Bad TPP

Bad TPP

One of the biggest issues in the Japanese politics now is the so-called TPP.

The 2005 Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPSEP or P4) is a free trade agreement among Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore. It aims to further liberalize the economies of the Asia-Pacific region. 

Since 2010, negotiations have been taking place for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposal for a significantly expanded version of TPSEP. The TPP is a proposed free trade agreement under negotiation by (as of December 2012) Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.[9] Japan has expressed its desire to become a negotiating partner,[10] but not yet joined negotiations as the TPP became a major issue in Japan's 2012 election. 

Anti-globalization advocates accuse the TPP of going far beyond the realm of tariff reduction and trade promotion, granting unprecedented power to corporations and infringing upon consumer, labor, and environmental interests. 

One widely republished article claims the TPP is "a wish list of the 1%" and that "of the 26 chapters under negotiation, only a few have to do directly with trade. The other chapters enshrine new rights and privileges for major corporations while weakening the power of nation states to oppose them."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Strategic_Economic_Partnership

So, it is another form of embodiment of Wall-Street greed.

Leaking from Non-Welded Tanks in Fukushima Daiichi

Leaking from Non-Welded Tanks in Fukushima Daiichi 

They use 350 of big barrel tanks to contain contaminated water in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

It has a diameter of 12 meters (37 feet) and a height of 11 meters.  But this metal tank consists of four cylindrical parts, each of which is connected to others through rubber packing and bolts but not by welding.

And recently it was found that one of them is clearly leaking radioactively contaminated water.  At a small water pool (6 meter wide x 0.5 meter length x 1 cm deep) by the tank, a dosage is so strong that a worker can stay there only for half an hour so as to avoid receiving doses more than an allowable level per year.  If he stays near the pool for 30 minutes, he would receive an amount of radiation to which he is legally allowed to be exposed during one-year work.   Specifically the level is 80 million becquerels per liter.

Report by Luis Frois on 17th Japan

Report by Luis Frois on 17th Japan

When William Shakespeare was rising to stardom in London, a genius from Portugal was writing a great report on and history of Japan as he had been sent to the then mysterious country Japan for a mission. 

Luís Fróis (1532 – 1597) was a Portuguese missionary. 

He was born in Lisbon and in 1548 joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). In 1563, he arrived in Japan to engage in missionary work, and in the following year arrived in Kyoto, meeting Ashikaga Yoshiteru who was then Shogun. In 1569, he befriended Oda Nobunaga and stayed in his personal residence in Gifu while writing books for a short while. 

His writings include the History of Japan. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_Fr%C3%B3is

However the original writings by Frois were not sent to Europe.  Only their copies were sent to the Portuguese court in the 18th century.  The original documents were stored in a Church in Macau.  But, in 1835 a fire broke out in the church to destroy the precious documents. 

It was in 1970s that a Japanese scholar found, by chance, missing copies of the History of Japan in a library in Lisbon.  This discovery made the History of Japan by Frois complete for the first time.

It was the first book ever written by a European to describe detailed states of Japan, including battles and behaviors of samurais and daily lives and practices of ordinary Japanese, though the Japanese society there introduced was that of the late 16th century. 

True History between Japan and Korea before WWII

True History between Japan and Korea before WWII

So, South Koreans living in the US must not try to harm friendly relationship between Japan and the US by telling Americans a lie about special types of Korean women who served Imperial troops of Japan while Korean men opted to get money in exchange rather than to protect and keep their women. 

In May 1910, the Minister of War of Japan, Terauchi Masatake, was given a mission to finalize Japanese control over Korea after the previous treaties (the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1904 and theJapan–Korea Treaty of 1907) had made Korea a protectorate of Japan and had established Japanese hegemony over Korean domestic politics. On 22 August 1910, Japan effectivelyannexed Korea with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 signed by Lee Wan-yong, Prime Minister of Korea, and Terauchi Masatake, who became the first Japanese Governor-General of Korea. 

The treaty became effective the same day and was published one week later. The treaty stipulated:

Article 1: His Majesty the Emperor of Korea concedes completely and definitely his entire sovereignty over the whole Korean territory to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan.

