here.

Not unexpected

Japan has one of the---if not the---lowest acceptance rate of refugees of any modern country. The Japan Times has an article about a Kurd family who was denied refugee status by Japan.

...Dogan left Turkey for Japan in 1999, fleeing ethnic and religious persecution in his homeland. He applied twice to be accepted as a refugee but was rejected both times...

...Dogan's lawyer, Takeshi Ohashi, criticized the government for giving the Dogans the cold shoulder.

"While I am relieved that the Dogans are no longer in fear of being deported (back to Turkey) and have been recognized as refugees in Canada, this result is an embarrassment of our country," Ohashi said....

We must guard the country's purity. Full article HERE>

Japanese angered by government's WW2 denials

Okinawan Japanese are anyway. The Education Ministry, in its drive to resolve the Japanese military of any wrongdoing in WW2, earlier "asked" school textbook publishers to remove references to the Imperial Army forcing Okinawan civilians to commit suicide. They all done did it themselves. Anyone who was there and has a different memory than the current kooks in power must be liars. Or senile. Just like all the former sex slaves. (Except for George Bush who accepted Abe's private "apology" for the sex slave issue which never happened anyway.)

The education ministry earlier this year requested publishers of history textbooks remove claims that the Imperial Japanese Army forced Okinawa residents to commit mass suicide during the waning days of World War II.

Again, like the sex slave issue, the kooks say there is no solid evidence (well except for witnesses and survivors, but they don't count):

...ministry officials said the accepted wisdom was that there was no solid proof that the military had overseen mass suicides in the southernmost prefecture...

The LDP caucus in the prefectural assembly had held off taking a position on the matter for several weeks. It felt there was not sufficient evidence to prove that the military had ordered or encouraged civilian suicide. (This was the local LDP caucus.)

Not all agree with the nutjobs:

Several Okinawans have testified that Japanese soldiers gave them hand grenades and told them to blow themselves up. Civilians were made to believe that U.S. soldiers would commit terrible atrocities.

But they must be liars. Everybody in the world is a bunch a lying nuts, except for the LDP, Abe, and the rest of their fellow traveling elite revisionists in Japan and elsewhere.

Full article from Asahi HERE

Another article from the Stars and Stripes HERE.

Rightwing denies sex slaves In US ad

in the Washington Post. They must assume if they persist in this fiction enough that the rest of the world will agree with them. Their point seems to be that all of the victims of the Imperial Japanese Army's sex slavery are a bunch of liars, and that all the evidence--documentary and otherwise---is fake since so far nobody has found a specific type of document that they say is required to prove it happened. Is this type of evidence required to prove other historic events? Would it be required in a civil or criminal trial? Is this bunch the elite that Fujiwara Masahiko suggests should run Japan in a dictatorship?

AN Australian woman forced into sex slavery in World War II says she is trembling with anger at a Japanese Government advertisement denying the war-time atrocities.

The ad, signed by 44 members of Japan’s parliament, seeks to share “the truth with the American people” about the 200,000 “comfort women” who were driven into brothels during World War II. Article HERE

Also:

"The ianfu [comfort women] who were embedded with the Japanese army were not, as is commonly reported, sex slaves," it says. "They were working under a system of licensed prostitution that was commonplace around the world at the time."

The advertisement also says that many of the women earned more money than senior officers.

Article HERE

And more HERE

Since George Bush has accepted Abe's "apology" (What was Abe sorry for if it never happened?) and since he is an apparent ex-sex slave of the Japanese Imperial Army, (why else would he accept the apology?) perhaps the world will kowtow to these liars. Has Japan's elite--one can assume the elite that Fujiwara worships---changed since WW2? We are assured they have.

The important thing is that denying the sex slave issue is not the only goal of this bunch. The elite right-wing in Japan also wants to deny other thigs, such as the Bataan Death March and the Nanjing Massacre and any WW2 atrocities in general. In fact, they want to deny that Japan was wrong in WW2.

It's good that these folks placed that ad. Perhaps more people will take notice of exactly what kind of allies we are getting in the LDP elitists of Japan. If their influence continues to rise and their beliefs become more and more accepted and mainstream in Japan, perhaps then we will see just how much Japan has become more democratic and westernized as per Reischauer's old now discredited claims.

What can you do?

Some things are difficult to adjust to when you move to a new place---especially to another country. After years there are still things I cannot adjust to.

