On the day North Korea carried out nuclear test, there was a memorial service for the war dead at the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery in Tokyo. Chidorigafuchi is very famous for cherry blossoms every spring.
The memorial service was under the auspices of Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Prime Minister Aso attended it and offered flowers.
The Japanese government formed groups for collecting remains of the war dead and has been sending every year overseas. This time, the groups went to the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and so on to find remains. Among them, 1,406 remains that could not be handed over to bereaved families were put in the Ossuaries of the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery.
In all, 354,332 remains have been laid.
On the day people should be solemn and quiet, they blew up nuclear equipment.
Did they know the Japanese memorial service beforehand?
http://www.globaleforum.com/en/index.jsp
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Opening Japan's Courtrooms to the Public
The June issue of Japan CLOSE-UP has been published.
Japan CLOSE-UP is an English-language monthly magazine bringing you the latest news on Japanese business, products, culture, society, trends, and people.
One of featured articles on the June issue is "Opening Japan's Courtrooms to the Public: Floodgates or a Breath of Fresh Air?"
Scheduled to start in May 2009, what is being termed the saibanin system marks a major societal watershed, as it will be the first time in postwar history for the general public to participate in the hermetically closed operation of Japan’s criminal justice system. Japanese tend to view lawsuits as a distasteful admission of failure, a last resort after patience, negotiation, and mediation have failed. Now, in response to pressure from Japanese scholars and lawyers, and a bit of badgering from foreign interests as well, the Japanese Government is taking steps to make its legal system more open.
Read more
http://www.export-japan.com/jcu/sample/index.php
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
Japan CLOSE-UP is an English-language monthly magazine bringing you the latest news on Japanese business, products, culture, society, trends, and people.
One of featured articles on the June issue is "Opening Japan's Courtrooms to the Public: Floodgates or a Breath of Fresh Air?"
Scheduled to start in May 2009, what is being termed the saibanin system marks a major societal watershed, as it will be the first time in postwar history for the general public to participate in the hermetically closed operation of Japan’s criminal justice system. Japanese tend to view lawsuits as a distasteful admission of failure, a last resort after patience, negotiation, and mediation have failed. Now, in response to pressure from Japanese scholars and lawyers, and a bit of badgering from foreign interests as well, the Japanese Government is taking steps to make its legal system more open.
Read more
http://www.export-japan.com/jcu/sample/index.php
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
Thursday, May 21, 2009
New Ambassador to Japan
On May 20, the Japanese news media reported that President Obama on Tuesday decide to nominate Mr. John Roos, a California-Silicon Valley based attorney as ambassador to Japan.
An end result was not Dr. Nye.
Who is Roos? Japanese government officials and American watchers thought.
The attorney is an active fund raiser in the presidential campaign for Mr. Obama. The President has also recently chosen Mr. Louis Susman who is another big fund raiser as the new ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Picking Mr. Roos, perhaps, is a plum as successive American Presidents have done as usual. With regard to that, it is difficult for me to see "change" in the American envoy.
But, there is a hope. Mr. Jim Zumwalt, the Charge d'Affaires of the US Embassy of Tokyo has started his blog since the middle of March. That is a part of "public diplomacy."
I enjoy reading it.
http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/zblog/e/zblog-emain.html
I would like the new ambassador to Japan start his blog and the Charge d'Affaires continue the blog after the arrival of the ambassador.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
An end result was not Dr. Nye.
Who is Roos? Japanese government officials and American watchers thought.
The attorney is an active fund raiser in the presidential campaign for Mr. Obama. The President has also recently chosen Mr. Louis Susman who is another big fund raiser as the new ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Picking Mr. Roos, perhaps, is a plum as successive American Presidents have done as usual. With regard to that, it is difficult for me to see "change" in the American envoy.
But, there is a hope. Mr. Jim Zumwalt, the Charge d'Affaires of the US Embassy of Tokyo has started his blog since the middle of March. That is a part of "public diplomacy."
I enjoy reading it.
http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/zblog/e/zblog-emain.html
I would like the new ambassador to Japan start his blog and the Charge d'Affaires continue the blog after the arrival of the ambassador.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The New Flu in Japan
More than 200 people have been infected with the new flu in Japan.
When I heard an outbreak of the flu in Mexico, it was called "buta influenza." Buta means "pig" in Japanese. After a while, it has come to be called "shingata influenza," which is "new style," or "new" influenza. I wonder if to avoid a rumor related to pig and pork. We generally do not call in the H1N1 virus in Western countries.
After high school students in the Kansai region were confirmed infected with the new flu, about 2,500 schools in the area have been closed for 5 to 7 days.
On May 9, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced three persons including two high school students returning from Canada after their arrival at the Narita International Airport were infected with new flu. This was the first case in Japan.
There is no correlation between the first infected persons and Kansai-region-high school students. However, I pay attention to students, or youths.
Every morning, my daughter and son take their temperatures, fill out the numbers on check forms, and take them to their school. School teachers collect, check the forms and return to children.
If there is a student with a high temperature, a school is supposed to report to a local government's board of education in order to take necessary measures rapidly. The local government where I live decided to do in each public school.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
When I heard an outbreak of the flu in Mexico, it was called "buta influenza." Buta means "pig" in Japanese. After a while, it has come to be called "shingata influenza," which is "new style," or "new" influenza. I wonder if to avoid a rumor related to pig and pork. We generally do not call in the H1N1 virus in Western countries.