Article 2: His Majesty the Emperor of Japan accepts the concession stated in the previous article and consents to the annexation of Korea to the Empire of Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule#Japan.E2.80.93Korea_annexation_treaty.2C_1910

Anyway, it was an era when the US colonized the Philippines, the UK colonized Part of China, Malaysia, Burma, and India; France colonized Vietnam; and the Netherlands colonized Indonesia without expecting that.their rule in Asia would someday end, though it was ended with the Pearl Harbor Attack so successfully and bravely carried out by the Imperial Navy of Japan in 1941. 

Before M9.0 Earthquake of 2011 in Japan

Before M9.0 Earthquake of 2011 in Japan 

On March 11, 2011, an M9.0 earthquake was set off under the Pacific Ocean between Honsyu Island and the Japan trench.

Recently Japanese scientists found that this March 11 earthquake was an indirect product of another earthquake. 

On March 9, 2011, two days before March 11, an M7.3 earthquake occurred near the epicenter of the M9.0 earthquake.  It caused slow sliding of a great mass of undersea land toward the Japanese trench.

   http://www.ab.cyberhome.ne.jp/~catfish/event/2011tohokuoki.html 

In the above figure, the brown lines, including the Japanese trench along with the straight line A to B, are boundaries between continental plates.  Note that 2011/03/11 05:46 means March 11, 2011 at 2:46 p.m. (Japan Time).  M9.1 was later corrected to Magnitude 9.0.

So, if earthquake seismology had been more advanced on March 9, 2011, scientists should have been able to catch a sign that a huge but slow undersea land slip was triggered.  They must have been able to predict another big earthquake coming soon.  Then, many lives must have been saved and the nuclear accident might have been avoided. 

Battles around Shanghai and in Nanjing in 1937

Battles around Shanghai and in Nanjing in 1937

The Battle around Shanghai resulted in the Battle in Nanjing in 1937; thus Imperial Army entered the then Chinese capital Nanjing while Nanjing citizens were abandoned by Chinese leaders and generals who fled to Chongqing though they could have surrendered to the Imperial Army or let Nanjing citizens flee before them...The situation between Shanghai and Nanjing from the summer to the winter of 1937 should be reviewed more carefully.


Japanese Commander Entering Nanjing after Battles

Status 2 Weeks after the Start of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

Status 2 Weeks after the Start of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

The International Atomic Energy Agency has released today's report on the Japanese nuclear plant in trouble for two weeks.

IAEA

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident Update (26 March, 05:15 UTC)
Brief Update on State of Fukushima Daiichi Reactors

Japanese authorities today confirmed a number of developments at the nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi.

Unit 1

Workers have restored lighting in the control room and have recovered some instrumentation. As of 25 March, fresh water is now being pumped into the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) instead of seawater.

Unit 2

Seawater injection into the reactor pressure vessel continues, and RPV pressures remain stable.

Unit 3

Workers are now pumping fresh water into the RPV, while seawater is pumped into the spent fuel pool. In addition, firefighters sprayed water into the reactor building yesterday from the outside.

Unit 4

With no fuel in the RPV, concerns remain focused on the condition of the spent fuel pool, and workers continued to use a concrete pump truck to pour water into the pool from above while pumping seawater into the pool through the fuel pool cooling line.

Units 5 and 6

Both reactors have achieved safe, cold shutdown, and their fuel pool temperatures have stabilised at acceptable levels.

http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html

Fukushima Daiichi before the Accident

Status 10 Days after the Start of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

Status 10 Days after the Start of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident

The number of locations on roads broken or damaged is 1,300 in the disaster-affected area of northeast Japan.

Iodine 131 was found in the ground 40 km north of the Fukushima Plant to be 400 times larger than a normal concentration value.

The number of evacuees from the disaster-affected area of northeast Japan is now 310,000.

A Thai Air force plane has carried Thai people out of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, to Thailand.

US C-17 air carriers conveyed 93 tons of supplies while a Japan's Air Force C-130s 20 tons of goods to Sendai Airport on Sunday.

