10 days and counting

Still awaiting a response, even a "f**k you" from the Denenchofu, Tokyo McFilthys---oops, I meant McDonalds. I suspect I will get none unless I can find some way to embarrass them.

In the mean time, more food fraud from another Japanese company. I am waiting for the Japanese government to take action to clean up Japanese food companies, but I suspect that they are about as concerned about taking action to clean up domestic food as McDonalds Japan is about cleaning up the Denenchofu McDs.

A catering subsidiary of Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) said it recently sold about 15,900 expired "bento" (boxed lunches), sandwiches and other food items at train stations and on bullet trains after deliberately extending their expiry times by several hours. From the Japan Times via Kyodo News.

It's supposedly only a few hours, but the responsible company is still trying to deceptively pawn off old food on customers. Good service. The customer is god.

Full story in the Japan Times Online here.

Oh, what a topsy-turvy world!

I just went down to the local 7-11 and I saw a new type of candy---CHOCOLATE HAMBURGERS!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!! OH MY GOD!!! ONLY IN JAPAN!

How weird. How utterly unfathomable. How could anyone think up chocolate burgers? How could anyone think up candy in the shape of other food??? Oh, the mystery of the Orient. How weird and strange it is here. How weird and strange the people are. I think I can never understand them. Of course no westerner could possibly do so. It is too different. It is on a different plane. Logic does not apply. Chocolate hamburger candy. Eeeewwwww.

After I saw that, I was so confused that I went outside and started running around in circles hooting like an owl and I am not even a journalist out for the night in Roppongi. I may apply for a job as one though, either with the Financial Times----or should the FT find that I am not sufficiently confused by mysterious Japan---the Boston Globe.

Candy shaped like normal food. Wow. What will be next? Candy cigarettes? Little wax bottles of fake soda? Who knows? It could happen in weird Japan. Oh, wait. They had candy cigarettes and fake soda in little wax bottles in the US when I was a kid. Now I am even more confused. I may qualify for a top management position at the FT.

The Mystery of the Orient

As I sat on the train at 630AM yesterday morning beside a guy who had his left index finger knuckle deep doing his annual nose cleaning, I began to once again ponder inscrutable, mysterious Japan. As he rolled some of his nasal contents between his fingers and flicked them on the floor, I was confused by what might seem to be a lack of manners despite the well-known fact that the Japanese are the most polite, well-mannered people in the universe. I then thought about a guy from Europe who asked me how there could be such a close relationship with nature in a country in which "they have done more to destroy nature than any other." He had just returned from a ski trip where there was blaring music all day, all over the ski resort.

I thought of last weekend when I went to the mountains myself to relax and enjoy nature and to get away from the noise, pollution, and man-made artificiality of Tokyo, and was followed on a mountain trail by some old guy with his transistor radio blaring full blast scaring every living thing away and destroying any thought of nature. I wondered how this could represent the mysterious close relationship with nature which is so invisible here.

I thought about my recent experience with the unhygienic food handling at the Denenchofu, Tokyo McDonalds and how McDonalds Japan has to date failed to respond to 2 complaints I made. I could not seem to connect this with quasi-mythical Japanese good service. The idea that" the customer is god" is hard to reconcile with this behavior. Perhaps there is another idea that the merchant is atheist. I dunno. It's all part of the mystery of the Orient.

What got me thinking of all this was a post on the blog Shisaku about an article by David Pilling in the Financial Times which Shisaku (aka MTC) calls "the worst essay on Japan published in a major newspaper in the last 20 years." That is quite a claim since the competition in the worst article category is so strong. (The full article no longer appears to be available to non-subscribers.)

I had tried not to read it as the first few lines told me what it was all about. What was surprising is that the "journalist" (?) who wrote it has been in Japan since 2002. Usually one loses the fantasyland view of the mythical uniquely unique Japan after a few years---at the latest. Apparently, it's different for idiots---sorry, I mean journalists.

I'm sorry, but I don't see what is so mysterious about Japan. Everything here is understandable and explainable just like anywhere else. There are reasons things are the way they are. It ain't magical. However, if you believe the nihonjinron mythology, then things do get confusing. As long as you understand that it is 99.99999% horse manure, and look at how things are instead of how folks like Edwin Reischauer and Masahiko Fujiwara claim them to be, the mystery tends to disappear.

What is troubling about this sort of nonsense is that it is written by someone who is supposed to be trained in fact-finding and observation. We are depending on people like this to tell us what is "really" happening in Iraq, or China, or France, or even our own country. It is very obvious that we have to take what they say with a huge grain of salt.

Anyway, I wasted a whole day thinking about it and was still thinking about it as I was being pushed and shoved unnecessarily on the train home while listening to two drunken old men shouting and giggling all the way. Ahhh....how uniquely polite. (Oh, yes, I know that there is an explainer excuse for this behavior that would let us know how this rude, impolite behavior is not really rude and impolite in Japan because the drunken old ojiisans were "outside" their group. To those folks I politely say "horse-poo, you silly boy--or girl".)

Denenchofu McDs and unsanitary conditions Pt. 2

I have learned that McDonalds USA will not respond to questions/concerns about non-USA McDonalds. Like many of these international companies, they aren't going to be burdened by their company's foreign problems. I have an idea that McDonald's Japan will do nothing unless they get caught sickening someone. (They were one of the companies caught changing sell-by dates last year. The company claimed it was just one restaurant that was doing it. Right. I believe it.)

The US site does have a way to complain about an individual restaurant---if it is in the US. Contrast that with the Japan site which has no direct route for customers to complain. There is a contact form buried deep in the site. I had a tough time getting it to work as I had to write my name in kanji, even though I can't. (I have no name in Kanji). So finally, I gave up and filled in 本本。I sent a letter yesterday, but I don't wanna wait forever.

McDonalds Japan does have all kinds of information about how safe the food is. If you want to challenge that idea, it seems that they aren't too eager to hear from you. Very neo-bushido. Fujiwara Masahiko would love it. It is (safe) because it is. Contrary opinions are not to be uttered.

Good Ol' Denenchofu McDonalds (Unhygienic food handling)

I never learn. I did it again. I went to the Denenchofu Tokyo McDonalds to get some "food." I haven't been going there much recently because (as I have written before) it was one of the dirtiest McDonalds that I have even seen. I think that the main reason was because they never had enough staff on hand---there are often only 2 employees in sight and one is cooking and the other manning the registers. I thought that they may have improved. I was wrong, it seems.

Last night I went in to get 2 hamburgers---the cheap ￥100 jobs. There was a young guy in a manager's uniform on the registers and one guy cooking (well, whatever McDs does to its burgers). I placed my order when it was my turn and the manager could get a second between collecting and bagging previous customers' orders. He was jugging all this and wiping the sweat off his face from the constant running back and forth. He took my cash with his un-gloved hands. After he had taken an order from the customer after me, he ran back to help the seemingly overwhelmed cook. He pulled the french fry basket out of the oil and put uncooked fries in. Then I noticed him glance at me. For some reason I got suspicious and moved to where I could see him better.

He next grabbed a spatula and put my burgers on the buns. Then he took his dirty, cash-handling, sweat-wiping hands and placed the top of the buns on the burgers and picked each up them up and placed them in the wrapping.

I asked the woman next to me if she saw that. Apparently she did not. I was thinking of telling the guy to shove them somewhere uncomfortable. I should have simply asked him if he had washed his hands before touching them and then told him to make 2 more. But I didn't as I knew that I would have said something too harsh and would have looked the bad guy in front of all the customers. I did not eat the burgers, but threw them away.

After I got home I e-mailed McDonalds USA about it in the hope that they will do something (hahaha). McDonalds Japan had no way to e-mail that I could find. Then I found McD Japans postal address on the USA site and wrote a letter to them. I am going to try to find some sort of Japan or Tokyo government agency similar to a state health department in the US to file a complaint with. So far nobody knows what department or agency that would be. That may mean that there is no such agency or department that makes it easy for citizens to complain about unsanitary food service

Not much will come out of it I am sure. Denechofu McDs will be just as dirty next month as this. I won't be going again unless it is to take some photos at one of it busy times when garbage cans are overflowing and the floors and tables are filthy. And the manager is fingering your (or your child's) food with his dirty hands.

