When Americans were asked whether “the following countries or regions share generally common values with the U.S.” the responses went like this:
General Opinion Country public leaders Japan 78% 96% Taiwan 57% 83% China 48% 55% North Korea 20% 14%
How in God’s name did North Korea get 20%?! Where was this poll taken, at a Workers World conference?
I came back last night from a weekend office trip to Shanghai, my first visit to China. Curzon, who has far more China experience than I do, gave me some words of warning before I left for Narita Airport: “Just remember, you’re visiting the nicest part of China, and it’s still the world’s biggest shithole.”
Shithole? Yes. Nice? Certainly. It’s a huge cow pie with flowers growing out of it. I always figured that China and Japan would have a lot in common, but it’s almost impossible to see: I returned from Shanghai with the impression that I had just been to Mirror Universe Japan, where the only commonalities are superficial, and deep down everything is exactly the opposite.
Come to mention it, they don’t even look that much alike.
A representative image: smog and gazillions of tall buildings.
So tonight I was at a huge party at the Imperial Hotel welcoming one of the international bigwigs of PricewaterhouseCoopers to town. It was a major affair. They booked an enormous banquet room, and provided foreign guests with earphones so they could listen to simultaneous translations of Japanese speeches from the major partners in the tax and advisory wings of PwC. Then the bigwig came up to speak, and he had a Japanese interpreter copying each sentence of his English speech. A slightly more stilted performance.
Finally came the guest of honor: the Foreign Minister himself. He wandered out onto the podium, looking slightly drunk, and proceeded with his speech… in English. Now, Aso doesn’t exactly speak perfect English to begin with, and being red-faced didn’t help too much either. He stumbled around a talk about international business for a couple of minutes, then turned to the interpreter (who was still hanging around from the last speech) and shouted “All right, now translate it!”
One of my companions looked down at his simultrans earpiece and said “I wonder if he’ll get the message if I put this on?”
A 30-year-old man appealing a ruling of death for killing and robbing four people in separate cases in Nagano and Aichi prefectures in 2004 said Wednesday he had killed another woman in Fukushima in 2003.
In a hearing at the Tokyo High Court, Shojiro Nishimoto said, “I killed a woman probably in the city of Fukushima in around April or May of 2003,” adding that he abandoned her body “in the mountains.”
“I hit her while inattentively driving a car…(and)…strangled her with a rope as she made a struggle,” he said.
Totally defensible!
One of our most commented-upon posts deals with the story of Steve McGowan, a black man living in Japan who lost a lawsuit against a racist optician who told him to “get out!” of the store.
Fortunately, he eventually found some semblance of justice. The Kyoto District Court’s verdict was overturned by the Osaka High Court this week, and MacGowan received ¥350,000 in emotional damages for what the court described as “an outrageous act beyond common sense.”
However, the court refused to consider the comment as discrimination per se. Exactly why is unclear, but the resulting damages award, based solely on being told in a harsh voice to leave the store (race notwithstanding), is not even enough to cover McGowan’s legal expenses (according to Debito‘s account of the situation).
So… a victory, kind of, sort of, maybe. But at least the courts aren’t total assholes.
(Spotted on Google News)
According to this report by Debito, new Education Minister Bunmei Ibuki is opposed to English in the elementary school curriculum.
The reasoning is that Ibuki (as do many conservatives) believe that students’ Japanese language abilities are going down. They should work on their native language, hone that to a good level, then work on English. Studying a foreign language at such an early age a) apparently confuses the kids, and b) takes class time away from good, honest study of our language.
Now, check out this translated quote from the Japan Times:
“I wonder if (schools) teach children (the) social rules they should know as Japanese,” Ibuki said. “Students’ academic abilities have been declining, and there are (many) children who do not write and speak decent Japanese. (Schools) should not teach a foreign language.”
No wonder he hates English–he wants kids to speak nice hazy traditional Japanese, where sentences have no subjects. It’s very handy for imperial mind control when you never have to say who’s doing something!
Anyway, everyone should have to study a foreign language, even if they never plan to actually use it. Learning another language changes the way you view your own language. Every time you have to translate a sentence, you gain a deeper understanding of the grammar and vocabulary of your own language. Of course, it might also dilute your language with random foreign jargon, but what’s the real harm in that?
(Fun fact: The name “Bunmei” means “civilization.” You know this guy must have had some weird parents.)
Letter to the Mainichi Shimbun:
The “three principles of love” proposed by an organization called the “National Husbands’ Advisory Association”—if you don’t want your marriage to end in divorce, you should say “I’m sorry,” “Thank you” and “I love you” without fear, hesitation or embarrassment.
If North Korea doesn’t want to be estranged from the international community, it should at least try following principle number one.
Hey, if apologies let you get around immigration law, maybe they’ll let you get around international law, too!
This has always been a fascinating list: Corporations vs. states, ranked by GDP/gross revenues. It’s nice to know that IBM is a slightly larger economic entity than the entire country of Singapore. (activate geezer mode) I remember when Mitsubishi was bigger than Indonesia!