Fukushima City (80 Km from the power plant) shows 156 times larger; Tokyo (250 Km) shows 3 times larger radiation than normal, most recently, according a TV news report at 0:35 p.m. 


Fukushima Daiichi before the Accident

Imperial Navy of Japan (1872 - 1945)

Imperial Navy of Japan (1872 - 1945)

Battleship Ise was built in 1916.  She was converted to a battle-ship/aircraft-carrier during WWII. (Navigating at 25.31 knots, the length 219.62 meters, 4 x 35.6cm guns, 22 planes )



Battle Ship Nagato, built in 1920 as the world first battleship equipped with 16.1-inch (41 centimeter) guns, navigating at max. 26.5 knots, the length 225 meters:




Battle Ship Yamato, built in 1941 as the world largest battleship equipped with the world largest 46 centimeter guns, navigating at max. 27.46 knots, the length 263 meters:

Yearly Session of the National Diet

Finally the Japanese National Assembly, the Diet, has started its yearly ordinary session.

Every year in Japan the periodic session begins in January.  It lasts usually for 150 days or so.  But as so many bills are left without voting in either of the Houses in every year, some claim that the national assembly session should be opened all through the year.  However since the first modern Diet session was convened in 1890, no Imperial Cabinets or more democratic Cabinets after WWII have accepted such a bold request.  Instead, after the ordinary Diet session ends in the early summer, an extraordinary Diet session is called in autumn every year for 50 to 90 days or so.

One major difference between Japan and the US in terms of the relationship between the national assembly and the head of the Government is that the prime minister of Japan has a statutory duty to attend some sessions, committees, or panels held in the Diet.  He is requested to directly answer questions lawmakers in the Upper House and the Lower House deliver.  Usually such a "Q and A" session is televised all over Japan through the public broadcasting body NHK.  In addition, nowadays the Diet administrative office broadcasts most of sessions held in the Diet through the Internet.    

*** ***

When Japan was governed by the samurai shogun before the Meiji Restoration, there was no national assembly.  The ruler of Japan was the top of all the samurai clans and samurai-class members, who was called the shogun.  The shogun lived in the Edo Castle, Tokyo, which is today used as the Imperial Palace.  Under the shogun several samurais, who were also heads of independent clans ruling their own local domains, formed a kind of the Cabinet.  Except matters the shogun directly handled, all the political, administrative, and judicial matters were discussed and judged on by these top samurai executives doing their duties in the Edo Castle.   Therefore no national assembly was in Japan under the rule of the sword.

As the samurai class was above the farmer class and the merchant/craftsman classes, everybody thought that politics and the national administration must be monopolized by the elite samurais.  Of course there were the emperor and the noble-class in Kyoto.  But, they lost political power in the 12th century.  The imperial family and noble-class families had even no feuds, while each of major samurai clans occupied their own feud with the head of its clan as a lord over farmers and townsmen living in his territory.  Indeed Japan was a rigid class society before the modernization and Westernization started with the Meiji Restoration, a kind of civil war to restore imperial power in 1860s.  Therefore no national assembly was in Japan under the rule of the sword.


*** ***


After anti-shogun samurais, tied up with the imperial family, toppled the shogun government in 1868, they gradually started to realize a need to formulate the constitution and form a national assembly, that is, a  legislative body.

They made vast research on political situations in Europe and America.  Consequently the Meiji-era political elites, namely leaders of ex-anti-shogun samurais, decided to adopt the German political system, since political systems in the US and the UK were too much advanced for Japan in terms of an acceptance level of democracy.

In this context the Iwakura Mission was important.

The Iwakura Mission or Iwakura Embassy was a Japanese diplomatic journey around the world, initiated in 1871 by the oligarchs of the Meiji period. 

The Iwakura mission followed several such missions previously sent by the Shogunate, such as the Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860), the First Japanese Embassy to Europe (1862), and the Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (1863). 

The mission was named after and headed by Iwakura Tomomi in the role of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador, assisted by four vice-ambassadors, three of whom (Ōkubo Toshimichi, Kido Takayoshi, and Itō Hirobumi) were also ministers in the Japanese government. The historian Kume Kunitake was the official diarist, keeping a detailed log of all events and impressions. Also included were a number of administrators and scholars, totaling 48 people. 