US to ask Japan to improve fingerprinting of non-Japanese

Yes. There were rumors that the US had asked Japan to initiate fingerprinting of all non-Japanese entering Japan and it still isn't satisfied after Japan began to do it. The Bush Department of Homeland Paranoia---sorry, Security---would like to see Japan start getting prints from all 10 fingers.

I guess that criticism of Japan of the procedure was a little too stiff. No, Japan need not do everything that George Bush says, but it usually does unless it is protecting a company or market. No surprise that Japan would follow Bush here, especially if it means targeting non-Japanese.

It will be interesting to hear what the two final candidates for president will say about the excesses of Homeland Security---if they even believe that they have been excesses. I think most Americans are finding it acceptable, at least that is the impression I get from those visiting or newly arrived in Japan. Anything is ok as long as there can be some half-assed attempt to link it to "security."

The story is here.

Fatherly love and crooked cops

More on the murder of young sumo wrestler by his stable master and fellow wrestlers:

(Stable master) Yamamoto publicly denied striking Saito inappropriately, though he did admit to striking him on the head with a beer bottle during dinner that day. He told reporters shortly after Saito's death, "This was an ordinary practice. How could you think I would do anything to hurt someone I consider my child?"

The sloppy, sleazy, investigation by what passes for law enforcement officers:

Initially, the boy's death was listed as "ischemic heart failure", until his family viewed his body. They say his body was covered in bruises, cuts and burns. They begged police to open an investigation, believing he'd been punished for trying to flee the stable.

They overlooked the severe bruising as the stable master claimed it was a normal result of training. Of course! And a beer bottle upside the head is just tough love by a gentle sadist---oops I meant father. Full article here.

The father made a curious statement:

"I do understand that the master's orders are absolute, so maybe they couldn't help it, but if they had reconsidered, this would not have happened."

The above is the English translation from JT Online and it is the second time I have seen it. Perhaps this is un-Japanese of me, but even though they were kids (17 or so) I would assume that they should have some basic knowledge of right and wrong. Then again, maybe this is normal in the sumo world. Come to think of it, it's like Fujiwara's perfect government. An elite tells you what to do and you do it. Your only right is to complain, but you still do it. Bushido?

Japan to Protest Australia's Release of Whaling Photos

Japan says it will complain to Australia about its release of graphic photographs of whales being killed by a Japanese fleet in Antarctic waters. More here.

Whatever one thinks of whaling* (for research, of course) this is a bit strange. Perhaps I have missed something, but I don't believe that I have ever heard of a country protesting such a thing before.

*It turns out that one of the whales was a calf. Japan got caught, so what are they protesting? This was too much for C.W. Nicol who is no anti-hunter and has been a supporter of Japan's right to hunt whale within the laws of the IWC. He appears to no longer hold this belief as Japan is not following those laws. The crooks are angry at being caught.

Justice Delayed

I was going to post about the reports that the (alleged) murderers of a young sumo wrestler were finally arrested 7 months after they (allegedly) beat the boy to death, but I've been beaten to it here. Even though arrest nearly always means conviction in Japan, I have less confidence in that outcome in this case than I would if some guy off the street were charged with a similar crime. These sort of sumo scandals are not surprising, nor is the reticence of the "police" to act.

Tainted food scandals

continue. As expected, the latest case of food-related fraud by Honey Co. of Japan has been pushed completely off radar by the sensational gyoza/ pesticide case. According to today's Japan Times, Japanese officials investigating the plant which packaged the gyoza in China found no problems. Chinese investigators believe the pesticides were added after the gyoza left the plant. (Most coverage of the gyoza mess that I have seen has been relatively even-handed.)

This continues to be the biggest story in Japan. Bad food has been in the news for over a year now at about the same time that tourism has increased in Japan by people who are interested in Japanese food. Wonder how long that trend will last?

Another food scandal

Just after the problems with pesticides being found on Chinese-made gyoza (possibly intentionally added in China) another Japanese company has been caught selling old/recycled food products as new. This was intentional too, of course. The difference is that we don't know if anyone got sick because of it. One might note that according to a news article that I read a few days ago, at present the only time that a local government is required to report food poisonings is if 50 people or more are sickened, so it does raise questions about whether or not anyone has been sickened. (I don't recall where I read the article.)

A Miyazaki-based syrup maker (Honey Co.) has for decades been repackaging and reshipping snow cone syrup that had been returned due to defective cartons after reheating it and attaching new use-by dates, according to the company's president. More here.

I still have not heard of the Japanese government taking any action to increase inspections/insure the safety of Japanese food products. I doubt they ever will unless disaster hits and it cannot be blamed on foreign companies/countries/people. Bet Aso is happy that the latest Japanese food scandal is being underplayed because of the gyoza scandal.

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.

Likely future PM Aso again displays his

deep thinking and superior intellect. From the right-of-Abe fellow who plans to increase outside acceptance and understanding of Japanese "foreign policy" through comic books, a new comment on the latest food scandal in Japan.

No, this is not another Japanese company being caught using old, out-of-date or semi-spoiled ingredients. It is not a Japanese company selling pork intentionally mislabeled as beef. It is not a Japanese company selling ordinary chicken at very high prices while claiming it is a more expensive type of special chicken nor is it a Japanese company involved in any other type of food-related fraud as has been commonplace recently. This time it is another problem with Chinese imports:

Former Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Saturday that Japan's agricultural cooperatives should be grateful to China for enhancing the value Japanese-made food with its allegedly dangerous dumplings.

I am a bit confused as I cannot trust Japanese food unless it is obviously fresh food. I cannot trust frozen products, cakes, processed foods, dairy products and the like because of the huge number of scandals involving those. As far as I know, the Japanese government has put no increased safety measures in place to insure the quality of Japanese food. So I am a bit confused as to what Aso means. Does he mean that even though you cannot trust the quality and safety of many Japanese food products, at least they are no worse than Chinese products?

Japan and Hatoyama kill more 3 people because they value life

more than the Europeans. (Well, that is what "Justice" Minister Hennayama---oops Hatayama has claimed earlier in defending Japan's executions.)

Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said that Japan, the only major developed country other than the United States to apply the death penalty, should hang inmates as a matter of course.

"For extremely vicious criminal cases, public opinion holds that death sentences must be handed down and carried out," Hatoyama said.

"We have considered a variety of factors so that we can carry out executions in a methodical manner, rather than thinking about the intervals and the timing," he told reporters.....The justice ministry identified the three executed men as Masahiko Matsubara, 63, Takashi Mochida, 65, and Keishi Nago, 37.

Damn, we don't want any thinking by Hatayama. Imagine, having to actually think about signing a death warrant to kill someone. That would be troublesome for a man who values life so much more than non-Japanese. Full story here.

Why America needs a change

I used to consider myself a Republican. I was, and am, more of a Libertarian than conservative, because conservatives want to restrict and control those people and ideas that they don't agree with as much as liberals do. However, to make a slight modification to something Ronald Reagan once said, "I didn't leave the Republican party, it left me."

And that is exactly what has happened with the new big government, intrusive, religious zealot-based Republican Party. I thought George Bush The Daddy was a poor president who seemed to get his jollies from invading foreign countries---although I think the first Gulf War was justified---but Little George is so bad that even Jimmy Carter said something along the lines that Little-Tiny was the worst president in history. Jimmy should know something about being one of the worst, but at least he did not start an unjustified war, and although he was and is a religious man, he let it cloud his judgment, whatever one thinks of his judgment.

Anyway, this primary election I am supporting Barack Obama. My choice on the Republican side is John McCain and although it may be hard to choose in a general election between the two, right now I am leaning strongly toward Obama. It would be the first time that I have ever voted for a Democrat for president, but I believe that he represents the best chance we have for a new direction in the US and hopefully can help put an end to the extreme looniness on both the left and the right. Perhaps I am dreaming. At any rate, both he and McCain seem to be honest, straightforward men. The nightmare would be a Billary (anywhere on the ticket) and "Leave-the-US-if-you-ain't religious" Romney. I wouldn't vote for either.

(No, I did not vote for Tiny George as I had learned my lesson from his Daddy. I did not vote for a major party candidate in the last two elections and I actually voted for the crazy-man, Ross Perot, in 1992).

