West Japan Daily Editorial: PM Should Think of National Interest when Deciding Yasukuni Visit

After seeing some takes on the Yasukuni issue over at Japan Media Review Weblog, I figured I’d let my own organization, Fukuoka-based West Japan Daily (a typically liberal regional newspaper), put in their two cents in English:

On the subject of the Yasukuni visit issue, Prime Minister Koizumi is repeating the same old line of “I will decide appropriately when I go there.”

And to his critics, Japan and Korea, expresses his strong distaste: “It is not for other countries to interfere with a shrine visit that is derived from my own beliefs.”

If Mr. Koizumi were a mere denizen of Japan, no one could disagree with him. However, the Prime Minister is a public figure, the highest leader representing Japan. This problem won’t be solved just by insisting that no one can quibble with personal belief.

Why is visiting Yasukuni Shrine sparking such resistance from China and Korea? The PM should think more seriously about this as the representative of this country.

We also do not think that the recent anti-Japan protests in China are justified. Particularly, not apologizing after we forgave the anti-Japanese demonstrators for attacking a Consul General and the sudden cancellation and return of Vice Premier Wu’s meeting with Koizumi were, diplomatically speaking, extremely rude.

However, the enshrinement of A-class war criminals who led the Pacific War along with the war dead is at the root of China’s criticism of Koizumi’s visits.

Even looking at the first official visit to Yasukuni, made in 1985 by then PM Yasuhiro Nakasone but not made again after the next year, the decision was made to cancel further visits because considering Chinese criticism and not going to Yasukuni was seen as stabilizing the Sino-Japanese relationship and working in the Japanese national interest.

That same Nakasone said of Koizumi’s visits, “It is commendable to stick to one’s beliefs, but it is also important to think of how this affects the whole country’s interests.”

This is what we would like Koizumi to consider. Sticking to one’s own beliefs without listening to China’s criticism has a direct effect on the Japanese people’s interests.

The fact that Lower House Chairman Youhei Kono, who conferred with five former PMs, said to Koizumi on May 7 that based on the conference, “You should take the utmost care when considering visiting Yasukuni,” was yet another expression of crisis consciousness that worsening Sino-Japanese relations any more than they are would be detrimental to our interests.

Komeito head Takenori Kanzaki has also demanded a stop to the visits, saying, “If the visits continue this will have a bad effect on the basis for our coalition.”

The Prime Minister should understand more than anyone how important stable relations with China are. Despite this, he maintains the attitude that, “It is one of the PM’s roles to pay memorial tribute to the war dead enshrined at Yasukuni.” We understand his beliefs and feelings. That attitude is one reason why the PM enjoys stable popular support.

However, current popular opinion polls show that a majority of people think that “The PM should cancel his plans to visit Yasukuni Shrine.”

Koizumi can believe what he wants, but a Prime Minister’s job is to put a priority on breaking the current deadlock between Japan and China. That would not be a capitulation to China’s criticism in the slightest. Most Japanese would agree, I’m sure.

Wacky applications of the law part 1: “Sex without love” illegal in Tokyo

Ishihara, king of conservatives
From the always entertaining ZAKZAK:

24-year-old company man caught with 14-year-old girl

Police arrested a company worker (24) on June 11 for having sexual contact with a girl he knew was under 18 in violation of the Tokyo Municipal Youth Health and Development Law. Up to now there was no law banning sex with minors, but a new clause banning the practice, amended to the existing law, was put in force June 1. Under the new law, even consensual sex is a no-no if there is no love involved. This was the first such ludicrous application of this law.

“It looks as though the perpetrator had no idea. Nevertheless, that is not our problem,” said a person involved in the investigation. The man in custody first met the girl, a 14-year-old junior high school student who had run away from home, on May 30 when he approached her at JR Kita-Senju station. He was arrested on June 2 for performing lewd acts after letting her stay at his home for 2 days.

Until now the law only applied when sex was peddled. Only Tokyo and Nagano prefectures lacked laws banning this type of case where the sex with a minor was consensual.

Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro (pictured) has declared his intention to work on youth problems, proclaiming, “I will do all that is politically possible to raise our youth in a healthy manner.” Last fall, he started the “Committee to Consider Youth Sexual Activity” (Waseda Univ. Professor Teizo Kato, Chairman), which discovered that people are engaging in sexual activity younger and younger and that prostitution among teens is rampant.

Seeing this, Japan’s capital added to its Youth Health and Development Law, “No one shall engage in improper sexual intercourse or sex-like activity with youths.” Violating the law can bring imprisonment of no more than two years and a fine of no more than 1 million yen.