I am making every effort not to be offended by the offensive word gaijin. It's a waste of time. A lot of non-Japanese of non-Asian origins use it for themselves anyway. Either they don't know or don't care. Even a large number of Japanese consider it offensive. I saw on wikipedia in the discussion area on the gaijin page where some non-Japanese had even said that hen na* gaijin(!!!)was more or less a compliment. (They removed most of the references to the term gaijin as being offensive. Now it just gets a brief mention with some quotes by foreigners using gaijin to refer to themselves.)

I'll get over that to a large degree. I haven't gotten used to the way many will break out in a trot to get ahead of someone in line. I notice this in convenience stores and grocery stores. In convenience stores, someone will hang around staring at a package of instant noodles trying to make the difficult decision or whether or not to buy it, but as soon as they see someone else moving toward the cash register, they suddenly decide not to buy it and rush to be first in line. If they have a full basket and the other person has a pack of gum, there ain't gonna be no polite move to let that other person go first. OK, so I have to remember that the point is to get ahead of everyone else whether or not I actually need to.

The sniffling. This drives a lot of westerners nuts. Got try to get over that too. People aren't gonna start using handkerchiefs. Sneezing and coughing openly on others, especially in trains? Well it's rude and disgusting to Japanese too, most especially if they are the one who gets the slobber shower. But then again, nobody will ever say anything to the offending swine. Just pretend nothing happened.

But what about the snot-sniffers who wipe their nose on their hand and then handle your food and your money with said snot-covered hand? What is the proper etiquette in this case? It has happened to me 3-4 times in the last year. All but one was in Denenchofu/Okusawa. Tonight I got an urge for a McDonald's 80 yen hamburger. Hell, one or two pieces of processed, freeze dried, and microwaved beef byproducts should be OK. I had quit going to the Denenchofu McDonalds because I felt that it was too dirty to eat in, but I figured it would be ok to get something to go.

Well, the old girl at the register had the sniffles. She did not have a tissue. Or gloves. Gloves would have made no difference anyway, because as she was taking my order, she wiped her runny nose twice on the palm of her hand. She did not play with the mucus as I have seen many do after a sneeze, cough, or good healthy nose wipe (on trains and other places) nor did she wash it off. She handed me back my change with her virus-covered snotty hand and then went over and grabbed my burgers and put them in the bag. What should I have done? What's the wonderfully polite Japanese way? What would ol' Barcode head Fujiwara Masahiko have recommended as a neo-bushidoist? I know what I would have said in the US or England or other English-speaking countries. Perhaps "Please wash your hands before touching my food." I could have said a similar thing in Japanese. But I didn't. I would have become a troublesome, complaining henna gaijin. And the same thing would happen again and again. Nothing would really change.

It's not that this sort of thing doesn't happen elsewhere, it's that I am not used to people doing it right in front of my face. Since they do, I suspect that it isn't really something so unacceptable here. Like the constant sniffling. Which is better to have someone handle your food with snotty hands in front of you, or use snotty hands to handle it without your knowing it? I do know that you can get fired in the US for it---I knew a girl who was fired because she kept picking or touching her nose around the salad bar at the place she worked. Would she have been fired here? Never mind, just enjoy your sushi.

*In case you don't know, hen (na) means weird. And "weird outsider" ain't no compliment.

Tojo running

Hideki Tojo's granddaughter is running for a diet seat. She has little support among the voters and even Abe is distancing himself from her. However, she apparently has decided that now is her time and the time for her political philosophy:

Her views are part of a resurgent right-wing fringe in Japan that espouses a hard line in territorial disputes with the country's neighbors and a rose-tinted view of its past militarism.

"Japan did not fight a war of aggression. It fought in self- defense," she said. "Our children have been wrongly taught that their ancestors did evil things, that their country is evil. We need to give these children back their pride and confidence."
Article at boston.com

The same "....give back...their pride and confidence..." by denying any wrongdoing in the past that the right is pursuing. Apparently, the recognition of errors and mistakes which, according to the right-wing nutjobs, is too prevalent in Japan and is unpatriotic and shows a lack of pride and confidence. She is even more extreme. Few supporters but a trend is clear. Who knows how long it will last or how successful it will be. I haven't taken a poll, but from the limited number of people I know and have talked to about some of these views, there is little sympathy for the extremes. Even those (again, a select few not representative of anything except my acquaintances) who are "conservative" don't believe nor support much of the Abe/Fujiwara et. al. rhetoric.