I received the following e-mail forwarded from someone whom I fortunately do not know. These kinds of "thoughts" are way beyond what I believe---or I want to believe---the US should stand for. Unfortunately, I am sure plenty share these views. This is from the "religious" side, I suppose the religious right. I have no doubt that there are such nutjobs with mirroring views on the left. How embarrassing such stuff is:

Written by a housewife from New Jersey and sounds
like it! This is one ticked off lady.

Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it
or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on
September 11, 2001?

Were people from all over the world,
mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across
the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania ?

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die
a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?

And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was
"desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it
wet?...Well, I don't. I don't care at all.

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the
Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a
crime in Saudi Arabia

I'll care when these thugs tell the
world they are sorry for chopping off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed
through his gurgling slashed throat.

I'll care when the cowardly so-called "insurgents" in
Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by
hiding in mosques.

I'll care when the mindless zealots
who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children
within range of their suicide .

I'll care when the American media stops pretending
that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law
instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave
marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't
care.

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi
prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident,
rest assured: I don't care.***

When I see a wounded terrorist get
shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped,
you can take it to the bank: I don't care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran
and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is
complaining that his holy book is being "mishandled," you can absolutely believe
in your heart of hearts: I don't care.

And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's
spelled "Koran" and other times "Quran" Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and-you guessed
it-I don't care !!

If you agree with this viewpoint,
pass this on to all your E-mail friends. Sooner or later, it'll get to the
people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!

If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete
button. Should you choose the latter, then please don't complain when more
atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country! And
may I add: Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for
you:

1. Jesus Christ

2. The American G. I.

One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON,

AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM.

AMEN!

This person actually believes that she is supporting the military by accepting the crimes of a few poorly disciplined perverts as justified, or at least not worthy of her concern. She views the war as a religious war in which the US may disregard any and all treaties, laws, and morals and put its own troops at risk to make her ass feel better as she sits on it in her cozy apartment in New Jersey. By the way, as a military veteran, I find her misplaced and ignorant attempt to defend the criminal actions of the perverted guards and their superiors at Abu Ghraib prison offensive. Those actions were illegal under the UCMJ and no trained, disciplined, professional soldier would tolerate that. She is what a Christian is supposed to be?

A President Obama probably can't do much about this kind of person, but hopefully he can help bring a sense of what the US can be, instead of a US hiding under the covers in fear of faceless terrorists and of other religions and people. Christ, we don't want to be like another country that I know.

I write this knowing that the left in the US is not any better than the extreme right. I will never forget 3 wonderful Democrats whom I worked with talking about how they hoped that Saddam Hussein would not be captured (well after Tiny invaded) so that Lord John Kerry could get an advantage in the election, no matter whether or not it could shorten the war and prevent more deaths.The loony left is just as dangerous and nutty as the loony right.

***I believe the "college hazing" reference is straight from the Republican Elite's chief apologist, Rush Limbaugh. So perhaps this person is a dildo-head. Sorry, I meant ditto-head. See here.

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down

Japanese good quality. No doubt the quality of products that Japan exports to the US, Europe, and other major markets is very high. Unfortunately, the same cannot always be said about its domestic products or services, a prime example being housing.

In our apartment, which rents for very high rate---even for Tokyo---there is little insulation. Water pipes are bare, as is common in Japan. (Even in Toyama where there is actually a winter with occasional temps below freezing, insulation was lacking.) We know that many of the building standards and codes in Japan are routinely ignored in order to save a few yen. As the scandal last year showed, this includes earthquake standards.

Heating systems? AHAHA. A joke. Space heaters are still common. One of the most common means of heating and cooling in apartments is a combination A/C and heater. This thing is located just below the ceiling so that much of the heat is wasted above one's head.

Last year, some of the manufacturers of siding an insulation were found to have been faking fire-resistance data. Much of this material had been used in schools. Now we find that:

A total of 529 houses in five western prefectures built by First Juken Co. of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, were found to have defects such as walls lacking the strength to withstand earthquakes or wind... Read more from the Japan Times here.

And one can bet that this is barely the tip of the iceberg, just like the number of buildings built in Tokyo which do not adhere to earthquake standards.

Using the JLPT to test Japanese ability?

As the government has been playing with introducing some Japanese requirements for various visas, I have wondered if they would be so poorly informed and so braindead as to use something like the Japanese Language Proficiency Test to "measure" Japanese ability.

Apparently, they will be so poorly informed and braindead, but what do you expect given the backwards state of English language education in Japan? Why would these old men do anything different for the Japanese language?

JLPT does not measure communicative ability. It measures selected kanji, vocabulary, grammar knowledge (Folks familiar with SLA will note the use of the word "knowledge" as related to "learning"), reading comprehension skills, as well as the ability to eavesdrop on native speakers having somewhat bizarre conversations using perfect textbook language, but provide no direct evaluation of the ability to use the language. It also tests reading comprehension skills in the traditional way. The basic rule for any test is "Test what is being tested." JLPT fails if the point is to test communicative ability.

Imagine the opportunity for "schools" with all sorts of gimmicky, nonsensical "methods" (for example) to open and teach the "tricks" for passing the JLPT. Perhaps then non-Japanese will become as obsessed with near meaningless test scores. We can compare our numbers and feel superior to those with fewer points. It's much more comfortable that way, because we won't have to show we can't speak at the level the numbers suggest.

I have my visa and needn't worry about these tests. If I did, I would prefer to continue to study Japanese in an effective way, not waste time memorizing irrelevant vocabulary lists and arcane grammar rules. One results in actual improvement, the other hours of mind-numbing toil for limited improvement. But if this proposal becomes law, others will have to study what the government tells them to study.

Japan Times has an article about introducing this requirement to reduce the amount of work experience in specialties such as engineering needed before obtaining a resident (?) visa. Article here.

It seems that I have been getting more and more information from other blogs in Japan recently because they seem to have much better information than anything in the press. The author of the blog Shisaku has a post on something that I completely missed. Naturally, the Japanese and Western MSM completely missed it. This would be understandable on the part of Japan's media as it is part of the problem in this post. And there ain't nobody gonna in that group gonna take any big risks exposing the governments little plots.

Anyway, on the news over the last few days, there have been reports about how the police made their very first arrest in Japan for writing a computer virus. Since making a virus is not illegal here, they instead charged him with violations of the copyright law since he used copyrighted animations to spread the virus. (Yes, it is quite hilarious that the copyright law is being enforced. Maybe I should tell about my experience with the flagrant violation of copyright law by a company I once worked for and how the Japanese government did nothing once they learned of it.)

I won't go into detail about the post on Shisaku as you can read it in it's entirety . He connects a just began ad campaign about checking computers for anti-virus with the creative arrest. See Shisaku here.

Japan no longer a first-class economy

according to Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota recently. Ever wonder why the country which views non-Japanese investment as a danger and passes laws willy-nilly to avoid that? The country in which after an Australian firm acquired 20% of Hanada airport changed its laws to prevent non-Japanese from owning more than a magical 15%. The country which loves foreign money as long as there is no foreign control or competition connected to the money,. The country which sees no hypocrisy in selling its products overseas and expecting no barriers, but which whines, complains, plays the victim, and resists every step of the way when overseas companies try to do the same here.

Japan Economy and News Blog has a post: Japan’s leadership searching for excuses for the Nikkei’s drop, and waiting for instructions concerning some of the possible reasons for Japan's economic problems with the outside world including the loss of interest in Japan by foreign investors and how the problems are much more of Japan's own making than as a result of the US sub-prime crisis. It also gives you and idea of how the never-never land that the elites in the government live in. Perhaps if things continue this way, (with Koizumi's limited reforms being undone and Japan continuing its old tradition of being in the world, but not of it) the Neo-bushidoist, quasi-Hobbesian Fujiwara Masahiko will get his retro-fantasy partially fulfilled.

Fingerprinting already a dead issue?

I suspect all the protests will lead to nothing. And it does not seem to deter visitors as long as the yen is weak. Hasn't hurt the US.

Weak yen will trump prints row for tourists: JapanTimesOnline

The beginning of the end of free speech online?

The government is here to help and protect us (well, not me since I am not Japanese, so who cares) yet again by regulating the Internet.

Where the report classifies the content of Web services, however, serious concerns arise. Under the title of "kozensei" ("content that has openness"), for example, a wide range of currently unregulated services become eligible for forced content correction or removal. Blogs, Web pages, and bulletin- board services such as popular Japanese forum 2-Channel all appear to fall in this group.