On December 23, 1871 the mission sailed from Yokohama on the SS America (1869), bound for San Francisco. From there it continued to Washington, D.C., then to Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Germany, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, Bavaria, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. On the return journey, Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, and Shanghai were also visited, although much more briefly. The mission returned home September 13, 1873, almost two years after setting out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwakura_Mission

During this mission, the Japanese envoys met with Bismarck (1815-1898) of Germany.  Japanese were all highly impressed by this great politician in the 19th century Europe.  Even Ito imitated the way Bismarck smoked after he returned to Japan.

As senior leaders such as Okubo and Kido died earlier, Ito became a leading figure of Meiji Japan.  Then in 1882 Ito was dispatched by the then Japanese Government to Germany to learn the Prussian Constitution.  After returning to Japan, Ito became the first prime minister of Japan in 1885.  Then the Government enacted the Constitution in 1890.  So, narrowly before the start of the 20th century, Japan could evolve into a modern constitutional monarchy.




*** *** *** ***

Ueno to Asakusa, Tokyo Downtowns

A God of an Apprentice

A God of an Apprentice

Naoya Shiga (1883-1871) is thought to be a god of novel in Japan.

Actually, one of famous Shiga's short novels is titled "Kozo-no Kamisama" (a god of an apprentice).

A poor boy was working in a shop in Tokyo far before WWII.  One day he delivered a scale used to weigh a good or the like to a customer, since the shop where he worked handled such a type of goods.

The boy got hungry when he was walking back to his shop.  He happened to find a small buffet-style sushi shop at a busy corner of a Tokyo downtown.  He had some money he humbly accumulated over days by avoiding use of a bus or such convenience.  So, he went to the counter where some other customers were eating sushi.  The boy asked one clump of sushi with a piece of fish on.  The master of the sushi shop said it was 30 sen or so while picking up some rice and a piece of the fish.  The boy looked at coins in his hand.  It was a little short of the price.  So, in a shameful manner, he said he had to go and couldn't eat it.  The sushi master coolly watched the apprentice exiting the place while throwing the clamp of sushi into his mouth.

But one wealthy middle-class gentleman happened to be at the sushi-shop counter.  He felt sorry to the poor boy as he saw him ashamed so much.  

One day this gentleman went into a scale shop to buy one product: a big metal scale. There he found the boy who had failed to eat sushi the other day.  So, suddenly he got an idea.

He asked the manager of the shop to have the boy carry the product he just purchased.  Then he walked out on the Tokyo street with the apprentice to a forwarding agency.  The gentleman got into the agency to arrange the delivery of the good to his house.  But he also asked a clerk not to tell his address to the boy he was with.

Then the gentleman took the boy to a decent sushi restaurant  (which the gentleman happened to judge to be convenient and well managed) on the main street; it was an ordinary type of shop where some private rooms were prepared.  He told the apprentice of the scale shop to go inside a room and eat sushi as much as he wanted as it was a bonus for him.  The boy thought a dream came true.  And the boy found that the sushi shop was one the manager of the scale shop sometimes visited.  The manager once told to the apprentice how delicious sushi of the shop was.  So, the boy thought that the gentleman had something to do with the manager.  While the boy was eating, the gentleman disappeared after paying some money to the master of the sushi restaurant.  When the boy getting satisfied with delicious sushi was leaving the shop, the master said to him to come back again on any day, since the gentleman paid for other services for the boy.

The apprentice was later puzzled as he found that nobody of the scale shop knew the gentleman.  There was no linkage between him and the generous gentleman.  But the poor boy thought that the gentleman must have known that he had been very much ashamed in the buffet-style sushi shop the other day.  And the gentleman must have known that the manager of his shop sometimes ate sushi at the shop on the main street.  So, the poor apprentice concluded that the gentleman was a god.

