A few modest proposals to revitalize Japanese society
On the verge of another national election where lack of choice, lack of serious debate, and political cronyism ensure more LDP/Kometo strangulation of the society, I would like to make a few modest proposals to stem the tide of absurdity and destruction washing over the shores of Japan.
1. Immediately and unconditionally grant citizenship to any Korean forced to come to Japan during the Second World War and their descendants. This injustice has driven a wedge between the Japanese and a huge minority of Korean/Japanese as well as kept the political attitude toward North Korea ambiguous. Following this act, all funds to North Korea remitted from Japan should be stopped. All trade, all ﾒnormalﾓ activities, all visitations by relatives should cease until North Korea retracts its de facto state of war against Japan. To create the political will for this stance, Koreans born and raised in this country must be recognized as true sons and daughters of Japan.
2. Immediately ban and prohibit ex-government officials from working in industries that were under their regulation for at least 5 years before and 5 years after they retire. This so-called practice of ﾒamakudareﾓ is pure criminality and must finally be put to an end. The unwillingness of the LDP/Kometo axis to take this action, in spite of the continuous scandals and tremendous waste, must be met with the resolve of the opposition parties and the willingness of the people to vote the protectors of these criminals out of office.
3. A law should be enacted which allows the parents of any minor committing a criminal act, for which that minor cannot be prosecuted, to be prosecuted and convicted in their stead. This is the only way to return accountability to parents for the actions of their children. Sentences could be divided equally between father and mother and other children in the household must be supervised by the state, within the setting of the existing household, to help compensate for the temporary or permanent loss of the parent. The rights of the individual and the constitution are never an issue in Japan, which is not truly a constitutional democracy anyway, and where the law is continently ignored even by law makers with no consequence. And as it stands now, victims of children have no rights, no recourse and no justice. It is getting to the point in this country where theft carries a far greater sentence than murder.
4. Change the law to allow direct elections for Prime Minister and allow the selection of Prime Minister form other than parliamentary members, at least to the level of qualifying governors and mayors who have been elected for two consecutive terms. The current system insures inbreeding, power concentration and the political cronyism that is killing the country. No amount of cosmetic political reform will do more to reflect the will of the people than this single change.
5. Put control of the police under local government at the prefecture level, including appointment of Chief and management of the budget. Only disaster operations and the few operations that require immediate mobilization of police from outside the prefecture, as in the case of natural disasters, should be left at the national level. Without local control of the police, reform of this antiquated, untouchable and woefully inadequate group of public servants will never make any progress.
While these proposals may seem extreme to some, one has only to look at skyrocketing crime figures and the overall deterioration of the society on every level, to see that the continuing lack of action will lead to even more extreme action in the future. One great problem rests with the judiciary that forever refuses to check the government and protect the people. The ridiculous half-measure of creating ﾒcivilian judgesﾓ to sit in trials, vs. creating a jury of peers to pass final judgments, shows once again that those in a position of power will forever refuse to relinquish it. Or as someone one said, power is never given, it is only taken. Until the Japanese people realize that they are responsible for exorcizing power over their elected officials, however, few reforms will ever come to pass.
Ultimately, the deterioration of the country, economically, morally and politically, is a direct reflection of the deterioration of the family. To reverse this trend will require the tremendous efforts of each and every citizen, whether that effort is supported or opposed by the government. There is no more time to wait for a white knight.
[This article mentions toward the end that the majority of jobs being created are in the lowest paid and temporary job area. In fact, very few companies are hiring full-time, permanent employees.]
Japan's unemployment rate hit a 45-month low of 4.6 percent in May, down 0.1 percentage point from April, with the largest margin of improvement in the jobless number on record, the government said Tuesday.
The number of jobless people totaled 3.19 million in the reporting month, down 560,000 from a year earlier, the best improvement since comparative data were made available in 1953, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications said in a preliminary report More.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20040630a1.htm
A few recent articles about the sorry state of the country.[More of the same]Teen girl who pushed boy from building faces tests
The Tokyo Family Court decided Wednesday to conduct a psychiatric examination of a 13-year-old girl who pushed a 5-year-old boy off the fourth floor of an apartment building in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
The decision was made in the first session of a closed-door juvenile trial held to determine possible measures, including institutionalization or probation of the girl.
The girl's lawyer, who had asked for the test to be conducted, said the teen told the hearing that she did not intend to kill the boy, and that he had filed an opinion that she had no such intent. The girl is in the custody of the Tokyo juvenile detention center.
The court decided to hold a second hearing to gather information that will serve as the basis for a psychiatric examination, and to proceed with the trial carefully.
Hearings will be temporarily halted pending the outcome of the tests, which will be conducted at a medical institution and are expected to take several months.
