Crying Hyogoite Politician

Rocket News 24 reports on a recent press conference of note:

"A Japanese politician who claimed over 3 million yen (around US$30,000) in travel expenses without providing any supporting evidence has defended his actions in a dramatic and emotional display. Speaking to reporters at the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly on Tuesday, Ryutaro Nonomura cried loudly as he insisted that he had genuinely made all the trips claimed for, and that the travel was for work purposes."

Read the whole story here.

It's usually nice to see my Japanese "hometown" in the news, but this guy isn't anything to be proud of. Corrupt and incompetent politicians spawn everywhere, like insects, but come on...at least have a little dignity when you're caught in a scandal. Either lie like a pro or resign, or both; don't cry about it. I guess he's hoping that if he is appears remorseful enough, the voters will forget about this and keep him around. And you know, he might be right.



What a shameful display.

Noise pollution in Japan

Japanese people in general tend to value peace and quiet. For this reason, it's not unusual for people to complain about noise caused by neighbors, which I guess is understandable. One thing I'll never get, though, is why despite this fact, there seem to be no laws against using extremely loud noise for public announcements.

Sometimes garbage collection trucks will drive by with a recording blaring from an attached loudspeaker, but that's not what I'm specifically referring to, because those announcements tend not to be too loud. What I'm mainly talking about here are political campaigning messages. I've never seen this kind of advertising in any other country, and it reminds me of the way propaganda vans drove around the Soviet Union.

Basically they just drive around yelling "Vote for so-and-so! Thank you very much!"

I can't be the only one who finds this kind of noise pollution extremely annoying.

The Bow

It seems that the last few days this picture has been plastered all over the internet. While I'm reluctant to delve into the murky political waters here at JADJ, I've been reading a lot of unfair comments from both sides of the "debate" and would just like to briefly weigh in.

AFP/ File

First off, as this Japan Times piece points out, this is not the first time that a US president has been blasted for a controversial greeting. G. W. Bush, Clinton, and Nixon all had their moments (as has Obama before this). I think there are people on both sides of the aisle who are ignoring that fact. When Bush held hands with Prince Abdullah, there was nothing wrong with it - it was just, you know, cultural sensitivity. Or conversely, when Clinton almost bowed to the emperor of Japan, it was a near calamity, but when Obama does a near-90°er, it's just deference and good manners - a new, humble, America. There's plenty of hypocrisy to go around.

I can understand both sides. On one hand, this isn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, even if it was a mistake. So Obama gets points for his "humility and deference" with some, and in a 3-7 years we'll have a different president who can adopt an entirely new style of dealing with foreign leaders if he likes. On the other hand, it's true that American principles have always spurned the idea of the superiority of nobility (except in the cases of celebrities and political dynasties, it seems). Obama's bow was rather low and clumsy, and appeared to be the bow of one to his superior. I mean, that's the Japanese way - you bow low to your betters. Obama could use some better protocol advisors, but if he stuck with the same winners after giving Gordon Brown some DVDs in return for a pen carved from the timbers of an old ship that used to fight slavers, then I doubt he's going to fire them after this faux paux.

So in my opinion, it was a sloppy move. But the bottom line is that everyone makes mistakes, and this is going to have very little impact on anything. Now that I've offended people on all sides, let's move on.

Japan's Population Problem

I may have mentioned in the past that Japan is facing a impending economic collapse in the next 50 years or so if it doesn't get its act together. This is due to its measly birth rate and aging population. In 50 years or so, there will be too few workers to support the amount of Japanese retirees. Government officials and think tanks have been tossing around policy ideas for years, and have implemented programs encouraging foreign workers to (temporarily) come to Japan. These programs have been criticized, however, for providing little support for these foreign workers and for eventually trying to turn them out of the country.

Really Japan has two options if it wants to survive as a nation and remain a world power. The Japanese people can either have more babies, or the government can ease regulations on immigration. Neither seems to be happening. I understand Japan's desire to retain its cultural identity, which is deeply tied to its homogeneity. But is it better to die out than dilute the purity of Japanese culture?

Debito Arudou, author of Debito.org and periodic contributor to The Japan Times, recently penned an article to weigh in on the topic. A solution to Japan's problems does not seem within reach at the moment.

Check out the article full here.

[...]One panel was particularly odd. Panelists concluded, of course, that Japan must do something to stop this demographic juggernaut. A deputy director general at Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research even extrapolated that Japanese would be extinct by the year 3000! Yet the prospect of Japan's decimation was no match for the fear of the foreign element.

During the Q-and-A, I asked: "Sir, only briefly in your presentation do you mention letting foreigners into Japan as a possible solution. However, you depict the process not as 'immigration' (imin), but as the 'active use of the foreign working labor population' (gaikokujin rodoryoku jinko no katsuyo). Why this rhetoric?"

The speaker hedged a bit, suddenly asserting that Japan is now a crowded island society. To paraphrase, "Immigration is not an option for our country. Inflows must be strictly controlled for fear of overpopulation."

Afterward, one on one, I reconfirmed his intellectual disconnect. He further cited "a lack of national consensus" on the issue. When I asked if this was not a vicious circle (i.e. avoiding public discussion of the issue means no possible consensus), he gave a noncommittal answer. When I asked if "immigration" had become more of a political term than a scientific one, he begged off replying further.[...]