On the other hand, the gentleman did not feel better after the incident.  He was not sure about whether he had behaved like a hero to the poor apprentice.  His generosity and kindness to the poor boy did not satisfy him rather strangely.  His middle-class daily life did not get his mind off this episode he had planned by himself.  His wife busy in social life could not see what happened to his husband.  He was in mixed feelings for some time, though he did not fully repent his kind act.

But the poor apprentice boy was determined to work hard honestly and conquer any hardship, since his god must surely appear again to save him in future.
  
(And of course the boy never went again to the shush shop on the main street to eat more sushi.  He did not even tell anybody his god and the miracle.)


   
***


Another great novelist of Japan before WWII was Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

And Akutagawa one day asked his mentor, Soseki Natsume who is the most respected author in the modern era of Japan, how Shiga could write a novel so naturally.  Natsume, the greatest novelist in Japan, answered, "I cannot even write that way.  Shiga writes really naturally without pain."



***

Tokyo

Disasters and Monuments in Japan

Disasters and Monuments in Japan

On September 1, 1923, the Tokyo Imperial Hotel, one of symbolic hotels of Japan even today, was to restart its service.

http://peaceman.jugem.jp/?eid=3258

Its old structure was replaced with a new building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  But, on the day the Great Kanto Earthquake was set off in the Pacific Ocean coast lines south of Tokyo, resulting in dearth of more than 100,000 citizens of Tokyo, Yokohama, and others.  As for the Imperial Hotel, it did not suffer almost any damage.  A key Japanese politician sent a message to Wright in the US, informing that his design proved its toughness.  But this building was tore down in late 1960s and a new structure was built on the same lot in 1970 when Japanese Expo '70  was held in Osaka in 1970 while still anti-Vietnam War student movements were going on in Japan.

On January 17, 1995, the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge was under construction between Awaji Island and Honsyu Island, the main island of the Japanese archipelago.  It would be featured by the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world, at 1,991 meters (6,532 ft) when it was completed in 1998.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashi_Kaiky%C5%8D_Bridge

Though its two main supporting towers already rose 282.8 m (928 ft) above sea level, there were still many jobs to do for its completion. Then suddenly on the day, the bridge was attacked by an M7.3 earthquake whose epicenter was on the northern end of Awaji Island.  The earthquake devastated Kobe City, a major port city on the Honsyu Island side over the Bridge, also causing great commotions in Osaka, the central metropolitan area of west Japan, near Kobe.  This natural disaster killed almost 6,000 people.  However, the Bridge was intact, though ground expansion caused by the earthquake made the total length of the Bridge one meter longer than designed.

Further, on March 11, 2011, the Tokyo Skytree Tower was in the last phase of its construction in a downtown street of Tokyo.  The TV tower was planned to reach 634 meters above the ground during March 2011, though its service was to start on February 2012.  But on the day this world tallest TV tower was just about 620 meters high.  A sub-tower was then being fixed at the upper part of its structure.

http://blog.skytree-obayashi.com/

Then at 14:46 of the day, namely March 11, 2011, that fatal M9.0 earthquake occurred under the seabed of the North Pacific Ocean some 500 km northeast of Tokyo.  It triggered more than 10 meter high tsunami waves, destroying many towns and villages along the Pacific coast lines of north Honsyu Island.  Eventually, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was partly inundated to lose emergency power sources, leading to a fuel-melt-down accident.  However, the Tokyo Skytree could perfectly withstand the huge commotion of the ground, and Tokyo Bay was safe from big tsunamis most of which were rushing to shores north of Tokyo.  Nonetheless, this disaster with a scale that could be observed only once in centuries took on about 20,000 lives of residents in Tohoku Area (northeast of Tokyo).

So, in the past, when historical structures were under construction or on completion, Japan suffered historical disasters.    

I am worried about what disaster would happen when a new national sports stadium is completed in Tokyo for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

***


The present National Diet Building, the parliament bldg. of Japan, near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo was completed in November 1936.