(Just to note that after reading most of Masahiko Fujiwara's book, I'd say one should not assign him too much importance. He is simply the author of a poorly reasoned, self-contradictory nihonjinron book which is so silly that the only question is, why was it so popular here? How deep is the desire to return to an imagined fantasy-world past? Lot's of Japanese think he's a goofball. The first I ever heard of him and his book was last year when a Japanese guy mentioned it to me to seemingly make fun of one of Masahiko's bizarre assertions.)

More on Whaling

I still have sympathy on parts of Japan's position on whaling---that there is room for some harvest of some species and regulated hunting could be allowed (not including humpbacks). However, Japan seems to be on the losing side of this debate and it will become even more of a losing position in the future no matter how much Japan spends trying to buy support.

Japan Focus has an article on this too. I love this example of some of the logic displayed by the negotiators this year, especially when they tried to get Japanese whalers classified as aboriginal subsistence hunters:

“Why is aboriginal whaling allowed in the US but not in Japan,” asked Morishita, a reference to the award of a quota of about 50 fin whales to Alaskan coastal communities. Critics say the key difference is that Japan wants to sell its whale-meat commercially while aboriginal communities cull the animals to survive. The distinction is easily understood elsewhere. But in a country where the media selectively reports the whaling controversy, many people buy Morishita’s claim that the West doesn’t know its sei from its sardines.

The full article is here.

This week has several interesting articles, including one by R. Taggart Murphy who wrote the books, The Weight of the Yen and co-wrote Japan's Policy Trap which were two very good books concerning the Japanese economy and especially relating to Japan's holding of dollar reserves. This article is about the carry trade in which yen increasing becoming the currency used to borrow in, while investments are made in dollars and/or other currency due to Japan's almost nonexistent interest rate and the risks this entails, and why most Japanese outside of the Bank of Japan are not eager to see the rates rise. He discusses why it appears to be in the interests of Japan, China, and the US governments that the current system continue for now. Article here.

Why were Class A war criminals enshrined in Yasukuni?

Was it simply to enshrine those who died in combat for Japan? Just to provide a place for their souls? Or were there calculated political reasons?

Akiko Takenaka of the University of Michigan, who is currently working on a book about the history and politics of the shrine, has written an article for Japan Focus which provides an answer straight from the mouth of the guy who decided to do it.

...new Yasukuni head priest Matsudaira Nagayoshi in July 1978, following the death of head priest Tsukuba Fujimaro, who had strongly opposed the enshrinement of Class-A criminals. Shortly after his appointment, Matsudaira, who had publicly called for reversing the verdicts of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal to restore Japan’s national spirit, added the war criminals’ names to the already completed list of names that were to be enshrined during the fall 1978 ceremony. Matsudaira’s eagerness to enshrine the fourteen is demonstrated in his later comment reflecting back on the enshrinement as “the one act of my entire life that I can be proud of.” He went on to explain that he had proceeded with the enshrinement as a way to discredit the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. Read the full article here at Japan Focus.

She also covers the connection between the shrine and the LDP, along with it's connection the the LDP's attempt to revise the constitution and revise the history of WW2.

Abe's "beautiful country": Nationalism from above

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to cast off the post-World War II order and transform Japan into "a beautiful country" filled with pride and confidence. This is the slogan of his premiership. It is as if he believes that Japan has sunk into a state of moral degradation since 1945, and is in need of salvation. It is almost as though he wants to turn back the clock to 1945 and start anew. he is concerned less about guilt over Japanese aggression during World War II than about the shame of not having dealt with the consequences of defeat.

....Abe seemingly yearns to erase the period altogether as he denigrates reason and elevates emotion as the path to making Japan whole and authentic again. (This fits well with Fujiwara's view.)

...Nationalistic bombast is what we are getting from the political class. Rather than nationalism welling up from the people, we are witnessing the emergence of nationalistic politicians who are rather hawkish on foreign policy, especially on matters of security, notably towards Asia. This is a wave of resurgent nationalism from above....

This is an extraordinarily interesting article by Masaru Tamamoto. Full article on ikjeld.com

TV 4 and gaijin

Kanto area channel 4 did an update on the murder of Lindsay Hawker this morning. The reporter on the case who is sort of a Gerado Rivera-type repeatedly referred to gaijin while occasionally adding the suffix san. This despite the fact that broadcast guidelines supposedly prohibit the use of this derogatory term. There is nothing one can do about this as it simply reflects the mindset of many in Japan. Forget political correctness, racial discrimination itself is still legal in Japan. And look at who has been re-elected as the mayor of Tokyo twice despite being an open bigot/racist.

