Current Events – Page 81 – Mutantfrog Travelogue

Japanese vs US Blogs

High praise from Curzon at Coming Anarchy:

Educational and entertaining in one healthy dose, [Mutant Frog Travelogue is] probably the best East Asian blog around.

Thanks, I think we’re pretty great too! But that made me wonder — what do other East Asian blogs look like? What about, just for example, the highest ranked Japanese blogs on Technorati?

(Note about Technorati from their About section: “Technorati displays what’s important in the blogosphere — which bloggers are commanding attention, what ideas are rising in prominence, and the speed at which these conversations are taking place.” Hence, these rankings are a measure of what people with blogs are linking to, not the number of page views, influence, revenue, or any other factor (as far as I can tell))

For starters, let’s see what’s out there. Here’s a quick rundown of the top ten blogs in Japan and the US/English-speaking world (for comparison):

Japanese blogs:

1. がんばれ、生協の白石さん！ “Fight on, Shiraishi of the Co-op!”

This is the blog of a Mr. Shiraishi, “very very average” employee of the Co-op (student cooperative/school store) at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. Shiraishi gained fame for being the writer of responses to comment cards that students would write to him. The comment cards are a well-known phenomenon at Japanese universities as the answer are often posted outside the Co-ops on a bulletin board. He differs from other such Co-op employees in that he actually answers the stupid joke comments that he gets rather than giving them a quiet death in the round file. For some reason this has become majorly popular in Japan, probably because college students throughout the country have wondered just what kind of weirdos answer their comments.

Finally, a post about Livedoor

David Ibison of the Financial Times recently authored this excellent piece reminding us that there is more to the Livedoor debacle than the superficial observation that “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”

Writes Ibison:

Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, dropped a pledge to quadruple foreign direct investment into Japan by 2011 from his annual policy speech last month…His speech was originally written to say that his government would aim to increase FDI to Y26,400bn ($225bn) by promoting the acquisition of Japanese businesses.

The key phrase here is acquisitions.

Why? Consider the title of a report issued last July by the U.S.-Japan Business Council: “Expanding FDI in Japan: M&A is the Key.”

Ibison again:

[The report] said Japan still needed to introduce bold reforms, especially by promoting cross-border M&A, and was concerned that some politicians and the media regarded takeover attempts by foreign companies in Japan as hostile.

If the association between takeover attempts and “hostile” hadn’t already been made for said politicians and the media, Livedoor’s behavior during the past year – and the past few weeks in particular – should have made things crystal clear in their minds.

The association between takeover attempts by foreigners and “hostile” hardly needed further (or any) evidence to these people.

And now, with Koizumi’s speech, the pressure appears to have reached the highest levels of government. As Adamu said to me in an earlier conversation this afternoon, “Horie seems to have single-handedly (and perhaps literally) set back the cause of FDI in Japan 5 years.”

The sad part about this whole affair is the mistaken, but deliberate conflation of Livedoor-style M&As, which seem to have had very little to do with improving efficiency or productivity, and M&As in general, which can have substantial benefits not only for the companies involved, but for national economies as a whole.

For many, Livedoor will become the “wanted poster child” for M&As in Japan. And in the long-run, that’s only going to hurt Japan.

Jenkins Update

I still need to read his Confessions memoir, but I suspect it’s pretty juicy. Here’s a quick update on what he’s been up to:

Jenkins: DPRK targeted Soga

Shigefumi Takasuka Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

Charles Jenkins, a U.S. Army deserter to North Korea and husband of Hitomi Soga, a repatriated Japanese abductee, said Thursday that North Korean agents targeted Soga and waited a month to get a chance to kidnap her.

…

He said he was planning to apply for Japanese citizenship in July.

“I am planning [to become a Japanese],” he said. “What happened is I must wait for one year since the day I got my Japanese identification card. That’ll be July, I think.”

He also said he had been asked by a local tourist association in Sado to work as a tour guide during the summer.

“I think I’ll do that,” Jenkins said.

Asked if his book “Kokuhaku” (To Tell the Truth) would be published in countries other than Japan, Jenkins said he hoped so. “Maybe in the Korean language,” he said. “But it’s not definite yet. I’ll wait and see.”
(Feb. 3, 2006)

Come on, print an English edition! We all know it was originally written in English anyway. Are you afraid of unkind reviews in the New York Times, Jenkins? You can’t spend your whole life running away, you know.