[A Japanese blogger]: "This is a country where people have been detained for days just for distributing flyers," he says. "If citizens are robbed of their freedom on the Internet, then there is a risk that they will lose their capacity to make political choices." Full story here.

It's ok, it is for security. Besides other countries like China do it too, so nobody can criticize Japan.

Innocent Japan suffers more abuse

from evil foreigners---the US in particular.

A few days ago, Merill Lynch announced that several companies, including Japan's Mizuho bank, were investing around $6 billion in its stock. I learned from one of my young right-leaning contacts, that this was, in his opinion, due to pressure on Japan from the US government to buy stock in companies which were suffering from the sub-prime mess. He had read that a few months ago. He couldn't recall the source, but he is a fan of Sankei Sports, a rightwing paper. I am often amazed at how he can blame the US for any and everything he believes wrong with Japan. If pressed for details or rational, he ducks with "I don't know" or "He (the writer) didn't say."

For example:

-Japans recent food scandals were partially the result of the US and Europe FORCING pure Japan to replace its "produced on" labels with "use by." This change somehow caused the pure Japanese food companies to engage in lies, deception, and fraud.

-According to one of the nutjobs he reads, if Japan were to be attacked, the US would violate the security treaty it has with Japan and do nothing but defend itself. Strangely, this seems be the reverse of the actual treaty in which the US is obligated to send its young men and women to be killed defending Japan, but Japanese young men and women in the military are under no obligation to assist the US in defense of Japan. (In fact, they would be prohibited from assisting in combat or combat rescue---no collective action). He could not explain how the US could defend itself at Yokota air base without defending Tokyo.

-Just before he explained how Mizuho was probably being forced to buy ML stock, he told how the Japanese government had to protect the purity of Japan by restricting non-Yamato ownership of airports to no more than 15%. You see, some sneaky Australian company bought a 20% share of Haneda airport. I did not think to ask him if perhaps the Japanese government had forced the Australian company to buy into Haneda. (Article on this purchase here.)

Wareware nihonjin. Omae wa baka gaijin.

Japanese language for work visa holders

I can't figure out exact who the recently proposed language requirements would cover, work visa holders or long-term residents. I checked a short Nikkei article which I got from Shisaku and I understand it as long-term visa holders (residents?). However, my translating ability is not up-to-par, so maybe I will have to take special grammar, kanji, vocab, listening, and reading classes to prepare for nonsensical government tests. (English articles that I have seen on this subject are even less clear and are often contradictory.)

Anyone who has studied much for the JLPT tests sooner or later figures out that like most of these tests which do not test speaking, they are of limited value and can give distorted impression of language skills. Anyone ever talked to someone with 800 level scores on TOEIC who can't actually speak a half dozen words of comprehensible English? I have. More than one. I am sure most have also spoken to people with relatively low scores who can speak fairly well.

A few years ago there was an article in one of the papers written by a guy who had taken the Level 2 test and noted that some of the folks taking it could not even ask directions to the test room in proper Japanese.

Now imagine a government-designed test which like many tests here will check memorization skills, the ability to torture ones' self for long periods for no practical reason other than to pass a test---a test which tests for some trivial nonsense which may have nothing to do with what is supposedly being tested for. And think of the profits that schools and publishers of test prep books may get.* Of course they could shock the hell out of the planet and come up with a realistic test for the ability to actually use the language. This would be a first in Japan, though perhaps the BJT is close for business Japanese.

I have always liked the listening parts where you are tested in your ability to eavesdrop on two or more people talking about such things as the color of the dog over there either on or under the table by the tree (lower level, 3 and maybe 4) or a bird that has become tangled up in fishing line and is hanging from an electric line (level 2).

I find that kind of stuff very useful in real life. The main benefit of the tests for me was for motivation to study. To actually improve required a lot more, including classes focused on communication, and reading. Since there is little decent reading material for Japanese learners, I gave up and just pick an area that interests me and buy magazines on the subject and read them. It is a much better way to learn kanji and improve grammar and vocabulary than memorizing it out of context. I no longer spend time studying for JLPT because it just ain't as effective and I have no further interest in it. Besides, the last time they tried to send me 1 1/2 hours away to take the test when there were locations within 30 minutes of my home.

*If it is for work visa holders, I suspect that the profits would be pretty poor. Who in their right mind would spend the time and money necessary to learn Japanese at some practical level before coming to work here for a year? IT professionals? Why? Plenty of work elsewhere. Eikaiwa teachers? Hardly (This fact may make a few teachers happy as they think it will reduce competition.) Laborers? Where would they get the money? I'll bet that if it serves to reduce the number of people coming to Japan, it would make a significant number of folks in the government and elsewhere very happy.

Right-wing fantasies in Japan

Tobias Harris (Observing Japan) has written an interesting piece on the mindset of some of the "conservatives" in the LDP.

Based on his reading of an interview with three right-wing LDP members in the Japanese magazine Voice, he notes:

• This group believes that there was nothing wrong with Abe and that his attempt to move the country much further to the right.*
• Fukuda is making a big mistake by not pressing on with Abe's constitutional reforms.
• And of course the Chinese influence on the US government.

There is much more to read here.

I don't know to what extent the Japanese public agrees or disagrees with Abe's and his fellow nutjobs' basic views. It seems more of a case of them finding those views to be at the bottom of their list of priorities. The test, in my opinion, is who is consistently elected and re-elected.

*The "right" or "conservatism" in Japan is much different than conservative politics in the US. Perhaps as different as the American left and Castro's "left," though I suppose in the polarized US political debate, the left would be more than happy to claim that both country's conservatives are the same.

Improving the image of Japan's whalers

Although Japan is legally hunting* whales---or shall we say researching whales---and there is an argument to be made that the main whales being "researched" and killed are not endangered (minke), Japan seems to have been doing its best recently to give the impression that it will do what ever it wants to get its way in whaling. No matter the evidence one way or another, Japan looked pretty bad everywhere except in its own eyes.

Today, the extremist group known as Sea Shepard Conservation Society helped improve that image. Two of them illegally forced their way onto a whaling vessel and were restrained by the crew. Reports and film also show what are said to be bottles of acid** thrown on the ship by these fine folks. The crew restrained the apparent eco-terrorists and held them for a short while. The Sea Shepards then accused the Japanese crew of being terrorists.

Sea Shepard has a record of this type of activity. They have admitted to sinking whalers while in dock, ramming ships and fishing vessels and more. This is what makes me uncomfortable with trusting some of the opposition to whaling. No, endangered species should not be hunted unless there was some rare, short-term reason that would do no lasting harm to the population, but if some hunting can be conducted without harming the species, I don't see the problem. Sorry, I am not an animal rights extremist nor an anti-hunter. I have long believed that Japan might have a case for some limited, sustainable hunting but it also has the world's most ignorant, incompetent, inwardly-focused public relations in this area. It seems more focused on convincing Japanese of Japan's rightiousness and victimhood than of convincing the outside world.

Read more here or google for info on this and Sea Shepard/Paul Watson.

* Actually, this may be questionable as Japan seems to claim it is not hunting, but doing research which results in the death of hundreds of whales and the sale (and reported waste) of the meat. Why claim "research" if hunting is legal? 18 January.

**Sea Shepard claims that the acid was foul-smelling, but harmless. Perhaps one of the members should drink a bottle of it to provide graphic proof.

Where's Mikey Moore Part 2

Punish the patient, kill him if need be to get back at hospital which violated the government's rules:

The 60-year-old had been undergoing the LAK treatment — which was not covered by his public health insurance policy — since September 2001 when it was found that his cancer had spread to some bones in his head and cervical vertebra.

The center told him his LAK therapy must be stopped because a weekly magazine had carried an article alleging the facility practiced "kongo shinryo"[combined insured and uninsured treatment] for another LAK therapy patient....

....public health insurance coverage is denied for insurance-eligible diagnoses, drugs, surgeries, other procedures and hospital costs when a patient simultaneously receives uninsured treatment, which is often expensive. Read more.

Thank goodness that we have strengthened gun laws

An 18-year-old was arrested Thursday after his mother and two siblings were found dead following a fire in their apartment....Stab wounds were found on the 43-year-old woman, her 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, they said.