The police still have not caught Ms. Hawkers killer (Ishihashi).

(The use of the term gaijin, does not, however, make the user a racist. Its use is widespread, even among Japanese who live in other countries who may call the citizens of that country gaijin. Japanese tend not to use it in front of a non-Japanese, and many believe it would be rude to do so. It is so controversial apparently, that Wikipedia has rewritten its page and pretty much eliminated its discussion on the controversy. No citations, they claim. They also cannot find citations that support the fact that Chinese are called Chukokujin. Would not a Japanese-English dictionary suffice?)

Double Standard?

Japan is one of the strongest proponents of increasing pressure on North Korea through the use of sanctions. This is aimed primarily at getting North Korea to acquiesce to Japan's demands about the abductee issue, not the nuclear issue which Japan seems to view as a secondary problem. Naturally, the people who will suffer most from sanctions unless they are very carefully done are the North Korean people.

Japan has taken a much different approach to Sri Lanka. Some donor countries have cut off aid, but Japan is not one of them.

The Japanese envoy said that while the human rights violations were too numerous and not in the least acceptable for a civilised country (as opposed to "uncivilized" countries? Name one.) like Sri Lanka, the people of the island should not have to suffer the consequences of their leaders’ policies.
“Our help is for victims of the conflict. People should not be punished for actions or policies of their leaders.”
Short article here.

And here.

Fujiwara, Masahiko

AKA Ol' barcode head (barcode is what Japanese call those guys who are bald on top but let their hair grow long on the side then comb it over the top in the belief that nobody will know) has had his intellectual masterpiece (AHAHAHAHAHA) translated into English. I just got a copy, and frankly I have given him too much credit in the past based on some partial translations of it. I am actually stunned that anyone could take it seriously. A third grade kid would know better I would assume.

I haven't read it all, but the first few chapters are spent with a unbelievably weak, shallow attempt to refute ration, reason, and logic. One way he attempts to do this is to set up a straw man argument that logic can explain everything and solve all problems, and then attacking it. The first question one would ask is "Who said this was true? Who believes this?" He doesn't say, but he implies that this is what the West believes. (From what I have read so far, it appears he truly believes this.) We are all like Mr. Spock.

In the forward, he humorously states that these are his beliefs, and he believes he is right and everyone else is wrong. OK, no problem there, at least he admits what the rest of us deny. The question I have is why did this book become so popular in Japan when in later sections he opposes any rights/freedoms at all except for the right to criticize leaders and rejects democracy in favor of a dictatorship of the elite. (Yes, dictatorship. If they make all decisions and tell everyone what to do, no matter how benevolent, is it not a dictatorship?)

He believes the elite---I have only skimmed the later chapters so far and haven't a clear definition of who he means by elite---should govern. And naturally, as before when he said something about saving the world through bushido, he believes that he has something here that the world can learn from.

I plan to read this over the next few days and check some of his facts, many of which are very, very questionable, if not obviously wrong on first glance.( There are no footnotes/references for his assertions/facts anywhere in this book which should tell us something, although this is not unusual in these types of books written in Japanese for Japanese.)

Please forgive any spelling or grammar errors. As Fujiwara said, Americans can't write English because in English classes we only learn typing. (I never knew that. My English teachers were all radical nuts who taught English grammar, spelling, composition and that kind of stuff. But this is Japan. If it is written in a book by a guy with a PhD in any subject, it has to be true. Cannot doubt nor debate it. Especially if he has a barcode on his bald head.)

We must once again be "Japan the proud, Japan the different," Masahiko Fujiwara.
Has it ever not been? Has it ever truly been "Japan the humble, the same as others"? In action and core beliefs as well as in tatemae (window dressing) words?

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.)

Speaking of Whaling

It has been mentioned in several articles in the English language press in Japan and many overseas, that the so-called whaling tradition in Japan really began after WW2 during the US Occupation when the US pushed Japan to use more whale meat in schools and other places. If I remember correctly, one reason was to reduce the food costs.

This type of information most likely never reaches the average Japanese. According to an article in the Canberra Times:

Earlier this year, I had a chance to talk to a Japanese journalist who specialises in fishery and whaling issues. According to this journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, whaling articles in Japan are usually written without getting the views of either environmentalists or government officials from the anti-whaling countries.