About the official ban, Ishihara said, “This is a private problem, and we shouldn’t ban it by law. I know that we don’t want junior high school students having sex, but a law banning it?” referencing his classic novel, “Season in the Sun” the Governor opposed the law, but it was approved in the municipal assembly at the end of March.

Wakato Ono, Chief of the Capital Lifestyle and Culture Department, Youth Policy Center, said, “Adults who take advantage of children’s weaknesses must be held accountable. The law should help stop that,” expressing hope that the law would act as a deterrent to sexual assault.

In Tokyo, “no one” is allowed to have “sex without love” with a minor, but in anticipation of cases where couples are seriously in love, the law adds the stipulation “improper sexual intercourse.” A person involved in capital-area affairs, said, “Cases in which there is a serious relationship or engagement to be married will not be interpreted as ‘improper,'” and thus will not result in immediate arrest.

But the person admits, “The couple would have to show proof of their relationship,” a requirement that clearly makes it better for minors to give up on having sex.

Political Spectrum

I was a little shocked the other day to notice that Nora Sumi Park listed this blog as moderate conservative. I’d always considered myself considerably more to the left on the left/right axis and I’m wondering exactly what it was we’ve said here that gave a ‘moderate conservative’ vibe. Not that I’m angry about it-after all the qualifying ‘moderate’ says an awful lot, but still just to be sure I went and took the fairly detailed quiz over at PoliticalCompass.org to reassure myself that I had not been living a lie, only just now unmasked by Ms. Park’s insight.

My score: (values can range from -10 to +10 on either axis)
Economic Left/Right: -4.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.05

Adam’s score:
Economic Left/Right: -5.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.03

political compass

That puts me somewhat left on the economic axis and pretty far on the libertarian social axis-roughly in the same territory as Nelson Mandela and Ghandi, and almost exactly in the same spot as the Dalai Lama. So why the moderative conservative label? I think there’s actually a reasonable explanation. One, I almost never write about any US domestic issues, or even US related international issues such as the occupation of Iraq, war on terror, etc. Domestic issues, the sort of thing that’s actually decided by the politicians that I have the [theoretical] right to elect, are the places where I think political orientation is really most significant.

When I write about politics at all, it’s usually a foreign issue that has nothing to do with the US, such as the Yasukuni or textbook issues, and I also don’t make a big point of giving my own opinion. These are issues I find interesting, but have nothing to do with me personally or emotionally, so I try to just explain what’s going on in a neutral way, without. Perhaps because I’ve spent some time trying to explain the Japanese right in a fairly impartial way it seems like I don’t actually despise them? Just because I wrote an article trying to explain how Koizumi’s Yasukuni pilgrimage is really about placating people far more conservative than he is himself doesn’t mean that I don’t think it’s offensive and provocative-but I’m not the person that it’s offending and I’m not doing this because I think my own opinions are all that fascinating.

I’m curious what some of our regular readers and commenters score on this test, and if it varies at all from your usual political self identification. Care to leave your results

Ph. D.’s in Japan can’t find work: Little recognition for high expertise, says Mainichi Communications Survey


Mainichi:

“We want to hire more in science and engineering, but save the Ph. D’s, please.” — This is the response enterprises gave when asked their employment projections for next spring by employment magazine publisher Mainichi Communications (Based in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo). Most businesses listed “communications skills” as the most emphasized skill at the time of hiring, regardless of post-graduate status, and conspicuously gave little credit to the “expertise” of Ph. D’s.

401 companies responded to the survey, which was conducted in February and March of this year. This is the first survey investigating the hiring projections for undergrad, master’s, and doctoral graduates separately.

Of those businesses aiming to “increase” their hiring of science and engineering students next spring, 30.3% planned to hire graduates with a bachelor’s, 17.5% planned to hire master’s graduates, and only 7.1% planned to hire doctorates. On the contrary, 41.1% either had “no plans to hire” or “stopped hiring” Ph. D’s.

When asked what skills are considered most important when hiring (in a “choose all that apply” format), more than 70% of the companies cited “communication skills.” “A fighting spirit” and “the ability to get things done” were top in both bachelor’s and master’s graduates, but even among firms that planned to hire Ph.D’s only 32.8% cited “fundamental knowledge appropriate to education level” as an important skill.

Project Promotion Chief Takuya Kurita, who headed the survey, explained, “It seems as if the idea is still strong that Ph.D’s are too specialized and thus hard to utilize. Perhaps their attitudes would change if there were a chance for employers to come in contact with doctorates.”