An SAT question

Q: West Palm Beach, Florida is to New York as what place is to Japan?

A: Taiwan.

If that makes no sense to you, then you probably haven’t read this article in Japan’s Asahi Daily.

Taiwan authorities ready longterm visitor visa aimed at Japan’s “baby boomers”

Starting on February 1st, Taiwanese authorities began issuing multi-visas targeted at retired Japanese pensioners. With an eye on the rush of retiring “boomers,” they are aiming to attract long term Japanese visitors thinking that “after retirement, I think I’ll live in Taiwan, where things are cheaper.”

With pensioner Japanese citizens as the target, they will have to produce documents such as proof of pension recieval and proof of a clean criminal record issued by the police department when applying for a visa. With this visa, the greatest period that can be spend in Taiwan at one time is 180 days. Within this period, the visa holder can leave and reenter the country as many times as the like. Their spouse will also be issued a multivisa.

Taiwanese authorities, which are trying to promote an increase in visiting tourists, have noticed an increasing movement of Japanese seniors spending long periods in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia. Plans are moving forward to construct special “long term visitor condos” in places such as Nanto county, where the climate is warmer.

Sounds like a good deal all around. Japanese retirees will get to live in a nicer climate where prices are lower, and yet the standard of living is not dramatically lower, and the Japanese government has to spend less money on its own expensive domestic healthcare. On the other side, Taiwan’s coffers gets to make up some of the tax shortfall caused by their own aging population, and local service industries get a significant cash infusion.

I should not that a standard Taiwanese visitor visa has an absolute limit of six months, but must be renewed in person every two months at the local police station’s foreigner services office, which I imagine they are rightfully considering would probably be too much of a hassel for elderly people. Of course, a large part of the reason that Taiwan has such strict visa rules is to keep out illegal foreign labor, which from what I’ve seen includes a truly astonishing number of illegal language teachers, in addition to the expected factory and construction workers. Of course, elderly retirees are unlikely to take away jobs from local people, and instead of burdening the local government to pay for more services, they only import wealth.

One key thing remains unclear to me though. With a six month visa, would these residents be elegible to apply for an Alien Residence Certificate (ARC)? If so, that would let them register with Taiwan’s generous national health program, which would be rather counterproductive to the whole scheme.

My name is cursed with violence!

Three killers sentenced to life in prison

THREE vengeful thugs responsible for the “senseless and savage” killing of an innocent party-goer in a South Yorkshire street have been jailed for life.

Richard Wray, aged 38, and Adam Richards, 24, were yesterday handed life sentences after being found guilty of murdering Shaun McDermott following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court last year.

Wray’s son Lewis, aged 17, also convicted of murder, was remanded into Her Majesty’s pleasure – which the judge said was the youth equivalent of a life term. They were among an “armed to the teeth” gang who leapt out of a van and attacked the Bentley joiner in Welfare Road, Woodlands, on June 25, last year – after they mistook him for somebody else.
Mr McDermott was knocked out and beaten as he lay on the ground.

He was then stabbed in the heart and died later that night in Doncaster Royal Infirmary. The defendants were sentenced to a total of at least 37 years behind bars.

Richard Wray, of The Crescent, Woodlands – said to have wielded the knife – was jailed for a minimum of 15 years.

Adam Richards, of Tudor Road, Woodlands, who prosecutors said knocked Mr McDermott out at the beginning of the attack, was ordered to serve at least 13 years.

Lewis Wray, of South Street, Highfields, who had no previous convictions, was handed a minimum sentence of nine years in custody.

01 February 2006

Japan’s hidden arms trade

With all the debate over a possible constitutional revision in Japan aiming towards formal remilitarization (of course their informal military is already among the world’s best equipped), there have been quite a few mentions of how Japan’s current constitution is so limiting that it actually blocks Japan from collaborating with the US in constructing a missile defense shield in Japan. This is supposedly due to Japan’s ban on the export of arms, so you might be forgiven for actually believing that Japan doesn’t sell weapons to other countries. This article at Asia Times (originally from Japan Focus) explains the technicalities and blurry definitions that the Japanese government exploits to enable a continuation of their claim that they do not trade in weapons, while still being able to profit by selling small arms all around the world.