It is not their restricted English that stops Japanese journalists from making an inquiry (all major international environmental organisations and major anti-whaling countries are equipped with Japanese speaking PR specialists in Tokyo). Rather, there is an ongoing Japanese media practice that prevents Japanese journalists from crossing horizons to hear the word of their "adversaries."

This means that the Japanese public are very ill-informed about the whaling issue. Canberra Times article (editorial) here.

This type of "coverage" seems to apply across the board. I rarely speak to people no matter how international or educated who seem to be aware of much of the rational behind the debates concerning Japan from overseas governments or organizations. This kind of information is readily available in English, but obviously not so readily discussed in Japanese in the Japanese media. One cannot in any way assume that the same is included in a Japanese-language newspaper as in the English-language version. Some, like the Japan Times, do not have a Japanese language version.

One important example is the fact that Nature magazine published an article calling into serious doubt that a Japanese scientist was able to identify remains said to by those of one of the Japanese kidnapped by North Korea as not belonging to the Japanese victim. The Japanese scientist himself admitted flaws and doubts with this finding. It has not received much if any coverage in Japan. Naturally, the Japanese government pretends the controversy never happened or is not significant.

Japan's special relationship with nature: ivory and CITIES

THE Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has disregarded evidence of Japan�s poor record on regulating ivory trade and instead officially released 60 tonnes of stockpiled ivory for importation to that country.

Whales should not feel that they are a special case.

...evidence that Japan clearly fails to meet the bar set by the CITES framework...

The Standing Committee is disregarding this evidence just as it ignores that the 2.8 tonne seizure of contraband ivory in Osaka in August of last year ...

...This decision was made without the knowledge of the recent 2.8 tonne seizure of contraband ivory in Osaka, which the Japanese did not disclose until after the meeting of the SC...

...an investigative report released by IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare; www.ifaw.org) last week details significant loopholes in the Japanese system that allow illegal ivory derived from elephants poached in the wild to be laundered in astronomical sums into the legal domestic ivory market. From the Matangi Tonga Online.

Unique Japan. We can all be sure there is a logical explanation for all this. Perhaps it's a misunderstanding of traditional Japanese culture by stupid foreigners---sorry baka gaijin.
Or, perhaps it's all foreign lies like the sex slaves, Nanjing, The Death March of Bataan, or claims that Foreign Minister Abe's family business used POW labor in WW2. All lies and evidence to the contrary is never the correct evidence. Some may explain it a zen-related. One can be sure, however, that in some way Japan is being victimized by all this.

Full article from Matangi Tonga Online here

Japan needs clean diapers

I guess I am not the only one who thought Japan's pouting at the IWC was sort of childish.

Japan needs clean diapers after IWC "dummy spit" from CDNN

Japan may quit IWC

Deja vu all over again. In the 30s Japan quit the League of Nations because the rest of the world didn't see fit to give Japan what it wanted in China. This began the collapse of the League. (It did not really collapse, but soon Japan's allies---Nazi Germany and Italy followed it out which certainly made the League less than relevant in preventing WW2.) Japan may take the same route with the International Whaling Commission since buying votes and issuing threats to increase its whaling more if it didn't get its way haven't worked.

Whale meat is not popular here, it is the nationalistic aspect which appeals. Japan as victim yet again! The government is trying to promote the consumption of the meat, but it doesn't seem they have been successful. There have been reports that much of it goes to waste in storage or is used to make pet food. They recently tried to get the few villagers who hunt whale declared indigenous hunters---like the Inuit. A few years ago, it tried to stop the Inuit and other indigenous people in remote areas from hunting since Japan couldn't. It reminds one of a spiteful 2 years old. If I don't get my way, I won't play.

I am personally undecided on minke hunting. From what I have read, it is sustainable and Japan and others should be able to hunt some as far as I am concerned. But when I see this type of action, along with its money politics, bandwagon logic, and spiteful temper-tantrums, I don't have much sympathy for Japan's position.

Story from Bloomberg HERE

It's pouring rain in Tokyo, but the weather report says it is now partly sunny and 20% chance of rain decreasing to 10%. It depends on the TV station too, as they all give different versions of the weather. And they are all wrong. Guess we got the 20%. What's interesting is that one could have looked out the window this morning and known it was going to rain or at the very least have known that it was not partly sunny. Maybe those weathermen(persons?) don't have the deep relationship with nature that is claimed for Japanese.