The number of doctoral graduates has been growing year by year since the latter half of the 1990s as a result of a government policy of emphasizing post-graduate studies, reaching 15,000 people in 2004. Realizing that positions for full-time researchers at places like universities are limited, the Ministry of Education is treating the development of a diverse career path for Ph.D’s as an important policy measure. They recommend that companies “hire based on the practical ability to solve problems regardless of age.” (Taku Nishikawa)

Comment: The last sentence says it all. Firms in Japan simply do not want to hire older people. If you look at most “shushoku” (full time hiring) requirements, you will almost always see an age cutoff of about 25 or so. Firms want the chance to get them young to train them and make them into loyal company men. Call me cynical, but I don’t think companies will change their behavior simply because MEXT asks them to. Japan needs an age discrimination law (with teeth) and fast.

Shameful: Cosmetic maker scraps TV commercial mocking blacks


Japan Today had this the other day:

TOKYO — Cosmetic maker Mandom Corp has stopped airing a TV commercial containing an expression mocking black people, company officials said Tuesday.

In the commercial for face blotting paper for men, several black people wipe sweat off their faces with the paper, while a chimpanzee with a curly hair wig and a multicolor outfit imitates them and wipes its face besides them.

The commercial had been on air since March 28, but a human rights group criticized it for putting black people on the same level as apes.

After consulting with lawyers and advertising agency officials, the company stopped airing the commercial June 9 and has also stopped using a printed version of the ad in magazines, saying it “lacked an international sense of ethics.”

Motonobu Nishimura, a company executive, said, “We are very sorry. We apologize to viewers and other people who felt offended.” (Kyodo News)

Here’s a characteristically nonsensical reaction from 2-channel, Japan’s virtual men’s room stall:

  • You can’t blame them. If you ever see a black smiling in a high-class car you can’t help but think they’re a drug dealer. Who’d buy such a car?
  • But Japan’s population is smaller than the number of blacks in the world! (tr: ie: We’re the minority!)
  • It wasn’t right to treat blacks as badly as we treat the Koreans.
  • What would happen if a few white people wiped sweat from their faces and then some blond ancient Greek with dark skin started mimicking them?

    • It should go without saying that this is totally unacceptable so I won’t say anything more about it unless someone comments. And I mean the racism, not the fact that they are marketing makeup to men, though I’m not a big fan of that either.

    Here’s an excerpt from a protest letter, signed by Debito, who was involved in the movement against the commercial:

    I find this advertisement to be highly offensive, particularly the use of a chimpanzee mimicking the actions of the Black men portrayed in the commercial. Visually equating Black men as “apes” or “monkeys” is a particularly egregious racial slur due to the fact that for hundreds of years, Black men have been referred to as apes in an effort to dehumanize and degrade them. Much of the anti-Black racist literature has claimed that Blacks are more akin to apes than to human beings, and the image of the ﾒBlack bruteﾓ has been used to associate Black men as dangerous ape-like savages.

    Furthermore, dreadlocks in the colors of red, gold, and green are Rastafarian religious symbols. The dressing up of a chimpanzee in such garb would be akin to dressing it up as a Buddhist monk or a Shinto priest. It is highly offensive to members of a particular religious group, one that is particularly identified with Blacks of Caribbean origin, and should be avoided.

    The use of a chimpanzee mimicking the behaviors of Blacks, in addition to its use of religious symbols as a costume, is, at the least, an extremely insensitive and tasteless attempt at humor. At the worst, it can be construed as a blatantly racist and degrading portrayal of Blacks. We request that Mandom Corporation terminate the broadcasting of this commercial immediately. Furthermore, we request that Mandom Corporation show greater sensitivity when portraying Blacks in future advertisements.

    As someone living a sheltered life in the multicultural and liberal DC area, I’m curious to see examples of other countries (like China — scroll to the bottom to read about Condi’s treatment there) regarding black people with the same casual disdain that the above commercial revealingly portrays. Because outside of areas with large African populations, I suspect that it’s pervasive. At the Korean grocery in Virginia there’s an oreo ripoff cookie called “Black White” or something like that and on the cover are a cute cartoon white person and a grotesque, big-lipped black person cartoon. I was kind of shocked but then I thought Korea can’t be too different from Japan where comments like, “I wouldn’t want to eat food prepared by a black guy because it’s dirty,” are uttered as small talk, though perhaps not around the gaijin-san.

    UPDATE: Shimizu4310 has an interesting take on the issue:

    [Quoting from the apology letter] “Blacks are similar to apes,” that’s just too precious. Next we won’t be allowed to make jokes about afros! No more Danceman, Karaoke UGA (click the bottom link to see a HUGE afro), or Sergeant Afro? Human rights groups (Who are they and where did they come from anyway? They certainly aren’t the people from the commercial.), please tell me!