Japan actually conducts a thriving small arms export trade. The international annual publication, the Small Arms Survey, for example, reported that in 2002 Japan exported $65 million worth of small arms which, in monetary terms, ranks Japan among the top eight exporters of small arms worldwide for that year. [8]

The Japanese government evades this issue by contending that “hunting guns and sport guns are not regarded as ‘arms’,” [9] and therefore the self-imposed ban on arms exports only applies to guns of a military specification. This raises the question of what differentiates a military specification gun from a sporting or hunting weapon. However, the Japanese Ministry for Export, Trade and Industry (METI) provides no comprehensive definition. Instead it decides on a case-by-case basis whether a weapon should be defined as being of military specification.

This is another example of saying one thing and doing another, much in the same vein as the policy of promoting commercial whaling in the guise of “science” while still being party to a treaty outlawing commercial whaling, as I discussed a few days ago. Unlike the whaling hypocrisy, the open secret of Japan’s international weapons trade seems to have remained completely beneath the radar. While I have in the past been slightly confused by references I’ve seen to Japan-manufactured guns, until I saw this article I just shook off the momentary bafflement without realizing the actual situation. A highly recommended read.

Takebe’s Grandchildren Think Horie is His Brother… OOPS!

At a speech in Saitama City, the embattled LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe, who is being blamed for his outpouring of support for ex-Livedoor president Takafumi Horie during the September 2005 Lower House election, let people know that he had to tell his grandchildren that he is in fact NOT Horie’s brother, despite saying so at a speech at the time.

Aso Backs off of Tactless Emperor-Visit-Yasukuni Speech PLUS

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Aso Qualifies Remark Calling For Emperor To Visit Yasukuni

TOKYO (Kyodo)–Foreign Minister Taro Aso clarified Tuesday that his call over the weekend for the emperor to visit the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo was not meant for the emperor to go there ”in the current situation.”

”I made the remark from the standpoint of the spirits of the war dead enshrined (at Yasukuni) because they died for the emperor. I never said that (I wanted) the emperor to make the shrine visit in the current situation,” Aso told a news conference.

Aso said Saturday in a speech in Nagoya that ”From the viewpoint of the spirits of the war dead, they hailed ‘Banzai’ for the emperor — none of them said long live the prime minister. A visit by the emperor would be the best.”

Nothing witty to say about this guy, but I have discovered a wonderful site dedicated to the man. This site is as fascinating as it is jam-packed with information. Some quick highlights:

– He reads 30 comic books per week. 30! (Was once caught reading Rosen Maiden in the VIP room at Haneda Airport, and had comics shipped to him when he was in America)

– In addition to comics, he reads a ton of normal books and is an intelligent man with lots of stories to tell (Yet another counterexample to the facile notion that problematic politicians are simply fools)

– Visits Yasukuni Shrine every year despite being a Christian (Christians are, of course, forbidden to worship other gods as one of their most basic tenets)

– Is apparently aware of the existence of 2-channel as a “problem forum site on the Internet”

– Was voted best dresser in the political world in 1977

– Speaks English, having studied at Stanford and London University after graduating from Gakushuin, which before the abolition of the peerage in 1947 was an exclusive finishing school for the Japanese nobility

– Lived in Sierra Leone for 2 years developing diamond mines but left after a civil war erupted

– Once said, “I think the best country is one in which rich Jews feel like living.”

Continue reading Aso Backs off of Tactless Emperor-Visit-Yasukuni Speech PLUS

Kujira versus Echizen

No, it’s not the title of the newest Godzilla spinoff, but the stars of the two recent seafood related news stories that have been making waves in Japan.

I’ll start with kujira, which is the Japanese word for whale. Japan has not just continued it’s program of so-called “scientific whaling,” in which they violate the international treaty prohibiting commercial whaling while pretending they haven’t, but is actually increased their catch. This is despite the fact that almost nobody actually likes whale meat.

According to the report, the inventory was about 1,000 to 2,500 tons around 1995. It hit a low point of 673 tons in March 1998 but began to increase to reach 4,800 tons last August.
[…]
The Fisheries Agency admits the whale meat inventory is rising and has begun studying ways to expand sales in Japan.

“It is true that such a trend exists. We will study ways to expand sales channels as well as to reform sales methods,” an agency official said.