The oldest son, who had several knives, was initially arrested on suspicion of violating the Firearm and Sword Control Law but faces murder charges, police said

Story here.

It is amazing what reactions and emotional over-reaction the extremely rare murder by a firearm causes, but the common murder by knife causes barely a blip in the news and nothing from the political class. Do you think Fukuda will comment on this? Let's see.

Have Japanese politics really changed?

When I was in college, the details of Japanese politics were a lot more interesting to me than they are now. One of the surprises for most of us at that time was when one of our professors---Dr. Tsuritani,---who was head of the Political Science Dept., told us that Diet debates were all scripted; the outcome was decided in behind the scenes negations between the parties prior to the public debates. Of course back then, it was also acknowledged that factions within the LDP made all sorts of obscure deals and power-sharing decisions.

I don't read or hear much about that anymore. Factions, we were led to believe were weakened or destroyed by Koizumi. Well, now we are hearing more about them, so maybe not. The scripted, arranged "debates? I have no way of knowing as the Japanese press surely isn't going to investigate that. Non-Japanese commentators don't mention it either. It seems that most have decided that Japan is now following a different path in politics. Japan, after being "at a crossroads" at some time in the past dropped all of former PM Tanaka's "reforms" and has become something more familiar and easily recognizable.

Strangely enough, I rarely meet a Japanese citizen who believes any such thing. Many even considered Koizumi just another version of the same old LDP fixer. Although it seems that a lot of folks have very little interest in, or faith in, politics and politicians here, I do occasionally speak to people who are interested and who appear to be quite knowledgeable. They read about what going on, both at present and what went on in the past and seem quite well-informed.

Even among those few people, I have yet to hear any of them swallow the belief that things have changed significantly if at all. Tanaka's old ideas are still here, but perhaps more in the background than even before, or exist only to a slightly lesser degree than before. The outside has changed, but like so many things in Japan, the substance; the reality has remained the same.

R. Taggart Murphy, who wrote at least two of the better books on the Japanese economy (Japan's Policy Trap and The Weight of the Yen) observed that many in the US made the mistake of looking at a Japanese bank as being the same as an American bank when it was not at all. The whole philosophy and purpose was different. I suspect the same thing continues to go on concerning Japanese politics.

There is Japan and there is foreign and no other distinctions

Oh, there might be a Japan and then an America in some ways---often people actually mean the US when they talk about the West or foreign, but generally there seems to be no distinction when it comes to foreign. One barely read a single article, either in English or Japanese where this sort of myth, does not exist:

Though this may sound trite, many critics have said in the past that the major difference between Japanese and foreign artists is their approach to their creative process. To put it bluntly, Japanese artists are often super-organized where many foreign ones have celebrated being messy. Western artists find this "process over product" philosophy awe-inspiringly "Zen" and ritualistic. JTOnline by MANAMI OKAZAKI.

So, Chinese and French and Bangladeshi artists are all the same, but Japan and only Japan is unique. Uniquely unique. Notice how "foreign" morphs into "Western" at the end. And of course, the Westerners are all fascinated by the Zen-ness of it all. Interestingly, all of the Japanese artists interviewed for the article disassociated themselves and their art from Japan or Japanese-ness. Okazaki, using unnamed and mysterious "many critiques" as the source, came up with the dichotomy between Japan and all else. And notice this: The article is about Japanese artists in New York, but in the end it is still the non-Japanese who are "foreign."

Must resist the urge to vomit. Must.

Government takes action against dastardly foreign airlines

The Japanese government has finally taken steps to protect the safety and purity of Japan's airspace from unsafe, poorly maintained---and most importantly---non-Japanese airlines in Japan. In addition to fingerprinting all non-Japanese passengers who, being non-Japanese, are potential terrorists, these aircraft will be subject to greater scrutiny:

The safety measures officer, who would be part of the Civil Aviation Bureau, would be tasked with gathering information about non-Japanese carriers and liaising with aviation safety officials of other countries, the sources said. Full story.

The government has not yet set up a similar office to watch Japanese airlines, even though recently JAL* and others have had some rather troublesome safety issues,

Japanese airlines reported 159 incidents of parts falling off aircraft during the year to March 31, up from 96 reported the previous year, a transport ministry survey made available Sunday showed.

or other problems:

Japan Airlines Corp. said Friday it has been selling Hugo Boss-brand wallets and commuter pass holder sets made in China as having been made in Italy on domestic flights since Oct. 1.

Three employees of a Japan Airlines Corp. cleaning subsidiary are suspected of stealing digital cameras and other items left on planes by passengers, aviation industry sources said Wednesday.

nor have they set one up for Japanese automakers even after wheels falling off Mitsubishi trucks and killing mothers or after Mistusbishi was caught hiding vehicle defect data. They have not yet set up a watchdog/inspection system for Japanese food products even after a solid year of scandals concerning mislabeled and expired food being sold by previously prestigious food producers.

There is no need for that of course, because those problems are Japanese problems and not evil like foreign things.

*JAL was put on a ministry watch list in 2005 for a string of mishaps and was subject to more inspection until 2006:

The transport ministry said Thursday it will subject the Japan Airlines Group to special safety inspections through the end of the year, following a spate of safety-related problems involving the nation's largest carrier.

There is a slight difference---only the airline with that string of problems was subject to increased inspections and only temporarily. All non-Japanese airlines will be subject to them no matter the safety record, and it appears that this will be permanent.

The history of fingerprinting legal residents in Japan

Just to refresh the memory of some who do not know that Japan used to routinely force all non-citizen residents to give their fingerprints every 3 years (In case them thar dastardly foreigners changed their fingers in order to do evil.) Kathleen Morikawa who was one of the original fingerprint refusers has written an article in the Japan Times on the history of this issue. It will not convince the naive who swallow anything as long as the government can say it's for security, nor will it convince the hopeless useful idiot class. It is a good, basic review of the issue. There was more to it than this, especially the forced fingerprinting of Korean residents in Japan. I have to admire the balls that it took to refuse (or ovaries). I wonder if push comes to shove, how many of us would do so again? And if we did, would it have any effect with the US actually pushing this sort of nonsense thereby making it easier for countries whose xenophobic leaders have no problem with discrimination to do so.

....Well, it was a long, hard slog but we finally got fingerprinting abolished. I am now of the "obasan" generation, and what do you know? My prints are in demand once again and down in Kanto the old, yellow index-finger balloon of the 1980s protests has been resurrected.

One would have to be utterly devoid of a sense of humor not to find something ridiculously ironic about all this. As an American, it is all the more ironic as the recent actions of my own government have created the atmosphere that has allowed Japan to so easily reintroduce mandatory fingerprinting.

What can we learn from the experiences of the past 25 years, aside from the fact that without constant vigilance the rights we fight so hard to win can be very easily lost? Full article.

But every country does it or might maybe do it. It's for security. It's ok.

“Tokyo has two faces. One is the one everyone knows: the economic power, the bright, shining place where all the political power gathers and all the people of strength come together,”....
....“But there’s another face, the place where ordinary people live. They can’t take part in the beautiful Tokyo – it’s kind of scary to them– but this is the Tokyo I write about.” Novelist Miyuke Miyabe: thestar.com

I almost never read fiction, but this actual sounds interesting. A view of Tokyo/Japan that is not the normal Western fantasy land or neo-bushidoist delusion.

Her new novel, The Devil’s Whisper, will be her fifth translated into English. I suspect it will be more interesting and certainly more valuable than wasting one's time and money on Fujiwara Masahiko's nonsensical rant.

Japanese Cuisine, 2007

Japanese cuisine is some of the most delicious food in the world. I need not prove that, I just follow the neo-Bushidoist Fujiwara's brilliant theory of logic (or Japanese non-logic according to ol' Barcode head): It is because it is.

However, in 2007 there were numerous scandals related to food in Japan. The Japan Times in Tokyo Confidential has an interesting article by Michael Hoffman on that:

From "a certain chicken farmer," Asahi Geino hears this: "Of all the chicken on the Japanese market" — we're talking roughly 1.69 million tons of poultry per year — "at most 1 or 2 percent are genuine jidori. The rest that go by that name are fake." Read more.

Let's hope it isn't really true, but Japan is also the country in which more Blue Mountain coffee is sold than is imported. So, would it really be a surprise if the story is true?

