Author: Adamu

274 Municipalities pay officials who walk to work “commuting benefits”

This man is from Hokkaido. He definitely didn't cheat the government.
It is customary in Japan for employers to pay transportation fees for their workers. Don’t tell anyone, but it is equally customary for workers to use this system to scam their oppressors, with the most popular method being to lie about one’s route (e.g.: Claim to take the expensive JR but in fact commute by a cheap private railway. Combine this with the 50% children’s discount for maximum damage). Now, it seems like even local governments are in on the act:

(4/19/05) The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the results of a special survey on April 19 thats finds 274 municipalities in 31 prefectures are paying commuting benefits to city workers who walk to their jobs. National public servants do not receive such stipends for walking to work, and must commute at least more than 2km one way if they do use some mode of transportation. 244 of the municipalities were paying benefits to people living within 2km of their workplace as well (WTF alert: but 30 weren’t?!).
This Saitama man commented on the condition of anonymity.
The Ministry stated, “We demand that the payment of local public servants conforms to the standards of their national counterparts, and paying commuting benefits for people who walk is improper,” seeking speedy review from local governments.

The survey results are current as of Jan. 1 of this year, and were taken after the “hospitality” scandals (fraudulent overtime etc.) among Osaka’s public servants. Aichi Prefecture was the worst, with 38 municipalities. Fukuoka followed with 28, and Saitaima was 3rd with 23. As a whole, there were most in Western Japan, and there were no such incidents found in Hokkaido or the Tohoku (Northeast) region.

The highest monthly benefit payment (for workers living within 2km of their workplaces) was in Hekinan, Aichi, with 5750 yen. Most payments were 1000-4000 yen, and the smallest was Kitakyushu city with 100 yen per month.

In Hekinan, workers received commuting benefits on 8 levels based on distance without regard to mode of transportation, with workers living within 1km receiving 4950 yen per month and those within 2km receiving 5750 yen. Only 14 people actually walk to work in Hekinan, with most employees electing to drive (as of April 1). The city explained, “We based our system on our surrounding areas and the way we’ve done things up to now,” but in response to the criticism has reduced its payments to 2500 yen for workers within 1km and 5000 yen for those within 2km.

Quotes from the Tsukurukai text

A quick look at my last posts made me realize I forgot why I was posting: to show excerpts from the new textbooks!

It’s important to remember that the vast majority of the protesters in China and Korea have not read them for themselves. The Tsukurukai realizes this and plans to post free Chinese and Korean translations online in the near future.

Recent arguments I’ve seen characterize these textbooks as “not glorifying war but merely deviating from leftist doctrine that Japan invaded other nations just for the sake of invading.” However, these aren’t scholarly texts, they’re meant to be read by 14-year-olds who have to be told what to think. The fact that Tsukurukai has made texts for such an impressionable audience guarantees controversy and makes it difficult to deny that they are tools of persuasion. And picking battles such as the Nanjing massacre, comfort women, et cetera is like kicking someone when they’re down and belies the more extremist beliefs of the authors.

Anyway, trying to analyze all this is making my head spin. Let’s take a look at some excerpts. I got these from the online newsletter of The Marxist Faction of the Revolutionary Communist Union of Japan (so take it with a grain of salt!):

These “history” textbooks erase both the comfort women and the forced march of Koreans from history, and treats the Nanjing Massacre, the gravest sin of the “imperial army”, as if it substantively didn’t happen with such lines as “There were several killed and wounded among the Chinese army and civilians,” “There is disagreement on the actual number killed” et cetera. Throughout it regards The Japanese Empire’s invasion of Asia as the “Emancipation of Asia”, and makes claims that “Japan’s actions bolstered the people’s of Asia” to “quicken the pace of independence movements” in Asian countries. This text seems to know no bounds for scandal. What’s more, in the “Civics” textbook, the “Constitutional Reform” section romanticizes the Constitution of the Japanese Empire (the Meiji Constitution), comparing it favorably to the “imposition of the GHQ” as our current constitution is characterized. It goes on to rationalize worsening the constitution, emphasizing the rationalization of “the right to self defense” and “the duty of national security”.

↑Seems to repeat the same problems from 2001.

