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.