Shinagawa Slasher

Another violent attack. Fortunately, nobody was killed. Fortunately, the criminal suspect did not use a firearm, but a knife. That's why this was not huge news. A mere stabbing which is unusual only because it was in public. Much more Japanese and much less foreign than using a firearm I suppose.

A 16-year-old high school boy armed with two kitchen knives slashed several people on a crowded shopping street in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward on Saturday afternoon, injuring two and terrorizing dozens of new year shoppers near Togoshi Ginza Station on the Tokyu Ikegami Line, police said...

Perhaps we can claim that his motives were foreign as no Japanese would think like this:

"I wanted to kill everybody. I did not care who they were," police quoted the youth as saying after his arrest.

Full story here.

Japan Times reporter does not unnerstan' Japan

Kaori Shoji, a reporter with a seemingly Japanese name, does not seem to understand Japan, let alone the mysterious Orient:

It took a long time for me to recover from the blast of bullsh*t Orientalism that was "Memoirs of a Geisha." There were the usual symptoms: nausea, shaky hands and an attack of shudders every time I passed by the Oriental Bazaar on Tokyo's Omotesando avenue, among others...

..."Silk" is drenched with the kind of East Asian imagery that we in East Asia only experience in NHK dramas that you watch alongside grandparents... and a deep down, hopeful belief that these things still exist over here.

Full article here. Don't know how she felt about the classic "Last Samurai."

Where's Michael Moore?

The doctor will see the moneyed and insured, but less fortunate also ail

Hirata said his facility is not intended solely for the wealthy, but because of its location, most of its foreign patients are employees of Japanese units of foreign financial companies and are well-insured.

Those without insurance sometimes pay the full charge in cash, he said. In fact, all uninsured patients are required to pay ¥30,000 as a deposit and to cover the first consultation fee.

"I'm afraid we cannot provide our service to those who cannot afford the payment," Hirata explained. Full story at the Japan Times Online.

Oh, no! In Japan's socialized health care system? Why, even it is becoming foreign! An even bigger problem is that of emergency patients dying while ambulance crews desperately search for a hospital which will accept them. Usually it's something like, "Oh, we are too busy" or "We haven't enough doctors," or even "He/she may have a contagious disease," so they are basically left to die in an ambulance. For example, the latest case.

Uniquely unique Japanese good service

How nice to have had over a week off without focusing or even concerning myself much with news or anything else except hobbies and relaxing. Few crowded trains, not being coughed and sneezed on, not listening to constant sniffling, not much of being pushed and shoved....

Which for some reason brings me to the exaggerated reputation of politeness and good service in Japan.

It can be enlightening to leave big cities as often as possible and go to smaller towns and rural areas. And when visiting there, the "Japanese good service" can take on a different meaning.

We went to the mountains near Nikko and Chuzenjiko for a few days. In Chuzenjiko---a major tourist spot---we decided to have lunch on Saturday. We were a bit early and it was during the New Year holidays, so only a few places were open. Since 99% of the open restaurants were serving only soba, ramen, and yuba, we decided to go into one specializing in mushroom tempura.

We walked in and the old man sitting at a table seemed a bit surprised to see us, but he got up and told us to take a seat anywhere. I noticed that the cushions on the bench seats were sorta slightly filthy. Let me rephrase that: They were plain, flat filthy. I wondered how we could leave without causing offense, but ended up quietly sitting down at one of the tables. Been here way too long.

Ol' grampa then brought us a dirty menu and explained it. As we were deciding what to order, he told us what to order. To avoid trouble and confusion, we followed most of his advice.

He shouted the order into his kitchen staff which appeared to be his wife and maybe his daughter-in-law. Then he brought us two tea cups and a large thermos from another table and said, "Help yourself." Now "Help yourself" might be OK in some places or when visiting someone's home, but it just ain't heard often in Tokyo in a restaurant. My wife also noted that the thermos was a design from at least 20 years ago. As we waited for our order, we began to notice other small details, such as a thick layer of grease and grime all over everything. The case with the chopsticks was especially impressive in that way. I fished some out from the bottom assuming that they would be less decorated with said grease and grime.

Our lunch came about 10 minutes later and he told us how to eat it. Dip the tempura into salt he said, pointing out a grimy salt shaker. No choice of dipping sauce as is common in more citified areas.

A few minutes later, the old boy suddenly jumped up from his table and shouted to someone outside, "Welcome, please come in and take a break,. " Then he rushed outside to get them.

He returned with two women with children. As they entered, they paused and looked over the room. I knew what they were thinking, but before they could act on it, grampa guided them to a table and sat them down. They did not seem enthusiastic. Neither did grampa once he had his victims inside and was sure that they would not escape.

A few moments later, the same thing happened. This time, there was a shout from one of the women in the kitchen: "Welcome, please come in." Grampa chimed in, "Take a rest here," and rushed out to prevent their escape.

He returned with a young family with 3 kids. They displayed the same hesitation and desire to flee upon looking over the place, but like everyone else, they meekly followed grampa's commands and sat down. This family was shoved into a separate room with tatami and seated on the floor. Except for the kids, nobody in the family seemed happy.

Grampa had ignored us since he dumped our dishes in front of us. We had finished and were trying to pay and get out, but this was a bit troublesome to grandpa, because he had done his part. He just said "Pay over there," pointing to his daughter-in-law chef cum cashier.

The meal itself was not bad and we did not get sick. However my wife thought it was quite entertaining. "What was that? Did you see how he kidnapped people? What kind of dirty place? Can you believe he just told us 'Here you are, pour it yourself'?'"

Actually, what is hard to believe is that a restaurant with service like that could survive, or that it could pass any health inspection. But it obviously works well enough, because few people here will just walk out after being conned into the place. I didn't either. I, like Tom Cruise in the Last Samurai, am becoming Japanese. More Japanese than the Japanese--like Tom.

Unfortunately, I am turning Japanese at the same time that Japan is becoming a foreign country.

And folks thought Japan was backing down

over hunting endangered whales. Ha! Wrong.

JAPAN'S cave-in on its plan to kill 50 humpback whales in the Southern Ocean this summer was not a breakthrough because whalers would continue to hunt the even more endangered fin whale, protesters said yesterday.

Japanese whale hunters will go ahead and kill 50 fin whales, even though they are officially endangered species and a moratorium on hunting them is imposed by the International Whaling Commission. Read more.

Of all the things in the world to get into major disputes about, Japan chooses whale hunting even though few actually eat the meat here. Very few. The government has to push it to get people to eat what little they do. This fight is purely about nationalism. One can see why Japan has the stature and maturity to be on the UN Security Council.

Unlike the production of new technology to fight global warming, there is little money to be made by Japan's industries by not not killing endangered whales. Could that be why Japan's mythically unique love of, and deep relationship with, nature is a little less apparent here?

Oh wait. I keep forgetting, some people hunt kangaroos in Australia, so it's the same as Japan hunting endangered whales. My apologies.

Justice Minister Hatoyama's friend's friends

are very happy this holiday season:

...when Afghan Ambassador to Japan Haron Amin learned Japan was withdrawing its Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels from the Indian Ocean on Nov. 1 and heard rebels supporting the Taliban praising it, he was shocked. (The article indicates that these "rebels" are al Qaeda.)

"To whom was the withdrawal of (Japan's) ships a positive signal? Not to the international coalition against terror and not to the Afghan people. It was encouraging news to al-Qaida and the Taliban," Amin said in an interview with The Japan Times Thursday.

Hatoyama, as many remember, said that he had a friend whose friend was in al Qaeda and this friend warned him away from a terrorist attack in Bali. Kunio, being the Justice Minister of Japan, took this seriously and was able to save his own buttocks. He apparently did a good job of keeping the information secret too as he warned nobody else of the plot until his new conference years after it occurred. No problem as he was not yet the Justice Minister at the time.

(Hatoyama later used the traditional Nakasone /Abe/LDP defense of claiming to have been misquoted and misunderstood. It appears that even Japanese reporters cannot understand Japanese.)

Fujiwara Masahiko

who wrote an absurdly illogical book in which he, among other things, used logic to show that an illogical statement was illogical and then claimed that this use of logic showed that logic doesn't work---especially in uniquely unique Japan must be soiling his panties.

Japan has reportedly been forced to suspend its humpback whale hunt due to pressure from the dastardly US as well as the sneaky Australian plan to use its military to track Japan's whalers. (I thought the latter was especially good, but wondered what some of the Abe/Aso/Fujiwara band of merry nutjobs would say).