What's in a name

Japan's August 30th general election is fast approaching, and Japanese voters are to be faced yet again with an almost certainly unresolvable problem. You see, Japan has been governed for over 50 years now by the same political party, generally criticized for being corrupt and ineffective. Its main, more liberal rival is viewed as equally corrupt but with less experience. These days I've been seeing a lot of signs for a third party, which I had never heard of until just recently. Despite the sound of it, this is a real party: the Happiness Realization Party, when translated into English. From what I've read they are quite crazy, and yet (perhaps it's the crazy in me), some of their platforms don't seem that outlandish. You can read about them in this Japan Times article. I find their choice of name to be the perhaps the most surprising thing about them - while marketable, it does sound very cultish, indeed. Their religious beliefs are also quite surprising, but less so once their party name is considered.

Particularly appealing to me are their aims to bring more foreigners to Japan and remilitarize (while striving to overcome Japan's "colonial mentality"). I am somewhat mixed on their desire to inject religion into Japan. If you know me, you know that I am religious myself and am by no means an opponent of policies partly influenced by religious considerations. However, I do draw the line at establishing any kind of State religion, which seems more likely what the HRP means to do.

That aside, Japan does need more people, and since the Japanese seem unwilling to have more babies to bring up their population, they need immigration. Unfortunately, due to strict government regulations it is difficult to obtain a Japanese residency and nearly impossible to obtain a citizenship. The government's desire to preserve Japan's homogenity is understandable, given its culture, but also ultimately self-destructive. If Japan doesn't get a significant amount of young workers in the coming 50 years or so by one means or another, the country faces an impending economic collapse.

Update: Here is an article highlighting one aspect of Japan's population problem.

Only in Japan 7/30/09

You may recall a certain post a couple of weeks ago about a certain invitation that was too early for my tastes. Well, it was an interesting day. My friends and I wound up making udon noodles. Well, we helped. Well, mostly Rachel helped while Joe and I alternated between watching supportively and sitting on the couch. We did stomp on some dough, though. Oh yeah, we stomped it good.

Here's a token shot of me doing a little dough cutting. Prior to this, we placed the dough in plastic bags and stepped on it. I guess it was comparable to kneading (although we did that, too, earlier). After the cutting, the dough was boiled in 出し (dashi), which is soup stock usually made from fish. It came out quite well, but took something like 3 or 4 hours to make.

The meal was also...interesting. We started around 1 and just sat and ate noodles and sushi until about 4 or 5. There were some awkward conversational points, which I will attempt to briefly and diplomatically recount.

First off, let me paint a broad brushstroke by saying that while Japanese people are generally very polite and the Japanese language is built around ambiguity and diplomacy, the Japanese can be very unabashedly blunt and forward, to the point that confrontation can easily arise if the situation is not carefully handled. At one point, one of the other guests asked my friends and I (in Japanese), "Which would you rather work for - a Japanese company or an American company?"

I looked at my friends and inwardly groaned. I could have said "both are good" or something vague and diplomatic, but I was already pissed from an early dialogue.

"An American company," I replied. The man's smile wavered a little. "Japanese salarymen (office workers)," I started.

"I'm a salaryman," he interupted, subtly warning me.

"Yes, well, Japanese salarymen work too much," I finished. "Japanese companies are very strict. In America, we don't work as much overtime. In fact, some companies limit overtime."

He asked about our working hours in America, and tactfully explained that his impression of an American businessman is someone who works 12 hours and eats hamburgers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Growing weary of the conversation, I conceeded that maybe there were some people like that, and that certainly the top businessmen at many companies would work many hours and maybe eat a lot of fast food. Eventually we drifted into another topic.

The earlier conversation that really got me annoyed was (of course) political. Let me lay my cards on the table - I am a conservative. I like to consider myself fairly open-minded and open to discourse, though. One of my best friends from college is perhaps one of the most liberal people I know. The trick is to be respectful and not let it get personal.

When Obama came up in conversation, I knew where things were headed. I did my best to smile and nod and say nothing, but apparently they detected a glint of skeptisim in my eye. Or maybe it was the uncomfortable glance I shot at Joe. "You don't like Obama?" asked my VP and his wife. "Why not?" I did my best to explain in Japanese, but lost my composure and resorted to English, which they could basically understand.

"Well, I don't really like politicians in general," I started, trying to keep things light and simple. "Basically I think Obama made a lot of promises that he can't keep." I was being charitable and simplifying my views to the max. "I take it you like him?" I asked with a smile.

"Well, he's a lot better than Bush," remarked the VP. Catching my look (and entirely missing the look his wife was giving him to indicate that a change the topic might be prudent), he returned the question. "You like Bush?" I then muttered something about not loving him, but liking him better than Obama.

Now specifics aside, that exchange really bothered me. If they had disliked Obama, I may have felt more comfortable, but I still would have been bothered. Is it only common knowledge in America that politics and religion are taboo? Or did they just assume that all Americans are of one mind, and that since we elected Mr. Obama, everyone loves him? And what do they know about American politics, aside from keywords and concepts like "Iraq" and "hope"? Most of the Japanese people I've met only seem to know two things about Obama: He's black and "Yes we can." Regardless, I felt it was rather rude of them. I didn't come into their house and start knocking Aso or Abe or Koizumi. I would use an example of a marginally more popular Japanese politician, but there aren't. And God help me if I started talking about the emperor. Sure, American government has and had its problems, but how about cleaning your own house before telling us ours needs to be cleaned, or at least making sure it's a little tidier than ours? Don't even get me started on Japanese government and politics...

Anyhow, my friend and I vented our frustrations afterwards over a pizza. At least the pizza was good, and predictably the waitress was cute.