Typhoon 15th

Hello.....

Now, very strong typhoon comes to Kantou area in Japan.


I live in Ibaraki prefecture, where is near Tokyo(It takes about 1 hour to go to Tokyo).
Strong wind is blowing and it's making my apartment shake.

But according to weather forecast, it will become worse><

Tokyo, our capitaｌ city, is suffered from heavy rain and strong wind.

It's the TV news in Japan

                                                                                       ⓒFuji TV

                                                                                            ⓒTV Asahi

And one of river in Tokyo was flooded.

ⓒTV Asahi

In front of the Tokyo Disneｙ Land

                                                                                           ⓒTV Asahi

I can go back home because I live in near university and today's lecture was cancelled.


But, many people can't go back home now.

In Tokyo, many people use trains and subways to go to their office or school.
And many of them are stopping now.

Ｗｈｙ we are suffered from many disaster in this year?
..........I don't know.


I can hear sound of strong wind and there is possibility to stop supply of electricity(my friends house, where is near my apartment is stopping it now.)

I'll be at my home and wait typhoon passes.  

Foreign Language

Hello.

These days, I practice one song.

It's not Japanese music and the word is foreign language.

And, it's not English song.


......It's Russian song.

I learned Russian as second foreign language for 1 and half year.
And my friends and I practice it to sing in Russia(We will go to Russia this October)


So, what I want to write is
Russian language is not so popular in Japan.

By high school, almost all students only learn Japanese and English.
In university, some of students have to learn second foreign language.

In Japan, Chinese and French and Korean are popular as foreign language.
And Russian is not so popular, although Russia is neighbor country.


And, in Japan, learning second foreign language is not so popular.
Many Japanese people only focus on English when they want to be global person.

But, in Europe, learning second foreign language since they were young (One of my Austrian friends started learning Italian very young age and wants to study Italy. She is younger than me.)

And, learning language helps us understand different countries and cultures, I think.

We become happy if foreign people are interested in our own country and learn our own language.

So, I'll learn Russian, language of my favorite country.


How do you think about education of second foreign language? 

Resignation of the minister of Economy and Industry

Hi! Long time no see.
Sorry, I didn't write any article last week.
But, I start again!


So today, I'll write about resignation of the minister of Economy and Industry.

Former minister, Yoshio Hachiro resign his post, although he had been at that post only 9 days.

So, why did he had to resign?
The reason is he misspoke about accident of nuclear power plant.

First, when he went to one of the town where residents have to escape to other place,
he said,
"This town looks like the death town"

This made people of Fukushima get angry.

Second, when he attended to non-official interview,
he said,
"That's radioactivity(like that. It's impossible to translate into English)" with rubbed reporter with his protective clothing.
Many people say he is lack of consideration.


I think it's true that he is lack of consideration.
And, he should resign because opposite parties accuse him and they don't discuss about more important issues.
(Recently, legislators often discuss scandals with stopping discussion of vital issues.)


And it may suggest vulnerability of cabinet of Mr. Noda.

Some people say he only focused on balance of power in Democratic party when he organize his cabinet.

Actually, some people misspoke and are wonder if they deserve the ministers.

I can't judge that because it is too short term to do it.

But, I little nerves new cabinet and prime minister......




 

New Japanese Prime Minister

Hello!


 Yesterday, new Japanese prime minister was elected in parliament.

 His name is Yoshihiko Noda, former minister of Finance.

 I'm glad at hearing that news because he grew in my home city and graduated the high school which I graduated.
 And I often saw him on the way to our high school.


 I think he can be good prime minister. There are some reason except I wish so because he is graduate our high school.


 First, in Japan, having
・Jiban(having many supporters in area of election before being elected)
・Kaban (owning much money)
・Kanban(being famous before being elected or son or daughter of famous politician)
 is very effective to be elected legislators.

 But he didn't have these things. He is son of the member of Self-Defense Forces (Our city has big Base of that.)
 And he graduated Public high school and one of the most famous private university in Japan.
 After that, he studied to be politician at Matsushita Politics and Economics School.

 He can be famous politician because of his talent, not his family like some prime ministers who resign in this five years.


 Second, I think he always suggest the reason of what he says.
 He is said that he is good at speech. I think so, too and the reason is he always speech logically.


 But, he'll face with many problems.

 First, he has to recover Japan from disaster at3.11.
 He said government might impose taxes for recovery.
 It's true that we can't expect to improve our economy because our industries are suffered from that disaster and world economy is also not good.
 But, imposing taxes may make our economy worse because we don't want to buy products although economy is still not good.