But in February 1936, a historical attempt of coup d'etat was launched by 1,400 Imperial troops (the February 26 Incident).  The the new national Diet Building was almost completed, but as it was not yet used for national assembly meetings, no battles were fought around the Building.  But as insurgent officers of the Imperial Army assassinated several leading officials (including two former Prime Ministers) before they surrendered to main troops of the Imperial Army stationed in Tokyo and the emperor himself, this incident gave a great shock to not only the emperor and political leaders but also the general public.  It is now regraded as a turning point for the Empire of Japan to incline to militarism.  It was a starting pint of the Japan-China War between 1937 and 1945 and the Japan-US War between 1941 and 1945.

So, Japan had better be cautious in planning construction of any great monument or structure.

National Parliament Building Area, Tokyo

Japanese Matured Democracy

Japanese Matured Democracy


A big political incident or a kind of small revolution occurred in Japan in 1993, namely 20 years ago.

It is because the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), having been in power for decades, fell from power partly due to a split of the party and partly due to extraordinary popularity of Morihiro Hosokawa who then came back to national politics through his past experiences of an Upper House lawmaker and a local prefecture governor.  Though the Hosokawa cabinet lasted only for eight months, this  making-an-epoch incident is still often favorably recalled by many voters.

Indeed after this Hosokawa era, the Japanese politics had to go through a coalition-cabinet era of the LDP and the Socialist Party of Japan and then proceed to another coalition-cabinet era of the LDP, Komeito Party (a Buddhists party), and other minor conservative party in subsequent 1990s.  Then, the capitalistic LDP, mainly led by then PM Junichiro Koizumi, consolidated its new power base only with Komeito, enjoying decade-long ruling till it was defeated by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), led by Ichiro Ozawa and Yukio Hatoyama, in the 2009 general election.

The defeat of the LDP in 2009 and three year-long ruling by DPJ till December 2012 are also revolutionary in the post-WWII politics in Japan.  But the incident seems to be rooted in the 1993 taking over of power by then PM Hosokawa, since main figures who played major roles in the 2009 regime change also had taken important parts in the 1993 Hosokawa Cabinet.    

In a larger view, Japanese politics in 1990s was rather friendly to China and South Korea while the US was seriously competing with Japan in the financial sector and the high-tech fields with President Bill Clinton taking an aggressive initiative in the world after the Cold War.  During this period, China and South Korea significantly advanced their economy with a huge influx of funds and technologies from Japan.  But in 2000s, with a rise of very-pro-American prime minister Koizumi, Japanese politics gradually came to lean to conservatism along with the American War on Terror led by President George W. Bush.  However on the occurrence of the 2008 Financial Crisis set off in Wall Street, Japanese voters chose the somewhat anti-American DPJ in 2009.  Nonetheless, the relationships of Japan with China and S. Korea were not improved at all, since the two growing economies needed an anti-Japanese policy to leverage their growing nationalism supported by their newly acquired economic power.      

The 2011 great tsunami disaster and the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident tested the DPJ cabinets.  And most of Japanese people saw dangerously poor administration and  reign by DPJ politicians who were mostly busy in intra-party conflicts.  When the DPJ finally lost power in December 2012, the two veteran politicians of merit in the 2009 taking over, Ozawa and Hatoyama, left the party.  And the old-line LDP seized power again with Shinzo Abe who became to serve the nation as PM in the second time though he had been poor or failed prime minister in 2006 and 2007.  It is also impressive that PM Abe looks very nationalistic to China and S. Korea, since he visited Yaksukuni Shrine in December 2013 where some leading politicians who had failed in WWII are enshrined in addition to 2.5 million fallen soldiers of the Empire of Japan who fought between 1860s and 1945.

Retrospectively, after WWII the Japanese political communities was divided roughly into a capitalistic and conservative camp and socialist/communist camps.  But with the fall of the Soviet Union, such conflicts between the right and the left wings were over.  Actually the socialists party has diminished to a very minor force with only several national lawmakers, though the pro-Korean/Chinese party once enjoyed more than 150 lawmakers in about 500 seats in the Lower House.  Now only the Japanese Communist Part with about 20 seats in the National Diet leads the old revolutionary camp.  Most of labor unions in Japan support the DPJ, though this party consists of liberal or labor-union supported politicians and lukewarm conservative ones who had to join this party as they could not be accepted or settled in the conservative LDP.