Ministry of Education Instructs revision to say “Takeshima (Dokdo) is illegally occupied by Korea”

They didn’t stop there. The Ministry of Education instructed the textbook publishers to revise the caption “Takeshima, the island over which We are in territorial confrontation with South Korea” under a picture of Takeshima/Dokdo, explaining that “there is a fear that there would be misunderstanding over territorial rights”. As a result, the publishers revised it to say, “This is Japan’s exclusive territory, but South Korea is illegally occupying it.”

That’s all for now. Coming up: choice quotes from Japanese editorials on the subject and the right wing’s reaction. Also I might take a look at Wiki Japan, not sure. Stay tuned!

Looking at “Tsukuru-kai”


It looks like Japan-China tensions just might become a dominant theme of 2005. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse after Foreign Minister Machimura returned to Japan empty-handed, a Tokyo court rejected claims for compensation of Chinese victims of Japan’s chemical warfare in WW2. Although China has offered to pay for damage to the Japanese embassy caused by hands-off approach to security, it has no plans to let up pressure on Japan to give as-yet unspecified concessions. While there was a message on Chinese TV calling on Chinese not to take part in “illegal” demonstrations, there’s no guarantee that China won’t authorize a new round of legal protests.

On the Japanese side, Machimura’s visit has been described as Japan’s “last card” and the government wants the textbook issue to be seen as a domestic problem, off limits to negotiation. Here’s how I see it: China and Japan are not foolish enough to let this affect their economic relationship, let alone place sanctions each other or God forbid fire on each other (Of course I could be wrong, the CCP is unpredictable and I know very little about it — comments welcome). China simply sees the run-up to the September vote on UNSC expansion as perhaps the weakest point in postwar Japanese diplomatic history. Japan will likely the support of 90 Why miss the opportunity to shake a few concessions out of Japan while you’ve got them by the balls? And of course it is very much in Japan’s interest to make a compromise because a permanent UNSC seat will give Japan a much stronger diplomatic position in the future. (Although with the new developments it looks like many nations want to stall for time, citing contempt for “artificial deadlines”).

But enough about that — I’m here to talk about the current sticking point in Japan-China relations, the 新しい歴史教科書を作る会 (the “Make new history textbooks association”, or “Tsukurukai” for short). These are the people making the offending textbooks (Published by Fusosha) that have caused thousands in China to protest and some people in Korea to cut their fingers off. Their tenets:

1. Assert — renew Japan’s history textbook to give an appreciation for Japan’s traditions and history to the children.

2. Fight “masochism” — Don’t let outside countries influence our textbook inspection system (citing the first instance of such, in 1986 as being the result of “misreporting”), get rid of “foreign pressure” and make textbooks for JAPAN, not other countries.

3. Action — call for public support to “fix” an unjust history such as the uncritical acceptance of the idea that the comfort women were forced into service. On a side note, much of action they take to gain support is actually pressure on those who disagree with them. The recent lawsuit against a Chiba library that refused to accept the textbooks brought by the Tsukurukai is just one example of this. Another is the pulling of a manga depicting the Nanjing Massacre.

4. Passing inspection — Making the necessary changes to get the textbooks approved for use in classrooms. The site, from 2001, says that it will make the necessary changes to help “achieve a balance in the quality of Japan’s self-image”. Again, the Tsukurukai places a huge amount of pressure on the inspectors, which I cannot document presently but would like to.

5. Implementation — Get the textbooks used. It’s been noted that they haven’t been too successful in this regard, but as other have commented it has had an effect as well.

６．Agreement — This is, I believe, the main goal of this Association. That is, make enough noise to create a “fair and balanced” textbook industry. No textbooks refer to a Nanjing “Massacre” but instead a Nanjing “Incident”, which is a pretty clear-cut win for Tsukurukai.

A lot of people (especially the protesters in China and Korea) are saying: why the hell doesn’t Japan change its textbooks? Japan’s government does guarantee free speech, so it is somewhat defensible for them to avoid stepping in themselves. However, there is a recent precedent for holding people accountable for causing “meiwaku” (a nuisance) to the Japanese government because of stupid things they were doing — the Iraqi hostages. There was even talk by one government official (Koizumi, I think) of making them pay for their own ride home, a sentiment shared by probably a majority of people.