After high school students in the Kansai region were confirmed infected with the new flu, about 2,500 schools in the area have been closed for 5 to 7 days.
On May 9, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced three persons including two high school students returning from Canada after their arrival at the Narita International Airport were infected with new flu. This was the first case in Japan.
There is no correlation between the first infected persons and Kansai-region-high school students. However, I pay attention to students, or youths.
Every morning, my daughter and son take their temperatures, fill out the numbers on check forms, and take them to their school. School teachers collect, check the forms and return to children.
If there is a student with a high temperature, a school is supposed to report to a local government's board of education in order to take necessary measures rapidly. The local government where I live decided to do in each public school.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
Friday, May 15, 2009
Japan-US Accord on Marine Trasfer from Okinawa Ratified
On May 14, there was a press release by Mr. Ian Kelly, Spokesman of the US Department of State. That is the United States government welcomed the Japanese Diet ratified the Agreement on the Relocation of US Marine Corps fro Okinawa to Guam on the previous day. Japanese Foreign Minister Nakasone and Secretary Clinton signed this Agreement when Madam Secretary visited Tokyo in February this year. It took about three months to be confirmed in the legislative side.
We have to realize this Agreement was not born by unanimous consent.
The Japanese parliament is the bicameral system: the House of Representative and House of Councilors. This Agreement was rejected by Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Communist and Social Democratic Parties in the House of Councilors. The opposition parties have a majority.
However, on the Constitution, the House of Representatives is superior to Councilors. Since ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) holds majority in the House of Representative, the Agreement was finally approved.
We will have general election in this year. There is a possibility that DPJ will get the majority in the House of Representative. That is why foreign leaders have been recently meeting both the Prime Minster and President of DPJ.
If the opposition party comes to power, I wonder whether it executes the Agreement smoothly.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
We have to realize this Agreement was not born by unanimous consent.
The Japanese parliament is the bicameral system: the House of Representative and House of Councilors. This Agreement was rejected by Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Communist and Social Democratic Parties in the House of Councilors. The opposition parties have a majority.
However, on the Constitution, the House of Representatives is superior to Councilors. Since ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) holds majority in the House of Representative, the Agreement was finally approved.
We will have general election in this year. There is a possibility that DPJ will get the majority in the House of Representative. That is why foreign leaders have been recently meeting both the Prime Minster and President of DPJ.
If the opposition party comes to power, I wonder whether it executes the Agreement smoothly.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
Monday, May 11, 2009
Pondering "Eco"
Recently, I had a chance to tour the showroom of a major electronics maker. In Japan, this appears to be the only showroom whose special feature is proposing new lifestyles centered on eco- and universal design. It was chock-full of goods that the envisioned three-generation household would find totally convenient and eco-conscious. It was fun just to walk around and look at everything. And yet, to be so saturated in eco left me with the honest impression that though I get the whole reason for eco design, I don't want to pay more for it, and I feel like I'm running a marathon with no goal in sight.
In the general mood today, where it is alright for things to be expensive if they're eco-conscious, or that people who don't follow-conscious lifestyoles are bad citizens, I feel something akin to fascism or mass hysteria. If this mood goes too far, the next thing will be a return of darkness to cities at night, with all-night businesses and night street lighting prohibited, or an end to legitimate sales of non-eco-conscious goods that waste resources, like newspapers and magazines. Maybe there will even be a gluttony tax on foods that exceed a certain calorie count, because that would be a waste of food resources, or tax on people living alone because single-member households are a waste of resources. "An Inconvenient Life" really may come true.
Danish political scholar Bjorn Lomborg was widely lambasted the world over when he was critical in his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, of overly emotional global warming debates, saying environmentalists need to cool their heads together with the earth. Environmentalism to that extent is a brand of fundamentalism, and has a strong element of out-of-control compulsion. And, yet at last year's G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit "ego" won out over "eco," as most expected. Swinging back and forth between these two polar oposites is problematic because it seems to leave no room for finding a middle ground.
I would hope at least that a goal can be established that is premised on eco-consciousness coexisting with pleasurable human existence on the one hand and with capitalism on the other.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
In the general mood today, where it is alright for things to be expensive if they're eco-conscious, or that people who don't follow-conscious lifestyoles are bad citizens, I feel something akin to fascism or mass hysteria. If this mood goes too far, the next thing will be a return of darkness to cities at night, with all-night businesses and night street lighting prohibited, or an end to legitimate sales of non-eco-conscious goods that waste resources, like newspapers and magazines. Maybe there will even be a gluttony tax on foods that exceed a certain calorie count, because that would be a waste of food resources, or tax on people living alone because single-member households are a waste of resources. "An Inconvenient Life" really may come true.
Danish political scholar Bjorn Lomborg was widely lambasted the world over when he was critical in his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, of overly emotional global warming debates, saying environmentalists need to cool their heads together with the earth. Environmentalism to that extent is a brand of fundamentalism, and has a strong element of out-of-control compulsion. And, yet at last year's G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit "ego" won out over "eco," as most expected. Swinging back and forth between these two polar oposites is problematic because it seems to leave no room for finding a middle ground.
I would hope at least that a goal can be established that is premised on eco-consciousness coexisting with pleasurable human existence on the one hand and with capitalism on the other.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
Friday, May 8, 2009
May Issue & Comments Posted!
The May issue and comments have been posted today.
http://www.globaleforum.com/en/index.jsp
We are glad to take your comments.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
http://www.globaleforum.com/en/index.jsp
We are glad to take your comments.
[PHP Global e-Forum Editorial Office]
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