What will likely cause Barcode head Fujiwara to have a tissy-fit is that Japan is claiming logic is on its side and its them thar furriners who are all emotional. I guess its just another sign that Japan is becoming a foreign country.

''Given that in a sense this seems to be a problem of differences in national sentiment between Japanese and Australian culture, it's not a matter that can be solved by appealing to one another through logic,'' Komura told reporters. ''I hope to discuss possible measures with the Australian foreign minister soon.'' (OK, Fujiwara-chan would like this part as Japan can avoid logic. It can pout instead like it did to start the humpback hunt.)

Japan argues that the IWC [International Whaling Commission] has become a place for emotional fights rather the setting for calm discussion, and has called for ''normalizing'' reforms that would return it to that function. From the AP on the NYT site here. Link won't last long.

More gun violence as a massive wave of foreignness

sweeps Japan.

A police officer at the Marunouchi Police box near Tokyo station was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head. Police suspect suicide. A shocked police official expressed his regrets over the means of suicide:

"It is truly regrettable that a police officer tried to commit suicide using his gun," said Tadao Ura, head of the Marunouchi division of the Metropolitan Police Department. More here.

Had the officer done it properly with a sword or knife there would be nothing to regret. Well, except for the bloodstains on the floor.

The deceased officer was found on the floor by a passerby.

Two other officers were assigned to the box at the time of the incident. One was out responding to an emergency call and the other was napping in another room.

Hopefully the officer who was napping was not too disturbed by the sound of a gunshot. At least he didn't have to get up and investigate the source of the sound before a passerby discovered the body.

Quotes from the Japan Times Online.

Japan becoming foreign

Recently there has been a lot of handwringing by politicians such as PM Fukuda and "experts" in the media about the danger of Japan "becoming like foreign countries." This has been especially noticeable since a murderer used a shotgun with rifled slugs (perhaps slugs. Some victims seem to have been hit by shot.) to kill two and wound six others last Friday evening.

It appears that the fact that a firearm was used instead of the much, much more common murder by knife is what set off this worry. It should be no surprise that this incident---entirely Japanese and involving only Japanese---is somehow connected to those dastardly foreign things. Had the murders been committed with a knife or other more "traditional" Japanese methods of murder, I doubt that Fukuda would have had anything to say about it.

On the crime front so far today:

A woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday for starving her 1-year-old son to death by leaving him at home unfed for more than a month. More here.

and

The Tokyo High Court on Monday trimmed two years off the prison sentence of an 18-year-old youth convicted of stabbing his parents to death and causing an explosion at the family's Tokyo residence in 2005, acknowledging the boy suffered at the hands of an abusive father. More here

Complaints prior to the shootings:

...Nearby residents had consulted with a local police officer over the man's possession of guns due to his strange behavior, but the officer apparently never acted on their concerns, the sources said. More here.

and of course more crime/scandals in the government:

Accused bribe-taker Takemasa Moriya was provided with at least several hundred thousand yen out of a ¥160 million Defense Ministry slush fund while he was still vice defense minister, several defense sources alleged.

The ministry has been under fire since recent allegations that it systematically amassed a slush fund for use by senior officials and related departments out of money earmarked for information-gathering, and that some officials used the off-the-books money for entertainment. More here.

Are those foreign too? Or is Japan just being like Japan?

Nanjing Never Happened.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese must spread the word that they committed no massacre at Nanjing, a film director told a symposium on Friday, a day after China marked the 70th anniversary of the incident in which it says 300,000 died.

Satoru Mizushima's new movie, "The Truth About Nanjing", premieres in January. It is an attempt by Japanese nationalists to counter a series of foreign films, made to coincide with the anniversary, which tell of the carnage which followed the fall of the Chinese Nationalist capital to Japanese forces in 1937. Read more.

Related story at csmonitor.com:

"When [the Allied Powers] opened the so-called Tokyo war-crimes tribunal [after World War II], they needed evidence that Japan committed greater atrocities [than the Tokyo air raids and use of atomic bombs], so they made up the so-called Nanjing Massacre, which was completely unfounded," declares Mr. Kase, chair of the Committee for the Examination of the Facts about Nanjing.

Getting away with homicide

In April 2006, a Yokohama court awarded the family of a young mother who was killed by a wheel which fell off of a Mitsubishi truck 5.5 million yen---about US$45,000. That was the cash value of her life according to Japanese law I guess. At that time the court rejected the demand that a penalty of ￥160 million (about $1.3 million US)be imposed on Mitsubishi. After all, which is more important, a citizen's life or a company's well-being? We all know that a small financial "penalty" like that would be nothing to a huge conglomerate like Mitsubishi.

Yesterday, after an appeal by the prosecution, the full weight of the Japanese legal system struck the final blow to Mitsubishi for its intentional negligence in this case. (Yes, intentional. They knew the wheels were defective and hid and lied about the fact. The same as with other Mistubishi autos and trucks.):

The Yokohama District Court handed suspended prison terms Thursday to two former senior officials of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. for neglecting to take action to prevent a defect-linked accident in Yokohama in 2002 that killed a woman and injured her two sons.

..."The defendants caused the accident to occur by failing to recall the products and unthinkingly neglected the situation when they could have readily anticipated that the wheel hubs were not strong enough," the judge said. Read more.

This is normal for crooked executives in Japan. No jail time. Will they still be working in some capacity for Mitsubishi? Don't know, but I suspect they will be. I am sure this will send a message to all companies in Japan that this sort of thing will not be tolerated. Why, you can't just negligently kill someone and get off nearly scot-free.

I guess nobody is really at fault here. It can't be helped. Thank god that Japan is not like the US where survivors could sue and put some real teeth in the results, and the company would think twice before pulling the same thing again.

The Rape of Nanjing

that never happened according to the more extreme (and dangerous) nutjob right-wingers in Japan. From the Independent UK:

...."I really, really hate the Japanese. I was raped when I was 11 years old. I tried to commit suicide three times afterwards," said Zhang Xiuhong, 81. She was recalling the six-week-long Rape of Nanking....her face flushes as she recalls the events of that grim December 70 years ago.

A sign of Japanese ambiguity about the issue came in the respected Yomiuri Shimbun...."Recently, even some Chinese scholars say scholarly debate should be deepened on the number of victims. Such a flexible stance has started to be aired....

....While the editorial has a balanced and seemingly rational tone, it is in sharp contrast to the kind of debate that one sees in Germany on any issues relating to the Holocaust. What would happen if a German historian were to accuse a Jewish historian of inflexibility on the number of people who died at Auschwitz, or if someone were to write that the number of Jews who died in Europe was only 600,000 and that only a fraction of those deaths were murders that violated international law? Read more.

That there are many in the government and other elite who subscribe to the view that Nanjing was either blown entirely out of proportion or completely false ought to send a warning to the rest of the world of what certain elements would do were they able to get their way. Abe, although not publicly going so far as saying Nanjing never happened, perhaps gave us some clues. Aso is another. Fujiwara Masahiko appears to be another who believes Japan did nothing especially or exceptionally wrong in WW2. What is this group's view of the world in the future? What world goals/views do they have in common with the US, Australian, or European views?

Fukuda seems like a huge improvement over Abe, mainly because he is one of the old-style politicians who sort of blend into the background. He has not been out trying to relive WW2 and offend every other country in the region and world with stories of Japan's innocence. But the nutjobs have not gone away. They have been in government at least since the reversal under SCAP after WW2. I understand why one of the past commanders of US forces in Japan said (I am paraphrasing from memory) one of the reasons for keeping forces here is to keep an eye on Japan.

Trans-Pacific Radio has a good article on Nanjing from last year here.

A tale of 2 Japans

Many courageous Japanese World War II veterans, historians, teachers, and others of moral conscience are frustrated and penalized when they attempt to inform an apathetic Japanese public....

...Does the Japanese Government intend to deny the documented war crimes until the last victims and witnesses finally die off? Yes, because the Japanese view themselves as innocent victims of WWII. Culturally, Japan believes that its victimhood is more relevant than the unpublicized evils inflicted upon millions who suffered under its cruel military rule.

Japan's response to the outraged cries of survivors and astonished historians echoes the comic’s retort when caught in the act: "Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?" But no laughs are found in this insult to truth. Full article here.