But where is the popular movement condemning the bothersome actions of Tsukurukai? Aside from the obvious bullying and pressure that would come from reproaching the rightists, one of the reasons I don’t expect to see many cries of ‘meiwaku’ is the way the issue is being formed as a ‘domestic’ issue that Japan should be defensive about. Japan is asking CHINA to apologize (although Koizumi said he’d stop that at the summit next week) not the publishers.

I hate to say it, but the fact that the govt and media are giving the rightists a free pass on this one might have something to do with the fact that their ideas resonate with a large part of the government and the people themselves. Criticism by the Chinese only seems to back up
the validity of the textbooks’ claims. And as much sense as it makes to compare this to the Iraq hostage situation, sentiments like that are strictly a one way street — when some leftist wackos embarrass the govt (Iraq) they are stupid, when some rightist wackos stand up for Japan, they’re all but heroes.

Anti-Japan Protests Spread to Vietnam

From Reuters Japan:

Anti-Japanese Protests Held at Japanese Embassy in Vietnam
Apr. 17, 2005 7:03pm JST

HANOI (4/17, Reuters) Anti-Japanese protests were held in front of the Japanese embassy in Vietnam’s capital city Hanoi.

Wearing headbands, the participants shouted anti-Japanese slogans into bullhorns and waved banners written in English and Chinese characters. One of the banners read “Japan get out!”

The demonstrators are said to be expatriate Chinese living in Vietnam.

日本語の原稿を読むにはREAD　THE　REST　をクリックしてください。
Continue reading Anti-Japan Protests Spread to Vietnam

攻撃を受けた日本総領事館、中国国旗に換えられる More lame protests in China UPDATED

UPDATE 2: JANJAN has good coverage with lots of links to video (Japanese).

攻撃を受けた日本総領事館、中国国旗に換えられる
映像
UPDATE: Chinese protestors attack Shanghai Japanese Consulate, put up a Chinese flag:

Detailed video of Shanghai demonstrations (Japanese)

More pictures of the demonstration (With a nice Engrish wording of the Japanese reaction: “Holding the Beijing Olympics is impossible.”)

Saru, all bets are off: the protests went ahead on Saturday despite claims by the CCP that they would keep them in check. From Japan Today:

Thousands protest in China; Japan’s consulate, restaurants in Shanghai attacked

Thousands of Chinese marched on the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai on Saturday, hurling bottles and other objects as they accused Japan of distorting its aggression against China before and during World War II, and calling for a boycott of Japanese goods. Protesters vandalized three Japanese-themed restaurants before breaking at least nine windows at the consulate. They also broke the cash register at a “shabu-shabu” restaurant in Shanghai’s prime shopping district.

Unless they get out of hand, the protests don’t seem to mean much by themselves. I am interested to see what Japan’s reaction to all this will be.

日本とドイツが第二次世界大戦のことを共同謝罪すれば？と匿名希望の外交官たちが指摘する　Japan’s key to the UNSC: Japan and Germany apologize for WW2 together?

日本の安保理常任入りの鍵となるかも

米日刊新聞「ワシントンタイムス」の14日付の記事の中にこう書かれている：

日本が付けた傷を鎮め、将来に向かって取り組むのに、ドイツがどうやって過去の問題を処理したのかが大きな影響を与えるだろうと指摘する外交官が多かった。

匿名希望のヨーロッパ外交官がこう話している、「ドイツは快刀乱麻｛かいとうらんま｝を断つ刀を持っている。ドイツは日本が軍事、産業、機関作りを始めた時代から大きな影響力を持ってきた。ドイツが教える最後の指南は謝罪のしかただ。アジア人と欧米人は時間の計り方が違う。我々は5･10周年単位で記念日を祝うが、中国が60年の暦（還暦）をアジアに与えたのだから太平洋戦争からちょうど60年が経った。こんなシーンを想像してみよう－ドイツと日本はドイツの降伏記念日に当たる5月と、日本の降伏に当たる8月に一緒に深い反省を表現し、謝罪すればどうだ。」

Japan’s homework assignment for this month: Call German diplomats! An interesting article in the (Rev. Moon-owned) Washington times from UPI had an interesting suggestion for Japan:

Several respondents mentioned Germany’s role in dealing with its past as an opportunity for Japan to heal wounds and deal with the future.

The best answer came from a European envoy who told UPI, “Germany holds a knife that can cut the Gordian Knot.”