Put simply, today rich voters of Japan support the LDP while poor voters want the DPJ to take power again.  But it is not an ideological war.  It is more basic confrontation between the rich and the poor.  However, there are two factors that can influence political movement of people whether tangible or intangible: the issue of reasonableness and the underlying cultural consciousness of the Japanese race.

The DPJ, after acquirement of power in 2009, lost people's confidence as it could not excellently administer the government and guide the people, facing alarmingly difficult situations such as the Senkaku territorial issue against China and the 2011 Disaster handling and Nuclear Accident recovery work.  DPJ politicians looked like amateurs.  They looked like having no ability to deal with such international and domestic problems that required a high-level of expertise.  Furthermore, they don't look like having a deep insight into tradition and culture of the Japanese society, either.  They don't show much respect to people living in old paradigms rooted in 2000-year-long history of Japan while such people cannot respect DPJ politicians who are fond of fashionable ideas and styles even in economics.  So, after having been tested, the DPJ lost power last year they had won four years ago, disappointing many poor people.

No matter how DPJ politicians claim that they are friends of the poor, including irregular employment and welfare recipients, voters cannot entrust reign of Japan to them, since they critically lack ability to carry out reasonable policies and management while paying full attention to the traditional culture of Japan on which many people rely in their daily and spiritual lives, if any.   That is why now the pro-American/capitalistic/conservative/traditional-culture-rooted LDP led by PM Shinzo Abe enjoys reasonable support from voters, however, not only because Abenomics has worked well so far but because of the above stated reasons.

But it is often said in the Japanese political circles that one inch ahead it is pitch dark.  PM Abe might be forced to resign at any moment in future for any reason unlike the president of the United States.    







###

Key to Japan's Success: Terakoya Schools

Key to Japan's Success: Terakoya Schools

There is a UNESCO project called "WORLD TERAKOYA MOVEMENT."

This project contributes to develop a culture of peace by promoting education. Since 1990, the International Year of Literacy, National federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan has been carrying out unique international cooperative programs called "World Terakoya Movement", which is still very active nowadays. This movement aims at helping children who are unable to attend school and illiterate adults to access to education. It provides a training to the teachers and supply people with facilities, educational equipments and learning materials. Through this movement, many programs are implemented to offer educational opportunities for out of school children and illiterate adults in cooperation with central governments, educational councils and NGOs in those States. This long-lasting and large project has contributed to regional development by bringing up human resources. Moreover, it has promoted mutual understanding by favouring exchanges among people.
http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/uk/uk_visu_projet.asp?Proj=00070  

Terakoya is a private primary education system widely implemented in Japan in the samurai era before the modernization of Japan which was triggered by the 1868 Meiji Restoration.

Put simply, from the 13th century to the middle of the 19th century in Japan under the rule of the sword of samurai clans, children and young men of the samurai class were educated well by schools run by feudal lords, samurai scholars, or Buddhist monks.  They were also trained by their parents in their homes.  Samurai were requested to master not only swordplay but also reading and writing and other intellectual skills.  Especially they learnt Chinese classics and Buddhism theories.  Samurais were not only fighters or warriors but also bureaucrats, judicial officers, engineers, etc.  They constituted a major intellectual group of people in Japan in those days as with noblemen living in Kyoto around the imperial court which had however no political and military power and as with Buddhist monks who received education and training in major temples of each school.      

But townsmen and farmers were not forbidden to learn how to read and write and how to calculate.  For samurais to make their governance of their territory smooth and boost local economy, it is advantageous to have literate people and subjects in their fiefs.  In addition as functions of the Japanese society came to rely on documents more often as time proceeded, more and more townsmen and farmers sent their children to humble schools founded in temples and assembly houses where free-lance samurais, Buddhist monks, learned adults provided basic education.  Especially when the Japanese society got stabilized after the age of provincial wars under the rule by the Tokugawa shogun in the 17th century, this "terakoya" education system flourished all over Japan.  