Juvenile criminals under 14 cannot be punished under the Penal Code. The media are banned under the Juvenile Law from disclosing information that could identify juvenile suspects. Police treated the incident as attempted murder. The girl told police she pushed the Chinese boy, Sun Jizu, off the fourth floor of the building on June 22 out of fear that he would tell her mother she had gone to a game arcade. The boy fell into bushes and survived, suffering only minor injuries.
The Japan Times: July 1, 2004
(C) All rights reserved ﾝ
Decline in savings rate a warning to reform-resistant politicians
By TERUHIKO MANO
As Japan continues to maintain a current account surplus, it will remain subject to overseas criticism that its people should spend more and save less. However, the truth is that Japan's savings ratio has rapidly declined over the past decade. Let us look at some data and discuss why this is happening, and what should be done.
First of all, Japan's savings ratio, which stood at 15.1 percent in 1991, has dropped to 6.4 percent, according to the latest data available, and the pace of decline has accelerated in recent years. More
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20040628a1.htmﾝ
So if you can't do your job, just fake it! I would not be surprised if this was just the tip of the iceburg. (Remember the scandal about widespred duplicating of receipts to illegally gain reimbursemnts, which turned out to be standard practice nationally? Who was procecuted for that one? Can you say nobody? Sure you can.]
Hyogo police faked reports in bid to shine
Officers won't face charges over fudged probes
KOBE (Kyodo) More than 60 patrol officers of the Hyogo Prefectural Police falsified some 200 investigation documents in the last two years, apparently to enhance their performance ratings, police officials said Wednesday.
Some officers even fabricated reports on incidents that never even took place, the officials said. More
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040701a3.htmﾝ
By HIROKO NAKATA
Staff writer
Confidence at Japan's large manufacturers improved to its highest level in 13 years in the three months to June, underlining the most powerful economic recovery since the economic bubble burst in the early 1990s, according to the Bank of Japan's key business survey released Thursday.
The quarterly "tankan" showed the business confidence index for large manufacturers hit 22, up from 12 in the March survey and the fifth consecutive quarterly rise. The figure for June is the highest since August 1991, when the index stood at 25. More
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040702a2.htm>
"The lawyers added that they would not request any psychiatric testing for the girl, saying she appeared to be "perfectly normal."
Maybe it's the lawyers who need a doctor. This is the new state of "perfectly normal" in Japan.
One thing I have not heard reporting on is how is it that the girl was not immediately rushed to a hospital? We know the killer stayed with her vicum for about 15 minutes, watching her bleed to death. But it sounds like the girl was still lying on the floor of the classroom when her father arrived. (If anyone knows the answer to this I would appreciate an email.) As usual, all the reporting on this case is related to "he said, she said" and "we must protect this poor little girl (the killer not the victim) because that is the equivalent of protecting the society" (paraphrased from a child expert's comments on tv).
In the mean time, a child is being killed at the rate of one per day in perfectly normal Japan.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040604a2.htm
Computex: Apple lines up for Toshiba's new 60GB drive
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
June 02, 2004 9:00 am ET
Toshiba Corp. is planning to launch a 60GB version of its 1.8-inch hard
disk drive in the coming months and has already found a customer in
Apple Computer, the company said Wednesday at the Computex 2004
exhibition in Taipei.
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/06/02/toshiba/index.php
Miki Kenji is a sculptor in wood, living and working in Tokushima-ken on the island of Shikoku. He works like a carpenter, cutting and joining parts to create the whole. Sometimes chiseling into his roughly finished works, the method of construction is ul timately a cross between engineering and accident. Indeed, the resulting forms resemble crude rockets, nose cones and other extraterrestrial forms, tecnological totems of some unremembered time. While he attempts to reach out to space, he brings home a s ense of longing and humble search for whatever is "out there."
The show is on from March 27th and will last for two weeks. Contact Kenji, through his homepage http://www.nmt.ne.jp/~mikiken/index.htm or this one, for more details.
The Sake Factory Foundation for Creativity in Everyday Life wa s founded by Joseph Cali and Harumi Kyuki in 1994 on th e site of the old Wariishi Awa Zaka sake brewery in the town of Awa-cho. Nestled along the banks of the Yoshino river, the oldest of the seven buildings in the compound is well over one hundred years old. Since its rejuvenation as The Sake Factory Foundat ion, we have been conducting exhibitions, performances and seminars with the help and involvement of local people as well as artists and performers from Tokushima, Kagawa, Tokyo and other parts of Ja pan. We receive no funding or support other than the fre e use of the grounds at the behest of the Wariishi family.
For information on exhibiting, please contact me at jcali@gol.com.