“The Germans have had big influence on Japan’s development going back to the early days of the country’s military, industrial, and institution building along Western patterns,” the envoy said.

“The last lesson Germany can show Japan is how to apologize,” the diplomat added.

The foreign representative noted: “Don’t forget Asians and Westerners measure time in different ways; we look at anniversaries in terms of five and ten years’ time passing- China gave neighboring countries a 60-year calendar which runs full circle this year.”

“Picture this scenario,” the diplomat said. “Germany and Japan together express remorse and apologize for the wrongs they did first in May (when Nazi Germany capitulated) then August (when Imperial Japan surrendered).”

The diplomat believes “joint apologies in Europe and Asia allow the Japanese an initial face saving measure and formula that could enable Japan to apologize on its own in the future.”

Perhaps. UPI notes that Sino-Japanese relations are at a critical impasse, with both sides entrenched and unable to break a destructive cycle of mutual bitter feelings that could destabilize the region unless something is done immediately.

Seems like a great idea, for Japan at least. Germany doesn’t have nearly as much to do to convince the world that it’s really sorry about World War II. Germany doesn’t have much to gain from associating itself with Japan’s method of apology. Looking at it from a cynical political perspective, Japan has to make it worth Germany’s while. That way Japan’s image will improve and maybe China would even support its entry to the UNSC. But I think Japan also has an obligation to express its regret and apology on the 60th anniversary of its surrender.

Photographic proof of Japanese used panty vending machines? Plus a rant at no extra charge

Another gem thrown in my lap by Google Alerts:

This lame article from South Africa — really no more than a list of links — points to all the quirkiness of Japanese vending machines for no discernible reason. I don’t even think he’s in Japan.

I, however, am above such crass sensationalism and would never point out “strange” things about Japan just to get hits.

That’s why I was fascinated when I came across a certain something in his article. We’ve all heard the rumors. Some of us may have even seen something similar in Japan. In Kyoto I did see a vending machine that sold “panties”, but upon close inspection they did not claim to be used and actually appeared to have circular openings in the front (no comment). But very few people I’ve talked to have ever actually seen one. The picture below was reportedly taken in 2001 and is a “converted cigarette machine”:


It closely resembles machines I have seen in Japan before. Something about them makes me doubt they are the actual “used panty” vending machines for a couple reasons: 1) no mention of them being used; and 2) the public outcry that such activities have generated in the past. But I could very well be wrong.
Continue reading Photographic proof of Japanese used panty vending machines? Plus a rant at no extra charge

Japanese Chinese food chains to open stores in China


Gyoza No Ohsho　(餃子の王将 — Their gyoza are “Oh-sho” delicious!） was one of my favorite Chinese food places when I was living in Kyoto. Cheap sets, good food, and plentiful locations! My favorite was the ramen set: it included ramen, karaage, gyoza (of course), AND fried rice. Man was I full.

The branch right outside the Ritsumeikan campus was owned by a die-hard Beatles fan — he decked out his store with volumes upon volumes of manga (lots of ashita no joe, hajime no ippo, and captain tsubasa), rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, and Beatles music (more often Beatles covers, actually) on the old-school stereo system he had set up. I was saddened to see one day that the whole place had been swept clean of any differentiating marks, and when I returned to Kyoto earlier this year it was “closed for repairs”.

BTW, Ohsho is some kind of mahjonng term, so the fact that they named a Chinese food chain after a mahjonng reference says something about what Japanese people think of when they think of China… what I’m not sure, but it definitely says something.

So on a completely unrelated note, recently I was Google-alerted to the fact that Ohsho is planning to open its first stores overseas in — no joke — China. And their timing couldn’t be better! Nikkei has the story:

Kansai’s Chinese food chains trying their craft on home turf
“Made in Japan” Image to appeal to middle and high-class customers (March 12, 2005)

Kansai’s restaurant industry, which has been making chain stores out of ramen stands and Chinese restaurants, continue to extend their businesses into China. At 10-30 yuan per customer (13 JPY), they plan to charge twice the amount of local restaurants. Reversing their low-price strategy for the Japanese market, the chains intend to exploit their Japanese image to target middle and upper class consumers. Escaping from the shrinking restaurant market in Japan, they are attempting to succeed in the home of Chinese cuisine.