As a result the literacy rate in Japan went up.  For example, in the early 19th century, it is estimated that the literacy rate in Edo (presently Tokyo), the capital of the Tokugawa samurai government, was about 80% while the literacy rate in major industrialized cities in England was about 25%.  In fact, Edo had 400 to 500 of large-sized terakoya schools and 500 to 800 small-scale terakoya schools for education of children and teenagers of townsmen and farmers.  According to data recorded in the last stage of the Tokugawa era, there were  about 17,000 terakoya schools all over Japan whose population was then a little more than 30 million.

Terakoya in the Samurai Era of Japan; female teachers and children

Terakoya focused on reading and writing, but they dealt with extra subjects and disciplines, as counting with the abacus (soroban), history, and geography. They taught girls sewing, tea ceremony rituals, flower arranging techniques and other arts and crafts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terakoya

http://www.watowa.net/tera.htm


After the Meiji Restoration, which meant a start of modernization and Westernization of Japan, the new Japanese Government introduced a Western-style school system.  But they found it convenient and advantageous to make the best use of the tradition of the terakoya education system.  So, they could continue to use facilities and human resources of terakoyas while building news school buildings and training and qualifying new teachers based on Western science and art.  Modernization and Westernization of the Japanese education system were smoothly and effectively carried out.  And it became the foundation for the great success of Japan in the world in the 20th century.

So, Japan was the country with the highest level of education for ordinary citizens in Asia or outside Europe and North America in the 20th century.   However, it took more time for China, Taiwan, South Korea, etc. to modernize their education systems for their general public.      





###

Local Shinto Shrines, Japan

Raising Sea Fish on Land

Raising Sea Fish on Land

Oakayama University of Science has a unique assistant professor, an ex-company employee who was handling rare earth, etc.   He is now studying how to raise sea fish on land.

Mr. Toshimasa Yamamoto said, "Sea water is not a suitable environment for sea fish."  So, he uses plain water to raise sea fish, but he adds some elements to the water, such as sodium, calcium, and potassium.  These elements are necessary to control osmotic pressure.  Yamamoto stressed, "Among 60 types of elements included in sea water, fish only needs these three elements for its growth and survival."  According to his theory, higher density of salt in water simply makes fishes grow slowly.  Yamamoto calls this new type of water literally the most suitable environment water or "Magic Water.".

So, Oakayama University of Science built some tanks containing plain water and the three elements at small density to raise some sea fishes such as eels and takifugu (tiger goldfish).  The University now brings 2,300 takifugu fishes into market.  It also plans to sell 800 kg of grown eels which have been fed in the most suitable environment water to grow up from elvers.

As this way of raising sea fish does not need sea water, it can be conducted even in an inland field or a mountain area.

Indeed if sea water is the most suitable environment for living things, there should not have been evolution from fish to animals on the land.  And the fact that there exist freshwater fishes on the earth suggests that any sea fishes can adapt to plain water if some elements exist there.

By analogy with this scientific study, a man may live in society without money or commercialism.  He or she might need only love, faith, and justice to live in the world without money economy.  Indeed, money just makes growth of love, faith, and justice slow.

http://www.ous.ac.jp/ScienceDreamGarden/fish_plant/

What happens to fish in this water? 

Both freshwater and saltwater fish have body fluid with a salinity (salt concentration) of about 1%. Because this special water has a salinity close to that of their own bodies, the fish have less trouble regulating osmotic pressure than they would in seawater, which has a salinity of about 3.5%. Scientists have learned that this property of the water improves the fishes' metabolisms. 

Fish control the concentration of salt in their bodies by a process called osmoregulation. Having too much salt in their body fluids would cause the fishes' cells to absorb water; having too little salt would cause the cells to lose water. Both of these conditions would be harmful to the fish. 

This is special water containing only a few of the substances that make up seawater. The water was developed in an experiment aimed at making water that is habitable for both freshwater and saltwater fish and contains as few substances as possible.
This special water is called "Magic Water". It was developed by Yamamoto Toshimasa, a teacher at the Okayama University of Science Specialized Training College.
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/hitech/fish/001.html

I think Mr. Yamamoto deserves a Nobel Prize.



###

Senso-ji Temple, Aaskusa, Tokyo