From Ron Wulkan, the author of a new novel about Japan. What distinguishes this writer from most is that he was a military policeman during the Occupation and he worked with Japanese who had witnessed or participated in war crimes. Because he was interested in Japan, some fellow soldiers called him a "gook lover," which he took as the title of the book. His interest in Japan appears not to have become a mindless acceptance of everything Japanese like so often seems to happen. Instead his book is "a pro-Japanese, pro-Asian, but anti-Imperial Japan novel."

On the other hand, Ms. LaVel Daily, an ikebana expert, was recently awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by Japan. In a newspaper interview with the Houston Chronical she was asked:

Q: We did fight a war with Japan. How does that square with the civility of the people you describe?

A: I must say, I was young enough that I didn't know very much personally about that war, but I was in Japan about three or four days after 9/11. When they learned I was from the United States, they expressed extreme grief. I was in Japan when the newspapers and television showed Japanese military boarding transport aircraft to go to Afghanistan (for a support role). I've always felt the Japanese were our friends and supported the United States, totally.

From this answer and others during the interview, one can guess that she is a very deep thinker. Forgot to answer the question though. Didn't personally know about the war, you see. Never read a history book either, I suppose. And certainly does not want to say anything that she thinks might offend certain folks (Abe, Aso, and assorted LDP et al nutjobs and emperor worshippers) in Japan. Something implying some kind of guilt on Japan would do that.

Which person do you think is more honest, accurate, knowledgeable, and thoughtful when it comes to Japan, the WW2 vet or the ikebana teacher? Which person do you think really has the best interests of Japan---and the rest of the world---at heart?

Another whining foreigner, James Fallows,

who was one of the so-called "revisionists" to the E. O. Reischauer et al sugar-coated version of modern Japan in the late 80s and early 90s when he wrote for Atlantic magazine (he still does) visited Japan over Thanksgiving. Unlike some of our resident apologists, he did not especially appreciate Japan's new policy even if America does it too. My god, does he not know that if the USA does it, right or wrong, that it provides justification for everyone?

Japan's way of ushering in the Thanksgiving holidays has been to institute mandatory fingerprinting and photographing of all foreigners entering the country. Let me put this bluntly: this is an incredibly degrading, off-putting, and hostility-generating process. The comment is not anti-Japanese: when the U.S. does this to foreigners, it's wrong and degrading too (as many people, including me, have pointed out over the years). But Japan has just ushered in this procedure, and they deserve to take some heat for it....

....It’s one thing, and wrong enough, for the U.S. to apply similar measures in the panicky, immediate, “we’re for anything that is called ‘anti-terrorist’ ” mood of the 9/11 aftermath, which is when the U.S. began discussing similar “biometric” measures. It’s even worse to do it six years later, after a chance for cold deliberation about the prices society is and is not willing to pay to keep itself “secure.”

I learned of this from debito.org where I often find similar interesting material.

Useful Idiots pt 2: The anti-democratic (baka) gaijin

In the recent debate over Japan's new fingerprinting law for tourists, residents, and permanent residents, a few non-Japanese seem extremely offended that a non-Japanese resident, permanent resident, or even visitor exercises his/her right---even in Japan for now---of free speech or peaceful protest.

Many of these non-Japanese claim to be Americans from the US. Yes, the same US that promotes democracy and free speech rights throughout the world? (OK, in some cases it is more lip service than much else when US interests may not match its ideology.) I wonder if these folks, Americans or not, hold the same beliefs about non-US citizens in the US. (Or non-citizens in their home countries.) For example, does that mean that one who is not a citizen in the US has NO right to say anything no matter what actions the US government takes that affects them? Would these same folks expect their spouses who may be permanent residents of the US to passively accept everything the US government does in the name of "security"? Would these folks also insist that all Japanese residents of the US also keep their mouths shut or leave? Have non-military Americans actually become such a frightened, quivering crowd?

If not, why do they demand non-Japanese residents passively accept everything the Japanese government says? Do they expect less of Japan? Do they assume that Japanese citizens cannot deal with free speech or peaceful protest? Or do they just want to go along to get along and be a nice, passive, smiling subject in the mistaken belief that everyone---even Ishihara and the nutjobs in the soundtrucks---will like them and call them good little (baka) gaijin?

I would assume if one does not like free speech that instead of telling others who are practicing free speech to leave, that they could themselves leave and go to one of the nearby countries which do not permit free speech. Then they could be happy living under a government in which they must accept without question everything they are told to do in the name of security.

And they could still be (baka) gaijin.

Useful Idiots

Supposedly, Lenin came up with this---or something similar in Russian---to refer to Westerners who believed in the communist system and excused (or denied) the police-state terror he was imposing on Russia at the time. Of course Japan is nothing like that and the Japanese government is imposing nothing at all like the police state of those times.(I am not being sarcastic here.)

However, for decades there have been plenty of apologists/ "useful idiots" who will swallow/excuse/explain apologize for anything that Japan does. E.O. Reishauer in some his writing and claims seemed to be one of the most useful. If anyone recalls the 80s during the bubble years and the trade friction between the US and Japan, Eddy was running around claiming that the problem was mainly that of Americans misunderstanding Japan---not because Japan was protectionist. (Especially see early editions of his comedy The Japanese.) Later, in one of his last TV appearances, he went on PBS (?) to defend Hirohito at a time when historians were first beginning to challenge the old claims of Hirohito's naiveté and innocence concerning WW2 were less than perfectly accurate.

The Japan Times online has a few folks whom some might accuse of being "useful idiots" who wrote in concerning the new fingerprinting law similar issues. Many seemed to believe any claim that it is for "security" is unquestionably valid and that it will be successful at providing security just because the government says it will. Others appear to agree that non-Japanese (including themselves?) are the sort who do have innate criminal tendencies and should be watched closely.

But my idea of the near perfect apologist, and if I may, the most "useful idiot" for his response to an article about the widespread use of security cameras in Japan goes to:

B. Panagouliashy: Why is it every time I read or listen to foreigners in Japan rant on about the change in Japanese security precautions it's all about them? Japan is trying to protect and serve its own citizens.

(Two reasons: 1) You don't read much; 2) Just a guess...because foreigners are the ones who are targeted by many of these "security" precautions? Japanese aren't being fingerprinted, photographed, or constantly called criminals or potential terrorists, because there are no Japanese criminals or terrorists? It is wonderful that Japan is trying to protect and serve its own citizens. How about legal residents? Protecting them by targeting them because they are more likely to be terrorists and criminals? Prove that one.)

Panagouliashy continues:

Another point in Mr. Hassett's article was about the police detaining a Canadian for numerous days. There is a drug problem in Japan now. A large percentage of foreigners proliferate the drug trade, either by being consumers or selling. This is a fact.

(Uhh...the Canadian was held for nearly 3 weeks and released as he was the wrong guy. His only crime was that he was a non-Japanese and so the cops decided he must have been the non-Japanese they were searching for. Pangouliashy thinks that his arrest was justified---after all he claims "a large percentage of foreigners proliferate the drug trade." I wonder, what that percentage is? Are a large percentage of users and dealers also Japanese? Should the nearest Japanese be arrested and held anytime a Japanese criminal is being hunted? Is Pangouliashy volunteering? After all, how do we know that he/she is not involved in drugs since he/she is obviously not of Japanese origin. OK, I am assuming that based on the name, but why not? The mere possession of a foreign-sounding name is, in itself, suspect.)

Second place goes to someone who, of course, does not live in Japan, but "visits" a lot from Singapore (no, not ex-PM Lee Kuan Yew), but a Mr. or Ms. Soon Hock:

Japan should be allowed to do what it deems best for its country.

(Anything goes. Summary executions?)

There are pros and cons to this unwelcoming fingerprint policy. Japan's reasons — minimizing crimes and terrorist attacks — are valid reasons and the end results speak for themselves.

(What end results??? It just started. Or is Soon Hock telling us that the end justifies the means?)

Not an apologist, but the question must be answered:

Giko Jayashi: Why is this (fingerprinting and photographing) system only for foreigners? Is it that no crimes are committed by Japanese citizens? (Yes, that is the reason.)

The full article which includes statements by others, who like Giko Jayashi are not so willing to uncritically accept everything the government says here.