Such moves by the government to stimulate the whale meat market will probably draw more criticism from antiwhaling groups that fear more consumption in Japan.

Since 2000, the research whaling has been expanding in terms of volume and number of species. On the other hand, consumption has not increased as areas of high demand for whale meat are limited in Japan.

“Unless the consumption of whale meat increases dramatically, the stockpile of whale meat will surge,” Sakuma said.

I’m not interested in getting into the debate over whether or not commercial whaling should be allowed, but irrelevant to that argument I can say that this current policy is just absurd. While Japan has been making some progress in their battle to change the treaty banning commercial whaling, they have, in fact, signed a treaty banning commercial whaling. They are, in fact, violating that treaty while pretending not to. The fact that Japan is carrying out their whaling operations illegally only makes it easier for opponents of whaling to continue to attack them by adding the illegality of it to the moral/environmental argument, in contrast to Noraway, who carries out fully legal commercial whaling by virtue of having never signed the anti-whaling treaty.

Echizen (actually echizen kurage) are a species of massive (200kg) but benign (as in, they aren’t the stinging kind) jellyfish that have recently been multiplying like crazy in Chinese and Korean waters, and drifting towards Japan in plague-like proportions. There are so many of these gigantic blobs floating around the Sea of Japan that it has actually become impossible for fisherman to put out their nets without catching some, sometimes to the point where catching actual fish becomes almost impossible.

South Korean fishermen have been suffering similar woes, but China, where giant jellyfish are a delicacy often served dried and dressed with sesame oil, does not seem to have registered the outbreak as a major problem, Japanese officials said.

Seaside communities in Japan have tried to capitalize on the menace by developing novel jellyfish dishes from tofu to ice cream, but for some reason the recipes have failed to take off.

Participants at Thursday’s conference said they had experimented with feeding the jellyfish to farmed crabs and using them as fertilizer.

What we have here are, basically, are two different sources of sea-borne protein, and neither one is even remotely popular or has much of a market. One form of protein is for some reason being pursued with vigor despite the fact that doing so leads to both international controversy and such a massive excess of the stuff that it ends up just rotting (or at least staying frozen) in warehouses.

The second form of protein is also in no particular demand as a food source, but it is so abundant that it is literally washing up on the shores of Japan and clogging the nets of fishermen.

Japan’s commercial whaling is a diplomatic and economic failure, and all the resources being spent by the government in supporting it are a complete and utter waste, serving no purpose except to satisfy a nostalgic fantasy of older people who remember eating whale meat in the school lunches in the years after the Second World War when far more desirable meats like pork or beef were difficult to come by.

The sea is so thick with echizen jellyfish that catching some is unavoidable, and therefore figuring out how to exploit them as a resource is an economic necessity in areas where the fishing industry is disrupted. From a purely market based standpoint, an increase in the catch of unwanted whales is absurd, and the slow pace of developing echizen into a positive resource is wasteful in another way.

As stocks of wild fish are becoming depleted in some areas, the farming of fish is becoming steadily more popular. But to support fish grown in farms, they still have to send out trawlers to catch huge hauls of smaller fish species to use as feed, so even though they aren’t catching as many, let’s say salmon or tuna, they may still be depleting the species that those fish survive on in the wild. Perhaps the echizen, which naturally are more abundant than ever, could be become a primary source of protein for farmed seafood, and by extension, the humans who eat them.

Japan doesn’t like black people? No, all foreigners are screwed

And here’s the proof: Black man loses lawsuit against exclusionary store; not deemed a discriminatory statement. But take a look at why the claim was kicked out of court:

The man who brought the suit is 41-year-old Steve MacGowan. On September 4, 2004, MacGowan and another black friend were looking at eyeglasses in the window of an optician in Osaka. The store owner came to the front, said “Get out! We don’t like black people here!” and kept the two out of the store. The suit was filed in October of that year.

The decision, following MacGowan’s allegations of violations of constitutional equal protection provisions, focused upon the existence of a discriminatory statement. The judgment: “The plaintiff’s ability in Japanese creates a substantial problem. We cannot overlook the chance that the statement made on that day was almost completely miscomprehended.”

So the bottom line is, unless your Japanese is absolutely perfect, you’d better have some native witnesses around if you want to win in court. Or better yet, carry a tape recorder.

(Thanks to Debito for the tip.)