In addition to Osaka Ohsho (opening in Shanghai, offering izakaya food as well, plans to franchise up to 25 stores) and “Bikkuri Ramen” (opening in Tsingtao, offering curry and donburi) which is famous for the 180 yen ramen bowl, Gyoza Ohsho is also opening a store in Dalian. They plan to offer grilled gyoza (generally not available in most of China), ramen, fried rice, and other items directly from the Japanese menu. They will consider expanding the chain after viewing results from the first store.

Forget history: Overview of Japan’s new textbooks

OK, so everyone’s mad about the stupid history books that no one uses? That’s fine, but let’s not forget the real story. In no more than a few short years after just beginning to institute educational reforms known as “Yutori Kyoiku” (Education with room to breathe), Japan’s OECD math test scores plummeted down to number two. Making matters worse, they lost out to KOREA of all countries. These developments, along with fears of rising crime by Japan’s youth, have begun a nationwide debate about the benefits of Yutori Kyoiku versus the traditional system we’re all familiar with.

Responding to the new trends in education, textbook makers have been struggling to stay relevant to youth while fulfilling the central government’s policy requirements (ie: passing the inspection). In with the crop of textbooks that were recently approved were a few strange ones. ZAKZAK has more:

A fly in the ointment? “Masturbation” passes textbook examination

“Doraemon” and “Masturbation” are OK, but you can’t use “Tama-chan”?! The content of approved textbooks to be used this spring in middle schools was released April 5. Among the textbooks is a health text that tells of “masturbation” as “the self-pleasuring of a woman”. However, mentions of the character “Tama-chan” from the popular manga/anime Sazae-san were not approved for use in classrooms.

Here are some more odd entries helpfully pointed out by Yomiuri Online:

Chat Smileys, Today’s Japanese: you can read all about them in the new approved textbooks for junior high students

“Ions”, “Heredity”, “Inequality” — “Progressive” curricula that did not exist 4 years ago have returned to the Education Ministry inspections

Here are the new junior high textbooks released to the public April 5th. With contents that surpass upper-level students and exceed the Education Ministry guidelines, there are also many pages devoted to review of elementary school material. As the aptitude of students becomes increasingly polarized, voices of confusion as to what to do with shrinking classroom time mixed with the welcoming of these new texts.

　◆Smileys

Multiple publishing companies have published tables showing the differences between Japanese and English-language “smileys” such as “laughing face”, “crying face”, and “winky face”, considered useful for Japanese students communicating with foreign friends in English. Japanese smileys use round parentheses to simulate the outline of a face from the front, but in English-language smileys symbols such as “:” and “;” are used as eyes and the face is displayed sideways.

　◆Equal representation of gender

An English textbook for second-year students introducing various occupations drew concern from inspectors that “it was lacking necessary consideration for a society of equal participation of the sexes” — of 30 occupations displayed only 6 of the illustrations were of women. Because of this, the textbook company changed 9 of the illustrations, including a police officer and a lawyer, from men to women, and the result was 14 men, 15 women — almost equal except for the astronaut whose sex is unclear.

　◆The ever-changing Japanese language

For Japanese instruction, one company released 3 books that touch on the corruption of Japanese in sections such as “today’s manner of speech”. In one part, written by popular TV host Kajiwara Shigeru, questions modern usage by comparing phrases such as 「こちら味噌（みそ）ラーメンになります」 (“Here’s your miso ramen.”) and 「こちら味噌ラーメンでございます」 (“This is miso ramen.” [tr: ROUGH translation, no questions please]), asking readers, “Which store would you rather eat at?”

　◆Frogs

One textbook brings back “frog dissection” to science classrooms. This first appeared in Ministry of Education guidelines in 1958. Since then it was widely used, but criticisms that it “goes against the principle of respect for living things” caused it to show up less and less, and it has been absent from modern textbooks. The editor explains, “We included it in the interest of putting in as much material as possible, but we put it at the end since there was some resistance to including it in the main text.

　◆Separate last names for married couples

There was a textbook in use that portrays separate last names as one possible choice for when people get married, but the Education Ministry changed its inspection policy to “the legalization movement for separate last names has stalled because there are arguments for and against it“, and has issued opinions stating that text previously approved “may give the mistaken impression that separate last names for married couples has been achieved”. The textbook company involved removed it from the list of options.