 Second, he has to deal with accident of nuclear power plant.
 Even now, it's not sure how bad that accident was.
 Many refugee feel anxious because they don't know not only when they can go back their home town, but also if they can go back there.
 And, these days, some people say we have to stop all nuclear power plants. But, other people say stopping all nuclear power plants may cause the electricity crisis.
 This is difficult decision if we deal with nuclear power plants. But new prime minister have the responsibility to decide it.

 Third, Japanese finance situation is very bad. So, some people say raise VAT.
 Now, VAT rate is only 5%. I think this rate is very low. For example, in Ireland, where I stayed for 1 month, the rate is 21%.
 But, Japanese economical situation is bad, and some people don't want to raise it.
 Mr. Noda want to raise that. So, it's the problem that he can do that.

 Finally, Japan has to improve relationship between other countries.
 Last few years, Japanese diplomacy has been bad. Conflict with America in the problem of base of American national army in Okinawa. Conflict with China in the problem of Senkaku Islands.
 So, new prime minister has to suggest diplomatic policy and make the effort to improve the relationships.


 It's difficult to be prime minister now. I hope Mr. Noda improve those problems and continue prime minister long time.

Demonstration against.......

 Hello! How are you???
 It becomes hot and humid again. I want to go back to Dublin, my sweet city....

 So, today, I'll write about demonstration on last Sunday.

 What do you think the aim of this demonstration?

 Japanese politics?
 Nuclear power plant?


The answer is, No.

 It was against Fuji TV, one of the biggest TV companies in Japan.
 Do you know ONE PIECE and Dragon Ball? Their animation is broadcast ｂｙ this company.

 So, Why people decide to do demonstration?


 Because, as they said, Fuji TV broadcast too many Korean programs.

 For example, in the afternoon, Korean dramas are broadcast instead of Japanese dramas.

 And they focus on Korean musicians, not Japanese musicians (I think AKB48 is exception)


 In July, Sousuke Takaoka, a Japanese actor criticized Fuji TV on twitter.
 After that, he had to resign his office of actor.
 Then a demonstration was caused. But, i think it was small.


 But, last Sunday, bigger one happened.
 The reason was Fuji TV refused even to receive protest letter.

 One of the aim was to let people know how mass medias are corrupted, not only Korean program problem, but also broadcasting related to disaster on 3.11.


 But, unfortunately, Japanese nationalist also joined this demonstration.
 At first, it doesn't intend to resist Korean programs and Korea itself.
 It made this demonstration worse, I think.


 I have two opinions to this problem.


 First, it represents how Japan is peaceful country.

 Japanese people didn't do that if they don't agree with social or political problem, I think.
 But, in this problem, demonstration happened.

 I think it's good to hold demonstration if we think we should resist some authorities.
 But, this case suggest that Japanese people don't want to resist big authorities.

 Of cause Fuji TV is a big companies. But, not government or so on.
 So, they might be willing to do that.
 Japanese people should express the their resistance more.


 Second, it is popular on the Internet. But many people who don't use Internet often don't know this demonstration.
 Because mass medias like TVs and newspapers didn't broadcast enough.

 It may show mass medias try to hide the some kinds of news.
 It was demonstration against a media company,
 and other medias also broadcast programs related to Korea.
 So, this news was not good for them.


 I've thought Japanese medias has been corrupted because they broadcast same news, from same aspect.

 We should have other medias which show other aspects (everything has many aspects.)
 It will help to make good solution of problems.

 If not, it's the time when Japan dies.


 We should consider the means of this demonstration to make Japan better country. 

New candidate of prime minister

 Hello. I'm at my home town!
 But I suffered from headache and sneezing..... I don't know why><


 So, today, one candidate of prime minister appeared.

 His name is Seiji Maehara, former minister of foreign affairs.

 He is begged to be a candidate by many members of  Democratic party.

 At first, he refused to be candidate
 because he had resigned minister of foreign affairs since he received political donation from Korean friend.
 (It's illegal to receive political donation from foreigners in Japan)


 It's true that he is one of the most popular politician in Japan and many people want him be prime minister.

 But, it's also true that he had to resign his post only 5 months ago.

 So, his candidacy has pros and cons.


 I think he can be good leader whom we want.

 But, you know, Japan has many severe problems

 Recovery from disaster on 3.11
 Dealing with Fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant.
 Making a decision how to deal with other nuclear power plant.
 Improving Japanese financial situation (we have 800 trillion debts )
 Dealing with Japanese parliament (primary party is different between two houses)
 ......and so on.

 So, I think there are no meanings to change prime minister.