    [Re: the protest letter] Umm… just looking at the ad, let me say a few words. Why are they using black people in their ads? Because black people are cool! This is a country where gyaru exclaim, “I wanna be black!” lest we forget.

    If they intended to make fun of blacks OR apes, I seriously doubt they would make an ad like this. (I don’t know about the home country of Mr. “thoughtful denizen of Japan”, though! [tr: a dig at Debito I’m sure]).

    U.S. Receives Assurance From Japan on Beef Exports

    NYTimes reports:

    The United States Agriculture Department won assurance from the Japanese government on Tuesday that a second potential case of mad cow disease found on American soil would not affect negotiations to resume beef exports to Japan, the top American export market.

    But critics of the department’s mad cow testing program said the case underscored the need for more intensive testing to determine how prevalent the fatal, brain-wasting disease was in the American herd.

    The Agriculture Department said Friday that it had found bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in an animal that had tested negative last November. It would be the second case of the disease to be found in the United States, and the fifth in North America, since 2003.

    On Monday Taiwan, which had resumed imports of American beef two months ago, and South Korea, which had been negotiating to restart them, expressed concern about the new case. Taiwanese officials said that if a final round of testing confirmed the disease that it would cease importing American beef. The news helped sink cattle future prices to their lowest level in 13 months.

    But beef prices recovered slightly on Tuesday after Japanese officials said the latest discovery would not derail plans to restart exports to Japan, which imported $1.4 billion worth of American beef in 2003, or 36 percent of all American exports.

    Soon people throughout Japan will once again be able to enjoy a nice gyu-don at Yoshinoya, just like here in Taiwan or back home in NYC.

    Assorted news updates

    Jenkins’ hometown reacts with rage, indifference to visit

    “I would have liked to have seen him lined up and shot like a traitor. I don’t care how old he is. He still did it,” said Vera Outland, who had considered lining Main Street with protest signs for Jenkins’ return.

    In the end, she decided he wasn’t worth the trouble.

    “If you ask me, he was a coward,” said retired U.S. Army Col. Earl Daniels, who went to school with Jenkins and served a combat tour in Vietnam. “I hope I don’t meet him on the street, tell you the truth, because I don’t know how I would react.”

    Not exactly the reception that Jenkins has been getting in Japan.

    For Chinese, Peasant Revolt Is Rare Victory
    I had mentioned when it first happened, back during the anti-Japan protests, but the Washington Post has a very good, long article on it. Well worth reading.

    Khmer Rouge trial to get more funds

    PHNOM PENH (Kyodo) Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Japan is prepared to cover the $11 million shortfall in funds for a tribunal to bring former Khmer Rouge leaders to justice, Cambodian government sources said.

    In a meeting Friday with Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Machimura said Cambodia could use an already allocated Japanese grant to meet the shortfall, according to a senior official who attended the meeting.

    Rightists thwart Yasukuni rally by Taiwanese

    A group of indigenous Taiwanese gave up an attempt Tuesday to stage a rally at Yasukuni Shrine because they didn’t want to clash with rightists.

    They had hoped to protest Yasukuni’s enshrinement of their relatives who died fighting for Japan in the war.

    About 50 descendents or relatives led by indigenous legislator Kao Chin Su-mei arrived near the shrine in central Tokyo in the morning on two buses. They decided to scrub the protest after police told them the shrine was surrounded by 100 rightwingers, Kao Chin said.
    […]
    Up to 150 officers, including riot police, were mobilized to prevent a confrontation between the two sides.

    It’s pretty sad that the rightwingers managed to drive off the protesters after coming all the way from Taiwan. According to a Taipei Times report right-wingers had been threatening the aboriginal protesters before they even left Taiwan.

    May Chin said last week her office had received “countless phone calls” warning her group against making the trip.

    She said she had also been sent an anonymous postcard which threatened in Mandarin: “I will wait for you in Japan on June 13 so that you can come to Japan and return lifeless to Taiwan.”

    You might think that 150 police officers may sound like adequate protection, but I wouldn’t count on Japanese police to keep me safe from anything.

    The Robots of the Aichi World Expo I

    Over the weekend I was browsing at a bookstore in the world’s tallest building and picked up a fantastic Japanese magazine called Robocon, devoted entirely to fans of robots. Mixing news about cutting edge robotics research with coverage of amateur robotic fighting competition and actual technical articles for DIY robot builders this magazine is an absolute must-have for any Japanese reading robot fan (such as yours truly).