 I want him be prime minister better situation, because I think he(not only he but also everyone) can't be prime minister so long if he becomes it.

 I think he is good leader, so, I don't want him be leader NOW.

Baseball Tournament of High school (called Koushien)

 Hi! There seemed to be something wrong in the system of this blog.......
 So, I'm glad to be able to write it!


 These days, I often watched baseball games on TV.
 They're not professional games. They are played by high school student.

 They're the games of national baseball tournament of high school and held at Koushien stadium.
 All teams represent own prefectures.


 This year, I was moved one team. This team, Noshirosyougyou high school represents Akita prefecture.

 Last year, they were beaten by Kagoshimajitsugyou high school represented Kagoshima prefecture by 15-0

 After that, they attached that score card where they always can see and motivate to practice harder.

 This summer, they won the tournament of prefecture and entry the National tournament.

 But, at first game, they had to compete with Kamimuragakuenn high school represented Kagoshima prefecture. That was like a drama!

 In that game, they didn't make advantage at first.
So, the supervisor of Noshirosyougyou said "why have you practice so hard? " And next inning, they reversed the game.

Finally, they won the game.
As a matter of fact the teams representing Akita haven't won for 13 years in Koushien.
So, it's not only winning of Noshirosyougyou but also winning of Akita.


 In this summer, they won twice. And they were chosen other tournament.

 They could do the best, and we were moved their games.

15 August(Important day in Japan)

 Long time no see. I didn't write these days.....
 I went to Moji(Fukuoka) and Hamada(Shimane) with my family and that made me tired.
 So today, I didn't go out.


 By the way, today is very important day in Japan.
 Do you know why?（Of course Japanese people know, doesn't it?）


 You know, Japan lost WWⅡ.
 Japanese government accepted surrender 15 August, 1945.



  During that war, many tragic things happened and very large number of people died.

 In German, holocaust happened and many innocent Jews were killed.

 Japan brought many Korean from Korea.

 Atomic bombs were dropped to two Japanese cities.

 Every victims has own story.

 The number of victims is the end of their story. And it caused the change of life of victim's family.

 66years after, we face with very severe situation.

 It couldn't be prevent because it is earthquake. It was caused by nature.

 But, we can prevent severe situation which happened 66years ago.
 Because it caused by not nature but human.

 We must never forget that fact.



 Pray for victims.

 And pledge being peace.  No war.

9th August Pray for Nagasaki

 Hi!
 Hot days continue in Japan. I always say that "I don't like humid summer"........


 Today (8/9) is an important day in Japan. 66 years ago, USA dropped atomic bomb to Nagasaki city and it exploded. This bomb killed about 74000people.

 After then, the ceremony we mourn the victims of atomic bomb and hope peace of world is held in 9th August every year in Nagasaki city.

 Unfortunately, I don't now the knowledge of this tragedy so much. But, I went Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and shocked by how severe atomic bomb was.

 I want many people to come Hiroshima or Nagasaki and know the danger of atomic bomb. Nowadays, atomic bombs are improved and they can kill more people. But, you know, even in 66 years ago, atomic bomb was harmful. So, everyone should know atomic bombs aren't ordinary weapons.


Pray for Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Not to repeat the tragic war.


Reference: http://www1.city.nagasaki.nagasaki.jp/peace/japanese/index.html

First article

  Hello!

  This is my first article on this blog. It's a difficult problem what I write......


  Last month, I had stayed in Dublin, Ireland. In Dublin, it was about 20℃ daytime.

  But, I'm in Japan and it reach 30℃ and this weather makes me tired(in daytime, I don't go out except I have to do so><)


 So, I'll write about Japanese news.

 One of the biggest newspaper(Yomiuri) survey the rate of support for the prime minister Naoto Kan. And it indicates only 18% Japanese people support him as prime minister.

 You know, very severe disaster happened in Japan on 11 March. And prime minister has to make plans for recovery and deal with nuclear power plant's accident. But many people and medias say "he couldn't make appropriate plans and doesn't deserve to prime minister."

 Some medias(like newspapers) say "it's the problem who is next prime minister" because Mr. Kan said that he would resign prime minister if recovery and nuclear power plant problem would stand the sight.

 But, he hasn't resigned yet. So, people can't believe prime minister, and it leads the result of the survey.


 I think it's not good to change prime minister so often. It's difficult for foreign people to know who is the prime minister of Japan now. And if Mr. Kan resign, recovery plan will change and it may cause the delay of achieving it.

 But, he promised he would resign. So, he must do so. If it delays, there  is more influence for recovery plans.


This is real situation of Japanese politics. I don't like this situation.....