    The feature article in this issue is naturally a guide to the robots of the 2005 World Expo currently in progress in Aichi prefecture, Japan. The article consists of a map to all the robot attractions at the expo, as well as several great articles introducing the various robots being presented there. I’m going to try and translate some of the more interesting parts over the next few days, but in the meantime here’s a brief look at one of the cutting-edge anthropomorphic droids.

    android girl!

    National Geographic has this brief article.

    Repliee Q1 (at left in both pictures) appeared yesterday at the 2005 World Expo in Japan, where she gestured, blinked, spoke, and even appeared to breathe. Shown with co-creator Hiroshi Ishiguru of Osaka University, the android is partially covered in skinlike silicone. Q1 is powered by a nearby air compressor, and has 31 points of articulation in its upper body.

    Internal sensors allow the android to react “naturally.” It can block an attempted slap, for example. But it’s the little, “unconscious” movements that give the robot its eerie verisimilitude: the slight flutter of the eyelids, the subtle rising and falling of the chest, the constant, nearly imperceptible shifting so familiar to humans.

    Surrounded by machines that draw portraits, swat fast-moving balls, and snake through debris, Q1 is only one of the showstoppers at the expo’s Prototype Robot Exposition, which aims to showcase Japan’s growing role in the robotics industry.

    But given Q1’s reported glitch-related “spasms” at the expo, it may be a while before androids are escorting tour groups or looking after children—which may be just as well. “When a robot looks too much like the real thing, it’s creepy,” Hiroshi told the Associated Press.

    For more information, photos, and best of all video, see the official project website at Osaka University’s Intelligent Robotics Laboratory.

    The Japanese language website of NEDO (New Energy and industrial technology Development Organization) has some additional information worth mentioning.

    The name “Repliee” is supposed to suggest the French word replique (replica).

    The Repliee Q1’s skin is made of silicon and colored in imitation of human skin. The android uses air servo actuators to subtly inflate and deflate the chest in imitation of real human breathing. The Repliee has been designed to respond to its environment in the unconscious ways that a human does. For that purpose it has extremely sensitive touch sensors throughout its body, and different kinds of touched trigger different responses. It also has microphones to pick up and respond to human voice.

    Size: 680mm wide, 1,500mm tall, 1,100mm deep
    Weight: 40kg
    Power: air servos (external air compressor)
    Movement: Upper body moves via actuators with 42 degrees of freedom
    Operation: controlled via serial link to external computer
    Usage environment: indoors
    Controller size: 1000mm wide x 680mm tall x 850mm deep
    Compressor size: 900mm wide x 1360mm tall x 900mm deep

    Update- My friend Matt has posted a very, very recompressed version of a video of the robot responding to touch on his website. On an unrelated note, his newest comic/rant about booth babes at E3 is a good complement to my photo report from Computex. The big difference is that Computex booth babes were made to memorize scripts and give presentations about the products. At least that’s what I think they were doing, since it was all in Chinese.

    The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    I hadn’t mentioned this when it was first posted, but noticing that Plunge has just linked to one of my recent posts I remembered that I had meant to.

    Plunge over at Plunge Pontificates has written a very long article in five parts on the history and ramifications of the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan that bears reading. I do wish he had included footnotes on cited sources within each page, but he promises that a bibliography is forthcoming, so hopefully we’ll be able to see that soon.

    The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or Truman: A Modern Day Hero

    As the war was coming to an end, President Truman was faced with an incredibly difficult decision. The fighting in Europe was basically over and the focus turned towards Japan. The decision facing President Truman was how to force Japan to surrender. Not just surrender, but to surrender unconditionally. He could call for an invasion of Japan, an action that would likely result in millions of casualties, he could call for a blockade and continued bombing raids, a strategy that would take untold time, tie up massive resources and cause millions of civilian deaths, or he could try a new weapon, one of unknown but suspected massive power. As we all know, he chose the later.

    From that point on, his actions have undergone a scrutiny of unbelievable proportions. He has been savaged as a war criminal, compared to Hitler and condemned a mass murder by some. Others consider his actions heroic. I would like to explain why I feel he is one of the later, a hero.

    Xinjiang Put Out Big Old Fire from Qing Times

    Xinjiang Put Out Big Old Fire from Qing Times
    An old big fire rampaged since the Qing times (1644-1911) on Mt. Xiaohuang, a coal-field in Xinjiang, has been lately completely put out, and up to now all the five major fire areas in the place have been stamped out.

    Xinjiang is richly endowed with coal resources, but it has become in turn a place long plagued by most serious coal-field fires known to the world, with over 10m tons of coal being senselessly burnt away every year.

    Under the direction of late Premier Zhou Enlai, a special fire-fighting center was set up in 1958. By now, altogether 17 big fires have been entirely eliminated in the region.